The Composition of a Salad

I have not made a Salad Nicoise in ages....I love a good composed salad (think Cobb, think Chef), but I had forgotten how much patience it takes to make one.   It needs to look good as well as taste good.   Blanching the beans, making the potato 'salad', hard boling eggs, finding the perfect tomatoes, and yes, you do need the perfect olives, obviously, nicoise olives are best, but any really good Italian or Greek Olives will suffice. I used tuna fish packed in water, not olive oil.  Purists will say to use tuna packed in Olive Oil is the only way to go. Could not find any, hey, I substituted!

I used my stick blender to make the dressing, I was a little excited and over emulsified it, I should have used the whisk attachment, but hey, it's just really, really thick, still tasty, but thick. As you can see, I have everything neatly organized in separate bowls so I can "compose" the salad.   I did forget that I had a huge jar of capers in the fridge, but oh well.  

All of the above made a huge salad for my dinner with leftovers for lunch.  What you see in the upper left-hand corner in the batter bowl is a  potato salad I made with the extra potatoes. I enhanced with some chopped green beans, a bit of yellow pepper and some of the dressing. It does not have mayo and since I almost over emulsified the dressing, it was a great substitution for the mayo, but it was lovely and tangy....

Here is the finished product....yeah, my food presentation needs a little work, but this was still really really tasty! The recipi, just google it and use any of the many. I did a variation on Julia Child and one I found on The Kitchen........I'd serve this with a really light white wine or it has even been suggested to serve with a Rose.....

P is for....

Well for starters, get your mind out of the gutter!   Dinner the other night needed to be something simple and soothing.   I was not feeling all that well, but I was feeling a bit peckish.   I ended up the recipient of some amazing prosciutto di parma and it was an inspiration for dinner..


P-Penne Pasta

P-Peas-frozen, but still not too bad, like a 1/2 cup

P-Parsley-fresh from my garden-flat leaf! Big handful

P-Prosciutto-2-3 slices

P-Pecorino Romano Cheese1/4 to 1/2 cup

P-Pepper, black, freshly ground-to taste.

 You will also need-Onions, garlic, olive oil, cream,

Start a pot of well salted water to boil. Cook your pasta to just before al dente.   Reserve a large cup of pasta cooking water

In a saute pan, pour a couple glugs of olive oil, add one to two or three chopped cloves of garlic, 1/2  diced small onion and saute until soft and fragrant.   Take a couple pieces of proscuitto, roll them up and then slice them so you have slivers.

Once the onions and garlic are soft and fragrant, add the prosciutto, let it get warm, don't let it burn, it can get a little crispy, add some cream to the pan, about 1/2 to 3/4's cup, can be heavy, can be half and half, or light cream, don't use milk, especially any of that low fat stuff.  Lower the heat and let it all get warm.  Stir occassionally.

Drain the pasta, reserving a large cup of the cooking water.  Add the pasta, the frozen peas, to the cream mix, add some fresh ground pepper and the pecorino romano cheese.   Stir well and let simmer for a minute or two. Taste the dish, you probably won't have to add any salt if you salted your water and you use the  proscuitto, and  pecorino cheese I do like to add lots of freshly ground pepper. If the dish looks dry, add a little of the pasta water to the saute pan.  Toss the handful of parsely into the mix, give it a big stir and then serve in a nice bowl.  This would be good with a good white wine, I did not have any wine, I just had a nice glass of ice tea....

The last P is for Perfection, this is a perfect Sunday night supper..

Who Buys Mint?

Who  actually buys mint?  I mean why buy mint from a nursery or plant store (unless you need a specific rare variety).  This is my mint patch, it's a combination of mint, ferns and day lilies. It serves me quite well for mint for my tea, or to make mint jelly or mint sauce.  It started with one little piece of mint I plucked from a friends garden, stuck it in the ground and with the usual benign neglect, it has thrived......  there is a boat load of mint in there despite my average photography.

The Lakelands like getting in every photo they can......

The End of The Summer Basil

It's fall, that's for sure. It arrived this past weekend, the air decidedly crisper, the sun setting earlier, the gardens slowing down.  I started (way too late again) to make pesto and chop up the basil in some olive oil to put a kiss of summer into winter dishes.

The basil seems to taste different in September than it did in August.  I still have made a couple jars of pesto and a handful of small baby food jars that have either just basil or basil, parsley and a little olive oil.  IF  I had my act together, I would have been doing this all summer long, oh well, next year...