Super Salad Sunday: Caesar Salad

Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is over and done with, we all feel properly bloated and somewhat terrified about the fact that this is just the beginning of the holiday eating season, with office parties, fancy dinners, and more holidays. In between all the festivizing, I plan on eating light at home. 

This Caesar salad is adapted from Harold Dieterle's Kitchen Notebook cookbook (link is not an affiliate). It's tangy and very delicious. J grilled up some chicken for us to toss on top of this salad, so it was a complete meal in and of itself. If you have the ingredients in your pantry/fridge, this is a very easy meal to throw together after working late. I will give this disclaimer: There are no croutons, because I do not like them. But you could add them, of course.

Total prep time: 25 minutes

Total cook time: None, unless you are making a protein

What you will need: 

1+ heads of romaine lettuce (you can buy it pre-shredded if you prefer)

2 large egg yolks (which requires you to separate the eggs)

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (I did not have a lemon in my fridge, so I used the substitute. It still tasted good)

2 anchovy filets (preferably packed in oil)--get a good tin of anchovies. The difference is noticeable.

2 small garlic clove

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 blended or neutral oil (Canola is my oil of choice)

1/2 tbsp Dijon Mustard

1/3 cup freshly grated/shredded parmesan/reggiano cheese

kosher salt and plenty of black pepper, to taste

Useful equipment: Mini food processor or blender. 

Shred your romaine and place to the side in a large bowl. Dieterle's recipe calls for 4 cups of shredded romaine, which is one decent sized head of romaine, but when I made the dressing recipe, I found that this really overly dressed 4 cups. So you can either reduce your measurements on the dressing, or add more romaine. I chose to add more romaine, because let's face it, after a tough day of work, who wants to do math? 

Next, in a small bowl, separate your eggs. Here's trick: Make sure you separate them in to separate bowls. The last thing you want is to mess up your first egg by breaking the second egg into a separated bowl. Also, some people are able to separate an egg using their hands or the eggshell itself. I applaud those people, but I am certainly not one of them. I use an egg separator, which also happens to make me smile.

In a food processor or a blender, combine the egg yolks, Worcestershire sauce, garlic (you should roughly chop the garlic cloves), mustard, lemon juice, anchovy filets (also roughly chopped) and a good dash of black pepper. 

Start combining until it turns into a liquidy-ish paste, then start adding your neutral oil. 

Dieterle says you should add it in a slow stream so as to allow it to emulsify, but the food processor I was using doesn't have a way for me to add mid-chop, so I just stopped it every few seconds and poured a little more oil in.

As the oil is added and you continue to blend/process, the dressing thickens up and becomes very delightfully creamy. You should start taste testing at this point and see what you think needs to be added. For example, I add way more lemon juice and garlic and black pepper than Dieterle calls for because those are the flavors I really like in my Caesar dressing. But it's all up to you!

Mmmm, thick, creamy dressing. Lightly toss your romaine dressing in it, plate, and top with an abundance of fresh cheese (you could also add cheese while you blend the dressing to make it extra cheesy).

Serve (if you're going to serve with protein, add that now), and enjoy!

Spiralized Cucumber Greek Salad

Today is Super Salad Sunday. I was recently given a vegetable spiralizer and have been experimenting with different ways to make some vegetables. The standard is zucchini noodles (zoodles), but I have yet to perfect them. So, I made something which would not require me to actually cook it.

This salad is incredibly refreshing, full of tangy flavor, and surprisingly not very time consuming to put together. I recommend you go for some higher quality ingredients (the olives, feta cheese and olive oil, in particular) because I think that those flavors really make this the stand out dish. It is good as a side, and if you put some protein with it (I have served it with grilled salmon), it can be an entree unto itself. 

What you will need:

2 medium sized cucumbers, unpeeled

1 green bell pepper, medium

1 small red onion (we will only use about 1/3 of the onion)

1 carton cherry tomatoes

1 lemon

mediterranean olives (I tried to find good olives which were already pitted, but alas, was unable to do so. These are from the olive bar at the local grocery store)

fresh tarragon leaves

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

I used the 1/8" blade for the cucumbers on this one. I also keep the skin on the cucumber because I find it gives it a little more crunch when the salad is composed. Run the cucumbers through your spiralizer--this is a very fun activity! You will get very long spirals; I tend to cut them with a knife.

Spread the cucumber on to a few paper towels and blot for a while to remove excess water as they tend to get a little drippy. I leave them on the towels and lightly covered while prepping the rest of the ingredients.

In a large glass (or other type of non-reactive) bowl, you will place the rest of your ingredients.

Slice your cherry tomatoes in halves, cut your green bell peppers into thin strips, and put in tiny dices or ribbons of red onion in a ratio that suits you. Add your olives (either pitted or unpinned--I tried using an olive pitter which was funny, but horribly frustrating and not particularly effective).

Once you get all your veggies in the bowl, take a few fresh tarragon leaves, tear them up roughly and rub them a little bit to release their oils, and drop them in. Squeeze your lemon in to give it some juice, drizzle some olive oil (a few tablespoons at most), and salt and pepper to taste. Toss all that together and let it sit for a few minutes. Then add your cucumber spirals, and toss again.

Mmmmm. It is very yummy.

When you are getting ready to serve the salad, set on individual plates, then take your feta cheese and slice a nice thick block off of it to place on top of each salad.

Drizzle a little olive oil over the feta, sprinkle a little more salt and pepper, and voila! Serve, and enjoy!

Heirloom Tomato, Burrata and Yogurt Salad

Last night, J planned an excellent date night. He took me to the local Publix Aprons Cooking School which is inside of the world's best grocery store, Publix. We were treated to a celebrity chef cooking demonstration/dinner by Harold Dieterle, the winner of Season 1 of Top Chef, my absolute favorite cooking show. I remember watching Season 1 religiously in my senior year of college, and Harold was always a stand out chef.

It seems as though Chef Harold has partnered with Chobani Greek Yogurt and themed the entire menu around its products. Publix's wine specialist did a great job pairing wines for us as well, and I left the dinner more than a little happy. We had a front row seat and we were not hungry when we left at all. The first course served to us by Chef Harold was an interesting twist on a Caprese Salad, and we all know how much I love that!! So, while still inspired and with ample time, I set out to see if I could recreate the deliciousness we had last night. The result? Obviously not as good as Chef Harold's but remarkably close!!!

Total Prep Time: 35 minutes
Total Cook Time: 15 minutes (for the fried shallots)

What you will need:

Heirloom tomatoes (3-4 of them, whatever varieties you prefer, just make sure they are nice and firm)

2 shallots, medium

5-6 leaves of fresh basil

4 oz. 4% Chobani Greek Yogurt

1 ball fresh burrata cheese (this was difficult to find--ultimately ended up at Whole Foods)

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Not pictured: a small dusting of flour and canola oil to fill a small frying pan

First, we will prepare the fried shallots, which is the garnish for this dish that gives it a nice bit of crunchy texture. Peel and slice ONE shallot into thin rings:

Separate the rings and lightly dust with flour.

Now heat canola oil in a small frying pan, deep enough to let the little shallots float:

You want the oil to get hot enough to where its shimmering, but not crackling yet. I turn the heat up pretty high (like on an 8) to get it where it needs to be, then lower to about a 6. Toss half of your shallots in the oil, and listen to the delightful frying sounds.

Let them cook for a few minutes, until they are delightfully brown and crispy, then remove on to a paper-towel lined plate. Cook your other batch and then set aside.

Next, cut your tomatoes into large wedges (eighths or so), and throw them in a large glass bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper to taste, then toss. You don't need a ton of juice (I got a little over exuberant and the next time I make this, I will probably cut back on the balsamic and oil).  Chef Harold explained that this technique is excellent for drawing some of the natural liquid out of the tomatoes to enhance the flavor and add even more juice to the bowl.

Chiffonade your basil (you can tear it into large chunks if you prefer--that was Chef Harold's method, but I like the more uniform look of a chiffonade) and throw it in as well. Then, mince half of the second shallot into a nice fine mince. J handled this part because he was very excited to use the technique he learned.

He cut the shallot in half so that it had a flat side, then made vertical, tiny slits almost all the way to the end. It's important not to cut the very end of the shallot, because that will keep all the pieces together. Then, he cut horizontally through the shallot as seen above. Next, he diced finely down the shallot.

Add the minced shallot and the basil to the tomato mixture, give another good toss, then set aside.

Now, let's talk about burrata. You know how fresh mozzarella is amazing? Burrata is like the love child of fresh mozzarella and heavy cream. It's a ball of fresh mozzarella with LIQUID CREAM inside. Burrata is great as its own appetizer with some olive oil and salt and pepper drizzled over it, served with crostini. But we're elevating the burrata right now.

That right there. It's full of cream. It's amazing.

Quarter the burrata and combine with 4 oz of the Chobani yogurt. Make sure you get all the good liquid cream that comes pouring out of the burrata into the bowl. Then add some salt and pepper to taste, and mix with your handy dandy immersion blender. You don't want it to become completely liquefied, but a relatively smooth consistency is great.

Chef Harold indicated that you could freeze this mixture and really elevate the dish, but I didn't have time for that tonight--I was too hungry. I stuck it in the fridge while I plated the tomatoes, then took it back out and spooned it into each dish. Top with the crispy shallots, serve and ENJOY!!!

Moules Marinieres

Happy 2015 to you all! I've been in quite a bit of a cooking rut recently, repeating a lot of dishes and relying on a lot of mixes. One of my resolutions for 2015 is to get out of the rut and think out of the "chicken breast and vegetable" mindset for dinners. Moules Marinieres is a good, EASY start which meets the primary goal of the Epicurean Esquire: Looks very impressive but is very simple. I am not giving you the recipe for the french fries here, but you can serve them with french fries or a crusty french bread, or even over a bed of pasta. 

The key to making moules is to make sure you get quality, fresh mussels. I have always been a bit leery of making shellfish at home (other than shrimp) because I have always been afraid that the shellfish I'm buying isn't as good quality as I would get in a restaurant. Luckily, I live near a quality seafood store, The Fisherman's Dock, which I have recently learned supplies a lot of the seafood used in the best restaurants in Jacksonville. I can see the loading dock where the trucks deliver fresh seafood every day, which is very reassuring. If you live in a coastal state, you should be able to find these types of dealers just as easily! And FYI--the seafood is NOT more expensive at these types of stores. The mussels I purchased for tonight's dinner were $3.99 a pound, which is less than chicken!

Total Prep Time: 30 minutes Total Cook Time: 15 minutes

What you will need:

2 lbs fresh mussels (try and buy them the same day you will eat them)
3 tbsp butter
1 shallot (not pictured here)
1 medium tomato
1/2 cup white wine
6 cloves garlic, minced (or 2 tbsp the stuff in the jar)
thyme and fresh parsley to taste
salt, pepper and red chili flakes to taste

First you will need to rinse the mussels in cold water and scrub their shells to get rid of any grit. Most mussels that are sold nowadays are farmed and shouldn't be too dirty or gross, but giving them a quick rinse never hurt. You will also have to de-beard the mussel. Now you may ask...what is a beard? I've never noticed mussels running around with goatees like evil little hench-bivalves.

That little stringy thing hanging off the side of the mussel is its beard. It's a piece of muscle (on a mussel! Get it?!) which helps the mussel attach to a rock, but when you cook it, it becomes very tough. Some of your mussels will have retracted their beards into their shells and so you won't be able to de-beard them. However, if you notice this stringy thing hanging off the mussels when you clean them, you'll want to remove it. The way to remove them is to grip the beard between your thumb and forefinger, and pull back and away from the mussel, ripping the beard off. It can be tough, and that mussel will not want to let it go, but it's very satisfying when it pops off.

Next, dice your shallots and your tomatoes and set them aside. You want a fine dice.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic, and saute until they just begin to brown, and become very aromatic.

Next, add a few sprigs of thyme and some red pepper flakes. Once the mixture starts crackling, add the wine and bring back to a boil.

Once it's boiling, pour the mussels in and put the lid on the pot. After about 3 minutes, open the pot and stir the mussels to bring the ones on the bottom to the top. They should be starting to open. Replace the lid, and after another 2 minutes, put the tomatoes in, then immediately transfer to a large serving bowl with all of the liquid at the bottom of the pot.

You can add a bit of parsley if you have it on hand, but it's definitely not necessary. Serve with some delicious carb to soak up all of that juice. Then enjoy!

Tomato, Avo and Mozzarella Salad (Caprese Deluxe)

Happy New Year!!! For all of you who are trying to start 2014 off with healthier, lighter foods, this salad is for you (though the mozzarella doesn't help a ton). I love a good caprese salad, and I love avocado, so this just plumps up an old classic!!!

Total Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Total Cook Time: 0 minutes!! (it's a salad!)

What you will need:

1 package of baby spinach (I use the "mini" bags since the spinach isn't the star of the show and there are only two of us eating)

1 or 2 tomatoes (if your tomatoes are particularly small, use 2, but I recommend starting with just one and seeing if you want more)

2 balls of fresh mozzarella (I use the medium-sized balls fresh-packed in water)

1 hass avocado

2 large leaves of fresh basil (you can use dried too if it's handy)

good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegars

sea salt

black pepper

First, divide the baby spinach into two bowls (or however many people you are serving). It should just form a light bed. 

Next, dice your tomatoes in a large dice. The end goal will be for all of the components of the dish to be roughly the same size dice.

Now, cube your avocado.

Drain two mozzarella balls in a paper towel and cube to similar sizes of the avocado and tomato.

Place the avocado, tomato and mozzarella in the bowls on top of the spinach. Chiffonade* your basil so it's in tiny little ribbons:

*chiffonade: best way to cut basil or other fresh large leafed herbs. Stack the leaves, roll them up, then slice horizontally to create ribbons. Longer ribbons can be created by slicing lengthwise down the leaves.

Sprinkle on top of the salad, then drizzle olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper over to taste.

Serve, and enjoy!!!