Doris and Jilly Cook » Salads

Dijon Potato and Green Bean Salad

dorisandjilly — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:55:41 +0000

Remember my abundance of green beans? And my sad little potatoes?

They’ll make a happy little salad.

About half a pound of potatoes, preferably small and garden-fresh
About half a pound of various fresh beans (string, romano, wax, etc.)
A large tomato, chopped
A handful of basil
Juice of 1 lemon
2 T olive oil
1 T Dijon mustard
Salt

1) Bring a small pot of water to boil.

2) First cook the potatoes just until they’re fork tender (time will depend on the size of your potatoes). Remove with a slotted spoon and cool. Then blanch the beans. Again, time will vary depending on the size and the age of the beans.

3) Toss the vegetables and the basil in a bowl. Make the dressing by whisking together the lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, and salt. Toss everything together.

Eat!

The Great Bean Conundrum (plus a 4-bean salad to can)

dorisgoat — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:55:55 +0000

I am drowning in beans. Somehow, the two 4-foot rows that I planted in my community garden plots are producing an average of about a pound of beans a day. Never, ever would I have guessed that they would produce so much. The obvious solution is to preserve them, but beans—the classic low-acid food—are a tricky business. You can freeze them, but the resulting texture isn’t great. You can save the seeds, but it takes a lot of beans to make this worth your while. You can dehydrate them whole, but then what do you do with them? You can pressure can them, but then they’re mush. So what’s a locavore to do?

First, embrace the limitations. You may not be able to eat frozen green beans in a January salad, but they’ll do perfectly well in soups and stews. I have every intention of cobbling together some tasty, summer-y vegetable curries this winter. I hear that the dehydrated ones will work equally well in any sort of long-cooked meat stew. Freezing is easy: just clean the beans, blanch for 2 minutes, then cool and store, just as you would for beet greens or turnip greens.

Second, explore the magical world of brined pickles. I don’t have any pictures because I haven’t made any this year, but in years past I’ve had a field day with this. Absolutely all of the recipes in Linda Ziedrich’s Joy of Pickling are wonderful.

Third—and this is key—be open to possibility. Approach old (or just old-school) canning books with a fresh eye. You might not like canned green beans, but what about a three-bean salad? Or, OK, you might not like a three-bean salad, but are there things that you could change in the recipe without disturbing the sugar/acid ratio? This is how I ended up canning 4-pints of a four-bean salad. I started off with a version from the National Center for Home Food Preservation and updated it by dropping the green peppers, adding garlic and herbs, and tweaking the spice mix. For safety’s sake, don’t change the proportions of salt, vinegar, and sugar. The end product is surprisingly good, not terribly sweet, and—assuming you follow basic rules of home canning safety—won’t give you botulism.

Four Bean Salad (for canning)

6 c. total garden beans (yellow wax, green, Romano, or combination)
1 c. cooked chickpeas
1 c. cooked kidney beans
1 large onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 t. black mustard seeds
4–6 sprigs fresh thyme
1 t. pickling salt, or 1 1/2 t. kosher salt
1 c. white vinegar (5 %)
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. olive oil
1 1/2 c. water

1) Blanch your beans in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and cool. Set aside.

2) Combine all the non-vegetable ingredients except for the oil (vinegar, sugar, lemon juice, herbs, spices, etc.) in a large pot and bring to a simmer. Briefly remove from the heat and add the oil. After combined, stir in the vegetables and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat and let cool; refrigerate for at least 12 hours. (This step is necessary to make sure that the vinegar actually penetrates the beans, making them safe for a water-bath canner.)

3) When the beans are almost done marinating, prepare your canning supplies. Clean and sterilize 4 pint jars. Prepare a boiling water bath and heat the lids.

4) Bring the vegetable mixture to a boil. Fill the jars with the solids, then cover with the hot liquid, leaving a 1/2″ headspace. Cover with two-piece lids (remember, you can reuse the jars and rings, but use fresh lids every time) and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Refrigerate anything that doesn’t seal properly.

Green Bean and Beet Salad

dorisgoat — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:55:21 +0000

Simple, improvised salads are one of the purest joys of summer. Get a few flavor combinations down, and you’re set. Mark Bittman’s recent list of ideas of 101 salads is a great place to start, but really: just toss together whatever comes in from the garden and eat what you like. Not coincidentally, things that ripen at the same time tend to go well together. This is one of our favorites.

Green Bean and Beet Salad

About 1/2 pound of blanched green beans, preferably a full-flavored variety, like Romano
About 1/2 pound of cooked beets, cut into chunks
a handful of hazelnuts, toasted
a small clump of blue cheese, crumbled
~ 2 T olive oil
~ 1 T balsamic vinegar
Good salt

Mix everything together. Serve sooner rather than later unless you don’t mind pink green beans.

Spelt Salads

dorisgoat — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:55:49 +0000

Somewhere out there is a reader who’s upset that I never actually posted the uses for spelt that I promised you. Ian, these are for you. (Both recipes, if you can call them that, are mine.)

Spelt, Barley, and Walnut Salad

1 c. cooked spelt
1 c. cooked bulgur
1/4 to 1/2 c. walnuts, chopped
about 1/2 a small red onion, chopped
a nice handful of tarragon, chopped
juice of a lemon or two
about 1/4 c. olive oil
salt and pepper

1) Combine the spelt, bulgur, waluts, onion, and tarragon.

2) Make a vinaigrette by mixing the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

3) Toss everything together and let it sit at least an hour before serving.

Spelt, Brown Rice, and Bok Choy Salad with Sesame Oil

1 c. cooked spelt
2 c. cooked brown rice
a big pile of bok choy, cut into little ribbons
a small hot pepper, cut into little strips
a couple of scallions, cut into 2 inch pieces, then sliced in half
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. rice wine vinegar
2 T sesame oil

1) Mix the spelt, brown rice, bok choy, hot peppers, and scallions.

2) Make a vinaigrette from the soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil.

3) Toss everything together and let it sit at least an hour before serving.

The Big Picture

Considering their ingredients, both of these were surprisingly tasty. The second one needed a little extra something: add more salt, or soy sauce, or lime juice, or hot sauce, or even nam plah (fish sauce), depending on what you like. If you want to create your own spelt salad, the basic pattern is:

1 c. cooked spelt
at least 1 c. of another grain (otherwise the spelt is just overwhelming)
something to give it character: nuts, vegetables, possibly even fruit
a vinaigrette that goes with the nuts/vegetables/fruit

Please leave a comment if you come up with a good one!

First Salad of Spring!

dorisgoat — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:21:54 +0000

Finally! Today, at long last, the garden had enough greens to make a salad for the two of us. We topped this miraculous combination of spinach, baby chard, baby beet greens, and tatsoi with homemade balsamic dressing, some blue cheese, and walnuts. Spectacular! Since some of these greens are in partial shade, fingers crossed to eat this every night through July.

Carrot and Red Cabbage Salad

dorisgoat — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:34:08 +0000

This is a classic, “Hmmm, there’s nothing to eat in my house. But I want a salad. What to do?” kind of dish. You’ll note that I don’t call it “slaw,” because in my mind, “slaw” contains green cabbage and lots of mayonnaise. Since this is based on a vinaigrette and whatever happens to be in the refrigerator, it feels more like a salad to me. It’s fast, easy, and infinitely variable.

Carrot and Red Cabbage Salad

1/4 head red cabbage, thinly sliced
2 carrots, shredded
1 or 2 scallions, or to taste
handful of herbs (your choice), chopped
juice of one lemon, or 2 T mild vinegar, like rice wine or white wine vinegar
2 T or so olive oil
salt and pepper

Combine everything. Let it sit for half an hour or so, then adjust the flavorings to suit. Then eat.

Carrot and Red Cabbage Salad, Thai-style

Add a hot pepper, chopped, and a cucumber. Instead of lemon juice and olive oil, douse the whole thing with about 1/4 c of nouc nam (fish sauce) and a splash of rice vinegar. Of course, if you do this, it’s no longer vegetarian.

This would be even faster with a mandoline, but I fear for my fingers and therefore stick to knives.

Fresh Chickpea Salad

dorisandjilly — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:05:52 +0000

We know you’ve been on pins and needles wondering just what exactly we did with those fresh chickpeas. Today we bring you the answer.

Jilly was in town for this experiment, and I must confess that we were both a bit stumped by the chickpeas. Raw, they sort of tasted like regular peas, only milder, or like a regular chickpea that had soaked overnight. On the theory that they were vaguely pea-like, we first blanched them, then just tossed them with some regular salad ingredients and a citrus vinaigrette. Lemon juice would have made more sense, but as I had neglected to go lemon shopping and all of mine were disconcertingly mushy, we used orange juice instead. The final result was neither stunning nor disappointing, but the psychadelic colors made it all worthwhile.

For the vinaigrette:

Use any sort of basic citris vinaigrette:
juice of 1 lemon, or an orange, or probably lime (try it and see!)
3 T olive oil
salt
pepper

For the salad:

a handful of fresh chickpeas, shelled
1/4 small red cabbage, thinly sliced
handful fresh herbs: parsley or basil and/or tarragon or some other combo
1/4 red onion, finely chopped

Toss everything together and add more salt to taste. Let it marinate for at least half an hour before eating. Best served at room temperature.

Mystery Produce: Fresh Chickpeas

dorisandjilly — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:48:56 +0000

As part of Jilly’s visit to Philadelphia, we made our regular circuit of key South Philly institutions: La Lupe, Chickie’s, Di Bruno’s, and, of course, the Italian Market. Both of us got excited when we saw what we thought was a bin of fresh fava beans. We envisioned a fruity, lemony salad, maybe with some chopped red onion and garlic and salt. Imagine our surprise when we opened one up to see that it contained a fresh chickpea instead. They sort of taste like fresh peas. We’re thinking we’re going to make the same salad, but with the chickpeas instead. Anybody else know what to do with them?

(Photo uploaded to flickr.com by amolson1)

Carrot Yogurt Salad

dorisgoat — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:30:02 +0000

Put this one in the tastier-than-it-looks category. We have an overabundance of carrots, thanks to the CSA, and an ample supply of yogurt, thanks to the trusty yogurt machine. Thus, carrot yogurt salad.

Carrot Yogurt Salad

5 or 6 large carrots, or as many as you feel like using
a cup of yogurt, more or less
2 or 3 T olive oil, depending on how you like it
lemon juice
salt
1 clove garlic
cilantro or parsley, for color (it helps—that’s what’s missing in the photograph)

Crush the garlic, or, better yet, mash it in a mortar and pestle with some salt. Stir the garlic, salt, lemon juice, and olive oil into the yogurt. (If your yogurt’s particularly runny, you might want to drain it first). Meanwhile, shred the carrots, either by hand or in a food processor, depending on how you feel about washing dishes. Then mix it all up. Add the herbs. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes before adjusting for salt, lemon juice, etc.

Voila! An orange treat.

(Note that I’ve tagged this as gluten free, but that’s only because it’s my own yogurt and I know where it’s been. If you’re using commercial yogurt, double-check the label.)