Rippin' Another Blog: SesameTuna & Pea Shoot Salad

The Lowdown:

First of all, I'm just going to say how amazed I am with google translator. Kristy decided (I'm not sure how) that our next Rippin' Another Blog session was going to be from Mattias Jeppsson's Min ugn ar min TV.

The first thing you may notice is that it makes absolutely no sense. That is unless you speak Swedish(?). I think it's Swedish at least. Actually, it was kind of fun. It was like shopping in a specialty food store where you have no idea what any of the ingredients are, or what they are used for. There were pictures and there was jibberish. That is all.

Luckily for all of us, google translator is mind-blowingly amazing. In approximately three seconds I had already understood the recipe. Understood as in I read the English translation. Interesting choice Kristy, interesting choice.

I'm not much of a salad kind of guy. I generally find them boring and dull. I understand their importance for healthy eating and all that jazz. Still, I just can't get over how bland they can be. That is of course, unless you lie and call something that isn't a salad, a salad. This recipe is really just a glorified, albeit delicious, tuna recipe. I simply added red cabbage, a few more pea shoots, and put salad in the name to make myself feel good about my life decisions. In all honesty, who doesn't love a salad that really isn't a salad?

What's even better about this "salad," is the fact that I went to the grocery store, cooked the tuna, made the dressing, and plated the meal in under thirty minutes. The only thing keeping this meal from being uber healthy is the ridiculous amounts of heavy metals in the fish. Heavy metal as in mercury, not Metallica or Slayer. Healthy, quick, easy, and done.

The Playlist:

1 Ahi tuna steak
1/2 Lime, juiced
1/2 cup Olive oil
1 tbsp Sesame seeds
1 package Pea Shoots
Red Cabbage, to garnish
Cilantro, to garnish
Sea salt & Pepper, to taste

The Skinny:

1.  In seasoned cast iron pan: heat on medium-high until pan is hot.
2. Seer tuna on each side for 20-30 seconds.
3. Sprinkle sesame seeds onto tuna and slice.
4. Mix the olive oil, salt, pepper, and lime juice.
5. Place tuna on a bed of cabbage and pea shoots. Add cilantro and dressing.

Stay Rad -h
Featured on: Premeditated Leftovers, 33 Shades of Green, Chef in Training, Food Renegade, Foodie Friday,  

Salads Ain't Just Fo' Summer Yo!

There are plenty of splendid and flavorful ingredients that can be used to make some pretty stellar Winter ones. Who needs mass produced & globally shipped lettuce when you can use locally and organically grown kale? Mmmm-mmmm - Christmas Winter salads are a wee bit of yum, yes?

I know, I know.

I promise that every post I do here up until Christmas will not be Christmas related.

To be fair though, this dish really isn't about Christmas. It's about using your Winter veg up effectively and let's be honest: Sometimes it's friggin difficult to find a fresh way to use those beets. Or leafy greens.

There comes a point, in every CSA participant's box, when we think "for the love of all that is good and holy - if I get one more (insert bastard vegetable here), I'm going to kill myself!". For me, that's usually kohlrabi. For John, it's turnips. Thence this recipe.

The fact that this dish is white, green and red just happens to make it an excellent side to a holiday meal. I promise, it's not Christmas.

Beet Carpaccio & Massaged Kale Winter Salad

(printable recipe) - serves 2.

Ingredients for Salad:

6 Small Red Beets, scrubbed and well dried.

6 Small Golden Beets, scrubbed and well dried.

1 Bunch Kale.

6 Oz Goat Cheese, room temperature.

Handful of Sweet & Spicy Nuts.

Coarse Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

Ingredients for Dressing:

1/2 C Good Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

The Juice of 1 Orange.

1 Tbsp Good Quality Balsamic Vinegar.

Coarse Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

What to Do:

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F. Place the golden beets in one roasting pan and the red beets in another. Drizzle both with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Cover and roast in the oven for 40 - 60 minutes, depending on the size and age of the beets. When a fork slides gently into the beet, they're done. Remove from the oven and set aside until you can touch them. Chop off the top, peel the skins off and discard and place beets in the fridge until cool.

Meanwhile: remove the stem/rib of the kale and then chop into thin sliced. Massage - yes, massage - until the kale becomes soft and edible. This can take a while so just plop down in front of the tv if you want and rub baby rub. Set aside.

Make the dressing: Dump all the ingredients into a mason jar and shake. Set aside.

Once the beets are cool, use your mandolin to slice them on the thinnest setting. Watch your fingers! You can do this with a knife but it will take longer and it will be difficult to be as consistent. Make sure you do all the golden ones before the red or you will discolor the delicate gold beets with purple.

Lay the red beets on a plate, slightly overlapping the edges until the plate is full. Slide gold slices so they lay just slightly under each red beet. 

In a bowl, dress the kale with some of the dressing and the goat cheese. Gently place on top of the beets and finish with some nuts.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Eat.

How do you feel about Winter salads? Have you ever massaged kale? What do you get in your CSA that makes your little heart happy? Angry? Confused?

Thirsty much? Watermelon Salad = Good

Happy Thursday morning to you darling readers!

When you think of Summer, what comes to mind?...

Lazy days on the beach? Coronas* on a patio? Music festivals up the ying yang? (if there was a music festival up my ying yang I'd have one thing to say, and one thing only... "ouch").

Aside from the above, along with tomatoes, flip flops, and camping, Summer to me means watermelon!

I think it stems from my childhood. I distinctly remember sitting at picnic tables as a young'n with the sun smiling down at us, giant slice of watermelon in one hand, way messed up napkin in the other, spitting seeds directly out onto the grass beneath our feet. Those were the days. The days of Summer when the biggest responsibility you had was making sure the dishes you had to dry after dinner weren't still sopping wet when you put them away in the camper. Oh yeah, and watermelons still had seeds! 

I know it wasn't the classiest of endeavors - eating a watermelon. Bite, chew, spit. But it was fun. And the watermelons weren't franken-fucking-scary engineered products of some group of men hidden away in Monsanto's windowless labs. That being said, I still eat me some tasty watermelon from time to time and after the experience I referred to in this post, this dish just had to be done.

Watermelon Salad with Fresh Mozzarella & Marcona Almonds

(printable recipe) - Serves 4.

Ingredients:

4 C Chopped Watermelon, 1" pieces, refrigerated & cold.

1 Ball Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella (If you can get your hands on Burrata, sub that), drained & roughly torn.

Small Handful of Marcona Almonds, lightly toasted.

Small Handful Fresh Basil.

1 C Creme Fraiche.

4 Tbsp Local Organic Honey.

Coarse Sea Salt.

What to Do:

First, toss the watermelon with a good pinch of salt and place back in the fridge until ready to use.

Next, mix the creme fraiche and the honey together in a bowl until well blended. Adjust to taste. You want it fresh yet slightly sweet.

Lastly, drizzle or spoon the dressing onto a plate, topping with the rest of the ingredients, finishing with the torn mozzarella (or beautiful burrata) and basil.

And that's it!

Eat.

When you think of Summer, what comes to mind?

*I am well aware that Corona is a terrible beer and not original at all. That being said, I can hardly think of anything I'd rather have whilst camping, laying on a beach, or hiding in the back of my shoe closet** - the only place in my house that really feels cool when it's 35 degrees outside.

**I wish I had a shoe closet. What I really have is a shelf very much in need of a good dusting that has been kind enough to begrudgingly allow me to wedge it in between my collection of under-used hand bags and a skateboard that hasn't been ridden in 4 years. I don't actually sit in there.

This post is linked up with Cast Party Wednesday; Whole Foods Wednesday; Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways; The Wednesday Fresh Foods Blog Hop; Tastetastic Thursday; Full Plate Thursday; Showcase Your Talent Thursday; Keep it Real Thursdays; Foodie Friday; Fight Back Friday; Fresh Bites Friday; Wellness Weekend.

Beet Medley & Quail Egg Salad w/ Honey Anise Vinaigrette

The Lowdown:

Okay, so this is meal is purely because I have been a horrible person over the last few days. I'm pretty sure in the last week I've eaten fast food at least 40 times. Not to mention, my lovely girlfriend declared that she only wanted to eat fruits and vegetables all day (Ha! That's going to happen). To make up for all that crap I've put into my body, I'm going to repent. I'm sorry father for I have sinned, please accept this healthy meal as a testament to my willingness to change my ways... temporarily.

How could this meal possibly be bad? It has more beets than Dr. Dre. Normally I hate salads. I find them boring, cold, and about as eventful as a Dilbert comic strip. How is that comic still being produced anyway? I mean seriously. The only thing funny about it is the irony that it isn't funny. 

http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Reference, 2012

Point, set, and match. This is crap. Now that I've wasted a sufficient amount of your life reading that comic strip I will resume with wasting a sufficient amount of your life reading this post. 

To recap; salad = Dilbert = boring. 

Where as, beets + quail's eggs + anise = ♥.

Just so everyone knows, I hate black licorice. However, the hint of it that this dressing has goes quite nicely with the earthy notes of the beets. Other than the pain of getting the anise seeds out of the husks (I actually just got lazy and blended the crap out of the star anise pods), this was a simple and easy recipe that offered quite a different take on the usual ways to prepare beets. The different colour beets also provide for a nice display and can add to the wow factor. It is also a great cure for the common fast food bender.

The Playlist:

(Printable Recipe)

1 Red beet

1 Golden beet

1 Candycane beet

2 Chicken breasts, cooked and thinly sliced (optional)

5-10 Quail's eggs, hard boiled

1 cube, Chicken bullion

Salt & Pepper

Olive oil

Vinaigrette

1/2 inch Leak (white part), minced

1 tsp Pepper (or more to taste)

1 tsp Kosher salt

1/8 cup Apple cider vinegar

1/8 cup Champagne berry vinegar

1/4 cup Virgin olive oil

1-2 tbsp Honey

1tsp Anise seeds, ground

The Skinny:

1.  Mix all the vinaigrette ingredients together and refrigerate until ready to be served.
2. Put the beets in separate pots and cover with water (the candycane and golden beets can go into the same pot). Add the chicken bullion to the water. Bring to a boil and cook until beets pass the "fork test" (about 45-60mins). Pour water out of pots and fill with cold water. Allow beets to cool.
3. In a small pot add quail's eggs and enough water to boil them in. Boil for 5 minutes then remove from heat, allow to sit for 5 minutes, and then pour the water out. Allow eggs to cool.
4. Skin the beets. If cooked properly you should be able to apply pressure using your thumbs and the skin will come off easily. (The beets can be done ahead of time and refrigerated).
5. Peal the shells off of the quail's eggs and cut in half lengthwise.
6. On medium heat, heat olive oil (or butter) in two large pans. Place the different colour beets in separate pans and saute until slightly browned (10-20mins).
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Put beets, chicken, and eggs together and add dressing.
9. Serve while beets are still warm.

Featured in:33 Shades of Green, Chef-in-Training, Mandy's Recipe Box,


Stay Rad - H