Grilled Potato Salads

Memorial Day weekend is here and summer will soon be in full swing. I have begun thinking about grilling since every new food magazine has tons of articles about how best to grill.

Something new was grilling potatoes. The grilling lends a charred sweetness and smoky flavor to all kinds of potatoes---whether tiny fingerlings, Yukon Golds, or even sweet potatoes. These potatoes can be a base for salads that include other ingredients with big, bold flavors.

For great grilled potato salads, par-cook the potatoes. It is some extra work, but parboiling in well-salted water has a few advantages: It lets you cook them on the grill just long enough to develop nice grill marks without drying out the potatoes, so they’ll be fluffy on the inside like a good French fry, with a golden, slightly charred outside. The salt in the water also softens the potatoes.

So for my Memorial Day feast I am grilling salmon. The potatoes will be par-cooked and then tossed in wine and some chicken broth before putting on the grill. Lentils are included in this recipe with some mustard cream. Yum!

Enjoy this healthy Memorial Day meal off the grill.

 

From ‘Fine Cooking’ June/July 2016

Grilled Potato, Salmon, and Lentil Salad with Mustard Cream

Serves 6 as a main course.

 

For the lentils:

3 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 sprig fresh thyme

1 Tbs. olive oil

½ cup finely chopped diced carrot

½ cup finely diced celery (I have a celery leaf plant that I am using for celery flavor.)

½ cup finely diced leek (white and light-green parts only)

½ cup French green lentils (lentils du Puy)

2 cups lower-salt chicken broth or water

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

For the Mustard-Cream

1 cup crème fraiche

2 Tbs. Dijon mustard

2 Tbs. whole-grain Dijon mustard

 ½ tsp. honey

1 tsp. red wine vinegar

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

For the Potatoes and Salmon

2 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced ½ inch thick

Kosher salt

1/3 cup dry white wine

1/3 cup lower-salt chicken broth

1 Tbs. finely chopped shallot

12 oz. salmon fillet; preferably skin on

2 Tbs. olive oil; more as needed

Freshly ground black pepper

1 oz. baby greens for garnish (I use our nearly ever-present arugula that constantly reseeds itself in the garden.)

 

Cook the lentils

Bundle the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf in a square of cheesecloth secured with kitchen twine.

Heat the olive oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrot, celery, and leek, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but not browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the lentils, chicken broth, 1 tsp. salt, ½ tsp. pepper, and the herb bundle. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the lentils are just tender, about 25 minutes. Drain and then spread the lentils on a rimmed baking sheet to cool quickly. (The lentils may be cooked up to 2 days head; cover and refrigerate. Return to room temperature before serving.)

 

Make the Mustard Cream

In a small bowl, combine the crème fraîche, both mustards, the honey, and vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

 

Par-cook the Potatoes

Put the potatoes and 2 Tbs. salt in a 4-quart saucepan, and add enough water to cover by 1 inch.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook for 5 minutes; the potatoes will still be a little hard in the center. Drain and transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle the wine and chicken broth over the hot potatoes and sprinkle with the shallot. Let sit, turning once or twice, for at least 30 minutes and up to eight hours; cover and refrigerate if holding more than 2 hours.

 

Grill the Potatoes and the Salmon

Prepare a medium-high (400°F to 475°F) gas or charcoal grill fire. (We have never gone gas but use wood charcoal that can be lit without any starter-fluid.)

Brush the salmon generously with olive oil, season lightly with salt and pepper, and grill, flipping once, until barely opaque in the center, 6 to 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, brush the potatoes with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill, flipping once, until tender and nicely marked, 5 to 7 minutes.

 

Serve

Flake the salmon into large pieces. Spread half of the mustard sauce on a large platter or divide it among plates. Arrange the potatoes, salmon, and lentils on the sauce. Top with greens and serve with the remaining mustard cream on the sice.

 

 

 

Vietnamese Market NOLA

I have recently subscribed to ‘Palate’ magazine and this month’s issue has an article on the New Orleans Vietnamese market. It has been around for 30 years or so but I had never been. I found myself in NOLA on a recent Saturday and decided to pay it a visit. It is only open from 6:00 am on Saturday mornings and they usually pack up and leave by 8:30. So get there early. It is about a 15 minute drive from the French Quarter on I-10 East on Chef Menteur Highway. This is the most closely packed Vietnamese population outside Vietnam. I like to visit the markets when I am in the 3^rd world and in Europe too. This one could have been in Vietnam. Almost no westerners in sight. The prevalent language was Vietnamese (I guess because it was not English). The place is called by some the “squatters market” since the vendors often adopt that posture. Many of the ladies wore their traditional conical straw hats, non la. There are live chickens, rabbits, ducks. They put them in a bag for you to take home where you can kill and prepare them yourself. There were whole fish but not live ones as I have seen in Asia. I did see one vendor de-scaling a fish with an axe. Lots of vegetables, many of which I had no idea what they were. Nothing is labeled. And translation is sometimes lost.

I did buy some shrimp spring rolls for lunch and a jar of pickled cabbage I bought for my son who likes pickled whatever. I also bought a bitter melon. I do know what they are.

Bitter melon or squash, a native of China, looks somewhat like a cucumber with a knobby skin. It is used mostly in Indian and Asian dishes and can be found in those ethnic markets. The melon is bitter (because of its quinine content) as the name implies but it can be salted or parboiled to decrease the bitterness.

They can be eaten raw in salads, stir fried, used in curries, or stuffed.

I googled bitter melon in Mexican cooking and noted it is grown in South America but Spanish recipes seem to stem from the Philippines, which of course is Asian. So if you do not grow them yourself the best place to find them would be in an Asian market.

Raw bitter melon may not be love at first bite but correctly cooked bitter melon can be. When cooked right you will be rewarded with a soft but not mushy texture and a perfect fish sauce aroma and taste balancing a delightful twang of bitterness.

 

Stir Fried Bitter Melon

4 servings

1 ½ lbs. sliced bitter melon

3 cloves chopped garlic

1 tablespoon fish sauce

3 tablespoons cooking oil

Wash the bitter melon and cut it lengthwise. Discard the seeds and pith. Slice the bitter melon cross sectionally, in ¼ of an inch slices. Even slices means even cooking, which is particularly important for this dish.

This is not a quick stir fry like some of the more delicate vegetables. Bitter melon is dense and takes longer to cook, about 10 minutes.

Add 3 tablespoons of oil. Add the bitter melon. Stir to coat the melon with oil. If the melon seems dry, drizzle some more oil. The oil should never pool, but coat all the pieces. Spread out all the pieces so that they get direct heat from the pan and cook in oil not steam. Stir every minute to get all the pieces on the heat directly. You don’t want to stir too often though because they will start to cook in steam and turn mushy. It is best to let some pieces brown and then turn them over.

After 5 minutes, drizzle oil in the center and add chopped garlic. Let the garlic cook in the oil for 15 seconds. Stir to mix everything together. Continue stirring as above for 5 minutes more.

In the 10^th minute, add a tablespoon of fish sauce and stir around to get the fish sauce in the bitter melon. Taste to see if you like it. You may want to add a little bit more fish sauce.

Since finding the market for bitter melon is not easy I think I will try growing some----maybe a bit late to get started this year.

Strawberries

Strawberries are the sweetest sign of spring!

The key to their deliciousness is time in the warm fields to ripen from cap to tip and develop its unmistakable scent. Aroma, not color, is a sure sign of good flavor, so follow your nose to tasty berries.

Strawberries are easy pickings for most Southerners at a local pick-your-own berry patch. They are also easy to grow at home in the South, from an entire garden to a little patio pot. When planted in a sunny, fertile spot, these perennials produce more plants and berries each year without your having to do a thing besides wait and watch.

We call strawberries “berries,” of course, but actually they aren’t berries, because they wear their seeds on the outside. Strawberries are the only fruit to do so, and each one sports around 200 tiny golden seeds. To put an even finer point on this curious characteristic, each strawberry seed is technically a separate fruit, botanically speaking.

Peak season for strawberries is fleeting, only three or four weeks in most cases, so feast while you can. Eat the delectable berries. Preserve any overripe berries. Pickle any under ripe berries. Then eat more delicious ones, as many as you can hold. It will be another year before this chance comes around again.

Some tips for strawberries:

Storage: Ripe berries taste best when stored at room temperature up to two days; they keep five to seven days when placed in the fridge crisper drawer. Remove berries from their original containers, and arrange in a single layer on a tray or plate lined with paper towels. Discard bad berries daily because mold spreads like wildfire.

Washing: Strawberries soak up water like small sponges, and wet berries will quickly turn mushy; wash them right before using under cool running water, and then pat dry. Remove the caps after they are washed.

Freezing: To keep whole frozen strawberries separated instead of fusing together into one large lump, spread washed, capped, and dried berries in a single layer on a baking sheet or other shallow container that will fit on your freezer shelf. Once they are frozen, transfer them into freezer bags or other airtight containers, and keep stored in the freezer. This allows you to pull out as many berries as needed rather than having to thaw the entire bag.

 

Taken from ‘Southern Living’ May 2016.

Strawberry Salad with Goat Cheese Croutons

Serves 6

2 (4-oz.) goat cheese logs

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 large egg

 2 Tbsp. whole milk

½ cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

½ tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. black pepper

¼ cup vegetable oil

5 oz. mixed baby greens

1 ½ cups sliced fresh strawberries

1 cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeds removed, cut crosswise into ½-inch slices

¼ red onion sliced

Strawberry-Poppy Seed Vinaigrette (recipe below)

Cut each goat cheese log into 4 rounds. Gently press each round to ½--inch thickness on a baking sheet, and freeze 20 minutes.

Place the flour in a small bowl. Whisk together the egg and milk in a second small bowl. Combine the panko salt, and pepper in a third small bowl. Dredge the goat cheese rounds in flour, dip in egg mixture, and dredge in panko mixture until coated. Place on a plate, and chill until all goat cheese rounds are breaded.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium until hot. Add goat cheese rounds to skillet, and cook until golden brown on each side, 3-4 minutes total. Remove to a paper towel lined plate.

To serve, arrange salad greens on a serving platter, top with strawberries, cucumber, onion, and goat cheese croutons. Drizzle with vinaigrette.

Strawberry Poppy Seed Vinaigrette

Makes 1 ½ cups

Toss together 1 cup quartered strawberries, 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, 5 Tbsp. white wine vinegar, 1 tsp. kosher salt, and ¼ tsp. black pepper in a bowl, let stand 15 minutes. Transfer the strawberry mixture to a blender and process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Turn blender on low and gradually add ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Return mixture to bowl, and whisk in 1 Tbsp. poppy seeds. Whisk vinaigrette just before seving.

 

Mother's Day 2016

Perhaps we do not know the name of John Hall as well as some other chefs, but he is from Birmingham and opened his Birmingham pizzeria called Post Office Pies a few years ago. Post Office Pies was named because he renovated an old post office in his Avondale neighbor in Birmingham.

The May issue of ‘Southern Living’ feathers this man because it was his grandmother who inspired his love of cooking. As a kid, he was enthralled with the vegetables and herbs his grandmother Louellen Wilkins, tended in her small garden and how they manifested on the family’s able. This was before all the farm to table hoopla. She cooked with the seasons, and she pickled and canned everything.

John Hall’s mother Marion, was a single mom, but there was always a home cooked weeknight meal on the table. His family meals were geared around comfort in good times and bad. Food brings people together and makes them happy.

Hall decided to be chef, not a cook, and went on to do culinary training in Charleston and Rhode Island. He built up his resume in Birmingham with Chef Frank Stitt, then moved on to New York. Between working rigorous shifts, he ran a side business called Insomnia Pizza out of his tiny Brooklyn apartment, making and delivering late-night pies on his bike.

In 2013, he got the opportunity to start a restaurant in his old neighborhood in Birmingham. As soon as it opened the lines were spilling out the front door. His grandmother passed away one month before the restaurant opened.

Hall still prepares everything his mother and grandmother taught him. He makes tomato sauce from scratch and uses locally grown greens for his salads. My goal is to get to his restaurant when I am in Birmingham again. Frank Stitt, I’ll get back to you later.

So in honor of Mother’s Day, we praise all mothers who work hard in preparing good food for their families. It is hard out there to find the best produce and be able to afford it. Children do remember what their childhood was like (good or bad) and a lot of it has to do what happened at the dinner table.

So Happy Mother’s Day!

John Hall’s Mom made shrimp and grits before it became a dish on most southern restaurant menus. He added a bright Salsa Verde which he learned from his time at Gramercy Tavern.

Taken from ‘Southern Living’ May 2016.

Pan-Seared Shrimp with Chive Grits and Salsa Verde

3 cups water

1 cup whole milk

3 tsp. kosher salt, divided

1 cup yellow stone-ground grits

6 Tbsp. salted butter, divided

2 lb. raw jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined, divided

 

½ tsp. black pepper, divided

1 Tbsp. lemon juice, divided

2 Tbsp. chopped chives

1 pt. cherry tomatoes, halved

Salsa Verde (recipe follows)

Bring 3 cups water, milk, and 2 teaspoons salt to a boil in a large heavy saucepan over high heat. Whisk in grits, and cook, whisking constantly, 45 seconds, scraping bottom and sides as needed. Return to a boil; cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook grits until tender, 20-25 minutes. (For a looser texture, whisk in 2-4 tablespoons water halfway through cooking.)

Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-heat. Add half of the shrimp, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Sauté until shrimp are almost pink, 5-6 minutes. Toss with ½ tablespoon lemon juice, and transfer to a plate. Repeat with 2 tablespoons butter and remaining shrimp, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

Add chives and remaining 2 tablespoons butter to grits. Top with shrimp, tomatoes, and Salsa Verde.

Salsa Verde

1 cup roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves and small stems

1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves and small stems

1 cup roughly chopped fresh basil leaves

¾ tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. red chili flakes

2 garlic cloves

1 Tbsp. lemon zest plus 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, divided

½ cup olive oil

Pulse firsts 6 ingredients plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice zest in a food processor until roughly chopped. With processor running, pour olive oil through food chute, until smooth. Transfer to a bowl; let stand 20 minutes. Before serving stir in lemon juice.

Asparagus

Spring means asparagus to me.

Asparagus is native to the Mediterranean. Imported by the early colonists, asparagus growing in beds is described in records from Virginia as early as 1737.

Sometimes asparagus escaped the kitchen garden and ran wild along sandy riverbanks and seashores. In some rural areas, the word was corrupted into “sparrow grass,” “spare grass,” or “sparrow guts.”

Almost all eighteenth-century cookbooks advised serving asparagus with toast, butter, and lemon, a combination that remains popular now. Thomas Jefferson recorded harvesting asparagus multiple times at Monticello. He described eating it battered and deep-fried and also in “the French way,” presumably in vinaigrette. How to cook asparagus is often discussed more passionately than how to grow it. Even the earliest cookbooks promoted the idea of gently cooking asparagus. As one book put it, “by over boiling they will lose their heads.”

Some cooks figure that thin spears are younger and more tender than thick spears, but that’s not necessarily true. Some varieties of asparagus are always thin and some are always thick. The key to succulence and good flavor is freshness. Asparagus should be cooked as soon as possible after it is cut, while the heads remain tightly closed and the ends are moist.

The difference between green and white asparagus is in how it is raised. White asparagus grows covered by earth or thick tarps that block sunlight so that green chlorophyll cannot form in the plant. The white spears must be peeled, but their interiors and subtle flavor make the time and effort worthwhile.

Here are some ways to prepare asparagus which helps preserve the flavor. Grilling is perhaps the most favored way to serve asparagus these days, but if you do not like to fire up the grill try these.

Blasted Asparagus

This is the easiest way to cook asparagus. It is fast and the dry searing heat preserves the flavor and nutrients. This is good served with a Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise or a Romesco Sauce.

1 ½ pounds asparagus

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 475°F.

Snap off and discard the tough ends of the asparagus. Arrange the spears in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and roll the spears back and forth to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast until crisp-tender and browned in spots, about 5 minutes, depending on the thickness pf the spears. Serve hot or at room temperature.

 

Skillet Asparagus

I am not a fan of cooking asparagus in water because it makes the asparagus spongy and dilutes the flavor. In this recipe the flavor is concentrated as it cooks slowly in a skillet.

1 to 1 ½ pounds asparagus spears

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil

Coarse or kosher salt, to taste

Snap off a discard the tough ends of the asparagus. Cut the spears into bite size lengths.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet (preferably cast-iron) over medium heat. Add the asparagus and stir to coat. Cook, stirring often, until the asparagus is quite tender and browned in spots, 15 to 25 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve warm or at room temperature.

 

From The New Southern Garden Cookbook by Sheri Castle.

This recipe is for people who are strapped for time like most of us. But you can use some packaged ravioli or frozen but add the fresh asparagus for a nice meal.

Asparagus with Wild Mushroom Ravioli, Browned Butter, and Walnuts

Makes 4 servings

1 ½ pounds asparagus spears

12-16 ounces fresh or frozen wild mushroom ravioli

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste

¼ cup crumbled goat cheese or coarsely grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

Snap off and discard the tough ends of the asparagus, cut the spears into bite-sized lengths.

Cook the ravioli according to package directions. When the ravioli are 5 minutes short of the recommended cooking time, add the asparagus to the pot and continue cooking until both are done. Drain.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium –low heat. When the butter is no longer foamy, add the walnuts and cook, gently swirling the pan, until the butter is golden brown and smells like toast, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.

Stir in the asparagus and ravioli and heat through. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot, sprinkled with the cheese.

The Chef and the Farmer---Butterbean Burger

While in Wilmington the other week we had two extra days waiting to go to a funeral in Greenville, South Carolina. We had been wanting to go the Chef and the Farmer restaurant in Kinston, North Carolina for a long time but never could get a reservation. Vivian Howard is the chef and star of the PBS series by the same name as the restaurant and she does have a following.

We settled for going to her no reservations restaurant right next door called The Boiler Room Oyster Bar. It was also packed by 1PM on a Saturday but there was one table in the corner so we were set.

We of course started off with the raw oysters and her sauce was delicious. We then tried the baked oysters with collards and tomatoes, but when only 5 arrived and not the 6 we ordered the waiter explained that he would be back with the other one in a minute. Found out he had dropped the one on the floor but did not want to keep us waiting so I got the last one and it was piping hot which the other were not, but good anyway.

My husband had read about her butterbean burger and heard it was really good so we got two of those and included fries with poutine (pork) and cheese---and some charred broccoli so we could say we were eating healthy! We were stuffed but it was really all so good.

I just had to do those butterbean burgers and I found Vivian’s recipe on line and tried them the other evening and they were delicious. So if you are looking for a new burger recipe, do this one. I fried some onions to top the burger (as they did in the restaurant) and you can add any cheese but Vivian uses Gouda and any other things you like on your burger.

Also watch her show which features North Carolina products. She is also up for a James Beard Award for her show. The show is down to earth and just tells about her trials in running a restaurant in eastern North Carolina, but she has made a success of her show and restaurant since she is always booked, but I just may find a way to get back and eat at the real thing

From her show “R-E-S-P-E-C-T the Butterbean”

Butter bean Burgers

Makes 12 servings

4 cups butterbeans, also called baby lima beans in the freezer section of your grocer

1 bay leaf

½ teaspoon black pepper

5 teaspoons salt, divided

¼ cup olive oil

2 large yellow onions, peeled and sliced very thinly with the grain

½ cup roasted garlic puree

3 teaspoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon chipotle powder

1 tablespoon Worcestershire

1 ½ cups brown rice

1 cup panko bread crumbs

Cover the butter beans, bay leaf, and black pepper with cool water in a 4 quart pot. Bring the butter beans up to a simmer and skim off any scum that rises to the top. Cook the beans until they are completely tender and add 2 teaspoons of salt to the pot. Let the beans sit for about ten minutes in the seasoned water, then drain.

Meanwhile, in a medium sauté pan, cook the onions in the olive oil for about 30 minutes, or until they are slightly caramelized. You’re looking for a honey color on these. In a large bowl, toss the beans together with everything but the bread crumbs. Transfer this mixture to the bowl of a food processor and blend until it is mostly broken down. You should be looking at a mixture that is about 70% paste and 30% recognizable pieces.

Transfer the contents of the food processor back to the bowl and stir in the bread crumbs. Let the burger mix rests for 30 minutes. This will allow the bread crumbs to become acquainted with the bean paste, providing a sturdier burger.

Divide the bean mix into 12, roughly 5 oz. portions and patty them out to ½ inch thickness. When you are ready to cook your burger, heat a little oil in a sauté pan until nearly smoking. Add the burger and let it brown on one side for about 3 minutes. Once it is nice and caramelized, even crispy, on that side flip the burger and brown on the opposite side.

You can serve this on a bun with all the fixings, or just serve it alongside a salad with a bright vinaigrette.