Blackened Salmon Salad, Two Ways

It's be a rough few weeks here in More Cheese More Chocolate land. Matt and I suffered a huge loss a little over a week ago, and cooking, let alone blogging, haven't been much of a priority. (Thanks to my big brother for filling in a little while I've been gone!) We spent many, many days surrounded by family and friends and ungodly amounts of comfort food, with nary a vegetable in sight. While the outpouring of support in the form of home-cooked meals was completely overwhelming, there comes a time when you're ready to stop eating platefuls of meat and bread and you no longer want to be surrounded by a dozen varieties of cookies, brownies, and cakes.

When I returned to Minneapolis a few days ago I was excited to get back into the kitchen, and a big salad was at the top of my list of things to make. I had originally planned on making a niçoise salad, but when I realized that my co-op didn't have tuna steaks my plans changed a bit. My focus shifted from my list of ingredients for niçoise salad to random things that sounded good and seemed to fit together. The next thing I knew I was making blackened salmon, crumbling blue cheese, and slicing new potatoes. This salad base would work well with steak or chicken in place of the salmon, and the vinaigrette could easily be swapped out for blue cheese dressing.

The base of this salad consisted of green leaf lettuce, spinach, boiled new potatoes, roasted red peppers, cucumber, green pepper, and blue cheese. For a dressing I drizzled it with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and a little lemon juice.

Blackened Salmon

Adapted from Real Simple

Preheat the oven to 400.

For the salmon spices I combined 2 teaspoons paprika, 2 teaspoons cayenne, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a shallow bowl. The cayenne came flying out of the bottle when I was measuring it, so I probably had a little more than 2 teaspoons and it was very hot. If you're not that into spicy foods you can reduce the cayenne by half or more. This spice mixture will coat 3-4 servings of salmon.

Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan, remove it from the heat, and stir in the juice of 1/2 to 1 whole lemon. Transfer the mixture to a shallow bowl.

When the oven is nearing 400, heat an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Dip the salmon in the lemon butter and then in the spice mixture to coat. Cook the salmon on the stove for about 2 minutes per side, and then transfer the skillet to the oven for about 8 minutes to finish the cooking. Place the salmon atop the salad and eat, eat, eat.

The second salad had more of a Mediterranean twist with green leaf lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives, sliced pepperoncini, and a lot of crumbled feta. The dressing was a vinaigrette made up of one part dijon mustard, one part red wine vinegar, and three parts olive oil.

Leftover salmon topped off the salad, and it was delicious.

Grandma's Cranberry Jello Salad

Hello, everyone! I started writing this post last week, but then finals caught up to me and I finally got around to finishing it today. Along with the recipe for my dad's favorite Thanksgiving dish, my grandma's cranberry jello salad, there are some pictures at the end of the post of our second Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, we had a second Thanksgiving dinner. I easily could have gone for a third and a fourth because I love Thanksgiving so very much, but I had to settle for just two.

The menu for our second dinner was pretty standard turkey day stuff, except there was no turkey. We went for a goose instead, and we were all pleasantly surprised by it. This was my first time having goose, unless you count the force-fed liver variety, and it was really good! It's comparable to the dark meat of a chicken or turkey. When I walk past all the geese in the park I now think "mmm...lunch" instead of "quit pooping everywhere." In other exciting goose news, my brother took the fat home with him to make fries. I've been told that he took pictures and that they were delicious, so hopefully he'll share those one of these days.

For now, here is my grandma's recipe for cranberry jello salad. Also, Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Cranberry Jello Salad

1 lb. cranberries

1 cup sugar

1 large can crushed pineapple

2 envelopes Knox plain gelatin

1 cup frozen orange juice concentrate

1/2-1 cup pecans, chopped

16 oz. container sour half & half

2 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

Here's the actual recipe card that my Grandma gave to my mom. I wish I could still write in cursive. Dang!

Cheers!

Rinse the cranberries and pick out any bad seeds.

My mom (and I'm assuming my grandma) always uses the KitchenAid grinder attachment to grind the cranberries. You can probably pulverize them by other means as well - maybe a food processor or your really strong fists. Just kidding about the fists. Unless you are indeed really, really strong.

Grind the cranberries into a large bowl, stir in the sugar, and set it aside.

While the sugar and cranberries mix, measure out the orange juice concentrate.

Pour the packets of gelatin into 1/2 cup of cool water.

Drain the pineapple, but reserve the juice in a measuring cup.

Add water to the pineapple juice until you have 1 1/2 cups liquid. Bring it to a boil, and then add the gelatin mixture.

Add the orange juice and gelatin mixture to the cranberries.

Add the chopped pecans.

As well as the pineapple.

Stir everything together and pour it into a large dish - either a large, round dish or a 9x13" dish. Refrigerate until set.

Once the gelatin mixture is made, combine the sour half & half with the marshmallows and refrigerate it. It's best to do this several hours before you're going to eat, but if you forget it is fine if eaten right away.

As you can see, it's not your typical jello mold with random objects suspended in it. It's a far more sophisticated dish that can only be achieved with the holy trinity of gourmet ingredients: canned pineapple, orange juice concentrate, and gelatin.

Here is the rest of our Thanksgiving #2 menu:

Dill mashed potatoes.

Boil a bunch of potatoes until fork-tender. Mash with any combination of butter, cream, milk, sour cream, plain yogurt, and cream cheese. Season with salt and pepper, and add as much chopped fresh dill as you can handle.

Southwest Corn, Chili and Cumin Saute from Bon Appetit, November 2002

Goose with Port Sauce and Chestnut Stuffing from Saveur.

Goose!

More goose.

My brother's pretty plate.

My brother's plan to make a pumpkin pie for dessert fell through, so we ate some of these amazing mint-filled brownies from Noble Pig.

Delicious.

Two Simple Salads

After my previous recipe involving an obscene amount of heavy cream and another recent recipe which corrupted an otherwise healthy soup with a splash of cream followed by a liberal sprinkling of bacon and cheese, I thought I'd better redeem myself with something posing less of a threat to your arteries. In case you were growing concerned, I do eat things other than simple carbohydrates and cheese. (Like cream!) In fact, I almost had a meltdown this morning when I realized that I was out of pomegranates. Still don't believe me? I eat salads, and I have photographic evidence to prove it.

The following "recipes" are just a couple salads that I've thrown together lately that I thought were worth sharing. The first one confirms the theory that a runny egg yolk makes almost everything better, salad being no exception. If you're thinking, "Egg yolk?! I thought these were supposed to be healthy salads," do not fear. Yes, the egg yolk is where all of the cholesterol is, but it's also where most of the vitamins and minerals are. Not to mention it's the most delicious part, especially when it's warm and gooey and spilling out onto everything else on your plate. And I will hop off my little egg yolk soapbox right...now.

The second salad was one that we threw together for our Italian dinner party using just a few things I had in the fridge. Because I failed to get any appetizing photos of it that night, I recreated it yesterday with a few minor changes. The original version used parmesan instead of queso fresco and balsamic instead of red wine vinegar. I prefer the balsamic over the red wine vinegar, but I have a hard time picking one cheese over the other. Also, the recreated version used beets from my aunt Amy's garden instead of beets from the grocery store, which in and of itself may make it the winner. Come to think of it, the egg from the first salad might have been one of the eggs laid by Amy's chickens.

Have you ever received eggs via UPS? Eggs that your chicken cousins have laid? I have, and they were delicious. At least the ones that survived the journey. You haven't lived until the UPS truck pulls up with a box of eggs for you. Thank you, Amy!

Arugula, parmesan, poached egg, olive oil, balsamic

Mixed greens*, roasted beets, queso fresco, freshly cracked pepper, olive oil, red wine vinegar

*Spinach would be a really good substitute.

BLT Salad

Today is my last first day of school, and I am going to celebrate by doing one of the things I do best - putting off reading for class.  That's right, I am celebrating the start of school by not doing schoolwork.  That's just how I operate, and it's served me well so far.  Instead of diving right into a riveting chapter on business associations I plan on blogging, going for a run, doing a couple crosswords, and maybe even doing a little cleaning.  You should see the volume of cleaning I can do during finals time.  I more than make up for the lack of cleaning I do the rest of the semester.  That "maybe even doing a little cleaning" has officially changed to definitely cleaning thanks to a wind-whipped blinds knocking a glass lamp off of my nightstand.  Fun fun.  

Speaking of fun, today's recipe involves bacon.  Bacon.  Fun.  Fun.  Bacon.  Makes sense, right?  I love bacon.  I love fun.  I love bacon and fun.  A bacon taste test is a perfect way to combine bacon with fun, and that is exactly what my mom and I did a few days ago.  I've mentioned before that my #1 bacon is Amana Peppered Bacon, and it is still at the top of my list.  Don't start thinking that I am devoted to consuming APB exclusively, though.  Unless it is from Hormel, I will happily try other brands of bacon.  Very happily.  And I did just that last week.  

In addition to the three packages of Amana bacon I got to stick in my freezer and ration out until my next trip to Iowa, I picked up a package of Nueske's smoked bacon.  Nueske's is a Wisconsin company which has been smoking, spicing, and curing meat for decades.  Their bacon is a little on the pricey side, but you definitely get what you pay for.  It's a little leaner than your average bacon, and my mom and I both thought it tasted ever so slightly like Canadian bacon.  While Amana bacon is still at the top of my list, I certainly won't mind eating Nueske's when my Amana stash runs out.  If you don't live in the upper midwest and you'd like to try it, you can order it from their website.  

While my mom and I would be perfectly happy conducting a bacon taste test by just eating strip after strip of bacon, we thought we should probably make a real meal out of it.  We cooked up some bacon and threw together a BLT salad.  A BLT salad is the perfect way to eat bacon without guilt.  You get to enjoy the crispy and chewy bits of pork alongside fresh, healthy ingredients, save the little bit of blue cheese that we added.  It's a win-win.  

BLT Salad

1/2-1 head romaine lettuce

2 heirloom tomatoes

4 strips bacon, cooked

2 hard boiled eggs

2 tbsp blue cheese, crumbled

Makes 2 very large entree salads or 4 side salads

Tear the lettuce into small pieces.  Chop the tomatoes and eggs.  Crumble the bacon.  Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  

The tomatoes we used were incredibly juicy, so we didn't even bother with dressing.  If your tomatoes aren't so juicy you could drizzle the salad with a little olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice or a little vinegar.  

The BLT salad was a great meal for a warm summer day and a great excuse for chowing down on bacon.  

Purple Potato + Wax Bean Salad

Potatoes don't get much more exciting than purple potatoes.  The same thing goes for purple cauliflower, purple carrots, purple tomatoes and their respective more common counterparts.  The same thing does not, however, apply to purple ketchup, which totally freaks me out.  The majority of the potatoes we eat aren't much to look at.  Red potatoes are about as exciting as it gets, but if you peel away that red skin all you have left is the same boring potato.  Not so with purple potatoes, which are purple through and through.  If you're looking for a little excitement in your potato consumption, purple potatoes should do the trick.  

We got purple potatoes last week while in Iowa, and since it was in the 90s and insanely humid I decided to use them for a classic summer side dish - potato salad.  Along with the traditional potato salad ingredients - hard-boiled eggs, celery, mayo, mustard - I threw in some crunchy wax beans and salty capers.  I like having just enough dressing to bind everything together and not an ounce more.  Not only are mayonnaise-drenched salads really unhealthy, but they also mask the flavors of the individual ingredients.  They may be fine for grocery store salad bars and all-you-can-eat buffets, but they have no place on my plate.  

Purple Potato + Wax Bean Salad

8-10 purple potatoes 

A couple handfuls of wax beans

3 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 tbsp capers

2-3 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp dijon mustard

Splash of worcestershire sauce

Salt & pepper

As with most salad recipes, I didn't do much precise measuring with this.  Actually, I did no measuring whatsoever.  

Scrub the potatoes, cut off any bad spots, and cut into 1/2"-1" pieces.  Place the potatoes in a pot, cover them with water, cover the pot and boil until tender.  

While the potatoes boil, prepare the rest of the ingredients.  Snap off the ends of the beans, and then break them into about 1-inch pieces.  You can blanch the beans before adding them to the salad if you wish.  To be honest the thought never crossed my mind until we were sitting at the dinner table and my dad asked, "Did you blanch these beans?"  My mom quickly said, "Of course," and shot me a look that said what my dad didn't know wouldn't kill him.  

In a large bowl combine the beans, celery, eggs, and capers.  I added a little salt and pepper at this point because I was getting antsy waiting for the potatoes to cool and I had to do something to occupy my time.  If you're less restless you can wait until the end to season with salt and pepper.  

Add the potatoes to the bowl once they have cooled down a bit.  You want them to still be warm as warm potatoes absorb seasoning better than cold ones.  

For the dressing combine 2-3 heaping spoonfuls of mayonnaise, 1 spoonful of dijon mustard, and a few squirts of worcestershire sauce.  

Pour the dressing over the other ingredients, and mix well.  Season with salt and pepper.  

Refrigerate until serving.  

**********

On an entirely different note, I thought I'd post a few pictures from the third round of the PGA Championship at Hazeltine.  I've been lucky enough to spend two days this week in Chaska, wandering the course on Thursday with Matt and his parents (and making an appearance on TV!) and again yesterday in our friend Nick's backyard, conveniently located across the fence from the 5th green.  It was an awesome week, and I found myself within shouting distance of Tiger, Phil, Fred Couples, Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Ernie Els, Kenny Perry, Angel Cabrera, an angry John Daly, a sharply dressed (but with overly gelled hair) Ian Poulter, fellow Iowa native Zach Johnson, Minnesota native Tom Lehman (who I once stood behind in the security line at MSP airport and had no idea who he was), and the handsome Alvaro Quiros.  The closest I'd ever come to professional golf before this week was meeting Verne Lundquist in a jewelry store in Steamboat, Colorado when I was 13.  It took a viewing of Happy Gilmore for me to actually realize who he was.  The PGA folks don't allow cameras or phones on the course, so I had to wait until yesterday to get some pictures of golf's elite.   

Ernie Els

Padraig Harrington

Tiger Woods

 

One last thing, happy anniversary (last Thursday) to Matt's parents!  This can only mean one thing - it's only 9 months and 1 day until Matt's birthday.  

Panzanella

The idea of panzanella has never really appealed to me.  I suppose it's the corruption of a healthy salad with big chunks of bread, but my aversion to adding bread to salad seems a little ridiculous when I stop to think about it.  I'll gladly eat a big hunk of bread alongside a salad.  I have no problem making salads less healthy with the addition of any variety of cheese.  While I'm not a huge fan of croutons, I'm more than happy to consume them if they're well-made (try the ones at The Ivy in West Burlington, Iowa, or the cornbread ones at Bandera restaurants), and aren't croutons just cooked chunks of bread?  Maybe it's those evil people who started the low-carb fad that somehow convinced me that throwing some cubes of stale bread into a salad is going to ruin my girlish figure.  Well that was the first 26 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, and 6 days of my life.  For the past 7 days of my life, after my first taste of panzanella, I have changed my way of thinking.  Chunks of bread + vegetables + cheese + vinaigrette = a delightful dish.  This recipe is for you, low-carb industry!

I was inspired to make panzanella after coming across the Pioneer Woman's recipe for Pita Chip Panzanella, and I chose ingredients for my version based on ingredients I had sitting around that needed to be used up.  If you do not have everything I used in the exact quantities, you can easily play around with amounts and ingredients.  

Panzanella

1/3 loaf stale bread

2 ears of cooked corn

2 tomatoes

1/2 ball fresh mozzarella

A few basil leaves

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Salt & pepper

I believe this was a country wheat loaf.  Or rustic wheat.  Something + wheat.  

Cut the bread into 1/2"-1" cubes.  

Cut the stems out of the tomatoes. 

Then cut them into fairly large chunks.  I don't enjoy biting into really big chunks of raw tomatoes, but I didn't want them to get lost among the bread chunks.  Shoot for something around the same size of the bread chunks or slightly smaller.  

Scrape the kernels off the ears of corn.  

Here's how much mozzarella I used.  I would have used a little more if I'd had more, but that's just me.  

Look, a cheese butt!  Or poorly done implants. 

Chop the mozzarella into small cubes.  

I used all of the larger leaves on my basil plant, and if you have more you could certainly use it 

Combine the bread, tomatoes, corn, mozzarella, and basil in a big bowl.  Add a little salt & pepper.  

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil and vinegar.  

Pour about half of the dressing on the salad and stir well to combine.  Slowly add more dressing until you're satisfied with the salad/dressing ratio.

Once the salad was made, I threw it in my bike basket and set off to Lake Harriet for a picnic with Matt.   It was a perfect summer lunch served alongside leftover turkey burgers and some gigantic cherries.