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OK, so as you can see, my camera cord finally got here, and I am using this as an opportunity for some completely shameless food porn of salads.

Salads are awesome… especially in my house, because I make them. My mom is a gourmet cook, and that’s how I got most of my knowledge of food. The kitchen is her domain, and so when I expressed interest in helping, she finally decided that I could “do the salad.”

In the past, the salad has always been a selection of fresh greens with a simple mustard vinaigrette. Very simple, very French, and very easy to do when you’re also preparing roasted rack of lamb, roasted new potatoes, and frenched green beans topped with sauteed scallions, which is a typical meal from when I was growing up.

When I was first awarded this task of assembling salads, I stuck with the formula, once in a while throwing in a tomato. Then maybe a vidalia onion. Then I’d rummage through the crisper and find some leftover corn on the cob or a few boiled beets, maybe some toasted leftover bread with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Now that I’ve found my footing, salads have become as gourmet as the main course. Sometimes we even feature two salads on the table, as we did tonight: a salad with fresh greens, beets, and goat cheese croutons, and the gigi salad below.

Summer is an amazing time to eat salads as a main part of a meal, and all three of these salads feature enough variety in ingredients and nutrients alike to serve as a meal, especially on a warm summer day. Enjoy!

emiglia

This first one is a lobster salad my mother made. Lots of dill… sooo yummy. Just enough mayonnaise to make it creamy without overloading the delicate taste of the lobster.

Lobster Salad

1 cup celery, chopped
2 cups cooked lobster
1 cup good mayonnaise, (homemade, Hellman’s)
1/2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons fresh dill, chopped

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Top with more dill to garnish.

The next salad is a potato salad that uses no mayo whatsoever. This is a great salad for a summer meal, but is also good in the winter when potatoes are some of the only things you can find.

New Potato Salad

2 lbs. new potatoes
1 lb. thin cut bacon
1 bunch scallions, sliced
2 tablespoons mustard
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
chopped parsley

Make dressing: combine vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper, and add olive oil while whisking steadily to emulsify. Slice bacon thinly and fry on stovetop. Boil potatoes until fork tender, and slice while still warm. Combine potatoes, bacon, and dressing. Add scallions before serving, and toss to combine. Sprinkle parsley on top as a garnish.

The last salad, the Gigi salad, was influenced by a salad from the Palm restaurant in New York.

Gigi Salad

2 bay leaves
1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 vidalia onions
4 plum tomatoes
1/2 lb. green beans
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Boil shrimp with bay leaves until just cooked through. Boil water to cook green beans. Cook green beans and shock in ice water. Chop green beans, shrimp, tomatoes, and onions into chunks. Toss together, add salt, pepper, and olive oil, and serve.

I just made the most amazing dinner for my family. I hate to gloat, but it was pretty darn awesome.

First, I made a simple salad of mixed greens, Craisins, sliced almonds, orange sections, and blue cheese.

I need to pause here to say that Craisins are AMAZING. And this from a person who hates raisins. Craisins are dried and sweetened cranberries, and they have this amazing sour sweetness that bursts in your mouth, much sweeter than an actual cranberry.

Craisins mix very well with pungeant cheeses like Gorgonzola, and a sweeter salad dressing. I mixed honey, mustard, champagne vinegar, and olive oil for this one.

After the salad, I made a Salmon with Orange Glaze from “The Healthy Kitchen.” I meant to take pictures as soon as it came out, but my family was so hungry and it looked so tasty that I forgot until there was only half a piece left. The salmon was amazing. The glaze wasn’t too sweet, and with a little extra soy sauce, the dish tasted great. I made a few changes to the recipe from “THK.” This is my version of the dish.

Salmon with Orange Glaze

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Sear six 6oz. fish fillets in sesame oil in a large, very hot skillet for 1 minute on each side. Remove fillets from the heat and transfer them to a glass baking dish or baking pan. Drizzle three tablespoons of soy sauce and one quarter cup of sherry over them and bake them for 10 minutes. Remove them from the oven. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds.

Meanwhile, heat one cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, one teaspoon of orange zest, three tablespoons of sherry, and half a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger together in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until reduced by half. Remove from heat, strain the sauce over the fish, and serve.

To go with the salmon, I made Orange Ginger Brown Rice that I got off of Food Network’s Date Plate. Growing up, my mother never made brown rice. In fact, she hardly ever made rice at all. I was raised eating all Italian or French food, because my father’s family is Italian, and my mother was trained in France. I think this could be why I’m so interested in Asian styles of cooking, even if it is mostly fusion cooking now.

I don’t love white rice; I find it rather bland, and the only time I like it is with sushi. Brown rice, however, is a different story. I love the nutty flavour and texture, and the difference between the harder outer husk and the tender inner grain. Once again, I made a few changes to the recipe I found on Food Network, and this is my changed version. I added more broth, and used sesame oil in place of the vegetable oil that the recipe used. I also subbed red onion for white. This recipe paired very well both with the rice I used and with the fish.

Orange Ginger Brown Rice

Begin by sweating two medium red onions, diced, in sesame oil in a medium sized pan until they are translucent. Add two cups of brown rice and saute for 1 minute. Add two teaspoons of orange zest and two tablespoons of ginger and cook for 1 more minute. Add four and a half cups of vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Cover the pan with a lid and cook over low heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until rice is tender. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

Dessert was a peach crumble I made with peaches that were about to turn bad. So good for crumble! Here’s the very straightforward recipe I used. Once again, I forgot to take pictures until it was mostly all gone, but oh well.

Peach Crumble
Preheat oven to 425°F.

Mix 3/4 cup flour, 2/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup crumbled sliced almonds, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add 1 stick of cold butter, sliced into tablespoon pieces, and mix with hands until butter is in small pieces and coated. Spread one pound of sliced peaches in a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish glass pie plate and sprinkle topping over it.

Bake crumble in middle of oven until fruit is tender and topping is golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.

So there we go. I’ll be back tomorrow!
emiglia