Nurturing my inner... restaurant quality

I've been focused on being back to my proper eating habits since my return from visiting family in New England for the holidays.  While I was in Connecticut, and a couple days in Pennsylvania, I ate what I pleased and indulged in local items I can't get here.  (Look for blog posts to come.)  I don't regret it because I enjoy all kinds of treats every now and then.  However, I would not want to eat those things every day.  In fact, I just can't.  Not only because I like to maintain a healthy heart and weight, but also because it makes me feel ill after a short while.  I just can't stomach fried foods or lack of veggies for long.  So when my friend wanted to get together and have a movie and appetizers night, I asked her if we could make some smarter choices with the food we planned.  It's so nice to have a friend support you when you are readapting to wise behaviors.  It's much more challenging to be around the folks who are quick to send you back into the fatal direction from whence you just began to extract your slightly fluffy self from.

Before I get too far on this, I have something to say about words I hear a lot.  I don't really like when people go on about, "I'm going to eat healthy."  What is "healthy?"  I suppose you could say a rice cake is healthy when compared to French fries, but they are bland and fairly unredeemable.  I don't want to eat healthy, per se.  What I want is to eat delicious and nutritious foods.  Everyone should have that goal.

Back on topic.  I made a delicious and nutritious salad inspired by different combinations I've had at some local restaurants.  Complete with a dressing I whipped up on my very own.  I wasn't sure how it would be, as I tasted and adjusted along the way several times, but it was terrific!  Definitely restaurant quality.  And it started with learning how to make candied pecans.

Candied Pecans

1/3 cup raw pecan halves
2 tbsps water
2 tbsps sugar
1 tsp brown sugar

A tasty little treat I've enjoyed on salads are various kinds of candied nuts.  But didn't want to buy a whole bag for home.  I thought, how hard can it be to just make enough for an evening?  Well, not very hard at all.  Here's what you do:

Add the water, sugars and pecans to a sauce pan.  Stir and turn on high until it boils.

You can toast the pecans first if you like.

Keep careful watch as the mixture boils, for around seven to eight minutes or until the sauce has caramelized and become thick.  If you take it off too soon, the pecans will be more sticky due to more water content.  (They'll still taste okay, even if they aren't exactly perfect.)

It's ready if when you run a spoon through, the
caramel doesn't come right back together.

Have a baking sheet with parchment on it at the ready.  Spread the caramelized pecans out in one layer with space to harden.

Parchment prevents sticking.

Let dry for half an hour, or longer, and then separate them.  If they don't appear as dry as you'd like, I hear you can put them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes to crisp them up more.  (For other variations, try adding some vanilla extract, sweet curry powder, black pepper or rosemary.)

They look good, no?

On to make the dressing.  Vinaigrettes are not a precise science.  You need to adjust to your taste.  I'll show you approximately what I did (because I was paying more attention to taste than exact amounts I was using) and then you can add a pinch more this and that until you get it to please your palate.  My advice to you is to start with the lemon, add a little sugar and vinegar, mix it up well, taste and then go from there.

Lemon Vinaigrette

Juice of one lemon, freshly squeezed
2 1/2 tsps sugar
2 tsps champagne vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Sprinkle of a salad herbs (or combination of herbs)

What I love about making things like this at home is that you know exactly what's going into your food if you buy pure ingredients.

Penzey's has different spice blends that you just
add oil to and you get instant dressing.

I used a couple shakes of premixed salad herbs, but you also could combine individual flavors you prefer like dried oregano, thyme and Parmesan. Or switch out orange or pomegranate juice.  There are so many ways to tweak the flavor profile of a vinaigrette with different oils and infused vinegars that you can discover exciting new tastes each time you whip up a batch.  (Something I plan on doing more of this coming year.)

This is all I have left, but it made more than
enough for six servings.

Now to compile the restaurant presentation.

Pear, Pecan & Gorgonzola Salad

1 bag of field greens or other dark green salad blend
1 ripe Bartlett pear, cut into cubes
1/3 cup candied pecans
1/4 cup dried cranberries
3 ou Gorgonzola, crumbled

Get a big bowl, throw in the field greens, pears, pecans and cranberries.  Add the dressing right before you serve so the lettuces don't get soggy, toss it about, and then add the crumbled cheese with the last light mix so it stays in chunks.  Serve straight away.

Looks like it came right off a high class menu.

You can switch out the Gorgonzola for feta or goat if you're not a fan, but pear and blue cheese go particularly well together. I happen to love it, but my friend does not. So when I made the salad last night for our moviefest, I tossed all the other ingredients together without the cheese and then let her put feta on hers whilst I put the Gorgonzola on mine.  Everyone was happy.  (Even though I maintain my combo remained the better choice!)

Just because you're settled in front of the tube to watch a film or two for the evening, doesn't mean you need to eat junk.  Quality, tasty, vitamin rich foods can be quick to prepare when you plan for it.  A grocery list is your friend.  Don't knock a bit of forethought.

So what do you think?  Should I open a secret restaurant in my condo?

Nurturing my inner... Greco-Roman

I know it's officially fall, but don't tell the tomatoes that.  The Farmers' Market still had some real beauties.  In a rainbow of colors.  I had been thinking, it's no mistake that the Italian flag is red, white and green.  I'm certain it was designed as a nod to the colors in a traditional Caprese salad.  But, unfortunately I didn't have mozzarella and was stuck working at home on a Sunday for the day.  So no trips to the grocery store.  Instead of hoisting the white flag of surrender, I decided to get creative and throw in a Greek slant.  (It's okay, Greece is nearby.)

Tomato, Feta & Basil Salad

Handful of heirloom tomatoes of different colors and sizes
Some cubed feta
Fresh basil ribbons
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Cracked pepper

Red, orange, yellow and even purple!

I had plenty of that bunch of basil still in the fridge, so I was trying to come up with every possible dish to make with it.  You'll see a lot of the same elements in my cooking during a week because as a single girl, it takes me some time to use things up.  Unless I'm having a dinner party where my hungry friends eat me out of condo and home.  I can't always get smaller amounts at the store and I don't always use it all up in one dish, so I try to think of several things I can make differently, but with some of the same ingredients.

Have to use it within a day or two.
Before the leaves turn brown.

I took a handful of the nicer leaves, washed and dried them.

Since I was eating them uncooked, I went
for the least blemished ones.

I like to chiffonade the basil for the salad.  Aka, in less French terms, cut them into ribbons.  I'll show you how it's done.

1.) Stack up the leaves in a pile.

Nice and evenly.

2.) Pretend you're a Cuban cigar roller for one embargo-lifted moment.

Tightly rolled up leaves.

3.) Slice down the roll 1/8" to 1/4" apart, depending on how thin you like your ribbons.

Ah, now I see where this is going.

You're wondering how I did this when I was home alone.  As I have only two hands and if one was on the basil and one was on the camera, who's got the knife!  Ah, the wonder of stop motion photography.  No, I'm not giving away my camera secrets.

Lovely green ribbons.

I like to use different size tomatoes, slicing bigger ones up and leaving some of the smaller ones whole.  I used to have an art professor who would say, "Big things, little things."  Let's just say he was a hippie in the 60s, so I'm not totally positive he wasn't hallucinating, but even so, I think the message was that variety makes things visually interesting.  He was right!  (As for my grade on that one sculpture I did, I beg to differ.)

A cutting board worthy of an A in art class!

This wasn't the only thing on the menu that day, so I felt that using a smaller dish was good.  In America, our portions have gotten OOC!  (Out Of Control!)  A petite salad was parfait pour moi!

A simple dish for a simple dish.

Of course, making this a Caprese would have been just as easy, but seeing as I had a lovely block of feta handy, the switch worked out well.

I like to slice it up with a sharp knife and leave
it in smaller blocks. Round and square shapes.

This part is key.  And throws me into the true confessions booth:  My name is Karen, and I... am an olive oil snob.  (Hi Karen!)

I blame my family.  Yet, I guess admitting I have a choice as an adult is the first step to healing.  My preconceived notion has been this: If olive oil is not imported from the homeland, I don't want it.  (Ironically, I've not yet been to the homeland from whence my genetics came.)  Yet one day I remembered I was out of olive oil while I was stocking up on things at Wegmans late at night and thought, well, what the heck.  Why not try their brand.  And now, I love it!

Deep green and rich in flavor.

Drizzle on salad.

Okay, so that's more of a glug, but just you try
to do this and take a photo at the same time.

Add some salt and freshly cracked pepper and you're all done.

So fresh, tart and acidicly balanced.

I had a little left over tomato and basil, so I put it in a container and kept it ready for the next day.  I like to use glass dishes over plastic, but that's another chat for another day.




All set for tomorrow.



Lacking one ingredient didn't stop me from substituting and coming up with a just as fabulous, slightly different combination.  Improvise!

Nurturing my inner... root and sprouts work of art

Some months back, I went to a restaurant called "Firefly" in DC and had a fabulous salad.  Since that time, I've thought about it often.  The flavors, the colors, the presentation.  But today, I recreated it!  With minor tweaks.

Roasted Beet, Goat Cheese and Sprouted Beans Salad

1 medium-sized beet
1 tbsp soft goat cheese
A handful of Moon Salad (Or any sprouted beans/greens)
1 tsp aged balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Dash of salt

Daunting task: learn to roast beets.  (Eeekkk!!!)  Minor freak out session out of the way.  Let's do this thing.

I decided not to buy beets with the green, froofy tops on them.  Because I wasn't going to use the greens.  I don't even know what you use them for.  And I wasn't going to pay for the weight of things I was only going to throw out.  So, I went with the loose beets and choose three that were small, baseball-sized.  First things first, I washed them.

Not very pretty at this point. Not
looking terribly washed even.

There are different schools of theory on roasting the deep garnet root vegetable.  Most traditionally, I have seen each one individually wrapped in foil and placed on a cookie sheet.

Get ready guys, you're about to get packetized!

But I liked the packet idea better.  Because the science behind it was that the packet traps the steam, if you seal it tightly, and that helps cook the dense veggie.  Which was going to take some goodly chunk of time.

Snug as a beet in a rug.  Like beets in
a silver sleeping bag.

You can put them on a cookie sheet, but I had a little pan that fit the packet perfectly and that was good enough for my beet triplets.

An ideal fit.  Trust me, they are in there.
You can see the lumps.

At 350 degrees, bake them for 1 1/2 hours.  They are done when a knife goes in them easily.  This is not a fast ingredient prep session, but the assembling doesn't take long and is a blast.  Plus, you don't have to actually do anything productive while your beets are baking.  You could watch a movie.  Go out for a run.  Write a letter.  Take a bath.  The magic happens without your constant supervision.  (Fear not, you'll be desperately needed later.)




The purple is on the way!



You're going to need gear for this.  As if these berry-colored gems are radioactive, you've got to suit up.  1.) I would not wear white.  2.) You should wear latex gloves.  Unless you want to turn into Barney.  Beet juice can stain your hands and clothes like you would not believe.  Consider it indelible ink.

Inexpensive. Can buy these by the box.

I will say I tried my darndest to think of a way to photograph latex gloves without looking like a surgeon or a cat burglar and guess what?  There is no way.  (This is the kind of photo that lands people in prison.  I hope you'll be my one phone call with bail handy.)

And the skins slip off like little sweaters.

Amazingly enough, the latex gloves don't look any better when covered with purply-red juice.  (I can hear the sirens getting closer by the minute.)  But back to crazy beet antics, the skins really do come off easily with just a little elbow grease.  They said it was easier to peel them after cooking and I can believe it.

Ta da! Naked beets.

Luscious gems, they are!  I mean, look at them.  At this point, I was feeling pretty invincible.  If I can roast beets, shoot, I can do anything!

Assembly time has arrived.  (Yea!)  Slice into pieces in shapes of your choosing.  I tried to go with small pyramids because I like the look.  It's not like you're bound by law or anything.  You're a free agent, driving with your creative license!

Center of attention. Getting to the heart of it.

So, check, beets are complete.  The restaurant I went to used arugula for their greens.  I had another idea in mind...

Now, introducing one of the weirdest things I've ever purchased.  Moon Salad.  Oh yes, I should keep you waiting for an explanation about that.

Who cares if I know what this is, it looked
intriguing and I wanted it.

Moon Salad is a container of several kinds of sprouted beans and greens.  The whole "sprouted" thing was new to me, so I had to do a little research.  Sprouting happens when conditions are met that involve air, light, moisture and can be done in your own home.  (Not so sure I'm likely to do that as I don't also weave my own fabric for clothes, nor grind my own grain for bread, but hey, it's good to know I have the option should I ever be transported in time back to the turn of the last century.)  Apparently, when beans are sprouted, they are more nutritious and easier to digest.  With a digestive tract that's as constantly rebellious as an angry teenager who often screams "You're not the boss of me!" this was highly appealing.

Enter the artist.  I chose my blank canvas: a square, white plate.  The colors are so vibrant in this salad, I didn't want a fancy plate taking away the attention from the food itself.  I carefully arranged the pea shoots, clover, arugula, garbanzo and azuki beans.  (All high in... well... some sort of stuff that's really good for you and is "bioavailable."  A fancy word for easily assimilated.)

Looks like rabbit food, I know. But rabbits
don't die of heart disease, now do they?

Add the purple pyramids to the field of micro greens.

Love the contrast of the white ceramic plate
against the rich, organic colors.

Still needed a little somethin' somethin'.  Here's a hint:  It's easier to digest for lactose intolerant people than anything that comes from a bovine...

An award winning edible canvas of color,
texture and flavor.

I ♥ goats.  And their cheese.  I'd own a goat... if I actually owned dirt and land with grass.  (Perils of condo living - unfulfilled goat owning dreams.)

The pb&j of salads.

A dash of salt, a splash of balsamic vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil and you are ready to open your own trendy, shi-shi, exclusive restaurant with a six month wait list in lower Manhattan.

It's important to note here that roasted beets do not taste like pickled beets you may recall from many a salad bar.  Pickling adds a vinegary, pungent and acidic bite to the beet that roasting avoids.  If you've turned your nose up to beets because you think they'll taste like that, I urge you to give the roasted version an unbiased try.

A great dining endeavor isn't just about how the food tastes.  The saying, "You eat with your eyes first," is especially true to my heart.  Er, eyeballs.  I enjoy plating food every bit as much as cooking and photographing it.  Perhaps it's the artist in me.  Every part of the experience from eyes, to nose, to mouth makes enjoying a gorgeous salad like this extremely memorable... even several months later.