Tag Archives: salad

How I fed 15ish people

The Occasion: I was hired by a repeat customer to cook for a dinner to feed 15 people. I don’t know if it ended up being that many or more, but the food was a hit and there was plenty of it!

The Menu included bread, 4 dishes for the meal plus dessert and I was told to keep things somewhat light, highlighting the spring season.

Salad: Arugula, Purple leaf lettuce, watercress, mesclun, pickled red onion with a scallion oil and white balsamic vinaigrette and shaved aged cheese.

For the salad option, I like to blend greens for flavor, color and texture. Pickled red onion was actually my dad’s idea, and it ended up being the perfect pop of color dotted throughout the salad. Instead of the slivered pickled onion you normally see, I diced mine and added a small handful of rhubarb to add some depth and help keep the color a deeply rosy pink color. As for the aged cheese, I used grana padana and galmasano, the spanish equivalent to Parmesan, just to keep things a little more interesting yet cost effective.

Bread: My tried and true no-knead focaccia, with a generous layer of chopped spring onions and fresh white pepper cracked over the top just before serving.

I worked on this recipe for years before finally getting it down to an easily repeatable process, and it hasn’t failed me yet! I’ve been using a Spanish blend of Picual and Hojiblanca olive oil from a brand called Zoe and it’s been giving me delicious results.

Main: Spatchcocked Roast Chicken with lemon curd piped under the skin after curing in the fridge for 2 days.

I used scissors to cut out the backbones of 4 large air chilled chickens from a supermarket near me. The choice of air chilled means there is less water surrounding the chicken and thus will season itself a little quicker in the curing process. I used a piping bag once the skin was seasoned and nicely firm to get the salted lemon curd under the skin all the way to the hard-to-reach parts. After roasting, there was nice caramelization across the skin due to the sugar and eggs in the curd. The meat came out perfectly cooked and the skin was nicely caramelized.

Starchy Side: turnips and sweet potatoes roasted in chunks under the chicken with nutritional yeast, salt and white pepper.

I cut the root veg into roughly 1″ chunks and tossed with a little salt and nutritional yeast before placing the chickens on top and roasting.

Veggie Side: Carrots and Edamame on top of Golden Herb yogurt

To help with ease of prep, I took 1 and a half bags of baby carrots and quartered them, along with 2 bags of shelled frozen edamame. I cooked them in butter, nutritional yeast, white balsamic vinegar, a pinch of sugar, a pinch of salt and a pint of richly reduced chicken stock that I made from the backs of the chickens. For the base of golden yogurt I mixed turmeric, umeboshi vinegar, chopped tarragon and dill, salt and nutritional yeast for a deeply flavorful and bright yogurt sauce. Guests were scraping the plate to make sure every bit of it got eaten!

Sauce: Caper Beurre Blanc

I reduced white balsamic, caper juice, chopped shallots and a couple stems of tarragon until the vinegar was nicely thickened and slightly syrupy. For service, I added a half cup or so of heavy cream, a few tablespoons of capers and I mounted in a half stick of butter, adjusting seasoning for taste with salt and white pepper.

Dessert: Cherry Rhubarb Compote with Cornmeal Crumble and Burnt White Chocolate Chantilly

The compote was simple, just chopped rhubarb, a frozen mix of sweet and sour cherries, sugar, agave, salt and white balsamic. I cooked it down until everything was well broken down and tender.

The cornmeal crumble really came out more like a giant soft cornmeal shortbread, which I’m not mad about. Melted butter with Jiffy corn muffin mix, spread across a glass baking dish and baked until golden brown.

For the final component, the cream, I caramelized some white chocolate in a saucepan and then cooled and beat it into some softly whipped cream with crème fraiche until everything was stiff and rich. This whipped cream balanced the whole dessert perfectly with its richness, tanginess and toasted marshmallow-esque bitterness.

All in all, the meal turned out very well. There was plenty of leftover chicken, turnips, sweet potatoes, beurre blanc and focaccia, which is how I like it. Plenty of food for everyone to have enough of. I’m glad I was given the opportunity to cook for a return client.

Zucchini Ribbon Salad

1 zucchini, shaved longways

1 squash, shaved

Salt

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp high quality vinegar (rice or sherry)

1/2 tbsp agave

10 grape tomatoes, halved

2 larger or 3 smaller scallions, cut thinly on a bias

1 cob’s worth of corn

8-10 mint leaves, chiffonade large ones and leave small ones whole

1 pack of tarragon (6-8 stems worth), picked and left whole

4 oz crumbled fresh feta

Salt to taste

A lot of freshly cracked Black pepper (at least 10 cranks, but to taste)

Equipment: large mixing bowl, 1 small mixing bowl, utility/ paring knife, cutting board, mandolin

  1. Cut the ends off of the zucchini and carefully slice it from end to end with the mandolin. You should have long, thin ribbons of zucchini.
  2. Cut the ends off of the squash as well, but cut it with the madoline into thin rounds. Combine with the zucchini ribbons and add a hefty pinch of salt. Carefully mix until everything is coated in salt and let it sit for 15 minutes.
  3. While that’s sitting, mix the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and agave until fully incorporated. Slightly undersalt the dressing to account for the salty feta on top at the end.
  4. Drain the liquid from the sliced zucchini and squash and add the mixed dressing along with your prepped tomatoes, scallions and corn.
  5. Plate the the dressed salad and garnish with the fresh herbs, crumbled feta and black pepper.
  6. Enjoy!

Fennel and Citrus Salad with Pistachios

Serves 6-8 as a side dish

2 heads of fennel

3 oranges

2 grapefruits

1/2 cup toasted pistachios, chopped

1 small red onion

5 oz fresh arugula

1/2 cup olive oil

3 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 clove of fresh garlic, grated with a microplane or finely minced with a knife

1 tbsp whole grain or dijon mustard

1 tbsp agave/ honey

salt and chipotle chili powder to taste

Optional: 5 oz crumbled blue cheese, a dry gorgonzola dolce if possible

Equipment: chef knife, mandolin (optional, but helpful), cutting board, bowl for mixing, bowl with a mesh strainer set in it, microplane/ fine grater

  1. Start by cutting the onion as thin as possible. A mandolin will make this easier, but it isn’t necessary as long as you can cut it very finely. Rinse the cut onion under cold water through a mesh strainer to help prevent the harsh onion flavors from overpowering the other ingredients after the salad has sat for a while.
  2. Cut the fennel next, at leasts thin as the onion. Remove and reserve the fronds. Set the everything aside while you cut the citrus.
  3. To prepare the citrus, cut the top and bottoms off of each orange and grapefruit just enough that you get past the pith and can see the segments of the flesh clearly. To peel them, place the fruit on one of their flat sides and cut the peel away, careful to remove all of the butter white pith. Cut the peeled citrus into wheels and remove any seeds that you see. If the grapefruit are larger than the oranges, cut those slices into half moon shapes. Set aside.
  4. Add the oil, vinegar, garlic, mustard, agave, salt and chili powder to a small container with a watertight lid and shake well until creamy and everything is fully incorporated with each other.
  5. Add 2-3 tbsp of the vinaigrette to a large mixing bowl and spread it around the bottom third of the bowl with a spoon. Add the arugula, fennel and onion with another couple tbsp of dressing on top and mix until everything is mixed together equally and fully coated in the dressing. Taste the salad at this point for seasoning. Add salt, chili to taste
  6. Plate the salad in a tall pile on a large serving dish. Place the citrus on top of the salad in a visually appealing way. Sprinkle the pistachios (and the cheese if desired) evenly over the top and garnish the with the fennel fronds. Serve immediately alongside grilled or roasted meats and seafood.

*Since you rinsed the red onion, you can reserve some salad for later if you don’t plan on serving it all at once, just utilize the vinaigrette accordingly and store everything separately in the fridge.

Grape Parfait

This recipe is simple, yet delicious. It delivers a lot with a little, and is a go to for me on hot days. This recipe makes 3-4 servings

  • 2 cups rinsed red grapes
  • 1/2 cup full fat greek yogurt
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/3 cup toasted roughly chopped pecans or walnuts
  • 2 4-finger pinches of brown sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  1. Mix the yogurt with the maple syrup, salt and nuts
  2. Add the grapes to the yogurt mixture
  3. garnish with the brown sugar, only on top to preserve its texture