Bread Salad, or Panzanella

Panzanella, or Bread Salad by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

When the summer tomatoes are at their juiciest, make this bread salad, panzanella, a salad that is greater than the sum of its parts. Tomatoes, bread, a little garlic, a round-up of the produce kicking around in the produce drawer. It's the kind of easy, effortless eating that just makes summer summer.

Panzanella

6 green onions

1/2 baguette, day old, cubed

1 shallot, minced

1 small cucumber, diced

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1/2 cup diced cucumber

1 handful basil leaves, shredded


Dressing:

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind

1 clove garlic, minced (about 1 teaspoon)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Freshly ground black pepper to taste



1. To prepare the dressing: In a large bowl, use a fork to mix together the shallots, lemon rind, garlic and salt, mashing the ingredients together.Whisk in oil, vinegar and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Set aside.

2. To prepare the salad: Add the salad ingredients together and toss well with the dressing.Serve immediately or store in refrigerator for up to a half hour.

Text and image copyright 2013, Lucy Mercer.

Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad with Bacon

Broccoli and cauliflower salad with bacon. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

This broccoli salad is a tried and true favorite, easy to pull together as a weeknight side dish. Recently, I had cauliflower in the vegetable crisper as well as broccoli, so I added it to the salad for color and contrast. The dressing is less sweet than many versions - I think it's just right for the amount of vegetables.

Broccoli & Cauliflower Salad with Bacon

2 cups broccoli florets
2 cups cauliflower florets
6 slices bacon, chopped and cooked 'til crisp
a handful sunflower seeds
a handful dried raisins or cranberries
1 cup good-quality mayo, full fat or go home
6 green onions, chopped in 1-inch long pieces
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. white wine vinegar

In a lovely serving bowl, put trimmed broccoli and cauliflower pieces, sunflower seeds, bacon and raisins. In a food processor, blitz the onions, mayo, sugar and vinegar together. Season to taste, remembering that the salad has salty bacon and sunflower seeds. Pour dressing over salad. Serve immediately. Store leftovers in a covered container in the refrigerator.

Broccoli and cauliflower salad with bacon. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Text and images copyright 2013, Lucy Mercer.

The noblest of emulsions

Tie-dye Easter eggs by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

This is my contribution to April's #LetsLunch Twitter Party on the theme of eggs. I got a bit mixed up in the Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg riddle, but there are eggs in here if you have the patience to read it.

When I last wrote about mayonnaise, I described a fish stew with red pepper aioli and my husband's Proustian childhood treat ~ pound cake slices spread with mayonnaise and pan-fried. At the time, my new foodie friend Pedro commented "mayonnaise is the noblest of all emulsions!"

Two years later, I still consider that a great comment because it touches on how Southerners feel about the French-by-way-of-Spain sauce. It's omnipresent, particularly in the sandwich realm. It's the glue that keeps my minner cheese together, the binder for the tartar sauce that augments our Friday fish fry, the finishing touch to my lunchtime ham and cheese sandwich.

Mayonnaise wasn't always the ubiquitous sandwich spread. Time was, another egg-based spread was whipped up for sandwich- and salad-making, boiled dressing. This old-fashioned sauce is similar to mayonnaise - it uses egg yolks and a tiny bit of mustard for flavor and thickening, but whereas mayo relies on oil and a prayer to emulsify, boiled dressing adds flour and cream, caressed with a finishing swirl of butter. Mayonnaise is only slightly acidic, but boiled dressing will pucker your mouth with the tang of cider vinegar.

If mayonnaise is the noblest of emulsions, then boiled dressing is the tarted-up, some might say eccentric, Aunt Flossie brought out for non-public family occasions. Non-public, because by today's standards, it's really a bit of trouble and yields a small quantity. And family because, this is secret recipe kind of stuff, the kind of sauce on which legends and maybe fortunes can be made.

Boiled dressing is properly made in a double boiler, and it's sometimes called cooked dressing. As in Cole Slaw with Cooked Dressing, or Potato Salad with Cooked Dressing. I prefer boiled dressing on that staple of the Steel Magnolia circuit, chicken salad.

Easter eggs. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Forgive the tangentially-interesting pictures of the Easter eggs. We decorated 10 dozen Easter eggs, that's a lot of vinegar and color tabs, don't you think? Back to the subject at hand: eggs and chicken salad:

Southern boiled dressing. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

You use only white meat on your chicken salad, right? You know the girls in Junior League will talk behind your back in you put dark meat in your chicken salad. Just kidding. Here's how I poach chicken for chicken salad:

Poached chicken breasts

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, about a pound and a half

Juice of half a lemon

1/2 teaspoon salt

A few grinds of coarse black pepper

Water

1. In a skillet with a lid, set over medium heat, place chicken breasts and just barely cover with water. Add salt, lemon juice, and fresh ground black pepper. Let water come to a boil. Cover with lid, set heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, use a fork and knife to determine doneness of the meat. If meat is still pink, cover and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Repeat as necessary until meat is cooked through.

2. Remove chicken breasts from broth (which may be saved for another purpose). Let cool enough to handle comfortably. Chop into smallish bites for chicken salad. And here's something I like to do before I mix together the chicken salad: I sprinkle a teaspoon or two of good-quality red wine vinegar over the chicken, and maybe a 1/4 teaspoon salt, just a tetch.

Favorite tip for bringing refrigerator-cold eggs to room temp: place in bowl of warm water. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books.

 Old-fashioned Boiled Dressing

1 teaspoon dry mustard

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup water

2 egg yolks, beaten

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons heavy cream

1. Place a double boiler on stovetop over medium heat. Fill bottom with enough water to just touch the bottom of inset. Let water come to a gentle boil.

2. Add dry ingredients into top of double boiler, whisk to break up lumps. Gradually whisk in water.

3. Add the egg yolks and vinegar and continue stirring. Let cook for at least five minutes, continually cooking. When mixture is thick, remove from heat and stir in butter, then cream. Season to taste, adding salt and pepper as needed. Ladylike cooks will add white pepper so as not detract from the creamy yellow sauce. I think white pepper tastes like soap, so I leave it out.

4. Let sauce come to room temperature. Use immediately in a recipe or store in a tightly covered jar in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Chicken salad on croissants. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 My Chicken Salad


3 boneless chicken breasts poached according to recipe above, or 2 cups chopped, cooked chicken


2 stalks celery, chopped fine


2 green onions, chopped


1 recipe Boiled Dressing from above recipe


1/2 to 1 cup mayonnaise or sour cream, depending on your preference


1/2 cup chopped pecans

Salt and pepper to taste


1. Toss together chicken, celery and onions. Add boiled dressing and taste. Add mayonnaise or sour cream, stir together, then taste. Adjust seasonings and dressing. Stir in chopped pecans. Serve.


For more egg-citing recipes, check out these #LetsLunch posts: 

- Cheryl‘s Singapore-Style Chai Poh Scramble at A Tiger in the Kitchen

– Charissa‘s Gluten-Free Leek, Ham & Pecorino Souffles at Zest Bakery

– Denise‘s Beet Dye & Pink Deviled Eggs at Chez Us

– Emma‘s Eggs In A Hole at Dreaming of Pots & Pans

– Felicia‘s Perfect Sandwich at Burnt-Out Baker

– Grace‘s Scrambled Eggs & Tomatoes at HapaMama

– Joe‘s Kim-Chi Deviled Eggs at Joe Yonan

– Linda‘s Home-made Cadbury Eggs (Maple Chocolate Eggs) at Free Range Cookies

– Lisa‘s Legendary Egg & Onion at Monday Morning Cooking Club


– Rashda‘s Bombay Toasts (Spicy French Toasts) at Hot Curries And Cold Beer

– Vivian‘s Oeuf Chaud Froid at Vivian Pei

Think pink...and green for the Salad that Men Love

Green salad with raspberries, toasted pecans, Vermont cheddar, raspberries and raspberry vinaigrette.
Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

I'm thinking pink and green this month, for women's health and for the men in our lives. For California Giant Berries' Think Pink promotion for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I created a salad using healthful, anti-oxidant- rich pink raspberries, those plump nuggets of Vitamin C; red and green leaf lettuce; toasted pecans and Vermont cheddar cheese, dressed with a divine raspberry vinaigrette.

This is a riff on a recipe given to me by my friend Lynn, who brought the salad to me when my daughter was born. I couldn't get enough of it; my husband devoured it. I've made it for family gatherings since and the men always like it. That's right. Men. Liking Salad.

My husband says its magic has to do with the sweet and tart salad dressing. I think it has to do with all the goodies in it - you can hardly go wrong with fresh berries, creamy cheese and toasty, rich nuts sprinkled over crisp greens.

The keys to this salad are fresh raspberries and the dressing - it makes a lot, so just put the remainder in a screwtop jar in the fridge - it keeps for several weeks.

Pink and Green Salad
(Green Salad with Raspberries, Toasted Pecans,
 Vermont Cheddar and Raspberry Vinaigrette)

1 bunch green leaf lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

1 bunch red leaf lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

8 ounces Vermont cheddar, shredded

1 cup pecans, toasted in a closely watched skillet for five minutes

1 pint fresh raspberries


Dressing:

1 bunch green onions, cleaned and trimmed, cut into 2-inch lengths

2 tablespoons raspberry preserves (such as Polaner's)

1/2 cup raspberry vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1. In a food processor, mince onion with sugar. Add preserves, vinegar, salt, and mustard, and process. Slowly add oil and process until emulsified.

2. In a bowl or on individual plates, arrange greens, raspberries and pecans. Drizzle with raspberry vinaigrette and shredded cheese.

To make it kid-friendly, I just spread out the accessories - cheese, nuts, and berries and give the girls small bowls of the raspberry vinaigrette and let them dip. As my six year old says, "Raspberry vinaigrette? That sounds like vinegar for girls."

"Like" California Giant's Facebook page to help spread the word about Breast Cancer Awareness.

And if you haven't made the appointment for your annual visit and mammogram, pick up the phone and do it right now. There are a lot of people counting on you to stay healthy!

(Guys, of course, are excused from this particular plea, but please encourage the women in your lives to take care of themselves. Make the appointment and drive her there, if you have to. Buy her lunch and bring her flowers. It's that important.) 

Raspberries. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Disclosure: I have not been compensated for this post. It is an entry in a contest sponsored by California Giant. If my post is chosen as the winner, then a $100 donation will be made on behalf of my blog to the National Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Awesome!


Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.

Chicken Salad Sandwich

Chicken salad on croissant by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Sandwiches get us through the day – from the ubiquitous fast food offering of a breakfast sandwich, to ham and cheese at lunch and meatball subs for supper, whatever meal you’re preparing, there’s a sandwich for it.

Susan Russo, author of the new "Encyclopedia of Sandwiches: Recipes, History and Trivia for Everything Between Sliced Bread" (Quirk, 2011) and blogger at Food Blogga knows this well. “The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches is a belly-filling book of over 100 of the world's most beloved sandwiches," she said recently. "It's got all sorts of tasty sandwich trivia, history and recipes.”

Food photographer and blogger Matt Armandariz (Matt Bites) photographed every sandwich for the book, artfully and attractively. Perhaps the handiest feature of the book is the alphabetic listing with colored index tabs along the page edge – looking for a Fluffernutter? – flip to “F.” Have a hankering for a Hamburger and its 8 variations, including vegetarian? Just skim to “H.”

Along the way, readers can pick up some helpful history, such as the origin of the Fluffernutter: “In 1913 brother and sister Armory and Emma Curtis opened the Curtis Marshmallow Factory, and their most popular product was Snowflake Marshmallow Creme, a spreadable marshmallow confection which Emma suggested would be delicious paired with peanut and sandwiched between two slices of white bread. They tried it. People loved it. And eventually it became known as the Fluffernutter, a trademark of Durkee-Mower Inc., the maker of Marshmallow Fluff.”

Narrowing the field of recipes to try, I lighted on chicken salad, the Southern standard, and served it to my writer friends for our ladies' lunch. Russo’s recipe delivers a delicious chicken salad filled with cranberries and pecans, and she assures me that it’s from the Loveless Café, in Nashville, Tennessee,  one of my all-time favorite restaurants (don't even get me started on Loveless biscuits, dripping with homemade blackberry preserves).

Chicken Salad
from "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches" by Susan Russo

4 cups (2 ½ pounds) diced cooked chicken

1 cup finely diced celery

½ cup sweet pickle relish

1 cup mayonnaise

¾ cup dried cranberries, such as Craisins

½ Vidalia onion, finely diced (about ½ cup)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup pecan pieces, optional

8 slices white or whole grain bread, or 4 croissants

1. Combine chicken salad ingredients in a bowl. Cover and chill at least hours to let flavors meld.

2. To make each sandwich, scoop about ¾ to 1 cup chicken salad onto a slice of toasted to untoasted bread and top with a second slice of bread. Makes 4 sandwiches.

Be sure to check out these upcoming sandwich stories, also from "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches."

• Pound Cake Sandwiches stuffed with strawberries
• The Jucy Lucy cheeseburger (that's right, Jucy)

Keen on quinoa

Suddenly, I'm crazy for quinoa...

Quinoa salad with chickpeas, lemon and mint by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

This week, I made a light-tasting, but filling quinoa salad with a refreshing hit of mint, dressed with lemon. No oil, and I didn't miss it. This salad is adapted from Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s “Splendid Table” newsletter. Do you listen to Lynne? I try and catch her program when the show airs on Saturdays. I also download the podcasts to listen to when I’m working in the kitchen. Aside from the delight of listening to her velvety voice talk about food, Lynne has an infectious laugh. She also talks about food in a way that makes me want to take notes and get into my kitchen and cook. Her book “The Splendid Table: How to Eat Supper” written with her producer Sally Swift is just like the radio show, but with pictures – you will absolutely find a new family favorite in there. My favorite find so far is a new technique for garlic bread that turns out great every time.

The quinoa salad recipe came across my radar on a day when I knew I needed to clean out my refrigerator and pantry. Scanning the recipe, which began as a couscous salad with beans, I knew I had all the veggies called for, plus a can of chickpeas. But I didn’t have the couscous. Instead, I had quinoa. Have you tried quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah)? It’s one of those good-and-good-for-you grains (okay, technically a seed) that we hear about, but don’t necessarily go the extra step and toss a box into the grocery basket. Here’s a reason to toss it into your basket on your next grocery visit  - the grains cook in 15 minutes and taste great. You may think they taste nutty, but if you ask me, quinoa is all about the texture – plus that cute little white curl of germ that pops out of the hull. Nutritionally speaking, quinoa is a complete protein, so even though we’re pairing it with beans, it would fill you up anyway, the beans are just a bonus. Quinoa is also gluten-free (two words that do not pop up on my blog very often, but probably should). It’s a good source of fiber, magnesium, phosphorus and iron. In summary: you can feel good about your dose of quinoa.

Summer Quinoa and Chickpea Salad with Lemon and Mint

Juice of one-half lemon

½ large shallot, minced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon salt, divided

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

3 cups cooked quinoa (from one cup, uncooked)

1 stalk celery, cut into ¼ inch dice

¼ cup raisins

1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained

¼ cup mint leaves, rolled tightly and sliced in a chiffonade

¼ cup Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped, (optional)



1. In a large bowl, combine the lemon juice, shallot, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and let stand while you pull together the rest of the dish.

2. Add the quinoa, chickpeas, celery, raisins, mint and olives, if using. Toss together. Taste for seasoning and add remaining salt and pepper, or maybe lemon juice, if needed. Serve at room temperature or place in an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to serve. If seving from the refrigerator, let it sit for a few minutes to shake off the chill - this salad is best at room temp.

A minimalist approach to butternut squash

Butternut squash soup and salad by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Mark Bittman is a food writer with a fresh approach. I happen to love his easygoing attitude towards recipes in his New York Times Minimalist column. Bittman's minimalist approach can refer to using few techniques and few ingredients, but it mostly (to me, anyway), means he assumes his readers know their way around a kitchen, probably own a cookbook or two and can translate his shorthand instructions into decent or even delicious food.

Butternut squash by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

In considering butternut squash this week, I decided to take a minimalist approach to one of my favorite autumn vegetables. Butternut squash is pretty much the package - good taste, good nutrition, and good looks (once you get crack open the beast and reveal the amber-gold flesh within). I selected a large squash at the supermarket and made two recipes - soup and salad.

Peeling a butternut squash can be daunting, but with patience, a solid cutting board, a vegetable peeler, and sharp, sturdy chef's knife, it can be easily handled. Begin by cutting the vegetable in half across the width, just above the bulbous end. With the long narrow end, cut it in half lengthwise, then using a vegetable peeler (I find a "Y" peeler to be most useful here), peel off the tough outer layer. With the bottom, rounded end of the squash, do the same - cutting in half through the length, then peeling each piece. The top half of the vegetable will be cubed and cooked with onions and chicken broth for a savory soup and the remainder of the squash will be roasted with olive oil, butter and salt and tossed with salad ingredients.

Butternut squash soup by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

My Minimalist Butternut Squash Soup: half of an onion, chopped, sauteed in butter, add cubed squash, chicken broth, a bay leaf, some sprigs of thyme, salt and pepper. Cook until squash is softened, then puree in processor or blender. Some might add chopped apple to the saute, in fact, I've heard tell that's the secret to the very best butternut squash soup. Some might garnish with bacon, but I like a sprig of thyme, and maybe buttery croutons if I have them on hand.

Butternut sqash salad with greens and brown rice by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

My Minimalist take on Butternut Squash Salad: Cooked brown rice tossed with torn baby spinach, roasted cubes of butternut squash, generous squeeze of lemon juice, glug of extra virgin olive oil, Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. (To roast squash: cubed butternut squash, tossed with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, roasted in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes.)

One squash, two tasty dishes, lunches for three days or more, with a minimum of fuss.

Text & images copyright 2010, Lucy Mercer.

Don't mess with Texas (caviar)

 

The saying goes “everything is bigger in Texas,” including, it appears, the "caviar" created from the humble black-eyed pea in the vinaigrette-soaked relish known as “Texas caviar.” This dish was made popular in Texas by a chef and cookbook author named Helen Corbitt, who built Neiman-Marcus into a shopping mecca known as much for its food as its over-the-top gifts. I accent this snack with home-baked lime tortilla chips.

Texas Caviar

4 cups cooked black-eyed peas

1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped

1 small onion, cut into small dice

1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and diced

Cilantro, handful, chopped, optional

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 tablespoons red wine vinegar

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1. In a medium size bowl, mix together peas, tomato, onion, bell pepper and cilantro, if using. In a separate bowl, stir together vinaigrette ingredients. Pour dressing over peas. Serve with tortilla chips.

 Baked Lime & Salt Tortilla Chips

Juice of 1/2 lime

1 teaspoon water

1 teaspoon kosher salt

10 fresh corn tortillas

1. In a small bowl, combine lime juice, water and salt. Brush both sides of the tortillas with mixture. Cut each tortilla into six pieces and spread in a single layer on two baking sheets.

2. Preheat oven to 350. Bake chips in oven for 10 to 15 minutes, rotating the sheets to ensure even crisping. Serve warm from the oven, with extra salt sprinkled just before serving.

  A primer on cooking dried black eyed peas:

1.      1.  Take one pound of dried black eyed peas and pour out on a baking sheet. Sort out any rocks and gnarly-looking peas, discarding the losers.

2.      2.  Pour the peas into a large bowl and cover with water. Let soak for up to an hour or overnight, changing the water several times.

3.      3.  Drain the peas and pour into a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes, or until peas are tender. The peas will foam up and to keep the peas pretty, you may want to skim the foam with a fine mesh skimmer that can be rinsed in a bowl of cold water. Salt the peas after they are tender, never before. 

M Mmmm, you're thinking, salty and savory, I sure could use a drink to go with this, well, here you go, a Fizzy Limonade that my girls invented this afternoon.

Fizzy Limonade

3 cups water

1 cup sugar

Grated zest of one lime

1 cup lime juice (about 6 Persian limes - not Key limes)

Club soda

Lime slices for garnish

1. In a small saucepan, make a simple syrup by combining sugar, water and lime zest. Bring just to a boil, stir to dissolve sugar, then remove from heat.

2. Set up a fine mesh strainer over a bowl filled with 2 cups of ice. Slowly pour lime-flavored syrup through the strainer. Discard the grated lime zest.

3. Stir the lime juice into the simple syrup mixture.

4. For individual servings, fill glasses 1/3 full with club soda, then to the top with limonade. Garnish with a thin slice of lime.

Text and images copyright 2010, Lucy Mercer.

Beets don't fail me now

Ruby red beets are the jewels of the earth, with a sweetish mineral taste reminiscent of soil and for any kid whose ever busted his lip, blood. I love beets, but I can’t help thinking of the word geophagy when I eat them. Geophagy is the consumption of soil in order to satisfy a nutritional need, such as sulfur or phosphorus; it's quite literally eating dirt. Geophagy is a form of pica, the craving of non-food items. In my mind, eating beets is a socially acceptable form of geophagy - it’s as if the beets soak up all that mineral goodness from the dirt and concentrate it in the roots, giving beets an unmistakably earthy taste.

Besides the earthiness, beets are satisfyingly nutritious and I'm probably in the minority saying that the red juice is one of my favorite aspects of the vegetable. I like the purplish red splotches on my hands after handling beets, the deeper stains in my cuticles.  (I also like the smell of garlic on my hands and can’t imagine why anyone would want to wash it away - that sharp pungent smell wakes up my senses, like lavender or rosemary and reminds me that I've been cooking.)

I’m pretty sure I didn’t knowingly eat a beet until my adult years, and now the vegetable make regular appearances on my dinner table. Sometimes roasted, when the fresh ones are available in the fall, excellent paired with a creamy horseradish sauce; but usually in the pickled form, because my youngest daughter adores pickled beets, and will boldly pick them off her fellow diners' salad plates.

Pickled beets are delicious in many salads, especially a Greek salad - a bed of lettuce, a handful of pepper rings, some olives and feta and slices of pickled beets accompanied by an oregano-accented vinaigrette. I make an amazing Greek salad for company that features pickled beets. The inpsiration is a Tarpon Springs Greek salad with patatosalata, a potato salad that begins with potatoes soaked in red wine vinegar. I garnish this salad with shrimp and homemade pickled beets - pushing the potato salad and shrimp to the corners and piling the vinegary sanguine beets in the center.

Tarpon Springs is on the Florida Gulf Coast, famous for Greek bakeries and sponge diving and this style of Greek salad. On vacation in Florida, if I find a Greek diner, I’ll order this salad, and it’s almost always good, but there’s never enough pickled beets, and horrors, sometimes the beets are not even pickled. My favorite version is from Athenian Gardens in St. Petersburg, Florida. The potato salad is just right. It’s a subtle thing - at first you think it’s bland, but then you can’t get enough of it. This salad has everything - salty feta and olives,  sweet shrimp, vinegary pickled beets, crunchy sharp peppers.

 

Pickled Beets

This recipe is adapted from "American Home Cooking" by Cheryl Alters Jamison & Bill Jamison (Broadway, 1999). I used canned beets because my market was out of fresh and I figured a beet trek would expand my carbon footprint unnecessarily. The canned beets were delicious, and I’m sure the fresh beets would be, too.
2 (15 oz.) cans whole beets, drained and sliced ¼ inch thick  or 1 pound fresh beets, trimmed, sliced ¼ inch thick and steamed for 20 minutes or until tender

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons prepared horseradish

½ cup red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a glass or plastic bowl, combine beets, sugar, horseradish and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Store in refrigerator.

Greek Potato Salad (Patatosalata)

6 medium red potatoes

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

4  green onions, finely chopped

1/2 cup mayonnaise

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Cook unpeeled potatoes in unsalted water until tender, about 20 minutes; let cool just enough so that you can handle them. Using a towel to protect your hand, peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch pieces. Place in bowl and sprinkle with vinegar and salt, add chopped green onions and toss. Stir in green onions and mayonnaise. Season to taste and mix well. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Vinaigrette

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1. Whisk all ingredients together. Store in refrigerator.

Greek Salad with Pickled Beets, Shrimp and Patatosalata

Serves 4

At the height of summer, fresh diced tomato and cucumber would be excellent in this. Don't bother with out of season tomatoes.
 1 head Romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

1 small red pepper, cut into thin rings

½  cup Kalamata olives

1 pound shrimp, boiled for 2 minutes in water with lemon.

2 ounces feta cheese, cut into ¼ inch thick slabs

Pickled beets

Patatosalata (Greek potato salad)

1. On a large platter, spread out lettuce. In sections, place ingredients - pepper rings, olives, shrimp, patatosalata, feta and pickled beets. Serve salad with dressing alongside.

Text and images © 2010, Lucy Mercer.

Blueberries: Get 'em while you can

I love fresh Georgia blueberries. Tart and sweet, they're a perfect topping for a granola parfait or for eating out of hand or, for the ambitious, a blueberry pie. Here's a recipe from Chef Ricardo Ullio of Atlanta favorite Sotto Sotto, that teams fresh Georgia blueberries with arugula and almonds. A winning combination, especially for my friends with arugula in their CSA boxes.

 Rucola and Mirtilli Salad, from Sotto Sotto

Serves one

1 cup small-leaf arugula

1/4 cup ripe blueberries

1 tablespoon julienned almonds, toasted

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Shaved Parmigiano Reggiano

In a small bowl, toss together the arugula, blueberries, almonds, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Combine gently. Serve on a small plate and blanket the salad with the shaved Parmigiano Reggiano.

P is for Potluck (and Peas!)

7 Layer Salad by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Contrary to what many believe, May, not December, is the busiest month for my colleagues in the mommy business. You may think that December, with class parties and church happenings, would be the craziest time of the year, but the end of the school year seems to slip on us and before we know it, we’re slammed with breathlessly important occasions such as Teacher Appreciation Days and Fifth Grade Graduation and the End of Year Soccer/Beta Club/Band Party. All of these occasions demand food and eventually folks tire of pizza and that’s where the mommies step up and bring a covered dish.

The queen of the covered dish is my friend Julie. We’ve been friends since college, and twenty years after rooming together at UGA, we still seemed stunned that we spend our lives in carpool lines and not behind desks. Julie is a first-class cook and is always the first to volunteer to bring a dish to an event. In our weekly call from the carpool line, she told me that her latest success was a layered salad. If you're not familiar with the layered salad, it's the kind of recipe that Paula Deen has built an empire around. It's a potluck staple, a green salad layered in a pretty glass bowl with green peas, onions, bacon and cheese, then topped with a creamy mayonnaise dressing.

“It was a big hit,” she said. It kind of surprised her, but “you know, nobody cooks anymore. They eat in restaurants or if they cook, they open a box first.” We’ve decided that we’re the last of the casserole queens, the ones who cook from scratch and carry a dish to every family, church and school gathering. I suppose layered salad is kind of a cold casserole, with the base of lettuce substituting for pasta or rice, and the requisite green vegetable, peas in the middle. Topped with cheese, and mayonnaise subbing for the cream of whatever soup, and you see what I mean.

Julie’s recipe is from her church cookbook, and it’s from Miss Ethel Arrington, a woman who never married and played the organ at the church. Miss Ethel Arrington specified a can of LeSueur Peas in her layered salad, and Julie doesn’t substitute. The silver can is a guilty pleasure for me - I can’t think of LeSueur ("Very Young Small Early") peas without memories of my Grandmother Kitty, with her Montgomery, Alabama, accent, saying “LeSu-wuuuuu-er peas.” She served them at all family gatherings, convinced that the only green vegetable that her many grandchildren would eat is LeSueur brand peas. The menu would include a cooked ham, potato salad with and without celery (another story for another time), heated canned peas, blueberry Jell-O salad (the kind with the cream cheese topping) and, if we were lucky, her homemade itty-bitty biscuits.

While I keep a can of LeSueur peas in the pantry, I'm more likely to use frozen English peas when I cook. Peas are the only vegetable that comes to mind that is nearly as good frozen as fresh. It's a frozen pantry staple for me - a handful of peas thrown into a stir fry or added at the last minute to beef stew. Frozen peas are a kitchen workhorse, completing the sacred triumverate in a meat and potato meal, or adding their sweet mellow selves to a potluck dish. In a pinch, the bag of frozen peas makes a handy ice pack for boo-boos. (At the very least, it will get a giggle from your child.)

My layered salad is adapted from Allrecipes.com, perhaps the church cookbook of the internet age. If you want to be true to Miss Ethel Arrington and my grandmother, use two cans of LeSueur peas, drained, instead of the frozen, thawed, English peas. Peas are a good choice for the layered salad, between the sharp onion and crunchy lettuce, creamy mayonnaise dressing and salty bacon, the emerald spheres make pleasant, sweet pops in your mouth.

7 layer salad. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Sweet Pea Seven-Layered Salad

1 lb. bacon, cooked, crumbled, drained

1 head of iceberg lettuce, chopped

1 bunch green onions, all of white and some green, chopped fine

1 (12 oz.) package frozen green peas, thawed

1 ½ cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1 cup chopped cauliflower

1 ¼ cups mayonnaise

2 tablespoons sugar

4 perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs, peeled and diced

A handful of wasabi peas, optional

1. In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise and sugar and let rest while you assemble the salad.

2. Use a large, clear glass bowl, if you have one, but any large, deep bowl will do. Place the lettuce in the bottom of the bowl and top with a layer of onion, then follow with peas, shredded cheese and cauliflower. Spread mayonnaise mixture on top of salad. Sprinkle bacon and egg on top. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

3. If you want a little kick to your layered salad, add my favorite crunchy/spicy snack - wasabi peas across the top of individual servings.

© 2010, Lucy Mercer.

Incredible, edible egg salad

Egg salad is a humble and filling concoction. It can be as simple as leftover hard-boiled eggs and a jar of Hellmann’s or, with a little finesse, a show-off sandwich spread and star of an elegant appetizer. The secret is to employ the magic of the eggs, letting eggs do double duty as the bulk of the salad and the binder, which means, in this case, making mayonnaise from scratch. Mayonnaise from scratch need hold no fear for the home cook. One fresh egg yolk, less than a cup of fresh oil, a few minutes of your time and a sturdy whisk are all it takes to make a luscious, homemade mayonnaise that will elevate your egg salad from ho-hum to va-va-va-voom.

Pay attention to the basics when making your egg salad sandwich. Eggs should be properly boiled, no mineral gray ring covering the chalky yolk; whites just set, not rubbery. Creamy mayo, but not too salty. A little kick, maybe pepper, maybe hot sauce. Onion? No way, but perhaps a hint of chive. Crunch? Celery is for sissies and potato salad. I prefer radishes for a peppery bite and crunch. The bread must be toasted, and wheat is the only way to go. The blandness of white bread offers no contrast to the creamy egg salad.

Homemade Mayonnaise

Adapted from the Gourmet Cookbook and online sources

1 very fresh egg yolk

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup canola oil

1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

Pepper to taste

1. In a small bowl, place egg yolk, mustard and salt. Whisk until combined. Drop by drop, pour and whisk ¼ cup of the canola oil into the mixture. This will take up to 10 minutes (for me, at least). After the oil is thoroughly combined with the yolk, whisk in the vinegar and lemon juice. In a slow stream, add remaining oil. Take your time and make sure you do this right. If the mixture ever looks like it’s separating, stop pouring in oil and whisk the heck out of it, to combine. If you do this right, you will see the mixture change from dark yellow to lighter and creamier, ultimately a thick sauce, not fluffy like the stuff from the jar, but creamy and delicious, just the same.

Hard Boiled Eggs

Everyone and his dog has a recipe for perfect hard-boiled eggs. My advice is to keep trying until you find one that works for you. Here’s my method:

Start with a saucepan and insert a steamer basket (if you have it - this makes it easier to remove the eggs and also keeps them from bouncing around on the bottom of the pot). Place 6 eggs on opened basket, cover with cold water, bring to a rolling boil, cover and cook for less than a minute. Pull covered pan off the heat and turn kitchen timer to 13 minutes. Some folks say 12 minutes, some say 15. All I know is that mine were cooked perfectly at 13 minutes. Have an ice water bath nearby and plunge the cooked eggs into the cold water. When cool enough to handle, peel away the shells. Old eggs are easier to peel due to the air pocket, fresher eggs stubbornly hang on to their shells.

Egg Salad

½ cup homemade mayonnaise

6 hard-boiled eggs

Salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons chopped chives

thinly sliced radishes

Assemble sandwich:

1. To properly chop the eggs, I employ the same tool that I use to make a pie crust: a pastry blender. Halve the boiled eggs into a bowl and mash them up with the blender, you may also use a fork.

2. While mixing the spread, toast the wheat bread, use homemade if available.

3. Gently fold the chopped eggs into the mayonnise. Texture is what you’re after. Taste and correct seasoning. It may need more mayo for moisture or acid for contrast. Will probably definitely need pepper.

4. Spread a thin layer of mayo on bread. Then layer radishes, then egg salad. Apply lid to sandwich. Grab a good book, pull up to the counter and tuck in.

Oh, and here's the bonus: a canape: Egg Salad with Chives on Radish Rounds. How simple is this, a baby spoonful of egg salad on a sliced radish, with a sliver of chive on top?

Text & images copyright 2010, Lucy Mercer.

Everything Goes Better with Bacon

If I had to choose the perfect vegetable, I think I would vote for broccoli. It's available year-round, very nutritious and versatile, plus it has the ability to get lost in my vegetable bin and emerge a week (or two) later, none the worse for wear, ready for a dinnertime spin.

I usually steam broccoli and serve it smothered with cheese sauce, which makes it perfectly palatable for the youngest diners. I've even perfected my broccoli chopping technique, which took some work considering that the bottom of the broccoli head is quite different from the top. After rinsing the broccoli head, I hold it by the stem, with the florets on the cutting board. Using my ultra-sharp chef's knife, I cut the florets off, working my way around the head, until there's just a broccoli stump remaining. I then cut the stalk off at the base, just where it's beginning to branch, leaving two pieces: solid stalk, and branchy part. The solid stalk is peeled, then sliced into thin coins. The branchy part can be tricky, but I usually peel it the best I can, squaring up the sides, and then slicing it into squarish coins.

When steaming the broccoli, I put just an inch or so of water in the bottom of a pot, turn the heat up to high, then layer the broccoli stalks on bottom and tender florets on top. When steam comes up through the florets, I put a lid on the pot and turn off the heat. Let it steam off the heat for about 10 minutes or possibly more, but be careful not to let it go too long or you'll end up with mushy veg in a particular shade appropriate for camouflage. A simple cheesy sauce, butter, flour, milk and shredded sharp cheddar cheese, is the number one accompaniment for the little ones, but I like my green stuff simply seasoned and dressed with a squirt of lemon juice.

Casting about for more ideas for broccoli, I remembered a somewhat old-fashioned sweet and sour salad that includes bacon, raisins and sunflower seeds. In this house, we believe quite strongly that bacon makes everything better, so I knew this salad would at least get some interest. I checked an online recipe network and found the good old standby, one that used equal amounts of sugar and mayo. I tried it out and now understand why wonder diabetes is rampant in this country. A little recipe tinkering was definitely in order. At my husband's suggestion, the chunks of onion were pulverized in the blender, making for a more pleasant texture and certainly more child-friendly side dish.

Here it is:

Broccoli Salad for a New Generation
2 broccoli crowns, florets trimmed, stalk trimmed & cut into coins
6 slices bacon, chopped and cooked 'til crisp
a handful sunflower seeds
a handful dried raisins or cranberries
1 cup good-quality mayo, full fat or go home
6 green onions, chopped in 1-inch long pieces
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. white wine vinegar

In a lovely serving bowl, put trimmed broccoli pieces, sunflower seeds, bacon and raisins. In a food processor, blitz the onions, mayo, sugar and vinegar together. Season to taste, remembering that the salad has salty bacon and sunflower seeds. Pour dressing over salad sparingly. Serve immediately to happy family.

The Raspberry Salad

Sometimes recipes live up to their advance publicity, and sometimes they don't. It's a lesson learned the hard way. My friend Penny told me I just had to try her deviled eggs, then she shared that the peculiar brown bits mixed with the yolks were ground-up peanuts. I'm usually game for something new, but I just couldn't abide that. I waited 'til Peggy's attention was diverted and then hid that poor egg in my napkin.

Although my friend Lynn is quite a cook, I was a bit dubious when she raved about THE Raspberry Salad. She's made it for birthday parties, potlucks and office events. I had to have a baby to rate THE Raspberry Salad and I will admit that the salad certainly lived up to its advance publicity. I managed to get the recipe from her, and essentially it's a green salad with cheese and nuts and a first-rate raspberry vinaigrette. The key to this salad is really the dressing - it makes a lot, so just put the remainder in a screwtop jar in the fridge - it keeps for several weeks. I like this salad best in the fall, but it's quite nice in the winter, as well.

THE Raspberry Salad
2 bunches Bibb lettuce
1 bunch red leaf lettuce
8 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted
1 bunch purple grapes, sliced in half

Dressing:
2 tbsp raspberry jam or preserves (try to find w/o seeds)
1/2 cup raspberry vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 tsp dry mustard

In a food processor, mince onion with sugar. Add preserves, vinegar, salt and mustard and process. Slowly add oil and process until emulsified.

This is the recipe as it was given to me. I like to use romaine lettuce for the greens. I found raspberry balsamic vinegar & it was fine. Instead of a regular onion, I've successfully used green onions and leeks.

This is just an observation, but this salad is very popular with men, must be the sweet/tart thing. I know that it is my DH's favorite salad and is frequently requested. To make it kid-friendly, I just spread out the accessories - cheese, nuts, and grapes and let the girls dip them in the dressing.

Peas on Earth, Goodwill to Men

Dried black eyed peas. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

On Jan. 1, New Year's tradition holds to eat greens or cabbage for wealth and black-eyed peas for good luck. I don't mind the greens, but, honestly, black-eyed peas boiled with pork taste just like dirt boiled with pork. A few years ago, I discovered Black-Eyed Peas Vinaigrette in Craig Claiborne's Southern Cooking (I love the cover of Craig in his high-waisted trousers by a bountiful outdoors buffet). It is more refined than the usual boiled peas and a fine change-up for the New Year's Day menu.

Black-Eyed Peas Vinaigrette

1 lb. dried black-eyed peas

8 cups water

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

1 onion stuck with two cloves

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 bay leaf

1/4 tsp dried thyme

4 sprigs parsley

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

2 tbsp finely chopped shallots

1 tsp finely minced garlic

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

3 tbsp. red wine vinegar

2/3 cup olive oil

1. Rinse and pick over the peas and place in a kettle. Add the water, salt, pepper, and onion stuck with cloves. Tie the garlic clove, bay leaf, thyme, and parsley sprigs in a cheesecloth bag, and add it. Bring to the boil and simmer until the peas are tender, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Remove the onion and cheesecloth bag. Drain the peas.

3. Put the peas in a mixing bowl. Add the chopped onion, shallots, minced garlic, chopped parsley, vinegar, and oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss to blend well. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature (my preference).

Text and images copyright 2008. Lucy Mercer