Scrumptious Street

Hot Italian-style Giardiniera

I've been scrambling to get the best out of the Farmer's Markets before they close down for the season.  Although here in Northern California there are many stands open year-round, one can only eat so much kale and brussels sprouts.  So in the last few weeks of great produce, I've been stocking up on goodies. 

One thing I love but had never made before is the classic pickled Italian antipasto or salad condiment, Giardiniera.  My best friend here in the Bay Area is Italian and casually mentioned it to me one day recently.  That was enough to inflame a craving so I decided it was time to try my hand at such a simple but yummy food. Here's my first spin at "Hot Italian-style Giardiniera."

Now, I like tart foods.  And, I like spicy foods.  But this stuff can be positively addicting with its tartness, saltiness, spicy goodness.  It's perfect to eat with something rich like leftover roast beef sandwiches, Italian salumi or even as part of a lovely rice salad.  You can also alter it to use any kind of vegetables you like.  Carrots, Celery, Cauliflower, Onions, Olives, Sweet Peppers are standard but you can go in any number of directions with your favorite salad-type vegetables.  So, let out your creativity and give it a try!

Here's my initial recipe, which I will be altering in coming months.  This is based on another recipe I'd seen and had way too much salt.  I cut back, but still it wasn't right.  Still very edible, but it needed to be eaten with something fatty to not be too harsh.  Stay tuned, I'll post a perfected recipe later.

For now, we can start with:

Ingredients
Serves 10

3 small serrano chiles, de-seeded and chopped
6 scallions, chopped, white and light-green only, chopped
2 c. fresh cauliflower florets
6-8 pepperoncini, diced
1 orange bell pepper, small dice
1 celery stalk, small dice
6-8 baby carrots, small dice
2 cloves garlic, whole and peeled
1/4 c. kosher salt
1 T. dried oregano
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. celery seeds
1 tsp. fennel seeds
1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, whole
6-8 large meaty green olives, pitted and chopped
1 c. white vinegar (should use white wine vinegar instead)
1 c. extra virgin olive oil

Method:

1.  Combine all vegetables in a large glass bowl.  Dissolve salt in 2 cups water, pour over vegetables and add enough additional water to complete cover the vegetables.  Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight.

2. The next day, drain and rinse the vegetables and pat dry.  Rinse bowl and place the dried vegetables pack in the bowl.  Mix all the spices, olives, oil and vinegar.  Pour over the vegetables and gently stir to cover.  Allow to marinate in the refrigerator at least 48 hours before eating, stirring with a large spoon every few hours.

3. Eat with salad, meaty sandwiches, or antipasto platter with Italian meats, cheeses and crackers or crostini.

Next time, I'll improve a bit on the salting process and also let it wait even longer before eating.  I'll likely make enough to preserve several jars as well.  In the meantime, this looks like a decent recipe.

Jicama and Avocado Salad

I discovered a taste for Jicama a couple months back, after reading a terrific book I told you about on this blog.  It's a staple of many Mexican and Latin American diets, and is terrific for its nutritional value as well as its culinary diversity.  Jicama is one of those ingredients with almost no flavor but wonderful texture so it adds an interesting element to a dish.  Its crunchiness reminds me of a starchy Granny Smith apple.  But, it's as flavorless as something like a water chestnut yet vaguely sweet.  So it will absorb whatever you give it for season and flavoring just beautifully.  I created a salad that is a little bit like guacamole with crunchy "chips" included.  Take a look at my "Jicama and Avocado Salad".

The recipe couldn't be easier, and the result is really fresh and satisfying.  If you like guacamole or Mexican-influenced foods, you should give this salad a try.  We had as a late summer meal with smoky barbecued chicken and it was a terrific combination.  I only wish I had thought to make up a pitcher of margaritas as well!

You can easily adjust and scale this recipe and let your taste buds be your guide in how much spiciness or tartness you want in the dressing. The photo below shows a whole jicama before peeling in case you've never seen one.  It's the root on the left side of the shot.  Peel it just like you would a potato.  If it's not super firm and fresh, after peeling and slicing place it in an ice water bath for 10 minutes before preparing the salad.

Ingredients
Serves 4

2 medium jicama, about 1.5 lbs. peeled and sliced into thin sticks
2 ripe avocados, pitted and sliced
4 small or 2 medium ripe tomatoes, diced
1 small jalapeno pepper or serrano chile, minced
1 lime, juiced
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
3 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. cilantro, if desired

Method:

1. Peel and slice the jicama and let stand in an ice water bath for 10 minutes.  Drain all water and place in a large bowl.

2. Add the avocado and tomato to the bowl of jicama.  Squeeze 1 tsp. of lime juice over the avocado pieces to keep them from turning brown.  Toss gently.

3. In a second bowl, prepare the dressing by adding the jalapeno pepper and the remainder of juice from the lime.  Add the chili powder and salt and whisk vigorously.  Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, one tablespoon at a time, whisking briskly and continuously, until the dressing is thickened.  Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently.  Serve immediately and enjoy this scrumptious summer salad!

Arugula and Strawberry Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

Again and again, simplicity and excellent ingredients win the day here at Scrumptious Street.  The other day I was thinking about how much I love the delicately delicious combination of strawberries and champagne. Rushed for time and having none of that beautiful wine on hand, I found a way to feed the craving and my hunger all at once.  Here is a look at the resulting "Arugula and Strawberry Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette."

One of the best things about being able to imagine flavors and how things will taste is the excitement I feel beforehand knowing something is going to work.  This salad is really very special, quite scrumptious and spectacularly easy.  If you've never used champagne vinegar before, my favorite thing about it is that it's so softly tart, so delicately oriented toward sour that it provides necessary acidity to a dressing without demanding a lot of oil to balance out the flavor.  It's perfect with strawberries, because you can discern that soft bubbly flavor and the sweetness of the berries respond as much with the dressing as when you're drinking a glass of bubbly and you drop in a berry.  I chose arugula for the foundation of the salad, knowing a good peppery bite would be great with the soft-tart-sweetness.  I picked a soft and creamy havarti cheese (plain, not dill or herb-spiked) to sprinkle in a little richness without dominating the salad.  Havarti is very mild and almost as soft as brie but with more structure, so it was the perfect cheese to use here.

As for the vinegar, there are a large number of exquisite brands out there, I just happened to choose this one since it was labeled as a Sonoma County Harvest Fair Gold Medal Winner.  I hadn't tried it before but assumed this award meant it would be fantastic.  Indeed it was!



Here's my very simple and wonderful salad recipe:

Ingredients
Serves 2

1 small bunch arugula, washed and dried in salad spinner
8 ripe, fresh strawberries, washed and sliced
1/2 c. havarti cheese, shredded
1 scallion, white and light green only, diced
3 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 T. champagne vinegar
1/4 tsp. grey or sea salt
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1 T. fresh mint, finely julienned

Method:
1. Wash, drain and prep vegetables and fruit.

2. In a small bowl, add the scallion, champagne vinegar, salt and white pepper.  Stir together and let sit a few minutes so the vinegar starts to soften and break down the scallion.  Slowly drizzle in the extra virgin olive oil while whisking, to thicken and emulsify the vinaigrette.

3. In a medium bowl add the arugula, strawberries, cheese and fresh mint.  Drizzle vinaigrette dressing over the top and toss very gently with your hands.

4. Serve immediately, especially good when served on chilled plates.  Savor every bite!

Zucchini Salad with Yogurt Dressing

The produce at this week's Farmer's Market jaunt was no less than stellar, which always is inspiring and yields terrific recipes at Scrumptious Street.  While in Italy recently, I was reminded of the perfect affinity zucchini and mint have for one another so I made a wonderful summer dish of "Zucchini & Tomato Salad with Capers and Mint in a Yogurt Dressing".

This isn't necessarily an Italian dish, but it is Mediterranean influenced.  If you've never tried zucchini and mint, this is really a spectacular combination that must be tasted! Additionally, feta cheese is a beautiful supporting cast member here and lends just enough tangy creaminess to really make it special.  The salad is incredibly simple and will be delicious if you follow a few guidelines.  You must have very fresh produce as close to the farm or garden as possible -- these ingredients in particular, cannot be the watered-down grocery store varieties. 

Zucchini is somewhat bitter when raw.  However, it's quite delicate so when cooked it would be too soft and dull colored for a salad.  So, I kept it raw but prepared it by dusting with salt and letting it strain.  Just like eggplant, this treatment draws out the bitterness in the skin and flesh of the squash, gets the juices flowing and tenderizes the vegetable.  It softens a bit without changing the color or fresh lightly-crunched structure.  So, make sure to follow the steps for salting and straining in this recipe and you'll love the salad too!

Here's the recipe:
Serves 4 as small appetizer salad

4 small zucchini, washed and very thinly sliced
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 scallions, minced
1 ripe medium tomato, washed, seeded and diced
1 tsp. capers, rinsed and chopped
1/8 c. Italian flat-leaf parsley
2 oz. very good Greek feta cheese
1/4 c. fresh mint, minced, plus more for garnish
1 tsp. lemon zest
2 tsp. lemon juice, separated into two parts of 2 tsp.
1 T. plain yogurt (use Greek or strain regular plain yogurt)
1/4 tsp. white pepper
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil

Method:
1. Placed the sliced zucchini in a fine colander or fine-mesh sieve.  Sprinkle with kosher salt, toss thoroughly and let stand in the sink to strain for 10 minutes, tossing every couple of minutes.  After 10 minutes, rinse the zucchini thoroughly, getting off any remaining salt.  Take a few paper towels and place the zucchini in the towels and gently squeeze out any remaining liquid.

2. Chop your tomato in half and scoop out the seeds with a grapefruit spoon or your fingers.  Dice the tomato.  In a bowl, combine the zucchini, scallions, seeded tomato, capers, parsley, feta, mint, lemon zest and 1 tsp. of the lemon juice.  Toss gently to combine.

3. In a small bowl, make the dressing by combining yogurt, the remaining 1 tsp. lemon juice, white pepper and olive oil.  Whisk and slowly add the olive oil, the quantity you use will depend on the thickness you want and the texture of the yogurt you used.

4. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently.  Refrigerate for 4 hours and then serve chilled.

Hope you like this refreshing, light and healthy summer salad.

Fava Bean and Tomato Salad

Fava beans are another of my very favorite Spring ingredients and I always peruse the Farmer's Markets for them in April and May.  I hit the jackpot this past week and found some Favas that were so beautiful and fresh that I knew I wouldn't want to boil them, sauté them or otherwise cook for very long.  Thus, these babies called to be eaten just the other side of raw, barely blanched and in a simple manner to show off their freshest taste.  Here is my resulting "Fava Bean and Tomato Salad."

This dish was so wonderful but it's not going to work if you don't have incredibly tender and fresh beans.  Two great ways to recognize them are that the pods should not contain any black spots and should not feel flimsy or mushy if you gently squeeze them.  Should you find good ones, they'll turn anyone into a lover of this healthy legume. Another very important part of this dish was the green garlic stalks.  You should also be able to find this at any good Farmer's Market in the Spring months and I chose to use them because they taste of garlic but are much milder and softer, perfect because you can eat it raw, like I did with this salad.  I think this is a scrumptious little side salad for all those summer barbeques and is similar to a typical Mediterranean meze or Spanish tapas. 

I only had a small amount and they're a bit intensive to shuck, blanch and shell so this is just a recipe that feeds two people as a small little nibble.  In case you've seen them at the markets but aren't sure how to get the beans out of the funny-looking pod, here's the basic plan.  Snap off the top stem and pull the long string along the seam, exactly like you do with fresh snap peas.  Pull out the bean inside and put them in a bowl.  The beans are covered in a soft, waxy casing that you will remove before eating.  So, in essence, you have to shell them twice.  Blanch them inside the casing and when done, put them in an ice bath.  One at a time, pinch the end of the casing and slice it open with your thumbnail.  Push the opposite end of the casing and the inner bean should slide right out. I'm sorry I didn't take photos of the process but there are some very illustrative photos here.

On with the recipe!

Ingredients
Serves 2

1 cup fresh fava beans, blanched and shelled (about 1.5 lbs. fresh in their pods)
1 small very ripe tomato
2-3 fresh basil leaves, minced
1/2 tsp. fresh marjoram, minced
1/4 tsp. spring green garlic stalk, minced
1 1/2 T. fresh lemon juice, squeezed
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 T. very good extra virgin olive oil

Method:

1. String, shell, blanch in boiling water for 2-3 minutes and then cool fava beans in an ice bath.  One at a time, shuck the fava beans and put them in a bowl.  Add the chopped tomato, basil, marjoram and green garlic.  Toss gently with a spoon to mix.

2. In another small bowl add the lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Whisk to mix.  Slowly stream in the olive oil, about one tablespoon at a time, making an emulsified vinaigrette.

3. Pour the vinaigrette over the fava, tomatoes and herbs in the first bowl.  Mix thoroughly and taste, adding a pinch more salt and pepper if desired.  Serve either as is, or placed atop a very fresh bed of arugula.

Have a great time with this one and believe me, it's worth the effort with the beans and the rest of the preparation is very quick and simple!

Pickled Watermelon Scallion Salad

This salad is terrific on a hot summer day and is so simple, refreshing and unusual that's it's absolutely delightful.  It's another riff on something we had recently in a terrific New York restaurant and is my own variation and improvisation on a Malaysian salad.  Here is my "Pickled Watermelon and Scallion Salad".

Many people don't like pickles or the concept of anything that is pickled.  I can understand that, as just last night I ate a dish that was completely overwhelmed by vinegar and totally ruined the food.  I promise, this is a very gentle and subtle pickling, it's not even tart so much as crunchy and bright. I used a sweet Japanese cooking wine, to keep it from being too tart.  This is a great dish to make when your watermelon is a day past perfectly ripe;  it helps revive the juicy crunch if it's edging toward softness.  Easy, delicious, fresh and surprisingly deep in flavor, this salad works terrific with fish or pork or anything that you choose to make that's either spicy or salty.  In the restaurant we had it as an appetizer to spicy chili crab and it was perfect!

Ingredients:
Serves 2

1/2 small seedless watermelon, peeled and cubed
2 T. rice wine vinegar
2 T. Mirin (sweet rice cooking wine)
1/2 T. granulated sugar
1 T. kosher salt
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
3 scallions: white and light green slices on bias, dark green sliced in long, thin strips
sesame seeds for garnish

Method:
1.  Peel and cut watermelon and set aside.  Slice scallions with green in long thin strips and white thinly sliced on bias and set aside in a small bowl.
2. No more than 2 hours before serving, mix the rice wine vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt in a small bowl.  Add the watermelon and toss gently.  Let marinate no more no 2 hours.
3. Drain off the pickling juice, reserving at least 1 teaspoon of juice.  Let watermelon strain through a sieve or colander.
4. Add watermelon to a bowl, add in scallions.  Mix the reserved pickling juice and toasted sesame oil together as a dressing and drizzle over the watermelon salad.  Gently toss with hands and sprinkle in the sesame seeds.  Serve immediately, best at room temperature.

Banana-Mustard Potato Salad

For those of you who read my July 4 post, you learned all about the fantastic mustard I recently discovered after eating at the restaurant Moutarde in Brooklyn.  I used it to make a wonderful potato salad which will really please your guests and fellow diners.  It's similar enough to what most people know that they'll enjoy it, but unique and tasty enough that the foodies in the crowd will go wild with delight.  Here is my "Banana-Mustard Potato Salad".

And YES!! That is the first of two ripe tomatoes from our beloved Scrumptious heirloom tomato plant.  It was a juicy, sweet, and deep-tomato flavor you cannot get from greenhouse tomatoes.  BLISS! The plant had more than 36 tomatoes at last count.  This thing is flourishing!

I like to keep the recipe for potato salad simple:  no raw onions, no pickles, no celery.  Make it the way you want of course, but you really need to use the banana-mustard at least once to put an amazing twist on your regular recipe.  I'm quite sure you'll love it as much as we did here: Mom and Dad Scrumptious, me, Mr. Scrumptious all loved this potato salad!

Ingredients:
Serves 4

2 lbs. small white creme potatoes, skins on
1 large egg, hardboiled
1/3 c. banana-mustard
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
3 T. mayonnaise
1 fresh scallion
1/8 tsp. paprika
kosher salt to taste
freshly ground white pepper to taste

Method:
1. Make banana-mustard according to recipe.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and submerge potatoes in the boiling water.  Let potatoes cook until fork-tender, about 15-17 minutes if using small ones.  I also boil the egg with the potatoes, and just remove it after 10 minutes.

3. Add the banana-mustard to a bowl.  Add the mayonnaise and whisk briskly to incorporate.  Slowly drizzle in the extra virgin olive oil and set the banana-mustard mayonnaise dressing aside.

4. Drain potatoes, let cool and peel by scraping the skin off with the back of a knife.  Cut into quarters and dice the egg.  Season the potatoes and egg with kosher salt and freshly ground white or black pepper.  Toss gently.

5. Pour in banana-mustard-mayonnaise dressing while the potatoes are still slightly warm, to coat the potatoes evenly with the dressing.

6.  Chill for at least three hours in the refrigerator.  When ready to serve, garnish with the diced scallion and paprika.

Please try this recipe this summer and let me know what you think! I'd like to hear whether we're the only ones crazy for it.

Sunflower Shoot, Baby Purslane and Radish Salad

Here's another really spectacular but simple salad that was a spontaneous creation from the gorgeousness at the Farmer's Market.  Whenever I see something I've never cooked or used before at the market, I always snap it up and begin thinking of ways to use it.  This was such a delightful and easy salad to make, but wow, the results were incredible.  The key, really, is the sunflower shoots.  I hadn't tasted them before and they are stunning and really have a rich and nutty sunflower seed flavor with a delicate texture of bean bean sprouts and fresh light crunch.  They are extraordinary.  I paired them with the slightly sour purslane microgreens and a few slivers of radishes and small grape tomatoes.  Wow.  Whatever greens you can find, this is proof that it's wonderful to taste anything that's new-- you'll never know what you may find. And, the purslane is a wonderful source of omega-3 so heart healthy too.

Here's my "Salad of Sunflower Shoots, Baby Purslane, Radishes and Tomatoes in a Blood Orange Vinaigrette."

I chose to use hazelnut oil in this vinaigrette to play out a different kind of nutty flavor and also because I think the flavor goes extremely well with oranges.  Since I had a couple of terrific blood oranges on hand, that's what I used.  The dressing was so simple but just a luscious and light combination.

Ingredients:
Serves 4

1/2 lb. sunflower shoots, gently washed and spun dry
1/4 lb. baby purslane, gently washed and spun dry
4 baby radishes, washed and thinly sliced
6 grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 c. hazelnut oil (could also use grapeseed, almond or olive oil)
1/2 blood orange, squeezed for juice
2 pinches sea salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Method:
1. Wash and dry all vegetables.  Spread the greens in a medium bowl.  Finely slice the radishes, cut the tomatoes in half and sprinkle over the greens.

2. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix the hazelnut oil, blood orange, salt and pepper and whisk together into a smooth and emulsified dressing.  Drizzle over the salad, toss very gently and serve immediately.

Saturday Salad

Saturday afternoon and there's a flurry of laundry, running errrands, scouring the apartment and cleaning out the refrigerator.  Mr. Scrumptious and I don't have time to slow down, there's so much to get accomplished.  But, in order to keep going we require sustenance and a good healthy lunch.  Also, since it happens to be cleaning the fridge day, it's time to make use of some delightful vegetables before they go bad.  This is my delicious "Saturday Salad with Yogurt Dressing".

Oh, this salad is another example of the beauty and elegants of simple, fresh and delicious ingredients.  It's so easy, and completely decadent with just a couple of creative additions like the herbs and yogurt.

Ingredients
Serves 2

1 small roasted golden beet (leftover from my risotto), chopped
1 medium ripe plum tomato, chopped
3-4 branches cauliflower florets, chopped
1/4 English cucumber, chopped
1 medium spring carrot, chopped
6 pitted kalamata olives, chopped
sprinkling of shredded parmesan cheese

Dressing:
1 tsp. minced fresh parsley
1 tsp. minced chives
1 tsp. nonfat plain yogurt
2 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Method:

1. Wash and chop all vegetables and place in a large bowl for each person.

2. Add herbs and yogurt to a small bowl and stir to mix thoroughly.  Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking into the herb-yogurt.  Do the same with the vinegar.  Add the salt and pepper and whisk thoroughly. 

3.  Drizzle the dressing over the salads and serve immediately.  Put your feet up, take a break and tuck into a bowl of healthy yumminess.

Spring is Nearly in the Air!!

I can nearly feel it.  Oh, we're so close here in New York.  So close to Spring.  I don't yet have a plethora of farmer's market produce available, but I'm feeling it.   I can almost imagine the whiff of ramps and spring onions in the air.  So, I got impatient and wanted a salad that tasted like spring but is still made with traditional "in season" winter ingredients.  Can you blame me?  Here's is a gorgeous, light and very refreshing and almost-Spring "Arugula, Artichoke and Blood Orange Salad."

This technique of using citrus in salads is one of my favorite ways to remind me that spring is on the way when we're still in winter.  That's part of the beauty of the citrus growing season.  It helps get us through the dark months.  If you add citrus to anything, especially a raw salad, it just pops the flavors into life and makes a light, healthy and fresh dish. Try it, it'll get you through!!

Ingredients
Serves 4 as appetizer

1 large bunch arugula, washed
2 Roma tomatoes
1 can artichoke hearts, quartered
1 blood orange, half segmented and half for juice
freshly shaved parmesan to taste
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
half blood orange, juiced
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. dijon mustard

Method:
1. Wash and spin-dry arugula.  Chop tomatoes and artichoke hearts.

2. Cut the blood orange in half.  Peel the first half with a sharp knife, releasing only the segments and leaving all peel, pith and membranes out. 

3. Toss the arugula, tomatoes, artichoke hearts and blood oranges very gently in a large salad bowl.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, juice from the other half of the blood orange, mustard, salt and pepper.  Whisk this dressing until very smooth and incorporated.

5. Drizzle the dressing over the salad.  Shave parmesan with a vegetable peeler directly on the salad.  Serve immediately and enjoy.