Salads and Sides – Page 8

Leekage

Well, my scouts up No’th says next week is the last for this season’s crop: Sad? Not really; more of a great memory, a look forward to next year, and a whole new season to enjoy!

I love fall and winter, and as y’all live where you do, y’all must as well, right? As far as food goes, these seasons are comfort food turf and that’s never a bad thing; any chance to enjoy the heartier fare is a good thing.

Christie wrote of next week, “Leeks will be in the bucket, so a post would be great. Sizes range from smallish on up to good-sized—although no really huge giants like you sometimes see in the supermarkets.”

Actually, this is good news; size matters with veggies to a degree, but probably in reverse order to umm, certain other topics… In other words, huge doesn’t mean quality when it comes to veggies. There’s a very good reason that ‘baby’ this and that are coveted more than their older siblings; they taste better, are generally more tender, and are much more fun to behold on a plate.

So what the heck is a leek anyway? Are they good, do we like them? They are, we do, and they’re of the same family as onions and garlic and that is why we do! Like their cousins, they are wonderful in many things, even standing as the center point of a dish or two. If you’re a foodie, you may have heard the term Ramp thrown around in the last few years; the ramp is simply a wild leek, FYI. Leeks are relatively rich in iron, vitamin c, manganese, folate and vitamin B6, all of which are good for ya, so dig in with confidence. Leeks are more common in stores than they used to be, although you’re still more likely to find green onions. A leek is, for my palate, a richer, deeper flavor profile than an onion, and for that reason, I like them a lot; it’s kind of like choosing shallot over onion, I guess…

When you prep a leek for cooking, keep in mind that the dark green upper leaves are generally tough and not something you want to nosh on, although you can clean ‘em up and use them for flavoring vegetable stock, which you really aughta do! The bulb and the white/light green lower leaves are what we want to go to town on. So, when you’re ready to cook, pull ‘em out, inspect ‘em and wash off any dirt or critters. Cut the dark greens off and set them aside for later. Cut the little root fringes off the bulbs and chuck those. Now do a pro prep move, and fill a bowl with cold water, toss in your leeks and gently wash ‘em until no dirt shows up in your water bowl, (It might take a couple of water changes to do). You’re now basically ready to use these guys.

So, what to make with leeks? Well, the sky really is the limit, so why not head to the internet for some inspiration? Seriously, you ask, a leek recipe website?! Yup, in fact leeks are, as far as I can tell, all they do; their recipes are great and broad in scope, so head on over there and start cooking!

No, wait, don’t go: We have more to do here first… My personal favorite thing for leeks is stock and base for soup or stew: While leeks.org has a lot of stuff, I didn’t see anything on this stuff, so here goes.

One very important key to a good soup, stew, or stock is the presence of a vegetable element; it provides flavors you just can’t get without ‘em. And the key to that element is mirepoix; mirepoix, (mere pwah), is a schmancy French word for a very simple and important thing, namely onion, carrot and celery mixed together. This simple mix of 50% onion, 25% each carrot and celery, adds a depth and breadth to soup, stew, sauce, reduction, glaze, roux, and on and on; it’s that important. When you make mirepoix, prep your veggies based on what you’re going to use the mix for: If you’re making soup, a fine dice is good; if you’re gonna make a big batch of stock, you can cut big old couple-of-inch pieces and be just fine with that; get the picture? We want these wonderful veggies to deliver flavor evenly and completely. So, let’s do one for a nice fall soup.

1 cup 50%-50% mix of leek and sweet onion, ¼” diced
½ cup carrot, ¼” diced
½ cup celery, ¼” diced
Pinch of salt

Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a sauté pan on low; add veggies and salt and sweat them.

Terminology Aside: “What is sweating, and why would I do it?” Well first off, it’s not hanging out to long in Texas heat… Sweating is the process of cooking veggies in a little fat, (Oil or butter or both), over relatively low heat. With sweating, we don’t want the veggies to brown or caramelize at all, as we would when sauteing; that can make for unpleasant burned or bitter note in a soup or stew. We just want our stuff to get translucent, (Especially the onions and leeks), give up some moisture, and start to concentrate and combine their flavor notes: The lower temperature is the key of course. Sweating is another one of those little tricks that separates the kids from the big pool. Aromatics, (Onion, garlic, leek, shallot, celery), are all kinda crunchy in texture: Sweating draws moisture and flavor and softens them up nicely; it is a big head start in making a soup that tastes fantastic right from the get go.

Heat 10 cups of water to a simmer, and toss in your mirepoix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Now add what floats your boat for a nice veggie soup; consider;

A couple nice tomatoes, diced
Cilantro
Potatoes, (Cooked to roughly ½ done, then diced and added)
Beans
Mushrooms
Parsley
Thyme
Bay Leaf
Dash of cayenne?
Smoked Paprika?
Smoked Salt?
Smoked or dried Chiles?

Simmer all for a good couple of hours, and enjoy! You can, as an alternative to sweating, roast your mirepoix in the oven for an earthier taste.

Use leeks in conjunction with our replacing onion and shallot for a really nice, subtle but potent flavor note; you’ll be very glad you did!

Notes on storage; leeks can be kinda potent, like their cousins. Store them whole in a paper bag in the veggie drawer of your fridge. Long term, the bottom line is these guys don’t store all that well: You can dry them, and if you freeze them, they must be as air tight as possible and used within a couple months, (After that they kinda get freezer burned and mushy). Of course if you make stock or soup/stew base, you can sure freeze that just fine.

Enjoy!

Good, Better, Best

OK so, let’s generalize about eating veggies. We’ve covered some specific eats and styles of cooking, but big picture, what to do? Here’s a few thoughts.

Crudité:
AKA, fancy French word for raw! Raw veggies are wonderful, and there’re few better methods to get great flavor from them: Crudité veggies are usually prepped and cut to bite size, which is nice for your diners, given the robust textures involved. While crudité veggies are usually done as an appetizer, they needn’t be held to just that: If you’re doing a multi-course meal, consider a crudité course between others as a nice palette cleanser. You can certainly add raw veggies to a main course or salad as well. A crudité course typically involves something to dip the veggies in, like a nice olive oil, balsamic vinegar, or a vinaigrette; even super simple things like butter and good salt with fresh radishes is a real treat.

Steaming:
A lot of veggies will turn out grandly if steamed, but not that many folks do it – I’m not sure why, maybe we feel we need special equipment, etc… Truth be told, a steaming basket does do a better job and if you’re truly gonna steam, ya kinda need one: See, to do this correctly, you need a little boiling water turning to steam beneath your veggies, with the rising, moist heat doing the cooking. If your veggies are sitting in boiling water, well, you’re not steaming, OK? Obvious choices to best benefit from this method include sugar snap peas, carrots, artichokes, asparagus, quartered onion or cabbage, and…

Boiling:
Well, let’s face it, boiling is kinda crude in the big picture of things: If you’re preparing nice, delicate, flavorful veggies, why boil ‘em to death if you have options? Answer, don’t, just do the ones that need or want this method. Truth be told, I can’t think of many things other than spuds that really want to be boiled… Yams, maybe turnips… I just can’t think of much more, and truth be told again, most of these will taste, look, and feel better with other methods, such as…

Roasting:
Roasting is cooking with dry heat, which might sound an awful lot like baking because… It is. Either method speaks of cooking with dry heat, with maybe a small amount of fat or liquid; baking usually refers to breads and baked goods, while roasting speaks to eat, fish, poultry, etc. For veggies, roasting is best done in an open pan, (We like glass and stone a lot, but metal’s fine if that’s what you’ve got). Dang near any veggie you want to cook will love being roasted and will reward you with depth and intensity of flavors that’ll knock your socks off. From potatoes to tomatoes and everything in between, try it, you’ll like it. Love asparagus or artichoke steamed? Try ‘em roasted with a drizzle of good olive oil and salt. Roast disparate veggies, (i.e. those that cook at different times), together by varying the cut you use to prepare each veg; for example, cut potatoes and carrots relatively small, while leaving celery, onion and tomato bigger – Balance things right and they all get done at the same time and are juuuuuust right! Roasting absolutely begs for flavor, so indulge, but conservatively – Apply my Golden Rule of Three, (No more than 3 spices, major flavor notes, etc), and have some fun: Olive oil, salt and Oregano; Garlic, lime, dill; thyme, chive, and balsamic vinegar; Salt, Pepper, and Rosemary – get the picture?

Braising:
Brai… huh?! Oh, trust me, if you don’t know braising, you wanna, for real! Braising means browning food in a fat, and then slow cooking it in a covered, liquid filled container. Do veggies dig this? Is the Pope Austrian? YES!! What are we talking about here? OK, demo time – how about killer root veggies for a nice treat? take potatoes, carrots and beets, cut ‘em into roughly bite sized pieces, and then heat a sauté pan to high with good olive oil in it. Brown the root veggies evenly, then put them in a casserole pan and cover with a bottle of good dark beer, like a Porter or Stout of your choice. Add garlic, salt, pepper, and a shot of Tabasco, and let that mix simmer until the veggies are fork tender, then serve with… Get the picture?

Anyway, there ain’t much right and wrong, just what you like, what you don’t, and what you ain’t tried yet – So try something here you’ve not, and let me know whatcha think!

Das Spaetzle

Reading the paper this morning, I saw an article on a local restaurant serving Pan Roasted Halibut with Dijon Spaetzle; I pretty much started drooling right off the bat… I was drinking coffee, hadn’t had breakfast, and didn’t have any Halibut, but I sure do have the basics for Spaetzle: There was no recipe in the article, but being a savory breakfast guy, I knew I could figure that one out and do it up, so I did, and here it is.

Spaetzle means “little sparrow,” in German, which I guess is a take on the shape or size or… I dunno, anyway, I love it and hadn’t made or had it in years. Spaetzle is basically a little noodle that is most commonly served as a side, like spuds, but you can do all kinds of things to it, since its basic dough just begging for inspiration. They go great as a bed for something wonderful, (Like the article noted), or as a side; only limit is your imagination and larder.

My version came out great, so I’ll lay it on ya here. I think Spaetzle screams for cheese, personally; most of the German cheeses are white and lean toward the Swiss than cheddar, etc. I made some Queso Blanco last night, and decided to try that with these guys; they paired up wonderfully! ( I re-posted the queso recipe below as well.)
Note on the chives; I used ’em because we grow ’em and I love ’em, but you could use anything that pairs well with mustard; Rosemary, Shallot…

Dijon Spaetzle

4 large eggs
¾ cup whole milk
2 cups all purpose flour, (Not self-rising!)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chives, minced
Salt and Pepper to taste

Salt a pot of water until it tastes salty, (Kinda sea waterish) and bring to a boil.

Combine eggs, milk, mustard and chives and beat well. Add flour slowly but surely until you end up with a sticky batter, (More toward the pancake side than the dough side).

Spoon about half the batter into a sieve or colander with roughly ¼” holes. Take that to your pot of boiling water, take a spatula or pastry knife and gently scrape the batter through the holes.

Allow Spaetzle to boil for about 2 minutes, until it’s just al dente; remove from the water onto a clean plate.

Melt your butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Toss in your Spaetzle and stir constantly so they butter thoroughly coats the noodles, and you just start to get a bit of golden brown in them.

Transfer Spaetzle to a serving plate, add salt and pepper and garnish with fresh parsley.

Queso Blanco:

One gallon whole milk
1/2 cup lime juice
Salt to taste

Heat the milk in a non-aluminum pot on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes or until it looks like it’s just about to boil (DON’T let it boil!); temperature should be 185 degrees.

Add lime juice. The curds will separate from the whey and the mixture will look grainy, kind of like you’ve just thrown a bunch of corn meal into a pot of skim milk. Simmer for a few minutes.

Pour contents into a cheesecloth-lined colander and let it drain thoroughly: To save the whey to make ricotta, put the colander over a pot.

Sprinkle the curds with salt; go saltier than you normally would; the salt will drain from the cheese as it dries. Now is the time to add any herbs, spices or chopped chiles if you like.

Gather the curds in the center of the cheesecloth and tie the ends; hang the cloth on the faucet to drain for a few hours, (At least four hours, overnight is better.

Refrigerated, it keeps about the same as fresh milk.

Great Summer Salad

We’re enjoying Reuben sandwiches tonight with homemade pastrami and homemade thousand island dressing. They’re great, but you really want a nice light salad as a counterpoint, and to help break up the heavier flavors of the sandwich. Here’s what Monica came up with. For the record, we used lemon cukes and roma tomatoes from our garden; y’all use whatever the gang provides that floats your boats!

Cucumber Tomato Salad

For the salad, prep and combine in a non-metallic bowl:
2 Med. cucumbers; peeled, seeded and sliced thin.
1 large tomato; cored, seeded and 1/4″ diced
1 tspn minced shallot
1/4 cup chopped garlic chives

Dressing:
Juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon, (As you prefer!)
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tbspns olive oil
2 tblspn white balsamic vinegar, (You can also use rice or apple cider vinegar)
1 tblspn cold water

Whisk dressing briskly, then add to veggies and toss to thoroughly coat veggies; let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes

Shred a bed of lettuce/greens of your choice.
Spoon salad over greens, garnish with feta cheese and toasted pine nuts.

Enjoy!