You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2008.
Yesterday was Thursday and all day I was thinking about our CSA box. I was desperate for beets, so when I looked at the newsletter midday (I couldn’t wait it out), I discovered that beets were in the box! This was all very exciting since I was dreaming of a rice salad. This particular incarnation of the rice salad used so many of the items from the box that it’s a real winner. Since Storkbite was having a meltdown due to the heat that is gripping NYC at the moment, I had to attend to her quite a lot so it was a good thing that the 2 cups of wild and brown rice I made took an hour to simmer in chicken stock. That didn’t do wonders for the heat of my kitchen, but the outcome was well worth it. The contents of the bowl below before I added the rice are as follows – vinaigrette dressing over steamed beets, slivered fennel, zucchini, diced celery, chopped mint and basil. That made for a bunch of really pretty colors and a variety of complex yet complimentary flavors.
Then we added the rice, mixed it all up and topped our plates with crumbled goat cheese. Oh dear, it was a feast! The first of the season’s beets really sent me over the edge. I can’t wait until next week when we get some more.
The Salade Nicoise is another regular menu item here at Storkbite’s house. However, pregnancy and nursing has put the kibosh on the regular consumption of tuna. I tend to cheat once (or twice) a month and have a little. I used to make the salad with sushi grade tuna, but that is definately too expensive for us these days. You can compose this salad any way you like and it looks really pretty when the ingredients are grouped. Last night I used non-traditional ingredients because the tomatoes of late are tainted and I still have a huge stock of frozen vegetables from TJ’s.
On a bed of lettuce and escarole from our CSA, I added tuna (from a can), avocado, previously frozen asparagus, hard boiled egg and olives. I just plain old vinaigrette dressing with added capers over the top and YUM. It was a very satisfying and hearty salad. We added wedges of toasted pita on the side. The great thing about these main course salads is that preparation does not heat up the apartment at all and you can do it in several stages.
Everyone seems to be looking forward to garlic scapes season this year. I saw them on the cover of the NY Time’s dining section a few weeks back. I don’t remember them being that popular before. They are neat looking little things – curly with a crooked neck and bulb on the end. They are delicious when fried up in butter and olive oil. My friends came up with some excellent ideas on how to prepare them, but I didn’t seem to have the right ingredients to follow the same path. Instead I just used good old butter and olive oil in a pan, added my scapes and a small pour of white wine (from my glass). I finished it of with a little more butter at the end to enrich the sauce. We then just poured all our scapes right on top of a big piece of grilled salmon.
What you see here on the side is kohlrabi slaw. I used my food processor to shred the kohlrabi and then treated it just like cole slaw. I made a dressing with approx. 3 tbs of vegetable oil, olive oil, white wine vinegar, dash of salt and pepper, 1 tbs. celery seed, a drizzle of honey. I mixed up the dressing and tossed it on the shredded kohlrabi. It was very fresh and delicious. I wish I added carrots, but we were out – next time.
Recent Comments