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What to do with lox, buckle and scallops? See below. We had a busy week, but some of the highlights were bagel and lox salad which I made up out of desperation one night after a hard day of Storkbite wrangling. The pièce de résistance of the week was the ceviche, which I made with fresh scallops and calamari from our local fisher at the farmer’s market. In addition to the ceviche, I made a fresh blueberry buckle with the leftover ingredients from this morning’s buttermilk blueberry pancakes. It’s basically the reincarnation of breakfast for dessert.
Bagel and Lox Salad
This was another variation of breakfast for dinner. It was chopped red onion and capers added to a regular plain old vinaigrette dressing over greens. Then on top, toasted bagel pieces, smoked salmon, and crumbled hard boiled egg.
This was a very quick meal which I threw together in minutes while singing to Storkbite in her high chair. Papa ran in from work, ate his salad and promptly left for a meeting. Yep, that’s what our week was like. Good thing we splurged on scallops for our Saturday night feast.
Ceviche
OK, so this was so damn good. Storkbite’s papa told me that he felt like he was sitting on a beach in Mexico. I took that as a compliment. The best part about this is that I had all the ingredients except the scallops and cherry tomatoes which were purchased steps from our front door at the farmer’s market. I had never made ceviche before and I think I’ve only eaten it once. This was a 100% intuitive recipe that actually worked out! I used about 1 lb. of very fresh scallops, 3 calamari, a hand full of tomatoes, 1 avocado, 5 limes, 1 orange, 1 small white onion, 1/2 a small zucchini, 1 long skinny light green pepper, 1 handful of rough chopped cilantro, salt, pepper and olive oil. I just chopped everything really nicely and mixed in together in a bowl. I let all the flavors marry together in the refrigerator for the afternoon and then we took the entire bowl to the park to watch Twelfth Night. The ceviche, a loaf of semolina bread, a bottle of wine and comedic Shakespeare made for an excellent Saturday evening. Wow - I can’t get over hot summery and delicious a bowl of fresh ceviche is - YUM!
Blueberry Buckle
This dessert started when I ran out of our apartment at 8 AM in my PJs to the farmer’s market to get some blueberries. I woke up wanting buttermilk blueberry pancakes real bad. Instead of making tons of pancakes to save for the week, I dumped the remainder of my homemade batter into a baking dish, threw in a layer of fresh blueberries and topped it with the crumble (or buckle) part of this dessert. It’s simply 3 tbs. butter mixed up with 1/4 c. flour, 1/4 c. brown sugar, 2 tbs. white sugar, pinch of salt and a big fist full of almonds. Mix that up until it’s crumbly and put it all over the top. I baked this for 30 mins. at 350 and it looked nice and brown. I don’t think you can really go wrong with having blueberry buttermilk pancakes twice in one day. I don’t think Storkbite will mind.
This week has been a total blur since our whole family had the flu last weekend. I didn’t even realize that it was already Thursday until about 11 AM this morning! It’s even more of a challenge to use our CSA box on a week when our spirits have been quite low and lettuce is the last thing we want to eat. I’m going to post three menu items that have been on this weeks roster.
Summer Borscht
I had several beets that needed to be processed and it’s been so hot here so a cold soup fit the bill. Nearly all the ingredients were in our farm box. This soup is as simple as steaming diced beets until tender and letting them cool. Then in a bowl add approx. 2 cups of stock (I used vegetable), 1 cup of the beet juice from the steaming pot, 1 cup of yogurt, 8 oz of sour cream, juice from one lemon, 2 tsp of champagne or white wine vinegar, 1/4 c. sugar, fresh dill and a diced cucumber. Mix it all up and add the cooled beets. It’s really a treat on a cool night and you can’t beat the beautiful color combination of the beets and dill.
Bacon & Egg Salad
The only thing that we were able to stomach over lettuce was bacon and eggs this week. After taking care of Storkbite and her increased fussiness due to the emergence of her first tooth, I have been cutting corners in the kitchen. The abundance of lettuce is really overwhelming on top of everything else so I just made another big salad with bacon, eggs, avocado, paramesan wedges, lettuce, homemade croûtons and a mustard vinagrette. It’s so quick and easy that after a long day this is all I have the patience for. However, it’s not from a box and has no preservatives so it’s just great whole food.
Zucchini Pizza
Our CSA box had an abundance of zucchini for the past three weeks so I’ve gotten creative. I made a delicious zuccarrot cake but my presentation was terrible because it was a humid day. I made lots of puree zucchini baby food for Storkbite and she actually liked it! The last thing I could think of with my harried mind was pizza. This particular pizza was built on pizza dough that I got on my way home at our local pizzeria, then I layered on crumbled feta cheese, zucchini, yellow squash, drizzle of olive oil, onion, salt & pepper, and a sprinkle of parmesan over the top. I baked it at 450 for about 20 minutes until the crust was brown and then arranged fresh basil leaves on the top. It was delicious! The ingredients where as fresh as possible, probably picked yesterday. The best part about this pizza was that it took me ten minutes to put it together and get it in the oven, then I went and put Storkbite to bed and once she was fast asleep the pizza was ready to be enjoyed - in peace and quiet.
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.
When I was younger and had the time and money to travel around on a shoestring and crash on people’s couches, I went to Paris for a few weeks and tried to find the best salade chevre chaud. I found it too, I know exactly where it is and it’s one of the best in Paris. I took my then fiance and now husband to the same little cafe and had it many years later - it was the same. When I had more time in general before Storkbite came along, I used to make this extremely elaborate chevre chaud and it was delicious. It was a very colorful composed salad situated on a bed of greens tossed in a moutarde vinagrette. Shredded carrot, red cabbage and couscous was carefully arranged and to top it all off were the square packets of goat cheese stuffed crepes. This salad rocket my world and I would really give anything (except Storkbite) to go to Paris right now and eat ten of those salads at that very sweet cafe.
What I learned on my quest is that the salad was made differently everywhere I sampled it. Sometimes I didn’t even like the salad at all. If I hadn’t had the best one ever first then I may never have liked it. My personal salade chevre chaude has deteriorated over the years. Now it’s really nothing more that toasted goat cheese on bread over salad. I make it differently every time - knowing that it’s completely OK to do so.
So for tonight’s chevre chaude I toasted some bread with olive oil and salt. I cut my goat cheese (it works better to cut it with dental floss) and coated the rounds in store bought bread crumbs. I popped them into the freezer while catering to Storkbite’s every whim. Once I got back I tossed greens in vinagrette and sliced some cherry tomatoes. I heated butter and olive oil in a pan and then put in the little chevres. Just a couple minutes on each side - too long and the chevre will melt.
Arrange them on the toast and you done. It’s a very quick process and to me this salad is equally as comforting as baked mac n’ cheese.
One thing I’ve learned is that if it’s popular, do it again. I tend to vary the ingredients slightly and use the same flavors. If you are like me and buy spices when you have a particular dish in mind rather than having a fully stocked collection, then this trick is right for you. First off, I want to say that my favorite of all spices are from The Spice House and their gift boxes make excellent holiday presents.
Everyone here at Storkbite’s house liked the tandoori tilapia from a few nights ago, that I decided to put on a revival with chicken. It’s still really hot outside and all I could cook was a chicken breast rubbed with tandoori. I served it over the last of our delicious red leaf Boston lettuce with a yogurt, curry, vinegar and olive oil dressing. I served some naan on the side which is in the frozen section of Trader Joe’s. It was fantastic!
The best part about this meal was that it took minutes. Storkbite’s Papa gave me a 10 minute warning that he was going to be home for 20 minutes before leaving for a meeting and he needed to EAT. I have no idea how I conjured up something so quick and satisfying, but I did.
There is something about fresh spinach salad with hot bacon dressing that is an early summer treat like no other. It seems taboo to consume a dressing that consists of well… Bacon Grease! I feel entitled to do it now before it’s too late. After we got Storkbite to bed, I went to work on composing what is basically bacon and eggs over spinach.
One of the complications of mothering an infant and cooking is that I can’t seem to prep anything for a solid time period without stopping to nurse or play or change a diaper. So, I find that if I can get little things accomplished while Storkbite naps then we are good to go and we can get straight to eating when we are hungry after bedtime rather than prepping for hours before our meal. For this salad I hard boiled eggs during the afternoon nap. Of course I forgot about them, but fortunately you can’t destroy a hard boiled egg by letting it go too long. You just have a fire hazard! Once I put it all together, I soaked the spinach from our CSA in cold water to remove the grit. Papa went to work on the bacon and I cut the tomatoes, eggs and red onion. The secret to the sauce is that you have to make essentially a honey moutarde vinagrette in the hot bacon grease. I went the extra step of throwing the red onion in the hot grease to cook it a little, then adding honey, a teaspoon of Maille mustard, a dash of olive oil, salt and pepper.
After a quick run around with a whisk, I poured that on the salad spun spinach and plated the salad.
It’s a decadent thing to eat, but so seasonal and delicious. I look at it like my personal right of passage to summertime.
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