Dinner Parties!

One of the few cooking magazines I can't get via Texture (aka Next Issue) on my ipad is Kraft Food and Family.  I know.  Pretty much the last cooking magazine you'd expect me to subscribe to.  But I do because on occasion I find a gem.  It's easy to read through too.  This month I've found two gems thus far.  It seems that they've gotten on board the bandwagon of fresh ingredients, which is good. 

The first recipe we tried was for spicy grilled potato salad.  We left the office during a torrential rainstorm. It wasn't much better when we got home.  And, then poor Connie had to head off to the grocery in the same.  I stayed home and started cleaning up and prepping for a dinner party.  I'd read this recipe and another for blackberry glazed bbq chicken thighs on the way to work.  Let's just say that we give VERY few 2's out.  The chicken deserved that rating.  We also give out very few 5's.  The potato salad was a 4 pushing a 5.  It's super easy and super good.  And great leftover too.  I will note the recipe was to pop the potatoes in foil and grill them.  I decided to skip that and save time.  I don't think it made much difference since the potatoes were tossed with the dressing when very hot so they should have absorbed an equal amount of the dressing...

Then, the next evening it was time to get the rosemary roasted chicken ready to go and to keep getting ready for Saturday.  One of my very favorite bloggers and her delightful husband are coming over along with two of their best friends - one of whom happens to be a good friend of mine from high school and the other happens to be his incredibly wonderful wife.  Life gets in the way all too often so the six of us are behind on getting together.  Here's what the chicken looked like as I prepped it:

I was going through all the recipes I'd printed off looking for the gingered iceberg salad recipe when I ran across a recipe that'd be perfect for dinner.  Dean Fearings Texas Smoked Salmon Tartare.  It's a dish that's been inhaled at parties.  We had a couple of bags of smoked salmon.  And, I had all the other ingredients.  The night before I'd made the quinoa radish and snow pea salad.  All I needed to do was make a Greek dressing. Of course, in the magazine the recipe was written to use a Kraft Greek dressing.  I really prefer to make my own.  Usually the only store-bought dressings I'll use are a robust or zesty Italian as a marinade or a poppyseed.  It's so wonderful to have fresh herbs on hand again.  I headed to the herb garden and got a handful of oregano and basil and headed back in to make a dressing.  While I was doing everything else, I'd been using up the crepe batter from Mother's Day with the intention of freezing the crepes.   Then, inspiration struck.  What if I served the smoked salmon tartare with a couple of the crepes?  Perfect!  As was the quinoa salad.  I added a bit of chopped red onion on top but you could add pretty much any vegetable you'd like.  Or, for that matter, shrimp or chicken would be great in it. 

Now, I have to add in that the herb crepes were originally served with grated gruyere and thinly slice ham then napped with hollandaise sauce.  They're incredible that way.  But, they're also VERY versatile and would be perfect with many other fillings...  Mushrooms, chicken, shrimp, beef, eggplant...  And, you can use just about any sauce you'd like.

Well, now, since I've been gabbing about all these wonderful dishes it's probably time to share them...

Spicy Grilled Potato Salad

Ingredients:

2 lbs small red potatoes, halved (I cut mine into 1/2" chunks)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c Zesty Italian dressing
1/3 c mayonnaise (the recipe called for Hot and Spicy so I added Tabasco Chipotle)
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
4 green onions, sliced

Directions (the way I actually made the recipe)

Cook the potatoes over medium heat until they're done.  Have a mixing bowl ready with the garlic and half of the Italian dressing.  As soon as the potatoes are done, drain them then toss them with the dressing mix.  In another bowl, combine the rest of the Italian dressing, the mayo and the Tabasco.  Toss that with the potatoes, bacon and green onions



Texas Smoked Salmon Tartare

Ingredients:

2 oil-packed anchovies, drained and coarsely chopped
2 t roasted garlic paste (I just used crushed garlic)
1 t ground cumin
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 c sour cream
2 t fresh lime juice
one 1/2 lb piece of skinless smoked salmon cut into 1/4" dice
1 small jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/4 c finely chopped red onion
1 T capers, drained and coarsely chopped
1 T finely chopped cilantro
salt and pepper
4 dozen sturdy corn tortilla chips

Directions:

In a medium sized mixing bowl, mash the anchovies and garlic.  Add in the cumin, olive oil, sour cream and lime juice and mix well.  Fold in the other ingredients.

Snow Pea and Radish Quinoa Salad
makes 12 servings
photo is up top

Ingredients:

3 c cooked quinoa (one cup of uncooked)
1 c snow peas, cut into thin slices
4 green onions, sliced
6 radishes, quartered then sliced thinly
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 c Greek dressing
2 T finely chopped fresh mint (I omitted this and added finely chopped red onion)

Directions:

Toss the ingredients together and serve.


Herb Crepes
makes 12 crepes

Ingredients:
1 3/4 c flour
3 eggs
1 1 /4 c milk
1/2 c water
1/2 t salt
1/4 c chopped mixed herbs (parsley, thyme oregano, tarragon)
4 T unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

Add the flour and eggs to your food processor.  Process just until the dough comes together.  Slowly add in the milk water and butter.  Pour the batter into a bowl and mix in the herbs and salt.  Make crepes using 1/4 cup of batter per crepe.  If you don't have a crepe pan, a small skillet with sloped sides will work well. 

New Potato Salad Tartare

It's time for Blogger C.L.U.E. Society :-)  Our theme is Easter.  Of course the first thing that comes to mind is eggs.  But, then as I read Kathy's blog I started thinking that Easter conjures up so many great memories.  Brunch.  Family dinners.  Another thing I realized as I read Kathy's blog is that a good number of the recipes aren't posted because they're from cookbooks that she's part of a group cooking their way through.  I was reading the chocolate panna cotta blog and absolutely drooling when I realized she wouldn't be posting the recipe.  Ditto on the pear, pecan and blue cheese salad.  And the steak with mustard butter.  Oh, my.  I may just have to add to my cookbook collection.  I'm going to be dreaming about that chocolate panna cotta.  And, I'm not a dessert fanatic by any stretch of the imagination.  Then, I started getting into the posts with recipes.  Pumpkin beer bread.  I'd like that toasted, please.  And, zucchini ricotta tart with tomato jam.  You ought to see that.  Actually, click this link and you can:  Zucchini ricotta tart.  Doesn't that look scrumptious????  Then, there are three recipes from River Cottage Veg:  Potato, Green Bean and Olive Salad; Marinated Cucumbers with Mint; and Israeli Couscous Salad with Herbs and Walnuts.  The latter is the one I'm most anxious to try.  In the last couple of years we've grown addicted to Israeli couscous.  The only dish where I've not enjoyed it was in a mushroom bisque at one of my favorite restaurants.  As I told the waiter when he inquired, I thought it became slimy.  That's why the right dressing is so important.  Then, I found the post with the beet greens and ricotta tart.  I'll bet it'd be equally good with Swiss chard.  It's going on my list to make as soon as the farmer's markets have great greens.  Oh, and I found THE ONE.  MY recipe.  New Potato Salad Tartare.  In my world eggs must have the whites fully cooked.  But I do love the yolks soft.  And, I confess, I've never thought about using eggs with soft yolks in potato salad.  Talk about an AH HA moment!  It was pretty late at night and I still almost got up and headed to the kitchen to start cooking.  Here's a link so you can see Kathy's gorgeous photography:  New Potato Salad Tartare.  And, suddenly I was back to square one - EGGS!  Yup, I could pretty much cook my way through Kathy's blog - Bakeaway with Me.

So, what did we think?  In spite of the problem with the slightly undercooked whites (hopefully most of you aren't as much of a baby as I am about that!!!) we absolutely LOVED this dish.  It's a twist on a potato salad I've made since the mid 70's and improves it so much.  With the soft egg yolks, the potato salad almost becomes silky.  It's absolutely scrumptious.  Now, I can't wait to have a cookout and serve this for company.  Who's coming over?

Here's the recipe:
New Potato Salad Tartare

Ingredients:

Salad:
2 lbs small red potatoes, trimmed and quartered
3 large eggs
2 T plus 1 t fine sea salt, divided
2 T capers
1 T finely chopped cornichons or gherkins
1 rib celery, very finely chopped (I added this)
1/4 c finely chopped fresh parsley
1/4 c finely chopped fresh dill (our grocery was out so I didn't substitute...)
2 T finely chopped fresh chives
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper

Dressing:
1 T red wine or apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 t Dijon mustard
1/2 t fine sea salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
3 T extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Mix the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.  In a medium saucepan with water and 2T of salt, cook the potatoes until they're tender.  While they're cooking, bring another medium saucepan of water to a rolling boil.  Carefully lower the eggs into the water using a slotted spoon.  Cook them for seven minutes then immediately put the eggs into an ice bath.  Full disclosure here...  I went over by two minutes and the whites were still a little too soft for me.  There was some scraping going on before I'd put them in the salad...  When the potatoes are tender, drain them and immediately toss them with the dressing.  Add the capers, cornichon, herbs and celery and carefully toss.  When the eggs are done, gently fold them into the mix.  Serve warm or at room temperature.





And, please take a few minutes to visit my friends who've posted some great recipes!

• Sue from A Palatable Pastime
• Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Rebekah from Making Miracles
• Kathy from Bakeaway with Me
• Kathy from A Spoonful of Thyme
• Debra from Eliot's Eats
• Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Anna from annaDishes
• Lea Ann from Cooking on the Ranch
• Christy from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Lisa from Authentic Suburban Gourmet
• Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Christiane from Taking on Magazines
• Kate from Kate's Kitchen
• Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Amy from Amy's Cooking Adventures

Crab Boil Potato Salad

Connie and I had a difference of opinion on the best dish of Sunday night's dinner.  He voted for this potato salad.  I voted for the kicked up baked beans.  But, when push came to shove and we had 25 points to allocate among crab boil potato salad, kicked up baked beans, esssence corn, essence chicken and essence + Alabama sauce chicken, we both came up with 6-5-5-5-4 points.  And, really I didn't mean to wind up with three starches.  It just happened.  I wanted bbq chicken, corn on the cob and sliced tomatoes.  It just didn't quite turn out that way.  i served dinner and said OOPS!  We've got a whole lotta starches going on here.  It's not going to quite work with the old food pyramid deal.  It did, however, work wth the old taste buds!

You see, when Connie plays bridge I frequently have either part of a can of Bush's Bourbon Brown Sugar Grilling Beans or part of a jar of pasta sauce.  It's called easy and quick food so I can get on with my projects for the evening.  Let's just say I had half a can of beans left.  They needed to be used up.  That's excuse number one.

Excuse number two is even better, if I do say so myself.  While we were out running our errands Sunday afternoon, I read part of a Food Network magazine.  There was a GREAT booklet of 50 potato salads.  We guessed the percentage that were mayonnaise, sour cream and yogurt based.  I won when I said half to two-thirds.  There were 30 out of 50.  I love winning contests like that :-)  One of them was for Crab Boil Potato Salad. Now, who I ask you, can pass up an opportunity to make that???  And, I had potatoes from the CSA that needed to be used.  The watermelon and blueberry salad got moved to later this week. Quickly got moved. 

What did we think?  Well, you already know Connie voted this as his favorite dish of the meal.  For me, this was second place.  It was VERY good and I'll absolutely make it again.  I may try making this as a pasta salad too.  The flavors were wonderful together and I think they'd do equally well with pasta.  The original recipe called for 1 1/2 t of the seasoning.  I doubled it and was very happy I did.

Crab Boil Potato Salad

Ingredients:
2 lbs boiled, cubed red potatoes
1/2 c celery, chopped
1/2  c corn
1 c mayonnaise
1 T lemon juice
1 T Old Bay or Emeril's Essence
1 c crabmeat

Directions:

Put the potatoes, celery and corn in a bowl.  In another bowl, mix the dressing ingredients:  mayo, lemon juice and Old Bay or Emeril's.  Gently toss the potato salad with the dressing.  Then, gently stir in the crab meat.  Serve warm or cold.



adapted from Food Network Magazine

A Perfect Five!

As those of you who've been reading my blog for a while know, we rank our dishes.  Five is OMG, that's good, you can make it again tomorrow.  Four is that's really good.  Three is it's ok but needs some serious tweaking.  Two is throw the recipe away.  One's don't exist - at least in our house they don't!  I can't say I've ever fixed a solid FIVE meal.  Must've happened along the way somewhere but I don't remember it.  Now, I'm memorializing one so if I forget about it later, you all can remind me... 


One evening last week, I sat down at the table with all the recipes from The Dish that I'd printed out and all of the pages I'd torn from the October, 2010 issue of Food and Wine.  Over the next three weeks we'd be eating at home together a maximum of 15 times.   At that point, I had 22 entrees on my list to try.  And, we're only required to submit four posts a week that are inspired by Food and Wine.  Now, inspired is a big word.  Pretty much anything can be inspired by something else in a magazine that covers as much territory as Food and Wine does.  I've chosen to focus on Food and Wine recipes for the month.  Almost all of the recipes we'll try over the next few weeks will be directly from Food and Wine. That's the only way we'll all get an idea of what the magazine has to offer.


Speaking of that, let's talk for a minute about Food and Wine the magazine.  Some may be put off by their focus on the coasts.  They believe most good restaurants are on the East coast or West coast.  Goodness knows, Indianapolis doesn't exist as far as they're concerned.  I agree totally with that criticism.  But, the other one that I hear a lot is that the recipes are way too far out is somewhat misplaced.  There are some recipes that I'd never in a million years make.  Many, however, are very approachable.  They don't require odd ingredients or cooking techniques.  I would say, most of the recipes are more suited to adults than kids.  I think if the grandkids came to visit for the weekend, I'd be pulling out some other recipes!  At any rate, please stop click on the link at the end of this post and leave a comment so you'll be entered to win a one year subscription to Food and Wine.  If you win, I hope you'll enjoy the magazine as much as we do!

On to the perfect five.  I'd pulled out a couple of recipes to try for dinner then saw Alison's post on maple balsamic vinaigrette and the lovely salad she made with it.  That'd be perfect with the cod and potato salad.  A couple of notes on the recipes.  The original cod recipe called for crisping the olives in olive oil in the microwave.  I don't know about you but I'm not fond of the idea of heating olive oil in my microwave until it's hot enough to crisp olives...  That'd scare the heck out of me.  So, in the instructions below I show how I did them.  Also, once I made the spinach and chive puree, I felt it had too much oil - even at 1/4 cup.  So, I added more spinach.  Since dinner was almost ready I didn't take the time to blanch it and was thrilled when it turned out just fine.  Actually, because I didn't blanch it, there were lovely flecks of spinach in the puree - bonus!  As usual, I replaced the maple syrup with shagbark hickory syrup in the dressing recipe.  For the salad, I used what we had on hand - spinach and strawberries.  The recipe didn't call for putting soy sauce in with the nuts but I thought it'd be a good addition.  The sugar syrup bubbled and rolled when I added it. 

Connie and I were both intrigued by the crispy olives.  So, that's the dish we both started with.  YUMMY!  Then, on to the potato salad.  Yummy again.  Then, the spinach salad.  Again.  He looked up and said, "You know this dinner is a solid five."  It was indeed.  Enjoy!

 

Mustard Glazed Cod with Chive and Spinach Puree

 Ingredients:

1 cup snipped chives
1 cup baby spinach
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c coarsely chopped green olives
1-2 T olive oil
4 - 6 oz cod fillets
3 T dijon mustard

Directions:
Blanch the spinach and chives in boiling water for no more than 30 seconds.  Drain them well, then squeeze to remove as much moisture as possible.  Put the spinach and chives in a blender with 1/2 cup olive oil.  (I used closer to 1/4 cup.)  Blend until it's pureed.  You still want some flecks of the spinach and chives for appearance. 

Coarsely chop the green olives. 

Brown them in a small skillet in about a tablespoon of olive oil.  They'll get very crunchy.

Slater the dijon on the cod

Broil it until it flakes easily.

Serve with the olives sprinkled over the cod and the puree drizzled around it.

adapted from Food and Wine

 

Potato Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1 lb fingerling potatoes
2 T champagne or chardonnay vinegar
2 t dijon mustard
1/4 c olive oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 shallot, minced
salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:
Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes or until they're done.  Mix the rest of the ingredients for the dressing. 

Drain the potatoes and immediately cut them into coins and toss them with the dressing while they're still very warm. 

 
adapted from Food and Wine


Spinach Salad with Alison's Balsamic Maple Dressing

Ingredients:
fresh spinach
strawberries, cored and quartered
pecans
balsamic maple dressing

for the dressing:

3 T olive oil
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 T red wine vinegar
3 T shagbark hickory syrup or maple syrup
1 T chopped fresh thyme
1 t chopped parsley
1/2 t salt
1/2 t freshly ground pepper

Whisk all dressing ingredients together.

for the pecans:
1/2 c pecan halves
1 t sesame oil
1 T sugar
1/4 t soy sauce

Toast the pecans in a small skillet.  Add the sesame oil, then the sugar.  Allow to caramelize a bit.  Add the soy sauce.  Remove from the heat and pour onto a piece of aluminum foil.  Allow to cool before sprinkling on the salad

To put together the salad, put the spinach in bowls, top with the strawberries then the dressing then the pecans.

Thank you to Alison for yet another fantastic recipe!!

adapted from Prairie Story


FOOD and WINE is giving away a year-long subscription to a lucky reader from Kate's Kitchen. Click here to enter and read official rules here.




This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD and WINE archive. As a FOOD and WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD and WINE. I received a subscription to FOOD and WINE for my participation.

Blue Cheese Potato Salad

One of those rare fives.  About three or four years ago I cut this recipe out of a magazine.  Who knows what one.  I must take every cooking magazine known to mankind.  If only they'd put a little identifying mark at the end of each recipe.  Wouldn't that be wonderful, bloggers?  But, they don't and three years ago the thought of blogging had never crossed my mind...  We went to the Keystone Deli for breakfast.  The morning after a wedding.  I think it was Chad and Heather's.  Chad's mom Vicki and aunt Donna are two of my best buds.  Donna and her hubby, Phil, spent the night at our house.  We met the whole crew (minus the happy newlyweds) at our favorite breakfast place the next morning for breakfast.  As usual, everyone ordered WAY more than they could eat.  Lots and lots of home fries left over.  Bonus!  I no longer had to cook potatoes for the new potato salad recipe later that day.  We were still so stuffed from breakfast that dinner consisted of a good-sized serving of this potato salad on a fan of freshly steamed green beans from our garden.  It was fabulous.  It became a tradition.  Last week we took the kids to the deli for breakfast.  I realized that Greg and Matt were, GASP!, actually eating their home fries.  I promptly ordered another order to go.  I mean, this is practically the best part of going to the Keystone Deli - blue cheese potato salad with leftover home fries.  So how, you ask, do you recreate this at home?  You make really crispy home fries.  I never worry about the skins, just slice the potatoes and fry 'em up in some olive oil.  My guess is that you can make this with leftover hash browns too.  Don't get too fussy about the kind of potatoes.  I've used new potatoes, yukon golds and Idaho russets.  They've all worked just fine.  But, the best are still the leftover home fries... 

Blue Cheese Potato Salad

10-12 new potatoes
1 c sour cream
2 T milk or mayonnaise
1/4 t white wine vinegar
salt and pepper
2 T parsley, chopped
3 green onions, sliced

1/3 c toasted almonds
3 eggs, hard cooked and chopped
4 oz blue cheese
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

This is one of those toss in and mix it up recipes.  Just don't toss it all together too long before you serve it or the almonds might get a bit soft.  Change the measurements around to suit yourself.  Use a different kind of nuts or cheese or salami instead of bacon.  Really, it's that forgiving a recipe!

These are the leftover home fries:

And, this is adding the other ingredients:

And, this is mixing it all up: