My sister-in-law passed on a great salad dressing recipe about a
year ago
– and I don’t think I’ve made any other dressing since. This is
a shame, considering how many good ideas are out there. Simply put:
I think I’m in a rut.
My sister-in-law passed on a great salad dressing recipe about a year ago – and I don’t think I’ve made any other dressing since. This is a shame, considering how many good ideas are out there. Simply put: I think I’m in a rut.
This happens sometimes, even if you’re a cooking columnist responsible for three new recipes each week. When weeks feel too busy, you lean on the old standards, the ones you can make in your sleep. You turn to the few recipes that actually please every member of your family – even if the dishes are sometimes a little boring.
Of course, half of the battle in the kitchen is having the right ingredients available when you need them. There is a fine line between not buying at all and buying so early that the ingredient is out of date when you want to use it. I think that’s why we turn back to our old favorites. They’re usually simple to make and full of ingredients that are always in your pantry or fridge, like my favorite salad dressing: 2/3 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, garlic salt, whisk in 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola, sprinkle pine nuts on top. And, voila, the same great salad I made … just yesterday.
So here’s a challenge for this week: try something new. Given the temperature outside, I’m going to start with a few salads with new dressings. If you have a new recipe that you’ve tried from a friend or cookbook, please e-mail it to me so we can share.
• Shallots and wine vinegar: I love recipes that include shallots. It’s a neat word and it always makes a recipe sound exotic and sophisticated. This salad dressing can be made in about 10 minutes. Use on a salad of hearty, bitter greens such as endive, escarole, spinach and radicchio.
Warm Bacon and Shallot Dressing with Basil Shreds
6 slices bacon, diced
2 1/4 teaspoons sugar
1 medium-sized shallot, minced
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons shredded fresh basil leaves
Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon. Drain on paper towels. Add sugar to bacon fat in the pan. Cook, stirring, until lightly browned.
Stir in shallots; cook, stirring often, until shallots are crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Stir in vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat; stir in basil and bacon.
• New slaw: This isn’t your old slaw. The difference: no mayonnaise and you must buy some raspberry vinegar to get just the right taste. This recipe comes from Mark Stanley, an instructor at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, who says: “Cabbage is like one of those great character actors in movies. You see them all the time, but they never are the stars.” Toss this salad with dressing just before serving.
Napa Slaw
1/3 cup raspberry vinegar
2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 head Napa cabbage
1 head radicchio, shredded
Whisk together vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. Let stand several minutes until sugar dissolves. Slowly whisk in oil; season with salt and black pepper to taste. Set aside.
Cut 1 inch off the bottom of the napa cabbage. Cut large leaves in half lengthwise; shred all leaves about 1/8-inch thick. Place in a large bowl with radicchio leaves, sliced or torn into smaller pieces. Toss cabbage mixture with enough vinaigrette to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve soon after mixing to avoid excessive wilting.
Serves 4.
• Hotel Cobb: In the 1920s, Hollywood restaurant manager Robert Cobb improvised a salad while raiding the Brown Derby’s refrigerator after a long shift. The Cobb Salad has since been imitated and improvised more times than can be counted. This version costs $20 at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles.
Hotel Bel-Air’s Cobb Salad
Salad
2 hearts of romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
6 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 skinless, boneless cooked chicken breast halves, chopped
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced or chopped.
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
Lemon Vinaigrette
1 small shallot, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon chopped chives
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/4 cup peanut oil
To make salad, place romaine in a large salad bowl. Cover romaine with bacon, chicken, tomatoes, avocado and blue cheese.
To make dressing, cook shallot and vinegar in a small skillet over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Set aside to cool. Place mustard, chives, parsley, sugar, salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl. Whisk to combine.
Whisk together vinegar mixture, mustard mixture and lemon juice. Slowly add oil, whisking constantly until blended. Toss salad at the table with lemon vinaigrette.
Serves 4.
• I love this chicken: This is one of my mainstay recipes. It’s usually served on Monday nights because that’s the day I’m finishing my column and I don’t have a lot of time to think about “what’s-for-dinner?” Everyone loves it. Serve it simply, with rice and a small salad if you can manage it. The chicken is so tender and the garlic is divine. It’s soul-satisfying food.
Garlic and Lemon Chicken
10-12 pieces of chicken (whatever cuts your family likes)
2 cloves garlic, separated but NOT peeled
2 lemons
1/2 cup olive oil
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper
Place chicken in a 9×12-inch glass baking pan. Sprinkle garlic cloves around chicken. Drizzle olive oil liberally over the chicken.
Quarter the lemons, squeeze over the chicken and then throw the lemon skins into the dish. Cut rosemary sprigs into 6-8 pieces and tuck in and among the chicken pieces. Sprinkle salt (kosher or grey salt if you have it) and pepper over the chicken. Then cover with aluminum foil and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Take foil off of dish, reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook for another 35-45 minutes. Keep an eye on the chicken: you want it browned, but still juicy. Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
This week’s tip
Kids like small things. Try cutting chicken into smaller pieces before broiling or baking; use poultry shears. The smaller size will fit diminutive hands.
Notes
• Organic baby formula: Horizon Organic is distributing the first and only USDA certified organic infant formula. California and two other states are the first markets to receive the formula. Available in Safeway stores.
• Steak and wine: Family Wineries of Santa Clara Valley are gearing up for one of their most famous parties – the New York Steak BBQ & Wine Party. The event will be held on Saturday, April 24, from noon to 5 p.m. The $37.50 ticket price includes a thick delicious steak BBQ lunch with all the trimmings and free wine tasting. Participating wineries are: Cooper Garrod, Fortino, Guglielmo, Hecker Pass, J Lohr, Kirigin, La Rochelle, Pedrizetti Picchetti, Rapazzini, Sarah’s, Savanah-Chanelle, Thomas Kruse and Zanger Winemakers will be there to meet, pour and cook lunch for guests. Live dance music, wine barrel races, dance contests and more will be held for entertainment. The event will be held rain or shine and you must be 21 to attend. Purchase tickets at participating wineries or by calling (800) 548-3813.
• Save the date: For La Filice Winery’s 2nd annual Spring Lamb Barbeque. The barbeque benefits the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford and is co-sponsored by La Filice, Campo di Bocce and the San Jose Greek Community. The event will be held at Campo di Bocce in Los Gatos on April 24. For more information or to get on the mailing list, call (408) 847-4224 ext. 105 or e-mail lh***@******ma.com.
• Interchangeable oats: Old-fashioned oats and quick-cooking oats can usually be interchanged in recipes.
• Breakfast change: How about making corn bread for breakfast some morning? It’s a nice change from pancakes but still goes beautifully with butter and syrup. I made some recently using the recipe on the box of corn meal and my girls loved it.
• Split ’em: Unlike whole peas, split peas don‚t need soaking before being cooked.
• End notes: “The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.”
~ Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
Happy cooking!
