Cranberry Mustard Salad Dressing – You’ll Be Tickled Some Kind of Pink

For whatever reason, pink sauces are considered somewhat visually offensive in the foodie universe, so when describing this cranberry mustard salad dressing to your friends and family, please use hipper alternatives like, “ballet slipper” or “rosy mauve.”

Whatever it’s called, I actually love the color of this vinaigrette, and think it’s especially gorgeous with the classic fall/winter salad palette. I served it over some endive garnished with persimmons, pistachios, and pomegranate seeds, and it tasted as bright and pretty as it looked.

One word of caution regarding the ingredient amounts listed below: I like my salad dressings on the acidic side, so be sure to taste and adjust the amount of oil you add. You want to be careful with the walnut oil, as too much can overpower the dressing, but you can add more vegetable or olive oil, until it’s perfectly balanced for your palate.

As I joke about in the video, this seasonal vinaigrette is perfect for the non-cook to bring to a family gathering. We’re talking about a minimal effort to get what could potentially be lots of loving praise, or at the very least, fewer disappointed glances. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 2 1/4 cups of dressing:

1/4 cup prepared fresh cranberry sauce

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1 small garlic clove

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

[note: you can use 1/2 cup of any vinegar(s) you like]

1/4 cup walnut oil

1 cup vegetable oil or light olive oil, or as much as needed to balance acidity to your taste

Lettuce Entertain You and Get to Know a Farmer

This quick and dirty video recipe for grilled romaine hearts was shot on location at Tanimura & Antle, a family-owned lettuce farm we toured as part of the Get to Know a California Farmer field trip Michele and I just returned from in Carmel, CA.

The event was to introduce their website and, as the name implies, help us get to know a farmer, and that's what we did. We got a fascinating look into how lettuce gets from their farm to your table. Brian Antle, the farm’s Harvest Manager, ran the tour, and it was a joy to hear him talk with such pride about what his and the Tanimura family had created from this land. 

After the tour we were treated to a wonderful lunch showing off some of the farm’s famous foliage. The grilled romaine salad you’ll see in the video was a big hit, but we also had some beautiful pizzas, as you can see below. It always feels special to eat produce that was just picked hours before.

You’ll also see a short video I did showing how the lettuce goes from dirt to final packaging on this slow-rolling mobile processing plant. You’ll have to pardon the dirty lens, as I hadn’t planned on filming in the field, and never checked it. I believe the smudge is gumbo, but there’s really no way to tell for sure. Don't let that deter you, or you'll miss a cameo by social media guru, Jay Baer, on a bed of lettuce.

After lunch we got to tour Naturipe Farms, one of the largest berry producers in the state. Our guide, Tom, did a great job of explaining all the challenges that go into growing berries, especially strawberries. I learned that organic doesn't mean that no pesticides are used. They just need to be certified pesticides, and are often the same ones used in conventional farming. The highlight for me was his explaining how fish meal is regularly used to fertilize organic strawberries, unbeknownst to most vegans we assumed.

Anyway, it was a really fun trip, and I want to thank Adfarm and Get to Know a California Farmer for inviting us. Also, huge thanks to the farmers who shared their stories and delicious products with us. For more information on Get to Know a California Farmer, please check out their website! It's a fantastic way to connect directly with the people growing the food you put on your tables every day.

They’re also running a sweepstakes on the Facebook page where you could win $10,000 worth of groceries. It’s only open to California residents, and ends soon, so get over there and check it out. Enjoy!

Grilled Romaine Salad

How Lettuce is Harvested

Caesar Salad

Caesar salad must be one of the most popular salads in the world; it is a great salad if made with a little care and good ingredients. Buy good parmesan and good quality anchovies as this will make all the difference to the end result. The recipe for the dressing will make more than is needed but it will keep for a week in the fridge and is handy to have on hand.

I find it works very well a spoonful stirred into lightly crushed new season potatoes served with pan fried cod and some crispy streaky bacon.

Ingredients;

2 egg yolks

1 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 anchovies, drained

1tsp Dijon mustard

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

Juice of half a lemon

500ml of olive oil

50ml anchovy oil

100g grated parmesan

Cracked black pepper

1 large cos lettuce

A day old baguette, crust removed and thinly sliced

1 clove of garlic, crushed

2tblsp butter

8 anchovy fillets, rinsed and drained

8 slices of streaky bacon, baked until crispy and chopped, reserve any oil left from cooking

4 soft boiled quail eggs, each cut in half

50g shaved parmesan

Method;

For the salad;

Discard any bruised leaves from the lettuce, wash the remaining leaves and dry thoroughly and set aside. Melt the butter in an oven tray with the garlic. Once melted, drizzle the melted butter over the slices of bread, transfer to an oven and cook at 160c until golden, 10-15mins, keep checking the croutons to prevent them from burning. Drain on absorbent paper and set aside.

For the dressing;

Place the egg, garlic, anchovies, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice into a blender and blend. Mix the oils together (including the bacon oil if using, it adds a wonderful flavour), and with the motor still running in the blender, slowly trickle in the oils until a thick creamy sauce is achieved. Stir in the parmesan and the pepper, and check to see if a little salt is needed.

To complete the dish;

Rip the cos into large pieces and place into a bowl, add a generous amount of dressing and mix to coat the leaves. Add the croutons, anchovies and cooked bacon, mix well and place into a large serving bowl top two quail egg halves and shaved parmesan and serve.

Waldorf salad Apple, celery & walnut salad, watercress & Crozier blue cheese

Ingredients;

For the candied walnuts;

100ml stock syrup

100g walnuts roasted and peeled                             

For the dressing;

100g Crozier blue cheese   

2-3tblsp boiling water  

100ml mayonnaise     

Seasoning to taste

For the salad;

3 sticks of celery cut into 1cm dice      

200g watercress  

1 granny smith apple, peeled and cut into 1cm dice and tossed in lemon juice to prevent discolouring 

50g Crozier blue cheese, cut into 1cm dice                                                               

To serve;

Deep fried celery leaves

Method;

Bring the stock syrup to the boil, remove from the heat and add the nuts, allow the nuts to cool in the syrup. When cool place in the fridge and leave the nuts to sit in the syrup for 2 days.

Crumble the cheese into a bowl and whisk in the boiling water until the cheese is creamy and smooth.  Stir in the mayonnaise and season to taste.

Place all of the salad ingredients into a bowl and toss everything together.

Place the candied walnuts onto a tray and place under the grill; the nuts are ready when they are golden and caramelised 2-3mins.

Spoon the Crozier dressing onto service plates and arrange the salad neatly on top, scatter over the candied walnuts and garnish with deep fried celery leaves.

Cold Romano Bean Salad – There are Different Kinds of Vibrant

When I was a young boy, many summer lunches were spent at my grandparent's table, and that's where I first learned to enjoy fresh vegetables. Like every Italian family in town, they had a backyard garden, which meant an abundance of zucchini, tomatoes, and beans. This cold Romano bean salad was a staple during those hot summer months, and is still one of my favorite summer side dishes.

So, there are two ways you can do this recipe. You can boil your beans, dress them and serve immediately. This technique provides you with a nice vibrant salad, but the beans are simply coated with the dressing, as opposed to being marinated in it.

I prefer it dressed and left to marinate in the fridge overnight, which gives you something closer to a pickled bean. This style creates a sharper, colder, more herbaceous salad that is ideal for the rich, fatty, smoky meats of summer. The tradeoff is in appearance, with the beans giving up the green color for a more vibrant flavor.

If you grow beans, or have a neighbor who does, you should have the ways and means to give this dish a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 pound green beans

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 or 3 fresh mint leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

fresh sliced mint to top

Sufferin' Succotash Salad

I've been looking for a tasty way to show off this ultra-fast and easy barbecue sauce vinaigrette idea, and this almost raw succotash salad proved to be a perfect vehicle. And to think, I almost ruined it by doing it the right way.

Originally, I was going to grill the corn first, and then slice the cooked kernels into the salad. As I started to prep, I took a little nibble off the end of the ear, and it was so sweet and juicy that I decided to change the plan, and go au natural.

Thanks to the sweet, starchy crunch of the raw corn, the combination of tastes and textures in this salad is outstanding. Sure, you could certainly add more than the four ingredients called for here, but I'm wondering if that would really make this any more perfect.

This succotash salad is great for those occasions when you need to bring a side dish to the company picnic, or family reunion, and want to arrive with something that looks like you put in a lot more effort into it than you actually did.

As you'll see in the clip, the dressing could not be simpler, but will rely on a quality barbecue sauce to bring everything together. I used my wife Michele's famous SFQ sauce, but your favorite barbecue sauce should work out as well (assuming it's deeply-flavored, complex, and kind of spicy).

Anyway, this may not be the most exciting, or visually thrilling thing we've made around here, but what it lacks in aesthetic charm, it more than makes up for in everything else. I hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 ears fresh sweet corn

1 large red bell pepper, small dice

4 green onions, chopped fine

1 can white beans, rinsed, drained

salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Dressing:

2 tablespoons barbecue sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Verjuice-poached chicken salad with basil salad cream

This is a very simple summer salad using one of my favourite ingredients, Verjuice!!

But what is verjuice?

Verjuice is a seasoning made by pressing unripe fruit. It has a very tart flavour thanks to a high acid content and it can be used like vinegar or lemon juice in a variety of recipes. Traditionally, verjuice is made from unripened grapes, but it can also be made from apples and other fruits. If a recipe calls for verjuice and none is available, people can use other tart ingredients as a substitute.

This seasoning became extremely popular during the medieval era, and was seen in numerous recipes during this period. Unlike lemon juice and vinegar, it will not alter the perception of flavors in the wines served with food, and may be recommended as a seasoning for meals that will be served with wine so that the wine and food pairings do not clash. It can be used in dressings and sauces, as well as to deglaze pans and add a tart flavour to marinades and a variety of dishes ranging from fish to red meats.

Do try to find verjuice, It is available in some Sainsbury store and a good delicatessen should also stock, if they don't ask them if it would be possible to order some in for you. It is a very versitle store cupboard ingredient and well worth seeking out.

Serves 4;

Ingredients;

750ml	verjuice
2	fresh bay leaves
4	black peppercorns
3	sprigs thyme
3	sprigs flat-leaf parsley
3	chicken breast fillets
100g	baby endive leaves
100g	baby rocket leaves
1	baby cos lettuce, trimmed, washed, dried and torn into bite-sized pieces
2tbsp	extra-virgin olive oil
2tsp	white wine vinegar
1  8	avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and cut into 1cm-thick slices Cherry tomatoes cut in halves
Basil salad cream;
200ml	pouring cream
150ml	sour cream
1tsp	Dijon mustard
1tsp	lemon juice, or to taste
¼ cup	coarsely chopped basil

Method;

	Place verjuice, bay leaves, peppercorns and herbs in a large, deep frying pan and bring to the boil, then simmer for 3 minutes. Add chicken and simmer over very low heat for 10 minutes or until chicken is just tender. Remove pan from heat and stand, covered, for 12 minutes. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon, discard cooking liquid, then cool slightly and tear into bite-sized pieces.
	For basil salad cream, combine creams, mustard and lemon juice in a small bowl, season to taste and whisk to combine. Cover closely with cling film and refrigerate until required. Just before serving, stir in chopped basil. Makes about ¾ cup.
	Place salad leaves in a large, shallow bowl, add olive oil and vinegar, season to taste and toss to combine. Place the salad between 4 plates, then top with avocado, cherry tomatoes and chicken. Drizzle with a little basil salad cream and serve, with remaining basil salad cream passed separately.

Thai salad of roast pork belly, scallop and mango

This would have to be one of my all time favourite salads. The perfect balance of salty, spicy, sweet and sour are in perfect harmony in this refreshing salad, making it very Moorish. 

Salads are very important to the Thai’s. The word for salad in Thai dialect is yam and basically means toss together. Salads in Thailand are very different to that of western cuisine. Where we would associate a salad of a selection of greens leaves with mellow vinaigrette, the Thai yam would be an assortment of ingredients tossed in a very pungent dressing, and most of the times there are no leaves present at all. All Thai salads are famed for their distinctive flavours that tantalises and cleanse the palate during a banquette of dishes that would be served at a Thai meal.

Ingredients;

For the nam jim dressing;

4 cloves of garlic, peeled

Coriander steams or roots

4 white peppercorns

1 tsp sea salt

8 green birds eye chillies

2tblsp palm sugar

40ml fish sauce

80ml fresh lime juice

3 red shallots thinly sliced

For the pork and scallops;

Pork belly salted and roasted

4tblsp palm sugar

2tblsp fish sauce

3 scallops, coral trimmed

Seasoning

To finish and serve;

1 mango peeled and sliced

Cucumber peeled, seeded and diced

4 cherry tomatoes cut into quarters

1 baby gem lettuce, ripped

1 shallot thinly sliced

8 small mint leaves

6 coriander leaves

Method;

Place the garlic, coriander, peppercorns and salt into a mortar and bash with a pestle until well crushed, but not reduced to a paste. Add the chillies and crush lightly. The more you crush the chillies the hotter the sauce will become, so be careful. Mix in the palm sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and shallots. The longer the dressing sits the more intense the flavour becomes so try to make the dressing as close to the time as you need it so that it taste very fresh.

Trim the pork belly into neat squares and place in a pan skin side down and roast for 8mins until very crisp. Put a small pot with a little water and the palm sugar onto the stove and cook until caramelised. Pour in the fish sauce and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat. Remove the pork from the oven and cut into thin slices. Pour the sauce over the pork.

Place a pan onto high heat with a little oil, cut the scallops in half and season the cut side. When the pan is almost smoking add the scallops. It is very important to have the pan at high heat so they seal properly and don’t stew in the pan. They should have a firm crust but still be slightly rare inside. Remove from the pan.

Place all of the salad ingredients into a bowl and add enough of the dressing to coat. Mix well and arrange in the centre of a serving plate. Place the pork belly on top of the salad and arrange the scallops around the salad. Serve at once.

Apple Jicama Coleslaw – Don't Believe Everything You Read in the Produce Aisle

This crispy, crunchy, and extremely refreshing coleslaw recipe features a very under-utilized vegetable found in almost every large American grocery store's produce section – I'm talking about jicama.

In fact, there's a good chance you've never had it, which is a shame. The flavor is very mild, and subtly sweet. It's just perfect for raw salads like this coleslaw, and blends wonderfully with the tart apple and crunchy cabbage.

One problem with jicama is how it's marketed. As you'll see in the video, the label described it as, "a Mexican potato," which is just a terrible comparison. If you want to make something sound unappetizing to an American, have them think they are going to be eating something that's like a raw potato. Yum.

Jicama does have a similar texture to a raw potato, but that's where that comparison ends. It is a little starchy, but pleasantly so, and each bite produces a mini explosion of juicy goodness. So, don't be afraid! I hope you buy some jicama on your next trip to the market, and give this easy side dish recipe a try soon. Enjoy!




Apple Jicama Coleslaw Ingredients:
1/2 small green cabbage, sliced into 1/4-inch strips
1/2 jicama, sliced into 1/4-inch strips on a vegetable slicer
1 large Fuji apple, sliced into 1/4-inch strips on a vegetable slicer
For the dressing:
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp sugar
hot sauce to taste
salt to taste
1/3 cup crushed corn nuts

Peach and Escarole Salad – 'Cause I'm Tired of Greens You Can Gum!

This magnificent peach and escarole salad was inspired by one Michele and I had on our recent trip to New York City. We were taken out to dinner by my publisher (which has nothing to do with the story, but I really enjoyed typing that) to a place called Hearth, in the East Village.

The salad course was a plate of roughly torn escarole, dressed with a slightly sweet sherry vinaigrette. As I ate, I kept thinking to myself, damn, this is one delicious salad. The odd thing was, it took me a good while to actually put my finger on what exactly made it so wonderful.

Then it hit me. It was made with real, full-grown, somewhat tough, slightly bitter greens. 95% of the salads I eat in restaurants these days are made with the ubiquitous "baby greens" – that bland, one-dimensional, melt-in-your-mouth mixture of lettuce, so soft and delicate you don't even need a set of teeth to eat them.

This was the polar opposite of that. I had almost forgotten how interesting a salad could be! So, when Michele brought home a couple small heads of escarole one afternoon, I decided to film a salad recipe video, combining the mas macho greens with sweet peaches, goat cheese, and walnuts.

One trick with escarole is to make sure you are using a sweet enough dressing to offset the bitterness. I accomplished that with a dressing of sherry and rice vinegar, and then, just to hedge my bets, I added some perfectly ripe peaches to the mix. The result was one of the best salads I've had in years. Enjoy!




Peach and Escarole Salad Ingredients:
1 small head escarole (smaller is better, as it gets too bitter when large)
1 ripe peach
4 oz goat cheese
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 tablespoon olive oil
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Using My Melon… for the Third Time!

So, to celebrate the last rerun you'll have to suffer through for a while, I've decided to post this spectacularly delicious watermelon and feta salad with toasted cashews. Not only is this a rerun, it's a rerun of a rerun.

The original was filmed when I first started online. The camera I used back then was a tiny web-cam, duct-taped to a spice rack. The sound was bad, the humor even worse. A couple years ago, I decided to use the original footage and some of the audio to produce a new clip in iMovie.

Above and beyond having some fun at the expense of the rerun complainers, I wanted to post this today because watermelon has been super-sweet lately, and there are few things as perfect together as sweet, wet watermelon and salty, feta cheese.

This is Michele's favorite summer salad (probably mine as well), and anyone I've ever talked to that's made this, and brought it to a summer cookout, has gotten an embarrassingly large amount of compliments. So if you're into that kind if thing, please give it a try!

UPDATE! Sorry, I should have mentioned that this salad is even more awesome with some fresh mint on top (as pictured above).

Note: We attended a very cool cookbook release party at Domaine Chandon last night (if you were following me on Twitter, you saw some of the highlights, like this blurry iPhone pic of green gazpacho with tiger prawns), and are driving back into San Francisco today. Stay tuned for some amazing new video recipes very soon! (like tomorrow, I hope)

Will this Great Broccoli Salad Become Your New Favorite Summer Side Dish? Probably Not.

I never make cold broccoli salad, so when I decided to film a recipe for one, I didn't have a ton of previous experience to draw from.

I remember having a great one next to a piece of grilled salmon in Monterey years ago, but all I remembered was it was very cold, very lemony, and kind of spicy.

The only other cold broccoli salad taste memory I have is from the annual post-Passport, Sunday night dinner that Bill Frick hosts for the family after the event. Bill makes a super simple, but perfectly delicious version that really shines next to a platter of grilled chicken.

Using both these salads as inspiration, I proceeded with the blanching and the whisking, and what was produced far exceeded my expectations. This is a great tasting, very refreshing, and believe it or not, interesting salad.

Will this become your favorite summer side dish? I doubt it. It's really very good, but how can you complete with such iconic picnic table fixtures as potato and macaroni salad? Let's face it, it's still broccoli after all.

Nevertheless, you can never have enough vegetable side dish recipe ideas, so I hope you give this tasty, easy-to-make salad a try. Enjoy!




Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds broccoli
3 cloves garlic, mashed
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/3 cup olive oil
red pepper flakes to taste
salt and pepper to taste