#57 Salmon With Herb Butter & Brown Rice Pilaf

I made this dinner when good friends were coming over. It was time to eat more of the sockeye salmon that is abundant and delicious this year. I had to pace myself with salmon after the stunning cedar planked stuff a few weeks ago. This is not quite as show stopping but it is a good meal to pull together.

The marinade is cooked first, butter, soy sauce, tarragon, basil and rosemary heated and poured over the salmon then it all gets refrigerated. Meanwhile onto the pilaf. You have to cook the rice first for this recipe, before it gets sautéed with other yummy stuff. A rice cooker comes in handy for that. So, the difference between a pilaf and a risotto is how high maintenance it is, well, there’s a few other differences, but if you don’t have the time to stand there and stir and have everything precisely timed, pilafs are for you. This one has celery, onions, almonds, sour cream, parmesan, white wine, soy sauce and thyme. It all gets baked together. Brown rice is an excellent option over white rice because of its higher nutritional values and fibre content. Besides it compensates for any badness from eating sour cream!

After that was in the oven, I fired up the bbq and grilled the fish. Depending upon the size, it takes about 10-12 minutes per side. I used sockeye but any other salmon would do. Heck even halibut would work in this versatile recipe.

My guests loved it, my kids ate as much salmon as they could get off our plates. It is an unusual combination of herbs that really works together. I confess to still thinking about the cedar planked salmon, it is like the Macbeth Icefield hike and the salmon with herb butter is Pulpit or maybe even Plaid Lake for those of you hikers who know the Kootenays. Pulpit is a good hike, but it is a bit more everyday than Macbeth. Okay, enough with the analogies. Try this recipe, you won’t be disappointed, you may even work it into your regular meal rotation.

#56 Marni’s Roasted Corn and Feta

I forgot where this dish was in the cookbook and was reminded again of the shortcomings of the index. Was it under salad? What is the first name of the dish? To be fair, this dish is sort of well, bi (appropriate label on the heels of Pride weekend here in Nelson?). It could be a salad, it could be a veggie dish. Shelley suggests making this either as a salad with olive oil or as a veggie side dish with butter. I opted for the olive oil option. I made this on an afternoon that I didn’t have any business knocking off another Whitewater recipe (somewhat frantic, alone with the kids, last-minute). Fortunately for me I’d already planned on making corn roasted on the bbq so it was soaking in water in the sink already. Fortunately I also had red peppers on hand. All of these ingredients were tossed on the grill. Corn on the grill is a bit higher maintenance than boiled but worth the effort.

While everything was grilling, I tossed the other ingredients together, the cumin, cilantro, feta, fresh lime juice, EVOO. At the same time I was grilling turkey burgers (from Railway meats) to go along with it. The red peppers have to be skinned after their outsides are blackened, but the inside luscious soft redness is worth it. The corn kernels, once cooled, must get sliced off the husks. This is a bit messy and hot if you don’t wait long enough, but again, worth it. I burned my turkey burgers while being preoccupied with the vegetables, but hey, I’d rather have a great salad than a burger.

This salad is delicious and unusual and sort of Mexican except for the feta. It is so colorful it can even mask burn’t turkey burgers. I’d recommend it while corn is locally abundant. It’s worth the effort, it brought us some moments of sacred during an otherwise mundane afternoon and my twins loved it too. I might serve with spicy Merguez sausages or Herf’s halibut. Bon appetit.

#55 Arugula Salad with Manchego, Toasted Nuts & Quince Dressing

The title of this dish is suspiciously long. Ever noticed how insecurity brings out impossibly long titles or too much exposition? It’s saying, look at me, if you don’t like arugula, no problem, the manchego will appeal, or the hazelnuts or the quince dressing. Some of my favourite recipes are short titles: Cedar Planked salmon, paella salad, rustic tomato tart.

I’m a huge fan of arugula, I still remember the first time I fell in love with it. I was on the patio of a hip pizza joint on Queen St. West in Toronto, Terroni. I ordered a thin crust pizza that was perfectly crafted, with cheese and  tomato and then uncooked arugula thrown on top at the last-minute. So unusual and vivacious. Spicy, green goodness.

I really wanted to like this salad. I expected to, after all it has my favourite cheese in it…that gorgeous sheep’s cheese from Spain: Manchego. My memories of this cheese are a gorgeous evening meal in a Spanish restaurant with real tango dancers. Need I mention this was with my wife and pre-kids. I digress, back to the salad, it has spicy arugula, toasted nuts, a fruity dressing. What’s not to like? The arugula I purchased for this salad did not measure up. I think I waited too long to get good local stuff. My arugula was from a plastic container at a grocery store. It ended up being a bit lacking in zest and zeal.

The manchego, purchased at Railway meats, lived up to its reputation, however, I realized that I like it alone: chunks, or slices on fresh bread. I guess I’m a purist when it comes to Manchego. The quince was kind of boring. I bought the quince paste from Culinary Conspiracy, as directed. It added sweetness to the dressing but not much else. Perhaps the subtleties of it are lost on me. I can’t comment on hazelnuts, because I don’t like them enough to put in a salad so I substituted roasted almonds instead. Perhaps the hazelnuts are the stars in this salad and I just missed out.

Next time, I’ll use fresher arugula and something more citrus-flavoured for the dressing, orange perhaps. I’m not giving this recipe a thumbs down, for me it just requires a little rejigging, after all it does have the fundamentals of arugula and Manchego. My suggestion is to shorten the name to simply arugula salad, since it is the only one in the book. Go to the store and buy an orange along with some balsamic vinegar. These should add zest and sweetness. I like my job much better when the recipe is a full on success, unfortunately, this one fell a little flat.

#51-54 Taste For Justice

Reading this blog entry will be like eating a 4-course meal. My dear friend Susan and I cooked an all-Whitewater Cooks At Home meal and served it to 10 of our friends last weekend. In addition to having a fun dinner party, we also raised funds for Amnesty International. The menu included 7 recipes from the cookbook, but three of them have already been written about in the blog: Karen’s Roasted Potato and Mint Salad, Marie’s Rosemary Nut Crackers and the Goat Cheese and Sun-Dried Tomato Terrine. So, for this edition of the blog, you get Caramelized Onion and Gorgonzola Tarts, Cedar Planked Salmon with Maple Soy Glaze, Roasted Vegetable Salad and the Meringues with fresh seasonal fruit. I knew I picked a special co-conspirator to make this dinner when her husband made us a table for 12 before leaving town on a business trip (unfortunately he didn’t get to enjoy the dinner).

We wanted to make a dinner that we could also sit down and enjoy. These selections proved their worthiness. The only thing we had to do during the party was heat up the gorgonzola tarts and cook the salmon, though cedar planked salmon lends itself to serving at room temperature as Shelley Adams points out in the recipe.

Caramelized onion and Gorgonzola Tarts

Onion Tarts and Goat Cheese Terrine

These are fancy appies. They are high maintenance for preparation too. Caramelize 6 onions, by slicing and then tossing with maple syrup, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Then they get placed on baking sheets and baked for two hours. At the same time, roast the garlic bulbs in foil, in the same hot oven. I found the suggested cooking time a little long and some of my onions were fossilized, never mind caramelized. I was also defrosting puff pastry during this time. Yes, this recipe calls for regular frozen puff pastry. You don’t make your own! I called it a night after the onions were done and mentally prepared for the next day of food prep.

Day 2 involved rolling out the puff pastry and cutting into 8 portions per sheet then folding over their edges and ‘crimping’ with a fork. Anything that requires crimping is a little too precious for me! Okay, I’ll admit, they looked good afterwards. Once the tarts are shaped, the roasted garlic is smeared, the onions are added, the mozzarella and the asiago and then the blue cheese on top. Next, gently place the sheets in the freezer for a bit or cover and freeze to pop out and impress your next visitors. I had a bit of an issue with freezer space, yet another reason to get a chest freezer. When you are just getting hungry, pop in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes. They are dazzling prima donnas.

Roasted Vegetable Salad

This salad is a mix of many root and other vegetables: yam, parsnip, fennel, onion, red pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, eggplant, beets. They are chopped and roasted. The beets on their own bowl, yams and parsnips in their own bowl and everything else together. They are coated in olive oil and roasted. While they are roasting, a balsamic/maple dijon dressing is prepared. Toss everything together. Sounds simple, right? It is, but it is a lot of chopping especially when your trusty hosts decide to increase the quantity to 1.5 times the recipe because we want to serve 12 and the recipe is supposed to be good for 6-8. I’m not sure who Shelley is feeding, hungry teenagers who like vegetables, large packs of roaming herbivores. In other words, we found the quantity immense. It would have fed 24 guests at least. We both had roasted veggie salad for the whole next week. I fed to guests again, I used it in a stir fry, I had to be dissuaded from hiding it in bowls of Cheerios for my kids. Roasted veggie salad for life club, anyone? And, it doesn’t freeze well. Lesson learned, make this but watch the quantity. also, I would either salt the eggplant or roast a little longer next time.

Cedar Planked Salmon

I walked into Fisherman’s Market looking for salmon filets for 12 of us and found they had a special, $20 lbs of sockeye for $10/lb. They even portioned it out as I requested and vacuum-packed the stuff to be frozen. Apparently this year’s sockeye is really good, so says the fish monger. The first step in this recipe is finding cedar planks and then soaking them for 24 hours. My friend Bob cut me some cedar planks and generously donated them. As well, by then we’d purchased two from a local specialty store. Their tip to soak well beyond the 1 hour it says on the package was critical for the good results we got. I used 2 long filets for the dinner and as instructed, dutifully marinated in soy sauce and maple syrup that had been reduced for about 15 minutes. I painted on the filets and popped them in the fridge. All this of course, just before the guests arrived. 30 minutes into the party, while happy eaters were munching on appies, I heated the bbq and laid the fish on the planks. It cooked, and cooked and well, it took longer than the recipe. I guess my fish was thicker or the bbq was not quite hot enough. At any rate, we took it off and portioned it, the guests didn’t seem to mind drinking another glass of wine while waiting.

Nothing could have prepared me for the taste sensation that was this salmon. Wow, fireworks in my taste buds. I have always liked salmon but this is hands down the best I’ve ever eaten. It’s so moist and the cedar flavour is a beautiful fragrant addition to the salmon’s oily succulence. I may even consider learning how to cut my own trees just to get good cedar. Happily I have a pile of untreated cedar planks ready to go. I also grilled some green onions to go with the salmon. They look very funky and contrast the deep red/orange so well.

Meringues: These babies needed a lot of whipping. Egg whites. Amazing how you can turn clear fluid into these whipped peaks. Well, I guess that takes a little sugar and cornstarch as well. After whipping for what seemed like a long time (which was okay by me, kind of mesmerizing to watch the patterns of the beaters), they finally started to peak. They then get shaped into little nests. We decided mine were wild birds and Susan’s were more organized/orderly. They bake for 90 minutes and need to be watched so they don’t brown. Next it’s on to whipping cream and what cream this is…beautiful additions of sour cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract make this extra special. The whipped cream goes on top of the meringues and then all of it gets piled with fruit. We chose ripe Okanagan peaches and one of our dinner guests generously brought huckleberries picked fresh the day of the dinner. Doesn’t get any better than that, does it? The dessert looked spectacular and was a perfect light ending to this dinner.

Judging by the feedback from the guests, the dinner was a success and we even got to enjoy it too. It was an enchanted evening under the willow tree. One of those perfect summer evenings, clear skies, good conversation, meeting new friends and catching up with old friends. All that and $440 for Amnesty as well. Doesn’t get any better than this. I dare you, all you readers, host a dinner party and have a jar for people to contribute to a charity you care about. It’s apparently the latest trend in NY and Toronto….and of course, Nelson. I suggest you cook with a friend, it’s such a wonderful way to hang out together and get to know random facts that you otherwise wouldn’t….like where your friends keep their baking soda and what they feel most comfortable and not so comfortable doing in their kitchen.

Blogger and Taste for Justice co-conspirator

Bon Appetit.

#50 Ling Cod with Tomato Coconut Curry

#50 feels like a milestone in my journey to complete all 79 recipes in good time before I return to work at the end of November. I have cooked a random assortment of dishes from this cookbook, most of them delicious and this one is no exception. Let me start by saying that I LOVE curry and won’t just accept any dish sprinkled with a bit of curry powder as the real thing. I grew up eating curry on Saturday nights with my parents, it was our special treat. My mother made it based on the excellent curries they’d eaten when they lived in England. Curry saved me when I was travelling as a vegetarian through England and Scotland. In Scotland it was either deep-fried Mars Bars or curries. All I’ve got to say of the British Isles is thank the goddess for immigration as far as their food options go.

I lived in Little India when I lived in Toronto and loved the availability of fresh, abundant spices. I loved the corn vendors with their roasted corn dipped in lime and chilis. I loved the festive atmosphere with Bollywood music blaring out of bad sound systems most weekends. And the gorgeous fabrics, you could have a sari measured up and hand-made in no time.

So, when I see a curry recipe, I both salivate and am weary. Fortunately, Shelley has a winner here, a delicious, fragrant curry that probably hails from Southern India or at least has those influences.

Let’s get to the recipe, shall we? I used blue Cod, but the recipe calls for ling cod. It’s important that you use a firm whitefish. This recipe calls for sautéing the kaffir lime leaves. I’ve never done this before and wow, what a difference it makes to saute rather than just chuck them in your curry sauce. Fenugreek is next, which also comes alive with high heat. Garlic and onions are sautéed in the same pan and then the usual curry ingredients: cumin, coriander, tomatoes and turmeric, cayenne. This curry also calls for cinnamon and cloves, which add a beautiful fragrant layer. The coconut milk gets added in and boiled then simmered. All the while, the cod is baking on a tray in the oven. I convection roasted mine and it was juicy and tender.

For presentation, this curry gets spooned over basmati rice (I used brown, but white would be good too). The fish gets laid over top of the curry. All of it gets garnished with the cilantro.

In her introduction, Shelley says that this Indian curry makes the taste buds scream with happiness. It really does. Run, don’t walk to your nearest grocers (Save On has a good selection of Indian spices). The fish is always good at Fisherman’s market. To be honest, I couldn’t resist a 2 for 1 sale of frozen cod at a local grocery store and it was delicious in this curry.

Substitutions: None, but I did add a bit more cumin and coriander than called for. I always need to in curry recipes. Maybe my taste buds have been desensitized by so much curry over the years.

Tip: Don’t forget to saute the kaffir lime leaves. Serve with pappadoms as well. I’d also recommend a good beer or a glass of Gwertztraminer. If you have the ingredients, this is a fast meal to make (35 minutes or so), easily made after work even.

Coming up next: Don’t miss the play-by-play on my Amnesty International fundraiser/Whitewater Cooks At Home dinner Party For 12.

Bon Appetit!

#49 Chinese Beef and Celery Noodle Soup

In her description, Shelley Adams says that this recipe is inspired by a noodle soup from Vancouver’s Chinatown. We have fond memories of many a noodle soup in Toronto’s Chinatown. On one of our dates early on, my partner and I went to a pho restaurant, which is Vietnamese noodle soup, not Chinese, however we still laugh over both feeling sick after eating beef pho.  My partner blurted out to me “I always feel sick after eating there, but it’s so good, its worth it, isn’t it?” I was astounded at her willingness to sacrifice but it turns out this is a useful behaviour when raising twins (such as being willing to sacrifice sleep for the joy of camping with toddlers), so I guess it’s all worth it. Fortunately there are many Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese restaurants where one can slurp a bowl of soup and feel only sated and not sick afterwards.

I decided to make this because I found some good-looking stewing beef on sale at my local grocery store. The actual recipe calls for cooked deli roast beef and store-bought beef broth. I decided to go all the way on this recipe and make more work for myself by making my own broth. I used a broth recipe on-line by searching for ‘Chinese beef noodle soup’. Basically I sautéed the meat to seal it and then boiled with water, soy sauce, anise and salt. I then added Chinese 5-spice, ginger and cinnamon. I then followed the rest of the recipe in the cookbook. It was a bit of extra work, but so worth it. I have the good fortune of being home during the day so I can let stock boil away while child rearing.

There are layers of gorgeous flavour in this recipe, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, hoisin, rice wine vinegar, Chinese 5 spice powder, sesame oil. Then there’s the celery and beef itself. I also added some bok choy that was getting a little old and bored in our fridge. Instead of the fresh chow mein noodles, I had instant chinese noodles on hand which I used and it turned out fine. We added garlic chili sauce (Rooster) and green onions to garnish.

Shelley has ‘nailed it’ with this recipe. It is some of the best Asian soup I’ve had. In fact this cookbook shines when it comes to Asian food, in my opinion (look for my next blog on the ling cod curry). My partner raved about it and she’s a connoisseur of Asian soup, eating it at every opportunity. When we go to Vancouver this is what she makes a bee line for. Perhaps she won’t have to crave it so much anymore since we now know how to make it in our own kitchen. Our twins gobbled it up, slurping up the noodles after successfully using kiddie chopsticks to harness them. I’d recommend kiddie chopsticks, they’re fun and a great way to learn. Besides most of them have dinosaurs on top.

Make this soup, if you like noodle soup and you eat beef. It’s relatively simple, provided you have the ingredients and especially if you make it with the cooked roast beef as the recipe suggests. It’s going to be in our regular line-up. Everyone is a fan at my house, even the dog, who waits around for the beef dregs. And guess what? Nobody felt nauseous after wards.

#48 Dad’s Lunchbox Cookies

There was something about this recipe that made me want to procrastinate. Perhaps the irrelevance, in our household, of the Dad in the title. Perhaps the white chocolate, which ever since I gorged on a large white chocolate Easter bunny as a child, I’ve been repulsed by.

We have a friend who is laid up for 6-8 weeks and could use some homemade treats. It’s a rainy day with toddlers, after our abbreviated walk with the dog, what else is there to do but bake? It’s a daunting task with twins, keeping them engaged, while trying to actually get the recipe right. I may have been out of my mind trying to do this in the midst of potty training as well. But, alas, we needed something to do and they love treats and well, I needed to feel like I accomplished something beyond emptying the potty.

These are deluxe cookies by anyone’s standards. Regular old chocolate chip is enhanced by coconut, cranberries, raisins, oats. Chock full of butter too, but that’s no surprise. I started my journey to making these by putting all the ingredients on the counter and pre-measuring as many as possible so the twins could be kept busy pouring and stirring. I partially succeeded, though with slow downs such as warming the butter in the oven and having to beat the sugar/butter/eggs, there were still opportunities for toddler hands to go where they shouldn’t (pouring out the dry ingredients on the counter for example).

I substituted in this recipe, to the extent that I shouldn’t even call my finished product by the same name.  Reminds me of that story of the shovel, or was it the hoe. Old farmer had the same hoe for 40 years, first he replaced the shaft 2o years ago and then the blade 10 years ago. Is it still the same tool?

Back the substitutions. First of all, I set out to make these with 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white flour instead of the suggested white only. Due to being distracted by the turbo twins, I ended up doubling the flour in this recipe. Needless to say the dough felt a little dry and crumbly by the end. By the time I’d realized my mistake, all I could compensate with was leaving most of the oats out and adding some additional butter and a bit of juice for moisture. I should also say that I’d already started with less butter than suggested, so I upped the butter to a total of 1 cup, which is what the recipe calls for in the first place. I also started with less sugar than the recipe calls for, because I generally have found Shelley’s recipes a little on the sweet side for my taste. To my surprise, I had all the fruit and chocolate ingredients. I elected to make 1/2 the batch with white chocolate for the kids and 1/2 the batch with dark and semi-sweet chocolate for the adults in our house.

By the time these cookies were popped in the oven, which, by the way seemed like hours after I started, due to many potty breaks, distracting the kids etc.. they did not really resemble the picture in the cookbook. I made mine smaller and they were thick, though I patted them down with a fork. They were not really moist enough. Though, they turned out delicious and soft. These cookies are forgiving if nothing else.

It is interesting to note that even with proportionally less sugar and butter these were sweet enough and buttery enough. I’d recommend using oats, as they add texture. I’d recommend trying this recipe with less sugar than suggested, the dried fruit adds sweetness. Perhaps this is my bias, but I’m trying to make things as healthy as I can, even if they are cookies. Some would disagree, saying cookies are not meant to be “healthy”. I understand.

With all the substitutions and additions, I hesitate to call these Dad’s lunchbox cookies. Perhaps I’ll call them “Mom’s Lunchbox cookies” instead. It works out a little better for our household anyhow.

#47 Karen’s Roasted Potato & Fresh Mint Salad

Not unlike Michael Ignatieff, many of us are doing the bbq circuit this summer. We’re all trying to keep friends, make friends and be friends. I took this salad to a bbq with my work colleagues. It’s one of the most straightforward recipes in the book and easiest salads you’ll ever make. Unlike politicians or any of us on our bad days, it doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t.

I actually intended to make the smoky meatballs from the cookbook for this party. Where else would I find such a voracious collection of carnivores than a work party with many transplanted Albertans? Alas, I couldn’t easily find the required smokey mustard so I went with the back-up plan.

Red nugget potatoes, EVOO, garlic, fresh mint and chunky sea salt complete this salad. The garlic was from our garden. It’s the first year of growing garlic and wow, is it yummy. I’m totally impressed by my partner’s new-found love of gardening. I guess it’s the mid-west blood.

There are so many reasons to make this salad. It’s easy, you probably have all the ingredients on hand, it has no mayo ( potato salads with mayo are a tad over-rated never mind that they don’t age well while waiting for the bocci ball playing to be finished before eating). Mint and potatoes are gorgeous together. Almost as tasty as a coalition government would be (Jack and Michael, are you reading this?) They really should get together over this salad and talk, don’t you think? Isn’t it time for the majority to rule in this country instead of being split between two left-centre/left parties? It would be so satisfying, you could leave the Alberta beef  (or is that the beefy Albertan?) shriveling on the bbq.

I digress. The salad is simple and attractive and deeply good. Try it. It was a hit with my colleagues, judging by the empty bowl I took home and the many requests for the recipe. It will accompany many summer things, bbq’d anything, perhaps even lamb which also pairs well with mint.

Bon appetit.

#46 Petra’s Paella Salad

You’ve read this recipe in Whitewater Cooks At Home a few times. You have been wondering if its worth it for a salad. You are slightly intimidated. Worry no more.

I embarked on making this salad during our heat wave (those of you in Nelson, do you remember it?) I made it for a casual dinner party with close friends. It takes some planning, this one. Afterall, how often do you have 2 each of red and yellow peppers in your fridge, or a full bag of shrimp or clam nectar or a cup and a half of peas?

The good news is that the planning is worth it. The first step, after getting groceries, is to combine the chicken broth, clam nectar and soak the saffron. Next its saute time for the cornucopia of vegetables, onion, garlic, jalapeno, peppers, Italian sausages. Next I invited the spices to join the party with the white rice. This gets cooked as if you are cooking regular rice, that is to say, covered in a pot. You need a large pot for this. The instructions are to cool on a baking tray which I did, though I did not put it in the freezer as recommended, due to lack of space. One of my life goals is to have a real freezer, I will really be ‘grown up’ by then. Some people mark their adulthood by moving from a futon to a real couch. After it is cooled, you must find a large and preferably dazzling bowl to insert paella in. Then more ingredients are added, tomatoes, green onions, peas, cilantro and peeled, cooked shrimp. I was happy to find peeled, cooked shrimp in my freezer at this point, as I have to admit that peeling shrimp is about my least favourite kitchen activity. As you may have gleaned, this is chock full of goodness, it probably boosts your vitamin A and C and every other letter too.

There is a dressing too: lemon juice, sun-dried tomatoes, red wine vinegar, EVOO plus other herbs/spices.

This is a dish to dazzle with, even though it is just a salad! This will change your notion of salad, if you have any ideas that it should be little more than a beginning of a meal. This is a complete meal. Just before my guests arrived I had paella anxiety. I guess I too harboured some bias. Was salad enough to serve for dinner? To add to my anxiety, one of my friends announced that the only other time she’d eaten paella was on a beach in Spain, home of paella. What? How can I top that? Well, thankfully it was a long time ago and memory is a dodgy thing, not to mention the enhancement effect of sitting with good friends on a patio. The answer to my question about if it is enough to serve salad for dinner was a resounding yes. Everyone was satisfied, even more than that, they didn’t go home hungry. The homemade blueberry pie that was brought by our guests helped.

There was so much left over, and this was intended, so I could dole it around to a few people and make their day. Make this salad, its worth the investment. Invite your whole hockey team over or the Brady Bunch or whomever you want to make friends with!

We served with multi grain baguette and white wine. No substitutions in the salad. I know, frequent readers are surprised.

Bon appetit.

#45 Caprese with Fresh Shrimp

Some call these the dog days of summer. I refer to them as the ‘salad days’, where each day is an opportunity for different (or the same) fresh stuff. Cool food on hot days, though as I write this it is a cool morning; perfect for a hike. I’m getting a little behind on entries, but I assure you that I’m still making lots of food. I blame it on the hiking and other fun activities (who wants to be inside on a computer?)

I made this one sweltering summer afternoon. Grape tomatoes are abundant in the grocery store, if not yet in my garden. When did grape tomatoes enter our consciousness anyway? Just a few years ago the cherry tomato was the only small tomato available. Bocconcini does not grow in the garden nor does shrimp but hey, they add so much flavour (and protein) to the garden ingredients. The basil and dill were fresh, basil from my able-basiled friend (we can’t seem to get it going in our garden).

Like most salads, this is a matter of chopping fresh ingredients and tossing together. My job was made easier by the arrival of our friend, who the twins affectionately call Smushie, who so helpfully offered to be an extra pair of hands, so one of us could cook! I tossed all things together, the tomatoes, cheese, shrimp, basil, dill, olive oil, lemon juice and put in a beautiful bowl.

This salad is unique, compared to other Capreses’, mostly because of all the lemon juice, which adds a layer and freshness and of course because of the shrimp.

Substitution: I did not have “fresh shrimp” so I chose to barbeque the thawed shrimp on skewers and then toss in. Added a nice grilled flavour. And with 2 year olds, we are always wary of raw fish/shellfish. The only other comment I need to make about this salad is a comment on its placement in the cookbook. For some strange reason it is in the appetizers section, not in the salad section. Perhaps Shelley has a good reason for this, perhaps it was organizational constraint (too many salads already?).

We served with a baguette and some of the left over quesadillas (see recipe #44). My daughter went for all the shrimp, but we reined her in, I think she only got half of them! Perfect on a summer evening with a glass of savignon blanc or gwertztraminer. Go the extra km (or mile) if you are making a Caprese, toss in some shrimp!

Bon appetit.