Strawberry, watercress and cashew salad

I’ve been seeing a lot of great looking strawberries at the market lately. What’s even better than fresh strawberries from the market? Fresh strawberries from the backyard.

I wanted to do something with the strawberries besides eat them plain. I recently received some delicious sweet and salty cashews from Oh! Nuts, and I knew they’d be great in a salad with my berries.

I decided to go with watercress as the base for the salad. I really like watercress, but I don’t use it often enough. I tossed the watercress in a very simple dressing of minced shallot, lemon, honey and olive oil. I added lots of strawberries, the cashews and some shaved ricotta salata.

This is a great summer salad, and very easy to put together. Strawberry season has just started, and I’ll be getting berries from the yard for a few more months. I need to come up with some other ways to use them, any ideas?

Strawberry, watercress and cashew salad

Serves 3-4

2 bunches of watercress, trimmed

1 cup of strawberries, halved or quartered

1/4 cup sweet and salty cashews

1/4 cup ricotta salata, shaved

1 small shallot, minced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 heaping teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together the shallot, lemon juice, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add to the watercress and toss to coat. Top with strawberries, cashews and ricotta salata.

Spinach and shaved vegetable salad

I feel very lucky that I'm able to structure my work schedule so that I can take every other Friday off. I usually take those opportunities to catch up with friends, and this past Friday was no exception. I'm sure it won't surprise any of you to hear that most of my friends are into food. I met one of my friends for lunch in Berkeley, and afterwards we headed over to the Monterey Market which is one of the best produce markets in the area. I mean really, where else can you find baby artichokes that look like this?

I always find fun ingredients to work with when I shop there. Once I was even able to snag a fresh white truffle. This time around, I picked up some chiogga beets, purple carrots, opal basil and sweet limes with the intention of making a salad.

I already had some spinach in the fridge, so I decided to use that as my base. I tossed the spinach in a little bit of sweet lime juice and olive oil, then seasoned it with salt and pepper. I had never worked with sweet limes before, and as advertised, they're sweet, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. I know it will be difficult, if not impossible for most of you to find these, so I wrote the recipe with lemon juice instead. Next, I added in some thinly shaved yellow and chiogga beets, along with some shaved purple carrots. I finished the salad with some chive flowers, opal basil and shaved ricotta salata.

This was quite delicious, with a lot of great flavors and textures. It may also be the prettiest salad I've ever made.

Spinach and shaved vegetable salad

Serves 2

4 cups baby spinach

1 bunch of baby carrots, trimmed and thinly shaved lengthwise

1 small chiogga beet, thinly shaved

1 small yellow beet, thinly shaved

1 tablespoon of opal basil, torn

2 tablespoons of ricotta salata, shaved

chive flowers for garnish

lemon juice

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Dress the spinach with a squeeze of lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss and taste; adjust the seasoning as necessary. Add the carrots and beets to the spinach. Sprinkle the basil, ricotta salata and chive flowers over the top.

Ingredient spotlight: fava beans

I’ve started to see fresh fava beans popping up in the markets around here, so I thought it would be fitting to highlight them as this month’s ingredient spotlight.

Fava beans have a nutty flavor and buttery texture, and are commonly found at farmer’s markets. They come in bright green pods that are approximately 6 inches long - each pod contains about 3-5 beans. When you open a pod, you’ll notice that the beans are a dull green color. The beans are actually covered by a thick shell that’s not very pleasant to eat. Fava beans also come in dried form, but are definitely not interchangeable with the fresh version.

Preparing fava beans is not difficult, but involves a little bit of time and patience. The first step is to remove the beans from the pods. I do my shelling in front of the tv, it goes much quicker.

After the beans have been removed from the pods, they need to be blanched. I blanch the beans in boiling salted water for about 2-3 minutes, depending on size. The next step is to transfer the beans to a bowl of ice water to cool. Once the beans have cooled, those thick outer shells will be wrinkled and easy to remove. It takes a bit of practice to get the beans out of the shells in one piece. If your beans split in half, it’s not a big deal, they’ll still taste great.

Once you’ve removed all the outer shells, you’ll end up with a pile of vibrantly colored beans that are ready to eat. My favorite ways to eat fava beans are in salads or pasta. The beans can also be pureed and served on bread or as a topping for fish.

I used these fava beans in a salad recipe that I adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. The beans are paired with salty oil cured olives, meyer lemon and endive for a beautiful and delicious salad. The original recipe says to instruct your guests to eat the slices of meyer lemons, peel and all. I don’t think I’d be able to convince my family and friends to eat lemon slices, so I’m making it an optional garnish, because they sure look pretty in the salad. I added chive flowers because I have them in the garden, but they’re also optional.

Endive and fava bean salad

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques

Serves 6

5 belgian endives, cores removed and leaves separated

juice from 1 meyer lemon, plus extra lemon slices for garnish

3/4 cup shelled and cooked fava beans

1/3 cup oil cured olives, pitted and cut into quarters

1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

chive flowers for garnish

salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing, combine the shallot, cream, olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Arrange the endive spears on a platter, toss with dressing. Sprinkle the fava beans, olives and chives over the top. Garnish with lemon slices and chive flowers if desired.

Chilled asparagus with vinaigrette and eggs mimosa

Is it spring yet? It’s sure starting to feel like it. My daffodils are blooming, the chives in the garden are coming back, and my nectarine tree has started to blossom.

On the culinary front, asparagus is here! I haven’t seen any of my other springtime favorites yet, but it’s time to watch out for pea shoots and fava beans at the farmer’s market. I used my asparagus to make a salad from the Bouchon cookbook.

For this salad, asparagus stalks are blanched and dressed in a vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, Dijon and olive oil. As is customary, the woody ends of the stalks are snapped off prior to cooking. When you go to cut the stalks into even lengths, save the trimmings; they’re used to make an asparagus coulis.

The plating of the salad starts with a dollop of the asparagus coulis. The asparagus stalks are piled on top and showered with hard boiled egg yolk, julienned radish and fresh chives.

I love the presentation of this salad, it’s very elegant. This was quite delicious too, the flavors worked well together. I know I’ve professed my love for root vegetables on more than one occasion, but this dish made it clear to me that I’m ready for some spring produce.


Chilled asparagus with vinaigrette and eggs mimosa
Serves 2
Adapted from Bouchon

1 bunch of asparagus
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 T extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp dijon mustard
3 hard boiled egg yolks
2 radishes, julienned
1 T minced chives
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Snap the woody end off each asparagus stalk, discard the ends. Trim the stalks to an equal length, reserve the trimmings. Blanch the asparagus stalks for 3-4 minutes or until tender. Transfer the asparagus to a bowl of ice water. Once the asparagus has cooled, remove from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Place the asparagus trimmings in the pot of boiling water, cook until very tender, about 4-5 minutes. Remove the trimmings from the pot and place in the bowl of ice water.

For the coulis, transfer the trimmings to a food processor with a little bit of the cooking water. Blend until a smooth puree forms. You may need to add a bit more water to get a smooth consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

For the vinaigrette, whisk together the vinegar, olive oil and mustard; season to taste with salt and pepper.

Press the egg yolks through the smallest holes on a cheese grater, set aside.

To assemble, toss the asparagus stalks with the vinaigrette. Spoon the coulis onto the plate, and top with the stalks. Add the egg yolks on top of the asparagus, then place the radish julienne in a pile on the egg yolks. Sprinkle with chives.

Warm spinach and frisee salad

Spinach salad with bacon is a classic combination. What about a spinach salad with bacon, currants and roasted shallots? That’s not so ordinary.

This recipe from the Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook takes spinach salad to a whole new level. The salad base is spinach and frisee leaves. For a long time, I was ambivalent about frisee – it comes in a lot of the salad blends, but it never really stood out to me. Lately I’ve realized that frisee is quite delicious on its own, and have been incorporating it into my everyday cooking.

The spinach and frisee are tossed in a unique dressing – when you cook the bacon for this salad, reserve some of the fat in the pan. Balsamic vinegar is added to warm bacon fat and reduced a bit to make an intense, syrupy dressing. Bacon, currants and roasted shallots are also added to the mix.

This was truly an outstanding salad. If you roast the shallots in advance, it can be thrown together quite easily.

Warm spinach and frisee salad

Serves 4

Adapted from Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook

6 small shallots, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 tsp + 3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T olive oil
3 cups spinach leaves
3 cups frisee leaves
4 slices bacon, sliced crosswise
4 T dried currants
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the shallots with the olive oil and 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar in a baking dish. Season with salt and pepper, then roast for 20 minutes, or until the shallots are golden brown and tender. Set aside to cool.

To make the dressing, cook the bacon in a large pan over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon out of the pan and onto paper towels to drain. Leave 1 tablespoon of bacon fat in the pan, drain off the excess. Pour the 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar into the pan and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To assemble, toss the greens with the dressing. Separate the shallots into rings and scatter over the salad. Top with bacon and currants.

Shaved beet and arugula salad

I really like beets, but I don't always have the time and energy to make them. They're red, they're messy, and they take a long time to cook. Fortunately, I discovered that gold beets and chiogga beets don't bleed red all over your kitchen and they're quite pretty on your plate.

For this salad, I combined shaved gold beets with baby arugula. You definitely want to use a mandoline to shave the beets as thinly as possible. Since they're raw, they can be a little tough if the pieces are too thick. I made a simple meyer lemon vinaigrette for the salad: meyer lemon juice, honey, olive oil, shallot, salt and pepper. I tossed the beets and greens in the dressing and topped the salad with shavings of ricotta salata and chopped marcona almonds.
Here are a few of my tips for making delicious salads.

-Add a few teaspoons of finely minced shallot to your vinaigrette. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. If you're worried that the flavor of the shallot might be too sharp, let the minced shallot sit in your vinegar or lemon juice for a few minutes.

-Season your vinaigrette very generously with salt and pepper; it may seem like overkill, but you've got a lot of leaves to season with a small amount of dressing. Alternatively, season your greens with salt and pepper before you add the vinaigrette.

-Add your heavier ingredients like nuts to the top of the salad at the end. If you add them at the beginning, they'll just fall to the bottom of the bowl.

-Try mixing some fresh herbs into your salad greens - parsley is always a safe bet, I also like to add tarragon or dill.

-To reduce the amount of oil needed in your dressing, try adding a touch of honey. The sweetness balances the acidity.

Fennel and orange salad

It's a coincidence that I made this fennel and orange salad from the Everyday Food cookbook on the night when I watched the latest episode of Top Chef. The winning dish on Top Chef included the same ingredients of fennel, oranges and olives. One of the judges remarked that this is a classic and delicious flavor combination, and I tend to agree.

This salad is really simple and makes for a unique and refreshing side dish. I shaved my fennel into thin slices using a mandoline, and tossed it with orange supremes, halved nicoise olives and parsley leaves. The dressing is simply orange juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. I think the nicoise olives worked really well in this dish, but you could use kalamata olives instead. If you wanted to dress this up for a special occasion, I think a combination of navel and blood oranges would be really attractive.

Burrata and heirloom tomato salad

Last weekend, we headed into San Francisco to check out the Slow Food Nation event. We went to the Slow Food marketplace. Then had lunch at Postrio. Later in the day, we picked up dessert at Beard Papa. But the best thing I ate all day? In fact, the best thing I've eaten in recent memory? Was this heirloom tomato and burrata salad from the Sunday Suppers at Lucques cookbook. I am a burrata fan, but it's ridiculously expensive and has a very short shelf life. I've seen it around at various specialty markets, but I never really felt like shelling out the money for it, and I was concerned that it may not be all that fresh.

Most of my burrata experiences have been in Los Angeles restaurants, specifically Pizzeria Mozza and Lucques. Burrata is more prevalent on restaurant menus down south because they have a local supplier. In fact, both Nancy Silverton and Suzanne Goin mention the supplier by name in their cookbooks (Gioia). So when I walked into Bristol Farms in San Francisco and found burrata, made by Gioia, at a price that was substantially less than what I'd seen in the past, I decided to give it a try. It was worth every penny.

This salad is actually pretty simple - fresh tomatoes (from my garden) are tossed in a balsamic, shallot and oregano vinaigrette with sliced shallots. The tomatoes are topped with olive oil croutons and plenty of sliced burrata.

I made this salad a few weeks back with fresh mozzarella instead of burrata. The mozzarella version didn't even hold a candle to this rendition. Fresh, ripe tomatoes are critical to this dish.

So what happened to the rest of the burrata? I used it in another recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques for broccoli with burrata and pine nut breadcrumbs. The last bit of cheese went into braised leeks with burrata and mustard breadcrumbs, a recipe from Pizzeria Mozza. I can definitely say that I'll be making another trip to Bristol Farms in the not-too-distant future for more cheese!

Lunch for my grandma

My grandma was in town visiting this weekend. It's become a tradition that I cook her a meal each time she comes to visit. This time, I did a lunch that focused on springtime ingredients:

Baby spinach and mache salad with french radishes, peas, chive blossoms and pecorino romano

Pizza with fennel, oyster mushrooms, fresh mozzarella and truffle oil

Barefoot Contessa's coconut cupcakes

Asian inspired salad

This was a spur of the moment salad with ingredients that I already had in the house. I started with chopped romaine lettuce and piled on enoki mushrooms, shredded daikon radish, carrots, black sesame seeds and toasted cashews. I made a quick dressing of equal parts of soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil.

Salmon nicoise salad

This salad was loosely based off this recipe from Tyler Florence. Obviously, one major discrepancy is that Tyler's recipe calls for tuna, and I used salmon. My grocery store had fresh wild copper river salmon, which looked much better than the tuna steaks, so I went with that instead. Also, I added a bed of arugula, which I tossed with the vinaigrette before I layered the rest of the ingredients over the top. I also omitted the anchovies, and went with yukon gold potatoes to add more color.

So while I made quite a few changes to the original recipe, I stuck with a very similar vinaigrette - the only thing I did differently was reduce the amount of olive oil and add a touch of honey. The fresh tarragon really makes a difference in this salad. People had fun picking the different items off the platter to put onto their plate. I cooked the eggs, blanched the green beans and pitted the olives in advance.

Frederic Anton's heirloom tomato salad

My tomato plants aren't doing very well this year. I think it's because we've had a very mild summer. So when I saw heirloom tomatoes in every color at the Ferry Building farmer's market, I had to have some. This recipe is from Vegetable Harvest. It's a simple tomato salad with a unique dressing of lime and vanilla. The dressing is made a day in advance - the seeds from one vanilla bean are combined with the juice of two limes, a touch of salt, and 1/4 cup of olive oil. I chose to about half the amount of olive oil and added a squeeze of honey to temper the acidity. The dressing sits in the fridge overnight, and the zest from the limes is reserved in a separate container. When you're ready to serve the salad, simply slice the tomatoes, drizzle them with the dressing, and sprinkle them with lime zest, freshly ground pepper and fleur de sel. This was a fun way to dress up tomatoes - the vanilla really adds an exotic note to the dish.

Shaved zucchini salad

This recipe is adapted from Vegetable Harvest. Thinly sliced zucchini is tossed with balsamic vinegar, seasoned with fleur de sel and topped with shaved parmigiano reggiano. That's all there is to it, and it's a great flavor combination! The original recipe calls for the zucchini to be sliced thinly with a mandoline. I didn't feel like pulling out my mandoline to slice two zucchinis, so I shaved them with a vegetable peeler instead.

Everyday Food - turkey cobb salad

For some reason, I don't often think to serve salad as a main course. I saw this recipe in the new Everyday Food cookbook and decided to try it out. Roasted turkey breast, bacon, tomatoes, avocado, hard boiled eggs and blue cheese are arranged on a bed of shredded romaine. The lettuce is tossed in a dressing of red wine vinegar, olive oil and dijon mustard. I used a danish blue cheese and Hobbs applewood smoked bacon.

Barefoot Contessa at Home - Guacamole salad

I've made quite a few variations of black bean salad, but this recipe was particularly good. Grape tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, jalapeno, red onion, avocado and black beans are tossed in a slightly spicy lime dressing. I think that the avocado and lime zest were the ingredients that really made this salad. I used avocado oil in the dressing instead of olive oil.

Fennel and blood orange salad

My friend Kristine and I came up with this salad. We cut some baby fennel bulbs into very thin slices and tossed them with equal parts of blood orange juice and walnut oil. We seasoned the fennel with salt and pepper and topped it with blood orange segments, fennel fronds and toasted walnuts. It was very colorful and a fun way to eat fennel.

Microgreens with orange, feta and walnuts

I am still working through my citrus supply, so I decided to put one my oranges to use in this salad. If you can't find microgreens, feel free to use something else, like a mix of baby greens.

Microgreens with orange, feta and walnuts
Serves 2

3 cups microgreens or other type of lettuce
Sections from one medium orange, diced
2 tablespoons walnuts, toasted and chopped
2 tablespoons feta cheese, diced or crumbled
1 tablespoon orange juice (squeeze the leftover orange membranes)
1 tablespoon walnut oil
salt and pepper

Whisk together orange juice, walnut oil to make dressing - add salt and pepper to taste. Toss the microgreens and orange in the dressing. Sprinkle the walnuts and feta cheese over the top.

Microgreens with roasted pear and pomegranate

Microgreens are essentially the sprouts of various types of vegetables and lettuces. I bought two varieties - kohlrabi and tendergreen. I got mine at the Monterey Market in Berkeley but I've also seen a mixed package at Trader Joe's. They're a little on the pricey side, but fun for a change of pace.

I combined the microgreens with toasted walnuts, pomegranate arils, and diced roasted pear. I tossed everything in a pomegranate and walnut oil dressing. If you can't find microgreens, feel free to use another type of lettuce - arugula would be nice.


Microgreens with roasted pear and pomegranate
Serves 2

Approximately 3 cups of microgreens (3 ounces) - or substitute a tender lettuce like arugula or mache
1/2 of a firm pear (I used bosc), peeled, cored and halved lengthwise
2 tablespoons of pomegranate arils
2 tablespoons of chopped walnuts, toasted
1 tablespoon of pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon of walnut oil
2 teaspoons of honey
salt and pepper to taste
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375. Season pear quarters with salt and pepper and place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Roast for about 30 minutes or until pear is browned and tender. Dice into small pieces.

Combine pomegranate juice, honey, salt and pepper. Whisk in the walnut oil. Put the microgreens, roasted pear, pomegranate arils and walnuts in a bowl. Toss with the pomegranate dressing. Serve immediately.

Mom's rainbow salad

My mom made this salad the other night to go with the shrimp pasta I made.

It's spinach with shaved watermelon radish and yellow beets, grape tomatoes, pumpkin seeds and avocado in a balsamic vinaigrette.

Giada's family dinners - grilled lettuces

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

This is a really simple recipe - belgian endive, radicchio and romaine lettuces are briefly grilled, chopped, and tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. It's a nice change of pace and isn't much more work than a regular salad.

Grilled lettuces