A Lovely Asian Slaw

So many slaws! I already went on and on about this last week, so I will spare you the rant. Today I wanted to do creamy sesame noodles with crab cakes and needed something bright, colorful, acidic, and vegetable-forward to round out the lunch menu. This salad was the perfect choice. It would also be a great match for a marinated and grilled flank steak, teriyaki type chicken, or piece of miso marinated fish. So much versatility!

Before you start cooking though, I’m going to shamelessly plug for a tool that I think most cooks can afford and is indispensable if you love and work with vegetables regularly. It is the Benriner Mandoline Slicer and once you get into a routine of using it, you will never look back. It has three blades, two of which do more fancy shreddy type things. The flat blade is perfect for 99% of my needs. Think perfect potato slices for gratins, thinly shaved veggies for gorgeous salads, fine shredding for slaws, identically sized apple slices for tarts...you get the picture. It’s available for under $40 on Amazon and I tell everyone I know who loves cooking to get one.

One final note-every vegetable in this beautiful salad was available at the farm market today, so hooray for the farmers! Now, cook!

Asian Inspired Slaw

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of Green Cabbage, sliced very thinly (use a mandoline if you have one)

1 1/2 cups of Purple Cabbage cut the same way as the green

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion (mandoline) soaked in 2-3 tablespoons of rice vinegar for about 10 minutes

1/2 cup of thinly sliced red pepper (mandoline)

1/2 cup of shredded carrot (either use mandoline to get super thin slices and then cut into fine shreds with a knife, or use the coarse holes on a grater)

1/2 cup of shredded radish (approach the same as carrot)

1/2 cup minced cilantro

2 tablespoons minced chives

Juice and zest of 2 limes

2 tablespoons dark toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons of peanut oil

1 tablespoon of honey

Sriracha and salt to taste

Method

Toss everything together and stick in the fridge to chill for at least 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning.

The Importance of Beets and Family Meals

As a kid, during our summers spent with my grandparents on Nantucket, we ate dinner together outside every night. My sisters and I would spend the later part of the afternoon running wild with neighborhood friends and around 6 o’clock we would hear the bell ringing (yes, Marjorie had a brass dinner bell!) and know it was time to get on our bikes and make our way home to help set the tables. There were two tables made of heavy cedar, and the adults sat at the large one in chairs with arms and my sisters and I sat at the smaller one on less comfortable benches. Every single night, we were expected to bring all of the place settings out on trays and then clear the tables at the end of the meal. Honestly, I never knew anyone else at the time who prepared for and ate dinner that way; with such care and intention. It was one of the few constants in a fairly chaotic and crazy childhood, and I still feel grateful for it every day.

My husband also cooks for a living and all of the young people who live with us in the summer work many long hours (a gaggle of 20-somethings, both related and honorarily related). Most nights, even when we get home late from our respective food jobs, we attempt to sort out some kind of dinner. Mostly big bowls of salad, something grilled and a sheet tray piled with a filling veggie or starch. We don’t sit at separate tables, rather finding a mismatched chair around the fire pit with plates in our laps. There is often storytelling, music and singing, and most importantly, shared family time involving food.

There are some dishes that were constants on my grandmother’s tables. One of my favorites was her simply prepared beet salad. Dark red beets (there really were only one kind back in those days), white wine vinegar, minced shallot, dill, oil, salt and pepper. That was it. I adored that salad and have made it a million times for my own family and clients too. I also make slightly fancier beet salads and here is one that you can either toss together messily, make pretty on a platter family style, or even plate individually if you are feeling fancy. I personally recommend family style, as that is my happiest way to eat.

Beet Salad with Feta, Mint and Hazelnuts

Feeds 2-4 depending on the appetite

Ingredients

1 bunch of small to medium sized beets (whatever kind you love best)

2 tablespoons of white wine or champagne vinegar

1/3 cup of crumbled feta (the best you can afford)

2 tablespoons of toasted hazelnuts

A handful of minced mint leaves

A healthy splash of your best EVOO

Salt and Pepper to taste (be careful as the feta is salty!)

Method

Cut the beet tips off, leaving about 2 inches of stem. Don’t bother washing them! Cook in a large pan of boiling salted water until you can easily stick a knife in the largest beet-about 20-40 minutes, depending on size (I use about a handful of kosher salt in all vegetable cooking water). When they are done, quickly run cold water over them until they are cool enough to work with. Cut the tops and tails off with a paring knife and the skins should slip off easily. This method also works for roasting beets. Slice into pretty rounds, about 1/8 inch thick.

If using a platter, scatter the rounds on it and slash evenly with the vinegar. Scatter the feta, then nuts, then mint over the beets. Splash with EVOO, grind a little pepper and sprinkle a little salt. Share with your loved ones.

If you are feeling casual, you can dice the beets and throw all the ingredients in a bowl together and serve over some lightly dressed greens. Or plate individually for a fancier look.

Last-Minute Chicken Pasta Salad

​Last minute is a key phrase that comes up frequently in the life of a private chef. You can be the most hyper-organized, vigilant list-making, pantry-stocking, backup-shopper and there will always be those days where you think you are all set and suddenly you are not. Well, yesterday was one of those days for me.

The summer on Nantucket is glorious. And it is also crowded as hell with the worst traffic you can imagine (think no traffic lights, historically small streets, touristy drivers and too many rotaries). Doing errands is a strategic undertaking, where you have to plan for time of day, route, and of course, delivery days for specialty (and non-specialty) items. Well, I tried to start early and didn’t have a 100% clear idea of what was needed for lunch, but I made an executive decision on the fly that I felt would be well-received. As I was leaving the store, I suddenly received a text asking for something completely different-"chicken and some sort of pasta”. Okay, deep breath and onward. Onward to the rotisserie chicken aisle, that is.

I recently made a delightful zucchini pasta dish by Yotum Ottolenghi, that was featured in NYT Cooking. Riffing on his idea of a room temp pasta, sauced with  an herby/capery/lemony combination and combined with grilled summer squash, I took a similar approach. I was able to get this on the table in 25 minutes, using an already cooked chicken and having some pesto in the fridge.

Here you go, kids.

Last Minute Chicken and Pasta Salad

Ingredients

1 store-bought rotisserie chicken, shredded into medium bite-sized pieces

1 cup of any kind of pesto (I had arugula on hand)

1 box of penne pasta (GF or regular)

3 T red wine vinegar

1 bunch of basil, whizzed in a blender or processor with a cup of EVOO

2 small-medium sized yellow and green summer squash, ends cut off and sliced lengthwise about 1/4” thick and grilled outside or on a grill pan, until browned and cooked through

1/2 roasted red pepper from a jar, diced

1/2 jar capers

Zest of one lemon

a few good squirts of white balsamic glaze

a large handful of minced parsley

Salt and Pepper to taste

Buratta-1 or two, depending on how decadent you are feeling

Method

Fold the pesto into the chicken. Cook the pasta till al dente, drain, and sprinkle it with the vinegar and about 1/2 cup of the basil oil. Chop the squash into 2-3 inch pieces and throw that in with the chicken, along with the red pepper and zest. Then combine the two mixtures, add the balsamic glaze, parsley, and taste for salt and pepper. Arrange this mess in a beauteous bowl and carefully tear your expensive Buratta and scatter it artfully over the top of the salad.