Dressing Salad
I dress leafy greens, vegetables, and a variety of beans, meats and fishes every single day. There is no greater delight for me than a trip to the farm stand and the resulting beauty of a composed (or totally messy) salad with its accompanying acidic/oily/salty/spicy counterpart. I possess and arsinal of incredible oils, vinegars, spices...even a cutting garden with fresh herbs. All of these elements are essential for making a great dressing or sauce and so make sure you have at least one good bottle of olive oil and two or three great vinegars in your pantry. Kosher salt and a pepper mill with fresh peppercorns are also critical for success. If you have the space to keep garlic, onions, and a lemon or two on the counter, please do this too. The secret weapon that I find most cooks leave out of their homemade dressings is a sweet element, which serves to balance the acid. My go-to is raw unfiltered honey, but I’ve been known to use white/brown/coconut/date sugar, agave...You know, whatever is handy. You may also be like me in that you tend to collect fancy mustards (you know who you are!). If you don’t, buy one small jar of good Dijon and keep it just for this purpose.
I think everyone should have a few great salad dressings in their repertoire, ones that you don’t need to measure or look at a recipe to make. I am going to give you a gift and tell you the one my grandmother taught me. But first I will digress about kitchen tools (one of my favorite topics) and the state of my right hand (not good).
That beautiful creamy dressing was made with a machine! Yesss!
As a seasonal private chef, my days are spent reading, planning, shopping, running around, prepping, cooking, and cleaning up. Much of each day is spent on my feet, using my hand in repetitive motion. This year I was diagnosed with Dupuytren’s Disease, a progressive condition affecting the hand (read all about it here). In response (after freaking the f$#k out), I have been trying some dietary and “alternative” treatments (acupuncture and massage have been very effective), and have also adapted some of my kitchen practices to lessen the load on my hand. Instead of using my beloved knife for every single task, I now pick the jobs where beautiful knifework is imperative and use a machine for the rest.
Working in the kitchen of a beautiful home often requires form over function, one of the challenges of my job. This might require keeping unsightly appliances off of the counters. Because I make so many dressings and sauces, I invested in a small, lightweight food processor (this one, from Amazon). It is stored under my counter, and I have trained myself to use it on a daily basis. It gives my hand a break and emulsifies beautifully. While I love a bowl and a whisk, I have grown very fond of this little powerhouse and encourage those who are infirm or short on time (or who just love cute little appliances), to give one a whirl (sorry, couldn’t resist). Okay, onward to the recipe!
Best Simple Salad Dressing to Memorize Forever
Makes around a cup or so, and will keep for days in your fridge in a covered jar
Ingredients
1 tablespoon of shallot, finely minced
1 very small clove of garlic, finely minced
1/3 cup of vinegar (red wine, white wine, or champagne)
2 teaspoon of mustard
1 teaspoon of honey (or sugar, or agave...)
1/2 cup of good EVOO (or more to taste)
1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
A few good grindings of pepper
A handful of fresh herbs (I typically go for chives, parsley, tarragon, and/or basil)
Method(s)
In a small-medium sized bowl, soak the shallot and garlic in vinegar for about 10-15 minutes (prep your greens while this happens). Whisk in the rest of the ingredients until the mixture is a little thick and emulsified. Or toss the shallot and garlic into your machine to mince, add the vinegar and wait. Then add the rest of the ingredients and blitz till emulsified. Or use a jar and shake, shake, shake.
When you dress a salad, start out conservatively. Overdressing is a sad state of affairs and easily prevented. Also, don’t forget to dress the protein, if you’ve included one. Whenever there are greens and veggies to toss, I recommend you use your freshly washed hands for the job. Do this out of the eyesight of your family, guests, or clients. It is the absolute best method, but for some reason also tends to alarm people. Anyhow, HANDS. So important, so take good care of yours!
Panzanella Salad
I simply love a dish that is not only beautiful, delicious, and flexible, but that also uses food that might otherwise be thought of as past it’s prime. Consider the lovely and frugal Panzanella Salad. She will gladly showcase your stale bread and wilty herbs, and you could even oven roast a subpar tomato for this one if necessary. The only ingredients that must be excellent are the mozzarella and olive oil. Really! And did I mention you don’t need to turn on the stove? Get on it while the tomatoes are still at your farmer’s market!
Panzanella Salad
Feeds about 2-4
Ingredients
2 Big slices of good, stale country type bread, cut or torn into bite sized pieces (you can also dry your bread out in the oven, but that means turning your stove on!)
2 cups of tomatoes of all types, cut to a similar size as the bread
6-8 small mozzarella balls (bocconcini) , sliced into rounds
1/2 cup finely diced onion (red or white) covered in red wine vinegar to soak for 10-15 minutes
1 cup of peeled and seeded cucumber, cut into small half rounds
1 clove garlic, grated, minced or smashed
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup EVOO (your very best!)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste
Method
In a large bowl, toss together the bread, tomatoes, and mozzarella. Drain the onion, reserving the vinegar, and add that to the mixture. Now, either using a whisk and bowl, or handy small food processor type machine, make the dressing, using the garlic, mustard, oregano, 1/4 cup of reserved vinegar, and EVOO. Mix the dressing into the salad (I use my hands and will say this is the best way to toss and dress every salad!). Add the remaining ingredients and let it sit for at least 15-20 minutes. If it’s hot as hell outside, I sometimes even chill this for an hour (a crime in some peoples books). Serve it on a bed of greens if you like.
Quinoa, ugly and delicious
For real. I love incorporating quinoa into salads and showcasing it as a delicious and less likely side dish, but man, it’s hard to make it pretty. I tend to fancy it up with lovely vegetables or plate it with other good looking proteins or sauces. My favorite thing lately is a kitchen sink type of quinoa salad. I grill up a bunch of veggies (or better yet, use left over ones), cook and cool the quinoa, make a bracing and acidic dressing and shower the final mix with fresh herbs. If you make the quinoa before and grill extra stuff, it’s really fast to put together.
A few things-I have read a bunch about the best way to cook quinoa and here is what I know is true.
One cup of quinoa to 1 3/4 cup of liquid for cooking (I almost always use broth or stock).
Rinse and rub the hell out of the quinoa under cold running water in a fine strainer for a couple of minutes and then dry in a hot saucepan for a couple of minutes. (This takes away any bitterness)
Once cooked, I usually put the pan into an ice bath to cool it down so it stops cooking and doesn’t get gummy.
That’s it folks! Here is the recipe for a very popular quinoa salad that I actually think doesn’t look too, too terrible.
Quinoa Salad with Grilled Veggies and Red Wine Vinaigrette
Serves 2-3 as a side dish
Ingredients
1/2 cup quinoa (washed well)
3/4 cup broth, stock or water
1/2 teaspoon oil
1/4 cup grilled or roasted and diced red pepper
1/2 cup grilled or roasted and diced eggplant
1/2 cup grilled or roasted and diced zucchini or yellow squash
1/4 cup grilled or roasted and diced red onion
1 ear of corn, grilled or roasted, and cut off the cob
6-8 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
Dressing
1 teaspoon coarse mustard
1 teaspoon smooth dijon mustard
1 small mashed garlic clove
1/2 shallot, minced finely
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano (or a teaspoon dry)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Method
Cook the quinoa by boiling the liquid, dumping in the quinoa and oil and bringing back to the boil. Turn down the heat to the lowest setting, cover and set a timer for about 15 minutes. When it’s cooked (taste it!), stick the whole pan in a large bowl of ice cubes and water to cool down. Once cool, fold in the vegetables.
Make the dressing by combining all of the ingredients in a bowl and whisking till emulsified. Alternately, you can throw them all whole into a vitamix or cuisinart and blitz them into a dressing.
Carefully add the dressing to your salad, tasting to make sure you don’t over dress. Add salt and pepper to taste and if you like, add another handful of herbs (chives or parsley) to the finished salad.
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.
Broccoli Slaw
One of the curses AND gifts of being a private chef is that you have the freedom to make different foods everyday and to experiment with new recipes or ideas that intrigue you. I have made so many different types of slaws over the years-a few from glossy photos in magazines, some from those old timey church lady cookbooks, Instagram-inspired slaws (of late), and occasionally you make a slaw out of whatever it is that you can find in the vegetable bin at that particular moment.
On Nantucket this summer, the combination of terrible winter weather, cold and endless spring and foggy/damp summer has affected the growing season. While we are still not seeing field tomatoes at the farm stands, I have seen broccoli, and it is gorgeous! So, to make a long story short, here’s broccoli slaw!
Kitchen Sink Broccoli Slaw
Ingredients
About two cups or so of broccoli florets, cut as tiny as you dare
A large carrot, grated over the largest holes of the box grater
1/2 each of a green and red pepper, in a tiny dice
A good handful of red onion, also in a tiny dice, soaked in a few tablespoons of red wine vinegar for 5 minutes and saved (see below)
Dressing
1/3 C buttermilk
1/3 C Mayo (mine was homemade garlic aioli from another recipe)
1/4 C of red wine vinegar (include the vinegar you will drain from the onions)
A very healthy squirt of honey-I used hot honey, which is chili infused and costs the world at a fancy food shop
Two big fistfuls of fresh green herbs-parsley, cilantro, chives, tarragon, mint? Be bold and decide for yourself!
Salt and pepper to taste
Slivered almonds or any other nut, toasted to throw on top if you like (I had some and forgot!)
Method
Gently combine the salad ingredients and then whisk together the dressing ingredients and taste-add more acid or sweet as necessary. Thin with a little water if it seems too thick. Dress the salad carefully-start with less and add a bit at a time to avoid the overdress! Pile it in a bowl and chill. If you have something crunchy to top it with, do that right before you serve
New Tricks and Watermelon Tomato Salad
In the last year, I’ve become a great fan of the Instagram. At the urging of the young people in my life, I signed up around this time last year and have really grown to love the platform for sharing and showcasing my food and travels. Today, I took a plunge and signed up to do that magical trick, where it says “Link to recipe in profile” (you know what I’m talking about!). This will be my first post using that magic!
First step is a perfect watermelon!
Nantucket is known for her cool ocean breezes and beautiful summer weather (yes, she is a she!). As someone who grew up here, I’ll tell you that many summer days can also be chilly, windy, foggy, wet, grey and occasionally hot and muggy. Yes, muggy. That’s where we were at last week, when I decided to take the ubiquitous watermelon/tomato salad route for my client.
it felt like I was traveling back to 1998, making this little number, but the tomatoes at Bartlett’s Farm are beauteous, although still grown in their hothouses, due to the crappy winter and spring we had here. Watermelon must be seedless! The feta should be the best you can afford (I love the one from Cricket Creek Farm) and the mint is mintier when freshly picked out of a garden.
The Mise en Place is on point here...
This salad is all about the dice (small and uniform), the vinegar (something with a little depth), and the temperature (chilly!). I’m trying to get better at this recipe writing stuff, so here it goes...
Ingredients
For this dish which fed 4-6 people happily, I used:
3 cups of diced tomatoes (about 3 medium-sized)
3 cups of diced seedless watermelon
1 1/2 cups of diced feta
2 Tablespoons of good, aged Sherry Vinegar
2 big handfuls of chopped mint (chocolate mint took over my garden this year and it worked beautifully!)
A splash of olive oil to finish
salt and pepper to taste, and I’m serious about that taste part! The feta could make your salad salty enough or it could use more. Get a spoon and find out before you feed your tribe!
Method
Toss the fruits, splash with vinegar, and chill for an hour. If too much juice has accumulated, strain it out and save it for a delightfully fruity salad dressing. Add the feta and mint and toss gently. Do your tasting and add a little salt if necessary. A quick grind of pepper and a splash of your best olive oil to finish. Serve it in the prettiest bowl you can find-the salad’s colors deserve it.
