Simple Summer Salad

It's that time of year when gardens are producing tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers at a prolific rate.  Here's a very simple chilled salad that cools your palette and uses summers very best.

1 cup ripe large heirloom tomato or vining tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 cup green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 cup cucumber, coarsely chopped
about 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
a dash or two extra virgin olive oil (optional)

1 pinch grey sea salt (optional)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Chop your veggies and place in a large bowl.  Sprinkle the wine vinegar over the veggies until they are nicely coated.  Add a couple of dashes of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of sea salt (optional) and black pepper.  Combine thoroughly.  Chill and enjoy.

Spicy Summer Linguine

When cooking for one or two people, I often make too much food to be eaten in one meal.  One of my favorite things to do is create new dishes from leftovers that allow me to enjoy the flavors in a new way.  So, here's one of this week's combinations that turned out terrific.

whole wheat linguine
mole sauce (here is the recipe for Mole Elena, a very light mole sauce)
salsa fresca (here is the recipe for Mexican Rice with Salsa Fresca)

Top one serving of linguine with 1/2 cup each of mole sauce and salsa fresca.  Top with a little sharp white cheddar (or better queso blanco) and freshly chopped cilantro.

This is a surprisingly delicious pasta.

Grilled Lemon Shrimp in Mole Sauce

Yes, you know it -- in my kitchen the fresh taste of citrus plays a major role in much of my cooking.  This is recipe is no different.  I use the bold taste of fresh lemon zest and juice to give the mole sauce a new life.

This dish is great as the basis for fajitas, served with mexican rice with salsa fresca, or rolled up into a tortilla with a nice helping of tahini slaw.

INGREDIENTS
1 bag of raw frozen shrimp (I use 41-50 count), thawed and peeled
4-5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
2 T chopped cilantro leaves
zest from one lemon
extra virgin olive oil
pinch of course grey salt, freshly ground pepper to taste
juice from one lemon to deglaze
2 cups mole sauce

RECIPE
Thaw and peel the shrimp, removing tails. (The shells may be reserved and frozen to include in a homemade seafood broth if you like).  Rinse and drain them, squeezing out water and set in a clean bowl.  Add enough extra virgin olive oil to coat the shrimp.  Add the sliced garlic, lemon zest, cilantro salt and pepper and set aside in the refrigerator to marinate for 30 minutes.  Juice the lemon and set aside for later use.

Bring about 1 1/2 - 2 cups mole sauce to a gentle simmer in a large sautee pan.  In a separate sautee pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add the shrimp and marinade 8-10 pieces at a time, without over crowding.  Sear on one side and then move the shrimp to the mole sauce to continue cooking.  Continue until the entire batch is cooked.  When you are finished searing the shrimp, there will be a nice glaze on the pan.  Reduce the heat and pour in the reserved lemon juice.  Quickly scrape the bottom of the pan to remove the residue.  Add a splash of water if you don't have enough liquid.  Turn off the heat at add the remaining marinade.  Pour the released glaze and the marinade into the simmering mole with shrimp.

This is great served in a multitude of ways.  Enjoy using your own creativity.  I love to garnish it with a few sprigs of fresh cilantro!

Mushroom & Black Bean Enchiladas

This fourth of July was a difficult day for me, spending the holiday by myself.  Certainly, I wasn't going to fire up the grill, but I wanted something new and tasty and decided to make enchiladas and a great salad.  I started thinking about a nice rich dish and made a light but delicious mole sauce.

I rummaged through the pantry and found my some delicious ingredients that made this a wonderful and unusual treat.



INGREDIENTS:
1 package mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
1 12-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
5 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
3-5 T crushed tomatoes, tomato puree or tomato sauce
1 T extra virgin olive oil
black pepper to taste; pinch of salt (optional)
6 soft tortilla shells (I used wonderful spelt shells)
1 cup mole sauce 
1 package goat cheese, crumbled

RECIPE
Preheat oven to 400F.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add mushrooms and beans and a pinch of salt and saute.  Add the garlic when the vegetables begin to soften.  You will notice that the mushrooms absorb liquid rapidly.  The salt will help them to weep, keeping the mixture moist.  If it gets to dry, don't hesitate to add as much tomato sauce as you need to maintain a nice consistency as they cook.

Once the vegetables are cooked, your filling is finished.  Place about 2-3 T of the mushroom-bean filling in the center of your tortilla shell and roll it up.  Place the rolled tortilla in a glass baking dish.  Continue until all 6 tortillas are filled.  Top with mole sauce and goat cheese (white cheddar would be great here, too).

Bake in the oven at 400F until the cheese is slightly melted and the sauce is bubbling.

Mole Elena

While working around the yard on the 4th of July, I developed a taste for enchiladas.  I wanted a homemade sauce and decided to develop my own version of a mole sauce.  The sauce has a decidedly Mediterranean flair, as does the finished dish (Black Bean and Yam Enchiladas with Goat Cheese).

This is particularly spicy; you may reduce or omit dried chilis to suit your taste or your biology.  ; )

INGREDIENTS
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 large sweet onion, roughly chopped
15 dried chilis
5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 28-oz can tomato puree or crushed tomatoes
40-oz water
2 t chili powder
1/2 t unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 t cinnamon

RECIPE
Bring a heavy-bottomed stock pot or large sauce pan to heat over medium flame.  Do not use a plain cast iron pan due to the acidity of this dish.  Once hot, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot.  Once the oil begins to shimmer add the onion and chilis.  Breaking the chilis will increase the spicy heat of the sauce, so, if you are cooking for an audience that doesn't tolerate heat, be sure to use only intact peppers. Stir as needed allowing to the onions to sear a bit.  They will stick somewhat to the pot.  Once the onion and dried peppers begin to soften and slightly carmelize, add the garlic.  Allow to cook for another 2-3 minutes.  Turn up the heat to high and immediately add the tomato.  Quickly scrape the bottom of the pot, to deglaze it.  Now, add the water and remainder of spices and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat to medium and allow the mole to simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove the chilis and discard them if you want a mild sauce.  Leave a few in if you want it hot. Using a sieve or a blender, you are going to puree the sauce.  I use my immersion blender for this (as well as for pureeing soups.  I find it to be a much safer choice with less risk of being burned.  If you are going to use a standard blender, allow the sauce to first cool to nearly room temperature before blending.  Then ill the blender to no more than half full, puree the sauce and pour the puree into another dish.  Continue until you have pureed all of the sauce  until the entire pot is nicely pureed.

This sauce will make a great topping for enchiladas or a wonderful marinade for any meat you might like to cook.

Here is a way to make it into a wonderful fresh pasta sauce adding salsa fresco.  Also, you can make use it as the base for a sauce for grilled lemon shrimp to serve over pasta, rice, quinoa, shredded cabbage or zucchini ribbons.  Sometimes, I'll even warm it serve it with a mexican-style frittata.

Bourbon Jelly Vodka Martini

I am a fan of the true martini -- yes and that means I enjoy an excellent vermouth in it whether I am having a gin or vodka martini.  As for gin, my favorite is Hendricks garnished traditionally with a slice of cucumber.  For vodka, I typically buy Rain Organics and keep it in the freezer.  It's a terrific and inexpensive choice.   Martini's are generally 2 parts gin/vodka to 1 part dry vermouth.  For other variations of martinis replace the vermouth with other flavors (dirty martini's for example use vodka and olive brine; gimlets are gin and Rose's Lime Juice (although I prefer fresh squeezed with a splash of simple syrup).

In the heat of the summer, I enjoy a nice crisp martini.  Having run out of vermouth, I tried the following combination, which made a delicious martini that was both spicy and slightly sweet.

For a single martini,

     1 teaspoon bourbon jelly
     1 oz dry white wine of your choice (I used sauvignon blanc)
     2 oz vodka
     3 Tipsy Onions for garnish

First mix the jelly and wine together thoroughly.  Pour the mixture and vodka over ice and shake vigorously.  The Tipsy Onions are pickled and can be found at many gourmet markets.  I got both the Bourbon Jelly and Tipsy Onions at Curds & Whey in the North Market (Columbus, OH).  If you haven't been there, It's quite a treat.