It’s late August and that means I am right in the middle of that 2-2 1/2 month window when I will eat a BLT. While I try not to be a “food snob” too often, when it comes to BLT’s I have to admit, I am a full blown food snob. If you haven’t read my rant about BLT’s, and wish to, you can find it here. This week our, when I went to pick up our CSA share it not only contained tomatoes and a mix of baby lettuces, but our bread share included a wonderful sourdough bread. All I needed was the bacon, already sitting at home in the fridge, as was the mayo. Score!!!!

Because I wasn’t really in the mood to do much cooking, and because we received yet again, more cucumbers in our box, I decided to wipe up a quick Asian inspired cucumber salad to accompany the BLT’s. This salad doesn’t get much more simple, but for it to be at its best it should be made at least 3-4 hours before you plan on serving it. Overnight is even better.

Cucumber Salad
serves 4

2 large cucumbers, seeds removed, and peeled if skin is thick
1/2 onion, red or yellow
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
2 Tbl. sugar
1/4 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 tsp. sambal (garlic-chile paste)
1 tsp. soy sauce

Slice the cucumbers and onion as thin as you can and place in a bowl. In another bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, adjusting the sambal to suit your heat level. 1/2 tsp. of sambal will give the cucumbers a pretty good kick. Pour the sauce over the cucumbers and toss to coat. Cover and allow to marinate for at least 3-4 hours or overnight.

I realize that I have been kind of lack in posting recently. I had all intentions of posting well before this, but things happen. On Friday, I confess, I just wasn’t in the mood to sit in front of the computer and write. On Saturday we threw a little party here. Nothing crazy; ribs, baked beans, cole slaw, etc. The problem lay in the fact that on that day I was introduced to Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea Vodka. Mixed with lemonade it tastes just like an “Arnold Palmer” and you don’t realize just how much booze you have consumed until it is too late. So even if I wanted to post on Saturday be very thankful that I didn’t as I’m sure that anything I would have written would have been total gibberish!!! And well, Sunday…let’s just say I didn’t have a whole lot of motivation on Sunday and leave it at that. That brings me to today, and now I am guiltily posting what should have been posted days ago.

In our CSA box (now 1 1/2 weeks ago) we received another bunch of spinach. Now I know there are all sorts of novel things to do with spinach, but I have fond memories of Wilted Spinach Salad as a kid. It was the only way I would eat spinach. I wouldn’t touch the canned or frozen stuff if my life depended on it. Even today the thought of canned spinach makes me gag and while I do often use frozen spinach I only use it if it is an ingredient in a recipe. If I am sauteing spinach it has to be fresh or forget it. But as I kid I was even more prejudiced against spinach and Wilted Spinach Salads were the only way I’d eat the stuff. I’ve long gotten over my fear of fresh spinach, but still, every summer when fresh spinach is in season my favorite way to eat the stuff is loaded with bacon, onion and hard boiled eggs, all dressed in a sweet, smoky, warm dressing.

The key to a good Wilted Spinach Salad is to get just the right amount of wilt to it. Some people add so much hot dressing and end up literally cooking the spinach completely, while others I’ve had have been barely dressed with lukewarm dressing. I found the trick is to dress the salad a bit at a time, tossing between each addition. This way you control the amount of dressing and how much the salad will wilt. As for how hot the dressing should be. Once the dressing boils and the sugar dissolves, remove from heat and as soon as the dressing stops bubbling, start drizzling it over the greens but again, go slow or you will end up cooking your spinach which is not the goal here.

You will also notice I use 2 kinds of onions, both red onion and those canned fried onions. I love onion and those fried things are one of my secret indulgences. If you don’t like onions as much as I do you can leave one, or both, of those ingredients out.

Wilted Spinach Salad
serves 4 as a side salad or 2 as a main course salad

3 slices bacon (preferably thick cut) cut into 1/4″ strips
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup malt vinegar (you can use any variety of vinegar, but I prefer malt, sherry, or cider vinegar for this dressing)
1/2 cup salad oil
1/4 tsp. toasted sesame oil (optional)
1 pound fresh spinach leaves, stems removed
1/4 red onion, thinly julienned
3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced*
1/3 cup canned fried onion rings (Durkee is the most popular brand)

In an nonreactive skillet fry the bacon until brown and crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan, leaving the bacon fat behind, in the pan. Add the sugar, vinegar and both oils. Stir constantly and allow the dressing to come to an easy boil. Remove from heat. Place spinach, both onions, sliced eggs and reserved bacon pieces in a large metal bowl. Drizzle a bit of the hot dressing over the salad and toss gently. Repeat drizzling and tossing until salad is dressed as you like it. You will probably have a bit of dressing left over. Divide among 2 or 4 plates and serve immediately.

*To get the perfect hard boiled egg. Start the eggs in cool water. Bring to a gentle boil and boil for exactly 13 minutes. Remove from heat and cool immediately in cold, running water.

We were very excited today as today marked the first delivery, of the season, from our new CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm. My wife and I had belonged to a CSA for a number of years, but stopped just before our daughter was born. After a 5 year hiatus we were more than ready to sign up for another season of fresh, locally grown produce. While we had been happy with the farm from which we had gotten our food from, for years, we were ready to try a new farm. After much research, on the internet, I narrowed our choices down to 3 or 4 and let my wife have the final say. We decided to try out Good Earth Farm, in Oakfield, WI, about 20 minutes from our home in Fond du Lac. You can check out there website here.

For those of you who are not familiar with what a CSA farm is, basically you purchase a “share” that entitles you to a set number of deliveries, of the farm’s product throughout the year. While there are all kinds of CSA’s, from fruit and vegetable shares, to egg shares, to honey shares, to meat and/or poultry shares, the most popular are the fruit and vegetable shares. While the price of a share varies from farm to farm and region to region, a good average price for a share in Wisconsin is $500-$600 a season. While this may sound like a lot of money once you start breaking it down then it ends up being a really good deal. Most shares will consist of approximately 20 deliveries (give or take depending on the weather) and often those deliveries will weigh in at between 10-20 pounds, again depending on the year and the season (spring and early summer boxes can be on the light side while late summer boxes can be overflowing with produce. Of course, all of this depends on the weather and Mother Nature. That’s why many of these farms plant tens to hundreds of varieties of vegetables so if one fails hopefully others flourish. It becomes a win-win situation for both farmer and consumer as the consumer gets lots of great (oftentimes organically raised) produce and the farmer gets some security knowing that they have been paid for their hardwork, even if Mother Nature doesn’t want to cooperate.

Now back to our CSA share. As typically of early season boxes ours was on the light side, but that didn’t matter because what was in it was excellent! We received a bunch of green garlic (can be used as garlic or in place of scallions), a nice large bunch of radishes, a large bag of spring greens for salad, some wonderfully sweet pea shoots, a pound of rhubarb (not that we needed any of that!), a pint of beautiful, local strawberries, and some wonderful bok choy.

In addition to our regular share, we purchased a bread share, which means that each week, with our box of vegetables, will be a loaf of bread baked, in the European tradition, by a local baker. This week the bread was a hearty, nutty 9-grain loaf. Overall, lots of great stuff to cook with and play with. Tonight though, I wanted to keep it simple and let the produce speak for itself. So I simply tossed the spring greens with the pea shoots and dressed this salad in a light vinaigrette of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, minced green garlic, salt and pepper. To accompany the salad I sliced up a few radishes and served the salad with 9 grain bread which I first brushed with a mixture of butter and minced green garlic and gently grilled until toasty and crisp. It was the perfect meal to celebrate the beginning of our weekly deliveries.

I look forward to sharing what we receive each week, and the recipes that our little box of goodies inspires me to make. Stay tuned!

If you are like me then Ramen noodles played an intregal part of your college days. When the vast majority of my budget went towards beer and booze $0.19 packs of ramen was a godsend. Even after culinary school, when I was “paying my dues” in Atlanta, working for barely over minimum wage, ramen played a large part in regular diet. Not only was it cheap, allowing me to hit the bars more often (are you sensing a reoccuring theme here?), but it was pretty tasty, the variations were virtually limitless, and it allowed me to stretch my proteins much further.

Somewhere along the line, I was introduced to the Ramen Noodle Salad, and fell in love with it. Now I could even eat my ramen without cooking them!!! It was great! Since then, I have come across the salad at all sorts of picnics and pot luck dinners. Usually I am underhelmed by the dish and have to admt that I really only like the dish when the noodles have just been added and are still crunchy.

This version adds a bit of flavor to the mix by using green curry paste. Don’t worry, it is now easily found at many grocery stores with a half way decent Asian section. “Thai Kitchen” is the brand I most often come across in regular stores, although if you have a decent Asian market near you, check it out as you can often find it for about half the price of “Thai Kitchen.”

Ramen Noodle Salad
serves 4 as an entree salad or 6-8 as a side dish

1Tbs. green curry paste
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 Tbs. sesame oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 head napa cabbage
4 each green onions
1/2 red bell pepper
4 oz. snow peas

1 can (11oz) mandarin oranges, drained
2 packages ramen noodles, reserve flavoring packet for another use
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

For the dressing combine the first set of ingredients and mix well. Set aside. Core the napa cabbage, cut into thirds, lengthwise and slice thinly. Thinly chop the green onions. Remove seeds from the bell pepper and slice paper thin. Finally remove the strings from the snow peas by snapping off the stem end and pulling it down along the front of the pea, taking the “string” with it. Thinly slice the snow peas. Combine all the vegetables in a large bowl and toss with the dressing. Allow the salad to marinate for at least 10-15 minutes. Break up the ramen noodles and toss with the salad along with the oranges and almonds. Serve immediately so that the noodles are still crisp and crunchy.

While I often use this as a vegetarian meal, you can easily add grilled chicken or shrimp to make a heartier salad.

Well, my first art showing is off the ground and running, which I am very excited about. Haven’t sold any pieces at the gallery but, I have gotten a couple of commissions off of the show so far which is great! Any money I make from the show goes right into the Disney fund. Yes, we are headed to Disney in October. My daughter will be 4 at the end of October so it seems like a good time to take her. In addition I turned 40 this year and my wife and I celebrate our 10 year anniversary in December (we honeymooned at Disney) so there are a lot of things to celebrate and Disney seemed a great way to celebrate them. I have to admit, in many ways, I’m still a kid at heart and just the thought of going to Disney gets me excited. I know it’s a cliche but there is just something magical about the place. Of course, the cynical, embittered chef side of me says, it’s all choreographed in the name of taking a person for every last cent and, while that may be true, my other, child like side, so what, it’s fun!!

But before Disney, I have to get through the summer, and getting through the summer, for me, means lots of picnics. While occasionally I will do an all cold lay out for a picnic, I usually prefer to bring along a little, portable, Weber grill and cook up the main dish wherever we decide to picnic. While I will cook the main entree, I usually don’t go for doing to much cooking, for a picnic, unless it’s a big bash such as a tailgate party or barbecue throw down. Instead, it’s usually 1 hot dish and then the rest are salads, dips, fresh fruits, etc. My new favorite picnic salad is this Black Bean and Jicama Salad I created for my annual tailgate and Brewer’s game. While the black beans make it hearty enough for a cold weather tailgate the jicama adds just enough crispy freshness to keep it light enough for a lakeside picnic on the hottest summer day.

Black Bean and Jicama Salad

2 15oz. cans black beans
1 medium onion
1 medium jicama
1/4 red bell pepper
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
salt
pepper

Drain and rinse the black beans. Meanwhile peel and mince the onion, peel and dice the jicama into 1/4″ cubes, and mince the red bell pepper. Combine beans and vegetables in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredient and pour over beans. Stir well and allow to marinate for at least 3 hours, or overnight, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.

Let’s face it, steak is great all year round, but it’s even better in summer when you can get outside and cook it over a live fire. As much as I love some of the more traditional accompaniments to steak; baked potatoes, creamed spinach, salad with blue cheese dressing, etc., I really enjoy some of the lighter meals you can create around steak in the summertime.

This past weekend we made it down to Madison to visit my brother, his wife and their newborn baby. As part of the trip we made sure to stop by the Dane County Farmer’s Market. As usual we picked up more veggies than we really should have, but I guess that’s a good thing as I am trying to eat a little better than I used to. Included in our haul this time were, golden beets, fava beans, red spring onions, baby potatoes, most of which were just larger than a peanut M&M, a number of different lettuces, a couple loaves of bread and, my favorite find of the day, mustard greens. This doesn’t include the pastries we picked up to munch on as we walked the market, which included a pistachio baklava that was to die for!

Now mustard greens might not sound like much to get excited about, but up here, in Wisconsin, it’s hard to find the type of mustard greens that I grew up with and really enjoy. Most of the mustard greens I find around are grown the by Hmong farmers and it is a milder, larger version of the stuff that I really like. The mustard greens I grew up with had smaller leaves that were less thick and slightly ruffled around the edges. Picked early it had a pleasant sharpness to it and just a little bit of a horseradish like heat. Later in summer that heat would take on a nose clearing intensity. My brother and I would find ways to either trick each other into eating, or just plain forcing each other to eat the hottest leaves we could find and would laugh uproariously as the other would suffer through the pain and heat. Ah…..memories.

Early in the summer, mustard greens are still pretty mellow and make a wonderful salad especially when paired with a warm bacon vinaigrette. Used as an accompaniment to a couple of ribeyes, grilled over charcoal and roasted baby potatoes, tossed in butter, garlic, salt and pepper, and you have a great summertime dinner.

Wilted Mustard Greens Salad

1 red spring onion, sliced thinly into rings
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
vegetable oil for frying

1 bunch mustard greens, stems removed and torn into bite sized pieces (about 8 cups)

3 slices bacon, sliced into 1/4 strips, width wise
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
pinch salt
freshly ground black pepper

Fill a small sauce pot with about 3/4″ of oil. Combine the flour, salt, pepper and chili powder and mix well. Add onions and coat well with flour, breaking apart the individual rings. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. When oil is just barely hot enough (a small piece of bread placed in the oil should start to bubble immediately but should take a bit to brown) shake the excess flour off of the onions and place in the oil. Fry just to the point of turning light brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel. While onions are cooling fry bacon in a saute pan over medium heat, until brown, crispy and have render most of its fat. Remove bacon and add vinegar to the hot oil. Add the sugar, oil, and salt. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste. Remove from heat and add half to the mustard greens. Toss to wilt, adding more dressing if necessary. Add the bacon and fried onion rings, toss again and serve immediately.

Feel free to add halved cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, sliced raw onion, or sliced hard boiled eggs to the salad if you so choose.

This vibrant, fresh tasting salad is the perfect accompaniment to any warm weather picnic. It also makes a great change from the standard potato salad and macaroni salad that seems to be present at just about every picnic pitched on American soil.

Couscous used to be hard to find, outside of major cities, but nowadays most large grocery stores, in just about every town, carry at least a variety or two. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the flavored ones. Choose instead, plain couscous. That way you can season and flavor it any way you want.

The recipe also calls for tarragon. While, in general, I prefer fresh herbs over dry, on occasion I do use dried herbs. Tarragon is one of those herbs, though, that I refuse to use in its dried form. I feel its flavor just suffers too much from the drying. Do yourself a favor and use fresh in this recipe.

Mediterranean Couscous Salad

1 box (15 oz.) couscous
2 cups water
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon juiced + 1 1/2 Tbsp. zest finely minced and reserved
1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh tarragon, minced
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 medium onion, minced
1 1/4 cups sundried tomatoes, re-hydrated and chopped
salt
freshly ground black pepper

To prepare couscous, bring water, a pinch of salt and 2 Tbsp. of olive oil to a boil. Pour in couscous, remove from heat, cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork then chill. In a large bowl combine lemon juice, zest, remaining olive oil, garlic, onion, tarragon and sundried tomatoes. Stir to combine then add the chilled couscous, breaking up any lumps as you mix it up. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to sit at least 2 hours or overnight. Taste and adjust seasoning by adding more salt, pepper or lemon juice. If the couscous seems too dry drizzle with more extra virgin olive oil.

It won’t be long before another corn season is behind us, here in Wisconsin. Then we will have to rely on frozen corn or corn that was picked thousands of miles away and shipped to us. I won’t even mention the canned stuff. The frozen stuff isn’t bad, in fact it often is a better choice than the “fresh” stuff in winter. At least the frozen stuff is picked at its peak of ripeness and processed within days of picking. The ears of corn you see at stores, in winter, were shipped thousands of miles to make it to the local megamart, and who knows how long ago it was picked. With corn that time is very important and crucial to the sweetness of it. Once corn is picked the sugars start converting to starches immediately. There’s some truth in that old saying that for the sweetest corn you need to cook it in the field! Within hours this process starts and within a few days the process is complete, turning a sweet, vibrant, ear of corn that’s full of flavor into something rather bland and boring. The last couple of weeks, I’ve been stuffing myself with fresh, locally grown corn with the knowledge that I won’t have that privilege much longer.

My favorite way to eat corn is grilled, on the cob. It’s a simple enough process, just soak fresh ears of corn in water for a few hours, then grill for about 20 minutes over a medium grill, turning constantly. Remove and allow the carryover heat to finish cooking it, in the husks for another 5-10 minutes. Peel, slather with butter, salt and pepper and enjoy.

Another one of my favorite ways to prepare corn is this Corn and Bacon Relish. This wonderful dish can be made year round as it doesn’t require absolutely fresh corn. Sure, with fresh, local corn, this dish is sublime, in my opinion, but there are enough other flavors going on that frozen corn makes a perfectly acceptable dish also. This relish makes a great garnish for fish (especially salmon and trout), pork or chicken. It works great on its own, as a side dish. It’s great stirred into mashed potatoes, and makes a wonderful garnish for a number of soups such as pumpkin or squash soup. The list of items it goes well is almost endless.

Corn and Bacon Relish

1 each Red Pepper, roasted, peeled, and diced
3 cups Fresh Corn
2 slices Bacon, chopped
1/2 each Red Onion, small dice
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. Thyme, fresh, leaves only, chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp. Chives, fresh, minced
1 Tbsp. Cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Veg. oil

In a large sauté pan render bacon until crisp. Remove bacon, but leave bacon fat in pan. Add a little veg. oil if necessary and sweat the onion and the garlic. When soft add the corn and sauté until done. Toss this in a bowl and add the bacon, peppers, herbs, vinegar, and sugar. Season with salt and pepper.

Late Harvest (or Fall) raspberries are just starting to make their appearances here in Wisconsin. If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I love raspberries and the fact that they are harvested twice a year thrills me. While the nights are getting cool, days can still be warm so I still, occasionally, enjoy an entree salad for dinner. This salad is bright, refreshing, and a great reminder that summer isn’t over just yet.

Spinach & Raspberry Salad

1 1 1/2 pounds Baby Spinach
6 slices Bacon, thick cut, diced
2 each Chicken breast, cut into strips
1 each Leek, white and light green parts only
3/4 cup Raspberries
1/3 cup Raspberry Vinegar
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1/4 cup Pecans, toasted and chopped

If spinach is large, remove the stems. If it is tender baby spinach you can leave the stems intact. Place spinach in a large bowl. Place bacon in a saute pan and cook over medium high heat until rendered and crisp. Remove from pan, pour off all but 1 Tbsp. of bacon fat and and saute the leeks over medium heat until tender and just slightly browned around the edges. Remove leeks from pan and add the chicken. Again saute until until done then remove from pan. Add the raspberry vinegar to deglaze the pan, scraping up all the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Turn off heat and stir in the vegetable oil. Season with a few grinds of black pepper. Add the bacon, leeks, and chicken to the spinach and drizzle with the warmed raspberry vinaigrette (you may not need all of the vinaigrette). Toss to mix and divide among 2 plates. Garnish with the fresh raspberries and toasted pecans.

Living in Wisconsin, it can be hard to track down nice, fresh fish sometimes unless you catch it yourself. Much of the stuff to hit the stores has been frozen at one time or another. Worse yet it has been frozen and not handled properly, meaning its been frozen, thawed and refrozen at least a couple of times turning the flesh into a mangled mess. Needless to say, I often avoid seafood which is too bad because I really love fish and shellfish, but I am not about to pay top dollar for second rate or poorly handled fish. There are a few fish “markets” within driving distance of me, but you pay top dollar for the fish they bring in. I have a really hard time doing that as I know what it costs restaurants to get in fresh fish, and while not exactly cheap it is sure a lot less expensive than what they are selling it for. It was with this mindset that I happened upon some beautiful looking halibut today at none other than my local “mega-mart.” The stuff looked pristine and the man behind the counter assured me that it had never been frozen. At $14 a pound he had better be right, but I couldn’t resist. It looked too darn good and it had been too long since I had good fish. Into my basket went 8oz of halibut, a bulb of fennel and a ruby red grapefruit, along with the other stuff I had stopped at the store to pick up, then on home to whip up a quick and simple dinner to surprise the wife.

Halibut with Fennel and Grapefruit
8 ounces Halibut, skin removed and cut into 2 4ounce portions
1 bulb Fennel, plus a couple sprigs of the fronds
1/4 each Red Onion, thinly julienned
1 each Ruby Red Grapefruit
3 Tbsp. Butter, unsalted
1Tbsp. Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Slice the fennel bulb in half, from top to bottom, reserving one half. Cut out the core of the other half and cut into thin juliennes. Peel the grapefruit with a knife, making sure to remove all the white pith. Remove all the segments by cutting parallel to the membranes releasing the pulp in whole segments. Squeeze all the juice out of the membranes and reserve. Chop some of the fennel fronds to give yourself 1 tsp. Season with fish with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a medium sized saute pan until hot but not smoking. Saute the fish until just done. Don’t overcook or the halibut will dry out. While the fish is cooking, melt 1 Tbsp. of the butter in another saute pan and add the fennel. Saute a couple of minutes then add a couple tablespoons of water, cover and allow the fennel to wilt. Stir, add a little more water, cover and continue to cook until fennel is tender, about 5 minutes. Add the onions and cook until wilted. Add the the grapefruit segments and juice. Toss until warmed through then add the remaining butter. Remove from heat and continue to toss until all the butter is melted and incorporated into the juice. To serve place the halibut on a plate, top with half the fennel-grapefruit mix and drizzle with half the sauce. Do the same on the other plate. Serve with your choice of vegetable (I served sauteed green and wax beans tossed with fresh dill, from my herb garden) and starch.