tumeric

Summer Salads Some Aren't- Grilled Radicchio Wedge Salad with Lentils, Honey & Spiced Walnuts

26 Aug 2011
grilled radicchio wedge salad

My week long series on Summer Salads marches on. Today I have a grilled salad. A grilled wedge salad. Afterall, it's summer.

Now I like a wedge salad. I even like a wedge salad with good old-fashioned iceberg lettuce. I really do. I don't understand why it gets such a bad rap.

But just because I like the classic wedge salad doesn't mean I can't play around with it some. Because I like fresh takes on the familiar. This Grilled Radicchio Wedge Salad with Lentils, Honey & Spiced Walnuts is just that. A fresh take on the familiar wedge salad. But it didn't start that way. I set out to make a lentil salad with chopped radicchio in it. But I made a wrong turn. That's what I like about wrong turns. They always lead somewhere unexpected.

But before I get too far along here I better bring up the obvious. Radicchio is a terrific vegetable. But many people don't really care for the particular brand of bitter that radicchio sports. So a lot of these folks end their relationship with it right there. But really, grilled radicchio is a whole other taste. Sure it's bitter. But it's a better bitter.

Now if my entire goal today was to introduce you to grilled radicchio then I would have simply advised that you grill it on each side, then sprinkle it with salt and fresh lemon. It would have made a fun, piping-hot alternative to a wedge salad.

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Grilled Radicchio Wedge Salad with Lentils, Honey & Spiced Walnuts

grilled radicchio wedge salad
By jgreghenry Published August 22, 2011
Prep time: 30
Yield:1 (Servings)

Ingredients:

  • 0.5 c honey
  • 0.25 t alpeppo pepper (or other type chili powder)
  • 0.5 t tummeric
  • 0 salt & pepper, as needed
  • 0.5 c walnuts, broken in large pieces
  • 1 c puy lentils
  • 0.25 t crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 2 T red wine vinegar, plus more for drizzling
  • 1 head radicchio, left whole
  • 0 pecorino romano, shaved into thin shards, to taste

Directions

Prepare the walnuts: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a bowl combine, honey, alpeppo pepper, tumeric and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stir until well incorporated. Pour half the honey mixture into a new bowl and set aside for the lentils.

Add the walnuts to the remaining honey and mix to coat the nuts well. Spread the nuts onto a parchment lined baking sheet in as close to a single layer as possible. Bake the nuts 15-20 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until crunchy but still sticky. Set aside.

Prepare the lentils: Add the lentils to a medium saucepan, cover with about 2 inches of water, add the crushed red pepper flakes and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered 15-20 minutes, until tender but not yet mushy. Drain the lentils and return them to the pan. Discard bay leaves.

In a small bowl whisk together the reserved honey mixture, olive oil, vinegar, a pinch each of salt & pepper until the honey dissolves. Stir the mixture into the lentils while they are still hot, then set aside covered in a warm place.

Grill the radicchio: Heat the grill or grill pan to medium-high (indirect heat). Cut the whole radicchio head into 8 wedges. Brush the grates or the grill pan with a little olive oil. Grill, cut side down, about 3 minutes per side. Remove from heat and sprinkle with a little salt & pepper to taste.

Arrange 2 wedges per person on 4 plates. Set a large spoonful of lentils alongside the wedges. Garnish with reserved nuts, shaved pecorino romano and a drizzle of vinegar. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Source: The flavor combination was inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi

Pantry Workout- Aloo Gobi from Marc @NoRecipes

09 Mar 2010
aloo gobi

This is the thing about the great big wonderful world of blogs– are you listening? Blogs can open you up to a whole great big wonderful world!

Yesterday I was over at No Recipes. He posted a delicious and very Marc looking Aloo Gobi, which is an Indian dish of spiced cauliflower with potatoes. Something about it hit me just the right way. So I decided right then that I would make it for lunch– immediately.

This is not the type of thing I usually cook. In fact this is the kind of thing I usually reserve for restaurants. It’s not that I can’t cook food like this. I just proved (at least to myself) that I can. But for some reason I just don’t… but I guess that is a question between my pantry and me.

Speaking of my pantry, my pantry gets a lot of the credit for the success of today. I keep my pantry in tip-top shape. You never know when it’s going to get a strong work out from a difficult challenger. This Indian spiced dish is a perfect example of the kind of preparedness I am talking about because I was able to read Marc’s post and look at his pictures and start right in on cooking my version with in a few moments. So I am pretty proud of that fact.

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Aloo Gobi

aloo gobi
By jgreghenry Published March 8, 2010
Prep time: 5
Yield:1 ()

Ingredients:

  • 2 T vegetable oil
  • 1 t black mustard seeds
  • 1 t whole cumin seeds
  • 0.5 t whole cloves
  • 1 T grated garlic (about 3 cloves)
  • 1 T grated ginger (about 1″ knob)
  • 2 medium onions minced
  • 1 chili minced (i used a habanero but if that’s too spicy you can use a serano chili)
  • 2 t garam masala
  • 0.5 tumeric
  • 2 t kosher salt
  • 2 t honey (or vegan sugar)
  • 0.5 c water
  • 3 yukon gold potatoes cut into 1/2″ cubes
  • 1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
  • 2 T lemon juice
  • 0.5 c green peas
  • 0 cilantro hand torn (for garnish)

Directions

Heat heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat until very hot and add the oil. Add the mustard seeds, cumin and cloves and stir until the spices begin to crackle. Add the ginger and garlic and fry until fragrant then add the onion. Fry this mixture until the onions are soft and just starting to turn brown, then add the chili, garam masala, turmeric, salt, honey, water and potatoes. Cover and simmer over medium low heat for 10 minutes, add the cauliflower and cook until everything is tender, another 30-40 minutes. Add the lemon juice and peas at the very end and serve the Aloo Gobi garnished with cilantro alongside some basmati rice and raita.

Chicken-y Chicken Baked in a Salt Crust with Homemade Mustard

02 Mar 2010
Whole Chicken Baked in a Thyme Infused Salt Crust

Baked in a Salt Crust. That's quite a phrase to me. It appeals to the eater in me, who also happens to be the cook at my house. I like it because it's such  a simple cooking method. But the results will amaze you. The flavor of whatever you cook in a salt crust gets amplified. The crust keeps things moist, but surprisingly not at all "salty" or at least not too salty because everything is so well seasoned. I cannot say exactly why this is, because salt often draws all the moisture out– at least in the short run. So I am going to guess our old friend osmosis is at work here. Maybe the juices are drawn out by the salt during cooking and then sucked back in (nicely seasoned) by Mr. Osmosis in the resting phase... maybe.

Anyway, salt crusts work. You have seen it done with fish, I do it regularly with fingerling potatoes, but the Italians have a classic version with a whole chicken baked in a salt crust. I have come across many recipes for chicken cooked this way. They all seem to have lots of the the traditional flavor accompaniments you might expect: Herbs, Spices, Citrus. But my version is very pared down. In fact I have removed all the herbs and other seasoning except thyme, a little pepper and of course the salt.

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