Salad with Thai Peanut Dressing

This recipe is credited to my mother, who upon finding herself headed to a Midwest barbecue (read: lots of unhealthy food), wanted to make a vegetable heavy dish that she could nibble on without worry. My younger brother also gets a shout out because he was the one that introduced us to Thai pizza, which is delicious. My mother took the sauce and used it as a dressing over a mix of vegetables. What is below is a rough estimate of what I put in my own version tonight. (At some point I will invest in a camera so that I can share images of these dishes with you).

Salad with Thai Peanut Dressing

3 chicken quarters
1/2 head red cabbage, sliced thin
1 tsp salt
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced into thin 2 inch strips
2 small broccoli stems, sliced into thin 2 inch strips
1 1/2 cups 1-inch pieces snow peas
2 c bean sprouts
5 carrots, julienned
4 green onions, green parts only sliced thin
1/4 c peanut butter (I used smooth, natural)
2 tbsp hoisin sauce, heaping
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce, heaping
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp minced onion
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 large clove garlic, minced
4 tbsp water
chopped peanuts for garnish

Place chicken quarters in a pot and cover with water.
Put over high heat and bring to a boil.
Reduce to a low boil and let cook until cooked through.
While chicken is boiling, place red cabbage in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt.
Toss to coat and let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Chop remaining ingredients and place in a large serving bowl.
In a small sauce pan, mix together peanut butter, hoisin sauce, teriyaki sauce, maple syrup, red pepper flakes, onion, ginger, garlic, and water.
Put dressing over medium heat and bring to a simmer.
Let dressing simmer for a few minutes, then remove from heat.
Once chicken is done, remove from heat, drain, and let cool before handling.
Place cabbage in a salad spinner and cover with water.
Stir cabbage around to remove salt, then drain and spin dry.
Add cabbage to large serving bowl.
Once chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin and remove meat from bones.
Chop meat into small pieces and add to serving bowl.
Pour dressing over the top and toss until everything is coated.
You can serve at this point or chill it before serving.
When serving, sprinkle top with chopped peanuts.

Simple Pleasures

One of the things I love about living and working in Portland is that it doesn't take a lot of effort to find a quiet place to enjoy the weather. After work, I take my dog for a walk that meanders through green neighborhoods or around the cove. On the weekends, I can go for a bike ride and see the ocean crashing against the rocks, bluebirds flying through fields, or cranes and ducks enjoying a marsh. And at lunchtime, I can take a simple salad, pick up something from the Standard Baking Company next door and go sit on the pier to soak up sun and let my brain relax.

I've found that some of my favorite salads are the most simple. A bunch of salad greens, some fruit, and a basic vinaigrette eaten with fresh bread is refreshing and satisfying. The key to a great salad (besides fabulous vegetables) is the dressing. I've done a lot of experimenting with dressings over the past couple years and have found that simple is many times the best. I usually use a little oil, vinegar and a sweetener (and occasionally some salt and pepper). The variety comes from the type of oil, vinegar and sweetener you use and then the proportion of vinegar to sweetener. For oil, I've used hazelnut, olive oil, and many flavored oils (like lemon rosemary, black pepper, or basil). For vinegar, I'll use rice, balsamic, white balsamic, or cider. And for sweeteners, I'll use white sugar (rare), honey, molasses, maple syrup, or fruit or fruit juices. I tend to like my dressings tangy, but when I have company, I'll make them sweeter, so anywhere from 3 parts vinegar to 1 part sweetener to 1 part vinegar to 1 part sweetener (or for my more sensitive friends, I'll put more sweetener than vinegar). Below is the vinaigrette (and salad) that I had for lunch today.

Salad with Basic Vinaigrette

4 cups mixed salad greens (baby lettuce, radicchio, spinach, tatsoi, arugula)
3/4 c blueberries
Vinaigrette:
1 tsp lemon rosemary olive oil
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp maple syrup
pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Wash lettuce and tear into bite sized pieces, place in sealable container.
Put blueberries in an 8 oz glass jar with lid.
Place vinaigrette ingredients in a 4 oz glass jar with lid.
When ready to eat, add blueberries to the salad greens; shake vinaigrette to mix and pout over salad.

My fingers are green

My fingers are green from picking snow peas and snap peas. After a few years of meaning to, I've finally joined a CSA. I usually remember about wanting to join after they've all closed. This year I found one that was still open and willing to accept a choose-your-own payment plan. So, I went last week to pay my first installment and pick up my first veggies. As I live in Maine, the CSA had only started the week before I joined, thus not a ton of vegetables last week, but definitely enough to get me through the week.

Each CSA has a different method, but the one I joined does a lot of mix-and-match, which is great if you don't like one of the options. I like experimenting, so I take a little bit of everything. Last week was mixed salad greens, mixed cooking greens and broccoli. This week there was a lot more to pick up and their pick your own field was open with peas. Since I don't have my own garden, I enjoyed picking peas amidst kids hunting for peas, exclaiming that they found a really great one, and munching on half the ones they picked. I started to leave when I thought I had enough, but was stopped by the gentleman overseeing the field. He exclaimed, "That's not nearly enough! Go take more! Eat more!" As I slowly wound my way back out of the plants, one hand covering the basket so my extra peas wouldn't fall out he said, "That's more like it! That's what we like to see!" You have to love a place that tells you to take more.

So, now I have a new goal for this blog. I bought a whole share, which means I'm going to have a lot of vegetables. I figured I'd share my attempts at eating enough vegetables to feed two vegetarians with you. I'm also going to attempt to freeze or can whatever I don't manage to ingest. Each day I'll share at least one meal that involved my CSA produce. (Disclaimer: this is a goal and given my atrocious ability to regularly update my blog, a goal I can't guarantee; but I'll give it my best effort). So, first, the run down of this week's share (and then a recipe):

(measurements are approximate, given that they put out big and medium sized bowls that you measure the loose leaves into)
1 head of red leaf lettuce
mixed baby lettuce leaves (about 1 or 2 full heads worth)
mixed salad greens (about 1 head of lettuce)
mixed cooking greens (bok choy, kale, Swiss chard) (about 1 1/2 heads)
2 bunches scallions
1 purple kohlrabi
1 quart mixed snow and snap peas

My lunch today consisted of this salad and a French roll from the local bakery. I ate it while enjoying a sunny day and watching a seal swim near the pier. Practically perfect.

Salad with nectarines and cheese (directions are for transport to work)

2 cups young salad greens, washed and torn into bite sized pieces
1 nectarine, pitted and chopped
2 tsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp maple syrup
2 oz apricot-ginger white cheese

Put salad greens in a small, sealable plastic bag.
In a small, sealable container, put the chopped nectarine and pour in vinegar and syrup.
Put cheese in a separate bag.
When ready to eat, put greens on a plate, top with nectarine/dressing, and crumble the cheese over all of it.
Lightly toss before eating.

Experimenting with Cranberries

Breakfast is a fun thing to experiment with. This morning we decided to have french toast, and I decided to make a cranberry syrup to go with it. I've done some experimenting with cranberry syrups before, but this time I added cinnamon and maple flavoring. Before I was just making a fruit syrup (sugar, water, fruit, maybe some vanilla extract or vanilla bean). We also made scrambled eggs.

French Toast
11 slices of homemade bread
6 eggs
1/4 c milk
2 tbsp cinnamon and sugar mix
butter for the pan

Beat eggs in a shallow dish.
Add milk and beat.
Add cinnamon and sugar mix and beat.
Heat a skillet (we use cast iron) over medium-high heat.
Once hot, reduce heat to medium to medium-low.
Put butter on pan and spread around.
Dip each side of two slices of bread in the egg mixture and place on the skillet.
Brown the first side, turn, and brown second side.
Too keep warm while making the rest of the toast, place on a plate in an oven set to about 200 degrees.

Cranberry Syrup
1/2 bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 c water
1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp mapeleine (maple flavoring)
1 tsp cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a sauce pan over medium-high heat.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low.
Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Allow to cool a bit before serving.

Scrambled Eggs

8 eggs
1/2 to 1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp butter

Beat eggs well.
Add pepper and salt and beat until blended.
Melt butter in a steel skillet over medium to medium-low heat.
Once the pan is hot, add the eggs.
Allow a layer to cook and scrape up.
Repeat until the eggs are cooked, but still glistening.
Do NOT overcook, unless you like rubber for breakfast.