Spring Panzanella

Because the Robbino loves bread salad and because it is the tail end of spring and because when I make bread salads these days I used the sourdough hoagie rolls from Safeway and if there are leftovers it makes the Robber so happy.

I liked this but next time I make it I will use a balsamic dressing instead of the red onion dressing, because the Robbino hates red onions and because I like to make him happy. Fortunately I was saavy enough to only put the dressing over half of the salad anyway.

Who knew white beans were so delicious?

From Smitten Kitchen:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/04/spring-panzanella/

Ingredients:

For the croutons:

1/4 C. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

6 C. day-old bread, crust removed, cubed

6 T. finely grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the vinaigrette:

Half a red onion, finely diced

2 to 2 1/2 T. white wine vinegar

Juice of half a lemon

1/4 C. olive oil

1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard

For the salad:

4 large leeks

2 tsp. salt

1 lb. asparagus

1 19-oz can of white beans, rinsed and drained or 1 1/2 C. cooked white beans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Mix the bread cubes with the garlic, olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Toss to coat well. Transfer bread to a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake stirring once or twice, until the croutons are crisp and lightly colored on the outside but still soft within, about 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

3. Mix the red onion with the vinegar and lemon juice in a small bowl and set aside for a few minutes before whisking in the remaining vinaigrette ingredients: olive oil and dijon. Set aside.

4. Cut off dark green tops of leeks and trim root ends. Halve each leek lengthwise to within 2 inches of root end. Rinse well under cold running water to wash away sand. Cover leeks with cold water in a 12-inch heavy skillet. Add salt and simmer leeks, uncovered, until tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

Without draining the cooking water (you will reuse it for the asparagus), transfer leeks to a bowl of ice and cold water to stop cooking, then pat the leeks dry with paper towels.

5. Break off tough ends of asparagus and cook it in the boiling water until crisp-tender, no more than three minutes if they’re pencil-thin, more if your asparagus is thicker. Transfer it to another bowl of ice water, drain and pat it dry.

6. Cut the leeks and the asparagus each into one-inch segments–the leeks will be especially slippery and prone to separating; hold firm and use a sharp knife! Place pieces in a large bowl and mix in beans and cooled parmesan croutons. Pour vinaigrette over and toss well. Season with salt and pepper. 

Rosemary Chicken Salad

I made chicken salad on Saturday for M.'s baby shower and, loving this new blog, looked to it for some inspiration. What I ended up making was a hybrid between my standard chicken salad and this one-- basically I just made my old salad but used some of her ideas (using one half Greek yogurt instead of straight mayonnaise, a hint of Dijon, rosemary) and was very pleased with the results. I use toasted slivered almonds, cucumber, and celery in my salad and also threw in some green onions this time, for effect. Anyway, everyone liked the salad, so I'll blog this recipe here as a remind to myself that next time I made chicken salad I might make my hybrid again.

From a Hint of Honey:
http://www.ahintofhoney.com/2009/01/rosemary-chicken-salad-sandiwches.html

Ingredients:

1 lb. chicken breast, cooked and diced
1/3 C. green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 C. smoked almonds, chopped (I use toasted slivered almonds)
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
3 T. nonfat Greek yogurt
3 T. mayonnaise
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Whole wheat bread or pita, for serving (I still think eating chicken salad with a cheddar dill scone is amazing.)

Directions:

1. Toss to combine chicken, onions, almonds, and rosemary in a medium bowl. Add yogurt, mayonnaise, and Dijon, stirring to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Yield: Serves 4

Walnut Oil Dressing

Remember how I have all that walnut oil from the acorn squash? Well it is time to start using it elsewhere. Like in this salad dressing which we had over a salad of spinach, honeycrisp apples, red pears, chopped red pepper, and candied walnuts. Quite delicious.

From Epicurious, although we only made the dressing:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pear-Arugula-and-Endive-Salad-with-Candied-Walnuts-104472

Ingredients:

2 T. Sherry wine vinegar (we used balsamic vinegar)

2 T. fresh lemon juice

1 T. chopped fresh parsley

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

6 T. walnut oil or olive oil

6 T. extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium bowl to blend.

2. Add walnut oil and extra-virgin olive oil; whisk until well blended. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.

Note: Can be made 1 day ahead.

Greek Panzanella

The vegetables in this were delicious and I think would have been even better with a little onion (which I didn't have.) It felt good to eat on a cool summer night outdoors with some friends and is really very easy to make, just lots of chopping. The feta cheese could easily be replaced with goat or some other crumbly cheese, but is a great addition as is. A little untraditional for Americans but for me, almost any salad without lettuce is genius.

From Smells Like Home by way of Annie:

http://annies-eats.net/2010/08/12/greek-panzanella/

Ingredients:

For the salad:

2 T. olive oil

6 C. French bread cubes (1 inch)

Kosher salt

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and sliced ¼-inch thick

1 red bell pepper, large diced

1 yellow bell pepper, large diced

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

½ red onion, sliced thin

6 oz. crumbled feta cheese

2.5 oz. can sliced black olives, drained (I omitted these)

For the vinaigrette:

2 cloves garlic, minced

1¼ tsp. dried oregano

½ tsp. Dijon mustard

¼ C. red wine or balsamic vinegar

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. To prepare the salad, heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add the bread cubes and sprinkle with salt; cook over medium-low heat, tossing frequently, for 5-10 minutes, until nicely browned. Remove from the heat.

2. Combine the cucumber, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onion in a large bowl.

3. To make the vinaigrette, combine the garlic, oregano, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk in the olive oil to create an emulsion.

4. Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables. Add the feta, olives, and bread cubes. Mix together lightly. Set aside for 30 minutes to let the flavors blend before serving. Best if served fresh but will store one day in the fridge.

Baby Salad Greens With Sweet Potato Croutons and Stilton

I made this salad-- with my own personal revisions-- for A.'s baptismal lunch in Syracuse. I was a little bit intimidated by the salad assignment, given picnic attendee S.O.'s salad expertise, so I thought I'd better look around for something a little bit different and promising. I found this recipe in a salad slide show on the NYTimes (where else) and thought the idea of the potato croutons with the Stilton was intriguing. I'd never had sweet potato "croutons" before, but have long been a fan of Stilton and so the recipe had the elements of both challenge and familiarity. I don't have a steamer, and so I had to "steam" the potato in the microwave and then saute them, so they ended up both a little wetter and a little more burned than was ideal, but it didn't seem to deter anyone too much.

I doubled this recipe, and added to it 1 cup of candied pecans, which I used making the candied nuts recipe found in the April 2011 section of this blog. I made the recipe as originally written, using syrup instead of honey and found the nuts to be much less sticky. I also added about 2 cups of fresh blueberries to the salad, so all-in-all it was really a sweet-potato-blueberry-candied-pecan-stilton salad but it was, truthfully, so delicious and worth the extra effort of both the nuts and the sweet potato cooking. I'm tempted even to just candy a whole bunch of nuts and keep them around for the purpose of carelessly tossing into salads on a whim at any time.

Ms. Shulman says of her recipe, "Sweet potatoes contrast beautifully here with the pungent Stilton. Other cheeses that work for this salad are goat cheese and feta." Amen. Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/health/nutrition/18recipehealth.html

Ingredients:

For the salad:

1 large sweet potato (10 to 12 ounces), peeled and cut in 1/2-inch dice

1 T. extra virgin olive oil

1 6-oz. bag baby salad greens

1 T. chopped fresh herbs, such as tarragon, parsley, chervil, chives (I used chives)

2 oz. Stilton or blue cheese, crumbled or cut into small pieces (about 1/2 cup) (I used the cranberry Stilton, but I really wanted to use the apricot Stilton, both would be good!)

(Blueberries and candied nuts!-- for the RMR version)

For the dressing:

1 T. fresh lime juice

1 tsp. balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 small garlic clove, minced

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

1/4 C. buttermilk

Directions:

1. Steam the sweet potatoes for 5 minutes, until just tender. Remove from the heat and drain on paper towels.

2. In a medium, nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the sweet potatoes and cook, shaking the pan and moving the pieces around often, until evenly browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and drain on paper towels.

3. Whisk together the lime juice, vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, salt pepper, olive oil and buttermilk.

4. Place the salad greens in a salad bowl and top with the cheese. Toss with the dressing. Sprinkle on the sweet potato croutons and serve.

Yield: Serves 4

Advance preparation: You can steam the sweet potatoes and make the dressing several hours ahead.

Sour Cherry Thyme Glaze and Glazed Ham

The Robber had never had a real Easter dinner before, and so it fell to me to provide it for him. So we made everything: ham, rolls, potatoes, salad, green beans, pie. Goodness, so delicious. For the ham I wanted to try something new, so I got this little recipe from the NYTimes. Unfortunately it was a little bit of a disappointment. Not bad-- but not my favorite either. Maybe because we used black-cherry instead of sour-cherry preserves? I thought the cherry flavor wasn't strong enough, neither was the thyme. It was all overpowered by the shallots and the mustard. Of course we didn't use sherry so the Robber substituted orange juice and ended up adding some brown sugar and it was all very strange. But in case this sounds good to somebody else and they want to try it out, here is the link and the recipe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/dining/202hrex.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/dining/201hrex.html

Ingredients:

1½ cups sour-cherry preserves

½ cup chopped shallots

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1½ tablespoons sherry vinegar

1½ tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

1 teaspoon crushed dried red pepper

1 6- to 8-pound bone-in shank-half ham, or 15- to 17-pound bone-in whole ham, fully cooked

1 tablespoon whole cloves

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Transfer to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and store in refrigerator until needed. Making glaze a day in advance allows flavors to bloom and thickens glaze, which makes it easier to apply.

2. Place rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Trim tough rind from ham, leaving as much fat as possible. Place ham flat-side down and score the rounded side all over with diagonal cuts about 1½ inches apart and ¼-inch deep, forming a diamond pattern. In center of each diamond insert a single clove.

3. Place ham in a roasting pan and bake until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest part reads 135 degrees, about 15 minutes a pound. One hour before ham is done, remove it from oven and brush all over with glaze.

4. Return ham to oven and continue to bake, glazing ham once or twice more until ham is done. Remove ham from oven, tent with foil and let rest 10 minutes before carving.

Time: 2¼ hours for a half ham, 4¾ hours for a whole ham

Yield: 1¾ cups, enough for a whole ham, 10 to 12 servings for a half ham, 24 to 26 servings for a whole ham.

Old-Fashioned Ham with Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze

I used this recipe for my second annual ham for Mormon med school dinner. Seems it is always my turn at Christmas, and I always end up baking a ham. Last year's ham was such a success that I wanted an equally good recipe but something different. So I settled for this more classic take on ham from Epicurious. Original recipe here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Old-Fashioned-Ham-with-Brown-Sugar-and-Mustard-Glaze-241636

Many of the reviewers suggest mixing all the glaze ingredients together and pouring it on top of the ham but no consensus is reached. I did not mix and found assembling the glaze components on the ham to be a bit tricksy, and in the end after baking and before serving I roughly scraped off the glaze components anyway. So take that for what you will.

The reviews of this ham were raving, as they were for last year's ham, so I may be the new official ham-baker around Rochester.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 10-pound smoked ham with rind, preferably shank end
1 cup unsweetened apple juice or apple cider
1/2 cup whole grain Dijon mustard
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup honey

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Place ham in large roasting pan. Pour apple juice over ham. Cover ham completely with parchment paper, then cover ham and roasting pan completely with heavy-duty foil, sealing tightly at edges of pan. Bake ham until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of ham registers 145°F, about 3 hours 45 minutes. Remove ham from oven. Increase oven temperature to 375°F.

2. Remove foil and parchment from ham. Drain and discard liquids from roasting pan. Cut off rind and all but 1/4-inch-thick layer of fat from ham and discard. Using long sharp knife, score fat in 1-inch-wide, 1/4-inch-deep diamond pattern.

3. Spread mustard evenly over fat layer on ham. Pat brown sugar over mustard coating, pressing firmly to adhere. Drizzle honey evenly over.

4. Bake until ham is well glazed, spooning any mustard and sugar glaze that slides into roasting pan back over ham, about 30 minutes. Transfer ham to serving platter; let cool at least 45 minutes. Slice ham and serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Notes: I could not find a non-pre-fully-cooked ham, so I essentially skipped most of step 1. I did cook the ham in the apple juice at 225 for 30-45 minutes, just to get it a little warmed up and let it absorb some of the juices. Then I did the glaze at described above. I didn't really measure the brown sugar, just used what I needed to pat sugar all over the slidy mustard. I think it would be equally good with non-whole-grain dijon mustard and that it might be a little easier to work with.

Had lots of ham left over even with people eating a lot so I froze it in slices. We'll have to see how well that ends up going.

Balsamic and Dijon Glazed Ham With Roasted Pearl Onions

I got bold and decided to bake a ham for a Christmas dinner I hosted yesterday. I had never baked a ham before, let alone any other large piece of meat. Never a roast or even a chicken.

I asked Mom how to bake a ham but she says she always fries her ham. R. had never baked a ham either. So that left me with Epicurious. I searched Epicurious for baked ham recipes by the number of forks and read through them until I found a recipe that looked like maybe it could be tackled by a novice.

I settled on this recipe, originally from Bon Appetit, and was wonderfully delighted by the results. First I give the Epicurious instructions, then what I actually did, and then some final commentary.

Ingredients:

2 pounds pearl onions

1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, diced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 8- to 10-pound half ham shank, fully cooked, fat trimmed to 1/2-inch thickness

Directions:

1. Cook onions in large pot of boiling salted water 2 minutes; drain. Trim root ends, leaving base intact. Peel. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

2. Preheat oven to 325°F. Combine sugar, vinegar, and mustard in bowl for glaze. Transfer onions to 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish. Add 2/3 cup glaze, butter, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 1/2 cup water; toss to coat. Cover with foil.

3. Line large roasting pan with foil. Making 1/2-inch-deep slits, score ham with diamond pattern. Place ham in pan and roast 45 minutes. Place onions in oven. Roast ham and onions 25 minutes. Uncover onions. Continue roasting onions and ham 50 minutes.

4. Baste ham with some of glaze. Continue to roast ham and onions until deep brown and glazed, brushing ham with glaze every 10 minutes, about 30 minutes longer. Transfer ham to large platter. Transfer onion mixture to bowl. Serve ham, passing onion mixture separately.

What I did:

Following the comments of multiple reviewers of the recipe on Epicurious, I used 2 lbs. of frozen pearl onions instead of fresh ones. I put the ham face side down in a glass casserole pan and poured in about 1/2 cup of apple cider. I covered the dish with foil and baked it at 325F for about 45 minutes.

In the meantime, I mixed up a double recipe of the glaze (vinegar, dijon, brown sugar, salt, and pepper), again in response to the commentary on the original site. After the ham had baked 45 minutes, I pulled it out of the oven and dumped the 2 lbs of onions (I did not thaw them first) around the ham in the pan and then I poured the sauce all over everything. This totally filled up my pan. I cut up a half stick of butter and put it in dabs on top of the ham and onions.

Then I put everything back in the oven, covered with foil, for another two-ish hours. At some point, my roommate noticed the pan was overflowing, removed about half the sauce, basted the ham, and put it back in the oven. When it was done cooking, I pulled it out and sliced it. The meat was delicious and tender and the onions had a perfect sweet-sour carmelized flavor.

Notes:

Doubling the sauce recipe was problematic, since I just ended up removing the sauce anyway. I can see why you might want to double it if you cook the onions separately as the recipe suggests, but if you cook it all in one glass pan I think just one recipes worth would be adequate.

I liked the sweetness the apple cider flavor gave to the ham. I might want the onions crispier if I cooked them again in the future, but I don't know if that's possible when trying to cook them in a pan where you want to create a tender ham. I'm not sure if the butter is really necessary.

Lots of juice left over. I saved some just in case B. comes to town and needs some sauce to cook chicken in. Turns out sauce is necessary for cooking chicken.

I would definitely make this recipe again because it was so easy and because everyone loved the result. It was a big hit especially among the male guests. But I'm open to learning other/better ways of baking a ham too, since I think the flavoring pulled off the success of this ham, not necessarily my technique.