Pear avocado salad

While a pear salad with chicken could be served as a main dish, one with avocado and nuts does much better as a side.  In this case, make the dressing first.  In a food processor, combine:

• Apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 avocado (mostly for the oil)
• Olive oil (because an avocado won't yield enough)
• Ground coriander
• Just a dash of cinnamon
• 2 cloves garlic
• ~ 3/4 inch of jalapeno

Pulse until that is well combined.  For the salad itself, simply combine:

• 1/3 bunch of spinach, hand torn
• 2 pears (bosc and anjou work here as well), cubed small
• 1 avocado plus the remaining half, sliced or cubed
• Scant half cup of almond, rough chopped

Dress, toss, serve immediately.  The mild heat from the jalapeno brings out the pears' sweetness, which is further enhanced by the coriander and cinnamon.

Pear chicken salad

Pears are a great compliment to greens.  Not too sweet, they take dressings well and their grainy structure provides a texture that compliments greens without overwhelming them.  They also seem to be available both during their natural peak season and, say, in winter.

This first variation of the theme is a chicken salad.  To pull off the thin slicing required to keep the chicken manageable, freeze two breasts thoroughly, then place them into the refrigerator overnight to thaw just enough to slice.  In the morning, do just that, then add them to a marinate of:

• Olive oil
• White wine vinegar
• Honey (not too much)
• Red pepper flake
• Black pepper

Let that sit for around four hours, preferably near room temperature to let the chicken continue to thaw and absorb the flavors.  When that's done, pour the whole mixture into a covered pan and poach the chicken in the marinate, which will become the dressing.  Obviously you'll want to cook it all the way through as it's now quite contaminated with raw chicken.

While that is cooking, slice 3 pears thinly and place them in a large pyrex mixing bowl.  I used anjou on my first run; bosc seem to work very nicely.  When the chicken is cooked, pour the entire mixture over the pears and toss.  Once it has cooled enough not to wilt greens, add spinach or another lettuce of choice and toss again.  Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Another christmas dinner

Ok, this was actually Christmas Eve.  But the sentiment was there.

Nothing fancy; just meat, salad, and bread.  Well, ok, maybe a little fancy.

First, a compote to go with the meat (and the bread the next day).  In a small sauce pan I combined:

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup raw sugar
• 1 cup cranberries
• 2 meyer lemons (yeah, I still had some left over)
• Generous amounts of allspice

Reducing that all together took about 45 minutes.  A bit of arrowroot got it to the proper consistency.

The salad was fairly simple: red chard, cilantro, sesame seeds, cranberries, and mandarin oranges.  If nothing else it was quite pretty.  Dressing went like this:

• White wine vinegar
• Olive oil
• Honey
• Garlic
• Black pepper
• Cayenne (not too much; just a slight bite to offset the cranberries and complement the honey)

That all went together with a very simple flank steak served after slicing on a bias.

Pretty and festive.  And delicious.

Simple bean/chicken salad

Well, mostly simple.  The actual prep is just a tiny bit time-consuming (if half an hour counts) but it's very good.  Especially for coming out of a can.

Basic idea: throw together some beans.  Make them taste good.  Make sure you have plenty of protein going so it's a full meal or more.  And make sure it's a complete protein or two.

Basic salad

And I mean really basic.  Five cans.  Oil.  Vinegar.

First, drain a can of diced tomatoes; retain the sauce in a bowl.  You're going to have the colander out anyway; just drain the juice into the bowl.  Crush the tomatoes by hand a bit.

Combine in a large bowl:

• 1 can black beans, drained and washed
• 1 can great northern beans, drained and washed
• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and washed
• 1 can corn, drained (no washing needed)
• 2 celery stocks, finely cubed
• Chopped parsley; flat leaf if you have it
• Tomatoes without the juice
• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar

 And that's your basic bean salad.  Get that in the refrigerator.

Chicken

I used two breasts to balance this and it seemed to work.  Marinate in:

• Red wine vinegar
• Orange juice
• Red pepper flake

After about half an hour, toss that in a pan, cover, heat, and more or less poach it.  When done, cube/shred and add to the salad, tossing well.

Rice

Prepare rice as normal, except:

• Use the reserved tomato juice to replace some of your water
• Add coriander
• Add one bay leaf

Very hearty.  Best served cold.  Makes a great summer meal.

Avocado/tangerine salad

Simple as can be.

Chop:

• 1 avocado
• 2 tangerines
• A decent amount of goat cheese
• Two handfuls of almonds

Combine that with spinach.  Dress with:

• Sesame oil
• White wine vinegar (rice wine vinegar would work here too)
• Ground ginger
• Garlic powder

And that's it.  The flavors blend extremely well what with the sweet from the tangerines and almonds, the sour goat cheese, and the various spices (plus whatever it is that avocado has).  The textures work well varying from the crunchy almonds down to the almost melty cheese and avocado.

In a large enough batch this could be a meal.

Bread salad

Look!  It's both summerish and has actual amounts!

Combine:

• 4 cups fresh tomatoes, diced
• 3/4 cup red onion
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup (or more; can you really have too much?) shredded basil (traditional Italian)
• 6 cups dense crusty bread in 1-inch cubes

Add the bread last, preferably after a few minutes so the other flavors come together.  You can always toast fresh bread to get the right consistency, but if, say, you live in a high arid climate, your older bread will hit the sweet spot before molding anyway.

Chill, serve.  It's absolutely wonderful.

Mustard green salad

Mustard greens are tasty, and when they're in season they're quite cheap.  So check around.

This seemed to work out well:

• Mustard greens
• One sliced red pepper
• One sliced cucumber; don't bother scooping seeds or anything but do peel it
• Bunch of chopped walnuts
• Goat cheese
• White balsamic vinegar

Quite tasty.  The flavors all compliment one another.

If you're somehow goat cheese-impaired (not that I have anyone in mind), a mix of blue and feta might do you, but it won't be as good.

On a bit of a more traditional note

(I swear I'll be back to stir fry very shortly.  But I was just going through records and this stood out.  And besides, it's one of those lovely Colorado spring days that feels like fall already.)

So it's Boston.  It's Christmas.  It's cold.  And there are only the two of you, and frankly you're both studying like crazy most of the time.  What do a Norwegian/Dutch atheist and a vaguely Germanic agnostic do under such circumstances?

Well, make Christmas dinner, of course.  On the menu:

• Game hens
• Roasted root vegetables
• Candied walnuts
• Fruit salad

It just makes sense, right?

Syrup

This is going to form the basis for the walnuts and the dressing for the salad.  And it takes awhile, so start it first.

In a small saucepan combine:

• A cup or so of apple cider
• One cinnamon stick
• Ground nutmeg, but not too much
• Ground clove, but again not too much as this might actually numb your mouth
• Ground allspice
• About 3/4 inch freshly grated ginger

Bring that all to a simmer and then turn it way down.  Reduce to at least half if not a bit further.  This could take a few hours but won't require constant attention by any stretch of the imagination.

Salad dressing

Combine the majority of the reduced syrup with olive oil (probably straining the syrup).  Let that cool.

Walnuts

Toss the rest of the syrup with a generous amount of walnuts.  It coats amazingly well, so just keep the nuts coming until you think you're just about to spread it too thin.  Serve this as an appetizer and/or with the main meal.

Root vegetables

I chopped up about eight medium potatoes and three leeks into roughly similar sizes and vastly different shapes.  I could see adding carrot or sweet potato (which I can't stand and would never use but each to their own).

Combine chunked up roots with generous olive oil, salt, and pepper in a roasting pan.  A larger roasting pan than you think you'll need.

Toss that in a 500 degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour; you want to get that nice slightly shriveled thing going.

Hens

In the meantime, prep your hens.  Usual poultry stuff; take out the spine and the sweetmeats and all that.

In a food processor, grind up thyme, rosemary, and oregano.  Preferably fresh on all.  Add a touch of olive oil just to make it easier to work with.

Slather both hens, inside and out, with the mixture.

When the roots are ready, place the hens on top and use whatever is left of the herb mixture to cover some of the root veggies.  Cover the roasting pan and return to the oven (reducing the heat a bit; 350 should be fine.  Keep probing the hens until a breast hits 170 or so (and remember that since game hens are so small they won't coast for as long).  I'm guessing this took 45 minutes.

Salad

Hunk up three nectarines and an apple (fuji? granny smith?  something to offset the flavor and add crunch).  Toss that with spinach, add the dressing, toss again, and dinner is ready as soon as the meat is.  (Originally the walnuts were going in here too but they were so good on their own that we just started munching on them right away.)

This generously served two as a feast and could easily scale.  Game hens are one of those interesting items that fluctuate in price so dramatically I don't even know whether to be suspicious.  But it was a lovely and relatively low cost meal and really quite nicely eaten by candle light on the floor in the living room.

A salad to die for

Note: this just happened to be what my parents had on hand one night when they asked me to make a salad.  It just happened to work wonderfully.


Basics on the salad:

• One large grapefruit.  I think ruby red works better aesthetically but use what you have.
• Greens.  I like spinach.  Obviously.  Arugula is great here as well as is any bitter green.
• Walnuts.  Nice and chopped, but not too fine; you want the texture.
• Your choice: either goat cheese or crumbled blue cheese.  Both seem to work; blue does a bit better for some reason.
• Bell peppers wouldn't hurt anything.  Neither would a bit of cucumber.  And frankly jicama would be awesome here.

 And then you dress it:

• Olive oil
• White wine vinegar (and actually rice wine vinegar works here too).
• Coriander
• Just a touch of garlic
• Powdered cumin
• Just possibly a dash of ground lemon grass?

And that, friends, makes a salad.

Salad and burgers

Two parts on this one, either of which can be done independently to great effect.  I was working with goods on hand in both cases.

Salad

Combine a green of your choice (I used spinach; again, on hand, but a bitter would have been better) with thinly sliced bell pepper, some nicely chopped carrots, and half a ruby red grapefruit.  A few pecans wouldn't hurt things; chop finely.

Dressing

Combine:

• Turmeric
• Coriander
• Oregano (I happened to have fresh on hand)
• Powdered garlic
• Powdered ginger
• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar (go light; grapefruit is plenty acidic)
• Juice from the rest of the grapefruit

Proportions are to taste.  The only constant here is the grapefruit juice.

Burgers

Combine 70/30 ground beef, soy sauce, dry parsley, and powdered garlic.  Cook to taste.

Serve on butter buns or kaiser rolls or bagels or whatever else you might have around.

Combine dressing and salad.  Serve, possibly but not necessarily, chilled.