Summer Panzanella

This is going to sound horrible, but it took me until this morning to finally make it to the summer farmer's market in my neighborhood.  The past few Saturdays, I've been too quick to cook up an excuse: too many errands to do, gotta clean the house, going to visit Grandma, too hot, too rainy, yadda yadda, etc. etc.  I deserve to be arrested by the summer police.

Anyway, I finally made it!  I was so overwhelmed by the mid-summer bounty that I dove right in like a hungry pelican and came out with a beak-full of peak-season veggies.  Given the randomness of my selection, I decided a salad would serve this hodge-podge well and, with the addition of a fresh loaf of sourdough from Hot Bread Kitchen, I was ready for some panzanella.  Here's what you do:

Tear a 1 pound loaf of crusty bread (like sourdough) into bite-size pieces, spread out on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and toast in a 400 degree oven for 7 minutes, until slightly crispy (you're not going for croutons).  Dump into a large salad bowl and set aside.  Take your smattering of market vegetables - tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, scallion, corn, whatever - and chop into desired bite-size shapes.  Add to your bowl of toasted bread.  Wash and tear a handful of basil leaves and throw those in as well.  In a smaller bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1/2 cup good olive oil, more salt and pepper, and pour over the bread and veggies.  Toss well and serve immediately, preferably on a terrace in the sun...

Shake It Up

It's the beginning of a new year!  Go crazy - eat salad for breakfast!!

Ok, granted, that's not such a wild proposition.  But it sure is weird, right?  And it's what I did this morning, after waking up at the wee hour of 5am because I'm so darned excited to be leaving on our honeymoon tomorrow afternoon.  7-day Caribbean cruise with Dan my Man, here I come!  Also, I just landed a steady, part-time job to supplement my cooking work, so all is pretty groovy.  Take that, 2012.

I made a fun trip to my favorite spice shop on 1st Avenue in the East Village the other day and stocked up on some exotic but useful staples, such as sumac, Chai masala, and red honeybush tea.  The sumac is a particularly well-loved spice in my household, where I throw it on anything and everything that demands salty acidity (salad being the most obvious choice).  It's also great on soups, eggs, meat, veggies - anything that needs some extra pop!  It's essential to my Greek salad, below.

Greek Salad
Serves 2
2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
2 vine tomatoes, sliced
1/2 large cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, chopped crosswise
2 scallions, green part only, sliced thin
scattering of pitted kalamata, or other black, olives
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sumac (available at Middle Eastern food store)
sea salt

In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients and set aside.  In a separate small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, yogurt, olive oil, and sumac.  When ready to serve, toss the salad with dressing and season to taste with salt.  Serve immediately.

Today's Lunch: Steak Salad

Black-pepper crusted 4 oz. sirloin, roasted beets, avocado, mixed greens, pico de gallo, and white wine vinegar.  Delicioso!

Bonjour summer!

I'm incredibly excited about the onset of summer.  Sure, summer means there is no cooking without sweating - and, if you're me, there's no cooking with pants - but it also portends that a sumptuous bounty of amazing produce will explode into NYC from all the surrounding farmlands.  And that's sweeeeet.

For the past couple of months, I've been working as one of the managers at the 79th Street farmers market on the Upper West Side, and it's become more and more clear to me that supermarket produce just is not real.  I'm sorry, but have you ever placed a tiny, candy-red, freshly-picked strawberry next to a gigantic, bleached-out, water-logged supermarket strawberry?  In this particular case, bigger is not better, and the producers of these monstrosities should be ashamed!

But let's not blame it on the agro-giants, evil as they may be.  Let's take matters into our own hands, buy local produce, and vote with our dollar.  Hell yeah!

Ok, that's all for the rant.  Here's what I had for lunch:

Mediterranean Orzo & Chickpea Salad (printable version)
(serves 3-4)

1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 cup cook whole wheat orzo
1 green cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
2 scallions, trimmed and sliced thin
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
feta cheese (optional)

In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, orzo, cucumber, tomatoes, scallion, and mint.  Using a microplane or fine grater, zest the skin off of the lemon (clean it well first, and be careful not to zest the white pith - it can be bitter), then juice the lemon into the bowl.  Add the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss well. Crumble cheese on top, if using.  Let chill at least 30 minutes before serving, so the flavors can marinate.

* Note: Oil-cured black olives would make a nice addition here.  And canned tuna also works in place of the chickpeas, for a non-vegetarian version.