Dinosaur Kale and Feta Panini

As today was my first trip to the farmers' market in quite some time (since the Sunday before Thanksgiving if we're entirely accurate), I got really excited and picked up some fresh bread and some kale with the brilliant idea of making a grilled cheese.  I love grilled cheese and I have been tempted to throw some kale in there for awhile.  This panini was really the combination of a bunch of ideas from several different sources.  The idea of adding kale to a grilled cheese first came from a cashier at Trader Joe's who told me that he puts kale in his mac n cheese.  It seemed like an interesting idea and I have been toying around with the idea of adding squash to my mac n cheese for awhile, so why not add some kale?  But that got me thinking about the combination of kale and cheese. Then one day I was flipping though Cooking in the Moment by Andrea Reusing and I saw that she had a Kale Panini in there with farmers cheese or feta cheese, blanched kale and pickled chilis.  When I had been thinking about a grilled cheese I had been thinking more of a fontina or other creamy cheese that melts really well with something else saltier thrown in to give it a little more flavor, but a panini using feta seemed to make sense.  I think Alex was a little worried by the idea of the kale dominating the cheese (and I was too) so we decided to go with feta because it is assertive enough to hold its own against most ingredients.  And then today we were eating lunch at inoteca and they had a speck, mozzarella and pickled red onion panini.  So Alex threw in the idea of quickly and lazily pickling some shallots and throwing them in our panini for some sweetness and some acidity.  I had originally been planning on sauteing the shallots in with the wilted kale, but that sounded even better.  Alex has been on a roll lately with the suggestions.  I'm not exactly sure what has gotten into him, but I like it!

So throw it all together and bingo, bango, you have a panini!  And it was a  really tasty panini if I do say so myself.  I thought the flavors worked really well together.  The feta was salty and creamy (thanks to Andrea Reusing for that idea), the shallots were sweet and punchy, and then the kale was garlicky and savory.  If was just very satisfying.  It had enough of the grilled cheese aspect to it to resemble comfort food, but was sophisticated and complex enough to make it new and exciting.  Plus the addition of the kale made me feel a little less gross afterwards.  As much as I love grilled cheese, sometimes it just sits like a lump in the bottom of your stomach, but this sandwich didn't do that at all.  I think it had a lot to do with the proportions of cheese to kale and the addition of the shallots.  Go team Boyne!

Recipe after the jump!

Four-Spice Salmon with Refreshing Watermelon and Heirloom Tomato Salad

I would say that this dish came about pretty randomly.  As far as I am concerned, the two components were never meant to go together.  Sometimes our meals are planned from beginning to end - I know that I want to serve a main course and I come up with a side dish to compliment it (or vice versa).  This meal was two completely separate dishes that I threw together into one meal just because it was all we had in the fridge.  And the ingredients weren't so crazy that we couldn't combine them.  So we did.  And it worked out ok.  The flavors didn't exactly compliment each other, but they weren't completely at war with each other either.

Alex thought that the salmon was ok, but a little dry.  Spice rub seared onto the surface of fish always reminds me of blackening seasoning on catfish and redfish.  The spices dry out and get a little charred.  I thought that the flavors of the spice rub that went on top of the salmon were pretty nice.  Alex wanted more of the spice rub (or at least more powerful flavors from the spice rub).  I liked the flavors the way they were - subtle, but highly aromatic.  This wasn't my favorite salmon recipe, but I thought it was an interesting variation on our typical Salt and Pepper Salmon.  The watermelon salad was probably my favorite part of the meal.  I love watermelon salads and we have made several versions over the years.  But I have never combined watermelon with heirloom tomatoes.  I really liked the sweetness of the watermelon, the acidity of the tomatoes, the fresh mint flavor and the punch of saltiness from the feta.  The dish was just so summery and fresh and the flavors really work amazingly well together.  It was delicious.  Word to the wise - be careful when reducing the balsamic glaze, otherwise you end up with a really thick sticky mess that is less of a glaze and more of a molasses-like taffy substance.  Even with the balsamic candy/taffy instead of a glaze, I thought the salad was fabulous.  As a side note, in case you are confused by the pictures we used yellow watermelon and a red heirloom tomato.  Pretty, no?

Recipes after the jump!

Watermelon, Feta, and Arugula Salad

 

After gorging myself on meat earlier today, all I wanted for dinner was salad.  Lots and lots of salad.  So the first thing that came to mind was this watermelon and arugula salad that I have been meaning to make for weeks.  Watermelon is one of my favorite indulgences during the summer and there are various salads containing watermelon that I love to make/eat.  I can't wait until really nice heirloom tomatoes start overrunning the farmer's markets so I can make tomato-watermelon salad.  Other wonderful addition to watermelon salads are mint and and sweet onions.  I know that the combination of watermelon and onion sounds truly bizarre, but done properly it is delicious.  This watermelon, feta, and arugula salad is one of the simpler watermelon salads that I make, as there are only 5 ingredients - watermelon, feta, arugula, balsamic vinegar, and black pepper.  I know it sounds like a strange set of ingredients, but give it a shot.  I promise you won't be disappointed!

Recipe after the jump!