Roast Cauliflower and Arugula Salad with Bacon

What do you do when you know you are going to be traveling constantlyfor the next 2-3 weeks and (1) your fridge is full of random vegetables and (2) you know that due to traveling you will be eating burgers and chili on the mountain in California/Nevada, BBQ in Texas and other heavy meals, rather than salads and seafood?  If you're anything like me, you make random salads and/or random roast vegetables.  Or you get lazy and combine the two and top a bed of baby arugula with roast cauliflower.  And when you discover that you have some bacon left over from the Bacon Braised Cabbage you throw that in there too.  Sometimes my randomness works out and sometimes it just doesn't.  Luckily, this salad ended up working out really well.  There were a lot of textures and flavors that came together beautifully to make a nice salad.  Roasting the cauliflower in a 425 degree oven for 45 minutes made it nice and nutty and sweet and the sweetness was further augmented by the shallots and a scant teaspoon of honey.  The crispy bacon added a hit of wonderful smoky, porky flavor, which made the salad feel warm and rich.  Then there was the hit of acidity from the red wine vinegar, the peppery flavor of the arugula and the butteriness of lightly toasted pine nuts.  It was a winner for me - fulfilling the dual goals of clearing out the fridge and providing me with a moderately healthy (it would have been much healthier had we omitted the bacon, but bacon makes everything better) meal.

Recipe after the jump!

Baked Eggs with Yogurt and Chile

This recipe was one that immediately drew me once I opened up Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi.  I can't express to you how much I love baked eggs.  It has gotten to the point where certain individuals (and I am not going to name names here, but you know who you are) make fun of my obsession with baked eggs.  I can't help it.  They are uber yummy.  Plus I am on a Middle Eastern kick of sorts right now so I am drawn towards anything with that flavor profile. 

I have to say that these eggs were very interesting, although not the most successful baked eggs we have ever made.  I liked the addition of the yogurt sauce and the addition of the chilis, but I'm not sure how I felt about the arugula.  I think in the future I would potentially use a different green (maybe spinach).  My biggest complaint was that it never quite felt like it came together at the level that I wanted it to.  It smelled great and looked delicious, but it was good (verging on, but not quite making it to, very good).  The bottom line is that it wasn't amazing and I wanted it to blow my mind.  I guess my expectations were set a little too high here...  We didn't use the sage or the amount of butter that the recipe called for, but we added some scallions and I think the butter level in our dish was more than sufficient.  If I had added more butter I worry that it would have felt heavy and/or greasy.  And sage sounded like an odd ingredient to me.  When I think sage I think Thanksgiving - stuffing, turkey, butternut squash.  I don't think arugula, eggs and Greek yogurt.  But maybe that's my bad.  It's entirely possible that if we had made the dish exactly as written that it would have been the mind blowing experience I was looking for.  Instead I had to settle for good. 

Recipe after the jump!

Mint-Marinated Shrimp with Tabbouleh, Tomatoes and Feta

Somehow this week has turned into a Mediterranean fiesta.  Can you even say that?  Who knows.  I am saying it anyway.  But thus far this week I have posted Grilled Branzino with Ladolemono and Lamb Souvlaki Sandwiches with Tzatziki Sauce.  Including this dish, this is more Mediterranean food than I think we have ever made in such a short span.  Look at us mixing things up!  I'm fairly proud of myself - make that ourselves since Alex helped me cook the souvlaki and the branzino.  But I get to take most of the credit for picking out/making up the recipes.  This recipe was one that I stumbled across last week while looking for some new shrimp recipes.  We make a lot of shrimp (we probably cook almost as much shrimp as we do chicken) and I am always interested in finding new healthy, shrimp recipes.  This particular recipe appealed to me because it was a different flavor profile from our usual dishes and involved a new ingredient that I had never cooked with before - bulgur.  I know that bulgur is traditionally used for tabbouleh (or tabouli or however you spell it), but when I have made tabbouleh in the past we have used other grains like quinoa.  But it's always fun to try new things.  And now that I have bulgur I have to figure out other uses for it, which is even more fun!

Alex particularly enjoyed this dish.  I thought it was nice and fresh.  I particularly liked the tabbouleh salad, although I thought the shrimp didn't absorb quite as much lemon flavor as I would have liked.  That might be due to the fact that we only marinated the shrimp for 15 minutes, rather than the 30 that the recipe specified, but I just don't know if marinating the pre-cooked shrimp for an extra 15 minutes would really have resulted in much additional flavor.  But roasting the shrimp definitely intensified the flavors of the shrimp themselves, which I think is a good thing.  Actually, I think it would be a fabulous cold picnic dish.  I feel like I say that fairly often, but this dish really would be.  It would be just as good served cold as it would room temperature and it's a wonderful alternative to pasta salad or chicken salad.

Recipe after the jump!

Fuji (Honeycrisp) Apple Salad with Kimchi, Bacon, Maple Labne

When I first moved to New York one of my law school classmates told me about Momofuku Noodle Bar.  By the time I got home that evening I couldn't remember what it was called so I told Alex on the phone that there was a restaurant named "Wabonka" that we needed to try.  That's right.  Wabonka.  Alex still makes fun of me to this day about the mix up.  And I (probably) deserve it because I was way off.  It happens from time to time.  During my first few trips to the Momofukus, this was the dish that stood out the most in my mind.  I tried several dishes - but this was by far my favorite.  I have been there several times since then and added several more dishes to my list of favorites but this is the only dish that I regularly try to recreate (although not in all of its glory) at home.  This is the first time I have ever made the apple kimchi with bacon and it's certainly the first time I have made the maple labne.  Maybe the full recipe at home reminded me again just how much I love the Momofuku restaurants.  Where else would someone combine a Midde Eastern yogurt, maple syrup, bacon, apples and kimchi?  But somehow it works.  Actually, Alex and I made another Asian-inspired dish using maple syrup several months ago - Fatty 'Cue Brussels Sprouts.  It was pretty freaking good, and this dish is too.  You get a very complex assortment of flavors - spicy kimchi, sweet apples and maple syrup, tart labne, meaty salty bacon and peppery arugula.  It just works.  I don't know how but it does.  All of the flavors are assertive and bold, yet the dish was very nice balance.

Recipe after the jump!

Lavash Pizza with Eggplant and Arugula

What do you do if you're home alone for the weekend and you have a little bit of a lot of different produce in the fridge to use up?  You come up with a variety of salads, sides, and lavash pizzas!  And you order sushi on Friday night when you just don't like cooking.  But as a trade off, you make a deal with yourself to cook/eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at home on Saturday.  This recipe started as a way to use up some eggplant, basil and cherry tomatoes.  While I was at Zabar's this morning it occurred to me that I could make a lavash pizza.  So I picked up some whole grain lavash (it's that resolution to eat healthy again), some smoked mozzarella and some more arugula.  And then I decided to go ahead and wing it for dinner.  In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty into winging it.  Sometimes it works out well and sometimes it doesn't.  But I always have fun along the way.

This recipe worked out pretty well.  Lavash pizza is such a great alternative to making pizza at home.  This lavash pizza was basically a less labor intensive combination of two pizza recipes we have made in the past - Eggplant Pizza and White Pizza with Arugula (which wasn't my intention going into it, but was what resulted).  I didn't want to go to the effort to make a garlic oil (although that would have been absolutely delicious here) and I wanted to use up my cherry tomatoes rather than use a canned tomato sauce.  And I certainly didn't want to go to the trouble to roll out pizza dough.  In the future I would prob throw a little Parmigiano-Reggiano on top of the eggplant slices on the pizza for an additional level of its nutty, salty flavor.  And I would probably whip up some of the garlic oil, because it went so well on the eggplant last time.  Minced garlic and a drizzle of evoo works fine in a pinch, but it just can't compare.  Otherwise, I think it all worked out pretty well for a dish I cobbled together on a whim with the random produce in our apartment!  Speaking of random produce, I went to the farmers' market again today and picked up some more...  I really do have a problem.  So stay tuned.

Recipe after the jump!

Grilled Peach Panzanella Salad

I have to thank Tastespotting for providing me with the inspiration for this salad.    A few days ago I was scrolling through the recipes and pictures on Tastespotting and this recipe for Grilled Peach Panzanella Salad caught my eye.  We had some nice fresh peaches from the farmers' market that I had no idea what to do with.  Neither Alex nor I like peach cobbler so that would have been a waste.  Nor do I typically like peaches enough to just eat one.  And Alex dislikes anything peach-flavored (which means that he has never eaten a raw peach before), so I was justifiably nervous about what we made with the pretty peaches I picked up.  This recipe seemed perfect because it showcased the peaches, but toned them down a little by combining them with ingredients like arugula, fresh mozzarella and great bread that we already know and love.  

This salad really blew me away.  When I tasted the dressing by itself I thought the balsamic was overpowering.  And then I tossed it all together and it was marvelous and wonderfully balanced.  It was delicious.  It was so summery and fresh.  After this I think I might be able to convince Alex to try more peach recipes.  I might even get him to eat a peach by itself!  That in and of itself would make the salad an unqualified success.

Recipe after the jump!

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

So along with the 5 pounds of berries I brought home from Maryland, I also brought home four gigantic portobello mushrooms.  My mom is a big believer in Cost Co. because everything there is super-sized and a good value, and these mushrooms were no exception.  I'm not sure that I have ever seen portobellos this huge before!  But seeing as we had the mushrooms and had nothing defrosted or planned for dinner last night, I decided to make stuffed mushrooms.  Growing up I loved the stuffed mushrooms at an Italian restaurant near my parents' house in Maryland, they had meat, cheese and bread crumbs in them and were totally delicious.  For last night's version I decided to go vegetarian (for once we actually did a Meatless Monday - go us).  We tossed in fresh herbs, cheese, spinach and some of our homemade Italian-Style Bread Crumbs.  Then we just threw it in the oven until cooked and broiled it for a minute to toast up the bread crumbs on top.  It was as simple as that.  And the mushrooms were delicious.  They were hearty and savory.  I didn't miss meat in the filling at all.  In fact, I think they were even better without meat in them.  I'm not sure that I tasted the individual components of the filling in every single bite (particularly the spinach, although you could taste the garlic and the red pepper flakes) but they all came together really nicely.  Alex and I both agreed that we would definitely make the mushrooms again.  If you served one mushroom per person they would make a nice appetizer and two per person is more than enough for an entree.

Recipe after the jump!

Seared Tuna with Olive Tapenade Vinaigrette and Arugula

On Saturday Alex and I went to Chelsea Market after having lunch at The Spotted Pig.  I went a little crazy at The Lobster Place buying fresh seafood.  There were these amazing Mayan Shrimp from Guatemala (biggest shrimp I have ever seen - more on that later), gorgeous ruby red tuna steaks, huge lobsters, Dungeness crab, etc.  If good seafood wasn't so expensive I would have gone buckwild.  But I managed to restrain myself with 3 things - the Mayan shrimp, the tuna and some nice wild salmon.  I know it's lame that I always buy salmon, but I can't resist.  It's delicious, easy to cook and one of my favorite fish.  Next time I promise to get something a little more exotic.  Anyway, back to my tuna!  When we cooked up the recipe in my last post about tuna, Seared Tuna with Green Onion Wasabi Sauce, I had two other recipes that I really wanted to make, but we didn't happen to have the ingredients at the time.  So I decided to go ahead and make one of them, only once again we didn't have all of the ingredients.  But I picked the recipe that required the fewest ingredients we didn't have at home (in this case basil and baguette) and ran by Fairway on the way home from work.

I have to say that the tapenade in this dish was fantastic.  I have never thought to add balsamic vinegar, basil and lemon zest to olive tapenade but it really worked.  I also never would have thought to serve tuna steaks with olive tapenade, but that worked too.  The tapenade was equally delicious when drizzled over the tuna steaks or spread on the toasted baguette slices and provided a ton of flavor.  Without the tapenade the tuna steaks would have been a little blah, but with the tapenade it was a completely different dish.  I might try out the tapenade with other dishes - perhaps with some roast chicken breasts or a nice seared piece of striped bass.  I'm not sure if I will make this tuna recipe the next time I pick up some nice tuna steaks, but I am glad that I finally got the chance to try it.

Recipe after the jump!

Truffled Steak Sandwiches

When I bought Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics by Ina Garten Alex and I weren't really expecting much.  But I had picked it up a few times at Barnes & Noble and there were a lot of recipes that struck me as good, simple dinner party fare.  Actually, the recipe that really sold me on the cookbook was the White Pizza with Arugula.  I was also pretty excited by the recipes for Dinner Spanakopita and the Creamy Cheddar Grits.  I haven't made the spanakopita, but given how successfully everything else we have made from this cookbook has turned out I know they will be fabulous.

It never would have occurred to me to use black truffle butter on a steak sandwich.  But it was awesome - rich, earthy and flavorful.  It was the element that really brought the sandwich over the top.  The recipe as written would have been the most luxurious steak sandwich ever because it called for truffle butter and 2 pounds of fillet of beef.  That stuff is expensive!  Instead of fillet we used hanger steak because I really love the flavor of hanger steak and once thinly sliced I thought it would be an ideal sandwich steak.  The peppery arugula cuts through the richness of the black truffle butter and the steak.  The shards of Parmigiano-Reggiano gives the dish a salty, nutty bite.  The dish seems too simple to be truly delicious, but it really is.  It comes together really quickly and easily and could be the centerpiece of a lunch party just as easily as dinner for 2.  You could serve it with a cheese and fruit platter, a nice salad, and a simple dessert and have a fantastic meal for a lunch party.  Or you could do what Alex and I did and serve with a simple arugula salad for a really nice lunch or dinner.  Hurray for my absolute favorite every day cookbook for providing us with another tasty meal.

Recipe after the jump!

Co.'s Roasted Beet Salad with Arugula and Pepitas

Ever since last weekend I have been thinking about attempting to make Co.'s beet salad at home.  I just thought that the combination of the peppery arugula, salty crunchy pepitas, scallions and sweet roasted beets was genius.  I'm not sure what kind of vinaigrette Co. used on the salad, but I thought that a bright lemony vinaigrette with some parsley would be the perfect complement.  So I threw the beets in the oven, ran to the grocery store to pick up more ingredients for my Zucchini Souffle, and made my version of the Co. beet salad.  And I thought that in terms of flavors, I really nailed it.  No, it doesn't replicate the salad from Co. exactly, but that wasn't what I was trying to do.  I just wanted to put something together that would be a nice addition to our salad repertoire - bright, fresh, healthy and delicious.  And I accomplished that.  I wish I had roasted the beets just a few minutes longer - ours were a little on the al dente side, but that was my bad.  I think that if the beets had been properly roasted they would have added a little extra sweetness to the salad that would have made the salad even more delicious.

Recipe after the jump!

Ashley's Pickled Shrimp and Bayona Caesar Salad

I really wanted to make a few Southern meals from my Susan Spicer cookbook for Mardi Gras.  Only I am going to be skiing in Colorado during Mardi Gras.  So it looks like I will need to pack in a few Southern recipes in the next week or two before I leave.  This is the first meal that I have picked from the cookbook.  I know that this recipe doesn't exactly scream Mardi Gras.  I briefly considered making a gumbo or a jambalaya, but I'm just not that big of a fan.  So I decided on pickled shrimp for tonight and maybe a po'boy later in the week.  And if I make a third meal it will have to include grits.  There is a recipe for a Grilled Andouille Po'Boy "Creolaise" in the Susan Spicer cookbook that seems to fit the bill perfectly.  So I think that once I track down some andouille sausage, creole mustard and some "New Orleans-style French bread" (which I'm not even sure that I can find in the city), we are going to make some po'boys!  In the interim, this will have to do.

Alex and I disagreed over which component of the meal we liked more.  I was all about the Bayona Caesar Salad.  If you grilled or roasted up a few chicken breasts (or maybe some shrimp, but I think the chicken would work just a little bit better) and threw them on top it would make a really fantastic entree salad.  I really enjoyed the flavor of the homemade caesar dressing and the combination of the arugula and romaine.  We accidentally left out the anchovies because we didn't realize we were out until we were basically plating the salad.  And by that point neither of us were at all interested in running out to the store.  Without the salty, nutty flavor of the anchovies the salad dressing was fairly light (but still very flavorful).  I think with the addition of the anchovies you would end up with a deliciously rich, nutty caesar salad.  Oh and take the time to make the croutons at home.  All you have to do is take a baguette, chop it into cubes, toss in a little evoo (or butter) and kosher salt, and roast in the oven at 350 degrees F for like 7-8 minutes.  It's totally worth it.  As for the shrimp, they were really tasty too and quite easy to make.  In Alex's words  he had more things he would want to tweak/change about the shrimp than the salad, but the shrimp still excited him more.  I also would have made a few changes to the marinade in particular - cut back on the amount of sugar and red onions, and add some more crushed red pepper flakes and coriander seeds.  Oh and Alex and I both thought that the shrimp would be better if it was a little spicier.  But what else is new?

Recipes after the jump!

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette

I'm not sure what attracted me to this salad, but it seemed like an interesting vegetarian meal.  I figured with the addition of butternut squash the salad would be filling enough to constitute an entire meal.  Generally I require meat of some sort to consider a salad as an entire meal (see my Chicken Soba Salad for a perfect example of what I consider an entree salad), but in this case the butternut squash seemed both entree-worthy and incredibly seasonally appropriate.  The fact that the dressing was a warm cider vinaigrette made it even more seasonal.  Did I mention that it suddenly got really cold in NYC over the weekend?  It is supposed to be a high of 46 degrees tomorrow!  That's crazy!  But it is perfect butternut squash soup weather (supposing of course that we had another squash).

Anyway, this was an interesting salad.  And a very autumnal one.  I liked it and it was very filling, but it verged on being a little too sweet for me.  In the future I will probably cut out the maple syrup while roasting the squash because with the Craisins (which are sweetened), the apple cider (sweetened) and the cider vinegar it got a little cloyingly sweet.  I would definitely make the dressing again, because I really enjoyed it (although it did require more effort than our usual vinaigrettes).  I would also make the salad again, but with a few minor adjustments.

Recipe after the jump!

Lavash Pizza with Arugula and Langoustine

In my last trip to Trader Joe's I picked up a few random ingredients, including some frozen langoustine tails, some lavash (a thin, Middle Eastern flatbread), zucchini, squash, tomatoes, arugula, grated Swiss and gruyere cheese, and brussel sprouts.  So I had to figure out a recipe that would use up at least a few of my random ingredients.  Luckily, the Summer Vegetable Gratin last night used up some of the zucchini and the Roma tomatoes.  So tonight's goal was to use up more of my random Trader Joe's ingredients.  In addition to the langoustine tails, lavash, and grated cheeses I threw in the basil Alex picked up at the store today, plus the last of the Salvatore Bklyn fresh ricotta for good measure.  When I bought the lavash and the shredded cheeses I had originally intended to make an Alsatian tarte flambee (a thin, crispy pizza of sorts, topped with creme fraiche, onions and lardons).  Incidentally, Trader Joe's makes a pretty phenomenal version of the tarte flambee in their frozen foods section.  I picked one of those up too for good measure, but I thought I would try making one of my own as well.  Unfortunately, we were out of creme fraiche and lardons, so I had to improvise.  And this pizza was what I came up with.  It was perhaps the easiest and quickest flatbread pizza ever.  Because the lavash is so thin, it crisps up beautifully, as well as very quickly.

This is the first lavash pizza I have ever made and it was wonderful.  I will definitely be making more lavash pizzas in the future - perhaps a Mediterranean pizza with hummus and feta, and definitely my tarte flambee.  I have to say that the langoustine and arugula combination was a lot more successful that I had thought it would be.  The peppery notes of the arugula contrasted beautifully against the sweetness of the langoustines and prawns.  And then you had the wonderful crunch of the lavash crust.  This pizza definitely needs something to give it a little moisture (e.g. hummus, ricotta, or tomato sauce).  Otherwise it might get a little dry.  But with some ricotta?  Delicious.  And super easy.

Recipe after the jump!

Arugula with Tomato Raisins

I know that I have talked before about how much I love arugula salad.  But you can only eat so many plain arugula salads, or arugula salads with a little ricotta salata before you start wanting to mix things up a little.  Last week I was reading Sam Sifton's review of Del Posto in the NY Times and I came across an arugula salad that was described as "a tangle of Italian arugula and dots of tomato raisins that are worth almost literally their weight in gold."  And I was like "wait a second!  I think that I have that recipe at home!"  So I went home and checked Molto Gusto  and there it was - a recipe for Arugula with Tomato Raisins.  So obviously I decided to make it for lunch today as a side for some Spaghetti con la Sarde (which incidentally also comes from Molto Gusto).  As you can see, it has been a very Mario Batali Molto Gusto kind of day.  

Anyway, as far as this salad goes - those tomato raisins were awesome.  I'm not sure if I would say that they were "worth almost literally their weight in gold," but they were wonderfully flavorful and a fun addition to a simple arugula salad.  Roasting the grape tomatoes makes them very sweet and a little crunchy.  Be careful not to overdress the arugula or the entire salad gets a little soggy and the lemon vinaigrette obscures the taste of the wonderful tomato raisins.  But if you like arugula salads, you have to try this the next time you have a few extra hours to make the tomatoes!

Recipe after the jump!

Watermelon, Cucumber, and Feta Salad

 
After a weekend of gorging myself, the only thing I really wanted for dinner was salad.  But I didn't want any old salad.  I wanted a salad that was more than just boring lettuce, tomatoes, onions and dressing.  What can I say?  I'm a salad snob.   I love the idea of salad, but I find that they are often very disappointingly mundane and are rarely filling.  The salads I tend to like have unique combinations of ingredients, either with or without protein, and more substance to them than your average side salad.

I have made (and eaten) several different kinds of watermelon salads, including this Watermelon, Feta and Arugula Salad.  This one might be my favorite.  I really liked the combination of the citrus dressing and fresh mint with the watermelon, feta, onion and cucumbers.  Perhaps because the salad was more savory than sweet, I just found it to be more interesting and more filling.  Between Alex and I we finished off an entire large mixing bowl of the salad, which would have been harder to do with a sweeter watermelon salad.  But with this salad, every bite was completely different than every other bite because of the distinct tastes of each ingredient.  In each bite you have the sweetness of the watermelon, the saltiness of the feta, the bitterness of the arugula, the bite of the red onion, and the freshness of the cucumbers.  This salad was exactly what I needed after a weekend of gorging on everything in sight.

Recipes after the jump!

Misticanza

I am a big believer that sometimes you just need particular things.  Sometimes you just need a big huge bowl of salad.  Other times you need a big, greasy burger and french fries.  Sometimes you really just need a fabulous pair of shoes, but that is beside the point.  I guess I am am a believer that you should eat everything in moderation, but if you really need or want something, I say go for it.  While my wants/needs aren't always healthy, I figure they balance out okay in the end (although you periodically have to do the "are my pants getting snug?" readjustment).  Take today's lunch for example.  After feasting on chicken, vegetables, and bread from last night's Roasted Chicken with Vegetables, what I really wanted for lunch was a big bowl of salad.  And some hummus and pita to round the whole lunch out.  The craving for salad was helped along by the knowledge that for tonight's dinner we were going to clog our arteries with some pork belly adobo.  So I started looking through random cookbooks for ideas on what kind of salad to make based on the ingredients we have in the fridge, and I found this recipe for misticanza in Molto Gusto.  I love arugula salads, and we had both radishes and fennel in the fridge so I was totally on board.  Luckily Alex agreed to go along for the ride.  Given the combination of ingredients we knew that there was little chance that we would love the salad, but I would give it a solid like.  It was different.  And interesting.  But you had to make sure you got a little bit of everything in every bite, because the whole was more than the sum of its parts.  Each individual part was a little boring, but together it was a nice salad with an interesting combination of ingredients.

Recipe after the jump!

White Pizza with Arugula

Friday night of this past week was the first night that I was home before 7:30 pm, so we decided to take advantage of it by taking the dog for a walk and then making two kinds of pizza for dinner.  Even though I was home by 6:30, we still didn't manage to eat dinner until almost 9 pm.  Oops.  If we had stuck to just one pizza for dinner, we probably would have eaten by 8:30pm, but such is life.  I really liked both pizzas (actually I slightly preferred this white pizza, while Alex slightly preferred the Eggplant Pizza), so I think it was worth the extra 30 minutes!

This recipe was actually one of the main reasons I bought this Ina Garten cookbook and it was well worth it.  I love white pizza and I love pizza with arugula, but every time I have attempted to make either in the past it just hasn't been that great.  And I have never tried to make pizza dough before, but I kept hearing that this pizza dough was a great one to try.  I have to admit that this time we didn't bother to make the dough.  Instead, I picked up a ball of whole wheat pizza dough from Whole Foods.  But if you have the time and the inclination to make your own pizza dough, this is supposedly a great recipe to try.  One of these days I promise I will test it out, but until then you're on your own.  Another pizza dough recipe that I have heard is a great basic dough recipe is Jim Lahey's No-Knead Pizza Dough.  I haven't tried it out either, but I hear really good things. Anyway, even with store-bought whole wheat pizza dough, this was a great white pizza.  I loved the blend of creamy mozzarella, tangy goat cheese, and smooth fontina cheese.  I also loved the garlic oil that you brush the dough with before topping with cheese, and then drizzle over the top.  If you want a particularly saucy pizza this isn't your recipe, but I rarely like a lot of sauce on my pizza, so this was perfect for me.  That was Alex's only complaint about the pizza - that there wasn't much sauce so it seemed a little dry, but I love my pizza that way.  It was nice, fresh, and light (mostly due to the arugula with the lemon vinaigrette on top).  I loved it.  Alex liked it.  I consider that a smashing success.

Recipe 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!

White Beans with Squid, Arugula and Cherry Tomatoes

Recently I went to Le Pain Quotidien and fell in love with one of their tartines (open faced sandwiches on nice hearty wheat bread).  I actually really like quite a few things that Le Pain serves, but this tuna tartine special was delicious.  The tartine had a thin layer of hummus, topped with tuna and cannellini beans, then drizzled with freshly-made basil pesto.  Somehow the entire thing just sang spring to me.  I'm hooked.  So I went out and bought a bunch of basil and some tuna and a bag of dried beans to try it out.  And I downloaded a recipe for cannellini beans.  In the same shopping trip I picked up some calamari.  Then while looking for nice spring-appropriate calamari recipes, I stumbled across this recipe for White Beans with Squid, Arugula and Cherry Tomatoes, which featured the same recipe for Cannellini Beans with Garlic and Sage as one of the components of the recipe.  I love it when things just come together like that!  These beans are actually featured as a component of several delicious-sounding recipes on the Epicurious website.  As soon as I try all of them, I will have to let you know!  First up for tonight was the calamari, then maybe this recipe for Sausages with White Beans in Tomato Sauce.  Oh and I won't forget my version of the Le Pain tuna tartine either.  Don't you worry.

This salad was a nice light summer or spring time meal.  I served it with toasted baguette crostinis slathered in the nice soft garlic that I simmered with the white beans.  And then topped with sea salt.  The addition of the crostini honestly made the dish, so definitely don't throw that garlic away.  I also think this salad would be improved by the addition of some thinly shaved red onions, but that's just me.  I love onions.  Plus they would provide the salad with some bite, as well as the textural contrast of the onions.  I also think that the next time I make this salad, I might halve the amount of calamari and throw in some cooked shrimp, for the sake of variety.  I love playing with recipes.

Recipe after the jump!

Bistecca Fiorentina a la Vicki

Traditionally, Bistecca Fiorentina is made with porterhouse or T-bone steaks.  But recently, I had a version of Bistecca Fiorentina at a restaurant on the UWS called Celeste (which incidentally, is a great restaurant - aside from the cash only policy) made with a seared well-marbled ribeye over arugula.  Now I typically enjoy NY strips (aka shell steak) more than ribeyes and what do you know - I just happened to have two beautiful bone-in NY strips sitting in the freezer.  Sometimes life is good.  And while I don't have a grill to cook my steaks, I have a nice cast iron skillet, which I am convinced might very well be better.

I love a nice medium-rare steak.  I mean, I love a good steak in general, but for me medium-rare is totally the way to go.  When I was at college I worked at a steakhouse and nothing bothered me more than when people would order a beautiful steak and then ruin it by cooking it well-done.  Well-done?!?!  Why bother paying good money for a piece of gnarled shoe leather?  But that's just me.  My mother, like most Asians, is a lover of all meats cooked to at least medium-well.  Oh well.  What can you do?  At least I talked her down from ordering her steaks well-done to medium-well.

In a concession to healthy-eating, which isn't much of a sacrifice since I really do love a good arugula salad, I have started serving steak salads instead of big hunks of meat with potatoes, or another starch.  I like to at least pretend that way that I am eating healthy.  It's just a salad, right?  When I am in the mood for steak salad, I generally make Steak with Parmesan Butter, Balsamic Glaze, and Arugula.  It is a recipe that I pulled from Bon Appetit a few years ago and genuinely enjoy, but this time I wasn't in the mood for the sweet balsamic glaze.  And in a nod to being healthy, I decided to forgo the Parmesan butter as well.  But, since I am nice, I will post both recipes and you can decide which recipe to try!  My recipe is a little simpler and lighter, the other is sweeter and a bit more complex.  Take your pick!
Recipes after the jump!