05.05.13: appetizer/salad (arugula-pecorino salad wrapped in bresaola)

Bresaola-Wrapped Arugula-Pecorino Salad

I have all of these epic posts in progress right now, but I had to share this half-salad, half-appetizer with you right away as it’s quite possibly the platonic ideal of easy springtime/summer eating. This recipe comes from Polpo‘s cecchetti section as part of a selection of “wraps” that they offer as small plates, and it is absolutely fantastic as an alternative to a big salad when paired with a simple little meat dish. It’s also a great variation of the bresaola carpaccio I assembled a few years ago, albeit a little more substantial and a little more favorable on the meat to salad ratio.

That the meat in question is incredibly lean is merely one more reason to try this little dish; that it’s easy to eat and quite substantial are the primary reasons to do so. It’s not even really fair to call this a recipe, but the inspired presentation, to me at least, is more than enough reason to share it. Just say that you got it from a fabulous Venetian-style restaurant in London.

Bresaola-Wrapped Arugula-Pecorino Salad

adapted from Polpo

serves 2

• 2 generous handfuls of baby arugula, washed well and spun dry
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1/4 cup (max) of grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano (not fine, if possible–shards are good)
• Up to 1/2 cup good olive oil
• 6 slices bresaola
• Kosher salt to taste (note that the beef is salty, so no heavy hand is needed)

First, dress the salad: take freshly-washed arugula and dress first with lemon juice, then salt, then olive oil, and finally with cheese right before serving. (Any sooner on the cheese and the lemon will break it down too much.) Take a slice of the bresaola, fill with approximately 1/6th of the salad and secure with a skewer. Repeat until you have used up all of the salad. Serve immediately.

03.19.13: dinner (sabor de soledad, burrata on a salad edition).

Arugula salad with citrus, burrata, and prosciutto

Michael has been spending the bulk of the week in Virginia on business, and so I’m on my own when it comes to dinner from Tuesday through yesterday. In my ongoing efforts to avoid defaulting to pasta, I queued up a few recipes that have sat on the bench that is my recipe board on Pinterest, and so instead of eating all of the pasta this week, I am eating all of the cheese. It’s still healthy if it’s part of a salad, right? (I kid. Of course I know the answer to that question. It’s yes.)

MAMSM: grilled quail (Craft-style) with pomegranate, Valencia orange, Romaine and almond salad.

Grilled Quail with Pomegranate, Valencia Orange, Romaine and Almond Salad

One of the great things about the rise in awareness (and subsequent popularity) of CrossFit is how it  has made weightlifting pretty cool for a growing subset of women. Don’t get me wrong: it’s very clear that the prevailing advice that encourages eschewing heavy weights for lots of cardio is still the loudest voice in the room, but every so often I’ll learn that one of my colleagues or acquaintances lifts and it’s kind of fantastic. That said, I find some aspects of CrossFit to be rather problematic, and those issues I think can be summed up in two bullets:

• This nonsense that airs during reruns of the CrossFit games* drives me up a wall, because of course the ONLY reason why women would be remotely interested in lifting weights or doing other tough exercises is to become a “ten” rather than a “seven.” Never mind the actual benefits of exercise–it’s just so we look hot when we hit up the bars after the gym, amirite ladies? (Insert a GIF of Liz Lemon rolling her eyes.) UGH THIS MAKES ME SO ANGRY I END UP OVERUSING ITALICS AND CAPS LOCK.
• Their endorsement of and adherence to the Paleo diet, which I instantly give the side-eye to given that it doesn’t allow any grains or dairy.

There are other things about it I find troubling, but these are the two that grind my gears the absolute most.

05.08.12: dinner (shrimp with tequila, orange, and garlic with black bean and avocado quinoa salad)

Shrimp with orange, tequila, and garlic

Do you have at least a few cookbooks that are actually quite good but you don’t turn to often enough, and for no good reason at that? I realized this was the case on Saturday while flipping through our copy of Gordan Ramsay’s Fast Food in search of an easy recipe for the week: it’s been ages since I cracked it open and looked through it, and I couldn’t tell you why that was the case. The layout is kind of strange–meal menus are interspersed with five recipes that fit within arbitrary categories–and some of the photos aren’t as gorgeous as one expects with food photography these days, but it hardly matters because the recipes are good and incredibly adaptable. Two are already in our regular rotation, and when the weekend rolls around and I’m planning for another Tuesday dinner, I’m going to make sure that more are at least given a proper tryout in the future.

07.11.11: Cobb Salad (Bachelor Chow 1)

Deluxe Cobb Salad

Last week the Mrs. was outta town for work,  leaving me to my own devices. Said devices were less than thrilling, as E left me for the beginning of the work week only and save for some serendipitous short-notice primo sport seats, not much can go down without the wife in town on a Tuesday. Maybe it’s a lack of imagination on my part.

08.08.10: dinner (tomatoes, prawns, rocket and pasta–oh my!)

Grilled Prawns with Rocket and Campari Tomatoes

When I mentioned our then-upcoming trip to England to colleagues and the like, the general consensus from them was along the lines of “well, England’s great but the food was pretty disappointing.” Considering that our only other two trips across the pond were to food meccas Spain and Italy we both were ready to accept that the meals that we were anticipating would be less-than-amazing and we’d come home and console ourselves with loads of homemade food.

You know what? We were wrong–and it really started with the food we enjoyed at my best friend’s wedding.

07.06.10: dinner (Peruvian salad from the Barcelona cookbook).

Peruvian Steak Salad

Another installment in our OMG IT’S TOO HOT TO COOK series. Today, a seemingly simple salad that’s about as far beyond steak on lettuce as pit tickets are from camera phone concert footage uploaded to youtube. This is from the Barcelona Cookbook once more, which has been a constant source of culinary strength during this particularly trying summer.  I thought for sure the wife would have a problem with the dressing of this salad: a departure from the traditional vinaigrette in that it contains no oil or other fat [Ed.--Olive oil does come into play at the very end, in all fairness.].  It’s little more than a blend of vinegar with soy sauce, honey, red pepper flakes and black pepper that leaves you with more of a pickling liquid for your veggies than a proper dressing. And yet, it works. Oh, does it work. It covers romaine, cucumber, poblano, red pepper, and red onion (I think jicama was also called for, but I didn’t have any, oh well. I imagine chayote would be nice as well).

07.04.10: salad (hearts of palm and avocado and greens, oh my!)

Avocado Salad with Hearts of Palm and Marinated Roasted Red Peppers

Let’s face it. It’s hot. Really, really hot. So hot it dulls the appetite down to a soft hum that’s more the imperative We should probably eat something rather than the typical insatiable urge to feast upon deliciousness until every last morsel is devoured. Furthermore, the thought of even rotating a knob on the gas range feels like some kind of crime against terrestrial thermodynamics, as if someone might catch you adding heat to an already oppressively hot planet and cry “You’re making it worse!!!”

05.10.10: dinner (Barcelona Wine Bar’s simple shrimp salad).

Grilled Shrimp over Citrus Salad

Whenever Elizabeth brings a salad to my attention, I get excited.  As I have written about in the past, when she and I started out cooking together, I had a heck of a time getting plant matter onto the plate.  Since then, we have found a tenuous path of wholesome, delicious veggies between big ‘ol mounds of green beans and broccoli (two she hates, sadly).  While leafing through the Barcelona cookbook one weekend morning, she came across this offering and, without much of a fight, convinced me to make a play at it for a weeknight meal.

12.12.09: dinner (roast chicken and chayote are both quite delicious together).

Roasted Chicken with Cara-Cara/Chayote Salad

Sometimes, I get this feeling.  I just get this yearning, this urge.  Insane vegan women handling out pamphlets on the subway notwithstanding,  I get an inescapable urge to roast a chicken.  Roasting a chicken is a simple,  straightforward and rewarding exercise, absolutely perfect for a chilly Saturday.  It only takes about 90 minutes from truss to table and the bird comes out delightful.

Roasting a chicken is simple and best set forth in Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook.  To me, the most important decision is what to coat the birdie with before he goes for his trip down the high-heat highway.  My favorite is still a mixture of dijon mustard, salt, red pepper and cracked grains of paradise.  This time I tried for dried chipotle and Fox Point found at Penzey’s in Grand Central Market.  It was good, but in order for the coating to really take charge, it needs to be sterner stuff.

I found a few chayotes at Whole Foods on 97th street and after a few Top Chef flashbacks, I decided to give a simple salad a whirl.  It’s special citrus season, and instead of making my standard fennel/grapefruit salad, I mixed the chayote, shaved very thin with some Cara Cara oranges, their juice and some olive oil.  I let the whole affair sit in the fridge for a few hours before dinner and the result was a crisp salad that paid well with the sumptuous poultry.    One great thing about all the food on TV these days is that it can turn us on to ingredients we’d never even had heard of otherwise.  So fear not the unknown, readers, and until next time, cook on!