It’s going to be too hot, again (!) this week.
There are no dedicated lettuce recipes this week but revisit the “lettuce management” post from last week for plenty of ideas. Stay cool and enjoy the produce that our hard working, resilient farmers grew for us!
Kale and Carrot Slaw with Garlic Lime Dressing
Beet Notes
Beet Sandwiches
Aioli
Fennel Pilaf with Toasted Cumin and Golden Raisins
Farro Salad with Carrots, Fennel and Dill (or Fennel Fronds)
Zucchini in the Frying Pan
Kale and Carrot Slaw with Garlic Lime Dressing
This is another very adaptable slaw. You can change the ratio of vegetables to suit your needs.
Serves 6
1 small to medium bunch kale, tough stems removed (I leave the ribs in), washed, dried and very thinly sliced
2 cups sorrel (optional), washed, dried and thinly sliced (I happen to have sorrel in my garden so toss it in with many salads)
3 small to medium carrots, scrubbed well and grated on large holes of box grater
4 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced or 1 small shallot or small piece of onion of any kind, thinly sliced
1 sweet pepper, washed and seeded and thinly sliced (optional)
1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped (parsley and/or mint would be good too)
Dressing:
1 large clove garlic, minced and then mashed with a bit of coarse salt on the cutting board with the side of a chefs knife to create a coarse paste (skip this step if you’re in a hurry)
Juice of 1 lime or 1 1/2 tablespoons white, cider or red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 a small jalapeño, minced (deseeded if you want less heat)
1/3 cup or more good olive oil
1/3 – 1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds (about 10 minutes at 350 degrees)
Toss all the salad ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Toss dressing with salad and mix well to incorporate. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Beet Notes
Roasting beets is great but it’s too hot to do so this week. Here are a couple of alternatives.
Boiled
Scrub and trim the beets, halve or quarter if they are large. Put them in a saucepan covered with water and bring to a boil. Simmer until tender when pierced with the tip of knife. When cool enough to handle, peel and toss with vinegar (see above) if you’re likely to use them in salads.
Grated and Marinated
Raw beets are delicious and particularly so when grated and marinated in a dressing of minced and mashed garlic, lemon juice (or vinegar), salt and olive oil. Grating beets can make a big mess–the red juice splattering all over the place and potentially staining things. Use the grating blade on the food processor to contain the mess or set your box grater in the sink and grate them that way. Then, all they need is a soak in lemon juice or vinegar, garlic, salt and olive oil, 20 minutes will do it but longer is fine too. Then you can toss a cup of them into any green salad, add a bit of crumbled feta and maybe a few handfuls of toasted, coarse breadcrumbs and you have a perfect salad.
You can also mix them with grated carrots and marinate the whole thing and then stir in lots of parsley leaves for a wonderfully refreshing side/salad.
You can mix the grated marinated beets into Greek yogurt for a sort of (very pink) beat tzatziki and serve that with lamb burgers or dolloped on plain, cooked chickpeas.
Beet Sandwiches
I’ve been eating beet sandwiches lately, sometimes with sliced hardboiled egg and homemade mayonnaise or aioli and sometimes with goat cheese and sometimes with kimchi and cheddar.
Toast some good, crusty bread. Spread a thick layer of aioli or mayonnaise doctored with mashed garlic and salt (or mash up some fresh goat cheese with some minced green garlic or garlic scapes) on the bread. Layer sliced, boiled beets on top and sprinkle with sea salt. Add slices of barely hard-boiled eggs (cover eggs with cold water, bring to a boil, turn off heat and let sit, covered for 8-9 minutes) and sprinkle with salt. Top with sprigs of cilantro or lightly dressed arugula and sliced green onion or pickled onion. Top with another slice of bread or eat open faced.
Aioli
I make aioli starting in the spring when asparagus and snap peas show up. I love dipping the veggies in aioli and making egg salad with aioli or spreading it thickly on toast and topping with whatever else I have on hand, until the tomatoes arrive and then it’s tomatoes and cucumbers . . . and then green beans and artichokes get dipped in it. I sometimes add lots of chopped basil or chives or parsley and tarragon. I thin it out to make salad dressings top halves of hard-boiled eggs with it for a fake deviled egg.
2 egg yolks (preferably organic)
2-5 cloves garlic (start with the smaller amount of you’re uncertain and it does get stronger as it sits)
2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard (optional)
Lemon juice (1/2 to a whole lemon’s worth depending on your taste and size of lemon) or white wine or champagne vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup good-tasting olive oil (not too bitter or strong or the aioli will have a bitter taste)
1/2-3/4 cup neutral oil like sunflower oil
Mash garlic to a paste with salt (either in mortar and pestle or with a knife ). Put garlic in a medium-sized bowl. Add the egg yolks, mustard (if using) and 2-3 teaspoons of lemon juice and some pepper. Whisk well. Then start adding the olive oil drip by drip or in a very thin stream at first. You’ll need to incorporate about 1/4 cup of oil like this before you can safely speed things up. This is the most important step in ensuring that it properly emulsifies and doesn’t break. Incorporate the rest of the olive oil and neutral tasting oil (it can get too bitter if you use just olive oil, though this is a non-traditional approach but one I like) and adjust seasoning with more lemon and/or salt. The more oil you incorporate the thicker it gets, however, at some point it can’t hold any more oil and can break.
You can also make it in a food processor and you will end up with a sightly stiffer/denser texture–also good just a little different. For the food processor version follow the process above but just feed the oil through the feeder tube while the machine is running.
Aioli keeps in the fridge for about 4 days and it does get a bit stronger as it sits.
Fennel Pilaf with Toasted Cumin and Golden Raisins
–adapted from Culinate.com from the Megan Scott collection
I adapted the original recipe to use much more fennel, added some fresh garlic and topped it with lemony Greek yogurt. I’m a bit of a fennel skeptic and just loved this dish. I also don’t typically love raisins in my savory food but this dish has a mellow sweetness that’s just lovely.
Serves 4 as a main, topped with Greek Yogurt sauce or 6 as a side
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 fennel bulbs, trimmed of any fibrous exterior layers, diced; fronds removed and a few reserved
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 cup long-grain white rice, such as basmati or jasmine
¼ cup golden raisins
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water
½ teaspoon salt (unnecessary if your stock is salty)
For serving:
About 1/3 – ½ cup Greek yogurt (whole milk) into which you stirred just a little lemon zest, about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, a bit of salt and a glug of olive oil.
A couple tablespoons chopped fennel fronds
In a large skillet for which you have a lid, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the fennel, onion and garlic. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are translucent, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Add the cumin seeds and the rice and mix well to coat the rice with oil. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking and browning. Then add the raisins and broth or water and salt, if your stock isn’t very salty. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Let rest, covered, for 5 minutes before serving.
To serve, fluff the rice with a fork. Top with Greek yogurt and fennel fronds, if you’d like.
Farro Salad with Carrots, Fennel and Dill (or Fennel Fronds)
This is a substantial yet fairly light grain salad. Carrots and dill and/or fennel are a classic combination and with the addition of plenty of lemon juice and green onions and it’s a beautiful and fresh dish that keeps well–good for potlucks and picnics. You can substitute most any grain here and quinoa would work well too and be quicker cooking.
1 cup farro, hulled or pearled (pearled cooks more quickly but I prefer just hulled—more of a whole grain)
2 cups carrots, cut on the bias into ¼-inch slices
1 fennel bulb, trimmed of any fibrous outer layers and diced/roughly chopped
3 tablespoons dill, chopped and/or fennel fronds (you can by all means use both if you have dill and just double the quantity of herbs)
1 medium clove garlic, minced
2 greens onions, thinly sliced (optional)
3-4 tablespoons slivered almonds, toasted (optional but very good)
1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice (or more to taste or red wine vinegar)
2 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Put the farro in a sauce pan with 3 cups water and ¾ teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer and cook, covered, until the faro is tender—some kernels will break open which is just fine. This will take about 45 minutes if it’s hulled faro and a bit less for pearled. Test occasionally for doneness. When tender, drain well and put in a bowl and let cool a bit.
Meanwhile, sauté the carrots and fennel in ½ tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat with a few pinches of salt until tender and caramelizing a bit—about 10 minutes.
Add the carrots and fennl to the farro and all the remaining ingredients. Stir well and adjust seasoning.
Zucchini in the Frying Pan
This is the quintessential cook-with-what-you-have dish my mother makes (and has made for 40 years) all summer long and I never, never tire of it. She is not shy with the heat and lets the summer squash (of any kind) get nice and brown and soft. It’s not a beautiful dish but it is sweet and wonderful. It’s a perfect way to work through a lot of squash and it’s just as good at room temperature or for breakfast with an egg.
Summer squash, cut into ¼-1/3-inch thin slices
Olive oil
Salt
Freshly grated Parmesan, optional
The most important thing is to have a large skillet so that you don’t crowd the squash too much. My mother wasn’t always able to do this (the big burner was being taken up by something else, etc. ) and if the squash steam for a bit and then eventually brown once some of the liquid that’s released cooks off, that’s fine too. It will just be a bit softer but still delicious.
Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil (don’t skimp on the oil) in a large, heavy skillet. When hot add the sliced squash and a few pinches of salt. Cook over medium-high to high heat stirring on and off until the squash is browning and soft. Taste and add salt if needed–it takes a bit.
Serve sprinkled with Parmesan if you’d like.