Shaved Broccoli Stalk Feta Salad #BloggerCLUE

Finally, a fabulous use for the oft-wasted broccoli stalks, this salad with lime juice and feta is simple, fresh and delicious!

This month for Blogger C.L.U.E. Society, my assigned blog is Taking on Magazines, internet home of Christiane, one of the founders of our little group, where we get together once a month using the same clue - ingredient or theme - and search through our partner blog to find tastiness to recreate. With many people trying to start the new year off right, our clue for January is “healthy eating.” Christiane says herself that her recipes don’t have a focus on health but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t tempted by several of them, including her Bibb Lettuce with Citrus Herb Dressing, Vietnamese Caramel Pork and Garlicky Grilled Cheese with Bacon and Spinach, which she swears is healthy, honest! I can tell you they all look delicious!

In fact, I ended up making two dishes, her Superfast Crispy Chicken Thighs, which are started on the stovetop and then finished in the oven, crisp fried in only 1 scant tablespoon of oil, and the fresh salad I’m sharing today. Man, those thighs were good! So good, in fact, that they were eaten before I could take a decent “finished” photo. And I cannot tell you how long it’s been since that happened!

Exhibit A

Thank goodness I had planned to make the broccoli stalk salad too. I was excited to use a part of the broccoli that I know many people discard and put it on center stage.

Even though Christiane says, “serve immediately,” I wasn’t taking any chances with not getting a photo of the salad. I made it in the afternoon and took the photos well ahead of dinner. I am pleased to say that the shaved broccoli was still crunchy, fresh and delicious a couple of hours later!

Ingredients
Leaves and stalks from 1 bunch broccoli (2-3 fat stalks)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
Flakey sea salt and black pepper
1/4 cup or 28g crumbled cotija or feta cheese
Optional: few slices of radish - my addition.

Method
Cut the very hard outsides off of the broccoli stems. Nip off the leaves and save them. My broccoli didn’t have very many leaves, so just for a little more green, I also kept one tiny floret cut into small bits.

Use a sharp potato peeler to trim off any more stringy hard bits and discard them.

Continue shaving off thin slices of the stalks with the potato peeler until they are all gone.

And you are left with this:

Pile the strips in a bowl and add in the oil and lime juice. Sprinkle on the sea salt and a few grinds of fresh black pepper. Give it all a good toss to coat.

Crumble on the feta and stir gently. Add a few slices of radish if desired.

Serve immediately or refrigerate covered until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Our participating society members this month, with their Healthy Eating picks:

• Apricot Muffins by Azmina from Lawyer Loves Lunch
• Broccoli Stalk Feta Salad by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Citrus Shrimp by Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Couscous with Chicken and Vegetables by Sue from A Palatable Pastime
• Ginger-Citrus Grilled Salmon by Kathy from A Spoonful of Thyme
• Irish Seafood Cocktail by Kate from Kate's Kitchen
• Massaged Kale Salad by Anna from annaDishes
• Mediterranean Chopped Salad by Christy from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Middle Eastern Vegetable Salad by Christiane from Taking on Magazines
• Orange Banana Matcha Smoothie by Kim from Liv Life
• Red Lion Inn Swordfish by Lea Ann from Cooking on the Ranch
• Roasted Carrots and Cauliflower (with a kick) by Debra from Eliot's Eats
• Sophie’s Chopped Salad by Rebekah from Making Miracles
• Thai Salad with Peanut Dressing by Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• White Bean Chili by Lisa from Authentic Suburban Gourmet
• Winter Salad of Roasted Beets, Avocado and Grapefruit by Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm

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Passion Fruit Vinaigrette

Passion fruit vinaigrette is tangy and light, with just a hint of fruity sweetness, the perfect dressing for salad or to spoon over pan-fried fish. We especially love it on salmon.

Most of the year I tend to have a jar of homemade vinaigrette lurking somewhere in the refrigerator, nestled amongst the myriad jars on my over-packed top shelf.  It invariably contains some combination of lemon juice or vinegar, olive oil, garlic, mustard, salt and black pepper and perhaps some honey or pomegranate molasses. I fish the jar out and let it rest for about 10 minutes at room temperature until the olive oil turns liquid again and then I give it a shake. If there’s not enough dressing left in the jar for that night’s salad, I add more of this, a little of that, until there is, once again, enough. Measurements are not really necessary but a general rule of thumb is one part acid (vinegar or citrus juice) to three parts oil.

Early this summer I was making up a fresh jar of vinaigrette when I spied a few passion fruit languishing in the fruit bowl. With passion fruit, there’s a narrow window where the fruit is wrinkled and ripe and wrinkled and dried out inside and mine were approaching the other side. So I scraped the black speckled pulp out of four of those little orbs of tartness and added them to the dressing I was creating. We ate it over everything for the next couple of days! And then I made some more. It keeps for a week or more in the refrigerator, if it lasts that long.

Ingredients
Pulp of 4 small passion fruit – 1/4 cup or 65g
1 small purple onion
4 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon flakey sea salt (I use Maldon’s.)
Several generous grinds of fresh black pepper
1/2 cup or 120ml extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Method
Peel and mince your onion. Add it to a small bowl with two tablespoons of the vinegar. Add in the sea salt and a few good grinds of the black pepper and set aside. Marinating the onion in the vinegar mellows some of the sharpness and bite.

Put your passion fruit pulp in a clean jam jar and mix it around with a knife or fork to loosen it up and separate the seeds.

Add in the olive oil, the onion/vinegar mixture and the last two tablespoons of vinegar. Give the jar a really good shake.

Now add in the dry mustard and shake again until very well combined.

Store in the refrigerator until ready to use, shaking well again before lightly dressing salad or spooning it over cooked fish.

Here are a couple of photos to give you an idea of uses for the dressing. The first is a simple salad with butter lettuce, ripe tomatoes, cheese and shoestring carrots. The passion fruit seeds add color and crunch!

The second is pan-fried salmon the flavor of which far exceeds its accompaniments of fresh corn on the cob and peas. As much as I love sweet corn it still would have been a rather bland meal without the passion fruit vinaigrette!

Enjoy! Go ahead and make a jar! I’d love to hear what you’ve tried it on.

Garlicky Lobster Crab Scampi #NationalGarlicDay

Lots of garlic, butter and olive oil make this rich Garlicky Lobster Crab Scampi perfect for serving on a special occasion. Or when you just want to treat yourself. No lobster? Substitute shrimp or prawns!

The summer I was eight years old, we moved from Trinidad to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, a distance not far as the crow flies, the commercial flight taking only one hour and 20 minutes, but it was a dizzying transfer from a cozy oil field camp on a relatively provincial island to a quick paced city of high rise buildings and busy downtown streets where folks spoke a foreign tongue. And you had to know that language to read the signs, packaging in stores and to order safely from a menu. 

While our house was being readied for move-in, we stayed first in a high-rise hotel and then in a serviced apartment just a few blocks from an Italian restaurant called Da Pippo’s. We ate there several times a week. Funny how memories can be elusive, but I don’t really remember what I used to order. Perhaps it was something normal like pizza or spaghetti, so unremarkable that it escaped recording in my long-term brain cells, but my older sister was consistent.

She got the shrimp scampi every single time. It was loaded with garlic and butter and oil, shelled pink shrimp drowning in that nectar of delight. I don’t recall if she ever shared a shrimp, but sometimes she’d let me dip a piece of the complimentary bread in there. Heaven. 

Now you are probably asking yourself why I didn’t just order my own shrimp scampi and I wish I had a good answer for you. I do wonder that myself. But the good memories made sure that I have recreated that dish more than a few times over the intervening years. 

A little research corrected my misheld assumption that scampi was merely the Italian word for shrimp. It can also mean a dish prepared with garlic butter so occasionally, I vary the seafood, using lobster or crab alone or in combination with the shrimp. But there’s always plenty of garlic and butter and olive oil.

You might remember that last year about this time, I was celebrating National Garlic Day with my friend, Heather from girlichef, and 13 more garlic loving food bloggers. I made a slow roasted lamb shoulder with 40 cloves of garlic that just fell off the bones, it was so tender! Well, we are at it again! 

And I couldn’t think of a better recipe to share than one I created with Da Pippo's shrimp scampi in mind. Feel free to substitute shrimp for the lobster and/or the crab. And make sure you scroll down to see all the great garlicky recipes my friends have made for you today.

Ingredients for two very generous servings
1/4 cup or 60g butter
1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil
15 cloves or 60g garlic
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup or 120ml dry white wine
1/2 - 1 teaspoon cayenne (depending on your taste)
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
Juice of 1/2 lemon
12 1/3 oz or 350g lobster tail meat
1/2 cup or 110g fresh crabmeat
Sea salt to taste.

To serve: spinach fettuccine pasta, cooked to manufacturer’s instructions or some crusty bread, sliced, heaping your scampi on.

To garnish: Few sprigs cilantro or flat leaf parsley

Method
Melt the butter along with the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Mince your garlic and add it to the pan or push it through a garlic press directly into the melted butter and olive oil. Cook for a minute or two until fragrant. Be very careful not to let the garlic burn or it will turn bitter.

Whisk in the Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, whole grain mustard and white wine. Simmer for about five minutes.

Slice your lobster tail.

And add it to the sauce. Cook it just long enough for the meat to turn white, mere minutes.

Add in the crabmeat and cook until it is just warmed through.

Squeeze in the lemon juice and give everything a gentle stir.

Add salt to taste then serve over spinach pasta for extra color. Or alongside some fresh crusty bread.

Garnish with a few sprigs of cilantro or flat leaf parsley.

Enjoy!

Welcome to National Garlic Day 2015, hosted by Heather from girlichef. April 19th is a day for garlic lovers far and wide to come together and celebrate the wonder of "the stinking rose." Whether it's the ability to ward off vampires (and bugs), its numerous health benefits, or the way it lends flavor to a dish, there are so many reasons for singing the praises of garlic.

To help you get in the mood, check out these garlicky good recipes from this year's National Garlic Day bloggers:

• Black Garlic Chocolate Cake from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Chicken with 40 cloves of Garlic from My Catholic Kitchen
• Epic Garlic Bread from Shockingly Delicious
• Garlic and White Bean Hummus from Kelli's Kitchen
• Garlic Lovers Focaccia with Shallots and Sweet Corn from Kudos Kitchen by Reneé
• Garlic-Parmesan Chicken Stuffed Shells for Two from The Spiffy Cookie
• Garlicky Chard Stuffed Flank Steak from girlichef
• Garlicky Lobster Crab Scampi from Food Lust People Love
• Garlicky Rib Eye Steak with Garlic Bruschetta from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• IPA Pickles from NY Foodgasm
• Lebanese Garlic Sauce from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Louisiana Garlic Bread from Wishes and Dishes
• Ricotta, Garlic and Mushroom Flatbread Pizza from Simply Healthy Family
• Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Hummus from From Gate to Plate
• Roasted Garlic Cauliflower from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Roasted Garlic Gruyère Pull-Apart Bread from Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen
• Spicy Garlic Noodles with Pork from Healthy. Delicious.

Yogurt Olive Oil Tart Dough

Pie pastry dough made with olive oil bakes up surprisingly crispy and light, without a hint of oiliness. This one with yogurt, a variation from The French Market Cookbook, is easy to make and roll out. It sets off a vegetable tart to perfection. 

My favorite pie crust recipe is light and flakey and is made with shortening, specifically Crisco when I can get it and butter when I cannot. It can be found here but what’s the point of owning a new cookbook if you don’t try new things, right? So for the leek and zucchini tart Tatin that I will share for Sunday Supper later this morning, I decided to branch out and make one with olive oil and yogurt. Success! Still light, still flakey and probably a whole lot healthier too. Author Clotilde Dusoulier says not to use low fat yogurt but that’s all I had. In fact, mine was zero percent fat, but the crust still came out great.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup or 125g plain yogurt
1/3 cup or 80ml olive oil

Method
Measure your flour and salt into a mixing bowl and whisk to combine. This helps aerate the flour so you don’t have to sift it.

Add in the yogurt and olive oil and use a pastry blender to cut them into the flour.

When the dough comes together, knead it for a few turns and then wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Could not have been quicker or easier! 

When you are ready to bake, follow the instructions for preheating your oven and baking in whatever tart recipe you are following. As mentioned, I used this to bake a vegetable tarte Tatin and you can find that recipe right here.

Meanwhile, let your furry helper clean out the yogurt pot so it can go in the recycling bin.

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Seared Spice-encrusted Tuna Steaks

There’s just something about Sunday Brunch that’s special.  The dressing up, the champagne, the extravagant variety of choices, and most especially, the occasion.   Because if you are going to Sunday Brunch, there is probably a reason.  Even if it is just to celebrate summer!  When we were living in Kuala Lumpur, one of our favorite brunches was at the Westin hotel.  Along with the generous buffet where we could help ourselves, the wait staff also delivered delicious morsels to our table, all afternoon.  Plus Champagne.

One such morsel was tuna, coated in spices and seared till it was golden on the outside but still vibrantly pink on the inside.  The last time we were there, I examined it closely, tasting bite after bite, purely for research, you understand. And this is my best approximation of that lovely dish.  You can serve it alone, tapas style, in which case, drizzle it with some good olive oil in the serving dish, or on a bed of greens and rice salad on a small plate for a starter, or in a larger bowl for a complete meal. 

Ingredients
2 tuna steaks – about 9 oz or 255g each

For the spice mix
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon fennel
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon mixed peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

For the wet coating
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil – plus more for the frying pan

Method
Lay your tuna steaks out between paper towels to dry.

Use a mortar and pestle to grind the spices finely.

The pink is Himalayan sea salt.  Use any sea salt you have. 

Mix the whole grain mustard thoroughly with the olive oil.

Spread half of the mustard mixture on one side of the tuna steaks and then sprinkle with half of the spice mix.

Put the tuna on a piece of cling film, which will make it easier for you to flip it over into the frying pan.  Repeat the seasoning on the other side, first mustard, then spices.

Heat a non-stick frying pan until it is very hot and then drizzle in a little olive oil.  Cook one side of the tuna for just a couple of minutes before turning it to the other side.

Watch the side of the tuna and you can see the cooked part coming up.  You want to leave a good amount of pink still in the middle.

Sear the other side for just a minute or two and then remove from the pan and allow to rest for a few minutes.

Slice into thin pieces with a serrated knife, using a sawing motion so you don't mash the tuna.

Enjoy!

Hasselback Potatoes

I don’t know about you but I get bored of the same old potato, rice and pasta side dishes.  Years ago I was watching a Nigella Lawson show and she made these lovely potatoes, describing their incomplete slices as just a way of getting more fat inside.  As a huge roast potato fan, this thrilled me.  Best of all, this recipe is pretty and easily multiplied to feed any army, limited only by the size of your largest roasting pan and oven.

Ingredients
6 medium waxy young potatoes (with thin peels)
Knob of butter
Healthy drizzle of olive oil
Good sprinkle of sea salt
Small handful chopped parsley for serving - optional

Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Set your potatoes, one at a time in a wooden spoon.  Using a sharp knife, cut even slices about 1/4 inch or 1/2 cm apart, from the top of the potato, width-wise, until your knife reaches the wooden spoon.

Set the potatoes, cut side down in a baking pan that has been drizzled with olive oil.  Put the knob of butter in the pan and put the pan in the preheated oven.

Roast for about 20-25 minutes, turning the potatoes from top to bottom and basting frequently with the olive oil/butter in the bottom of the pan.

Finally turn the potatoes cut side up and give them a good sprinkle of sea salt.

Continue basting frequently with the olive oil/butter.

Roast another 20-25 minutes or until the slices have separated and the potatoes are golden and crunchy around the edges.

Baste one final time and serve.

I meant to sprinkle these with chopped parsley.  Imagine them even prettier with a little green on top. 

Enjoy!