Smoked Salmon With Fennel Salad

Some time during the month of June, I lost track of time. As I sat down to write this recipe, I had thought June had just begun but now it looks like we're on the last lap of the month. How did that happen? Well, at least, we finally have our weather. This morning, I went to look at my tomatoes & tomatillos and it's like they have grown overnight. Nice thick stems, beautiful verdant leaves and elegant little flower buds. (I especially love the smell spritzed into the air as I squeeze the suckers off my tomato plants. It is intoxicating like catnip for gardeners.) While the forecast for this summer is hot, I still cross my fingers for good weather and hopefully it will yield a bounty of highly rewarding, home-grown heirloom vegetables for summer eating.

Which brings me to this week's recipe... Outside of maybe barbeque, there is nothing that symbolizes summer eating more than a refreshing cool, crunchy salad. In our household, this week's salad is our current favourite. (Who can say no to smoked salmon?) It pairs feathery-thin fresh fennel with rich, smooth unctuous smoked salmon. It's a beautiful salad that can be piled high in a large bowl and gobbled up or it may be served elegantly on a long platter for dinner guests. Either way, it is delicious and does not require much effort.*

*Perhaps after you read this recipe, you will disagree, but I will disclose upfront that this recipe calls for shaved fennel. Therefore, it requires the use of some sort of kitchen gadget, I know. Although, shaving fennel may seem daunting and hardly worth it, believe me, it is worth it (and probably not as bad as you think once you get into it.) The papery slices of fennel stay crisp and crunchy but allows the vinaigrette to permeate creating a kind of "quick" pickle. It's an anise and citrus flavour explosion. Perfect for a hot day. Perfect paired with smoked salmon. Trust me. Worth the effort.


Shaved Fennel Salad With Smoked Salmon
Serves 4 as a starter (or 2 as a light lunch)

1/2 large fennel bulb (reserve some fennel fronds)
150 grams smoked salmon, sliced

1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt & pepper

1. In a large bowl, shave fennel into wispy thin slices. I use a benriner (or mandolin) but if you don't have one, slice fennel into thin pieces with a sharp knife.
2. On a large plate, lay out smoked salmon in a single layer.
3. In a medium sized jar, add Dijon, olive oil & lemon juice. Place lid on tightly and shake. Pour over fennel and toss. Add salt & pepper. Taste. Adjust seasonings as necessary then allow to fennel to marinate for at least ten minutes.
4. To serve, pile fennel high over smoked salmon. Sprinkle some of the reserved fennel fronds on top.

...Read more

Dining Al Fresco: Greek Salad

Finally, summer has arrived! The signs are clear: the farmer's market was open for business this week, and of course, we turned on our air conditioning for the first time this year!

The most apparent sign, of course, is my garden is starting to take off.... I see flower buds forming on my tomatoes plants, the mizuna is lush and the cucumber seeds have finally sprouted. My radishes have shown their true leaves and we can't wait to snack! (Fingers crossed.)



Unfortunately, none of my lettuce sprouted (I had to re-seed), but I found this nut growing in the lettuce beds likely planted by some wily squirrel last autumn.



Summer is a natural time for salads. Cool, refreshing and light-tasting made with in-season produce. When it's hot in the kitchen, I love a fresh salad with a side of grilled garlic bread for dinner. However, one of the salads I never like was Greek salad. In my defense, my introduction to Greek salad was not exactly inspiring: Insipid soggy iceberg lettuce, weighted down by grainy tasteless tomatoes and oily dressing. But that changed for me about two years ago, when my future husband and I went to Montreal to visit his parents. They took us to a fantastic Greek restaurant where I was properly introduced to Greek salad: Fresh sweet tomatoes, crispy crunchy peppers, graced with lightest touch of olive oil, and delicate salty feta. I came home that weekend with a new love and made that salad almost every weekend last summer. This salad has easily become one of my favourites.

In the warm days of summer, this is such a beautiful, colourful and clean-tasting salad to eat. It's a perfect accompaniment to chicken soulvaki and lots of tzatziki.

The secret to this salad is to slightly pickle the red onion for at least half an hour. The onions remains crunchy, but the onion's sharp taste muted. It takes away the bite (and also the bad breath!) The rose-tinged vinegar doubles as part of the vinaigrette.




Greek Salad

1 small onion - sliced thinly
1 c white vinegar
3 Roma tomatoes, cut into bite sized chunks
1 small sweet yellow pepper, cut into bite sized chunks
1/2 seedless cucumber, cut into half moons
1/4 tsp ground oregano (or a small handful of fresh oregano leaves)
1/3 c Kalamata olives
1/3 c crumbled goat's milk feta

extra virgin olive oil
large flake sea salt

1. Soak onions in vinegar. Set aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. Toss peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and oregano together.
3. Top with olives and drained red onions.
4. Sprinkle feta.
5. Drizzle 1.5 tbsp of the vinegar and olive oil on top.
6. Serve.
...Read more

Avocado and Hearts of Palm Salad

Thanks to everyone who made my scrambled eggs posting the most viewed photo on Tastespotting.com last week and I welcome new readers who found me through that post.



When people find out I have a food blog the first thing they ask is, "How do you have the time?" This question is almost always followed by, "How do you come up with recipes?" The answer to the first question is time management but some weeks are better than others. The answer to the second question is sometimes it is through a fortunate accident but most times, I am inspired by an ingredient, a technique or another recipe.

My plan for this week's post was inspired by a great chicken dish I tried several years ago. I spent the week developing this recipe: spice levels and the cooking technique. I wanted to make dish something that was easy, delicious and accessible. Most times, what I envision and what happens are the same thing. The problem was this week that wasn't the case. First, the spices weren't quite there (not exactly a disaster, but not good enough to post) so it has sent me back to the drawing board and second, we had a cooking accident. We grilled the chicken on the barbecue at the same as we did a duck breast. The duck breast with its thick fatty skin created a dark grey smoke that imparted an unappetizing carbon-tinged colour to the meat. Not exactly the result I had intended.

So instead I offer up this really simple salad that we ate with the chicken last night. This is such a simple thing to put together that calling it a recipe is somewhat misleading. You need recipes for souffles, and cheesecakes but for this little salad? No, it's pretty easy. Think of it as a list of ingredients.

If you plan to serve this on a particular day, remember to purchase the avocado several days in advance. I think the addition of orange segments might be really nice in this salad as well which I will try next time. This salad is a welcome departure from the usual leaf salads that people have come to expect.


Avocado & Hearts Of Palm Salad
Yields 2 large servings

1 ripe avocado (diced) (Click here for a refresher on cutting an avocado)
3 hearts of palm (1 can) - sliced into 1/2cm coins

Vinaigrette
1/3 c olive oil
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
pinch dried oregano (if you have fresh, use that instead)
1 tbsp of finely chopped parsley

Whisk together and ingredients and set aside.

Toss avocado and hearts of palm together. Drizzle vinaigrette over top and serve.

Updated April 11, 2009: Thanks to a reader for pointing this out... I inadvertedly forgot to include that you should add salt & pepper to taste and a squeeze of lemon to finish.
...Read more

Beets Are The New Black

Just a shout out to My Kind of Food’s US readers. Happy voting. Democracy is a beautiful thing.

When I was growing up, I don’t think beets made a regular appearance at our family table, and as unfortunate as it may be, I don’t think I was the only one with such limited experience with beets. But today, beets are everywhere and I have discovered quite a fondness for them. I have noticed beets but not just the retro-chic pickles and borscht (which I love), but elevated to new heights of culinary sophistication including creamy risottos, crisp salads, and sexy sides. Even my Chinese mother serves beets when we come over for dinner these days. So if it makes it onto her table – then beets must be the new black.

I am thrilled that beets have experienced a renaissance, because they are fantastic and terribly underrated. They come in an array of colours, are relatively inexpensive, and easily prepared. They possess complex flavour in that they are sweet when roasted, but deliciously crunchy and earthy when consumed raw. And of course, they have an indefatigable colour that announces exactly where they’ve been as there is no mistaking a beet has been on your plate.

Beet Salad with Oranges and Blue Cheese

I marinate the red onions briefly to remove some of the bite. But if you slice them ever so thinly and marinate them, oh yum! It’s delicious. For this salad, I scrape a red onion over my Benriner mandolin, but a sharp knife and a steady hand will do the trick.

Serves 2

2 beets – peeled and trimmed
1 orange – peeled and segmented – or canned*
¼ small red onion
1 tbsp champagne vinegar (white wine vinegar)
1 handful of parsley
¼ c crumbled Roquefort cheese

1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp champagne vinegar (white wine vinegar)

1. Thinly slice a red onion and place in a small bowl. Sprinkle with vinegar and set aside.
2. Slice beets thinly and arrange on a platter. Arrange orange segments on top.
3. Roughly chop parsley. Sprinkle over this over the salad and dot with blue cheese.
4. Remove onions from the bowl and drain off slightly, add to the salad. It seems like a lot and some days, I put more and some days I put less. Taste the onions first and decide how much you feel like.
5. Sprinkle vinegar over the salad, and drizzle honey over top.

*This is a Hungry Gal shortcut - I use orange segments from a can. Why? …because they are easy, and inexpensive. I might concede that fresh oranges are probably better, but this is far more convenient, and supreming an orange seems to be a bit fussy. Don’t you agree?

Summer Lovin'

It's September now, but summer days are still here in spirit. It's been colder outside these days and I am not quite ready to accept the autumn. Looking back at this summer, I think my best culinary discovery was not a new thing, but rather a rekindling of my love for tomatoes. I had grown so accustomed to the hard, grainy, tasteless tomatoes found in the grocery store, that I had given up on them. However, I remember the day at the Farmer's Market when I saw the curiously beautiful "black cherry tomato," and I couldn't resist. I popped one straight into my mouth and I was transported to my youth when tomatoes grew in my mom's backyard, and we would sneak out into the backyard to eat my mom's crop during the Brady Bunch. The cherry tomatoes were so juicy and fresh, we would gobble them up and when my mom would go out into the backyard, she would find her vegetable garden raided by her children.

A colleague of mine, who happens to be Italian, told me that Italians only eat tomatoes when they are ripe and that's why there is such a profound tradition of canning tomatoes to enjoy throughout the year when the snow is on the ground and the sun is now where to be seen. Perhaps next year, that will be on my to-do list!

This summer, I fell in love again and we feasted on the meaty beefsteaks, gorged on the workhorse romas and snacked on the sexy cousins, the marble-sized orbs, cherry tomatoes.

Several weeks ago, I was in Montreal and found myself in heaven at the Jean Talon Market. Bushels upon bushels of roma tomatoes, hand-tied chilis dangling from tarpulin roofs, and large buckets filled with fragrant bunches of basil. Of course, it was absolutely frustrating trying to walk through the aisles and not buy anything to take home! Oh and the heirlooms! I almost cried when Ryan told me they wouldn't be able to make the train ride home two days later. Sigh.

However, all that pent-up demand drove me straight into the arms of the farmer's at the St. Lawrence North Market the following Saturday. I bought a small basket of romas. Oh boy, did we enjoy those bad boys.



Roma Tomato Salad
5 roma tomatoes - cut into 8ths
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
4 basil leaves, chopped roughly
grinding of salt and pepper
1/4 c of large caperberries
2 tbsp of goat cheese

1. Toss the tomatoes, olive oil, basil and lemon juice together.
2. Season with salt and pepper, as you like.
3. Top with crumbled goat cheese and caperberries.
4. Enjoy!