Lots to chop. Having a sous chef is very helpful.

This fruit salad, based on one I saw recently on the Cooking Channel’s Everyday Exotic, is far from flat. In addition to the ginger and cilantro, the original recipe has Thai basil which I replaced with fresh mint, and a red chile, which I replaced with a serrano chile because I had one on hand the first time I made this and really liked it. With its sweet, spicy dressing, this will make a beautiful, healthy side dish at your next BBQ.

Tropical Fruit Salad

You can eat this as soon as you make it, or keep it in the fridge for a few days. It will last a week, but the ginger and serrano will get more pungent over time, so if you’re making extra, consider reducing those ingredients a little bit so they don’t overpower the fruit.

Tropical Fruit Salad
adapted from Everyday Exotic

1 mango, peeled and diced
1/2 pineapple, peeled and diced
1/4 honeydew melon, peeled, seeded and diced
1 serrano chile, very finely diced
2 Tbsp. thinly sliced mint
1 Tbsp. thinly sliced cilantro
1 Tbsp. grated or finely minced ginger
2 Tbsp. honey
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbsp. black sesame seeds

Mix everything but the sesame seeds in a large bowl. Garnish with sesame seeds.

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First off, I need to apologize for giving you a headache with the photo. I’m sure there’s a Photography 101 class that tells you not to use a busy background for your photo, but use one I did. And it matched the food to boot! There’s a fashion faux pas analogy I could make here, but it’s escaping me at the moment.

Anyway, last week there were a couple of hot days in the Bay Area. Folks on the East Coast who are reading this would likely guffaw if I told you the exact temp and humidity. You might say that “dry heat” isn’t as bad as humid heat or some such. But heat is still hot! On such days I try to find alternatives to firing up the stove, which generally means a sandwich and a salad for dinner. There are only so many mixed baby green salads I can stomach, though, so I was excited to see early girl tomatoes at the farmer’s market the other week.

Early girls might be my favorite variety of tomato. I think it has the perfect proportion of flesh to juicy seeds, and it has a concentrated, sweet tomato-y flavor. Perfect for sandwiches and salads.

If you wanted to go simple, you could just mix chunks of tomato and avocado with a pinch of salt and call it a day. It would be delicious. BUT if you wanted to be a rockstar you would whip up a mustard thyme vinaigrette in 2 more minutes to bind the two together. Your choice.

Tomato Avocado Salad with Mustard Thyme Vinaigrette
– serves 1 as a side -

1 medium tomato, cut into chunks
1 medium avocado, approx the same size as the tomato, cut into similarly sized chunks
2 Tbsp. champagne vinegar
1/2 tsp. honey mustard
extra virgin olive oil
thyme
kosher salt
black pepper

1. Make the vinaigrette by first adding a small pinch of salt to the vinegar and whisking. The salt should take the sharp edge off the vinegar without actually tasting salty. Adjust the amount of salt until you get to this point. Whisk in the honey mustard, and then slowly drizzle in the olive oil while constantly whisking until the vinaigrette is the consistency that you like. Add a pinch or two of fresh thyme and a few grinds of black pepper to taste.

2. Gently mix together the tomato and avocado in a bowl and dress it with the desired amount of vinaigrette. Enjoy!

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3. Summer Chopped Salad of Tomatoes and Corn

When at the market, I often find that the best tomatoes are the ones that smell the most like tomatoes. I know it sounds odd, but the nose does know which tomatoes will taste the best!

Eating corn and tomatoes out of hand is quite a lot of fun, however there is a more refined way to enjoy these summer delights together – in a salad. Just chop them into bite size pieces, add fresh herbs, apply a little seasoning and voila, you have a lovely salad that makes the most of summer’s bounty.

Shown served on bread.

Summer Salad of Fresh Tomatoes and Corn

1 lb fresh tomatoes
2 ears of fresh corn, cooked (approx 1 ½ cups kernels)
½ of a medium red onion (optional)
1 T minced fresh herbs – basil, oregano or thyme
2 T extra virgin olive oil

For tomatoes, heirlooms are best in this recipe because their juice combines with the olive oil to create a lovely dressing. Ripe cherry tomatoes are a good second choice.

Chop tomato(es) into small pieces and place in a medium sized bowl. Next cut corn from cobs and roughly chop to separate kernels. Add to bowl.

Mince red onion and add to bowl. Mince herbs and add to bowl. Drizzle salad with olive oil and generously season salad with salt and pepper. Stir salad to combine and let sit at room temperate for 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld. Do NOT refrigerate before serving as cold degrades essential flavor compounds in tomatoes.

Serving suggestions:
1) topping for toasted bread
2) side dish for grilled meat
3) as a light supper, add crumbled feta or mozzarella cheese

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1. Fattoush: Lebanese Bread Salad
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3. Oven-Roasted Tomatoes with Thyme and Garlic

Turns out I can’t get enough of drupes – but this time, from an unexpected source: sumac.

Do you ever buy ingredients without a recipe in mind? Guilty. Sumac is one of those orphans in my cabinets that now has found a home in at least one recipe that I plan to make again.

After spending an early Sunday afternoon with the Perfectly Edible crew, stuffing myself with dim sum (apparently we are addicted to dim sum), a light dinner was in order. Flipping through a cookbook for inspiration, “sumac” caught my eye and fattoush it was.

What the heck is sumac, you ask? It’s a purply-red spice that’s used in Middle Eastern cuisine and it comes from a berry (a drupe!) that’s dried and ground to a powder. Those of you from the East Coast may have heard of “poison sumac”… that’s up there in the Itchy Hall of Fame with poison ivy and poison oak and NOT what you want to eat.

The edible variety of sumac grows in Africa and North America and is characterized by a red berry. When I taste the spice by itself, I don’t get a very strong flavor, but I think it adds depth to the citrus dressing of the salad. And a pretty color.

This salad will be even better when it’s “really” summer and the tomatoes are in their prime. We ate it as a main course, but it would be delicious as a side with grilled chicken or meat.

Fattoush: Lebanese Bread Salad
- serves 3 to 4 -
Adapted from Joanne Weir’s More Cooking in the Wine Country

Salad
1 large cucumber, seeded and cubed (and peeled, if waxed)
2 medium-sized tomatoes, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cubed
4 green onions, green and white part thinly sliced
1/3 c chopped parsley
1/3 c chopped mint
1 small head romaine lettuce, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 c baby arugula
2 whole wheat pita rounds
1 t sumac
spray canola oil
salt, pepper

Dressing
2 cloves garlic, minced
juice of 1 lemon
1/3 c olive oil
1 ½ t sumac
salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Tear pita bread into bite-sized pieces and place on a cookie sheet. Lightly spray them with canola oil and sprinkle with 1 t sumac and some salt. Toast for about 12 minutes, until crisp.

For salad, combine cucumber, tomatoes, bell pepper, green onion, parsley, and mint in a large bowl.

For dressing, whisk garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, 1 ½ t sumac, and salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle over salad, mix.

Just before serving, mix lettuce, arugula and pita in with the dressed salad. Adjust salt and pepper as needed.

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3. Duck Confit Salad

My husband and I love duck confit but have only made it once and said “we’ll never make that again.”  When we saw ready-made Grimaud Farms duck confit legs at Costco we were excited. All you have to do is cook them in the oven for 15 minutes and voila!

On a recent Sunday afternoon we wanted a healthy lunch with the duck confit that was delicate and healthy with a hint of sweetness. We looked in the fridge to see what we had on hand and found spring mix, tomatoes, turkish feta, corn and pears. While it may seem like a hodgepodge of ingredients, they all worked well together.   The feta gives the salad a salty flavor while the pears and dried cherries work together to give this dish sweetness.

This is an easy, perfect salad for a weekend lunch or dinner which would be well over $12 in any restaurant.  We loved this salad so much that we had it the following weekend, too…but this time with a nice glass of white wine! Bon Appetit!

Duck Confit Salad
- serves 2 -

2 Duck confit legs, shredded (bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes)
3 cups arrugla or spring mix
Diced pears
Dried cherries
Grape or cherry tomatoes
Turkish or french feta
Corn

Dressing:
4 tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon stout or spicy mustard
salt and pepper to taste

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3. Fattoush: Lebanese Bread Salad

A) Farro is an ancient grain that has been eaten in Italy for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years.

B) People disagree on what to call it. To some it is known as emmer, others say it’s a kind of spelt, and then there’s another group that insists farro is its own unique species of wheat.

C) There’s an Italian institute for “underutilized species” that has compiled everything you’d ever want to know about farro in a short paper (that’s right, get your geek on).

Here’s how I learned to cook farro: soak it overnight (like you would for dried beans), then simmer it for 7-10 minutes, finally drain it and then let it steam. The result was a fluffy, slightly nutty grain with a gentle toothsomeness that is familiar yet unique.

I prepared this first batch of farro as a warm salad and the recipe that follows is similar to an Italian-style fried rice – it’s quite versatile and very satisfying.

Preparing the farro:

6-8 hours prior to the meal:
1) Rinse 1½ cups of farro in a couple of changes of water until little residue remains.
2) Soak farro in 3-4 cups of room temperature water for 6-8 hours.

At meal-time:
3) Drain farro from soaking water.
4) Simmer farro in 3-4 cups of lightly salted water for 7-10 minutes, until just al dente.
5) Remove from heat, drain farro and then return to pot. Farro should be covered and left to steam for another 5-7 minutes,

Warm Farro Salad
- serves 2-3 as a main course, 4-5 as a side -

3 cups farro prepared as outlined above
4 strips of bacon – thick cut is best
1 large leek, chopped, rinsed and dried
2 small carrots, chopped
4-6 ounces of button mushrooms, sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 TBS of chopped fresh herbs – I used oregano
2 TBS of extra virgin olive oil

Cut bacon into small pieces and cook in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet and set aside. Remove skillet from heat and pour off all but 1 TBS of bacon fat. Return pan to heat and add leek, cooking until translucent (4-5 min). Add carrots and cook for 3 more minutes until just tender. Add mushrooms and cook until softened, another 2-3 min. Make a well in center of skillet, add 1 tsp of oil and fry garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add farro and toss to combine with all ingredients in skillet and season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and add remaining olive oil, tossing to coat. Serve in bowls and garnish with herbs and bacon bits.

Suggested variations:
1) Can easily be made vegetarian (vegan, actually) by omitting the bacon and beginning by adding 1 TBS of olive oil to skillet instead of bacon fat. Garnish with toasted pine nuts for crunch and protein.
2) Easily accommodates any complementary group of veggies such as sundried tomatoes and spinach or roasted red peppers and onions.

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I’m always looking for good, healthy alternatives to rice and couscous. Bulgar has more fiber, vitamins and minerals – plus it’s low in fat. More importantly it requires very little cooking and is served at room temperature! Commonly used in Mediterranean, Turkish and Middle Eastern dishes, bulgar has a nutty flavor and is produced in different grinds – #1 fine, #2 medium, #3 coarse and #4 extra coarse. The finer grinds take less cooking time than the coarse grinds. Usually the ratio is one (bulgar) to two (water, stock or broth) but sometimes the coarser grinds will require a little more liquid. Bulgar is so versatile! It can be a great side dish or used to make kibbeh (mini football-shaped minced meatballs coated with bulgar), pilaf, salads, tabbouleh, etc.

We were having several people over for dinner and I didn’t want to worry about the dishes getting cold or taking the time to make sure the rice was cooked properly. My sister-in-law gave me a recipe for figs stuffed with bulgar and cranberries, but I wanted more of a side dish instead of an appetizer so I decided to make the recipe heartier. Recipes with bulgar vary with some saying to boil the water or stock and others saying to let it soak for a few hours. I chose the latter option. It’s much easier and it tastes just as good!

Cranberry Bulgur with Figs
Adapted from The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey by Janna Gur
- serves 10 as a side dish –

1/2 cup or approx 4 ounces Bulgar wheat (I used #2 medium)
1 cup water (can substitute broth or stock)
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
1 cup grated carrots
1/4 chopped fresh chopped mint
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
3-4 tbsps toasted, chopped peacans
2-3 tbsps pomegranate concentrate (plus extra for serving)
As many figs as guests

1.  Soak bulgar in 1 cup water or stock for 4-5 hours until it swells and softens. If in a time crunch, you can add the water to the bulgar and cook in the microwave for a few minutes, then allow it to cool. I didn’t do this option so you’ll have to experiment.
2.  Mix the bulgar with all other ingredients except for the figs. You may do this in advance and keep it in the refrigerator.
3.  Sprinkle bulgar with a little pomegranate concentrate and serve with figs.

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No related posts were found, so here's a consolation prize: Fattoush: Lebanese Bread Salad.