Sharon’s Watermelon MojitosNote: These ingredients are not measured because Sharon created this recipe after trying one at a restaurant.
* Mint leaves, chopped
* Superfine sugar
* Fresh lime juice
* Crushed ice
* Light rum
* Seedless watermelon, cut into ½ “ chunks
1. In a small mortar bowl, place mint, sugar and lime juice and crush using a pestle. Adjust ingredients to taste.
2. Fill each glass ½ full with ice. Layer water melon chunks, then mint mixture and rum. Top with lime juice.
3. Garnish with mint sprig
Asian Avocado SalsaNote: This recipe is an adaptation of a recipe that was given to me by Emile Smith, a close friend of Henry Millers. Emile’s recipe did not use sesame seed oil, or cilantro. Amounts are approximate so adjust to your own tastes.
2-3 avocadoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
juice of ½ lemon
2-3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
2 stalks green onions, finely diced
¼ cup chopped cilantro (Emile used parsley)
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ teaspoons toasted sesame seed oil (available from Trader Joe’s)
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Combine ingredients and refrigerate until served. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve with Bagel chips, crackers or pita chips.
Grilled Spice-rubbed Salmon with Corn Salsa
An old Bon Appetit Magazine 12 Servings
SALMON
1½ tablespoons coriander seeds
1½ tablespoons mustard seeds
1½ tablespoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
3 Tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
1 4-lb boneless side of salmon with skin
SALSA
6 cups fresh corn kernels (about 9 ears) or frozen, thawed
1 cup finely chopped red onion
½ cup olive oil
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
¼ cup fresh lime juice
½ tablespoons minced seeded jalapeno chile
FOR SALMON: Heat heavy small skillet over medium-high heat. Add coriander, mustard, and cumin seeds; Saute until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add peppercorns. Remove from heat and cool. Finely grind mixture in spice grinder or in mortar with pestle. Transfer to bowl. Mix in sugar.
Place salmon, skin side down, on large baking sheet. Rub ¼ cup spice mixture over salmon, pressing gently to adhere. Cover salmon with plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. Cover remaining spice mixture and let stand at room temperature.
FOR SALSA: Cook corn in saucepan of boiling salted water until just tender, about 2 minutes. Drain. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in remaining ingredients and 2 Tablespoons spice mixture (reserve remaining spice mixture for another use). Season with salt. Cover and chill at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours before serving.
Prepare barbeque (medium heat). Grill salmon, skin side down, 6 minutes. Turn salmon over and grill until just opaque in center, about 6 more minutes. Transfer salmon to platter. Serve with salsa.
Annie’s Summer Layer Salad
Layer in a large glass bowl, starting at the bottom layer*:
Cleaned baby spinach
Thinly sliced celery
Thawed frozen baby peas…do not cook
Sliced button mushrooms
Sliced red onions
Sliced hard-boiled eggs
Raisins
Another layer of baby spinach
*Amounts vary depending upon the size of your bowl and your tastes
Cover with dressing (recipe follows) and chill for 8-10 hours before serving:
DRESSING:
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1/3 cup Best Foods Mayonnaise
¾ Cup crumbled blue cheese
2 Tablespoons Worchestershire Sauce
Salt & pepper to taste.
I generally put about a ½ inch thick layer of dressing on top of the salad green layers.
Chino Farm’s Chopped Vegetable Salad
Wolfgang Puck, Adventures in the Kitchen
Serves 4
Note from Sandy: For many years I would order this salad in Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant in Orange County’s South Coast Plaza. I bought his cookbook just to get this recipe! I love to go through Farmer’s Market with this salad in mind. Tonight there were no artichoke hearts but I added red, orange & yellow Bell Peppers and Edamame. Enjoy!
MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 Tablespoons Sherry wine vinegar
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup almond or safflower oil
Salt & freshly ground white pepper
SALAD
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup diced fresh artichoke bottoms
salt & freshly ground white pepper
½ cup diced carrots
½ cup diced green beens
½ cup diced red onion
½ cup diced radicchio
½ cup fresh corn kernels
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced ripe avocado
¼ peeled, seeded & chopped tomatoes
4 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup mixed greens of your choice (curley endive, chicory, baby lettuces), cut or torn into bite sized pieces.
1. Prepare the vinaigrette: in small bowl, combine the mustard & vinegar. Slowly whisk in the oils. Season to taste with salt & pepper and set aside. Whisk again when ready to serve.
2. Prepare the Salad: in a small skillet, heat the olive oil. Seasin the diced artichokes light with salt & pepper and sauté until al dente, about 3 minutes. Transfer to large bowl and let cool.
3. Blanch the carrots and beans by placing teach into a fine mesh basket. Set the basket into a pot of boiling salted water and cook until al dented, 2-3 minutes. Plunge into cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain, cool, and add to the artichokes. Add the onion, radicchio, corn and celery.
4. When ready to serve, dice the avocado and tomato and add to the other vegetables. Reserving a little vinaigrette, toss the vegetables with the vinaigrette, sprinkle with the grated cheese and toss again. Correct seasoning to taste.
5. Toss the greens with the reserved vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper to taste.
PRESENTATION: Divide the salad greens among 4 salad plates. Mound the chopped salad on the greens and serve immediately.
TO PREPARE SALAD: Through step 3, refrigerate until needed.
Note from Wolfgang: You can be creative as to the vegetables you to want to include or exclude in your salad. For example, you can use baby peas in season or diced Chinese snow peas or dice Italian squash, etc.
Sandy’s note: fresh peas are a wonderful addition to this salad.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Garlic Bread
To reduce the butter in our lives, I created this version to replace the traditional garlic bread for our annual family BBQ’s.
1 cube unsalted butter, melted
2 cups Extra Virgin Olive oil
3-5 cloves of garlic, pressed, more if you want more garlic flavors.
Salt to taste
2 loaves Sweet French Bread (I love Acme Breads)
Mix butter, EVO, garlic and salt in bowl.
Cut loaves of bread lengthwise, then into slices, not cutting quite through in order to keep the loaf halves in one piece.
Place halved loaves on rimmed cookie sheet.
Brush generously with EVO mixture, covering the sides as well as the tops of each slice.
Put loaf halves back together and wrap in Aluminum foil. Place back onto cookie sheet and warm in 350º oven for 10-15 minutes to distribute EVO into bread slices.
Remove and let stand at room temperature.
When ready to serve, remove aluminum foil and place loaf halves over a hot BBQ grill or place on cookie sheet and in 350º oven. Heat until loaves are crispy on crust and just turning golden.
Break into slices and serve.
Nutted Wild Rice
Julie Rosso & Sheila Lukins, The Silver Palate Cookbook
6 portions
1 cup (½ lb.) raw wild rice*
5 ½ cups defatted Chick Stock or water
1 cup shelled pecan halves
grated zest of one large orange
¼ cup chopped fresh mint
4 scallions (or green onions), well-rinsed and thinly sliced
¼ cup olive oil
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1 ½ teaspoons salt or to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste
1. Put the rice in a strainer and run cold water over it, rinse thoroughly.
2. Place the rice in a medium-sized heavy saucepan. Add the stock or water and bring to a rapid boil. Adjust the heat to a gentle simmer and cook, uncovered, for 45 minutes. After 30 minutes, check for doneness; the rice should not be too soft. Place a thin towel inside a colander and turn the rise into the colander and drain. Transfer the drained rice to a bowl.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to the rice and toss gentely. Adjust the seasonings and let the mixture stand for 2 hours to allow the flavors to develop. Serve at room temperature.
* For our dinner, Sandy used half wild rice and half brown rice because her children thought the 100% wild rice was too chewy.
Red Potato Salad
Lee Bailey!s California Wine Country Cooking
Serves 6-8,
• 1-1/2 pounds small red potatoes
• salt
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup fresh basil& cut into thin strips
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley& no stems
• 1 medium garlic clove& minced
• 2 T vinegar
• 1 t Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 t Dijon mustard
• 1/4 t fresh pepper
• 1/2 t salt
Cover potatoes with lightly salted water and add lemon juice. Bring rapidly to a
boil and turn head down to a rolling boil' Cook potatoes until tender 12 minutes or more' Drain and cool.
Meanwhile, whisk together all other ingredients to make a dressing.
Cut cooled potatoes into small chunks& leaving skins on and toss with the dressing. Refrigerate until time to serve.
Sagaponack Corn Pudding
Copyright 2002 Barefoot Contessa Family Style
Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
5 cups fresh yellow corn kernels cut off the cob (6 to 8 ears)
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
4 extra+large eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup half+and+half
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
3 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup (6 ounces) grated extra+sharp cheddar- plus extra to sprinkle on top
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease the inside of an 8 to 10-cup baking
dish.
Melt the butter in a very large saute pan and saute the corn and onion over
medium+high heat for 4 minutes. Cool slightly.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, and half-&-half in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in
the cornmeal and then the ricotta. Add the basil, sugar, salt, and pepper. Add the
cooked corn mixture and grated cheddar, and then pour into the baking dish.
Sprinkle the top with more grated cheddar.
Place the dish in a larger pan and fill the pan 1/2 way up the sides of the dish
with hot tap water. Bake the pudding for 40 to 45 minutes until the top begins
to brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm.
Deborah Olson’s Cherry PieFrom CJ Olson’s Cherry Stand in Sunnyvale
PASTRY:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
4 -5 tablespoon cold water
Preheat oven to 425 degrees (if you have convection oven, use “bake” instead of convection to brown bottom crust). Place flour and salt into a medium sized mixing bowl or into a food processor. Cut in shortening and butter and work with a pastry cutter until mixture is like coarse corn meal. If using a food processor, use the “S” blade.
Sprinkle in cold water, 2 TBS. at a time, mixing until all flour is moistened and forms a ball. Do not overwork the dough. Divide into two balls. Cover with a dishtowel. Chill just until it firms up, then remove. Put aside.
CHERRY FILLING:
¾ to 1¼ cups. sugar (depending on sweetness of Cherries and personal preference)
1/3 cup flour
8 cups Pitted Olson’s Bing, Royal Ann or Tartarian Cherries (about 3 ½ lb.)
¼ teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons butter
In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar and flour. Mix well with Cherries and extract.
ASSEMBLY:
Roll pastry out on a board lightly sprinkled with flour and sugar. Place bottom crust in 9” pie plate.
Add Cherry mixture.
Dot with Butter.
Cover pie with top crust, crimping edges, and adding slits to allow for steam to escape. NOTE: I put a lattice top crust instead of a solid piece
Place pie pan on cookie sheet (cherry juice may bubble over) and then on bottom shelf of oven.
.
Cut a piece of aluminum foil about 3 inches wide and cover the edge of the pie to prevent excessive browning. (Remove foil during the last 15 minutes of baking.)
Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is brown and juices are bubbly.
Makes a 9" Two Crust Pie.
Homemade Lime Ice Cream
Created by Janis
➢ 8 fluid ounces Lime Juice
➢ 4 cups half and half
➢ 2 cups sugar
Dissolve the sugar in half and half.
Stir in lime juice.
Freeze according to ice cream makers instructions
Homemade Ice Cream - Strawberry Recipe
This easy homemade ice cream with the fresh flavor of strawberries is a great treat anytime of the year.
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
3 cups quartered strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup half and half
2 cups chilled whipping cream
• Clean strawberries and cut into quarters. Place in a bowl and mash slightly. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup of sugar and stir until mixed in thoroughly. Set strawberries aside.
• Pour the milk into a heavy saucepan. Over medium heat bring the milk to a gentle simmer (approximately 175° F) or until it begins to bubble around the edges. Remove from the heat.
• After removing from the heat, add remaining sugar and salt to the milk and stir until completely dissolved. Add half and half, vanilla, and whipping cream. Stir until well blended. Pour into a bowl and allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
• Once the mixture has cooled, cover with plastic wrap and allow the mixture to age in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (or up to 24 hours). This aging process will produce ice cream with more body and a smoother texture.
• Finish mashing strawberries to desired consistency (this should make approximately 2 1/2 cups of sauce). Cover the strawberries and place them in the refrigerator until just before adding them to the ice cream.
• After aging (chilling) the mixture, remove from the refrigerator and stir. The ice cream is now ready for the freezing process.
• Follow the ice cream maker's instruction manual on the freezing process.
• When the ice cream has thickened, but is still too soft to scoop, add the strawberries and stir until they are evenly distributed. Or, add the strawberries and start the ice cream maker churning again to stir them into the ice cream. Some makers have an opening in the top that is used to add flavorings as the ice cream is churning.
• Once the strawberries are mixed in, scrape the ice cream into another container with an airtight cover. Be sure to leave at least 1/2 inch head space for expansion. Place the ice cream in the freezer for several hours to harden before serving.
