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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Arugula, Roasted Beets and Scallion Salad – It’s all about the ingredients!

June 25, 2016 by Mary 24 Comments

Arugula, roasted beet and scallion salad on an antique plate.

I have said this many times and the French know it all too well – it’s all about the ingredients. The quality of the items you are working with to create your dish makes all the difference in the world. This arugula, roasted beets and scallion salad I made of “just picked that morning” produce was so simple, so delicious, it was to die for. I topped it with a fresh lemon juice dressing and it was a dancing fresh, total yum feel in your mouth. It doesn’t get much better than that!!

On our way up to the Hudson Valley yesterday, we were finally early enough to make it to the Farmer’s Market in Milan and Ethel of Red Hook Farm had just picked the arugula and pulled the beets in the morning. I am so tired of store bought arugula that has zero flavor, aren’t you? Those boxes of baby arugula look all pretty and nice but really, they are tasteless.

This arugula was the big leaf variety, light in texture and full of peppery punch, just the way arugula should be! Because the texture was so light, you could eat a lot of these luscious leaves. The beets grew long and skinny, as opposed to round huge things, so they roasted quickly in 40 minutes at 425 degrees. And the scallions were a bright spring onion flavor. All so fresh, so simple, so delicious, the way all food should be.

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Now the rest of my meal yesterday sucked! I decided to try something new and…it didn’t work. 🙁 So I had some lamb cubes and a craving for pasta. With the grill here, I thought it would be interesting to brown the salted and peppered lamb on the grill – on a grill pan – make the tomato sauce on the stove top and then simmer the cubes in the sauce. Only I think I needed like 3 hours of simmer time to get those babies tender. I thought these were leg of lamb cubes but nope, it was lamb cubes for stew. To make things further worse, all I had here was white rice pasta – a pretty yucky combo with the tough meat.

Oh well, but the salad was magnificent!

Here’s what I did:

Arugula, roasted beet and scallion salad in a bowl.

ARUGULA, ROASTED BEETS AND SCALLION SALAD – serves 2

2 bunches of farmstand large leaf arugula, trimmed, washed, spun dry and chilled
5 small beets, trimmed and scrubbed
1 Tbs. olive oil
3 scallions, white and light green parts, sliced

DRESSING:

½ tsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbs. lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place beets in the middle of a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle with 1 Tbs. olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Close up foil tightly to make a neat packet and roast in the oven for about 40 minutes until beets are tender and easily pierced with paring knife. Let cool a bit so you can handle and peel. Slice into ¼” slices.

For the dressing, whisk together the lemon juice and mustard. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in the olive oil in a slow steady stream to emulsify.

Toss together the arugula, beets and scallions. Drizzle on the salad dressing, just enough for your taste. Toss everything well and serve with LOVE.

Enjoy!

And buy a box! 🙂 They make awesome hostess and housewarming gifts. Everyone loves them!!

 

Filed Under: Dinner, First Course, Salads Tagged With: arugula, best ingredients, roasted beets, salads, scallions

My favorite kind of dinner

October 27, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

I’ve been wanting to share this healthy supper with you. It is quick to do as well, taking 45 minutes or so, from start to finish.

On debate night, this past Monday, I made the following dinner. One plate, eaten in front of the TV.
Sirloin steak salad with snow peas, sweet potato, daikon radish, yellow pepper, cherry or grape heirloom tomatoes, scallions and homemade salad dressing with Dijon mustard, Sherry vinegar, and extra virgin olive oilThis really is my kind of dinner. I love salads. I eat one every day for lunch and I really think there is something to eating raw foods. I think they provide a very different kind of healthy eating. Heat must surely transform the vitamins and minerals and eating anything that you can in its purist form, raw, must be healthier for you.

We once met with a prospective client who was trying to introduce a raw health bar into the marketplace and wanted our help in packaging and marketing it. Carol Alt, the famous fashion model, was a big devotee of this. So maybe, if I eat enough raw food, I’ll look like her???
Sirloin steak salad ingredients including snow peas, yellow pepper, scallions, and cherry or grape heirloom tomatoes on a wooden cutting board.I hope you enjoy this. And don’t forget to add LOVE while you’re making it. After a day like Thursday, the world certainly needs a lot more love and you can add to it by making and serving nourishing, healthy meals, filled with love.

SIRLOIN STEAK SALAD
– serves 2

1/2 – 3/4 of a head of Boston lettuce, washed and spun dry, or use as much lettuce as you like
1 handful of snow peas, cleaned and blanched in boiling water for 1 minute, drained and cooled in ice water and then drained and patted dry
3/4 – 1 lb. boneless sirloin steak
1 sweet potato, peeled, cut into 1/2″ cubes, tossed with 1 tbs. olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted in a 400 degree oven for 35 minutes
1-1/2” piece of daikon radish, peeled and thinly sliced on a mandoline
1/2 of a yellow pepper, cut in thin strips
10 cherry or grape heirloom tomatoes, washed and sliced in half
2 scallions, cleaned and thinly sliced

SALAD DRESSING
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 tbs. Sherry vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Prepare your sweet potatoes and get them in the oven. Meanwhile, clean the snow peas and blanch, drain, put in an ice bath to stop the cooking, drain again and pat dry. Wash and dry the lettuce and chill in the refrigerator. Prepare all the other vegetables. Now your potatoes should be tender and done. Keep them warm.

Wash and dry your steak and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Turn broiler on high and broil 4-5 minutes per side to your liking of doneness.

While the steak is cooking, make the salad dressing. Whisk together the mustard, salt, pepper and vinegar. Slowly whisk in the olive oil in droplets until all is emulsified and combined.

When the steak is done, remove it to a platter and let it rest for 5 – 10 minutes.

Lay out the lettuce leaves on the bottom of two plates. In a circular fashion around the edge of the lettuce, distribute the snow peas, sweet potatoes, yellow pepper and tomatoes. Tuck the daikon radish slices underneath the lettuce on the outer edge of the plate. Thinly slice the steak and lay out in the center of all the beautiful vegetables. Drizzle the salad dressing on top. Finish with a sprinkling of sliced scallions.

Filed Under: Dinner, Salads Tagged With: Boston lettuce, dinner salads, heirloom tomatoes, scallions, sherry vinegar, sirloin steak, steak salads, yellow peppers

A different chicken dish!

January 27, 2012 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

Sesame braised chicken with shiitake mushrooms and daikon on a white plate.

Sesame Braised Chicken with Shiitake, Daikon & Ginger

This is a great Sunday dish, as it does take some time. It’s a Melissa Clark recipe from The New York Times that I have altered, again. Not much, but I just can’t help myself. But I really do like Melissa’s recipes! She and I must be on the same wavelength. That’s the thing. There are millions of recipes out there. I pick the ones that I think I’m going to love, (based on the ingredients, time to prepare, ease of preparation, will it be fun to make?) If you make things you love, you will serve them with love – because love really is the secret ingredient!

Now I did make a mistake in making this – had to do with not reading the recipe all the way through carefully. I threw in the scallion tops into the pot to roast with the chicken so you don’t see raw scallion rings in my photo. No matter, the dish was great – and different!! We all love chicken but we’re always looking for something different, right? Melissa talks about the daikon radish getting silky and she’s right. You’ll want to crawl right into this dish. Perfect for a winter night.

I also used the stems of the mushrooms but I don’t think I’d use them again as they were a bit woody. Maybe save them to chop fine and use in a risotto later.

I served this with Jasmine steamed rice and some sautéed okra. It was yummy!

SESAME BRAISED CHICKEN IN A POT WITH SHIITAKE, DAIKON AND GINGER – adapted from Melissa Clark and The New York Times
– serves 4

3 bunches scallions (about 3/4 pound)
3 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 pound Daikon radish, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
1/2 – 3/4 cup shiitake mushroom caps
8 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
2 inches ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 whole chicken (3 1/2 pounds)
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup dry sherry
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 whole star anise pods
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Trim the roots off the scallions. Separate the dark green tops from the bottoms.

In a 5- or 6-quart Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons peanut oil and 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil over medium-high heat. Add the scallion bottoms, daikon, mushrooms and garlic cloves. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 7 minutes. Add the ginger and cook 1 minute more. Use a slotted spoon to transfer vegetables to a platter.

Pat chicken dry; season inside and out with salt and pepper. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon peanut oil and 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil to the Dutch oven. Brown chicken, turning, until the skin is well browned about 3 – 4 minutes on each of the 4 sides. Turn chicken breast-side up. Scatter the vegetables around the chicken. In a small bowl, whisk together the stock, sherry and soy sauce. Pour over the chicken. Drop in the star anise pods. Tightly cover the pot and transfer to the oven. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink, 40 to 60 minutes.

Remove to a cutting board. Skim fat from the surface of the cooking liquid. Chop the scallion tops and stir in, with the vinegar. Carve chicken and serve, topped with vegetables and pot juices.

Filed Under: Dinner, Poultry Tagged With: chicken, daikon, ginger, Jasmine rice, Melissa Clark, okra, rice wine vinegar, scallions, sherry, The New York Times

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

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