a spinach and mushroom salad with tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese salad

]]> http://keldscookin.com/2010/02/tomato-basil-mozzarella/feed/ 0 http://keldscookin.com/2010/01/poor-mans-mashed-taters/ http://keldscookin.com/2010/01/poor-mans-mashed-taters/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:30:05 +0000 keldwud http://keldscookin.com/?p=435 Mashed potatoes without butter (poor man’s mashed taters)

• 3 russet potatoes
• 4 garlic cloves
• bay leaves
• sprig of thyme
• vegetable stock
• salt
• black pepper

I made these because I didn’t have any butter.

Boil some water. Add salt, bay leaves and thyme. Quarter potatoes and place in boiling water. Boil until you can squish a piece of potato between your forefinger and thumb, easily. Make sure to use tongs and cold water before attempting to handle the hot potato. While the potatoes are boiling, cook the garlic in a little bit of oil to soften. Once the potatoes are cooked use either a large fork or a potato masher or a wooden spoon or whatever works best for you. Add the garlic and slowly add stock while mashing. The potatoes will fluff up and absorb the moisture so just add more stock as you mash until you reach the desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste.

Spinach, carrot, cucumber and apple

• 1 large carrot
• 1 cucumber
• 2 small handfuls fresh spinach
• 1 palm full sliced white onion
• 2 small apples
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• ground cumin

I started with a bed of spinach with which to lay everything upon as I prepared the produce. If you know have a technique or a tool for slicing things very thin, almost as thin as what a peeler would produce, use it here on the carrot. Otherwise, this could end up slightly dry. Arrange the carrot slices across the bed of spinach and feel free to overlap them. If you want to get fancy, place the carrots in overlapping groups of three and that will make the final product come out in sections.

The cucumber doesn’t need to be sliced as thin, here. Slice your cucumber and arrange in a layer on top of the carrots. Follow the same rule of threes here as you did with the carrots.

If not prepared correctly, the next step could cause the salad to look unappetizing. Apples tend to brown quickly so as we are slicing our apple wedges, approximately one-eighth-inch, we are going to have a plate of lemon juice ready. Gently rub each side of the apple in the lemon juice before placing on top of the cucumber. At this point sprinkle a light layer of cumin on top of the salad. I’ll describe the dressing next.

A single serving would ideally be three slices of carrots, three slices of cucumber, some bits of onion and a quadrangle of apple on a small bed of fresh spinach.

Creamy spice dressing

The dressing is almost as simple as the salad but with a couple twists. I honestly didn’t pay attention to the amounts of each ingredient I used so you may have to experiment until you reach the desired flavor.

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup apple cider (juice will work just fine)
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 pinches marjoram
• 2 dashes black pepper
• 1 pinch coriander seed
• 1 pinch cumin
• 2 tablespoons milk (half and half or cream would work as well (not whipping))

This will be a sort of creamy vinaigrette. Start with your oil and add your spices. This will allow the oil to take on some of the flavor of your spices. Feel free to crush up the coriander seed just slightly so the flavor can leech into the oil. After a few minutes mix the apple cider and vinegar together in a separate container and whisk into the main dressing. Whisk the milk or cream next and splash the dressing generously onto the salad. This is a light dressing and compliments the salad perfectly.

Here’s a closer look at the salad. You can’t really make out the spinach or the carrots but it was prettier when eating. I added some crumbled dried bread to the top.

Closer look

Mix all the ingredients up to the eggs, mashing the beans until lumpy. Place onto the baguette slices and garnish with the remaining ingredients.

Slightly spicy

I still don’t have a food photographer but I hope these pictures are better than nothing.

This is just a quick snack that takes more manual dexterity and patience than usual but it’s worth it in the end.

• Triscuit thin crisps quattro formaggio
• fresh jalapeno
• diced tomatoes
• sliced onion
• Tapatío hot sauce
• sour cream

Spread approximately 1/2 to 1 full teaspoon on each triangle and for presentation purposes, only cover a part of the thin crisp leaving the rest exposed. Slice your jalapeno into rings and then slice each of those into half. Since these are fresh jalapenos, there really will be no need to remove the seeds. The bite will not be as strong as a pickled jalapeno.

Place each jalapeno half-slice onto the exposed part of the Triscuit, gluing it in place by pushing one edge into the sour cream. Next, place two or three tomato pieces along the top edge of the jalapeno, also gluing into place with the sour cream. Your onion slices should be about one quarter inch to one half inch long. We will be stabbing these into the remaining edge of sour cream leaning in towards the middle. Finally, top with a drop or two of Tapatio hot sauce and serve.

• 3 Stone ground whole wheat flat-bread wraps (you can use any kind of tortilla)
• 3 eggs
• 6 tablespoons refried black beans
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chili powder
• Tapatio
• Butter

This recipe is simple. Throw a couple tabs of butter into a hot pan, break three eggs into the pan after the butter is sizzling and break the yolks with your spatula. I never whisk my scrambled eggs, I just break the yolks and give a couple stirs then season while the eggs are still liquid. To season, just dash some salt, pepper and chili powder by which time the eggs should be solid enough on the bottom to fold in half.

While the eggs are finishing, spread two tablespoons of refried black beans on each tortilla and then you can flip your eggs over. I usually do this in one pan where my eggs only take up half and I only need the half of the tortilla with the beans on it to feel the heat from the pan. I’ll cook one tortilla at a time and slice off a portion of egg topping with tapatio and sour cream then give a partial roll (this will burn your fingers) before placing the burrito on a surface to cool before rolling.

That’s it. That’s the formula. Layer of refried black beans, scrambled egg, tapatio, sour cream then tuck and roll. This will make you three burritos. If you serve this with something else you can feed three people. Two of these by themselves filled me up to where I could have not eaten a couple bites and still been full. Enjoy.

Toss cukes and onion with salt in a colander and place over a bowl and let drain 20-30 minutes. You will get quite a bit of water out, at least a few tablespoons. DO NOT skip this step, or you will get a soggy salad.

Drain the water and move the salad to a clean bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss to serve.

Using some of the vegetables I obtained from the farm, I decided to roast them. I had some fresh carrots that were still tiny so I just rinsed them and tossed them into a quart pan with some celery sliced into one inch strips and some oil. After everything is covered in oil toss in your oregano, salt, pepper and cashews then bake at 425 degrees for about fifteen to twenty minutes. That should be all. If you try this, let me know what you think.

The carrots end up just slightly soft and firm while the celery gives them a good structure. I used oil instead of butter because it just tastes better that way for some reason. I was going to garnish with parsley but I couldn’t find my parsley so I was a bit disappointed. I may even try it with a couple tablespoons of half-and-half spooned on top.

Prep time on this is, like, five minutes. Slice your tomato, arrange on three leaves of rinsed romaine lettuce, sprinkle generously with salt and sprinkle with garlic. Sprinkle some capers, whole. Top with fine parsley and then drizzle with oil then a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar.

My guest was so antsy to eat tomatoes tonight that he kept peeking over my shoulder. He only ate maybe two hours before hand and he ate almost the whole plate and then asked for seconds.

A variation could include some lime juice in place of the balsamic with just a pinch of lime zest. Or you could sprinkle some hard boiled egg yolks on top with a pinch of cayenne. You could even dash some a hard cheese such as parmesan on there if you wanted. Let me know how the variations taste because I think they sound awesome. Rock on.

This was just an appetizer for our Tony’s pizza. We had some pictures to share, but my dinner guest didn’t know how to save the pictures to his phone. Just now we went up to pick up my Community Supported Agriculture produce from East Farms here in Utah. I’ll have to tell you all about the loot that I got. Some good stuff including rhubarb and fresh celery. I’m quite excited to tell you about it. Oh how I wish I had pictures to share.