Summer Salad

THE BITS

I was looking for something light, crunchy, and zippy to go with the crab cakes (recipe coming soon - it's worth the wait) I was making. Low and behold I had most of these ingredients in the fridge. There is quite a bit of dicing involved with this, but that makes me very happy. I love to cut/chop/dice/etc. It's kind of like therapy in a way.

I call this Summer Salad because the lightness reminds me of a refreshing side dish to a summer meal. Why was the summer theme so important? Because it was my first Valentine's Day with The Now Former Male and I wanted to not only impress him, but also to warm us up by reminding us of summer. Sure enough, an ice storm hit the night before and we woke up to an icy V-Day. The entire meal (Summer Salad, a warm potato salad, and crab cakes) ended up being the perfect meal.

As it turns out, I use this salad a lot. It's very light, simple, and incredibly versatile.

THE NIBBLES

(click to enlarge)
Ingredients:
1 red bell pepper
1/2 red onion
1/2 English cucumber
4 ears of corn (can be substituted: see note below)
1 can black beans (recommended: Goya)
1 bunch fresh flat leaf parsley
Olive Oil
Red Wine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper

Boil four ears of corn until cooked through. Remove from heat, rinse under icy cold water to cool (or plunge into an ice bath). When cool to the touch, cut the corn off the cob and set aside. If you prefer not to use this method or corn is out of season, thaw out 1 1/4 cups frozen whole kernel corn. Fresh has a slightly different taste, but thawed frozen is still very good. (Canned is also an option but make sure it's just in water and there's no sodium added. Drain and rinse off canned corn if you use that.)

Clean, slice into strips, and then dice the red pepper, cucumber, and red onion and throw everything into a large bowl. This should ultimately work out to roughly a cup each of the pepper and cuc, 1/2 cup of onion. Drain and rinse the black beans and add to the diced veggies. Add the fresh cut or thawed out corn.

Now add a few tablespoons of olive oil - just enough to barely coat everything. Do the same with the red wine vinegar. Mix with a spoon until it's oh so pretty! Now taste it. You should be able to taste the vinegar right away, but you don't want it overpowering. I'm a fan of vinegar though so I'll add a little more than most people probably would. Sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt and 5 or 6 grinds of black pepper. Just enough to bring out the flavors of all the ingredients.

Now it's parsley time!

The parsley is added after the wet ingredients for two reasons. One: so that it does not influence the taste of the vinegar as you're adding that to the veggies. And Two: so it will stick to the veggies rather than wash off and sink to the bottom as you add to oil and vinegar.

Pull the leaves off the parsley bunch and chop fine. You don't want to pulverize it, but you don't want huge leaves either. You want something in the middle. You'll need about a half a cup so chop chop chop! Add the parsley to the party and stir to combine. Put it in the fridge a few hours before serving or over night. Unlike Cucumber Salad, this does not wilt very quickly and keeps a bit longer.

Serve as a side dish, relish, or a salad topper.

Cucumber Salad

THE BITS

After a horrific break up from my first love, I spent a year living with my grandparents. My grandma cooked light during the week, went out with grandpa on Saturday nights (most of the time), and Sunday was the meal she put her elbows into. During the summer, lighter fare was always preferred. My grandma loved (and I mean LOVED) fresh vegetables and liked them prepared very simply. Often times you'd find her chomping away at a tomato (with a salt shaker nearby) just like she was eating an apple.

One of her favorite and easy to make dishes was cucumber salad. Naturally she preferred it with tomatoes but since I loathes tomatoes raw and I was her most favoritest granddaughter EVER, she would alter certain recipes when I was there. Grandma's Tovah-friendly version was made with regular cucumbers, white onion, and tomatoes.

I've changed it a bit to cater to my own personal preferences by substituting the white onion for red, and the tomatoes have been replaced with celery. My version of cucumber salad is a light, tangy, refreshing salad with a bit of a bite to it.

THE NIBBLES


Ingredients:
1 large or two smallish English cucumber(s)
1 small red onion
4-6 stalks of celery
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1-2 tsp chili oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup rice or rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp black or white sesame seeds toasted (black make for more dramatic visual effect, but toasting white ones adds a bit off nutty deliciousness)
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper

I love to slice, dice, cut, chop, and whatever else I can do with a knife when it comes to food, but a mandolin set to the thin setting (as long as it's 1/4 inch or thinner) will make super fast work of this dish.

Slice the cucumbers in half length wise and then cut each half into 1/4 half moon shapes. Slice the celery into the same thickness. I like a ratio of 2:2:1 (cuc:celery:onion) so depending on your cucumber, you'll use anywhere from 4-6 stalks of celery. Take the red onion and cut it into quarters before slicing it into thin strips. You don't want a dice with this nor do you want super thick or long slices. They should end up about the same length as your little half moon cucumbers.

If you are using white sesame seeds, now is the time to toast them. Pour your seeds into a small pan over medium high heat. Gently shimmy and shake the pan over the heat to keep the seeds moving. Give them a toss or two (or stir if you can't toss/flip a pan) and let them cook until you are just starting to smell the nutty sesame odor waft from the pan. They will be slightly golden. Pull them off the heat and immediately pour then onto a plate to allow them to cool.

Throw all of the veggies in a big bowl and douse with vinegar, chili oil, kosher salt and pepper. I'm not big on exact measurements. I usually start with a few sprinkles of everything and just keep adding until I have just enough on the veggies to taste it on first bite. I'm big on the whole taste as you go method. The vinegar and chili oil WILL soak into these super porous water veggies so don't over do it! Sprinkle the sugar and sesame seeds over everything and toss to combine.

Chill in the fridge for 1-3 hours. This will get everything nice and cold as well as allow the vinegar and oil to soak into the veggies.

The veggies will stay crisp for about 2 days but then they'll start to get wilty and soft so eat up!

Extreme close up: hello little sesame seeds, you look delicious!