Salads – Page 8 – Rosemary and the Goat

Nutty Coleslaw

How many ways have you prepared slaw?

I’m not sure what the difference in a coleslaw recipe and slaw recipe is, but here’s my take on it. Coleslaw is usually shredded cabbage and maybe vegetables but always has some type of mayonnaise based dressing poured over it. Slaw on the other hand, to me, is something as simple as shredded cabbage with vinegar, salt and pepper and a tiny bit of oil that we put on top of our pulled pork bbq (You would never put a mayo type slaw on a pulled pork sandwich in my opinion.). The Asian slaw that a lot of people make with the browned almonds and Ramen noodles is a SLAW not coleslaw.

I’ve also made a lemony purple and green slaw that you keep the two colors separate and they are both dressed with the same oil based dressing. You can’t forget KFC coleslaw, of course, I love the stuff and I found a recipe years ago from Top Secret Recipes that to me is just as good as the Colonel’s recipe. (See bonus recipe below for KFC Coleslaw.)

One weekend my husband decided to do some very thick (1 1/2″ thick cut pork steaks) and as usual they were so tender you could cut with a fork. This COLESLAW was just the needed crunch to the meal. I substituted the almonds with toasted sunflower seeds AND pinenuts. The recipe from Southern Living called for bagged coleslaw mix which I used but I would have preferred to buy a red cabbage and green cabbage so the coleslaw would have had more purple cabbage mixed in.

July 31, 2013 By Sherry

Fruit Dishes/ Morning Foods/ Salads

Dragon Fruit Salad

Beautiful and unusual fruit.

How often do you go out of your comfort zone? I’m doing it more lately and on a recent trip to Central Market in Houston I was eyeing some of the fruits that were being sampled. I have to admit I had never tasted the Rambutan, Dragon fruit or Feijoa and I don’t think I have ever laid eyes on them either.

Typically my fruit salads start with bananas, strawberries, melon, kiwi and maybe apples. But today I’m going way out of my comfort zone and adding three new fruits to my repertoire of fruits.

When the man handing out samples of the rambutan, cut it open, my first thought was “hey, this looks like an eye ball” but it has a seed in the center. My first thought of the Feijoa when I opened it was that the center kind of looked like bone marrow. Now, those aren’t very appetizing descriptions of some new fruits I want you to try so I guess I should just be quite about what I thought the fruits looked like. When I opened the dragon fruit, I did think it was beautiful; white flesh full of hundreds of black tiny seeds. And, what can I say about a star fruit, it looks like a star. I once used the star fruit when I made a dragon sushi roll and I cut the star fruit in thin slices and put it in between the sushi pieces to look like scales, very pretty.

So, I’m taking rambutan, feijoa, dragon fruit, kiwi, strawberries, star fruit, a little lime and honey and coconut white balsamic vinegar and making a fruit salad with some new acquaintances.

Dragon fruit — Dragon fruit is a member of the cactus family and is football shaped and has a beautiful pink/red thick skin. There are three varieties, red, white and yellow flesh with greenish petals sticking out here and there and they have hundreds if not millions of black seeds and this fruit tends to be enhanced in flavor when mixed with other fruits. This fruit is very common in Asia. And here’s an interesting bit of information. Dragon Fruits help to protect the environment because they absorb carbon dioxide at nighttime, and then release oxygen to purify the air. Dragon Fruit contain no cholesterol, saturated fat or trans fat. Cross between a kiwi and watermelon.

June 11, 2013 By Sherry

Salads

Cranberry Kale Salad

Can be dressed and ready to go!

Kale seems to be all the rage today. Up until a couple of years ago, I had never eaten kale. Since then I have experimented with kale chips, kale and mashed cauliflower with kale (or potatoes) and just plain old cooked kale.

Our HEB market here sells a Kale salad that comes from the mother ship — Central Market. I’m still mad that the powers that be did not see fit to put a Central Market in The Woodlands about five years ago. Since then we have gotten a Trader Joe’s and a Hubble and Hudson which are great little stores but I miss my trips to Central Market to check out all the unusual things they have. (All I have to do is drive to Houston, but seems like a long grocery shopping trip now since we have so much right here.)

What amazes me about this salad is that it will last for several days after having been dressed at the store (I hope mine last that long). And it really does stay fresh for at least 3 days. We get together with friends occasionally and go out on their boat on Lake Conroe. We usually go out around 5:00, find a nice quite spot and float around on noodles and then have some food and drinks. Although the drinks are happening as we float also. When we went recently, the water was still a little too cold to float in so we just enjoyed the afternoon, friends, good food, wine and the beautiful sunset. This salad was perfect for the afternoon because I mixed it all up with the dressing and it was perfect by the time we were ready to eat.

So, how did I get this recipe. Well I didn’t. Since it is sold in the “foods to go section” of the grocery, they put a label on it saying exactly what is in the salad; I simply copied down the ingredients and set about coming up with an orange sesame vinaigrette recipe. I love the texture of the kale (chopped in small pieces) because it does not get soft or limp after sitting all “dressed” and waiting for you to eat it. The crystallized ginger is yummy in it and the dried cranberries add a lot to the sweet/tart taste of the salad. If you don’t like almonds, substitute walnuts or pecans. I did add bacon to the recipe; never a mistake.

May 22, 2013 By Sherry

Garnish/ Salads

Zucchini Bowl for Salad

Give any salad a new look.

Ok, I’m sitting around with nothing better to do than think of a way to use a leftover zucchini and then I happened upon a recipe; not really a recipe but more of a presentation idea I saw in Catering Source magazine. (Seems like there is a theme going here of me sitting around with nothing to do — after doing water aerobics a couple of times a week, gym a couple of times a week, craft circle working on doll houses, laundry, shopping etc. etc. I still do have a lot of time left over to ponder unimportant things like a vessel for a salad.)

I would really like a do-over with the last 20 years. Not that I would change one thing about raising my kids or any other thing I have done but I would like to have more time to travel and take cooking classes. What I always loved about catering was, of course cooking the food, but most of all I loved watching others enjoy what I prepared. Maybe I would be a food-truck owner. I love that idea and if I haven’t said it before, one weekend I want to go to Austin and check out at least 4-5 food trucks and sample their foods until I can’t hold another bite. So far, I have only been to the Flip Happy Crepe Truck and had a delicious Nutella and banana crepe which I may try to make sometime soon.

May 12, 2013 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Salads

Chicken Stuffed Sea Shells

I can smell the sea salt already.

We’re going to Florida this summer and I can’t wait to see what all I can find made with sea shells. Call me crazy but I would love to come back with some little sea shell salt and pepper shakers. I remember going to Florida with our grandparents when we were young and looking for a souvenir to take back to our parents. Back then there was everything under the sun made with shells. I think a set of shakers would look so cute on the table when serving seafood, right along with my Peaugeot lighthouse salt and pepper grinders.

I’ve been trying to come up with kids craft ideas for the beach vacation with all our family. After searching Pinterest and other sites I have come up with some really cute ideas for the little guys to make. I’m hoping when they need a rest from the sun, they can enjoy “craft time with Gran”. There are several crafts I want to make using shell — pasta shells that is.

So that got me thinking about this recipe I did years ago from Mable Hoffmann’s Finger Foods book. Back then I was reading every book I could about finger foods because that was the types of food I loved making for cocktail parties I catered.

I did this recipe once for a Houston Medical Alliance auxiliary party and I came up with this sauce to drizzle over the shells to kick them up a notch. (Oh no, that sounds like Emeril.) It’s delicious, so I’m giving you the sauce recipe too. You could easily serve this recipe hot but I enjoy it cold just as well and it makes an easy dish you can just pick up to eat at a party.

Thanks to my bunco group for being my guinea pig, again.

March 19, 2013 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Salads

Tomato Crab Amuse Bouche

Amuse your guest with this crab salad

When I made crab cakes recently I decided to save some crab and the next day I made this delicious crab salad. What I did with the salad was make a cute little amuse bouche. Last year on several occasions I bought crab and was so disappointed with my finished recipe I did not think I would ever buy it again. I’m glad I did and I just love this little stuffed tomato.

A while back I was looking at a catering magazine and saw a little stuffed tomato that someone made and it was stuffed with some type of risotto. There was no recipe so I had to come up with my own version of what to fill the tomato with. What I really like about the look of this appetizer is that the tomato is blanched and peeled. I used campari tomatoes, blanched for about 3-4 seconds and then plunged into ice water and then slipped the peeling off. The crab salad was a perfect light filling. This little blanched, peeled tomato would make the perfect vessel for any type of salad you may want to put in it, just put up something at the market for a filling and you have a gorgeous appetizer.

This may have to be a knife and fork appetizer but would make a good first course to any meal if made bigger. I added a grilled shrimp to the top of each. In fact, I cut the shrimp in half because it was too big for the tomato.

September 29, 2012 By Sherry

Salads

Chicken Salad Avocado Boats

I love anything stuffed into an avocado.

Over my 20 years of catering I have made so many types of chicken salad. One of my favorites (I lifted from a tea room and then made better by smoking my own chicken rather than using deli turkey) is a smoked chicken salad that has fresh spinach leaves chopped up and hard boiled eggs along with mayo and chicken that I smoked on the smoker. You would not believe what difference the chicken makes in this salad when it is smoked.

I have done chicken salads with grapes, oranges, some have an Asian flair (which are some of my favorites). Some of my recipes have melted butter and curry added to the dressings, and some even have fried chicken skin as a garnish. I really need to pick out some of my favorites and post them.

It’s nice to have some left over chicken from dinner that you can turn into a whole NEW meal the next day. We are not huge leftover fans in this house. If I freeze leftovers then I can pull out later for a meal; but to eat the same thing later in the week has never gone over that well with us.

What makes the chicken in this recipe so special is that one night my husband cooked a chicken on our rotisserie grill. He picked some fresh herbs out of our herb garden and used some dried ones also. He stuffed them inside the chicken and oiled and rubbed some of the herbs along with a little sugar on the outside and produced a crispy skinned chicken with a tiny bit of sweetness to go along with all the other seasonings. He is turning out to be quite a good cook. My dad would be so proud of his grilling techniques. They use to always compare notes when it came to cooking things on the grill.

September 7, 2012 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish/ Vegetables

Potato and Green Bean Salad

No mayonnaise in this potato salad.

What would a picnic be without some type of potato salad. It’s a given we will probably have some ants, flies, and a few mosquitoes; and I’m just as sure that there will be someone bringing potato salad. I mean, who doesn’t like the creamy stuff and this would would be great for a Labor Day cookout.

I’m sure everyone has had their favorite potato salad recipe that they have prepared for years. Seems like you never go to a backyard bbq that there does appear at least 2 varieties of potato salad and most of which will probably have mayonnaise as one of the main ingredients.

I love this recipe because it actually has a good healthy green vegetable in it — green beans; and along with a few other ingredients this is a very light tasting cousin of the old traditional mayonnaise/mustard based potato dish.

The next time I make this dish I plan on baking some potatoes scooping out the pulp and then filling the shell with this potato salad. I think it will look so cool that the potato salad has it’s own little container.

August 20, 2012 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Salads

Shrimp Louie Salad

Another summer salad.

(Knee update: I really thought I would be back to cooking up a storm by now but this rehab on the new knee is taking longer than I though and I’m so glad that I cooked like a mad scientist before surgery so I would have some new things to post.)

On any trip to Chicago I’m always going to come back with ideas for a new recipe or two to try.

We recently returned from seeing our son and his family. Piece Brewery & Pizzeria will always be on our list of places to go and we did eat there the first night. Their large pizzas is the size of a full sheet pan if you know what that is and we did our best trying to finish it off. We had dinner one night at Leopold where we had some delicious fried veal sweetbreads served with honey cornbread and mustard gravy, a rabbit and duck rillette with Kriek Jelly (making this soon), and the most wonderful chocolate pave that I will also attempt to make the next time I need a great little dessert.

For brunch on Sunday, we went to Mindy’s Hot Chocolate and as always I’m looking around the menu for something other than eggs. There were a lot of different things on the menu like lamb and scalloped potato bake, brioche French toasts with rhubarb and lime curd whipped cream, and the warm doughnut strips coated with cinnamon sugar and house made raspberry preserves were fantastic. Check out their menu for some ideas of your own. Mindy recently won the James beard award for 2012.

I settled on the Shrimp Louie Salad with baby head lettuce, grilled shrimp, avocado, crumbled farm egg, chopped bacon and Louie dressing. I’ve decided to add some baby cucumbers and some sweet grape tomatoes to the mix. I shredded my head lettuce along with a little shredded romaine for additional contrast of color. All I can say is it turned out scrumptious and why had I never heard of a Shrimp Louis Salad.

July 26, 2012 By Sherry

Salads

Red and Green Cabbage Salad with Fennel

Spring like salad that will take you through the summer months.

(France update: Back from France on 4/1. Hope to put together some of my food pictures and post soon.)

Sometimes it only takes a glimpse of a recipe or picture of a recipe to get me thinking of how I can change the recipe and make it more like something my family would enjoy.

When it comes to change, I’m content with pretty much what I have and I don’t really move things around a lot in my house. I get them the way I like them and comfortable for me and my husband and I’m perfectly satisfied. That’s not the way I am with food though. I’m not a meatloaf (I love meatloaf) on Monday, pot roast on Sunday type of person; I love making all kinds of food whether it is good for me or not.

Since starting the blog almost 3 years ago, I have loved trying to come up with new recipes. My freezers are full of meat/fish/poultry, so I can pretty much grab anything out in the morning, thaw, and by dinner have something yummy on the table. Most of the time that is. Occasionally I do have flops but even then I’m thinking how I could make that dish better the next time.

I tweaked this recipe from one I saw in Food and Wine magazine’s March issue. I loved the colors and textures of the recipe but thought I would like to have some frilly lettuces thrown in and definitely changing the nuts since I have no idea where to find hemp seeds.

April 5, 2012 By Sherry

Salads

Salad Lyonnaise

Simply wonderful and oh so French.

(Paris update: Bon Jour –been here six days and loving every minute. Had my second chocolate croissant this morning. Breads fantastic. Weather perfect. Saw Eiffel Tower last night. Our dinner at Verjus tonight 9:30. Everyone very nice.) (UPDATE– I can’t believe we did not see this salad on bistro menus in Paris or Provence maybe it is only in the Lyon area of France — whatever the reason it wasn’t on the menus, it should have been.)

I could hardly wait to “eat our way across France” so the first time I saw this salad on a menu, I had to order it. See picture of the French version at bottom of this post. (If I figured out how to upload a picture from my new iPad that is, if not, then I will

What a perfect salad to say hello to Spring and to France. This is a very popular salad on French bistro menus. Beautiful lettuce like frisee make this such an attractive salad on the plate. This is a simple salad with ingredients you probably already have in your refrigerator. Don’t be intimidated by the poaching of the egg; you’re just boiling them without the shell. They can be done in advance, shocked in ice water to stop the cooking and rewarmed in simmering water when ready to put your salad together

This salad typically is made with frisée, because of the unique texture and slight bitterness but if you can’t find it do a spring salad mix. Escarole, dandelion and arugula would work in this salad also. The frisee along with crisp bacon lardons, garlic croutons, a mustard vinaigrette made with some of the warm bacon fat topped with the beautifully poached egg makes this an amazing salad.

I made this salad for a French dinner we did before leaving for France.

March 20, 2012 By Sherry

Salads

Shaved Asparagus Salad

Spring is here and asparagus is on sale!

Spring is here and we are headed to Paris in a couple of days. Ahhh, Paris in the Spring time. Ohhh, it is still going to be in the 50’s during the day and maybe some rain but that will not dampen our spirits. Maybe on a rainy day we will just have to duck into a little cafe and spend a little time people watching while enjoying a glass of wine (or two) and some wonderful cheese.

Seems like just yesterday we were getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. How time flies. What I love about Spring this year is that we are going to be in France with friends. We are spending a week in Paris (staying a couple of blocks from the Louve) and then in Provence (Elygaliers) area for a second week. We are signed up for a cooking class while in Provence (Arles), which I know will be a blast and I wouldn’t be surprised if we cooked some recipe using asparagus and we have a couple of “must get reservations for” restaurants while in Provence.

Another thing I love about this Spring is that we are getting ready to have our third grandson; and hopefully he won’t arrive until we get back from our trip and then in June we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our fourth grandson. The little Michie boys will definitely carry on the family name.

I know I will pick up at least one new asparagus dish while in France but until then, I hope you will try this recipe. Continue Reading…

March 12, 2012 By Sherry

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