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salads

Two Favorite Spring Salads: Marinated Tomato Salad With Panko Crusted Haloumi & Tomato Salad With Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette

Herbs

It’s full on Spring here in the South and I am absolutely smitten with it. Unlike in Charleston where we seem to get barely 10 days of this wonderful season, Alabama is downright gorgeous this time of year. Lush landscapes, fields upon fields of dogwoods and wild flowers. And lots and lots of herbs…

 

Tomatoes

And the produce… As soon as the farmers market started again, there has been a fridge full of gorgeous and tasty tomatoes, herbs, micro greens, salads, radishes, tender peas, wild garlic, chive flowers and more tomatoes. Be prepared for an onslaught of tomato recipes.

Chive Flowers

We simply can’t get enough. There has been much cooking and little blogging. Thing is, we have been puppy training… After a few weeks without another pup in the house, another companion to our other dog, we drove to the shelter and rescued a little pup in need of a home. What we were told was a labrador and German shepherd mix turned out to be a German Shepherd and Great Dane mix. Please meet Tiggy. She is now 4 months old and we love her to pieces. And yes, we might need a bigger house! No shoes have been chewed up yet. She’s after tags and pretending her water bowl is a kiddie pool (she goes to doggie daycare twice a week and they have one there…which explains it all!). She and Bailey get along famously.

 

Halloumi salad

And she loves going to the market with us, getting lots of petting and meeting up the other dogs in the neighborhood. We’ve been busy playing, cooking and enjoying this new energy in the house.

 

Chimichurri

The days have progressively getting longer and warmer. Days at work have become fuller and busier with lots of great new shoots and projects. Our evenings of slow cooking, braising have been replace with lots of grilling and tons of cold soups and salads. We are in full "Operation Tomatoes". Lots of tomato salads, grilled tomatoes, gazpachos, etc…

 

Wild Garlic

Here are two of the salads I made recently and are now in rotation on the weekends when we can have more time to share them with friends with a cold glass of Prosecco and lots of puppies running in the back yard.

 

Micro greens

The first one was a chimichurri marinated salad with panko crusted haloumi. Lots and lots of parsley, extra virgin olive oil, chive flowers and robust heirloom tomatoes. The other one a simple salad of fresh tomato with a kicking smoked paprika vinaigrette. Add a bit of grilled protein (shrimp, chicken, red meat) and you have a complete dinner bursting with the flavors of spring.

 

Tomato Salad With Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette

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A Tamarind Beef & Kohlrabi Salad and A Brand New Year!

Thai Beef Salad

A new year! Wishing you a great 2014. May it be filled with all the things you work, wish, hope for! May it be filled with creative energy, engaging people and wonderful moment! It’s been a whirlwind of a year for us. A new position, a move, living apart for most of the year. Seeing friends get married, others have babies. There has been some really tough times too, which I may come back and share with you although I am not quite ready for that yet. You have been there all along, reading and sharing with me and it has made 2013 very dear to me.

 

Shallots

It’s been a perfect mix of busy and quiet around here. My parents arrived the week before Christmas and are staying a couple more weeks. In the middle of work and play, we have had a wonderful time with friends and family, taking short and longer road trips, dogs in tow. We’ve enjoyed long simmered meals and new restaurants, quiet reading time and effervescent card games. A nice cozying time. For sure.

Thai Beef Salad

When my parents come visit, I like to spoil them a bit and won’t let them do too much around the house. It gives them time to really enjoy each other’s company, take walks, make plans, etc… I love cooking dinner for them and making them dishes I know they don’t usually try at home. I cook from so many different cuisines that I always enjoy making them discover something new. A typical week ranges from French, to American, Mexican, Asian, Italian, Moroccan. It keeps me immensely happy in the kitchen. 

One of the cuisines I find myself cooking and craving a lot is Vietnamese. Thai is definitely a really close seconds. Can’t explain why. It comes in waves. We could have an entire month of Vietnamese and Thai dishes and dive right away in another of Italian and French or Northern African. I love spices and herbs. I love the play that each cuisines does with them, so different in taste and flavor, and yet intrinsically similar blending the sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Umami. To our palates and in our plates.

 

In Love With...

One of the highlights of December for me was this Tamarind Beef & Kohlrabi Salad from Luke N’Guyen’s "My Vietnam". This books is both a delight for the eyes as it is to the taste buds. This dish is great post heavy holiday party meals with the refreshing crunch of beets, carrots, kohlrabi and the deep flavors of mint and fresh coriander. It’s hard to stop at one serving, let’s just put it this way. 

Hope you enjoy it too! Best served with a cold refreshing beer I might add…

Thai Beef Salad

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