simple sides: warm cauliflower salad & green salad with tarragon dressing

On Monday night our bowling league game was cancelled since the bowling alley was being used as a film set. Oh well, instead of an brisk bike ride to the lanes and all the resulting good times, I made due with cooking up a trout. Yup, a freakin' whole fish...with gills, fins, eyeballs, creepy looking fish face and everything! Cornelius' dad had fished the thing a while ago and it sat in the freezer for a bit before I worked up the courage to defrost it. Luckily, it was gutted and cleaned but I still had to contend with a fish and a face...but it was easier than I thought it would be. After rinsing it, I seasoned the thing with kosher salt, pepper and parsley and pan fried it in a little olive oil. I also made a caper-lemon-butter sauce (which is exactly as it sounds) to serve along with it and despite the evil look in that trout's eyeballs, it was a tasty dinner.


Alongside, I served up my favorite braised cabbage recipe from Orangette. It's a foolproof, delicious recipe that I've made many times and so perfect for these cool weather days. I also whipped up a plain green salad which looked like Christmas because of all the green and red! So pretty and tangy from the dressing made with bright green tarragon mustard. If you don't have tarragon mustard, use dijon and some finely chopped herbs. Yum! And if that's not enough vegetables, I had to use up some sad looking cauliflower found at the back of my fridge. I revived it with a recipe culled from epicurious and tampered with it, using what I had on hand. I'm sure it would have been great with anchovies and fresh parsley, but the resulting dish was pretty delicious as is.


green salad with tarragon dressing
1 head of romaine lettuce (or your favorite greens)
1 bunch of red radishes, sliced thin
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
1 T cider vinegar
1 T tarragon mustard
salt & pepper to taste

1. Tear up, rinse and dry your greens. Add them to your salad bowl and scatter the radishes on top.

2. Mix up your dressing and taste, adding a little bit more of what you feel may be necessary. Pour over salad and toss.

warm cauliflower salad
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 t kosher salt
1 T drained bottled capers
2 T fresh lemon juice
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

1. Steam cauliflower and set aside when it becomes crisp-tender, about 4-5 minutes.

2. Mix up dressing, mashing capers slightly with a fork. Pour over cauliflower, toss, and serve hot or cool.

portland, here we come!

My stomach is in a flurry of nervous excitement. I always get that way when I'm about to take flight, so to speak. This holiday long weekend I'm heading to my most favorite city ever, Portland, OR with a pitstop for sleep & breakfast in Seattle, WA. I love roadtrips!! I'm excited because we'll be visiting with my very best friend, Kyla & her sweet husband Sergio for some much needed belly-laughing, beer-drinking, game-playing, thrift-shopping and of course, eating. Fun times definitely ahead.

Road trips to the US of A usually involve foods not meant for daily (or yearly) consumption. Things like "Chicken Fried Steak" or "Biscuits N' Gravy" don't even exist on Canadian breakfast menus, so as tourists, we of course must oblige in the artery-clogging good times. All of this "local colour" requires a bit of preparation before-hand. Lots of greens and tofu and fresh vegetables are more than needed, so I've fashioned myself a lovely salad that lends itself to variation. Why have a meal that consists of a bit of protein, some vegetables on the side and a bit of salad when you can combine everything into one bowl as the real deal? Easy! This salad is great because it tastes like springtime even in the dead of winter and there's some nice contrasting textures because some of the vegetables are raw with bite and some others are steamed and yield nicely to the tooth. Perfection!

Like I said, this recipe works wonders with most vegetables. Play with what you've got on hand and personalize it with what you like best. I think some cubes of feta cheese or some avocado or steamed broccoli would taste great here. Enjoy!

easy vegetable salad
organic mixed greens
large handful of fresh dill
1 lb green beans, cut into bite sized pieces
1 small head of cauliflower, cut into bite sized florets
1 can of chickpeas, drained
1 large handful of toasted pumpkin seeds
parmesan, grated

dressing:
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 t lemon rind
1 t dijon mustard
olive oil
water
salt & pepper

1. Steam the green beans, until bright green and still crisp. Plunge into an ice bath until the cooking process has stopped and the beans are cool. Repeat process with the cauliflower.

2. In a large salad bowl, add the greens, dill, chickpeas and the cooled cauliflower and green beans. Toss until everything is well distributed.

3. Make dressing. In a measuring cup, add the lemon rind and lemon juice and add the mustard. Mix. Add an equal quantity of olive oil plus a bit (I'm not the most scientific here, but let your taste guide you) and add about 1 T or more of water. Add salt & pepper. Stir until everything is combined and slightly thickened.

4. Pour dressing over salad and toss to combine. Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and the pumpkin seeds.

soup conversion.

I've already mentioned a few times that Cornelius just isn't a fan of soup. As a bonefide soup aficionado, I find his dislike to be nothing more than just plain ignorance. True! I make soups at least once a week and I try to see if I can persuade him to understand the true glory that lies within mixing broth with beans or vegetables or bits of meat. Sometimes it works in the case of matzoh ball or asian soups, but most of the time it doesn't.

This weekend, I played it a bit more adventurous: I made two soups! The first soup I made on Friday night was from my torn and tattered Moosewood Cookbook. The cauliflower - cheese soup was a total success. Normally, I don't add milk or cream to soups which probably stems back to my poor record-store-clerk-working-days and milk or cream was a luxury I was content to live without. This recipe called for milk and I was happy enough to add it. It also called for buttermilk and I didn't have any, so I just left it out. Was it the addition of dairy that made Cornelius want seconds? I'm not sure, but this soup was definitely tasty and I will be making it again.

After my first soup was a success, I decided tonight to see if I could be two for two in soup standings. I had been thinking about making a tortilla soup after seeing 2 very different versions on zen foodism. As it turned out, I had most of the ingredients to make Beth's version, so that is precisely what I did. Cornelius isn't much a fan of tomato-based soups, but he LOVES corn tortillas and I figured this soup would have a strong corn taste to counterbalance the tomato flavour. It worked. He loved the soup (me too!) and he went back for seconds.

I think my soup conversion weekend was a success. Soups on!

cauliflower - cheese soup
(adapted from the Moosewood cookbook)
2 c cauliflower, broken into flowers
2 c potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 t salt
4 c water or stock

1. Place the above into a pot and bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer (no lid needed) until vegetables are very tender (30 minutes). Puree with a hand blender or transfer to a blender and puree until smooth.

2. Reheat the soup gently and add the following:
1 1/2 c grated cheddar
3/4 c milk
1/2 t dill weed, dried
1/2 t dry mustard
black pepper

This soup makes about 4 large servings. We ate this with some warmed fluffy pita bread and some bitter greens. A couple glasses of a nice red wine helped things along nicely.