Greek Salad with Pickled Eggplant, Sundried Tomatoes and Feta

The Greek Salad has made its way onto menus across the nation, but unfortunately it's blandness has come to match its ubiquity.  A pile of wilting greens swim in overly sour red wine vinaigrette, topped with awkwardly large chunks of cucumber, a tiny sprinkling of feta and a few sad wedges of grainy tomato to garnish the plate.  I found myself reminded of these atrocities at a recent dinner in Denver.  What exactly is Greek about this salad I wondered?  Greek food is bursting with the fruity aromas of good olive oil, the assertiveness of garlic, the freshness of lemon and the sweet brightness of mint.  My soggy diner salad could boast none of these qualities, and thus I set out to correct the injustice- to make a Greek Salad truer to it's origins.

Fresh mixed greens are dressed with garlic, mint and lemon vinaigrette, then topped with diced red onion, sun-dried tomatoes, pickled eggplant and a generous handful of fresh sheep feta. 

The result was a grand success, and we ate this exact salad for three nights in a row, topping it with slow-baked medium-rare salmon the last night.  Spectacular!
  
If you can find pickled eggplant commercially, I highly recommend that you try it.  Ours was given to us by friends who make it with a secret family recipe.  Naturally, secrecy makes it taste even better.  Thank you Steve and Christina!  Either way, bite into succulent strands of perfectly salted eggplant as lemony aromatic olive oil bursts onto your tongue. 

Don't mind the juicy bits of garlic and fruity dribbles of olive oil that will inevitably run down your chin while you eat this salad.  It's good for your skin!

Zippy Greek Dressing (makes 1 1/2  cup):

Replacing some of the traditional red wine vinegar with lemon juice reduces the harshness and ups the freshness of this delicious dressing.

2 medium garlic cloves
2 T red wine vinegar
Juice + zest of 1 lemon
1 c first-cold-press Mediterranean olive oil (I used Turkish...don't tell the Greeks!)
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. fresh Greek oregano (or 1/2 t. dried)
1 T. fresh mint (or 1 t. dried)

1.  Mince the garlic, place in small bowl or cup, add remaining ingredients and blend with an immersion blender.  If you don't have an immersion blender, finely mince the garlic, herbs and lemon zest.  Place in a small bowl with remaining ingredients except the oil.  Whisk to combine, then slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking constantly. 
 
Salad Assembly:
Toss mixed greens generously in dressing, top with any manner of fresh Mediterranean ingredients.  Chopped red onions and fresh or sun-dried tomatoes are a must.  The rest is up to you. 

Apple and Almond Butter Breakfast Sandwich

Ah, lazy days when breakfast is a many hour affair, enjoyed from my sweater wrapped cocoon on the porch, steaming tea in hand.  For me, this simple breakfast sandwich is the perfect thing to linger over.

 

To make:  Place a pan over medium heat.  Thinly slice some honey oat bread.  Slather both inside faces of sandwich with Justin's classic almond butter, top with sliced Pink Lady apples and sprinkle with ceylon cinnamon.  Spread butter on outside sandwich faces and toast until golden brown.  Enjoy with tea for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

Carmalized Onion, Saffron Dover Sole with Spinach Goat Cheese Fritters

Flipping through the latest issue of Saveur the other day, I saw a recipe for fresh anchovies, nestled between layers of sweet caramelized onions and baked.  Here in Boulder, fresh anchovies are hard to come by, but I was eager to try the technique nonetheless.  After discussing the matter with my local market's fish guy, I chose Dover Sole, the smallest wild fresh fish available.  It's mild flavor would be perfect to soak up all the goodness during it's saffron, sweet onion burial.

On a SIDE note (pun intended), Alexander and I were left with 5 pounds of spinach after a recent event, and despite our heroic consumption of the stuff, the bag has barely dwindled.  So, as with every meal of the last week or so, this dish will be accompanied by... SPINACH! 

The finished plate; succulent white fish sits atop a generous pile of sweet saffron onions accompanied by crisp, tender spinach goat cheese fritters.  

The method:

1.  Infuse a pinch of saffron in 1/4 cup hot water. 
2.  Place a roomy pan on medium low heat with a generous spash of good olive oil.  Slice one large (or two medium) yellow onions into thin strips.  Toss them in the pan and cook, slowly, for about 35-40 minutes until they are sweet, soft and lightly golden. 
3.  Meanwhile, wilt about 8 cups packed baby spinach.  I do this by placing the freshly washed, moist spinach into a covered pan on low heat.  Stir occasionally to prevent the bottom from sticking.  Let cool slightly, chop and place in a medium bowl.  Add 4 oz. goat cheese, a pinch of salt, and freshly ground black pepper.  Mix together and set aside.
4. Preheat the oven to 350.  When the onions are caramelized, add three cloves chopped garlic and a generous handful of quartered cherry tomatoes.  Cook until the tomatoes break down and release their juices, 3-4 minutes.  Deglaze the pan with saffron infusion, scraping up all the flavorful browned bits at the bottom of the pan.  Salt to taste.
5.  In a pie plate or other similarly sized baking vessel, place about half of the onion mixture.  Lay 4 small sole fillets over the onion, sprinkle with salt, then top with the rest of the onion.  Bake for about 25 minutes.  Pull back the onions carefully when checking the fish; you don't want to accidentally rake open your lovely fillets.  You don't have to be too concerned with over-baking here- the onions keep the fish very moist. 
 

6.  When the fish is almost done, fire up a skillet over medium high heat.  Grease with cooking oil or butter.  Form the spinach mixture into 3" patties, dredge both sides in flour (I used bob's red mill gluten free; rice flour or any other will work here), and cook until golden brown, about 4 minutes per side.  You should get about 8 patties.    
7.  Plate it up!  I like to spoon some of the saffron broth over the fish after it's on the plate, then sprinkle the whole dish with a bit of black sea salt.

This recipe feeds two people as a main plate or 4 people as a tapas-style dish.

Whiskey Apple Cake

A few weeks back, some friends and I planned a get-together in which we would open a bottle of nice whiskey and play apples-to-apples, arguably the best game on earth.  In my planner I wrote: Wednesday Night, Whiskey and Apples.  Thus began the slow process of self-subliminal messaging that culminated in this amazing cake:   

The cake is dense and chewy, with defiant apple flavor and the subtle undertones of rye whiskey.  Oat flour highlight its overall celtic quality. 

I modified a recipe for Sticky Spiked Double-Apple Cake in my favorite dessert cookbook, In the Sweet Kitchen, by Regan Daley. 

Spiced Whiskey Apple Cake

1.  In a small bowl, soak 1 cup raisins in 1/3 cup whiskey for 45 minutes.  Add 1 cup dried apples slices and let soak another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Do not drain.

2.  Preheat oven to 325.  Butter an 11" springform pan, or a 9x13 pan.  Line the bottom with parchment and butter the paper.

3.  Sift together 1 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, 1 cup whole grain oat flour, 1 1/2 t. baking soda, pinch of salt, 1 t. cinnamon, 1/2 t. nutmeg, and a pinch of cloves.

4.  In another bowl, whisk 2 eggs with 1 cup dark, flavorful honey until well combined.  Add 1/2 cup olive oil mixed with 1/2 cup melted coconut butter (or 1 cup melted and cooled butter).  Blend well.  Fold in dry ingredients in two additions, mixing just enough to moisten most of the flour.  Add the dried fruit and whiskey mixture, along with 3/4 cup toasted chopped pecans and 2 diced medium tart apples.  Fold in with gentle strokes.  The ratio of fruit to batter is high.  Don't be alarmed.

5.  Scrape the batter into prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes to 55 minutes, or until cake begins to pull away from edges of the pan.  Cool slightly, remove from pan and cool completely.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Theoretically this cake should keep well.  We never found out...

Tartine de Sardine

Getting home from work the other day, ravenous yet uninspired, I accidentally discovered something utterly delicious.  It was another pre-shopping day.  I hopefully cracked open the refrigerator door to find the shelves empty besides a half bunch of wilting parsley.  Luckily, however, I had bread.  Good bread.  The kind you bite into and it bites back.  And, lost in the back of the ever faithful cupboard: wild sardines from Portugal, steeped in cayenne-infused olive oil.  The makings of a fine lunch, I decided smugly, and set to work.

Preheat Broiler.  Cut bread into thick slices.  Drizzle with olive oil from sardine can.  Broil until golden brown and sizzling, about 3 minutes.  Meanwhile, toss a salad in mustard vinaigrette.  Chop some parsley.  When the bread is perfectly toasted, place it on a crisp white plate next to the salad.  Top with sardines, parsley, and a healthy squeeze of lemon.  Sink your teeth in, relishing the feel of silky omega-3s dripping down your chin...