Love and Olive Oil

Corn and Edamame Salad with Miso Tofu

Salads can get old, fast. Sure you can add croutons, and various nuts and fruits and vegetables… mix up the dressing on occasion, but it’s usually still just fancy lettuce.

But not this salad.

What a fresh, wonderful change of pace. So quick, so easy, and surprisingly refreshing. Colorful, healthy, and did I mention quick?

No recipe required for the tofu, really, just a quick marinate with some miso, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and chili flakes.

No lettuce required.

Corn and Edamame Salad

Makes 2-4 servings. Recipe from Epicurious.
Ingredients
2 ears fresh corn, unhusked, or 1 1/4 cups cooked corn kernels
1/2 cup shelled edamame
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup small-diced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon light mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped or grated ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
To grill:
Soak fresh corn in cold water about 30 minutes. Heat grill on high. Grill corn in husk, 10 to 15 minutes, turning once. Let cool. Remove husks. When cool enough to handle, cut corn from cob into a medium bowl and let cool.

To boil:
Remove husks and silk from corn. Carefully cut kernels off of cob. Boil kernels in salted water for 3 minutes or until tender. Drain and transfer to a medium bowl.

Combine corn with remaining ingredients. Cover and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Filed Under: Dairy-free, Healthy, Quick, Salads, Sides, Vegetarian
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The Baguette Incident.

Story time!

So we’ve got the No-Knead Bread down to an art. And we were feeling pretty good about our bread-baking abilities (mistake #1). Hey, Taylor, why not try to make baguettes? (mistake #2).

The dough was way too wet (mistake #3) and the dough flattened out into long tubular blobs rather than nice thick ropes. That’s ok, we said, we’ll still have baguettes… they’ll just be mishapen. So we preheated the oven…

And that’s when the disaster happened.

You see, the recipe calls for steam. Steam makes the outer layer of the bread nice and crispy. Easy enough, right? Well, we don’t have a metal broiler pan like the recipe mentioned. So I popped a glass casserole dish into the oven with the baking sheet to preheat (mistake #4). Didn’t think that maybe a hot glass pan + not so hot water would equal such a mess…

But it did. That pan practically exploded the second I poured in the water. I screamed, and probably said a few words I shouldn’t have… but hey, you would do if a glass pan blew up in your oven.

So we put on some shoes, let the oven cool down, and then picked out the glass pieces one by one. Re-heated the oven (forgoing any mention of steam-anything in the recipe), and baked our even-flatter-by-that-time baguettes.

Decent bread. Definitely not a baguette in taste, texture, or appearance, but it was edible.

And I will never pour water into a hot glass pan again.

The end.

Filed Under: Bad Food, Bread, Ramblings
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Steak with Parmesan Butter and Balsamic Glaze

It should be obvious we don’t cook steak often. Or beef of any kind for that matter. However, every once in a great while I’ll stumble upon an irresistible sounding recipe, and if it seems like we’ve got a cheap week or a short list ahead of us, we might just splurge. Which is exactly what we did here.

The ‘dressing’ is very similar to a Burgundy steak salad we’ve made in the past, except that one added in some red wine. Which might be a good idea if you want more than this recipe produces. After the steak had rested, we also added back the juices that had gathered in the foil to the sauce. No point in letting all that flavor go down the drain…

Steak with Parmesan Butter and Balsamic Glaze

Makes 2 servings. Recipe from Bon Appetit.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese plus Parmesan cheese shavings
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 12-ounce rib-eye steak
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
1/2 teaspoon (packed) dark brown sugar
4 cups (lightly packed) arugula or mixed greens
2 large lemon wedges

Directions
Mix grated cheese and butter in small bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper; set aside. Sprinkle steak generously with salt and pepper. Heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add steak; cook to desired doneness, about 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to plate. Add vinegar, shallots, and sugar to skillet; boil until reduced to glaze, stirring constantly, about 1 minute. Divide arugula and Parmesan shavings between 2 plates. Squeeze lemon over. Slice steak; place atop arugula. Top steak with Parmesan butter. Drizzle lightly with glaze.

Filed Under: Meat, Quick, Salads
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Indonesian-style Grilled Eggplant with Spicy Peanut Sauce

We had a bit of an eggplant fiasco a few weeks ago. Tried a new recipe that seemed promising, and it was the first time (ever?) that we’ve cooked something so bad that neither of us could eat it. Usually, when something isn’t great it’s just that, not great. But still edible at least. This, however, was not edible.

So the following week we decided that we needed some eggplant redemption. We needed to show that eggplant could be delicious (which we know it can) so we wouldn’t have that last bad taste to remember it by. And then we found this recipe.

While I do have to say that Taylor makes the best peanut sauce this side of Thailand, this sauce is a tough contender. I think it’s the fresh ground peanuts – instead of peanut butter – that put it over the top.

And don’t think you can save yourself some time by skipping the first step. Salting the eggplant is CRITICAL is it draws out the moisture aka bitterness in it. I think that is where the eggplant mess began, as that recipe didn’t seem to care that eggplant can be bitter as heck. So please, salt your eggplant, and let it hang out for a bit. You won’t regret it later.

Indonesian-style Grilled Eggplant with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Makes 4 servings. Recipe from Epicurious.

Ingredients
1 eggplant (about 1 1/4 pounds), cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 garlic clove, minced
1 shallot, minced
a 2-inch-long fresh hot red chili, chopped fine (wear rubber gloves), or 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons Oriental sesame oil
1/4 cup ground roasted peanuts
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste
vegetable oil for brushing the eggplant

Directions
Sprinkle the eggplant lightly with salt, let it drain in a colander for 30 minutes to 1 hour, then pat it dry.

In a small saucepan cook the garlic, the shallot, and the chili in the sesame oil over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, add the peanuts, and cook the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the soy sauce, the sugar, the lemon juice, and 1 cup water, boil the mixture, stirring occasionally, until it is thickened slightly, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Brush the eggplant, patted dry, with the vegetable oil and grill it on an oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals, turning it, for 7 to 8 minutes, or until it is just cooked. Transfer the eggplant to a serving plate and spoon the peanut sauce over it. Serve with some fresh homemade pita, and enjoy.

Filed Under: Asian, Dairy-free, Vegetarian
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Turkey Picatta

Chicken or turkey… either would work here and be just as good. This is a fun meal to do when you need to let out some frustration, as pounding a piece of meat until it’s flattened is oh-so-fun. :) Just don’t over-do it. You want to be sure your pieces are even all around. So don’t get too angry now.

Serve this with a side of freshly steamed green beans, tossed with some olive oil and salt and pepper (simple - but fresh and delicious), and you have yourself a meal.

Turkey Picatta

Makes 4 servings. Recipe from Alton Brown.

Ingredients
1 whole turkey breast, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 pounds
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
1/2 cup white wine
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves

Directions
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Cut the turkey breast crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces. Place pieces of turkey, 1 at a time, between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Squirt the meat lightly with water and squirt the top of the plastic wrap as well. Pound to no less than 1/8 inch thickness.

Season both sides of meat with salt and pepper and then dredge in flour. Shake off the excess flour. Set aside.

In a large saute pan over medium to medium high heat, heat olive oil and 4 tablespoons butter. Once hot, but not yet smoking, brown turkey scaloppine quickly, about 1 minute on each side, and remove to an ovenproof platter. Place in oven to keep warm.

Reduce the heat to low and add the shallots to the pan. Saute for 1 to 2 minutes or until they begin to turn translucent. Add wine and lemon juice to the pan and simmer until slightly reduced, about 2 minutes. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter and whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, if necessary. Pour sauce over turkey, sprinkle with parsley, and serve immediately.

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Poultry, Quick
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