Frankenstein salad, quinoa, chard and plum
This unusual combination took root in my head last week and it just couldn’t be denied. I had a small bunch of chard from our CSA, some of those cute, miniature seedless cucumbers, a perfect Santa Rosa plum, and some red onion. I felt pretty confident that it would all work well together despite the Frankenstein nature of the combination. I blanched the chard for one minute and then dunked it quickly into a bowl of ice water. Once it had cooled down I patted it dry and chopped it into ribbons. All the other ingredients were just a quick chop. I cooked a cup of quinoa according to the package directions but next time I should only cook 1/2 cup of quinoa. Once that cooled down I added the chopped veggies and dressed it with a dressing that combined rice wine vinegar, ponzu, yuzu honey, apple cider vinegar and canola oil. I think I also added a few dashes of chili oil.
The salad was surprisingly tasty. Actually the first bite struck me as a strange flavor but then I couldn’t stop eating it…something about the flavor combination was strangely addicting, the dirt-ish flavor of the chard, the cool slippery cucumber, the crisp bite of the onion, and the sweetness of the plum all wrapped up with a sweet-tart dressing. Dave had the exact same reaction…he thought it was weird but then he couldn’t stop eating it. I’ll definitely make this again.
The weakest link - the hamburger bun
I used to be obsessed with perfection. But over the years I’ve realized what a treacherous mate that mindset can be. Thankfully I’ve mellowed, I now understand that perfection is transitory… if it comes my way I’ll grab it, but I’ll never, ever, become its slave. Since we know where our meat comes from and how it it’s butchered, we feel comfortable eating things like steak tartar and medium-rare burgers. A good burger is a sum of its parts though, and if any part is lacking then it just isn’t perfect. I’m of the opinion that the weakest link is consistently the bun. Think about it, how often have you had the perfect burger, with the perfect toppings, and then had a lame bun that collapses, slides off, or just tastes awful? It happens all the time and we just accept it.
I decided to make my own hamburger buns because I couldn’t stand the thought of shelling out $5.00 for a really bad set of buns. I threw the dough together in the morning, let it rise for 6 hours in the refrigerator, formed the buns using my new and fabulously trusty cylinder technique, then they rested and rose for another hour or so and then I baked them.
They tasted fresh and yeasty with an excellent consistency and crumb. They held up really well with no collapsing, slipping, or sliding. Bread baking is so ephemeral, it requires a unique confluence of ingredients and weather. As I recall it was a perfect day…not too hot, not too cool, and no humidity. As for the ingredients, I only measure the liquid and the yeast, I add the rest until I’m happy its look and feel. I think I’ll continue to make my own burger buns, but I doubt that I’ll get this lucky again.
Vanessa’s Burger Bun
printer-friendly version
1 cup water
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
Unbleached white flour
Place all of the ingredients, except for the white flour, to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using a paddle attachment mix well on medium low until well combined and no longer lumpy. Begin to add the white flour slowly, adding 1/2 cup or so at a time with the mixer running on a low speed. Once the dough clears the sides of the bowl you can stop the mixer, scrap the dough off the paddle and fit the dough hook onto the mixer. Let the mixer work the dough on a low speed for 7 - 10 minutes. The dough should be very sticky. Once the dough has been worked well you can stop the mixer, remove the dough from the bowl, coat the inside of the bowl with a thin coat of olive oil and then place the dough back into the bowl, cover it with saran wrap and let it rise for at least 6 hours in the refrigerator, overnight is okay too.
2 hours before you want to bake the buns remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it into a big fat cylinder, the diameter of which will be the diameter of the buns. Slice the dough into pieces remembering that the thickness of the piece determines the thickness of the bun which will need to be split through the middle after baking.
Arrange the buns on a cookie sheet lined with a silpat. I arranged them so that they would touch each other after their last rise and bake. Now cover them with a clean towel and let them rise for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Bake them until they are golden brown and their internal temperature is at 210°F, mine took about 10 minutes.
Simple vegetable gratin
I agree, it certainly does look impressive, and the taste of this super easy gratin was absolutely fabulous. I made it from some vegetables I found in the freezer. I ended up with so much zucchini last summer that I froze several quart bags of it for use over the winter. I also froze a few bags of green beans. Somehow, the bags floated to the bottom of the freezer where they were overlooked.
I decided they would make a perfect gratin and they so nicely obliged. I dumped the frozen veggies onto a cookie sheet to knock the ice off them, I added a chopped onion and tossed it all with some dijon mustard, olive oil, and some scape pesto. I dumped it all into my favorite gratin dish, topped it all with a robust layer of grated Parmesan and baked it at 400º until it was beautifully brown and crusty.
My only regret is that I didn’t make this in the heart of the miserable winter…I wish there were a better way to organize that freezer.
