Octopus Salad with Arugula and Cranberry Beans

The CC came across the most excellent octopus in the Korean markets in Queens this week so he had to buy some. There were also excellent fresh cranberry beans to be had so naturally he had to buy that too.

The combination of octopus and beans is a classic all across the Mediterranean everywhere from Spain, the French Rivera, Italy, Greece and further.

The recipe is simplicity itself. Braise the octopus until tender. Use the braised liquid to cook the beans in. Make a fine vinaigrette and toss it all together. The CC served it with some fine focaccia on the side.

Ingredients

8 baby octopuses
1 carrot
1 red onion
12 black peppercorns

1/2 cup fresh cranberry beans
1 cup arugula

1 shallot (finely chopped)
6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
salt
black pepper

Recipe

Octopuses come pre-cleaned these days. All you need to do is cut off the head from the tentacles which are joined by the eye. Each octopus will yield two parts.

Cut the carrots and onions coarsely. Add the octopus, carrots, onions and peppercorns with about a cup of water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to very low, and let simmer for about 30 minutes till the octopuses are tender.

Pull the octopuses out with tongs and let cool down. Strain the liquid above and reserve.

Add the fresh cranberry beans to the above liquid and bring to a boil. Simmer at low heat until done. Roughly 15 minutes.

Strain and reserve the liquid. (This makes an amazing broth for future use.)

Make a vinaigrette with shallots, olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt and pepper. Toss everything together and serve.

Greek Salad

Baked Cod with Golden Roasted Potatoes & Thyme

The pairing of fish and thyme is a classic combination all over the Mediterranean. Paired with golden roasted potatoes and a salad, it's a simple superb dish.

If you're wondering if this is not just a variation of this, you'd be right. You can't invent new tricks all the time. This is nothing more than the combinatorial approach to cooking which is the proverbial housewife's savior everywhere from Japan to India to the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

The CC will have a lot more to say about this subject but that's for a later post.


Ingredients (serves 2)

1 large cod fillet.

6-8 small roasting potatoes
4-6 sprigs thyme

olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

Recipe

Preheat an oven to 375°F.

Toss the potatoes with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. Roast them for 15 minutes. Pull them out and toss again carefully to make sure they don't stick to the bottom. Toss springs of thyme all over them. Roast for another 20 minutes.

Meanwhile season the cod fillet by rubbing it with olive oil. Season with sea salt, black pepper and thyme.

Pull the pan out of the oven. Push the potatatoes aside to one side of the pan. Place the cod fillet gently on the other side and roast for 10 more minutes. Don't overcook it.

A quick salad with a nice lemony-vinaigrette pairs really well with this dish. (The salad above has thinly cut radishes added to give it some crunch and textural complexity.)

Radicchio Salad

Simplicity itself, and the perfect way to brighten up a winter's day.


Ingredients

1 head radicchio
1 orange (split into two)
1/2 cup walnuts
1 Meyer lemon
3 tbsp walnut oil
3 sprigs mint
gorgonzola (diced)

sea salt
pepper

Recipe

Wash the radicchio, and slice into thin slices.

Roast the walnuts at 350°F for about 10 minutes. Cool.

Split half the orange into slices. Slice each into half.

Juice the lemon, the other half of the orange, and make a vinaigrette with the walnut oil, sea salt and pepper. Mince the mint, and mix with the vinaigrette.

Toss all the ingredients together.

Indonesian Food Festival : Part 2

The classic - gado gado.

Please note the use of the rice crackers for textural variation. (This is a very big thing in Indonesian cooking.)

Pulao and a Salad

Brunch

There is only one rule for scrambled eggs. Extremely low heat (and the CC does mean "extremely"!)

Do it over a double-boiler (pot heated by simmering water underneath) just for practice, and you'll get the hang of it.

Creamy, meltingly creamy. That's all there is to say.


Salad, prosciutto di parma, scrambled eggs, Turkish pide

Arugula Salad with Prosciutto, Beluga Lentils & Radishes

Yeah, the smiley face with glasses is intentional!

Happy New Year!

Salad with Chickpeas, Mushrooms, Green Beans & Radishes in a Mustard-Parmesan Vinaigrette

Mizuna Salad with Sauteed Scallops, Radishes, Carrots, Beluga Lentils in an Almond-Lemon Vinaigrette

Mizuna

Newly "hip" salad green. Mildly peppery, somewhat bitter but less aggressive than arugula. Quite lovely actually, and excellent in stews as well. The Japanese seem to love it (why not? it's quite lovable.)

Vinaigrette of the Gods

Three simple things - fig vinegar, hazelnut oil, and kala namak (Indian black salt.)

Yes, yes, you can thank the CC later!

Weekday Dinner

Arugula Salad with Roasted Pistachios & Gorgonzola in a Basil Vinaigrette
Pasta with Onions, Flat Beans & Rosemary

Prosciutto, White Bean & Mesclun Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

This is really really brilliant. The CC first ate it at a local eaterie and has been hankering for it ever since.

The origin is only vaguely Tuscan in nature pairing off their love for white beans and prosciutto and basil into one lovely salad. The multitudinous textures alone do the trick but this is a meal in and of itself.

The original salad had arugula in it but the arugula was so pathetic locally that the CC bought home some mesclun instead.

It makes a perfect summer meal.

Ingredients

1 cup white beans
1 tomato (diced fine)
generous handful of basil

2 servings mesclun
parmigiano-reggiano (thinly shaved)
prosciutto

olive oil
vinegar
salt
pepper

Recipe

The recipe may sound fussy but the hardest part - cooking the white beans - can be done in advance.

Cook the white beans until just under tender. The CC used a pressure cooker. Let it cool down in a refrigerator for a while.

Shave the parm really thin. This may sound fussy but is really necessary.

Blend the basil with some vinegar and salt into a liquidy paste. Mix the white beans, chopped tomato, and 75% of the basil liquid. Season to taste. Set aside.

The rest of the paste should be mixed with some more vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and made into a vinaigrette.

Serve the white bean salad topped with parm, and the mesclun and vinaigrette topped with the prosciutto.

Arugula, Walnut, Orange and Feta Salad

You may make substitutions but please respect the perfect blend of sweet, salty, sour and bitter, and the textural variation.

Ingredients

2 cups arugula (washed)
1 orange (peeled, diced into half-slices)
1 cup walnuts (roasted)
1 red onion (sliced very thin into semi-rounds)

feta (crumbled)

1 orange (juiced)
1/8 cup olive oil
1/16 cup balsamic vinegar
black pepper

Recipe

Whip the juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and black pepper into a vinaigrette. (You don't need salt because the feta is salty enough.)

Mix together. Serve.

Panzanella

The Italian "bread salad" redolent of poverty, and yet so delicious that the CC challenges any and all of you not to gobble up every morsel, and lick your plates.

For the record, you need "true" sourdough that has gone stale (= dried out completely.) These staled-out breads have very long shelf-lives and will not grow moldy (for reasons to be explained in a future post.)

Ingredients

staled cubed bread
4 tomatoes (as ripe as can be, diced)
1 large red onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (minced fine)

6-8 tbsp capers (preserved in salt, soaked to remove salt)
anchovies (preserved in salt only if you have them.)

red-wine vinaigrette
sea salt
black pepper

lots of chiffonaded basil

Recipe

Salt the tomatoes; they will let out copious mixture. Separate and whip the liquid with the vinaigrette.

Mix everything together, and chill for just a tad. The bread should be both soaked in the liquid and crunchy.

Texture is as important as anything else.

Two Italian Salads

Summer's here, and here are two classic Italian salads to go with it.

Panzanella

Basically a salad to use up dried up bread.

Ingredients

2 cups dried bread (cubed)
1 lb tomatoes (peeled, cored, cubed)
1 small red onion (thinly sliced)
1/2 English cucumber (peeled, cubed)
2 ribs celery hearts (cubed)
1/2 cup pitted green olives (sliced in half lengthwise each)

1/2 cup basil (torn loosely)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil

fine sea salt
black pepper

Recipe

Please read this post on salt first. Recipe should be pretty obvious.

Insalata di rucola, pignoli e parmi

Ingredients

1/2 cup pine nuts (toasted lightly)
arugula leaves

parmigiano-reggiano (read below)

1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

fine sea salt
black pepper

Recipe

The only trick here (besides toasting the pine nuts) is to use a vegetable peeler to shave paper-thin slices of the parm.