Cilantro Caesar Salad with Carne Asada

I created this salad quite a while ago but haven’t posted it because I haven’t come up with an exact recipe. Each time I make the salad, I change the ingredients and amounts, trying to come up with the perfect combination. But it seems that it tastes just as good each time. So, I’m just going to give you a basic recipe and some general guidelines and you can either come up with your own “exact recipe” or you can keep changing it up like I’ve been doing.

I started experimenting with this salad because I was trying to replicate the mexican caesar salad from El Torito, a chain restaurant here on the west coast. I haven’t had it for years but I’ve never forgotten the cilantro dressing. Since I was in Italy when I started my experiment, I ended up using olive oil, pine nuts and parmigiano reggiano cheese. What I came up with is basically a thin cilantro pesto and it’s REALLY good on salad and meat! I think the only resemblance my recipe has to the El Torito salad is the main cilantro flavor and the tortilla strips. But it’s similar enough that I no longer crave the other one.

The photo above doesn’t show the fried tortilla strips but I think they really add a lot to this salad! I suppose you could try crushing up some tortilla chips but I highly recommend frying them yourself. The addition of carne asada is optional of course. You can go without and the salad makes a great side dish or you can add the meat and it makes a nice light main course. You could also try adding some grilled chicken breast if you prefer. I chose steak because it really stands up to the strong flavor of the dressing. In fact, if you aren’t much of a salad person, this dressing is wonderful drizzled over some grilled steak.

The amounts that I have listed for the salad dressing are what I tend to use most of the time. You can start with what I’ve listed and then adjust things to suit your own taste. If you are a garlic lover, add more! I’ve found that one clove is enough for me since it’s raw. If you don’t like a strong garlic flavor, try using roasted garlic (If you use roasted garlic, you should add several cloves because the flavor is so mild). I made this dressing once using roasted garlic and avocado and it was really good although much mellower in flavor than the original. The amount of olive oil you use is really up to you. Just taste it as you go and don’t forget to season it well with salt and pepper!

The recipes:

Simple Carne Asada
skirt steak
lime
olive oil
salt pepper

1. Dry steak with paper towels.
2. Squeeze half a lime over each side of steak.
3. Brush steak with olive oil on each side and sprinkle with a little fresh ground pepper. Let sit for 30 minutes.
4. When your grill is hot, sprinkle meat with coarse salt then grill over medium high heat for about 6 minutes per side or until it is done to your liking.
5. Let sit for ten minutes and then slice thinly across the grain.

Cilantro Pesto Dressing:
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/8 C. pine nuts, toasted*
1 bunch cilantro, stems removed
juice of one lime
splash of white vinegar
olive oil
salt
pepper

1. In a food processor or blender combine garlic, pine nuts, cilantro, lime juice and vinegar. Process until everything is well-combined, scraping down the sides as necessary.
2. While machine is running, pour olive oil in a stream until dressing reaches desired consistency and flavor. Add salt and pepper to taste. Dressing will be on the thick side.

* To toast pine nuts: Put pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat. Shaking pan or stirring nuts frequently, toast until they take on a light brown color. Don’t leave them unattended because they will burn quickly! As soon as they are toasted, remove them from the pan to a small bowl to cool. Make sure you toast enough to use both in the salad dressing and in the salad itself!

Caesar Salad:

Chopped romaine lettuce
toasted pine nuts
shaved parmesan (parmigiano reggiano) cheese
fried tortilla strips*

1. Just before eating, put lettuce in a salad bowl.
2. Top with desired amount of pine nuts, cheese and tortilla strips.
3. Add some cilantro dressing and toss well.
4. Divide salad among plates or bowls and top each serving with sliced carne asada if desired.

* To make tortilla strips: Heat some oil in a deep fryer or in a deep skillet or dutch oven. While oil is coming to temperature, stack a few corn tortillas on a cutting board. Cut the stack in half and then slice into thin strips. When oil temperature reaches 350 degrees, fry tortilla strips in small batches, stirring them so they don’t stick together. Drain on paper towels and toss with a little salt while still warm.

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Carpaccio di Arance e Olive Verde

I made this simple salad of blood oranges, green olives and olive oil for a snack the other day and it was so beautiful that I couldn’t help but take photos of it. I’ve had the photos posted on Flickr for a couple of days now but I hadn’t planned on writing about it here. It’s so simple that I really didn’t think of it as a recipe. But, I am absolutely head over heels in love with this photo and the taste of this dish was spectacular. So, even though there isn’t much to it, I’ve decided this is definitely a recipe worth sharing.

Within a week of arriving on the island, I had received my first Sicilian recipe. We were on a tour bus heading through the countryside towards some destination that completely escapes me now and our tour guide was giving us information about the orange groves that we were driving past. He mentioned that if anyone wanted to pull him aside later, he would share a recipe for a Sicilian orange salad. Of course I grabbed him the first chance I got and scribbled down the recipe on my little yellow notepad. It was a very simple orange salad. The ingredients were only sliced oranges, fresh garlic, fresh parsely, and olive oil. To be honest, I thought it was one of the strangest recipes I’ve ever seen. I grew up in California eating fresh oranges every winter but I had never heard of anyone eating an orange with garlic and olive oil. In fact, we never really did anything with oranges other than peel them by hand and eat them or juice them. But I was completely fascinated by the recipe and the first time I tried oranges paired with olive oil, I was hooked.

Well now I am constantly trying new salads that involve oranges and olive oil and if you’ve been browsing through any other food blogs lately, you might have noticed that lots of other people are exploring this combination as well. If you want something a little more complex than I am giving you today, there are tons of citrus salads floating around the blogosphere right now. And a favorite orange and fennel salad that I tried recently can be found at Food “Blogga.”

But if you are new to eating oranges this way, this recipe is a simple and beautiful way to start:

Blood Orange Carpaccio with Green Olives
Blood orange slices
Green olives (preferably oil cured)
extra virgin olive oil
salt

1. Peel and section oranges with a sharp knife, leaving the pith and membrane behind. Cut thicker slices in half if desired.
2. Arrange orange slices on a plate, drizzle with olive oil, then add a sprinkling of coarse salt.
3. Scatter some green olives over the plate and serve.

And I must thank my friend Aoi for naming this dish after she saw the photos on Flickr :-)

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Easy Egg Salad for Easter Egg Overload

It’s that time of year when many families with children find that their baskets and refrigerators runneth over with hard-boiled eggs. What to do with them all?! My favorite solution to the problem has always been deviled eggs, but today I am going to share with you my second favorite. Egg Salad Sandwiches! I love egg salad and as far as I’m concerned, the simpler the recipe, the better. Some things in life are not meant to be fooled around with and I believe that egg salad is one of those things. So, you will find nothing fancy in my egg salad and I’m pretty sure you’ll like it that way too! I learned to make it this way from my mother-in-law Sharon, who makes the most amazing egg salad but curiously, won’t eat it herself.

This recipe uses mustard powder rather than prepared mustard, and if you use enough, the salad will have a little bite. Feel free to add more mustard powder than the recipe says if you, like me, enjoy just a bit of that hot mustard burn. If not (wimp), just follow the recipe instructions, and you’ll have a nice, mild, creamy, eggy experience. Also, try using a pastry blender to chop your eggs…you won’t believe you actually used to chop them all by hand!

Update: To learn how to make perfect hard-boiled eggs, head over to Kalyn’s Kitchen for instructions and more hard-boiled egg recipes!

Easy Egg Salad

4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
1/4 – 1/2 C. mayonnaise
1 – 2 t. Coleman’s mustard powder
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. Place whole eggs in a bowl and, using a pastry blender, mash eggs until they are finely chopped.
2. Add 1/4 C. mayo and 1 t. mustard powder then stir to blend. Taste and then adjust amounts of mayo and mustard powder to suit your own taste.
3. Season well with salt and pepper.
4. Serve on your choice of bread.

Yield: enough for two sandwiches

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A Salad in Dishabille

While vacationing on the beaches of North Carolina, and spending as many hours watching the Food Network as dipping my feet in the ocean, I began to feel a little ... I suppose I could call it a foodcrush taking hold ... a foodcrush on, well ... a certain Jamie Oliver. Yep, that would be The Naked Chef.

This foodcrush isn't based on the winning power of his crooked smile or English accent (and I will never admit otherwise). The Jamie Oliver foodcrush has everything to do with the food I watched him make while wearing my pajamas in the hotel at noon while my husband (wearing a seer-sucker!) read Charles Taylor on the beach.

A food blogger deprived of the Food Network in her own home makes for a food blogger especially vulnerable to food celebrities and food porn. I admired Giada's breasts and tiramisu. I wanted to touch Paula Deen's hair and taste her fried chicken. I marveled at Rachel Ray's stamina. Iron Chef made me strangely nostalgic for Star Trek. As I watched the challenger break into a sweat, I could just hear Leonard "Bones" McCoy saying through clenched teeth, "I'm a doctor, not an Iron Chef."

And then there was Jamie. He made a leek and prosciutto pasta topped with porcini bread crumbs, which I promptly cooked once back in Pittsburgh, but didn't post--despite its tastiness--because it seemed to resemble this recipe too closely, and, considering the recent paucity of posts, I didn't want to seem like a one-trick pony. Then, Jamie grilled some octopus, tossed it with radicchio and chorizo sauteed in garlic. I had never imagined such a thing: simple, rustic, and--so it seemed to me at the time--a bit on the bawdy side. I suppose that's why Mr. Oliver fashions himself The Naked Chef, an infelicitous appellation, perhaps, read through foodcrush-tinted glasses, it seems not only not silly, but (at the risk of reader eye-rolling) earnest.

This recipe strikes me as naked indeed: juicy peaches, fresh mozzarella, greens lightly dressed in lemon and olive oil, mint to keep things cool, and pepper flakes to spice them up. It's a sweet, milky, tart, and piquant salad, just the thing for humid summer nights. I don't recall ever pairing mozzarella with peaches, but let me tell you now, this is a lovely marriage. I couldn't help but think that the pale and mild mozzarella was taking on the sweet peaches' blush. Cringe, if you will, but I can't help it. This salad is sentimental love poetry on a plate.

While writing this post I remembered that I had already posted a peach salad recipe. It was spinach-based, and featured feta instead of mozzarella. This was the first recipe I posted after moving to Pittsburgh. I was weary of unpacking boxes in the heat, but giddy about an imminent kitchen renovation which has yet to happen. This peach salad recipe may be less imbued with the sort of kitchen fantasies materialized in the form of stainless steel appliances and subway tile backsplashes; instead, it musters fantasies of simple summer dinners prepared in a cramped, ugly kitchen, and eaten in good company. These are fantasies stripped of finery. Thanks, Jamie.

Peach and Mozzarella Salad
Adapted from Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef Takes Off. Serves 2.


If this recipe has a flaw--and I'm not saying it necessarily does--it would be that it can veer from moist toward soggy. It's a good idea to drain your mozzarella thoroughly, pat it dry, and maybe even press it between paper towels before tearing it into chunks. If your peaches are especially juicy, go easy on the lemon and olive oil dressing.

Good mozzarella doesn't come cheap, and this is not the place to skimp on quality because those rugged little hills of mozzarella are really what make the dish. I've been quite happy with the two brands I've found at Whole Foods, but I've sworn off the stuff sold by Trader Joe's. I've tried it quite a few times in the interest of saving a buck, but found it to be consistently flavorless and rubbery. And that makes for a sad mozzarella.

Jamie Oliver's recipe includes a few thin slices of prosciutto. Sounds good to me, but I didn't have any on hand, and I can't say I missed it.

2 ripe peaches, pitted, peeled (only if you like), and cut into wedges
4 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, torn into chunks
2 cups salad greens
2 tablespoons lemon juice
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and fresh ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon-1 teaspoon dried pepper flakes (some like it hot, some like it not)
a handful of fresh mint leaves

Whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss salad greens in this dressing and divide between two plates. Arrange peach slices and mozzarella on top of greens. Sprinkle with pepper flakes and mint leaves.

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