nicoise salad

I had leftover green beans, some little tomatoes, new potatoes, and Italian tuna... and I really wanted a Nicoise salad. I made a dressing with kalamata olives, red onion, lemon juice, sherry vinegar and olive oil. That alone is pretty stellar. I might eat it on pasta tomorrow. I tossed that with mixed greens, and topped that with roasted new potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, and the tuna. Possibly the greatest spring dinner possible. And shockingly effortless.

New Apartment

I've finally moved into my lovely apartment, and it took me a whole week to even use the kitchen. I couldn't quite get my enthusiasm up for it when I had moving and repairs and an empty kitchen. It's a pretty nice kitchen, in fact. Lots of storage, new appliances, and a little breakfast bar. I've been slowly stocking up the kitchen. It's so beautiful and warm out, I'm dying to make some spring-type thing. I'm also very fixated on dishes that would make good work lunches, and I found a potato and spring vegetable salad on Fine Cooking that sounded like exactly what I wanted.

The green beans looked shady, so I went with snow peas instead, and I couldn't find watercress so I used baby arugula. The salad is gorgeous, and it's just the right proportion of potato, shrimp and vegetable, and the dressing is amazing.

Slaws

Cabbage is an under-appreciated summer veggie. Everyone gets excited about heirloom lettuce greens, but cabbage can be pretty remarkable too. They're preposterously cheap, something like 50 cents a pound. I love cole slaws for snacking on. The shredded cabbage is such a great canvas for all kinds of flavors, and the crispy-coolness makes such a nice pallet cleansing snack. I like anything I can eat a massive bowl of and feel good later.

I'm noming on some classic cole slaw now- shredded Savoy cabbage and grated carrot with a very very small amount of a dressing made with mayo, yogurt and white balsamic vinegar. I also put preposterous amounts of pepper in it. It's crunch and spicy and cold; it's like the savory equivalent of a popsicle.

I also made a slaw from Fine Cooking with cabbage, jullienned mango, raddichio, and sriracha, and it was So. Good. Especially with a gingerey tuna burger on top. I especially love how, unlike a salad, I can make a big giant bowl of it and eat it for several days without it getting soggy.

Black Bean Salads

I am never without at least one can of black beans in my pantry (pantry = two empty cardboard wine cases stuffed under my counter). Black beans are the perfect food- I put them in chilies or stews or make black bean soup, mash them up in quesadillas, and of course, many many versions of rice and beans.

Black beans are like, the healthiest thing ever. Really low in fat (and the little they do have is “good fat”), and the whole can is about 300 calories. They have a glycemic index of 30, which measures the effect of the food on insulin production. Higher means more work for your pancreas, more insulin resistance, more type II diabetes. For comparison, pasta has a glycemic index of 60, high fructose corn syrup has a GI of 90. 20 is about the lowest you can get, for things like broccoli, lettuce, spinach…. The low GI is due to lots of protein and soluble fiber, both of which slow absorption and therefore slow insulin response. Because fiber just passes through the body, it takes with it lots of bad shit like excess bile acids, cholesterol, and random toxins. The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that the darker the bean’s coat, the higher the antioxidant content. The antioxidant levels in black beans are comparable to those of pomegranate, red wine, and blueberries. The polyphenols in the beans work as antioxidants in the bloodstream, neutralizing the free radicals that damage cholesterol and cause it to form plaque inside blood vessels. The high levels of folate in black beans has been shown to lower homocystine levels, reducing the risk of heart attacks, while the magnesium present in black beans inhibits the calcium channel (you know, both being in the second column of the periodic table and all…) which lowers tension in blood vessels, increasing flow of blood and oxygen. I also think it’s kind of cute that rice and beans together give the equivalent of a complete protein; in other words, all the amino acids we need to get from our diet, or the protein equivalent of steak.

But in the summer my favorite thing to do with black beans is toss them with various other stuff to make black bean salads. This usually means taking this uber healthy low GI food and mixing it with something sweeter.

Black beans and corn are not just delicious together, they also look gorgeous. Something about the beans and corn kernels being exactly the same size and shape makes the salad look very professional and aesthetically pleasing. I mix together

a handful of coarsely chopped cilantro
3 thinly sliced scallions (white and light green parts)
a teaspoon of cumin
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
juice from 1 lime

Toss that with
a can of black beans, rinsed
cup of corn kernels (frozen is totally legit but fresh corn right off the cob is great, especially if you have some leftover)
a pint of cherry tomatoes, halved.

This is fine, but it’s really better with some heat. Ideally, one or two finely chopped jalapenos make a great addition, but I am lazy and I hate chopping jalapenos. (The capsaicin, the compound that makes them spicy, will get all over your hands and up under your nails, about half an hour later your hands will start to burn and it will hurt like a bitch. If you have touched your eyes, nose, mouth, any other sensitive place, it will be burning as well. Have fun with that.) Instead, I like to use the jarred, pre-chopped jalapenos that you find next to the pickles. Yes, that is cheating. A few spoonfuls of that work beautifully, and won’t go bad or give you salmonella. This is a great thing to have in your fridge for guacamole or salsa or whatever. Hot sauce works too- the green Tabasco sauce is great and even Sriacha is not bad.

Mango is also delicious with black beans. Diced mango, diced red pepper, cilantro, scallion, olive oil and lime juice and hot pepper or hot sauce make another version of the black bean salad above. Both are some of the best summer dishes I make, because they’re so well balanced, with elements of sweet, spicy, sour, salt, and savory. Great with a piece of fish or chicken (grilled shrimp are yummy), on top of some chopped lettuce (which I had for lunch Monday and loved), mixed with rice, wrapped up in a tortilla, or by themselves.

Sunday Poached Eggs

Most of my culinary "knowledge" I have to attribute to my mom- the importance of salting pasta water was ingrained long before I understood colloidal properties and boiling point elevation, I knew what baking soda did, and as bewildering as it still is, I believed her when she told me yeast was alive.

So I am very impressed with myself when I can do something she can't. I can make up recipes based on what I have in the fridge, and I can eyeball volumes and weights quite effectively. But my favorite entirely self taught skill is poaching an egg. I don't think my mom ever poached eggs, which makes it seem even more exotic. I'd only ever had poached eggs at swanky brunches, on eggs benedict dressed up in oppulent hollandaise sauce with a mimosa. Eggs are an easy, cheap source of protien, with lots of vitamins and minerals and they're easy to have on hand. Poaching eggs, like hard boiling, doesn't need added fat, but a soft poached egg with a warm runny yolk is so much more luxurious.

I needed to figure out this poaching business. The water has to be hot enough to cook the egg white on contact without actually boiling, or the bubbling would break apart the egg. Vinegar is absolutely vital- all that acid not only increases the temperature you can get without actually boiling (due to that aforementioned boiling point elevation), but it also denatures the protiens like heat does (the same way seafood is "cooked" in acid to make ceviche). In a saucepan, I heat 2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of vinegar til boiling, then lower the temperature till bubbling just stops. I break the egg into a cup before dropping it into the water, to reduce spreading. As the edges of the white cooks, I sort of fold them over the yolk to make a nice little mound of egg white. After about 2 and a half minutes, I ease the cooked egg out of the saucepan with a slotted spatula.

I haven't totally got this down to the point where I can turn out Sunday Brunch style eggs like it's my job, but I on Sunday afternoons I like to practice by making poached egg salads. A poached egg (or two) on top of a big green salad with a vinagrette and a handfull of chopped parsley. A warm, runny egg on top of a cool crisp salad is a really luxurious, decadent lunch (and actually really really cheap).