Free Recipe - How to Make Chinese Cabbage Salad

What' s this? Two green salad recipes in a row? Well ... yeah. I like green salads. This one doesn't feature lettuce, though. It's built on a base of tender Chinese cabbage.

There are several varieties of Chinese cabbage, but this salad is based on wom bak, more commonly known as napa cabbage. Chinese cabbage is wonderfully tender and is the main ingredient in kimchi. It's also a good source of carotene, vitamin A and vitamin C. In spite of being good for you, Chinese cabbage is really tasty, and I think you'll enjoy this salad. I love it's simplicity and bright flavors.

I also happen to think it looks pretty.

Equipment needed
Cutting board
Kitchen knife
Measuring spoons
Mixing bowls
Large strainer (sieve)

Ingredients
6 Chinese cabbage (napa) leaves*
1/2 cup corn kernels
3 Roma tomatoes**
3 or 4 chives
6 lemon wedges

for the dressing
6 tablespoons black-rice vinegar***
2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
salt, as required

Directions
Fill the mixing bowl with plenty of water and a few ice cubes. Cut the Chinese cabbage leave crosswise into thin slices. Don't use the outermost leaves. They're too firm for a salad and are best saved for soups. Soak the sliced cabbage in the bowl of ice water for a minute or two to crisp it up. Don't soak it too long, or you will spoil the flavor. Drain the water off, using a strainer.

Remove the stems from the tomatoes, and cut them into wedges, lengthwise.** Cut the chives into 2 inch lengths.

If using fresh corn from your garden, remove it from the cob and blanch it. Frozen corn should be thawed and blanched, as well. Canned corn can be used (gotta cycle that food storage, somehow), but you'll want to rinse and drain it thoroughly.

Now that everything else is prepared for assembly, let's make the dressing. Put the vinegar, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a small bowl. Add the sesame oil and whisk the ingredients together, thoroughly. Taste and add more salt, if needed.

Arrange the Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, corn, and chives (in that order) on individual plates. Garnish with a lemon wedge. Drizzle on the dressing, about 1 tablespoon or so per salad, and serve.


*You can substitute lettuce or regular cabbage for the Chinese cabbage, if you want to, but I don't recommend it. There's just something wonderful about this tender, sweet, leafy vegetable.

**Cherry tomatoes are often used, cut in half, for this recipe. Roma tomatoes are less expensive and have a more meaty texture, so I normally use them, instead.

***Black-rice vinegar can be hard to find outside of a few specialty shops. If you can't find Black-rice vinegar where you live, use balsamic vinegar, just leave out the sugar. Balsamic vinegar is sweet enough on it's own without it.

Free Recipe - How to Make Salad Nichoise

With August beginning, harvest time in our garden's will start to enter, full swing. What can we do to start using some that bounty and use up the last of the spring greens? Why not turn to the south of France and make Salad Nichoise?

Equipment Needed
Measuring Cups
Measuring Spoons
Saucepan
Cutting Board
Chef's Knife
Mixing Bowls
Whisk
Slotted Spoon
Large colander or Large Sieve
6 Serving bowls


Ingredients
1 medium potato
3 boiled eggs
30 green beans (or a 12 oz. can, if you don't have fresh)
1 small green bell pepper
2 small tomatoes
12 lettuce leaves
6 oz. canned tuna
12 anchovy fillets (optional)
18 pitted black olives (kalamata are my favorite)
salt (as required)

for the dressing
4 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup light olive oil
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions

Preparation
Drain the tuna, and place into a small bowl. Cover with milk and let soak while the rest of the preparations are made. Soaking the canned tuna in milk will remove the unpleasant “fishiness” so common with canned tuna.

If using fresh green beans, cut the ends off the green beans, and then cut them in small pieces, about 1 inch long. Prepare an ice bath by putting ice water into a large bowl. If using canned beans, drain the beans in a colander and rinse with cold water. Drain thoroughly.

Peel the potato in a bowl and cover with water to keep it from browning.

Fill a saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.

If using fresh green beans, add the beans and boil for about two minutes, until they have a bright green color. Using a slotted spoon, remove the green beans from the boiling water and transfer to the ice bath. Turn off the heat, but do not drain the water . We'll use this same water to cook potato. Remove the beans from the ice water and drain thoroughly.

Put the potato in water. Add additional hot water if you need to, to cover the potato. Return the water to a boil on hight heat, and then reduce heat to a simmer, about medium low. Boil the potato for a bout 15 to 20 minutes, until soft enough that you can easily insert a fork. Do not overcook or the potato will fall apart! Using a slotted spoon, remove the potato, draining off the water. Allow the potato to cool enough to handle. Cut in half, lengthwise, and then into 1/2-inch wide half-moon slices.

Cut the green pepper in half lengthwise. Remove the stem and seeds from the green pepper. Cut into thin strips, about 1/4-inch wide, across the pepper this time.

Remove the stem from the tomatoes and cut into 1/2-inch wedges.

Peel to boiled eggs and cut into 1/4-inch round slices.

Clean and rinse the lettuce and tear into small pieces.

Drain the milk from the tuna.

To make the dressing

Add a dash of salt and a dash of ground pepper to a bowl. Add the mustard and mix together. Whisk in the red wine vinegar. Slowly add the olive oil, whisking at you do, to create an emulsion. Repeat with the extra virgin olive oil.

To assemble the salad

Mentally divide each ingredient into 6 equal parts. You're going to assemble each serving into it's own bowl.

First, arrange the lettuce in the bowls. Add the potatoes and green peppers. Arrange the boiled egg and green beans attractively in the bowl. Put the tomatoes and anchovies (if using) on top and sprinkle of a few of the olives. Drizzle some of the dressing over the salad and serve immediately.

Makes 6 servings.

*Sieve Trick: If you have a large enough saucepan, you can put the beans into the sieve, and then put the sieve into the hot water, submerging the beans. It's the same process as deep-frying without the oil. Then, when the beans are done, you just pull out the sieve with the green beans still in it, let it drain a bit, and the immediately plunge the sieve into the ice water bath. This way, you don't have to fish around with a slotted spoon to get all the green beans.

The Salt of the Earth

It seems pretty obvious, but salt is essential in the kitchen, and for life. For cooking, or table side as a condiment, it's a staple in every pantry, in every part of the world. It can be stored indefinitely, and it's recommended that you include 8 pounds of salt, per adult, in a year's supply in food storage.

As basic as it seems, though, there are more varieties of salt than you may be aware of.

Table Salt
This is a refined salt with added anti-caking and, sometimes, bleaching agents. Most of it comes from mines and is ground to a fine crystal. Table salt is used for cooking and at the table as a finishing salt, as it's name suggests. It is free flowing and has a very tiny crystal size.

Often, table salt contains added iodine. In the 1920's people weren't getting enough iodine in their diets. This led to terrible thyroid problems so, it was decide to add trace amounts of iodine to salt to make sure we got enough. Seafood and sea salt naturally contain trace amounts of iodine, and so people who eat lots of seafood, or use sea salt, don't have to worry about iodine deficiencies.

Kosher Salt
Kosher salt is used in meat preparation according to Jewish dietary guidelines, and has less additives that regular refined salt. It's crystal shape tends to be more “flakey,” dissolves easily, and has a less pungent flavor than most other salts.

Sea Salt
Sea salt is also less moisture sensitive, and stores well. It usually contains trace minerals, including iodine, that can also be beneficial to your health. My favorite sea salt actually comes from Utah, Redmond Real Salt. It's salt left over from the ancient lake Bonneville that filled prehistoric Utah Valley, and which the Great Salt Lake is but a remnant. It won the “Best Taste” award in 2004 from Chef's Best.

Grinder Salt
Grinder salt is a refined salt, used for finishing or cooking, and made specifically for use with a salt grinder. It's low moisture content allows it to flow freely. Personally, I'm not sure why anyone would need a salt grinder when Kosher salt or sea salt are available. If you do use a salt grinder, though, make sure you use one with ceramic or plastic grinding mechanisms. The salt will corrode metal (even stainless steel) and ruin the flavor.

Gourmet Salts
There are several gourmet salts that are becoming more popular these days. They come from very traditional production methods they world over, foodies are now rediscovering many of these salt varieties. Harder to find, and more expensive, that most varieties, I lump them together into a signel category. They include, but are not limited to:

Kala Namak – an unrefined mineral salt from India, with a sulfuric flavor.

Celtic Sea Salt – hand harvested from the coast of Brittany, France, using no metal.

Fleur De Sel – a premier artisan sea salt, harvested from the surface of salt evaporation ponds. Different areas of the world produce different flavors based on the mineral content of the water.

Grey Sea Salt – is a “moist” unrefined sea salt, usually from coastal France, and is considered by many to be the best quality salt available.

Hawaiian Alaea Sea Salt – volcanic baked red clay is added to this salt, enriching it with iron oxide (rust). It is said to be mellower in flavor than most sea salt.

Hawaiian Black Lava Salt - harvested from above ground pools that formed beause of lava flows, purified volcanic charcoal is added to this salt both for color and its detoxifying effects.

Smoked Sea Salt – a relatively new invention, salt crystals are smoked over a wood fire to infuse them with a natural smoky flavor.


Picture by Steve Woods