Potato Salad with Capers and Olives

Here's a lesson in "mellowing" versus "marriage." We were recently invited to a dinner party and I was asked to bring a side. Given that the main course was going to be a bouillabaisse,  I looked for something Mediterranean as well as something that would complement the fish stew. I finally settled on the recipe below because the ingredients screamed traditional and European/Mediterranean. With the recipe description using words like "assertive" and "bold," I knew it would stand up against the bouillabaisse. The recipe said to "let the flavors mellow for 30 minutes prior to serving." So I timed it so that I finished the salad just prior to departure. It "mellowed" for the 20 minute ride to the host's house and then another hour as we had our appetizers.

Driving away from the dinner party, I wasn't real happy with the results. I undercooked the potatoes slightly but that's an easy fix for next time. The main complaint I had was that the flavors just didn't incorporate. "I won't be adding this one to the blog," I thought. I brought home the leftovers, put them in a storage container, and put them in the fridge.

Twenty four hours later, this was a completely different salad. Suddenly, it worked. The ingredients coated the potatoes and they took on new flavors. So the lesson learned is that with potato salad you need enough time to let the potatoes absorb the flavors, to let the diverse ingredients intertwine and become one.

The recipe originally comes from the San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook which has become one one of my "go to" cookbooks. The recipe was a little vague at times so I've added some details to the ingredients and instructions. I doubled this one since I was going to need more than the six servings this recipe provides.

Potato Salad with Capers and Olives

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. unpeeled white potatoes (I used yellow potatoes since I couldn't find white)
• 1/2 cup boiling potato water
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup lemon juice or white wine vinegar (I used a lemon from the box)
• 1/3 cup olive oil (maybe some truffle oil, too?)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
• 4 oz. jar capers, drained and rinsed
• 4 oz. Kalamata or Gaeta pitted olives, roughly chopped
• 4 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

• Prep all of the ingredients except the potatoes first.
• Boil the potatoes in plenty of water. Watch carefully and test them often. A toothpick should easily pierce the potato. 8-12 minutes to put you in the ballpark.
• When the potatoes are done, remove them and transfer them to cold water. Keep the water boiling.
• When cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes, chop them into large chunks, and transfer them to a large serving bowl.
• Add the 1/2 cup of boiling potato water to the potatoes.
• Add the remaining ingredients and gently toss with large spoons.
• Cover the bowl and let it mellow at room temperature for an hour or more.
• Stir it up some more and then refrigerate overnight.
• Bring it out of the fridge and let the temperature come back up stirring often prior to serving.

Dill Butter

A huge bunch of dill arrived in our box this week. I mean, huge. If I dried this dill and stuck it in a jar, I would still be working on using it up a year from now.

Dill is subtle but aromatic. It's not a herb I go to often. So I felt at a bit of a loss as to what to do with all this dill.

I knew it would not last long so I decided to go back to my herb butter recipe I have done in the past. 

I also had a bit of leftover parsley on hand that I threw in as well. But the the most prominent herb is dill.

Dill Butter

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of dill
• additional herbs and black pepper as desired
• butter

Directions

• Let the butter soften at room temperature
• Prepare dill by picking off the leaves and chopping
• Combine butter and herbs in bowl or food processor
• Spoon herb butter mixture onto a sheet of parchment paper and shape into a cylinder
• Place it in the fridge to solidify overnight
• Remove from fridge and let it soften slightly
• Cut into individual pieces and place in a freezer baggie

Now that it's in the freezer, what do you do with it?

• As you prepare a side of veggies, add a bit of dill butter. 
• Add a dab to roasted salmon.
• Prep the skillet with the herb butter prior to adding eggs on a weekend breakfast.

Some additional resources on the subject:

http://www.barefootkitchenwitch.com/the_barefoot_kitchen_witc/2010/07/dill-butter.html

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/dill-butter/detail.aspx

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/grilled-corn-on-the-cob-with-dill-butter-recipe/index.html

http://www.foodrepublic.com/2011/04/08/grilled-salmon-dill-butter-recipe

Breakfast from the Box

Something cool occurred to me as I was making our Sunday breakfast: I knew the source of just about every ingredient. Most of it came from our weekly CSA box but for those that didn't I knew where it came from. Here's how it went.

I began by cutting up a couple of fingerling potatoes and sweet potatoes (leftover from last week's box). I got them started in the skillet with some butter, black pepper, and a dash of salt.

Then I decided to go for a Southwestern egg scramble given the ingredients in this week's box. I started by dicing half of a yellow onion (from the box) and got it started in a skillet with some EVOO. While the onion cooked down, I diced half of a green bell pepper (from the latest delivery) and added it to the skillet. Four eggs (from a friend's backyard chickens) were whisked together along with some of Penzey's Southwest seasoning and into the skillet they went. I chopped up some cilantro leaves (from the box) and added them into the eggs. A diced avocado (finally ripened from last week's box) got added and then some grated cheddar cheese (OK, this was from Trader Joe's).

Oranges and tangerines (from this week and last) were juiced.

After plating, I sprinkled some dried parsley (from the backyard) over the potatoes and served.

All in all, an enjoyable locavore breakfast.

Salmon Loaf - Revisited

It's fun sometimes to go back and revisit those classic recipes that you remember from childhood. We both have fond memories of our mother's making a pretty tasty salmon loaf (mostly on Friday nights). But when you really look at it, it's actually a pretty basic meal that was more likely made for its value and its ability to feed a family.

This web site, dedicated to preserving vintage cookbooks and recipes, has a scan of a salmon loaf recipe from 1942 (that included Rice Krispies!).

A few months ago, we noticed the canned salmon at our local supermarket and decided we should pick up a few and make that salmon loaf again someday. Well, that day came to pass recently.

I found lots of basic salmon loaf recipes online. But then I decided to take a different approach and do my interpretation of a recipe update. I'd keep the basics (canned salmon, eggs, bread crumbs) but up the herbs and seasonings. So that "dash of pepper" is updated to "generous." Many recipes call for only dried parsley so I broadened the list to add some variety. Then I decided to top it with something thoroughly modern - panko bread crumbs.

It's still a "value meal" and still quite tasty. Some roasted fingerling potatoes from the box and a bottle of Pinot from our cellar rounded out the meal. Our cat purred contentedly as we enjoyed it.

Salmon Loaf - Revisited

Ingredients:

• 1 can (16 oz.) salmon
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 Tbsp. lemon juice
  
• 3 Tbsp. minced onions (I used about 1/4 of the red onion in the box this week)
• 1 Tbsp. dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp. dried dill
  
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• generous amount of black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. Penzey's Mural of Flavor seasoning - or use any herb mixture: Italian Seasoning mix, bouquet garni, or whatever you have
• dash of lemon pepper
• pinch of "heat" - cayenne pepper, ground chili powder - I used Penzey's Arizona Dreaming seasoning
  
• 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs

Steps:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Open the can of salmon and flake the meat into a bowl removing any skin and bones (Feed your cat the skin and water).
3. Add all other ingredients except panko bread crumbs. Stir to mix but get your hands in there and really mix it up.
4. Place the mixture into a buttered casserole dish.
5. Form the mixture into a loaf with your hands.
6. Press a thin layer of panko bread crumbs into the loaf.
7. Bake for 45 minutes, or until loaf is firm.

Herbed Butter

This week's box had a tempting recipe for cilantro butter that I hope to try one day. Unfortunately, I waited too long before attempting this. When I went to make it the cilantro was a wilted lump in the refrigerator. But the idea of herbed butter idea intrigued me.

I had a good amount of leftover thyme from a potato-leek soup recipe I made over the holidays. I also had plenty of dried parsley from the backyard in the spice drawer. So I ended up adapting the recipe just with different herbs.

I took the final product and sliced it into single servings and stuck them in a bag in the freezer.

Here's what I did:

• 1/2 of an 8 oz. package of unsalted butter (I used Kerrygold's Irish butter)
• fresh thyme leaves - about 1 cup
• dried parsley leaves - about 1/2 cup
• black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Procedures:

• Let butter sit at room temperature to soften
• Pick thyme leaves
• Add thyme leaves, parsley, minced garlic, salt, and pepper to a food processor and pulse into a coarse meal
• Add above ingredients to a kitchen mixer; add butter and mix until well blended
• Use a spatula to scoop ingredients into a parchment paper
• Roll up the parchment paper and massage into a cylinder (like a giant tootsie roll)
• Let chill overnight to harden
• Slice into single servings and transfer to the freezer
  

Drying Backyard Parsley

Before going on vacation a few weeks ago, I harvested two bunches of flat-leaf parsley from the yard with the intent of drying them. I had read that air drying for 2-3 weeks was one method. I hung a bunch in the garage and another in the pantry. They were hung from the ceiling by string. But as the herb dried and shrunk it slipped out of the string. When I got home the parsley was yellow and much had fallen to the ground. Conclusion: Air drying doesn't work.

This evening I harvested more parsley to try out some different drying techniques. I washed it, spun it in a salad spinner, and let it dry for a few hours. I read more than one story about things going back if you tried to dry damp herbs.

I tried two different approaches:

Microwave: I read mostly favorable reviews (but a few bad ones) that said that drying in the microwave was a good way to go. Nuke them in small batches in a single layer with a paper towel beneath and above. Cook 30 seconds at a time and check. A small batch should take 2 minutes. But my second and larger batch took 3 minutes.

Oven: I read a few different reviews. One said to set the oven to 100 degrees, but most ovens won't go that low. Another said to set the oven to 185 and cook until dried (20-30 minutes). The one I tried had the oven at 250 degrees but you turn it off once the temperature is set. Place the parsley leaves on a cookie sheet in a single layer and put them in the just turned off oven for 30 minutes.

As all of this went on, I pulled out my existing jar of parsley. I turned the jar over and it read, "Best by Dec. 18. 05." I tossed the contents.

In the end, I couldn't tell too much difference between the oven and microwave dried parsley. If I had to choose I thought the oven did a better job of completely drying out the herb.

I pulsed both methods together in a food processor until they were chopped. I put the chopped leaves in the jar that had the old parsley.