Persimmon, Blue Cheese, and Pistachio Salad

There are times when simple is better. If you're a home cook you might follow your own catalog of recipes and/or you may be the home cook who likes to follow the recipes of others in cookbooks, magazines, and blogs. But there are those times when you realize that you don't always need a recipe. You just need to follow a basic structure.

The basic structure for this posting is: Fruit, cheese, and nuts topped with a simple vinaigrette.
Let's look more closely at the ingredients.

Fruit = sweet

Cheese = fatty, savory, and salty

Nuts = crunchy, chewy, and salty

Vinaigrette = flavorful, oily, and a bonding element across all of the above tying it all together

This all started when a friend recently told us that his Fuyu persimmon tree was full of ripe fruit and he had a bag of persimmons for us from his backyard.

I originally went to my catalog recipe for Persimmon and Grilled Cheese Sandwich but I wanted something fresher and lighter.

We had recently checked out a Bon Appetit magazine from our library and there was an article in there that laid out the structure. I took that and ran with it.

But you can apply the same structure with other similar ingredients:

Fruit = Persimmon, apple, pear, oranges, Clementines

Cheese = Blue cheese, Gouda, Parmesan, ricotta

Nuts = Pistachios, hazelnuts, cashews, peanuts, walnuts, pecans

Vinaigrette = Any neutral oil, a neutral vinegar (rice wine), and seasoning (garlic, herbs, mustard, etc.)

For the vinaigrette, I used one of many in my catalog but next time I might use a different one.
Again, the structure is loose. Don't follow this verbatim but adapt as I did.

Persimmon, Blue Cheese, and Pistachio Salad

Ingredients:

• Fuyu persimmons - 3 ever so slightly ripe, peeled and sliced
• Pistachios - about 2 Tbsp. roasted and salted
• Blue cheese - crumbled
• Simple vinaigrette - see below

Vinaigrette:

• 1/4 cup white wine or rice wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup oil
• black pepper and salt to taste

Directions:

• Thoroughly mix the vinaigrette ingredients with a whisk and let sit for a period of time
• Cut off the top and bottom of the persimmon and peel off the sides. Cut into slices. Distribute slices on a dinner plate.
• Crumble cheese on top
• Sprinkle the pistachios over everything
• Drizzle vinaigrette over the salad

Enjoy.

Creamy Arugula Salad with Pistachios and Olives

During the recent Blue Apron/Hello Fresh epic week, we made a Blue Apron dish that had a very unique and satisfying side salad that caught our attention. It was only a side salad on this particular menu but we thought the salad really upstaged the main dish. The salad was interesting, unique, and a great mix of diverse ingredients. We saved the basic recipe and have made it a few times (both as a side and a dinner salad) since the first time. Personally, I'm still tweaking the recipe to get the right proportions but the basics are there.

One of the ingredients is roasted pistachios. I enjoy roasting my own pistachios. You can buy raw pistachios at higher end supermarkets. Roasting at home means you can control the amount of salt and you know they are freshly roasted. They keep in an airtight container for a good long time. Here are directions for roasting at home.

This salad is served already dressed. Which is a bit of a different approach to a typical weeknight side salad where each person grabs a bottle or carafe and dresses their own. But when serving a dressed salad, I've been learning the importance of getting your hands into the mix. Don't rely on salad tongs. When you use your hands, you are able to coat each leaf with dressing and the result is a more evenly distributed salad that has a consistent taste throughout.

Creamy Arugula Salad with Pistachios and Olives

Serves 2
Ingredients:

• Arugula - 2 handfuls
• Creme Fraiche - 2 tablespoons
• Castelvetrano olives - 10-12 olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• Roasted pistachios - 1/4 cup, roughly chopped
• White wine vinegar - 1-2 tbsp.
• Olive oil - to taste and texture
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

• Make the dressing in a bowl by combining the creme fraiche and the vinegar with a fork until mixed. 
• Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Stir to mix and set aside.
• With the flat side of a knife, smash the olives and remove the pit. Roughly chop. 
• Roughly chop the pistachios
• In a large bowl, combine the arugula, pistachios, and olives and season with salt and pepper.
• Add enough dressing to coat the salad mixing by hand
• Let sit for a few minutes before plating the side dish

The pistachios and the olives tend to fall to the bottom, so when mixing by hand be sure to scrape the bottom and pick up the heavier ingredients and get them into the mix.

Roasted Pistachios

A few months ago I needed some raw, shelled pistachios for a cold soup recipe I was working on, but I bought waaaaay more than I needed at the bulk foods section of my local Whole Foods. It was a little like buying way more ahi tuna or premium gasoline these days. I don't remember the exact price but it wasn't cheap.

But I ended up with 4 or 5 cups of leftover pistachio nuts after I made the soup. They have been sitting in the pantry waiting for me to figure out how to roast them which I finally did today. Since they are already shelled, I feel like have a few month's supply of pistachios.

Pistachios, like almonds, are quite nutritious with lots of fiber, vitamin B6, thiamin, copper, and phosphorus. Most of the fat is monounsaturated, similar to olive oil.

So thanks to a handful of internet sites, this is how I roasted the pistachios. Tasty!

Roasted Pistachios

• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees
• Dissolve 2-3 tablespoons salt in 1/4 cup of water in a wide-based saucepan. For salt, figure 2-3 tablespoons for 5 cups of pistachios and up. Use that as a starting point and adjust to your tastes and the amount of pistachios you have.
• Add pistachios to salt water and heat the saucepan to high heat
• Stir constantly until water is evaporated and the salt water is distributed all over the nuts
• Spread on cookie sheets and smooth out into a single layer of nuts
• Roast for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours stirring every 30 minutes. I ended with two cookie sheets full so it took the longer amount of time. The fun is sampling to decide when they are roasted enough.