Pages, Pucks and Pantry

Crab and Avocado Salad

In a time crunch and when I'm trying to eat healthy and don't feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen, I usually turn to The South Beach Diet Quick & Easy Cookbook. This was another quick dinner from that book to throw together on a hot summer night. I can't stress how much you need this book if you are on South Beach and looking for quick meals. Or just looking for low-carb quick meals. Or just looking for quick meal but not on a diet.

The crab was actually canned crab. You can get some really good stuff at Trader Joe's for less than $10. Having a can in the fridge makes it really easy to make this salad on a night you don't feel like cooking. Note: There are some really cheap cans of crab that taste like crap (to me, most of the small tuna-like cans don't taste that good) so if you don't have a favorite brand, you might have to research a bit. Once you do find a good brand of canned crab (I've also seen some stuff in plastic tubs that looked pretty good), it works great in a lot of recipes (see Crab Louis with Thousand Island Dressing).

The book says that in later phases, this can be put on whole-grain crackers for an appetizer, put into a sandwich or used as wrap filling. I can also see putting this back in the hollowed out avocado shell to use as a nice presentation. This would also work well as a topping for some lettuce. Shrimp can be substituted for the crab.

CRAB AND AVOCADO SALAD

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chopped roasted red pepper (from a jar)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound lump crabmeat
1 large ripe avocado, pitted, peeled, and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine cilantro, mayonnaise, red pepper, lime juice, and cayenne in a medium mixing bowl. Mix in crabmeat and season with salt and pepper. Gently fold in avocado and serve. Makes 4 (scant 1-cup) servings. 230 calories a serving.

This is a Phase One South Beach meal.

Egg Salad With Dill

This egg salad comes from The Silver Palate Cookbook. I made it first probably 20 or so years ago and it's been my favorite egg salad ever since. Please note...this is probably only the third time I've ever made it!

Since this is the only egg salad recipe I've ever made I can't really tell you if it's the best. I only know I like it much better than most of the egg salad I've ever ordered in a deli or restaurant. Most of the egg salad I get is a bit on the 'dry' side, where I would call this a more 'wet' version.

I used the Cut-N-Seal from Pampered Chef to make these cute little sandwiches. You really need some soft bread for this to work so I usually try to find a loaf of fresh white Wonder Bread. This time I used some "whole grain white" bread and I wish I had gone back to the Wonder Bread. You waste a LOT of bread doing this but I think it's so worth it as the presentation is pretty cool (I made these for a friends baby shower many years ago).  I filled these up a bit to much and the first two or three I made had egg salad squirting out the top. Even the photographed ones have more than is really needed. The actual sandwich comes out to be about 2 1/2 inches across. Of course the egg salad can just be put between two layers of regular bread. The cookbook says it works really well on black bread. It also tastes pretty good just spooned from the mixing bowl...not that I would ever do that of course.

I'm going to use this as my entry for The Weekend Cookbook Challenge which this month is being held by Mel's Diner. You are supposed to use a salad recipe from one of your cookbooks. This is my first foray into the Weekend Cookbook Challenge and I'm excited to see what other salads folks come up with. I'll post about the roundup which should be around the end of June.

Do be aware if your husband is anything like Mr. L, they will try to see if they can put a whole sandwich in their mouth at one time. I can't tell you exactly how many of the sandwiches this recipe makes as we were eating them as we made them and I barely had enough egg salad left to give to my mom!

EGG SALAD WITH DILL

8 hard-cooked eggs
1/2 cup finely chopped purple onion
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup dairy sour cream
1/4 cup prepared Dijon-style mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Peel the eggs and quarter them. Place in a mixing bowl with the onion and dill.

In another bowl whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream and mustard and pour over the eggs, onion and dill.

Toss gently, season to taste with salt and pepper, and toss again. Cover and refrigerate if you must, but the salad is at its best eaten immediately. Makes six portions.

Note: I used less than a third a cup of dill. A third a cup is a lot of chopped dill! I also used Grey Poupon mustard.

Note: I did more than quarter the eggs, I pretty much cut them into pieces as it made it easier to put in the Cut-N-Seal sandwich.

Wine Country Grain Medley

I found several recipes that used Quinoa but having no idea how Quinoa tasted I wasn't sure which to choose. This sounded "healthy" and though I wasn't sure how everything would taste together, I knew that individually I liked all the ingredients...except that Quinoa stuff-grin. The recipe came out of The Sonoma Diet Cookbook.

This wasn't bad. I added a little bit more olive oil than it required so maybe it wasn't as healthy as I wanted it to be, but it was pretty tasty. Can't say it looked all that good, but it made a great side dish.

WINE COUNTRY GRAIN MEDLEY

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup quartered fresh mushrooms
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup quinoa
1 cup canned red beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped zucchini
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved if desired
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
6 cloves garlic, minced (1 tablespoon minced)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a very large skillet heat olive oil over medium heat. Add mushrooms; cook about 5 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally Add the water; bring to boiling. Add quinoa. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 15  minutes or until liquid is nearly absorbed. Stir in beans, zucchini, tomatoes, basil, vinegar, garlic, kosher salt, and pepper. Heat through. Remove from heat; let stand, covered, for 5 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings.

Note: I used these AWESOME little cherry tomatoes we got at the St. Helena Farmers Market. Such a great taste compared to the cherry tomatoes I'd been getting in the regular supermarkets. They were small enough that I left them whole. I used S&W canned red beans. I actually added more olive oil before serving.

Note: The book states that you can find quinoa at health food stores or in the grains section of a large supermarket. I've seen it at most supermarkets in my area.

Note: The recipe gives calories (254 per serving), grams of fat, protein, carbs, fiber etc. It also gives "exchanges" like 1 starch, 1 1/2 vegetable etc.

Orzo Pasta Salad

Toga! Toga! Toga! Mr. L and I were invited to a Greek party this past weekend. As the hosts were providing a nice juicy BBQ Leg of Lamb, guests were asked to contribute some sort of Greek side dish. I had been running across orzo recipes for ages and thought that something made with it would be a great dish to bring. I wanted to make a cold pasta salad thinking that would save the hosts trouble from trying to reheat it and cold pasta was something I could prepare ahead of time. Unfortunately, all the orzo recipes I came across were heated (don't worry, I took notes and will make them later!). Most of the recipes also had way to many ingredients and I was looking for something simple that the kids at the party might eat. Failing to locate anything in my cookbooks that seemed to go with the dish I had in my head, I, GASP, improvised and kind of put something together from all the recipes I found.

I think this turned out ok. I thought it was a bit dry, but Mr. L said it was fine. The party went well, the lamb was delicious, my toga was made out of a white curtain I found tucked away in a closet and Mr. L won the Olympic game of "one minute to eat five saltine crackers without water"...not an easy thing to do!

ORZO PASTA SALAD

16 ounces orzo pasta
4 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons Red Wine vinegar
1/2 cup minced red onion
1 6oz container crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook orzo according to package directions. Drain pasta and transfer to large bowl. Stir in the olive oil, vinegar, red onion, feta cheese, lemon juice and basil. Toss to combine. Season with Salt and Pepper.

Though several recipes had adding tomatoes to the recipe, I didn't add them. I used them as a decoration instead. Serves 10 to 12.

Crab Louis with Thousand Island Dressing

When I picked up my Fog City Diner cookbook and decided to cook out of it, I went to send an e-mail to my friend in Discovery Bay. She and her husband had given me the book for my birthday back in 93. I thought it was a good sign that when I logged on, I had an e-mail from her out of the blue. Timing....

I thought, looking at this recipe, that it would be much tougher to make...you have to prepare two dressings...but it actually wasn't that hard or time consuming. The salad tasted great, but the Thousand Island Dressing really made the dish.

CRAB LOUIS WITH THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING

9 cups mixed greens
6 Tablespoons House Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
1 pound crab meat, cleaned of any shell fragments
18 cherry tomatoes or wedges of ripe tomato
6 hard-boiled eggs, cut in wedges
6 wedges or 12 slices avocado (optional)
6 lemon wedges
2 cups Thousand Island Dressing (see previous post)
2 tablespoons chopped and squeezed parsley

Lightly toss the greens in the vinaigrette and divide them among the plates. Place a mound of crab meat on top of the greens and surround it with the tomatoes and wedges of hard-boiled egg, avocado, and lemon. Dress each serving with 2 Tablespoons of the Thousand Island Dressing and garnish with parsley. Serve with the remaining dressing on the side. Serves 6

Note: I didn't measure the greens, the amount of tomatoes etc. I just added some lettuce to the dish, poured on vinaigrette, added some crab meat in the middle and surrounded it with avocado chunks, egg and halved cherry tomatoes and then added some of the Thousand Island Dressing. I also didn't use fresh crab, I used a really good can of lump crab meat. Also omitted the parsley.

HOUSE VINAIGRETTE

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 shallots, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Kosher or sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup virgin olive oil

In a mixing bowl, combine the vinegars, shallots, mustard, salt and pepper. Gradually whisk in the oils and continue to whisk until thoroughly emulsified. Keep refrigerated. Mix the dressing well again just before using, as the ingredients will separate. This dressing will keep for several days in the fridge. Makes one cup.

Note: Why regular olive oil and extra virgin? Don't know. But I bought a small bottle of regular and used it. Why put this dressing on the salad greens when you already have the Thousand Island Dressing? Don't know that either but I used it. This dressing is really good on it's own and worked well with just regular salads.

The whole thing together tasted very good. Very easy to throw together and if you make the vinaigrette and Thousand Island Dressing ahead of time very quick. The Thousand Island Dressing is WONDERFUL and I would recommend that above all else.

Chicken Salad Veronique

This is one of those recipes where I immediately knew when it was all done, that I could have done it better. This is a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa At Home. I remember a version of this from my childhood that had sliced almonds in it. Considering it was hot out, I thought this would be a great recipe to try.

One of the problems I had with this was to much chicken. I bought range chicken breasts at Cosentinos and once the salad was made, I realized there was way more chicken in ratio to everything else. So I had to start adding more of the other ingredients. I added at least another half cup of grapes and probably another half cup of mayo. I also made this right after work so the chicken didn't have enough time to cool properly. I think this tastes much better slightly chilled. And several tasters mention that the chunks of chicken seemed too big, so next time I'd cut them smaller.

Once I started adding additional ingredients I think I didn't add enough tarragon, the salad could have used more...I think it would have blended the flavors together better.

And this is probably better eaten right away. After a few days in the fridge it got kind of mushy which my mom didn't like.

It still wasn't a bad recipe. I think any problems with it were completely cooks error!

Chicken Salad Veronique

4 split (2 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
Olive Oil
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup good mayonnaise
1 1/2 Tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon leaves
1 cup small-diced celery (2 stalks)
1 cup green grapes, cut in half

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Place the chicken breasts, skin side up, on a sheet pan and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside until cool.
When the chicken is cool, remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin and bones. Cut the chicken into a 3/4 inch dice. Place the chicken in a bowl; add the mayonnaise, tarragon leaves, celery, grapes, 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper and toss well.
Serves 4

Again, this didn't taste bad, but with all the changes mentioned above, I think it would taste pretty good.

Notes: It is just against our nature to toss that wonderful roasted chicken skin. So we ate it...made a nice appetizer!