Chicken Salad with Mango and Blueberries

Evidently, I made a lot of salads with berries this summer that I didn't get around to posting. This is the last, which combines blueberries with mango, goat cheese, chicken and walnuts.

Chicken Salad with Mango and Blueberries

2 tbsp. olive oil
3/4 lb. chicken breast cutlets
Seasoned salt and fresh-ground black pepper
2 cups baby arugula
1 ripe mango, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
1/3 cup walnut halves, toasted
2 tbsp. goat cheese, crumbled

Dressing:
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper

1. Heat olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Pat chicken cutlets dry, sprinkle with seasoned salt and pepper and sauté 10 minutes, turning over halfway through. Set aside and, when cooled, chop cutlets.

2. In a large salad bowl, combine arugula, mango, blueberries and walnuts.

3. Whisk together olive oil, honey, vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour over salad and toss to combine. Serve on plates topped with goat cheese and chicken.

Blackberry & Cucumber Salad with Fennel Pollen

On a recent New York trip, I picked up fennel pollen at Eataly, Mario Batali's Italian mega-market just off Madison Square Park. Awhile back, I'd been making a recipe (coincidentally, one of Batali's) that called for fennel pollen and I couldn't find it anywhere. So when I saw it at Eataly, I picked some up in case I ever needed it again.

Of course, I tried a little bit to see what it was like. Unsurprisingly, a lot like fennel, although more intense than you would expect and even a little sweet. A little goes a long way. For its inaugural use in my kitchen, I opted to sprinkle it over a salad with blackberries, cucumber and arugula. Not wanting to overpower it, I kept the dressing very basic.

This salad features another unique find: lemon cucumbers. My farmers market has them sometimes. They are thicker and shorter than your regular cucumbers (so basically more spherical) and have a yellow-white skin. They don't really taste different than other cucumbers and they certainly don't taste like lemons, just resemble them.

Blackberry & Cucumber Salad with Fennel Pollen

Serves 2

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Three cups of arugula
2/3 cup fresh blackberries
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 lemon cucumbers, peeled and chopped (can substitute one regular cucumber)
Pinch of fennel pollen (no more than 1/8 tsp.)

Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to make the vinaigrette. Combine the other ingredients in a large bowl and toss with the vinaigrette. After plating, sprinkle lightly with fennel pollen.

Food (Section) Fight!: Week 34

Food (Section) Fight! is my weekly look at The Washington Post's Food section and The New York Times' Dining section with my verdict on which section had the better content for the week.

Washington Post

1) "Capitol Cocktail: Gin Rickey." The last in this summer installment of cocktails by Washington-area mixologists highlights the city's official cocktail, the Gin Rickey, a simple blend of gin, lime and sparkling water served over ice. I think I could use one about now.

2) "Curry-Glazed Pork," Dinner in Minutes recipe by Bonnie S. Benwick. For this dish, Benwick took a much longer recipe from a gluten-free cookbook and adapted it into a quick 30-minute meal. The pork cutlets are cooked in a pan and then glazed with a soy, garlic, curry and honey sauce.

3) "Lids, rings and pings, now more than ever," article by Bonnie S. Benwick. Benwick's cookbook column looks at the resurgent canning craze, reviewing six recent volumes on the subject. There are a host of related recipes too, including one for Summer Herb Brown Mayonnaise, which technically doesn't strike me as a preservation recipe (since it only lasts a week in the fridge), but sounds really easy and delicious.

4) "Is this the nudge some Americans need?" Smarter Food column by Jane Black. Black takes a look at Linkwell Health, a company that works with health plans and food companies to encourage certain consumer segments to eat better by providing them targeted coupons. The story discusses how this approach--more so than the often expensive organic/local/whole foods one--may have greater impact in improving many people's diets.

New York Times

"Italy to Brooklyn, Fig by Fig," A Good Appetite column by Melissa Clark. Clark writes lovingly about the fig tree growing on her Brooklyn property, which is a seasonal source of fresh figs (I'm jealous--I don't think I've ever had a fresh fig). She accompanies the stories with recipes for Lamb and Fig Kebabs with Honey and Rosemary and Fig-Hazelnut Financiers, which both sound really good.

"Magic Measured in a Pile of Salt," Letters from Paris essay by Elaine Sciolino. Someone in the Sciolino household must do something far more lucrative than write for a newspaper food section, given that she talks about how her family rents a house on the French west coast every August (how cool is that!). In this interesting piece, she talks about the sea salt harvest, from which come France's famous gray sea salt and fleur de sel.

"Fresh Beans in the Salad Push Cans to the Side," City Kitchen column and recipe by David Tanis. I've seen some interesting beans at the farmers market lately, and Tanis's Fresh Multibean Salad with Charred Red Onion may be the push I need to pick some up. The recipe, which calls for using a mix of shelling, green, Romano and yellow wax beans, sounds tasty.

"At Eataly, the Ovens and the Cash Registers Are Hot," article by Glenn Collins. Last time I was in New York, I made my first visit to Eataly, Mario Batali's large-scale Italian market off of Madison Square Park. It was a really cool place, where I picked up such rarities as trofie pasta and fennel pollen. So I'm glad to hear that the market is doing very well financially, and national expansion is apparently underway (come to DC!).

Verdict

The New York Times. Kind of a quiet week in my opinion for both publications (understandable, since it's the week before Labor Day). I give the edge to the Times for some great recipes and peak at the success of Eataly.

Score

The New York Times: 17
The Washington Post: 16

Rocket Salad with Blueberries

"Rocket" is the term Brits use for Arugula, also known as Rucola. I think its the perfect term for the green, especially if freshly picked, when its peppery bitterness can be so intense that it burns your mouth. That's when you know you're eating a "rocket" salad and not just arugula.

Here I've paired the green with seasonal fresh blueberries and tomatoes, tossed with a zippy vinaigrette, some goat cheese, and a bit of anise-like flavor, courtesy of the tarragon.

Rocket Salad with Blueberries


1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste

3 handfuls of rocket (a.k.a. arugula)
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup yellow grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cucumber, halved, seeded and sliced
2 tbsp. fresh tarragon leaves
4 oz. goat cheese (chèvre), crumbled

Whisk together vinegar and olive oil with salt and pepper to make vinaigrette. Combine other ingredients in large bowl. Toss with vinaigrette.

Salmon with Blueberries

This week, I'm going to focus on a getting up a few dishes I've made recently with berries, specifically blueberries and blackberries, which are in season right now, but probably not for much longer.

This dish appeared recently in the New York Times. It strikes me as a very "Oregon" dish--salmon and blueberries are, after all, pretty abundant there.

A neighbor told me how much she liked this dish, but noted that it has a lengthy cooking time. In adapting the recipe, I was able to save some time by broiling the salmon, instead of roasting it. That I was only making half of much blueberry sauce also probably saved some time. Additionally, I brightened the dish a bit with some fresh tarragon.

Salmon with Blueberries
Adapted from Salmon with Agrodolce Blueberries, Melissa Clark, The New York Times

2 servings

2 tbsp. sweet onion, minced
3/4 cup white wine (sauvignon blanc)
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
3-4 thyme sprigs
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
Salt
3/4 cup blueberries
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. honey
3/4 lb. salmon fillet
Olive oil
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
Fresh tarragon leaves

1. Preheat the broiler. Position oven racks 4 and 10 inches from broiler.

2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine onion, wine, vinegar, thyme, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated (about 1/4-1/3 cup liquid remains), about 15 minutes. Remove and discard thyme sprigs and cinnamon sticks. Add blueberries, butter and honey, cooking until the berries soften and the sauce turns a deep pink, about 4-5 minutes. Set aside.

3. Place salmon on oiled rimmed baking sheet, skin side down. Spray exposed flesh side with olive oil. Broil 4 inches from broiler about 5 minutes. Turn fillet over and broil another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and discard skin.

4. Place broiled salmon in an oiled 9 x 9 inch baking dish. Pour blueberry sauce over salmon. Place in oven and broil 10 inches from broiler about 5 minutes. Cut fish in half and remove, placing on plates. Return baking dish with remaining blueberry sauce to oven and broil 10 inches from broiler about 5 minutes to concentrate sauce. Spoon sauce over fillet, season with fresh-ground black pepper and sprinkle with tarragon.

Roasted Tomato Sauce: Two More Uses

Before tomato "fortnight" concludes, I wanted to share two more great uses for the Roasted Tomato Puree that was the base of the two pasta dishes I've posted in the last 2 weeks.

Tomatoes Two-Ways Pasta Sauce (Vegetarian Version)

This was what I meant to make instead of the Extra Fresh Pasta with Ricotta and Roasted Tomato Sauce, except that the grape tomatoes I'd bought for the dish went bad (and I didn't discover it until I started cooking). Make it the same way as that dish except, when adding the roasted tomato sauce the pan with the cooked garlic, also stir in two cups of halved grape tomatoes.

Pizza Sauce

Roasted tomatoes also make excellent homemade pizza sauce. After roasting the tomatoes at 350 F for 2 hours, before pureeing in the food processor, I added dried oregano, additional salt, fresh-ground black pepper, garlic powder, and a pinch of red pepper flakes (all of that was done to taste, so use as little or as much as each as you like).

I used the sauce on pizza with mozzarella, pepperoni, Italian sausage, caramelized onions, red pepper and basil.

Although this may look like the surface of another planet, it's actually a baking sheet prepared with olive oil and cornmeal, awaiting pizza dough.

Basic Ratatouille

This is a another great dish to celebrate summer vegetables at their peak, specifically eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes, the triple-play foundation of this classic French staple, which often includes a mix of herbs, garlic, onion, and potentially other things. It's pretty versatile that way.

Even the cooking method may vary. Is it oven or stovetop? All ingredients separately or all together?

I contemplating making my ratatouille as a roasted dish, but ultimately opted for stovetop because it is faster. Although I didn't cook the vegetables separately, I did cook them in stages, adding the vegetables that need to cook longer first (the eggplant, in particular) and those that need less cooking last (like the tomatoes). This is an approach favored by Mark Bittman who, as usual, seems to know what he's talking about.

Ratatouille by itself makes an excellent side dish or, if topping a pile of rice or pasta, a main dish. I served mine over some buttered brown rice.

Basic Ratatouille
Adapted from The Minimalist: Easy Ratatouille by Mark Bittman

1 1/2 to 2 pounds of eggplant (two eggplants on the smallish side), tops cut off, cut into 1-inch cubes
Salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium or 1/2 large sweet onion, diced
2 green zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into 1/4-inch half-rounds
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 fresh thyme sprigs
2 large tomatoes (regular red variety), diced
Fresh-ground black pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
3 cups cooked, buttered brown or white rice or pasta (optional--suggested for serving as a main dish)

1. Add cubed eggplant to a colander set over a bowl (or in the sink). Sprinkle with salt, mix well and let sit for about 30 minutes. Rinse well.

2. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan or steep-sided sauté pan. Add eggplant, and saute until it softens and turns a golden color, about 20 minutes. Add onion and zucchini; sauté 5 minutes. Add garlic and thyme; sauté another minute. Add the tomatoes and cook another few minutes until they soften. Season to taste with salt and fresh-ground black pepper. Serve over rice or pasta as as main dish or by itself as a side dish, topped by fresh basil.