(Cooked) Carrot and Radish Salad - Recipe

Salad with Cooked Baby Carrots and Sliced Radishes in a Ginger-Lime Dressing

It is still early season at our farmer's markets in the Northwest. The booths aren't full yet, but I enjoy the challenge of figuring out what to make with a limited palette. Small, super-sweet carrots and radishes in every color are two of the items that caught my eye this week.

When I think of salads, I tend to focus on raw ingredients and forget that cooked and chilled vegetables are a perfectly valid option. This dish is an easy and pleasant exception, especially if you already have a pot of water boiling for pasta.

You'll want to pay attention to your technique when boiling the carrots. The water should be in a good sized pot at a full boil and well salted. Check them frequently for tenderness, and the very second they are done, plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking, preserving the texture and color. This is very simple, but the details matter.

You could do the same dish with baby beets or turnips or even potatoes and it would be just as wonderful. You could also elaborate with say, toasted sesame seeds, or a bit of pesto made from the carrot tops.

The recipe is pretty flexible about amounts, and will make more dressing than you need; you can use it the next day in a different salad.

Since staging at Canlis I've become attuned to the option of intentionally not emulsifying dressings, allowing the oil to separate to produce an attractive look on the plate. That is what I did here. If you want it to emulsify, add a small amount of mustard or xanthan gum, whiz the heck out of it just before serving, or use the traditional technique of adding the oil in a thin stream while whisking

Cooked Carrot and Radish Salad
Vegetarian, Vegan, and Gluten-Free
Serves 4

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup lime juice or lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
• salt to taste
• 1 bunch of small, sweet carrots with tops attached
• 4-6 radishes, preferably of varying colors
• a few tiny sprigs of dill
• finishing salt (this Haleaka Ruby would be amazing)

1. Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil and set up an ice bath.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together the olive oil, citrus juice, and ginger. Add salt to taste, and reserve.
3. Peel the carrots and trim the tops, leaving about 1/2 inch of stem.
4. Thinly slice the radishes, using a mandoline if available.
5. When the water is boiling, cook the carrots until tender, checking them frequently with the point of a knife. When they are just tender, remove them immediately to the ice water.
6. When you are ready to serve, drain the carrots and pat them dry. Give the dressing a quick whisk and toss the carrots with some of it. Transfer to a serving platter, and arrange the radish slices amongst and over them. Drizzle more dressing over the top. Garnish with the dill and finishing salt.

Potatoes, Chanterelles, Shallots in Red Wine Sauce - Recipe

Potatoes, Chanterelles, Shallots in Red Wine Sauce

I'd been ruminating on how I was going to use these heirloom Rose Finn fingerling potatoes from our garden. My first thought was to glaze them in butter with shallots and preserved lemon. Then the whole plan changed when I was walking past our co-op and spotted a huge bin of beautiful local chanterelles.

Sometimes all of the chanterelles I can find are either half dried up, or else soggy and on the verge of rotting. Not these - they were plump and firm and fully arresting. My coworkers were a bit amused when I veered off from our afternoon coffee run directly into the store and returned to work with a big bag of mushrooms.

So: out with the preserved lemon, and in with a red wine pan sauce. I should cook like this more often. Ridiculously simple, earthy, rich, and delicious. A very French feel. I particularly liked having the potatoes in the dish, because after I ate all of the mushrooms and sweet shallots, I mashed the spuds into the sauce and mopped it all up.

Potatoes, Chanterelles, Shallots in Red Wine Sauce
Vegetarian and gluten-free
Serves 2 as a major side or up to 4 as a few bites; or me for my whole dinner

• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 cups small (or cut) fingerling potatoes
• 1 cup or more chanterelle mushrooms, thoroughly wiped clean
• 4 medium or 2 very large shallots, cut into large bite-size chunks
• 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup red wine
• minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• black pepper

1. In a medium skillet with a lid, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat.
2. Add the potatoes, mushrooms, shallots, rosemary and salt and toss to coat. Cook for about 8 minutes, trying to get a little browning going but without burning anything.
3. Add 1/2 cup water, put on the lid, and reduce the heat to a simmer.
4. Cook until the potatoes are tender, adding more water as needed to keep it from burning.
5. When the potatoes are cooked, remove the top and raise the heat to cook off any remaining liquid.
6. Remove all of the vegetables to a platter, and then deglaze the pan with the wine. Raise the heat to medium high. Scrape all of the browned bits (the fond) off of the bottom of the pan into the sauce. Break up the remaining butter and whisk it vigorously into the sauce, which should have a nice sheen. This whole step should take just a couple of minutes, reducing and thickening the sauce slightly.
7. Spoon the sauce over the vegetables (either on a platter or individual plates), garnish with parsley and a grind of black pepper and serve.

Puntarelle and Tiny Potato Salad - Recipe

Salad of Puntarelle, Tiny Potatoes and Teleme

Sarina and I both fell in love from afar with these tiny little potatoes from Olsen Farms. We spotted them from a few booths away at the farmer's market, and even though we have several rows of potatoes growing at home, we had to have them. I know it is hard to see the scale, but each one was just a bit bigger than a large marble.

On the same day, I found this puntarelle (the leafy green you see in the picture). It looks a bit different than any pictures I found on the web with the same name. Possibly it was younger. Apparently it is in the chicory family. Certainly quite bitter, to the point where I wouldn't really eat it raw.

This wilted salad was my idea of how to pair these two beautiful ingredients. I added radishes, which accentuate the sharpness of the greens, creamy Teleme cheese and roasted garlic to tame them, and peaches and fine balsamico for a bit of sweetness. Toasted walnuts would be an excellent addition. Another soft cheese, a blue cheese or even feta could replace the Teleme

This same concept could be applied to other bitter greens, especially in the chicory family (escarole, radicchio, etc). If it was a head type instead of individual leaves, grilling would be a fine option.

Salad of Wilted Puntarelle, Tiny Potatoes and Teleme
Serves 4
Vegetarian and gluten-free; vegan if you omit the cheese

• 1 head of garlic
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups tiny potatoes (or cut up larger ones)
• 1 bunch of puntarelle, tough part of the stem removed
• 1 peach, peeled and cut into 8 sections
• 4 small pieces of Teleme cheese, room temperature
• 8 small radishes
• 8 slices of baguette
• salt
• balsamico

1. Slice the top 1/8" off the top of the head of garlic, wrap in tin foil, and roast in the oven or toaster oven at 375 F. for 30 minutes or until tender.
2. In a large skillet, heat the 1/4 cup of olive oil over a medium-high flame. Add the potatoes and 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally in a single layer until tender and the skins are beginning to brown. Blot with paper towels.
3. Drain excess oil from the skillet and add the puntarelle along with a pinch of salt and cook until it is beginning to wilt, about 1 minute.
4. Brush the baguette slices with olive oil, toast them, squeeze roasted garlic cloves on them and spread.
5. To assemble the salad, divide the greens among 4 plates. Top with the potatoes, peach sections,, cheese, radishes and roasted garlic toasts. Sprinkle on a bit more flaky sea salt and give them each a drizzle of balsamico.