Socks and Salads

"She wondered how she could possibly accommodate what had happened to her life. She had no choice but to live around it." -Jim Harrison, The Farmer's Daughter



One,



two,



three,



and maybe four? I'll just have to wait and see if I have enough yarn to finish a fourth Socks with Lacepattern (click here).



We are in the middle of the season for salads made with lettuce fresh from the garden. I absolutely love wandering into the garden every evening and picking lettuces for our dinner salad. We seldom buy salad dressings, since they are really quite easy to make. Eating salad every day never gets old when the lettuce is perfect and the dressings are varied. I'm always looking for new ones to add to my repertoire and I'm guessing many of you are too. The Poppy Seed Salad Dressing (click here) I fell in love with last year is still appreciated on just about any kind of greens, but I must say I think Caesar Salad is my absolute favorite. The Caesar Salad we made last weekend with Flashy Trout Back Romaine (click here) lettuce from the garden was fantastic, but I admit I will greedily gobble up any Caesar. This is the Caesar Salad Dressing recipe I use year-round on both summer's spectacular and winter's mundane romaine lettuces.



Caesar Salad
Blend together in a mini-food processor, pint jar with a tight fitting lid, or with a wand blender:
4 anchovy fillets, minced or 1 1/2 t. anchovy paste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T. Dijon mustard
2 T. red wine vinegar
2 drops Tabasco Sauce
1 t. Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 c. olive oil

Toss with 2-4 quarts washed and chopped romaine lettuce, 1-2 c. (3-5 oz.) croutons, and 1/4 - 1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese. This is best served right away, but I admit I am usually quite happy to eat even limp day-old (or more) Caesar Salad leftovers -it really is one of my all time favorites.

Kashmiri Meatballs

Kashmiri Meatballs Mix:
1 lb. ground lamb
1 T. (or more) grated ginger root
1 1/2 t. each cumin and coriander
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. each ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, black pepper and cayenne
1 small egg, beaten
2 T. yogurt
1/4 c. bread crumbs

Form 1 1/2 T. sized meatballs and chill one hour or longer. Heat large skillet. Add 2-3 T. ghee or oil, add meatballs and brown. Mix 2 T. yogurt and 1/3-1/2 c. water. Add/Pour over meatballs and cover and cook, turning occasionally, until moisture is absorbed (2o minutes or so).



While the meatballs were cooking, I made a pot of plain white basmati rice and the following red lentils -which turn yellow when cooked with the turmeric.



Red Lentils In pressure cooker, bring to high pressure over medium high heat:

1 c. red lentils
4 c. water
4 slices fresh ginger root
1-2 T. ghee
1/2 t. each salt, turmeric, cumin and coriander

Lower heat and cook 5 minutes. Shut off heat and allow pressure to drop naturally. Add 2 T. minced cilantro before serving.



Carrot and Onion Salad

Peel and grate 3 carrots. Halve a half of onion, and cut into thin lengthwise slices.

Mix together with:
1 t. grated ginger root
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1/8 t. cayenne
4 t. lemon juice

Serve immediately or can be made several hours ahead. I made this salad before I started cooking anything else for this meal. In all honesty, I was a bit dubious about this recipe, but it is really quite good and we polished off every last bit. Do give it a try!

Cucumber Salad

My husband plants both pickling and slicing cucumber varieties in our garden. When I was a kid growing up on the ranch, I remember only the pickling type being grown. We ate the slightly-too-large-for-dill-pickle-sized ones sliced and covered with a light brine with a few onion rings added. After working in the garden or hay fields it was very refreshing. The really over-sized ones we carved into boats to float down the creek that ran through the barn lot, or we fed them to the pigs and milk cows.



My kids don't work in the garden or hay fields but they do eat the brined, sliced cucumbers of my childhood. They also eat sliced cucumbers -preferably dipped in rice vinegar- like some kids eat potato chips. Every year almost daily throughout cucumber season, we eat LOTS of sliced cucumbers. Until last year, the cucumber slices dipped in rice wine vinegar, and the ranch-style lightly brined cucumber slices were mostly how we ate our garden cucumbers. Last summer, I decided to try this salad recipe and what a revelation! I fell in love with its creamy sweet-sour bite with the flavor of fresh dill over the cool, crisp cucumbers. It is quite shameful, but whenever I make this salad, I usually end up eating practically half of it -I simply can't help myself. Luckily for me, we now have tons of cucumbers and some dill weed growing in our garden and I plan to enjoy eating a lot of cucumber salad for awhile!



Cucumber Salad
Adapted from Danish Food and Cooking by Judith Dern

Mix:
1/2 c. sour cream (or plain yogurt)
2 T. sugar
1/3 c. white vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
3 T. finely minced fresh dill weed

Thinly slice 2-4 large cucumbers into a glass dish. Pour dressing over, mix and chill. It is best when served the same day and goes particularly well with salmon.

Marion Cunningham's Turnip Slaw

We harvested the first of the turnips this week. Earlier in the week I used some in a stir fry of bok choy, turnips, asparagus and shrimp (Yum). Last night I made a turnip coleslaw from The Supper Book by Marion Cunningham. How can you not love a cookbook called The Supper Book? It is full of recipes for all sorts of cozy foods. I served the turnip slaw with more spinach salad and BBQ sandwiches -the burger buns I made in the morning and pork contry-style ribs and sauce cooked in the crock-pot while I weeded in the garden. I liked the slaw but my teen politely declined to taste it. "Mom, nobody likes turnips." Well, I do. I wouldn't recommend making this with turnips that have been sitting around for awhile, but only with ones just pulled up from the garden -or bought at the farmer's market. This is my adaptation of the recipe and I hope you like it.
Turnip Slaw
Mix well and refrigerate:
1/4 c. mayo
2 T. sour cream
1 t. white vinegar
1/2 t. Dijon mustard
1/2 t. sugar
1/4 t. celery seed
salt and pepper to taste
1 t. each minced fresh tarragon and dill
2 c. peeled and grated fresh turnips