Grilled Corn and Pepper Salad on Cilantro Lime Rice

Every year, as soon as spring hits, I'm constantly amazed at how amazing the fresh produce can be.  You'd think I'd get used to it, but after a dreary winter of eating soups and stews, a fresh meal on a warm day is absolute bliss.  And of course, anytime I can also fire up the grill, I'm even happier.

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Grilled Corn and Pepper Salad on Cilantro Lime Rice
serves 2-3

2 small red/orange/yellow bell peppers (I used 1 red and 1 orange), chopped
1 medium ripe tomato, chopped
1 poblano pepper
2 ears of corn, shucked
1/4 red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped
1 large lime
1 cup rice

Cook the rice according to its instructions, preferably in a rice cooker.

While it's cooking, rub the corn and the poblano in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Grill them, turning often, until the corn caramelizes slightly on the outside and the poblano skin is charred.  Let them cool off the grill for 5-10 minutes, and then peel the charred skin off the poblano and discard, and chop up the flesh (removing seeds and stem).  Carve the kernels off the corn cob (alliteration, for the win!).  Combine the chopped poblano flesh and corn kernels with the fresh chopped bell peppers, finely diced red onion, chopped tomato, and half of the cilantro.  Juice 1/2 of the lime on the mixture, and season with salt and pepper.  Toss to mix, and set aside.

When the rice is finished cooking, add the remaining cilantro and juice from the other half of the lime to the rice, add a pinch of salt, and fluff to combine.

Serve the corn and pepper salad over the cilantro lime rice, and enjoy!


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Grilled Red Snapper with Warm Grilled Salad and Herb Dressing

When the weather begins to warm up in the springtime, there's nothing more wonderful than grilling.  Don't get me wrong, I still grill all winter long so long as there isn't measurable snow covering my grill.  But that's just a method of cooking - grilling in warmer weather is an experience.  You invite people over, crack open a beer, leave the windows open, and throw anything and everything on a big grill.  There's really nothing like it.

This past weekend, a friend came over to grill up some whole red snapper.  We had been aching to grill and it was finally warm enough, and she also had recently mentioned that she had never prepared a whole fish, so what better time than now!




Grilled Red Snapper with Warm Grilled Salad and Herb Dressing

Ok, that's a terrible title - I used "grilled" twice.  I make good food, I'm not a copywriter.

Herb Dressing
Dill
Italian Parsley
Capers
Garlic cloves
Lemon Juice (1 lemon - fresh)
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

I realize I didn't use any measurements here, because you'll want to do this to taste.  Stuff a ton of dill and Italian parsley into a blender (or magic bullet, which I used), a few capers, 2-3 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil.  You'll want to keep adding olive oil as you blend until you get a thick creamy/smooth consistency.  Don't add too much oil, or it will turn into an herb oil not a thick herb dressing.


Preparing the Red Snapper
When buying your snapper, have the butcher remove the gills, and if the scales are still on, might as well have them scale it too.  Scaling a fish is no picnic, and those little buggers get everywhere.

Stuff the cavity of the red snapper with thin lemon slices, fresh dill, and Italian parsley. Score the flesh of the fish 2-3 times per side, and rub the outside with a Tbs or so of your herb dressing (be careful to not contaminate the remaining herb dressing with raw fish spoon or something - you'll want to use this cool and uncooked on the fish and salad later).  Set these aside to come to room temperature.  Fight off circling cats.


Grilled Salad
3 ears of corn, unhusked (pull off silks though)
3 large potatoes, sliced into 1" thick slices
1/2 yellow onion
1 small head napa cabbage, sliced in half

The ingredients are listed in order of how long they need to be on the grill.  The corn should be put on the grill first, and will take 15-20 minutes, rotating every 5 minutes.  Cook the potatoes until they're fully cooked throughout.  Grill the onion, cut side down, for 7-10 minutes.  And finally, oil (and salt & pepper) the cut side of the cabbage halves, and place them on the hot grill for 5 minutes.  Remove all the veggies, and let them cool.  Set aside.

Now it's time to come back to the fish.

Place the fish on the hot grill and close the lid; let cook for 6-8 minutes.  Then flip the fish, and let cook for another 6-8 minutes on the other side.



The goal of course is to preserve that wonderful skin, which will get nice and crispy.  The key to this is using enough of the herb dressing to oil the fish and help keep it from sticking.  You'll notice one of my fish got a little stuck, so I could have used a little more dressing/oil on the fish to avoid that.

After the 6-8 minutes are up, remove the fish from the grill.



As your fish rest for a couple minutes, roughly chop up the grilled veggies, which now should be warm enough to handle.  Toss with some of the herb dressing to coat.



Serve the fish family style with the warm grilled salad and a side of extra herb dressing.

Pasta Salad with Avocado-Lemon Dressing

When the weather starts to warm up and the produce is flourishing, I get so excited to make fresh dinners highlighting the beautiful raw ingredients.  Since it actually reached into the 80's this week, I decided to make a nice cool pasta salad one night.

Pasta salads are great because you get to use up whatever veggies you have on hand, maybe some cheese and some meat if you prefer - basically, there's no way to go wrong.  And while I have made pasta salad with bottled dressing plenty of times in the past, I've recently been drawn to making my own dressings, especially on a pasta salad where the dish is a meal in itself.

The other night, I had an avocado on hand, perfectly ripe.  At first I was going to just chop it up with the other veggies, and then I had one of those eureka! moments...




Pasta Salad with Avocado-Lemon Dressing
serves 3-4

For the dressing:
1 large avocado, ripe
2-3 Tbs olive oil
The juice of 1 small fresh lemon
A pinch of salt & pepper, to taste

In a small food processor (I used my magic bullet), puree the dressing ingredients together.  Adjust the amount of olive oil as you puree if you need more to make it combine into a nice thick creamy dressing.  Also, feel free to back off on the lemon juice if you prefer your dressing less acidic.

Pasta salad:
2 cups of pasta (I prefer small shells or rotini for pasta salad)
Any chopped veggies you like (I used broccoli, red pepper, and tomatoes, since I had that on hand)
Optional: meat (I threw in some leftover crumbled bacon, but leftover grilled chicken would be great as well)
*I wouldn't include cheese in this, since I think the cheese texture/flavor would get overpowered by the creamy avocado dressing

Cook the pasta to al dente, immediately drain and rinse with cold water to cool the pasta.  Put the pasta in a fridge for 20-30 minutes to cool completely.  Meanwhile, chop up your veggies, and the meat if you're including any.  Toss the chopped ingredients with the cooled pasta, and top with the dressing.  Stir to combine, and top with freshly cracked pepper.  Serve, and ideally enjoy outside with some beautiful weather!

A Day in Chianti

A month ago, Chris and I had the wonderful opportunity to take a trip through Italy and the Swiss Alps.  It was a two-week trip of a lifetime, and I can't even begin to wrap my head around sorting through the 1000+ gorgeous pictures I came home with, let alone narrow it down to make a keepsake photo album.



One of our longest stops was in Florence, where we rented a charming little apartment for a week and spent time both enjoying the sights in Florence, as well as getting outside of the city to enjoy a few day trips.  But since this is a food and wine (and craft, but come on, I wasn't crafting in Italy!) blog, it's only fitting that the highlight of this post is the culinary highlight of our trip.

And for that, I must take you to Chianti.



We researched and hired a local driver to take us around the Chianti region of Tuscany on our second day in Florence, which was definitely a good decision.  Come on - renting a car and driving around those winding roads in a country where we don't know the language?  While drinking wine?  Let's just not go there.

Our driver showed up and she was lovely, and my goodness she was good at weaving in and out of the crazy traffic/randomly parked cars!  Also, and most importantly, she was very familiar with the various wineries and had great rapport with the wineries where we stopped.




Even though it was a dreary, rainy day, I still got some great photos, and my loving husband was so kind to hold the umbrella over my head as I snapped away!

But now we reach the part of the story where we talk about the food.

Around lunchtime, we stopped at a winery called Casa Emma.  At this point in the day, the rain was coming down in sheets, and as soon as we stepped inside, it started hailing.  We were happy to be inside and be warm, and the winery manager was happy that someone actually braved the weather to come in.  He immediately sat us down, rolled the heater over, and shared the story of his winery with us.  He prepared a light cheese and prosciutto platter, and we tasted all of the winery's wines, as well as the best olive oil and balsamic vinegar (both also products of the winery) I have ever had.

Once we were done with the tasting, he asked if we wanted to stay for lunch.  They had a full dining room that was recently built in the back of the building, overlooking their vines, so of course we obliged.  Since we were the only ones there, I think they were also thrilled to have someone to enjoy the food they had been lovingly preparing.



We were treated to a wonderful four-course meal, all specialties of the region.  And of course, we had plenty of wine.

We started with a selection of light starters, including a liver pate that is very traditional for the area.

Of all the amazing food in that meal, the absolute most memorable dish for me was the pasta.




The pasta dish was a simple homemade pasta bolognese, but there was nothing simple about the complexity of flavor and the texture of the pasta.  That was the day where I finally fully understood the concept of al dente.  It's not just making sure not to overcook the pasta; a true homemade pasta, made perfectly, has the most incredible texture.  Then paired with a deep, rich sauce, and of course finished with some of the winery's olive oil, the experience was ethereal.






We then had a pork dish that blew my husband's mind, including a 2-day red wine sauce that had outrageous depth of flavor.  Though I will admit it wasn't a pretty dish, it was certainly something special to taste.  Chris even asked them how they made the sauce, and the winery manager went back and asked the chef, then came back out and dictated a full list of instructions.  You can find the recipe at the bottom of the post, but I warn you, it is a very quick list of steps, and involves what I assume to be absurd amounts of olive oil and wine.



And of course, you also finish it with even more olive oil.  Eeesh.


Finally, no meal would be complete without a little dessert.



...and a little dessert wine.



Even with the cold and rainy weather, our day and this meal experience in Chianti was one of the most incredible memories of the whole trip.


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Pork Loin in 2-day Red Wine Sauce
That's what I'm going to call it since they didn't actually tell us its name.  Also, the instructions are fairly crude since the winery manager was just talking us through how they make it.  You take what you can get!

1. Start with a good amount of olive oil in a big roasting pan (after what I saw with the abundance of olive oil at this winery, I'd say "good amount" probably means a whole lot of olive oil.  Hey - maybe that's why it was so good!)
2. Add one carrot, half an onion, and lots of garlic to the pan.
3. Heat the pan, and add a large pork loin when the oil is hot.  Turn to sear on all sides.
4. Kill the heat.
5. Add enough red wine to cover 3/4 of the loin (oh right - the other reason why this tasted so good.)
6. Cook in an oven at 350F/180C until the wine is fully reduced (sorry, he didn't tell me how long this takes, but I'm guessing quite a while)
7. Remove from heat, let it cool, and put in the refrigerator overnight.
8. The next day, remove the pork, and stir the sauce over heat by hand until everything breaks down.
9. Slice the pork thinly, sear quickly in a pan to heat, and top with the sauce and serve.