I am such a sucker for grill marks. There is something about them that makes my artist’s eye really happy and quivery. I have been seeing grilled or fried cheese just about everywhere and really wanted to try my hand at it. Halloumi cheese seems to be the one most frequently chosen for grilling because of its low fat content, around 25%, and high melting point.

Halloumi originated in Cypress, which is a Greek and Turkish island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon. It was initially made there during the Medieval Byzantine period and traditionally contains sheep and goat’s milk. The Halloumi I used was made from only sheep’s milk and it had that really salty sheep-y taste I love. The texture was firm, even a little rubbery and the flavor of the grilled brown parts was so tasty.

Because Halloumi doesn’t melt, it is perfect for adding cubes to skewers with meats or vegetables for grilling. You can slice or coarsely grate it over pasta or pizza, or into salads, soups and omelettes. Use it on a sandwich like you would ricotta insalata. If you like the saltiness of feta, you will love Halloumi. I will definitely be finding other recipes in which to use this cheese. Yum.

The edible flowers in this salad all came from my garden. It was so much fun to pick them and place them just so on the salad. The little blue one at the top is from my borage plants. The larger orange ones on left and right are nasturtiums and on the bottom white carnation. The little one in the middle is a basil flower sprig. I had some marigolds earlier in the summer that I was going to use, but they are done now. Actually there are many edible flowers and you can probably find them in your garden. For a complete list of edible flowers you can click here, and be sure to read about the do’s and don’ts before going off with your basket and scissor. I put my flowers in a bowl of water and refrigerated them until I put them on the plate.

Halloumi with watermelon is a traditional Cyprian dish, and with good reason. The salty tangy cheese and sweet watermelon with the herby basil-mint sauce are such a taste treat. Not only is the flavor beguiling, but the texture of the crunchy melon and chewy cheese is really interesting, along with the minty aroma of the sauce. This salad has it all and I hope you give it a try. Bon Appetit.

Do you remember last June, when I was making Pistachio and Goat Cheese Wrapped Grapes and I told you Kim, from Rustic Garden Bistro, came for lunch and brought me fresh many-hued eggs from her very own chickens? Well, I wanted to make something really special with them and I think this Roasted Asparagus and Prosciutto Salad with Romesco Sauce is a very worthy dish to showcase those beautiful eggs.

I love all the components of this salad: the smoky crunch of asparagus, salty prosciutto with the great mouth feel of that little strip of fat, crisp fresh frisée and the runny rich yolk of the egg, all drizzled with a lemon juice vinaigrette. On top of all that is the Romesco Sauce, which is a thick mixture of ancho chiles, tomato, roasted red pepper, almonds, toasted bread, garlic, paprika, vinegar and olive oil. This makes you close your eyes as you savor each bite and feel replete with satisfaction at the end. *Sigh*

These are the beautiful eggs that Kim gave to me. I have never had eggs where I knew which chickens laid those eggs. My experience is with farm factory white eggs from the grocery store, which have served me well for 60 years. But knowing exactly which chicken created an egg is something really amazing to me. I guess I never thought about where eggs came from… well, they came from the market in those gray cardboard cartons, right?

Romesco Sauce is from Tarragona, Catalonia in Northeastern Spain where it is served with seafood and grilled vegetables. The Romesco Sauce in this recipe makes more than you will use, but it is delicious on meat, chicken, fish or stirred into fish stews. You can toss it with pasta, couscous, faro or rice, or use as a sandwich spread or dip for crudities. I just spread it on a slice of toasted sourdough bread and it was fanastic!

I don’t regularly photograph my lunch. I mean, you’ve seen one peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you’ve seen them all. And everyone knows how to make them. No fun. On the other hand, sometimes my lunch is sorta photogenic, like this chicken salad. I was just going to eat it, and then I really looked at it and thought to myself, you know, someone else might want to make this. The light wasn’t great to shoot, but you get the basic idea of what it looks like.

I had been thinking about a rotisserie chicken for the last week. Just to have on hand. They’re so easy. But it seemed every market I went in, I was compelled to pick up big containers and bags of greens. At the Korean market I bought a big plastic box of pea shoots and a small one of alfalfa sprouts. Then I went to Ralph’s and a plastic box of baby arugula hopped in my basket along with a big bunch of Italian parsley. A head of lettuce and fresh basil. Zucchini and avocado. I think my body was trying to tell me something. I couldn’t wait, I opened the pea shoots in the car and started stuffing in mouthfuls. Jeez, what was wrong with me.

Back in the kitchen, I mixed up the vinaigrette. Then a family member came into the kitchen and asked what I was making and what smelled so freaking good. It’s the vinaigrette, I said and I’m making a salad. Well, since you’re making one, how about doubling everything and making two, he said ingeniously. Ok, ok, beat it, I’ll let you know when it’s ready. So this is what I came up with. The pea shoots, arugula and parsley were so tasty together, in a way lettuces could never be. And let me tell you, this vinaigrette will knock your socks off. And maybe I’m weird, but I love the salty parmesan mustard umami plus the acid-y lemon juice on the orange slices. So if you’re craving green stuff for lunch, this will probably do it for you. It absolutely did it for me.

It’s that time of year, when the abundance of zucchini begins to appear. My readers are searching my site for zucchini recipes, so I would like to add another for your review. And by the way, if anyone has zucchini they want to anonymously leave on my doorstep, I live in Torrance, California. This may be one of those ‘be careful what you wish for’ things, but I really love zucchini. Bring it on.

For this grilled zucchini recipe, you really have to love anchovies. And garlic. The sauce is salty and complements the sweet charred flavors of the zucchini. With the little piquant crunch of the capers. This would be a great side dish with grilled chicken or steak. I can imagine this sauce on the beef slices or even grilled potatoes. Is your mouth watering yet?

I do have more zucchini recipes, so check them out:

Tomato & Zucchini Tian
End of Summer Zucchini Soup
Grilled Zucchini, Corn, Bell Pepper & Potato Salad
Chilled Leek & Zucchini Soup with Pancetta
Stuffed Zucchini Flowers
Sliced Chicken Salad with Zucchini Ribbons, Avocado & Oranges

Happy Zucchini Days!

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Last week I noticed Black Rice had appeared at my Ralphs Market for the first time and was totally intrigued, so I bought some. This Black Rice Salad was a great recipe to try it in and a perfect chance for me to use some of the green onions I have been growing on my kitchen counter.

This science experiment with the green onions I read about on ShockinglyDelicious. Dorothy said just cut the onions off about 4 inches above the roots, place in a glass of water and wait for the roots to grow and new onion shoots to grow out the top. This sounded like fun, so I did as she said and, lo and behold, I have ever-growing green onions. Which must be harvested and used up. Like in this salad.

The onions that grow are perfect, with no bug damage or imperfections like those you get at the market.  And they grow really fast. It seems like overnight they grow inches. It will be interesting to see how long they can keep it up. And how many recipes you’ll be reading on my blog that have green onions in them. lol.

The second science experiment on my kitchen counter is lemongrass, which is also growing roots, prior to being planted in a container outside. I have been very disappointed with the lemongrass I have bought at various markets. Usually it is dry, brown and totally tasteless and consequently the dish it is used in will be lacking its lemony-ness. I read somewhere you could get it to root in water. I found some stalks that seemed to have some life in them, put them in water and waited. And waited. I was going to throw them out as a failed experiment, and then one tiny little white bud appeared. I was jumping up and down like Rocky! Yes!! They will go in a container, not in the ground, as I understand they have a tendency to take over your yard. The running joke about lemongrass is: How do you get rid of lemongrass? You move to a new house. Anyway, I will be reporting on how this works out.

Lemongrass and its new roots!

There is no lemongrass is this Black Rice Salad, however, now that I’m thinking about it, there is lemon zest and lemon juice in the vinaigrette. So maybe next time I make this salad I will bruise and mince up some lemongrass and add it in. Hey, isn’t this how new recipes are born?

I moved into this new house last year in June 2011 and after moving in the boxes, unpacking and recovering from move trauma, it was July or August and much too late to put in a garden. The garden space was a mess with weeds and tar paper covered with redwood chips. This May I got the help of a gardener kid who did all the heavy work and then I put in plants from the nursery and seeds. I wanted everything I grew to be edible and I was especially excited about growing edible flowers.

In the photo above on top are the beginnings of my zucchini crowd. I am looking forward to stuffing the flowers and later using the squashes in many ways. To the right is a baby nasturtium which will provide peppery yellow and red flowers for salads. I have about 10 of these in various places around the garden. I can just see them now! You recognize the little tomato, with all its promise. There is nothing like a sun-ripened tomato from your own garden. And to the left are the borage babies. These are supposed to get 2-3 feet tall and have lots of edible bright blue star-shaped flowers. There may also be chive blossoms and marigold petals. I cannot believe how fast these guys are all growing. It is so interesting to see how they change on a daily basis. I will keep you updated.

Basil, Cilantro and Chives

Sage, Purple Sage and Mint

Thyme, Rosemary and Greek Oregano

Baby Oranges

Garden Images

Mango Madness #3 is Mango & Banana Salsa with Talapia, one of my favorite dishes using mangos. I could hardly wait to make this recipe, shoot it and EAT it. Sooo good. The bananas give this salsa a distinctive tropical Caribbean twist that enhances the flavor of the fish. I love the lime juice and cilantro that make this sparkle. A big Thank You to the National Mango Board for contributing so many mangos for me to get creative with. I have enjoyed every single one.

Did you know that one mango supplies 100% of your daily Vitamin C, 35% of your Vitamin A and 12% of your daily fiber? Plus over 20 different vitamins and minerals.  And the good news, one mango has only about 110 calories! When you’re selecting mangos, color is not the best indicator of ripeness. A ripe mango will be slightly soft to the touch, even though it is completely green or yellow. Ripe mangos will often have a fruity aroma at their stem ends. Keep unripe mangos at room temperature. When they are soft and ripe, they can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days. Mango import volume for 2010 was 770 million pounds, which were grown in Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Brazil. The Keitt is the only mango grown in the United States.

There are six mango varieties that you will likely find at your local grocery store. The Ataulfo variety is smaller and has yellow skin. There are five varieties that are large and green with partially red skin: The Francis, Haden, Keitt, Kent and Tommy Atkins. The mangos I received were not labeled with the variety, but they could have been Francis, Haden or Tommy Atkins, as those are the varieties that are available in May. The Kent is mainly available in July and the Keitt in August. What ever variety they were, they were delicious. Marvelous. Fantastic. Did I mention I love mangos?

Please check out my other Mango Madness posts for more great ways to use your mangos.

#1 Mango & Yogurt Parfait
#2 Mango-Glazed Bacon

Something very exciting happened recently – the Grace-Marie’s Cooking School at Bristol Farms web page is now featuring my photographs. Grace-Marie and I are so thrilled!! Below is a picture of the web page from their art department. You may recognize some of the photos. Sorry it’s not very clear…you can see it better on their website here.

As you may have guessed, since I have 25 posts about Grace-Marie’s Kitchen, that I love her, I love her recipes and I love photographing her classes. In March and May there will be a new hands-on class called “Friends Cookin Together” and I can hardly wait to photograph the students actually doing the cooking themselves. You should sign up now. Really.

Here you can see Grace-Marie in the top two photos and the demonstration cooking area with the overhead mirror. On the bottom are two of Grace-Marie’s assistants and a birthday girl, who got to wear the Birthday Hat and was sung Happy Birthday by the whole class. It was very fun!

This is a photo of some of the students in the sunlit classroom that is homey, with warm colors and artwork, sitting at the communal tables with tablecloths and seasonal decorations down the center. They’re with convivial companions and fellow foodies, anticipation building as they watch Grace-Marie cook, and smell the delicious aromas wafting from the stove and oven. The wonderful thing about Grace-Marie’s classes is that she makes you feel like your best friend invited you over for lunch and went all out with the food, the decorations, the white china, the whole works.

The whole classroom is filled with homey touches.

Here you can see the first class I photographed from the Kid’s Kitchen cooking class. They were so engrossed and well-behaved, and had so much fun. You can see the entire post about the kid’s cooking class “Leprechauns in the Kitchen” for St. Patrick’s Day here.

The Valencia Salad with Oranges, Serrano Ham and Manchego Cheese was from the Weekend Entertaining class which also featured Sizzlin’ Spanish Paella and Sangria Glazed Caramelized Pears. The Orange Marmalade Vinaigrette for this salad is to die for. You can see the onions bathing in the sherry vinegar, granulated sugar, water and green olives with their juice before being drained to put in the salad.

This is such a beautiful salad, with the red, orange, yellow and green ingredients. The sweet vinaigrette and oranges with the salty cheese and ham are a delight to the taste buds. Don’t you just want to stick your fork in there and take a big bite?

For additional recipes from Grace-Marie’s Kitchen, look under Categories in the right-hand column.

Grace-Marie Johnston

For more information about the new schedule of cooking classes, visit Grace-Marie online at Bristol Farms or email her at gmj@bristolfarms.com.

When I moved into my new house in June 2011, I was very happy to have all the mature trees, rose garden and an established lawn. The back yard had two big palm trees and two smaller green leafed trees which provided really nice shade. Well, I was busy moving in and unpacking, then working and blogging and I didn’t go in the back yard at all, until a couple of months later. And lo and behold, one of the small trees had little green citrus fruits of some kind all over it. A couple of months after that it was covered with hundreds of huge oranges. So many, we didn’t know what to do with them. You guys with all the zucchini have nothing on us, believe me.

I have never had any kind of fruit tree in my yard anywhere I’ve lived, so this is such a revelation. If I want an orange, I walk 20 feet and pick one. We even found an orange picker on a pole in the garage, so we could get the ones on the top. So we have been eating a lot of oranges and I have had to get creative to use them up. That is where this recipe came from. Desperation. To use up the oranges. And now that there are only a few oranges left on the tree, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of new little ones about the size of a walnut busily growing bigger. And bigger. It’s a good thing they are seedless, brightly sweet-tart, juicy and really delicious.

While I was shooting this salad, my 24-year old son, Brian, came in and asked what smelled so good. Orange salad, I answered. He came over and inspected my photo setup. Oh, that’s really beautiful, he said. He wandered into the kitchen and discovered the bowl with the remainder of the salsa. He grabbed a spoon and took a big bite. Oh my god, this is delicious!!, he exclaimed. Can I have the rest of this? I’m eating this, he proclaimed, whether you like it or not. And waltzed off with the bowl.

Well, maybe it won’t be so hard to use up all those oranges after all.

I decided to make this Wheat Berry, Green Olive and Roasted Pepper Salad after paging through the January 2012 issue of Sunset Magazine. It featured several absolutely gorgeous salads made with grains, which reminded me I had a package of Bob’s Red Mill Soft White Wheat Berries languishing in my cupboard. Plus I have to laugh and admit I am one of those people who have “Eat Healthier” on my New Year’s Resolutions list. You know, along with get more sleep, go for a walk three times a week, save ten percent of my paycheck and clean out the garage. So I made this salad and I’m feeling just so danged righteous right now. One day at a time, right?

Around 13,000 BC, hunter-gatherers in modern Syria harvested wild cereal grasses, such as einkorn wheat and emmer wheat. It was first domesticated around 9,000 BC in Lebanon, Syria, the Levant, Israel, Egypt and Ethiopia. Because wheat could be grown on a large scale and be stored for a long time, it was a key factor in hunter-gatherers transitioning to city-based societies which were emerging in the Fertile Crescent.

Common wheat was first domesticated in Western Asia and spread from there to North Africa, Europe and East Asia. Wheat first reached North America with the Spanish missions in the 16^th century.

Wheat berries are the entire wheat kernel (without the hull), which includes the bran, germ and endosperm. One fourth cup of raw wheat berries has 7 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber and 10% of the daily value of iron, with only 1 gram of fat and zero cholesterol. You need to make this salad right now!

The full title of this post should be “Cumin, Garlic, Chile de Arbol, Thyme Roasted Carrots and Avocado Salad with Sour Dough Croutons, Roasted Orange and Lemon Dressing sprinkled with Sesame, Poppy and Sunflower Seeds.” Ok, so it’s a little long. It could have been even longer because I left out the Mesclun and Watercress. Also the olive oil and red wine vinegar.

The carrots are par-boiled, coated with a paste made from cumin, garlic, arbol, fresh thyme, olive oil and red wind vinegar, and roasted with the oranges and lemons.

I didn’t have anything, really, to say about this salad, except that it tastes fabulous and you should make it as soon as possible. So when there is no cute story and no fancy technique photos, what do you do? Well, I was going to tell you that the carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange, but it can also be white, yellow, red or purple. Its wild ancestors originated in Iran and Afghanistan and a few of its nearest relatives are parsley, fennel, dill and cumin. Only 3% of carrot’s beta-carotene is released when you eat it raw, but that is improved to 39% by pulping, cooking and adding cooking oil. And, very important, massive over-consumption of carrots can cause a benign condition called carotenosis in which the skin turns orange.

However, I decided not to do that. Instead, I took all of my leftover salad ingredients that I had used the previous day for my beauty shots and dumped them all in a bowl. I sat down at my computer to write this post and realized how delicious my salad looked, so I decided to shoot my bowl at various locations around my house. Much more interesting than those dry carrot facts.

The problem was that it was cloudy and rainy outside, and dim and sunless inside. Well, what the heck, I cranked my ISO up to 3200 and put my white balance on florescent, and let the pics fall as they may. Just pretend these photos look like they were taken in beautiful natural light falling blissfully through a south-facing window. Oh, and if, the next time I see you, your skin is orange, I will know what you have been doing.

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I have several ways I usually prepare potatoes: mashed, baked, fried, in latkes, in potato salad, Potatoes Anna, scalloped potatoes, the usual American fare. So when Frieda’s Specialty Produce Company contacted me and offered to send me some little potatoes, I decided I wanted to do something different with them, that I had never done before. Time to get creative.

A couple of days later, the FedEx man was knocking on the door and my babies had arrived. Frieda’s had sent me two different varieties. One package was called Terrific Trio, which contained yellow, red skin and blue baby potatoes. The other package was called Piccolo, which were teeny yellow potatoes, none larger than 1¼ inch. They were so cute!

I thought I would start with the Terrific Trio, because I had never seen a blue potato and I wanted to see if it was also blue inside. These are grown by The Little Potato Company, which is based in Canada, and they harvest their potatoes in Nebraska and Washington. LPC is a small, family business, with a woman CEO, Angela Santiago. Their potatoes are not runts or rejects, but are a special small potato variety. And guess what? You can find them at Ralph’s Stores throughout Southern California! You can rush right out and get some, and make this terrific recipe!

Since these potatoes are little, they are perfect for appetizers, which is what got me thinking about how I could create a one-bite item. Initially I was going to make potato salad, but when I cut open those blue babies and saw the amazing color, I decided to make a deconstructed version, putting the egg-y salad part in the potato, instead of the potato in the salad. So that’s what I did. The contrast between the brilliant color of the potato and the yellow egg salad with the radish haystack on top looked so happy to me. These are one bite, maybe two, and would look great on your buffet table or passed hors d’oeuvres.

Did you know that Frieda’s Inc. is celebrating its 50th birthday? It is a woman-owned family business that was founded in 1962 by Frieda Caplan, who is an icon in the produce industry as the first woman to own a produce company in the United States. Her mission of changing the way America eats fruits and vegetables is credited with introducing such table-staples as Kiwifruit, Brown Mushrooms, Spaghetti Squash, Shallots, Donut Peaches and a wide variety of Latin and Asian Specialties. They are based in Los Alamitos, California, where Frieda serves as Chairman of the Board, and her daughters are President and CEO. Thank you Frieda’s for sending me these great little Baby Potatoes!

So you may be wondering about the Blue Baby Potato Salad in the top photo. After I filled enough potatoes to photograph, I still had some of the egg salad mixture left over. I also had all of the little scooped out blue potato rounds made with my melon baller. I didn’t want to throw them away, so I folded them into the egg mixture. It was so pretty I had to shoot it and that’s where that photo comes from. I think I will use these in a potato salad in the future. They are pre-washed; thin skin, so no peeling; microwave in five minutes and they’re at Ralph’s! What could be better?

This week we had a potluck at my work and when it was announced, I knew I wanted to make this quinoa salad. So I made my shopping list and headed off to my local Ralph’s Market. I looked everywhere for the quinoa and couldn’t find it, so I buttonholed the manager and asked him where it was. He replied, “What’s quinoa?” Can you imagine a grocery store manager not knowing what this food item is? I mean, maybe they don’t carry it, but he should know what it is. Just sayin’.

So I traipsed off to Whole Foods where I knew they had it and bought two 16 oz. bags for $3.50. They had about five different kinds and ten different brands. Quinoa is mainstream, guys. Get with it.

Quinoa originated in the Andean region of South America, where it was successfully domesticated 3000 to 4000 years ago. It is now primarily grown in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. The Incas held the crop to be sacred and called it the “mother of all grains.” The Spanish colonists forbid the Incas to grow quinoa and forced them to grow wheat instead.

Quinoa is not a member of the grass family; therefore, it is not a true cereal or grain. It is closely related to beets, spinach and tumbleweeds. Quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids, making it a complete protein source, which is unusual among plant foods.

What I like about it, besides its being good for you, is its texture, which is a cross between crunchy and al dente pasta. I ate my leftovers from the potluck the next day and the quinoa had the same bite as it did originally. No sogginess here, people. I love this stuff.

P.S. Every once in a while someone else actually makes one of my recipes and it makes me feel so honored and happy. A big thank you to each and every one of you. If you would like to see an absolutely spectacular photo of my Quinoa Salad, hop on over to Carolines Blog post of August 19th. Bravo, Caroline!

In the past three weeks I have made a Blueberry Cake, Checkerboard Cookies and Peanut Butter Cookies. I also made a Plum Tart, which I haven’t even told you about yet. That is four desert items. Ahem… I rarely make deserts around here, because then I eat them. You know what I mean.

So to get myself back on track, I decided to make a really healthy salad. And this Beet Salad has got to be one of the healthiest salads on the planet. Beets, Cabbage, Carrots, four kinds of Seeds and a bunch of Spinach. Plus Orange Juice. Oh man!

The colors in this salad are spectacular with the red cabbage and red onions, orange carrots, beets the color of red wine and the greens of the spinach and mint. Beautiful.

This is how the salad looks when you are actually eating it. The dressing turns a brilliant red from the beets. There is something that happens when you taste the orange zest, cumin seeds and currents together. Some kind of magic on your taste buds. You’ll have to try it and see what I mean.

And this is what my leftover salad looks like in its plastic container, ready to go in the frig. I love leftovers, as you know. I saved the dressing separately so tomorrow when I get home from work everything will be ready to mix up. No cutting or chopping! No measuring or whisking! I can hardly wait!

P.s. My Fourth of July guests ate the Blueberry Cake. My husband liked the Checkerboard Cookies a lot, so they’re gone. The Peanut Butter Cookies are in the freezer. Now, about the Plum Tart, um, it’s in the frig and is being slowly reduced by one 1-inch-wide piece per day. Truly. I’m being good, I promise.

I was so happy for the 4^th of July to roll around, because we were having our first holiday feast in our new house. I actually cooked in my new kitchen  and our guests got to see the new place for the first time. It’s so much fun to give the grand tour. It was also the first time I grilled outside this summer, so I was really happy to see that black char on all the meats and vegetables. You know how good it makes everything taste. I made a charmoula sauce to drizzle over everything, which is similar to a chimichuri, adding the herbal notes of Italian parsley and cilantro. And to top it all off, a Blueberry Pudding Cake. To me, the 4^th of July wouldn’t be complete without blueberries. Oh yeah!

Ready and waiting in all their colorful and beautiful glory.

A big platter of grilled  veggies. I love those black-edged red onions, soft and sweet in the center and the crusty little red potatoes. The veggies were simply brushed with olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled. The potatoes were boiled  until done, cooled, cut in half, skewered, brushed with olive oil and then BBQ heaven. With grill marks.

Grilled Rib Eye, black on the outside and red in the middle. Yes!

Grilled shrimp, which was marinated in the sauce from my Bacon Wrapped Shrimp recipe, and grilled pineapple. I love that sweet caramelized stuff.

My plate of grilled deliciousness, with charmoula spooned over all. Perfect.

I hope your summer is filled with family, friends, BBQ’s and charred grilled food. Hooray!

Click here for Blueberry Pudding Cake and Charmoula Recipes