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The Potato Salad Secret

February 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Nances

Some years ago when I was doing supply chain / manufacturing consulting work, I ended up as part of a large team performing a huge re-engineering engagement with a consumer products company that is a household name. They had many divisions, and I was given the job of managing part of the effort in their food service division. This group did everything from making ketchup packets for Burger King, to making the biscuits for McDonalds. But one of the groups in the division made condiments – ice cream toppings, mustard, etc. Man, there is nothing like walking into a factory and smelling the butterscotch ice cream topping being made!

What has that got to do with potato salad, you say? Well, this particular group also made mustard – and one of their varieties is a very unique mustard that will help you make an exceptional potato salad dressing. While I was in the factory I was watching it being manufactured, and the plant manager happened by. He highly recommended that I try putting a little in my potato salad. So I did, and based on the positive reactions from family and friends I have been using it ever since. In fact, when I can’t find it in the store I order it direct from the company – they will sell direct to consumers now that the division has been spun off and is no longer part of that huge food conglomerate. Luckily, I usually find it in the supermarket.

The mustard of course is Nance’s Sharp and Creamy. Made by Baldwin-Richardson foods in Macedon, NY (near Rochester). If you live in Florida, Publix sells it in most stores. When we lived in NY, we found it in Stop & Shop.

For every 2 pounds of potato salad you make, add 2 heaping teaspoons to your mayonnaise dressing. If your dressing calls for another type of mustard, omit it and substitute Nance’s in the same proportion. Now, here’s a bonus potato salad dressing secret – something I learned from a restaurant owner when I was about 12. They had the absolute best cole slaw I ever had, and I asked them what made it so good. They told me they used sour cream in place of some of the mayonnaise in the dressing. You can do the same thing with potato salad. Substitute sour cream for about 20% of the mayonnaise in your dressing. Both the Nance’s Sharp and Creamy and the sour cream will add a subtle kick to your dish, but not so much that anyone will be able to tell what makes it so good.

Your Daily Bread

Luke 13:18 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.”

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Vietnamese Salad with Lemongrass Dressing

January 31, 2011 by 2 Comments
Vietnamese_Salad

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Fair warning right up front:  This recipe is for adventurous cooks!  But, the combination of citrus and fresh herbs make this light salad well worth the effort!  The flavor is restaurant-quality and super exotic.  My adventure started while leafing through a big, colorful Australian vegetarian cookbook from our home library (credit below).  The ingredient list made it clear I would need to pay a visit to my local Chinese grocery.  If you’re unaccustomed to shopping in Asian, Indian, and/or Latin markets, you may feel a little overwhelmed by the number of unfamiliar items stocking the shelves.  But, there’s usually someone on hand to help you navigate this new frontier.  For this salad, I needed rice vermicelli, fresh lemongrass, palm sugar, and kaffir lime leaves.  I’d only worked with the first of these before.  As it turned out, I could not procure the lime leaves, even after calling a couple of other ethnic markets in town.  So, I substituted fresh basil and still got a delicious salad.  See the note below for some tips on working with fresh lemongrass.

Ingredients

6-7 ounces dried rice vermicelli
1 cup crushed peanuts (dry roasted, unsalted)
1/2 cup mint leaves, torn
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, firmly packed
1/2 red onion, sliced in to thin wedges
1 green mango, julienned
1 cucumber

Lemongrass Dressing

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 3 limes)
1 tbs shaved palm sugar
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar (I used unseasoned)
2 stems fresh lemongrass, finely chopped
2 red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
3 kaffir lime leaves, shredded (I used fresh basil leaves)

Okay, this will get pretty wordy, since I want to give you everything you’ll need to delight your eyes and your taste buds and want to make this again!  This dish is all about the gorgeous presentation and the amazing flavor.

First, let’s make the dressing.  If you have a jar with a lid, this dressing benefits from a good shaking.  However, I made mine in a 2-cup glass measure, covered it in plastic and used a fork to whisk it.  Prepare the lemongrass as directed at left and put it in the container.  Add the lime juice and rice vinegar (usually available in the ethic foods aisle of your supermarket).  Palm sugar is actually sap from a variety of palm trees, usually date palms.  It’s minimally processed, low on the glycemic index (so it’s great for diabetics) and mine came little 1-tbs molded cakes that were maple colored.  I actually ate one like a piece of candy and it was delicious!  To shave it, I just used a hand-grater placed over my container.  I’m going to love working with palm sugar in the future!  We always have dried red chillies in our refrigerator, so I reconstituted 2 of these in boiled water for about 10 minutes.  Make sure the seeds are removed or the dish will be too spicy.  Chop the chillies very fine and add to the dressing.  This should give just a hint of heat without making the salad “hot.” Again, I couldn’t get lime leaves anywhere, so I used about 3-4 fresh basil leaves, shredded.  I stack my leaves, roll them up lengthwise very tightly, and slice thin, then cut the resulting strips in half.  Give this delicious dressing a little taste just to treat yourself, then cover and refrigerate while you make the salad.

Now, let’s talk about rice vermicelli.  This is a thin, white noodle usually packaged in long, twisted sections.  I didn’t measure 6-7 ounces.  I grabbed a section about 4 inches wide by 6 inches tall and almost an inch thick, gently broke it away from the pack, and plunged it into a large bowl of boiled water.  Let the vermicelli soak for about 15 minutes until soft, then drain and rinse with cold water.  Drain again.  Use kitchen scissors to cut the long strands into 2-3 inch sections.  You can be kinda relaxed about this process, but lift up handfuls now and then to be sure you don’t have any extremely long strands, which will be hard to eat.

While that’s soaking, slice your mango into very thin julienne strips.  I used a mango that wasn’t completely green, so there were softer sections that didn’t look so much like julienne, but I appreciated the extra sweetness that gave the dish.  Just be sure you don’t choose a mango that’s super ripe.  This recipe called for a Lebanese cucumber, but I used an ordinary cuke.  Slice it in half, scoop out the seeds with a spoon, then slice each half in half again.  Turn the sections over (skin side up) and slice thin on the diagonal. Cut the red onion in half from top to bottom (not across the middle), remove the center, and slice very thin wedges (the thinner the better).  If your onion is very large, cut these slices in half and maybe don’t use an entire half.

Put the peanuts in a quart-sized freezer bag and crush with a meat mallot or pulse just a couple of times in a food processor.  You want a nice crushed nut, not a powder or a meal.  I coarsely chopped my mint, but tore off the leaves of the cilantro and left them large.  That’s all the prep work for the salad itself.  Combine all of these ingredients using only 3/4 of the peanuts and toss to combine.    Give the dressing a fresh shake or whisk and and add it to the salad.  Toss well, cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining chopped peanuts when serving.

Your Daily Bread:

Acts 19:8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. 11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

Price, Jane (Ed.), The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook, (Sydney: Murdoch Books, 2001)

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Tabbouleh, Done Right!

January 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Tabbouleh

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This delightful salad originally came from Lebanon and Syria and I’m betting most Americans have had it (or at least seen it on a salad bar). Wikipedia tells me the name comes from the Arabic word meaning “little spicy,” though this salad isn’t at all spicy. It also tells me the American version of this salad is known as “Eetch,” but I’ve never heard of that! Careful with that Wiki!

I make a salad for Craig’s lunch each day. In order to keep him from dying of boredom, we tuck various goodies into two of the corners of the oblong container I send to work with him. Sometimes it’s a scoop of tuna, sometimes a bean salad, sometimes some hummous. He was bringing home tabbouleh from Costco for about a year when I casually mentioned that I used to make it often years ago and had a pretty good recipe. Once I whipped up a batch, there was no turning back for him!

Now, I’ve gotta be honest: This can be a labor intensive salad to make if you do it the way I do, but the results are well worth the effort. I make it on the weekend, usually, and once I did it a few times I got the time down to about 45 minutes. It’s mostly chopping and pinching work, as you’ll see. Since there is so much parsley in the salad, I believe it’s important to take care to keep stems out of the bowl for the most pleasant eating. Ya just can’t do that with a knife. So, I pinch off each little trio of leaves by hand and discard all the stems. Most recipes call for the parsley to be finely minced, but I like the leaves just as they come off the bunch (plus, it saves a lot of time after all that pinching).

Served as a side (though it can be a meal!), this batch will serve 8-10. It barely makes it through the week for us since we both love it. And, that’s good since tabbouleh really needs to be fresh to be amazing. Craig’s very fond of lemon in Middle Eastern dishes, so I make this very bright. It’s almost surprisingly citrusy, which will make you the hit of the pot luck if you bring this along!

Ingredients

3/4 cup bulgur (aka: cracked wheat or burghul)
2 tsp olive oil
3 cups chopped curly-leaf parsley (stems removed)
1 cup finely chopped fresh mint
4 whole spring onions, finely minced (aka: green onion or scallion)
1 large beefsteak or heirloom tomato, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
juice of 2 lemons
2 cloves garlic, finely minced (I use 1 tsp of jarred minced garlic for this)

In a large bowl, soak the bulgur in 3/4 cup of boiling water and 2 tsp of olive oil for 10 minutes (stir before leaving to soak). Stir again and set aside.

Chop your herbs, onion and tomato while the bulgur is cooling. The cooler it is when you add the rest of the ingredients, the better.

In a second bowl, combine the spring onion, mint, and parsley, taking care to pinch off the parsley leaves and remove as much stem as possible. You can tear or chop particularly large leaves or clusters, but leave smaller leaves intact.

Cut the tomato into 1/2-inch chunks.

Prepare the dressing by combining the 1/2 cup of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.

Drain the bulgur of any excess water and add the herbs, onion, and tomato. Toss to combine well. Pour in the dressing and toss again, making sure everything is well coated. (The bulgur will want to collect on the bottom of the bowl. Don’t let it.)

Cover and chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

Serving Suggestions

Served with hummous and warmed pita bread, this can be a meal in itself. We’re planning to serve it with some charcoal-grill roasted chicken too, for an upcoming dinner party. Stay tuned for Craig’s amazing Spinach Pie recipe, which is also great with tabbouleh if you’re going for that Middle Eastern or Greek experience.

Your Daily Bread

Luke 3:15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

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