Perfect Pasta Salad

 

The picture above might not LOOK like perfect pasta salad, but I legit get sooooo many compliments on this pasta salad whenever I bring it. It's a refreshing take on the usual mayo-based pasta salads. The recipe was adapted from Amateur Gourmet and I'm glad that I printed it out on ... 07/22/2009 because I can't find it on his site anymore! Man, I would have been devastated if I lost the recipe. I always did my own thing with it from memory, but I still referred to it on his site for the base guidelines. The below recipe is based on my own tweaks.

Make this for your next outside get-together (helpful because there is no mayo in this recipe) or inside get-together and you'll be super popular!

Perfect Pasta Salad

Serves 10, depending on portions

12 oz non-noodle pasta (I like fusilli)

1 lb tomatoes, in small pieces

1/2 cup olives (kalamata or green)

1/3 cup diced artichokes in oil, drained

1 lb fresh mozarella, medium diced

Dressing:

5 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

6 Tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 tsp capers, drained

2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 cup packed basil leaves, chopped

Cook pasta in boiling salted water according to package directions, drain and set aside. In the meantime, place all dressing ingredients in a food processor and blitz until relatively smooth.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly!

Crispy Chickpeas, Summery Squashes, Garlic Yogurt, Herbs

There is a lot going on in the world right now. In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the police brutality/violence that senselessly killed George Floyd has taken the world by storm. Protests against systemic racism abound in the streets, which are long overdue - both from people around us and from law enforcement and government.

The only thing we can hope is that real change will come about from this. I've already donated to the ACLU and am researching other organizations to donate to as well, so we can do our part to push this movement forward.

Crispy Chickpeas, Summery Squashes, Garlic Yogurt, Herbs
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Serves 2

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 large garlic clove, grated
1 cup plain Greek yogurt

4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large lemon, zested and then halved
2 small summer squash, thinly sliced (or zucchini, or both)
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint, basil, parsley, or a mix

Pat chickpeas dry on a few layers of paper towels, making sure you roll them around. I generally do this early and leave the sitting out so they can additionally air-dry. Stir together garlic, yogurt, and a couple pinches of salt. Spread to cover most of bottom of two plates.

Heat three tablespoons of olive oil in a medium-large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chickpeas and cook until golden and crispy, stirring to ensure they color evenly, about 7-8 minutes. Transfer them to a paper towel to drain briefly, then season while hot with lemon zest, sea salt, and pepper.

Heat the last tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high in the same pan. Add the squash/zucchini and leave it there until browned underneath (it takes a few minutes), turning occasionally and repeating the don’t-move-until-browned pause until the squash/zucchini is tender. Season well with salt.

Slide zucchini onto prepared yogurt. Drizzle hot squash/zucchini with lemon. Distribute half of chickpeas on top of each squash/zucchini portion. Finish with a sprinkle of fresh herbs.

Chipotle Lime Shrimp Summer Salad

Made this awesome salad the other night, which we ate while watching Terrace House (version Boys and Girls in the City) amongst all our boxes that still need to be unpacked. But we are 90% done, which is pretty good. Summer weather makes me want to minimize the amount of time spent in the kitchen.

Chipotle Lime Shrimp Summer Salad
adapted from Half Baked Harvest
Serves 2-4

1 white peach, pitted and sliced thinly
1/2 avocado, cubed
1 ear white corn, kernels cut off
Handful of heirloom grape tomatoes (whatever you have)
Large handfuls of spinach and/or arugula

Shrimp:
1 lb shrimp, peeled
1 tsp smoked paprika (I had some from Spain!)
1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
Zest of 1 lime and 1 lemon
1/2 tsp honey
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp olive oil

Croutons:
2 slices foccacia/ciabatta bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

Dressing:
1 medium avocado
1 cup cilantro
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 jalapeno, membranes/seeds removed
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
Juice of 1 large lime

Preheat oven to 350degrees F (or toaster oven, since this is just for croutons). Mix bread, oil, salt and pepper together. Bake croutons for 15-20 min, until crispy. We happened to have focaccia from Bub & Grandma's (one of the best breads around) so we used that - it was amazing.

Combine shrimp with smoked paprika, chili powder, lemon/lime zests, olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside to marinade while making the rest of the salad.

Blend all ingredients for dressing in a food processor or blender. Adjust for seasoning. Since my avocado was small, I threw in another 1/2 avocado. The dressing should be thick but not too thick. Think the consistency of bleu cheese dressing (the kind from the bottle).

Grill shrimp, either outdoors or on an indoor grill pan - about 2 min on the first side and 90 seconds on the second side. Be careful not to overcook. Toss together with vegetables and croutons, then put in about 1/2 cup dressing. Toss thoroughly before adding more dressing - you want the greens flavored but not soggy. Eat and beat the heat!

Mustard Broccoli Chicken Salad

Sorry the above picture isn't the best. I cooked half of the contents of my refrigerator last night so there was absolutely no time to take out the nice camera so I resorted to using my phone camera. Plus my coworkers keep asking me for this recipe (Hi Sona! Hi Judy!) so I need to get this post up ASAP!

There are several ways to make chicken breast for this recipe:
(1) Buy a rotisserie chicken from Costco/Ralphs/Pavillions/etc, eat the delicious dark meat and save the breast pieces for this salad
(2) Buy bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. Rub with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and bake at 350degrees for about 25 minutes. Remove skin and bone, cut the chicken into pieces.
(3) Buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Rub with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and cook on the stovetop grill until done. If the pieces are huge like mine were last night, grill for 10 minutes on each side over medium heat and then finish in a 350degree oven for another 10 minutes or so. It's better to grill for skinless/boneless instead of oven roasting because the lack of skin and bone takes away from flavor, which the grill imparts onto the chicken.

Confused? Hopefully not. But the above is a great way to get cooked chicken for all recipes - salads, soups, just to have grilled chicken for a healthy dinner, etc. The recipe below is a rift on a Ina Garten recipe but I definitely health-ied it up.

Mustard Broccoli Chicken Salad
1 1/2 lb cooked and cut chicken breast (about 6 cups)
1 lb broccoli florets
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup chopped dill or tarragon (to your taste)

Dressing:
1 200g container low-fat Greek yogurt (I used 2% Fage)
1 1/2 Tbsp mayonnaise
3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp whole grain mustard
1 Tbsp red or white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp kosher salt

Season chicken with salt and pepper (if not cooked yet) and cook. In the meantime, cook the broccoli florets in salted boiling water for about 1.5 minutes, just to get the raw taste out. Drain immediately and either shock in an ice bath or run under cold water for about a minute to keep the bright green color.

Mix the ingredients for the dressing together. If you're cooking the chicken to order then pour about 1/3 cup of the dressing while it's still warm, after you've cut it up. The warmness of the chicken will soak up the dressing.

Combine the chicken, broccoli and tomatoes. Mix in the dressing until everything is moistened and the amount of dressing is to your preference. Gently stir in dill or tarragon to taste. Don't skimp, it makes all the difference!

The Walking Dead S2E1 - Bucatini with Clams, Fennel, White Wine and Thyme Breadcrumbs

Ahh The Walking Dead. I hope everyone out there watches this show. I watch a variety of shows such as Top Chef, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, Glee, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Revenge and American Horror Story ... but this is the ONLY show that Boyfriend and I make time for together - and most importantly, in real time. We do watch other shows together such as Community, Parks & Recreations, 30 Rock, Game of Thrones, and Terra Nova, but these are often a taped/downloaded recording since I'm basically hogging all the prime TV time for my shows.

The much anticipated season 2 of The Walking Dead was broadcasted Sunday night on AMC. Did you watch? If not, you can even catch up on season 1 very quickly - it was only six episodes. I guess they didn't commission an entire season because they didn't know how viewers would respond. Needless to say, it was a smash hit, especially to followers of the graphic novel (umm like Boyfriend). Since we had just wrapped up a whirlwind week of car shopping, more car shopping and then car purchasing, I busted out dinner from the Sunday Suppers at Lucques cookbook. As you can see from the top picture, I put dinner on the [coffee] table with 1 minute 10 seconds to spare. Woot for me!

Bucatini with Clams, Fennel, White Wine and Thyme Breadcrumbs
adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques
Serves 6

1 1/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
2 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbps extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbps fresh thyme leaves
1/2 sprig rosemary
2 chiles de arbol, plus 1 teaspoon sliced
2 cups red onion, diced
2 cups fennel, diced
2 bay leaves, preferably fresh
1/4 cup thinly sliced garlic
1 lb bucatini, spaghetti or linguini
3 lb Manila clams
3/4 cup dry white wine
4 Tbps unsalted butter
1 lemon
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Clean the clams by placing them in a large bowl filled with cold water for 10 minutes. Add a small handfull of cornmeal or a splash of milk to encourage them to spit out any sand. Every few minutes, give the clams a stir. Drain and return to the bowl.

Combine breadcumbs and 1 tablespoon thyme; drizzle with 2 tablespoon of olive oil. Using your fingers, toss the breadcrumbs to evenly coat with the oil. Place in the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring once or twice, until golden brown.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Meanwhile, heat a large dutch oven over high heat for two minutes. Pour in 1/2 cup olive oil, toss in the rosemary sprig and crumble in the 2 chiles de arbol with your fingers. Let them sizzle in the oil for 1-2 minutes and then turn down the heat to medium. Add the red onion, fennel, bay leaves and remaining tablespoon of thyme. Season with 2 teaspoons of salt and several grindings of black pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic and continue to cook for another 3-4 minutes until the vegetables are translucent and soft.

Once the water is at a hard boil, season with salt and drop in the pasta.

Add the cleaned clams to the vegetables and stir to coat well. Pour in the wine and cover the pot. Cook until the clams open, about 5 minutes or so. After a couple minutes, lift the lid, gently stir the clams to help redistribute the heat, and re-cover the pan.

When all the clams have opened, remove the pan from the heat and use a slotted spoon to transfer the clams to a large bowl or rimmed baking sheet. Discard any clams that haven't opened. Remove half the clams from their shells (this step may be skipped).

When the pasta is al dente, reserve one cup of the pasta water, and then drain the pasta. Return the dutch oven to medium-high heat, and add the pasta to the vegetables, tossing the noodles well. Cook 3-4 minutes to reduce the juices and coat the pasta. If the pasta seems too dry, add some of the reserved pasta water (I did not have to do this). Stir in the butter, a big squeeze of lemon juice, the sliced chile, clams, parsley, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a couple grindings of black pepper. Toss well and taste for seasoning.

To serve, pile the pasta into a large bowl/platter and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs.

* You can play according to your tastes, but I was able to cut back on the olive oil about 30% (for example, using 1/3 cup olive oil to cook the veggies in instead of 1/2 cup). The resulting pasta was still extremely flavorful and not dry at all, so use your own descretion. At least olive oil is good for you!

Summer Fruit Salad
Serves 6

9 figs
1 ripe peach
1 ripe nectarine
1 ripe plum
1/2 cup blackberries (I used raspberries)
8 oz arugula
1/3 cup Marcona almonda

Dressing
2 Tbps minced shallot
2 Tbps sherry vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)
1/2 tsp salt
3 figs
6 Tbps exta virgin olive oil

Combine shallot, vinegar and salt in a small bowl; let stand for 10 minutes. With a mortar and pestle, pound the figs into a paste. Combine with shallot/vinegar mixture. Whisk in the olive oil to make a dressing. Taste for balance. I had to add in a bit of sugar for the acidity.

Half the figs. Cut the peaches, nectaries and plums in half, remove the pits and slice into 1/4" thick slices. Combine all the fruit in a large bowl and drizzle with half the dressing, some salt and some fresh ground pepper. Toss very gently. Add the arugula, some more salt and fresh ground pepper and toss gently again. Add enough dressing to coat the fruit and arugula. Scatter almonds over (I skipped this part) and serve on a large platter.

Asian Cinnamon Spare Ribs & Potato Salad

I went to 99 Ranch a couple Fridays ago and the meat section was ridiculous. Like, I thought they were giving away filet mignon for free, there were so many people. Turns out, spare ribs were on sale for $1.69/lb and people were buying them up like the apocalypse was coming. I saw people buying 10 lbs of spare ribs at a time! Who needs that much meat? Needless to say, since I had to wait for 30 minutes to buy my pork belly, I grabbed half a slab as well. And since Boyfriend has STILL not set up the grill that I bought almost a year ago, I had to piece together some recipes I found online to oven bake them.

Good thing these ribs were really damn good, otherwise I would have been super angry that I had to wait 30 minutes at the butcher to get them and driving in the San Gabriel Valley fills me with rage. Maybe it's bad for my blood pressure that I can go from calm and singing along to KOST 103.5 (soft rock with less talk, baby) (don't judge me cause sometimes it's comforting to listen to after work) to ENGRAGED in a millisecond. So I'm glad the ribs turned out meltingly soft and tender. Served them with potato salad and an easy salad with kalamata olives, feta cheese and avocado, dressed with balsamic and olive oil.

Asian Cinnamon Spare Ribs
Serves 4

3 lbs spare ribs, cut into strips
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Shaoxing wine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 300degrees. Line a 9x13 pan with layers of aluminum foil to avoid a messy cleanup. Boil a large pot of water. Rinse the ribs and simmer for 10 minutes. Mix together soy sauce, wine, sugar, cinnamon and black pepper in a bowl.

Remove ribs from simmering water and rinse off quickly to get the scum off. Place into pan in a single layer and pour the marinade over it. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for two hours. Uncover ribs, flip over carefully with tongs (they may be falling apart a bit), cover again and bake for another two hours.

To finish, remove foil and allow ribs to cook for 10 minutes. Flip carefully (they will be totally falling off the bone at this point) and bake for a final 10 minutes. This will thicken the sauce.

Potato Salad
Serves 4

2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium carrot, cut in bite size pieces
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Boil the potatoes until half tender and add in carrots. Once potatoes are completely tender, drain. Pick out carrots and crush potatoes slightly with a fork, leaving them pretty lumpy.

Combine crushed potatoes with carrots and mix in red onion, mayonnaise and red wine vinegar while potatoes and carrots are still warm. Salt and pepper to taste, adding more red wine vinegar if additional acidity is needed. Refrigerate until cool.

Panzanella Salad

Panzanella sounds like it could be just about anything (a band, a brand of yogurt, a disease) but it's basically an Italian bread salad with tomatoes, basil and various other items. I say "various" because the only things really required are bread, tomatoes and basil. Everything else added is whatever else the maker fancies. I grilled the bread for the one I made yesterday, but I think next time I'll just toast it in the oven. Turning all those pieces of bread over gave me the beginnings of what I think is carpal tunnel, or at the very least, a mild stress injury. Because I was at Trader Joe's, I used their whole grain wheat bread and baby heirloom tomatoes.

Panzanella
adapted from Giada De Laurentiis
Serves 6

1 loaf whole wheat, rustic or ciabatta bread
Olive oil, salt and pepper
1 10oz bag frozen artichokes, thawed
1 lb baby heirloom or cherry tomatoes, halved
1 can black or kalamata olives, pitted and halved
3/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 cup feta cheese, cubed
1/4 cup good olive oil
2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 cup chopped basil

Cut the bread into 1 inch cubes and combine with artichoke hearts. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat and grill bread and artichokes until lightly browned. In the meantime, whisk togther olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a bowl; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, olives, red onion and feta cheese. When bread is finished grilling, pour into bowl and toss to combine. The heat of the grilled bread will bring out the flavors. Drizzle with dressing and basil. Toss well and serve as a side or a main course (add salami if necessary to round out as a main course).