Posts by: Andrew Cohen
Very simple, but lots of flavor. Watching the broccoli blanch so it does not overcook, and cutting it to the right size, is key here. Don’t overdo the mint or it will overwhelm the dish. Use just enough to taste as an accent. Also, try to use as little oil as you can get away with for this dish as it helps the broccoli to stay firm and bright.
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This dish is a pretty jade green color flecked with gold and velvety black and white. The flavors seem to appeal to everyone and the dish tends to disappear rapidly. The key to this recipe is restraint; use a light hand when blanching the broccoli, adding the sesame oil, as well as the candied ginger. Prep for this dish could be done ahead of time.
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This dressing goes with a salad of strawberries, lettuce, and pepitas, as well as with a dice of corn, red onion, bell peppers, and cilantro. Sauté it or use raw and dress with this vinaigrette. Use this vinaigrette to dress fish tacos or pulled pork sandwiches. Although the roasted garlic is an extra step, the flavor really is subtler than raw garlic, and the roasted garlic adds a creamy texture to the dressing.
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Here is a salad with lots of contrasts, as well as room for lots of variations. If you have cilantro instead of basil, use that. Use a dressing with lime and cumin, or coriander and Meyer lemon. See Chef’s Notes for further ideas. For the pepper cress, use a really sharp thin bladed knife to “whittle” the leaves off the stems if your cress is in a bunch.
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This grew out of my liking for carrots and orange juice. Mint often appears with carrots at my table, and basil and mint often swap places in recipes, so it just seemed natural. Using bigger chunks of carrot allows the flavor of the carrot to develop while keeping it from getting really soft.
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Sometimes I have artichokes and am not sure when I will get them into a menu, so I will just cook them when I get the chance whether I intend to serve them at that moment or not. They are good cold, can be re-heated, or worked into something else, as happened here. The combination of artichoke and potato is a great one, especially with sweet waxy potatoes such as Yukon Golds or a fingerling type. This salad would be good with some cauliflower florets blanched and dressed while hot, then cooled and added in.
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Tagged with: artichoke • basil • butter lettuce • carrots • lemon • lettuce • pepper cress • potatos • salad
This salad is indeed inspired by traditional tabbouleh, and resulted from a hurried “tour du fridge” one night. For the cucumber, be sure to avoid any with waxed skin, or peel it, especially if the skin is thick. Smaller Japanese cucumbers are ideal. Any squash will do, but Costata Romanesco or Cousa are great because they take on color without getting mushy or bitter better than most other summer squash, and this salad is about the contrast between the chewy farro and the crisp cucumber and squash.
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Another dish in the Moroccan “salad” style. If you wanted to make it more of a Western style salad with lettuce, use romaine. Remove the darker outer leaves and cut the pale inner leaves across the length into thin ribbons and lay them down as a bed for the carrot ribbons. A Ben Riner or mandolin is best to make this recipe, but if you do not have one, slice the carrots on a diagonal with your sharpest knife, or use a really sturdy peeler.
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This gratin is quite simple to assemble, and easier to cook. It can be assembled earlier in the day and then cooked, or you can cook it off and serve it at room temperature or re-heat it. It is even good cold. It makes a great vegetarian sandwich-just smear a soft roll with tapenade and lay in some of this gratin. This gratin is really fun if you have various colors of squash to play with as it yields a nice colorful dish. Although the instructions seem long, they are not really, and once you have done this you will find a hundred variations spring to mind.
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Favas and Romano cheese are a classic Italian combination, from simply eating small early favas and slices of young Romano to mixing them in dishes. I recently had company that did not eat dairy, but I wanted to use pesto. If you taste a fresh young fava it has a cheesy taste, with a little tang and that hard-to-define eau de barnyard funk, along with a slightly gritty yet creamy texture. Just like Romano cheese. Turns out that tender young favas make an excellent substitute for Romano cheese in pesto. Use this vegan pesto as you would a regular pesto.
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Since the main components of this dish are large, this is a knife and fork dish. It can serve as a base for something larger like fish, or you can use it as a side. Add some slices of pork and some noodles and it can be a one-pot full meal.
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Tagged with: bacon • braise • choi • mei quin • mei quin choi • mushrooms • oyster mushrooms • pork • scallions
Making my own granola is easy, and very satisfying. I always double the recipe as it is just as easy as doing a single batch, and it lasts quite a while. A perfect partner for fresh fruit and vanilla yogurt.
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Here is a riff on the now ubiquitous grocery-store deli salad. This is a great way to use the stems of broccoli, and could be made entirely with stems if you wish. If you do so, back off the volume by 2 cups or you will have a lot of slaw. This is one of those recipes that can be varied a lot for different but equally tasty results.
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This is a super simple slaw dressing that works with the Broccoli Slaw recipe, or any other slaw type salad with assertive flavors like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, or beets. This is the closest thing to the dressings on slaws in grocery store deli’s I can come up with.
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This dressing was designed for Broccoli Slaw, but will enhance many other things that that have a bit of peppery bite or assertive flavor, such as dishes with cauliflower, cabbage, arugula, cress, and the like. This iteration is a little lighter than v.2 as it uses less mayonnaise, and a little more oil.
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If you get both blue and straw-berries, this is wonderful to make with them. The granola is easy to make, but you have to be patient when making it. The parfaits can be made ahead and brought out at the last minute.
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Meant originally for Salad of Butter Lettuce, Beets, and Broccoli, this is a simple and very versatile dressing. Goes well with earthy foods, or anything bland that needs a little perking up without overwhelming the base food.
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This is a great combination of flavors that all support and play off each other. Romano cheese is a classic pairing with early season favas, so if this is being used with pasta or as a dip add some grated or crumbled romano. This mélange is great for fish, grilled chicken, sandwiches of fresh mozzarella and salumi, or toss it with orecchiette pasta or some chunks of summer squash that have been grilled or pan seared.
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The combination of early season favas and mint is a vibrant flavor that speaks of spring. Young favas and romano cheese are a classic pairing, so romano is used in the risotto instead of the usual parmesan. If you have some very thin asparagus spears, you could cut a few diagonally into half-inch lengths and blanch them until just barely done and add them with the favas. Be sure to add the mint just before serving or it will turn dark and lose some of its brightness.
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Here is a simple yet flavorful dressing perfect for beets or other earthy elements in salads. It would go well with Middle Eastern spiced foods, or make a nice chicken salad. Although it says “Creamy” in the title, there is not much, and it is yogurt or mayonnaise based on your preference. The yogurt will be a little more tart and bright, the mayo makes for a lighter and subtler dressing.
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This recipe calls for a sweet mustard spiked dressing, but this combo would really well with an orangey-creamy dressing such as Creamy Orange Dressing (see recipe) or Orange Poppyseed Cream Dressing (see site for recipe). If using an orange based dressing, try adding pistachios or almonds instead of sunflower seeds.
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This is a riff on a very famous sauce from the Troisgros restaurant in Roanne, France. It was one of the dishes that launched Nouvelle Cuisine. This version is simplified, and lightened a little from the original. Use it on fish (salmon was the original fish used), shellfish (scallops, lobster, shrimp), or on poached or slow roasted chicken breasts. Sorrel has a refreshing lemony tart/sour quality that is great with richer things like salmon and cream.
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This was a dish that occurred from a Tour du Fridge one year. I have done this using large artichokes as well as small ones. For the large ones, I trimmed everything away from the heart (saving the leaves and steaming them until done, and then eat them as you would from a whole artichoke) and cut it into cubes. For small artichokes I just followed the basic prep as in the recipe for Braised Baby Artichokes on the site right up to the cutting them into sixths. Either way works for this recipe. The potatoes and artichokes are a wonderful combination of flavors.
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Use these as a side or appetizer, or use Portobello mushrooms in lieu of the button mushrooms for a first course or main. This recipe calls for scallions because they are in the box this week, but if you don’t have them to hand, use white or yellow onions, or even shallots. These can be assembled ahead of time, with the exception of the bread crumb topping which should be added only at the last moment or it will be soggy. When choosing mushrooms, look for those that are still fairly closed and the gills have not darkened yet. Dark gills on button mushrooms are a sign of age, and they are bitter when cooked. If you have your heart set on this dish and the mushrooms all have dark gills, scrape out the gills with a spoon before beginning.
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