German Potato Salad

Ingredients

3 lbs. potatoes

4 strips bacon

one large yellow onion

Handful of parsley

(for the dressing)

1/4 cup champagne vinegar

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

2 tbsp water

Directions:

Peel potatoes and dice into one-inch pieces. Put in large pot and cover with water. (can sit until you are ready to cook). Check frequently to make sure it does not overcook.

Dice onion finely.  

Chop parsley.

Combine dressing ingredients and whisk. Taste, adjust for sweetness/vinegar balance

Airfry bacon. In my Breville, this means 450 degrees. Put the bacon on the tray and let it microwave while the oven preheats for three minutes, then cook for ten more. Turn it at 5, check it periodically.

Remove bacon, dry on paper towel. Transfer bacon grease to a cast iron skillet and heat skillet. Add onions and SOFTEN, don't let them brown too much. 

Chop bacon. Split into two portions.

Once onions are soft and starting to brown, add DRESSING. Let it come to a boil. Once boiling, add potatoes and one portion of bacon. Using a wooden spoon, carefully turn to coat. Let some liquid burn off as it coats, add salt periodically, correcting as you taste.

Once ready, add one-half (a little more) parsley and mix. Transfer to serving bowl, garnish with parsley and remaining bacon. 

Then fucking enjoy.

Salad Dressing Perfection: Shallots in Champagne Vinegar

 For the past year or so we have subscribed to a kind of farmer's market box--the kind of thing where you get a bag of vegetables once a week. You never know what you are going to get. We used to do this in Georgia, but the result was always disappointing. Not so in California, where every week we get a huge bounty of fresh produce for $20. 

One of the bounties is fresh red onion, which lately has been coming every couple of weeks. It inspired me to pick up an old salad dressing recipe and adapt it, and the results have been lovely.

• finely chopped shallot
• honey
• salt and pepper
  

Finely chop a shallot, or, in my case, a red onion.

Drop it into a small tupperware and cover with champagne vinegar. Add salt and pepper and squeeze in honey to taste. The rule of thumb here is about a tablespoon of honey for about 12 oz. of vinegar, I think. Err on the low side because you can always add more. Then shake, taste, and correct the seasonings.

Tahini Dressing

A batch of tahini dressing:

1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup water
6 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp olive oil

whisk the batch together. start adding salt and correct the other proportions until you have your desired flavor.

I ended up adding a good bit more tahini and water, because the lemon juice was strong. Olive oil on top of lemon juice is not the best idea either. I'd recommend some walnut oil or hazelnut oil to neutralize it out, although some olive oil is fine.

I also added more tumeric.

The Age of Arugla

Arugula is to garden-variety lettuce as Louis C.K. is to comics--impolite yet heartwarming, pungent and unapologetic. It goes by several names, not the least of which is "the rocket," which describes precisely where it's searingly peppery taste might take you, if you aren't expecting it.

The rocket romances Bolivia

I've been eating arugula now for almost a year on a near daily basis. I love it in my packed lunches because it is as close as I can get to being high at noon (at least without getting in some serious trouble). But only recently have I branched out from my grain-arugula salads into something a little different.

Last night we had a no-cook sauce pasta (courtesy of a nameless friend) featuring arugula. It was absurdly simple. Start with arugula, olive oil and microplaned parm (the good kind). Add the spaghetti and toss, allowing the arugula to wilt. Add lemon juice and zest and pasta water, let it settle while you get everything else together.

(Actually I'll have to check this recipe, but I believe that was how it went.)

Today I made up hot quinoa and made a hot arugula-lemon juice-olive oil-parm salad. It was phenomenal. One of the joys of working at home a day or two a week.

Real Men Massage Kale

Kale is upon us. In the roughneck neighborhood I call home, grown men talk about it in familiar tones. Pickup trucks sport bumperstickers ordering one to "eat more Kale." It shows up at barbecues and crawfish boils and pig roasts. Kale is here.

Kale Amidst the Chaos

Because I have trouble finding good preparation for Kale, I was ecstatic when a salad recipe suggested by a friend worked out so well. Start by massaging the kale with olive oil--just enough to wilt the lettuce and ply its texture, but not enough to make it too oily. Add sesame seeds and mango in proportions agreeable to common decency. Prepare separately a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, honey, salt and pepper.

The salad will keep for days in the fridge, and makes for great lunches if dressed the day of. So go ahead. Massage the kale.

Farro Salad

Farro is the latest grain of the month, an ancient grain once enjoyed by the Romans, prized for its healthy attributes, nutty flavor, and a texture which can vary from chewy to creamy depending on how one cooks it. I discovered farro in a salad at Empire State South in Atlanta. They carry it by the tub at the DeKalb Farmers' Market, so I picked one up on our weekly shopping pilgrimage.

Cooking farro is easy. I tried three different preparations. In the first preparation, I rinsed one cup of farro and brought it and three cups of heavily salted water to a boil. I let it run about thirty minutes, and then drained the water. I allowed the farro to cool on its own. In the second preparation, I rinsed one cup of farro and brought it and three cups of unsalted water to a boil. I pulled this farro after about twenty five minutes, and then rinsed it in cold water. In the third preparation, I let the farro cook for just under twenty minutes, then added about two teaspoons of salt and cooked for another ten, and then rinsed the grain in cold water.

The Romans knew what they were doing...

The first preparation was too salty, the second not salty enough, although the two mixed together worked just fine. The third preparation was spot on. Rinsing the grains prevented them from becoming creamy, so one can control texture.

The salad recipe I made from it was also simple, and tasty. Into the three cups dry farro (I did not measure how much this yielded cooked), I chopped up three green peppers, one jar of kalamata olives, about six ounces of crumbled parmesean, and one bunch of chives. With the exception of the olives, it all came from the garden.

The dressing was:

1/2 cup sherry vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper



I dressed the salad about two hours prior to serving. Easy, quick, and (in my opinion), quite tasty.