Summer Salads

The beauty of summer is upon us and with this summer beauty brings summer bounty and this bounty can turn into a salad without you even knowing it.

I picked some fresh salad greens and some nasturtium blossoms and some squash blossoms along with some rattlesnake beans some heirloom tomatoes and a cucumber and I also picked a few sprigs of lemon basil and purple basil to round out the sweetness. At home I had some bacalao and some yucca and some batata (batata is a tropical sweet potato, it is white with a burgundy skin). Since the yucca and batata were already cooked and in the fridge I simply sliced it into little discs and squares and I browned it on both sides in some butter. I made some quick croutons with some fresh ciabatta bread that I picked up this morning by tossing the cubed bread in a little olive oil and some of my seasoned salt, when the yucca and batata were browned I removed them to a plate and tossed the croutons in to brown in the hot pan. I had made some cilantro oil a few days before so that was the base for my simple dressing with white vinegar.

This salad came together quickly since I had mostly everything already prepared. My son likes heaping portions so I made a pretty one for me and a piled a mile high version for him, his got some mozzarella cheese instead of the bacalao since he doesn't care for the saltiness of the fish so much - odd since he likes other salty fish. Make some summer salads - I can't wait to hear what you do.

Frei Brothers Reserve. “Places Worth Preserving” - Campos Garden

I was so flattered and excited to be asked to participate in Kitchen PLAY's partnership with Frei Brothers Reserve that will showcase recipes and photos in support of the Frei Brothers Reserve current Facebook photo contest. We all have favorite places and we all have favorite places that need to be saved, whether thats a park, a forest or in my case a community garden.

Campos Community Garden has been a little oasis in a land of bricks and concrete here in New York City for a lot of people in my neighborhood. We garden, socialize and teach in this little plot of land. Gardens like these can take two routes: 1) they can get grandfathered in and be recognized as part of the Parks Department or 2) they can be bought and developed and turned into a rent generator. Campos Community Garden, luckily, has been recognized as part of the Parks Department but even that status can change with each and every new mayor.

It is a little late in the growing season to actually enjoy the bounty that the garden offers but I was able to pull some radish and some carrots and some mint to use as garnish on my aged prime rib dinner.

Aged Prime Rib Dinner with Red Bliss Smashed Potatoes 

Wine and Mushroom Sauce and Mint Peas -

Paired with Frei Brothers Reserve Merlot

Per person:

12 ounce aged steak (I aged mine on a rack in the back part of my fridge for two days)

2 small red bliss potatoes boiled

1/3 cup sour cream

2 TBS butter

1/2 cup peas with shredded mint

shaved carrots and radish for ganish

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sauce

3 large button mushrooms diced

3 TBS corn starch

2 TBS butter

1/2 cup red wine (I used some of the Frei Brothers Merlot)

Method

Heat your grill or grill pan to about 600 degrees.    Sauté mushrooms in butter until soft, add corn starch and wine and whisk until silky. Warm your peas then toss with mint. Smash 2 potatoes per person adding butter and sour cream and salt and pepper to taste. Grill your steak for two to three minutes per side or until its at your preferred doneness - let rest.

Place your potatoes on your plate, spoon over the peas then place your perfectly grilled steak on top of the peas and potatoes spooning over your velvety wine and mushroom sauce and top with your shredded radish and carrots. Enjoy with Frei Brothers Merlot.

You will find the subtle vanilla and chocolate notes of this wine complement the mint and mushrooms and enhance the delicate aged beef giving each and every bite a full bouquet of flavor with an incredibly soft mouth feel. Frei Brothers Reserve is committed to crafting award winning wines through sustainable practices. Get involved and submit your photo of a place worth preserving at Frei Brothers Reserve current Facebook photo contest, a new winner every month and a grand prize trip to Frei Ranch and Yosemite National Park.

This post is sponsored by Frei Brothers Reserve in partnership with Kitchen PLAY - all opinions are my own.

Euell Gibbons

This man had the biggest effect and affect on me that a person could ever have, well besides Diana Vreeland. When I was a kid and I heard him say on TV "ever eat a pine tree, many parts are edible?" I was hooked. And yeah I have eaten the edible things from a pine tree. Needless to say more of Gibbons rubbed off on me than Vreeland. So what I have learned about mushrooms in this even number of decades is some you eat and most you look at.

Wysteria

When I am am not polluting my body with mind altering illegal substances or tatooing my already well inked corpse or engaging in countless meaningless relationships or eating butter by the spoonful I am out enjoying the splendors this world has to offer and my favorite of said splendors, besides dirty jokes, are flowers. Dumb as I am I like to call everything Wysteria because it rhymes. Wysteria rhymes with hysteria and mysteria and well its an excellent name for a flower, in fact I vote that if you are unsure of a flowers name it is perfectly safe and even recommended to call it a Wysteria.

A "treehouse" a "gazebo" and a "pond" down in my "hood"

It looks like I live in haiku land...