Local peaches and my salad for Chop't

I don't use this blog to write critical reviews of restaurants. Owning a restaurant is tough enough that I never felt the desire to attack someone else's hard-earned livelihood. However, I see no reason not to sing the praises of the places that I feel are doing a good job, and that I'd like to support, especially when they ask me to help promote their use of local foods. One recent day, I was sitting at my desk eating lunch - a salad from Chop't, like I often do. Seriously. I'm eating, and scrolling through personal emails, and there it is in my inbox, an email from Chop't asking if I'd want to contribute salad ideas for their seasonal offerings of local peaches from New Jersey. I looked down at my desk at my half-eaten bowl of salad, and burst out laughing. I guess they had the right person for the job.

In case you don't eat lunch out in NY, Chop't is sort of a lunch-time favorite around these parts. The lines are notoriously long, but the salads are pretty addictive, and since they rotate the speacials with the seasons the menu never gets stale. The New York Times recently wrote about how popular chopped salads are among the office dwelling set. It's true, I like my salads chopped up. I even thought about getting a mezzaluna for a while so I could make them at home. Then I realized I like my fingertips as well, and decided I'd leave the master chopping to the pros.

Chop't asked me to compose a salad using the seasonal menu, which right now means peaches. I started thinking of the one I make every summer - peaches and tomatoes. Not exactly a novel combo, though. I considered something Southern inspired. I did live in Georgia briefly - the home of the peach. Peaches and cornbread? Peaches and bacon? Then one night, as I tried to entice some friends to come over for sangria on the weekend, I realized Spain! Peaches are in sangria... peaches and spicy food are a good match...peaches in a tapas-inspired salad! I made one at home to try it out. I started with arugula (my favorite), I added peaches and red onion (I had pickled ones at home), manchego cheese, tomatoes (Chop't has roasted ones, even better), then started to make a red wine vinaigrette (a nod to sangria). It was good, but it was missing something that would make the Spanish influence more obvious. I opened the spice drawer, and saw my little box of smoked paprika (pimentón in España). I reworked the dressing to be a smoked paprika vinaigrette, which was a little spicy, smoky and tart. It's addictive, and I can't believe I haven't made one before. I think it would improve almost anything you pour it on. Now I just have to figure out how to get an hour long siesta into my work day, to enjoy my salad in the park.

Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette

I'm not a big fan of exact recipes for salad dressing. You really have to taste as you go, and adjust for your personal preferences. Here's a good blueprint to start:

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika (or more to taste)
• A drizzle of honey
• Salt and Freshly ground pepper to taste

Measure all ingredients into a bowl. Give it a good whisk until the oil and vinegar start to emulsify, aka look like salad dressing. Taste it. Adjust the flavor as needed. If you want it smokier, add more paprika. You want it more tart, add more vinegar. But do each addition a little at a time, whisking after each change, and tasting. The dressing will keep in a closed jar in your fridge for a few days. Pour it on anything. Just don't pour it in your sangria.

Chickpea Salad - Picnic posts

It's officially summer. Summer makes me think of picnic-ing in the park, reading a book by the beach and running after the ice cream truck when I was a kid. That's my idealized summer. In reality, summer for most of us still means going to work even if it's gorgeous out, and squeezing in some outdoor time during the week. I love the concept of picnics but the closest I've come to one this year, was last week when I bought a taco from the Endless Summer truck and ate it sitting down by the parking lot around the corner. That's why I'm going to do a series of posts this summer on perfect picnic food. Hopefully to encourage you, and me, to plan some meals in the great outdoors, or at least near a tree. I made this little salad one night when it was too humid to think about using the stove and I had a lot of leftovers from the mixed greens salad I made for dinner. I threw this together thinking it would benefit from a night in the fridge and I'd have another lunch (or dinner) without cooking. It worked. I decided to make this my first post in the picnic series, because even though it's not novel, it's easy and hearty, no need to cook pasta or another grain. It's the type of salad that you can and should dress the night before. It's an all-in-one package picnic food, no need for separate bottles of salad dressing or a knife. Unless you're the type that has a wicker basket, and a wine glass holder for the grass (I've seen this in person), unfussy food is the only food you should picnic with. And, if you are that person, here's hoping the cops arrest you for so unabashedly drinking in the park.

Chickpea Salad

Make this the night before or at least a couple of hours for the flavors to combine.

• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1/2 of a large red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 of a red onion, diced fine
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Large handful of cilantro or parsley, chopped
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/2-1 teaspoon cumin (or to taste)
• Drizzle of honey
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Juice of 1/2 lime before serving

Rinse the chickpeas well and place in a large bowl. Set aside. Meanwhile boil 1 cup of water. Place chopped onion and garlic in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over them. Let sit for 1 minute to mellow out the raw onion, garlic taste. Strain.

Combine chickpeas with the chopped red pepper, onion, garlic, and cilantro. Next make the vinaigrette by combining the vinegar, cumin and honey in a bowl. Whisk as you pour in the olive oil to emulsify. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the salad and toss well. Taste again to see if it needs more salt. Before serving, squeeze half a lime over it to brighten the flavors a bit.

Deconstructed Elote aka My New Favorite Summer Salad

Elote is the Mexican name for grilled corn on the cob smothered with crumbly cheese, lime juice and a bit of cayenne pepper. It is a specialty in the Yucatan peninsula and lucky for me available in various restaurants and flea markets around Brooklyn, if you know where to look. However, if you haven't had one of these, please stop reading and go find one. It truly is one of the best street foods I can think of. It transforms a cob of corn into an explosion of flavor. I would make this treat for myself on a regular basis if I had access to a grill, but since I don't (sob, sob) I used to just wait until I went out for Mexican food to have it. That all changed last night. I think I'll probably make this little beauty of a salad at least once a week, or as long as I have access to the fresh ingredients. My corn on the cob actually came from my CSA. Now if we could only grow avocados up there...
On the issue of eating locally, I have been thinking a lot about how cooking different cuisines can work with a sustainable cooking philosophy. There are always going to be certain essential ingredients that are not going to be available locally if you're preparing dishes from regions and countries with a different climate. In summer I tend to cook a lot of Mexican or Mediterranean dishes, and things like citrus, or olives, or certain cheeses aren't locally sourced in the Northeast where I'm located (as far as I know). It's in these situations I think there is room for flexibility. The goal is to support sustainable food and food purveyors by voting with your fork, but it is not to suffer in the process. I think eating local is the right thing to do, and if everyone did it there would be a change in our broken food system. But, I also think allowing yourself to purchase things that are unavailable in your region is alright too. Phew. Glad I got that off my chest.

Back to the dish. I got the idea for this salad after reading Mark Bittman's article last week in the NY Times Dining section. It was another one of his mega-lists of quick and genius flavor combinations. If you missed it, go and read it here. I know I'm going to use this list again and again when I'm having a cooking block. It's no coincidence that I picked his idea for deconstructing elote for a corn salad as my first dish. It is perfect for a picnic, or when you don't have access to a grill. Or for someone who just wants to eat with a fork.

Basically, you take the corn off the cob and quick roast it until it gets a bit brown in a skillet. This will cause a wonderful toasted corn smell to infuse your kitchen. Combine that with the essential components of elote, fresh lime juice, creamy queso fresco, and some heat (either cayenne pepper or chilis) and you have elote in a bowl. I added a few ingredients to plump up the salad, which just made it a bit more into a meal. Once done, take your salad and a cold cerveza onto your fire escape and you can almost pretend you are sitting in a plaza in Mexico as the sun sets. Buen provecho!

Deconstructed Elote Salad
I mixed the leftovers with some cooked shrimp for lunch today. Options are endless.

3 ears of corn
queso fresco (to taste)
fresh lime juice (about 1 big lime or 2 small ones)
1 jalepeño, deseeded and minced
cherry tomatoes (about 1/2 cup)
1 scallion, chopped
cilantro (small handful)

Take corn off the cob with a sharp knife. Place in a pan with some olive oil and cook stirring to avoid it sticking, till the kernels have a toasted look to them. Place in a
bowl and mix with the cheese and lime juice. Chop all the other ingredients
you're using and mix together. Easy Peasy.