Cherry Tomatoes with Almonds & Mint

This quick summer salad makes for an easy meal. The recipe came together by chance one afternoon while I was visiting my parents.

For as long as I can remember we have had our own tomatoes every summer. Growing up on those sweet little gems forever spoiled me from store-bought tomatoes.

Although cherry tomatoes from the store can sometimes be fairly sweet, this dish, like anything with tomatoes, is incomparably better with those from your own garden. If you must buy yours at the store, get the sweetest sort possible.

Rotoli di Melanzane con Ripieno di Pistacchio

No summer garden is complete without aubergines, or as they are known in these United States, eggplants. Luckily, we live in a time when people eat this wonder fruit. Not long ago, people avoided it for fear of it being poisonous on account of its dark shades. It turns out though, that aubergines are incredibly healthy. Not only are they low in calories and delicious, they are also one of the only vegetables with protein content. Aubergines are also incredibly versatile. You can grill them and eat the slices, use them in sautés, in stir frys, or roast them whole and purée them into the delicious middle eastern dip baba ganoush. The possibilities are limitless

One of my favorite methods of preparing eggplants has always been grilled aubergine roulettes. You might remember my recipe for aubergine roulettes with goat cheese, but this recipe with its savoury herbal pistachio stuffing takes the cake.

Pilfered Apricots

Living in northern California has a lot of nice aspects. The weather is consistently fantastic (except this year). San Jose is also pancake flat, so I can cycle or walk basically anywhere. All the good weather is great for gardens too. Everything grows well here, and there is always something in season.

The second half of summer is time for stone fruits, and as luck should have it, I noticed an apricot tree teeming with ripe fruit last night while walking to dinner. This treasure was sitting in the middle of a fenced-in abandoned lot nestled behind a 7-11. I made a mental note, and walked on to have a fantastic Vietnamese dinner at Vung Tau, one of San Jose’s many excellent Vietnamese restaurants – the amazing diversity of people and treats being another plus of living here.

After having mustered up courage while considering the name shaking beef, we started to make our way home. As I passed the apricot lot, I glanced about to make sure the coast was clear, and with one deft swoop I was over the fence, and into the land of milk and honey. I had bought some trifles at 7-11 beforehand so I could get a plastic bag, and once up in the branches of the apricot tree, I filled it to the brim with ripe fruit.

Almost as soon as I was in the lot, I was back over the fence with the mother-lode of apricots, and back on my way home.

Even though my days currently consist of the thrilling little death march of bar study, and the stress of dealing with a crooked mechanic, little adventures like this make life worthwhile.

Thank goodness for summer time.

Summer Dill Salad

This quick, simple salad is one of my kitchen standbys whenever dill is in season in my garden. The honey softens the slow, low burn of the Serrano, and the cucumbers really mop up all of the flavors in the dressing. The fresh, crisp crunch of cabbage as background rounds out the mix.

I served this last night with the shallot-basil burgers of the previous post, and it was a great pairing. I’d say my guests reaction is a good indicator of how tasty this is. As good as those burgers were, and they were, the salad was demolished in much shorter order, while a few patties still remained as leftovers by the end of the evening.

Salade de Chou-rave Indochinoise

It is still too hot in San Jose to turn on the stove for any reason, and this light, crispy kohlrabi salad with just a touch of heat is a quick, simple dish well suited for this season. I brought it to a small fourth of July bbq last night, and it was a huge hit, with people coming back for fourths and fifths. The sweet, cool flavors of honey and rice vinegar highlight the refreshing crunch of kohlrabi complemented by the fragrant southeast asian flavors of Thai basil and hot pepper.

As I mentioned before, older, larger kohlrabis tend to get pithy and bland in taste. The smaller, and fresher the kohlrabi used for this salad, the crispier, and more pronounced the flavors will be. The kohlrabi in this dish is cut into match sticks, then salted to remove some moisture. This makes the kohlrabi even crispier, and reduces the strong cabbage smell that cut kohlrabi can give off if allowed to sit.

Thai basil can be found in almost any asian market, and differs from sweet basil in appearance on account of its thicker purple stems and flowers. The flavor profile of Thai basil also features anise notes much more prominently than sweet basil, but, in a pinch, the regular Italian stuff will still make a decent substitute.

The shredded carrot and daikon mix, a standby of Vietnamese cuisine, gives the dish some more substance as well as a nice flash of color. If you are lucky enough to have a Vietnamese market close by they will likely have a pre-prepared shredded carrot and daikon on sale for pennies a pound. This stuff is a universal Vietnamese side, topping, and base for salads and pickles – a sort of Vietnamese answer to sauerkraut. If you see it pre-made on sale, it is worth buying, not only because it is delicious, but also inexpensive, versatile, and keeps for sometime. Some markets sell it both fresh and pickled. The pickled stuff is called đồ chua, and could be used in this dish, but the flavors will be altered. So, if possible, stick the fresh variety. Absent Vietnamese markets, a box grater will make for easy shredding of about 2 carrots, and one half a daikon radish.

Beet & Olive Salad with Shallots & Cream

This post has been a long time coming. My little recipe repertoire project slumbered through a hard winter. And, even though things are still not easy yet, summer is in full swing. For those morningbird songs we don’t hear other times in the year we can still be thankful.

It is from just these sort of summer feelings that this spontaneous recipe takes its inspiration. You see, the epic, day-glo pink color of this salad is a classic feature of a mainstay of the Latvian summer diet –  cold beet soup. That soup, however, is really quite different from this salad, aside from its color, and, a recipe for another day. Nonetheless, just having celebrated the summer solstice, things Latvian coupled with a new sense of energy have been polka-ing about my thoughts. This salad is a product of just that. And, so, this little piggy’s kitchen is back in operation. Cūciņa cucina ir augšamcēlusies!

Being as my life is consumed with my study for the California bar exam, my time for grocery shopping has been ever so slightly inhibited. Yet, as the modern world knows, brains need calories for thinking. If I weren’t to eat at all there’s no way I could pass this test. In difficult times, we make do with what he have on hand. In fact, sometimes, like today, the results come out brilliantly.

Cold beets and cream when combined create a fantastically brilliant pink color. That combination is one, that to me, is classically summery. When served cold this is just the sort of freshly cool and light food to fend off the wispy hunger pains peculiar to hot summer days – those feelings of pestering emptiness, which, stunted from full-fledged hunger by the heat, have us squeamishly demur from the heavier dishes of cooler seasons. Here, this color combination works as a base for a piquant cold vegetable salad, that surprises with both the vibrancy of its looks, and tastes.