Two Quick Sauces for Summer

The summer grilling season approacheth. It's a good time to (re)introduce chimichurri to everyone. Traditionally, chimichurri from Argentina and Uruguay and is a sauce for grilled meats. What I love about chimchurri sauces is that they can be made ahead and kept as an insurance policy against boring food. You can also stir the sauces into a pasta salad or cole slaw or bean salad to jazz them up.

A parsley-based chimichurri is the version most people are familiar with. I just found a recipe for the red version of chimichurri. I can tell it's going to become a go-to condiment for me this summer: it's super easy to make and will keep in the fridge for a while.

Chimichurri (Green)
Yields about 2 cups
This is the version you're most likely be served. My version results in pesto-like version. If you prefer a looser consistency, adjust the sauce with more vinegar and oil.

• 4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 bunch of parsley, leaves only
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup fresh oregano leaves(substitute 2 teaspoons dried oregano, or omit oregano entirely)
  
• 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  
• 1/2-3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

In a food processor, blend all the ingredients except the olive oil, until you have a fine paste. Add olive oil to get the consistency you want. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Red Chimichurri (Chimichurri Rojo)
Yields about 1 cup
This yield a very liquid sauce, more like a salad dressing. I keep it in a squeeze bottle and give a squirt to dishes that need jazzing up.
Adapted from Norman van Aken.

• 1/2 cup sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar (the sherry vinegar results in a much more interesting sauce, but use a good red wine vinegar if that's what you have on hand)
• 1/4 cup virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons hot paprika (use half hot paprika and half smoked paprika for an interesting version)
  
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (leave out if you don't want it to be too spicy)
  
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

Shake everything together in a squeeze bottle or jar. Taste for salt and adjust it if needed. This keeps for a while (at least two weeks) in the refrigerator.

Beets with Garlic Sauce

One more dish from the WBUR Meet Up. I love beets and this is a great way to serve them. Even better, everything can be made ahead as this is a dish that benefits from being served at room temperature.

The garlic sauce is a Greek dish called "skordalia" (Prounounced: "score-tha-LEE-ya"). There are several versions of skordalia. At its root, skordalia is a sauce that is heavily seasoned with raw garlic. You'll see recipes that call for potatoes, bread, nuts and/or eggs as the thickener. Traditionally this sauce is made in a mortar and pounded by hand, but most modern cooks will use a blender, food processer or mixer (stand or handheld).

My version of skordalia ia adapted from The Greek Vegetarian by Diane Kochilas. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to cook Greek vegetarian meals. There's more to Greek cooking than gyros and spinach pie!

To cook my beets, I use a non-traditional technique (at least it's not one I see elsewhere very often). I cut the root end and leaf end off the raw beets. Using a vegetable peeler, I peel the raw beets. Then I cut them into slices, wedges or whatever other shape I want. (The beets will be very hard, so be sure to use a sharp knife and be careful not to hurt yourself.) I lay the beets in a single layer in a baking dish and add about a 1/4 cup of water. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake in a 375-degree oven until the beets are tender (about 30-45 minutes depending the age and cut of the beets).

Beets with Skordalia
Serves 4-6 (more if being used as part of an appetizer spread)

• 1-2 bunches of beets (enough for about 1-2 beets per person, depending on the size of the beet)
• 12 ounces of potatoes (russets or yukon golds), about 2 large russets
• 4 -6 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed in a garlic press
  
• 1/2 cup of toasted walnuts or hazelnuts, chopped fine
  
• juice of 1 lemon
• approximately 1/2 cup olive oil
• approximately 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Cook the beets according the method above or another method of your choosing. The beets should be cut into wedges or 1/2" slices. Season with salt and pepper and a sprinkle of red wine vinegar.

Make the skordalia: Peel the potatoes and cut into chunks. Put in a pot of salted water and bring to a simmer. Cook until tender and then drain.

Put the potatoes into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachement (or use a large bowl and a hand mixer). Add the garlic, nuts, and lemon juice. With the paddle, mash the potatoes together with these ingredients. With the mixer running on low, blend in half the oil and half the vinegar. Stop the mixer and taste. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Turn the mixer back on and blend in more oil until the mixture is slightly fluffy and airy (lighter than mashed potatoes). Turn off the mixer and taste again. Add in more salt or vinegar if needed: you want a blend of salty, sour and garlicky.

Serve the beets on a bed of skordalia, or with it on the side. If desired, garnish with more chopped nuts or chopped parsley or dill.

If you have any leftovers, make a quick "hash". Chop up the beets and mix them together with leftover skordalia. Put the mixture in a non-stick skillet with a wee bit of olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute on both sides until crispy. Serve with a fried egg (I also made a quick "sauce" of parsley, more garlic and red wine vinegar to spoon over the top).

Ouzo-Cured Salmon

Ouzo-haters, don't turn away!

I made this salmon, recipe originally found here at Kalofagas, for a Meet Up (Eat Up!) at WBUR in conjunction with their Public Radio Kitchen project. The Public Radio Kitchen provides a great aggregation of Boston-area food and restaurant blogs. The Eat Up was the first opportunity (for large a number us) to meet in person. I offered to bring along a large spread of food for the attendees. A few other folks brought treats as well, and in occurrence similar to the miracle of the loaves and fishes, we all got plenty to eat! Some pictures from the event are here.

Here's the full menu of what I provided for the event:

• Ouzo-Cured Salmon with Carrot Tzatziki
  
• Lentil Salad with Roasted Kohlrabi and Caramelized Onions
• Roasted Beets with Skordalia (Potato-Garlic Sauce)
• Butternut Squash Baklava (savory, not sweet)
• Rosemary Foccacia
• Citrus Salad with Pickled Shallots, Kalamata Olives and Arugula (Sunday's cover shot)

I thought I'd share some of the recipes with you, starting with the salmon. The hardest parts of this dish are finding really high quality salmon (let your fish guy or gal know that you'll be curing it and that you need great quality product) and slicing it thinly enough (sharpen that knife!) when you're ready to serve it. This recipe can scale (no pun intended) up or down, depending on the size of the fillet you're using. The ouzo flavor isn't prominent, it just provides a nice herbal note to the salmon.

Ouzo-Cured Salmon
For appetizer servings, plan on 2 or 3 ounces of salmon per person.

• Salmon

For every pound of salmon you use:

• 3 tablespoons ouzo (or vodka - if using vodka and you still want an anise flavor, add 1 tablespoon aniseseed to the cure mixture)
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons coarse-ground black pepper
• zest of one orange
• zest of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes
  

Put the salmon, skin-size down, on a large sheet of plastic wrap in a container large enough hold the salmon in one flat layer (The salmon will exude more liquid - make sure the dish you're using has sides high enough to contain any drips: rimmed baking sheet, roasting pan, large Tupperware container, etc.).

Drizzle the salmon with the ouzo. Mix together the remaining ingredients and rub on the flesh. Wrap the plastic around the fillet tightly, trying to keep the liquid inside the plastic. Cover the fish with a cookie sheet, plate or some other flat item (you want to weight the fillet down, so make sure it's entirely covered. Weight down the sheet with a heavy item (a can, bag of flour, cast iron skillet, etc.) . Place the salmon in the refrigerator for one to three days (the flavor gets stronger the longer it cures).

Unwrap the salmon and pat it dry. Using a very sharp knife, slice very thin slices across the fillet. Garnish with citrus (I used kumquats and some dill fronds). Serve with carrot tzatziki.

Carrot Tzatziki

This is a play on the more traditional cucumber tzatziki. To make a cucumber version, substitute 1 cup of shredded, drained cucumber (about half an English cucumber - the one that's wrapped in plastic in the supermarket). This recipe is adapted from The Greek Vegetarian by Diane Kochilas.

• 2 cups thick Greek-style yogurt (Fage is a good brand. Trader Joe's sells one too)
• 2 medium carrots, shredded
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
• 1/4 cup chopped dill
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Mix all the ingredients together. Adjust salt to taste. If you need more tartness, add a little more lemon. As the tzatziki sits, the garlic flavor will become more pronounced. For best results, make this the day you intend to serve it.

Reruns - Just as Good the Second TIme

We had Muhammara and Tabouli for dinner the other night. Links to both recipes are here and here.

I did two things differently and with success: The tabouli was made with millet instead of bulgur wheat. The muhammara recipe calls for walnuts and this time I used toasted pine nuts.

Both were delicious and enjoyed by all. Just a reminder that you can adjust recipes for what you have in house. If I hadn't had pine nuts, I might have used walnuts. If no millet, maybe couscous or quinoa or a little pasta like orzo.

Easy, Cheesy

This is cheating, as this is barely a recipe. But, it's delicious, so I'll share the idea.

The next time you're grilling a Mediterranean-inspired meal, add Grilled Feta to your menu. Putting the feta cheese over heat (you can also do this in the oven, but it's not as fun) causes it to firm up and makes the edges get all brown and crunchy. It's really nice on bread or grilled vegetables.

Grilled Feta Cheese
I use Mt. Vikos Feta when I can find it - in my stores, I can find it in a sealed package in the deli cheese area. It's usually expensive (about $6-7 for an 8 oz. package), but the flavor is more authentic (to my taste) and in this case that's a good thing. All that said, this works well with "regular" feta too (like Athena brand).

Put 4 ounces (for 2-3 people) of feta in a heat-proof pan or baking dish (I like my wee iron skillet). Sprinkle pepper flakes, dried Greek oregano and/or ground black pepper over the cheese. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the top. (See Before picture to the right.)

Put the pan on the cooler side of your grill - let it sit there for 15-20 minutes. The cheese will sizzle and spit at first and then it will calm down. When the cheese looks browned and a little crispy on the edges, it's done.

Muhammara = Muhayumma

Oy. Sorry.

This is muhammara (or muhummara). It is a roasted red pepper dip/spread/sauce made with walnuts and garlic. I followed the recipe at 101 Cookbooks as closely as I could (I had no whole-grain breadcrumbs).

It is everything I love in a dish like this: it goes with multiple flavors, its color is beautiful and it is remarkably easy to make (especially if you cheat and use store-bought roasted red peppers).

In the last few days, we've eaten it with pita as a dip, alongside a quinoa salad with grilled vegetables, over grilled chicken and with grilled tofu. It's definitely a permanent addition to my dip/spread/sauce repertoire - you should add it to yours too.