Forking Awesome Kicked UP Waldorf Inspired Salad

The Waldorf Salad was created in the 1890s at the Waldorf Hotel in New York City. A typical Waldorf Salad is made from apples, celery, grapes and walnuts dressed with a mayonnaise dressing. That sounds sort of boring and heavy to me so I went with that idea and used some unusual ingredients like kumquat, rambutan and tomatillo that made it more interesting. There is a lot of flavors and textures in this salad with a little heat. It really is Forking Great….most people will like all the flavors and textures. Even if you don’t want to make this salad you will still want to make the walnuts like I do. I cook the walnuts with water for 3 minutes in the microwave to release the bitter flavor and toss the walnuts in the oven with minimal amounts of sugar, oil and seasoning and they are just delicious! My recipe makes more walnuts than you need for this recipe. I don’t think you will have a problem using them or snacking on them.

Ingredients for about three servings

1 cup walnuts

2 cups water

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

a few cracks black pepper

12 rambutan – peeled (you can substitute lychee fruit or large grapes)

2 celery ribs – peeled and cut in bite size pieces

1/2 fennel bulb – core removed and sliced thin (save some fennel fronds to toss in)

1 tomatillo – cut in quarters, then eights and each eight in fourths

1 apple – cored and cut in bite size pieces

3 Tablespoons jumbo raisens

2 radish sliced thin

2 kumquats sliced thin (remove seeds if you come across any)

1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 Tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

few cracks fresh black pepper

Directions

Place the walnuts in a microwave safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and heat for three minutes.

Set oven to 350 dries F. When the walnuts are cool enough to handle remove from the muddy looking liquid and blot as best as you can on paper towels. This is to remove even more of the bitterness. Place the walnuts in a small mixing bowl and toss with the olive oil, 1 Tablespoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne and a few cracks of fresh black pepper. Toss well and spread out the walnuts on a baking sheet. Place in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Cut the peeled rambutan off the pits and place in a large mixing bowl.

Add celery, fennel, fennel fronds, tomatillo, apple, raisins, radish, kumquats and remaining ingredients.

Toss.

Top with desired amount of walnuts.

Forking Awesome Kicked UP Waldorf Inspired Salad

It’s really very light delicious and different.

Most people will enjoy this salad!

The Forking Truth

Romaine dressed with Avocado Cilantro Caesar Dressing

Real Caesar Dressing is never white and is suppose to be very bold in flavor. It’s not Caesar unless you have flavors of garlic, anchovy, lemon juice, fresh cracked black pepper all equal in flavor with none outshining the others. Believe me I know…..back in the day I did this professionally. Here is an avocado variation of what caesar is suppose to taste like. I don’t usually use the oil from the anchovies but I found that the King Oscar brand that my local store sells to be the mildest, tiniest, (worst) anchovies I have ever come across and for the recipe to work out I needed to fortify the flavor with the anchovy oil. If you got good anchovies you might want to substitute olive oil instead to the one Tablespoon of anchovy oil that’s listed in the ingredients. A good anchovy is one that has some body to it. It should be about as long as your thumb. You should be able to lift each filet out of it’s container. The King Oscar Anchovies almost dissolve instantly. Sadly King Oscar Brand were the only brand of anchovies my local Safeway Store sells.

Ingredients for 4 servings

2 garlic cloves – ground to paste

4 anchovies – (note- quality and size of anchovies differ greatly, 4 from a small can, I used King Oscar because that was my only choice and found out the anchovies were very mild and very tiny….Good quality big ones you might need less)

1 XL egg yolk

2 Tablespoons dijon mustard

4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon lemon juice – fresh squeezed

1 Tablespoon oil from the anchovies

1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 avocado – just the creamy flesh

1/2 cup cilantro – finely chopped

3/4 teaspoon black pepper – fresh ground

sea salt – fresh ground to taste

Directions

If you are doing caesar table side you need a large wooden bowl and you use two forks to break down the garlic and then break down the anchovies with the two forks like this. Or you can simply ground the garlic on a garlic grounding board and then use the two forks to break down the anchovies.

With the fork beat in the yolk till it thickens.

Mix in dijon till it thickens.

Mix in one Tablespoon olive oil till it thickens.

Mix in one Tablespoon vinegar till it thickens.

Mix in one Tablespoon olive oil till it thickens.

Mix in one Tablespoon vinegar till it thickens.

Mix in one Tablespoon olive oil till it thickens.

Mix in one Tablespoon lemon juice till it thickens.

Mix in one tablespoon olive oil till it thickens.

Mix in Worcestershire sauce.

Mix in anchovy oil till it thickens.

Mix in avocado till it’s smooth.

Mix in remaining ingredients, taste and adjust.

Avocado Caesar Dressing

Serve..Spread the dressing heavy on a cleaned 1/2 head of romaine that is chilled or grilled (or tossed in torn romaine). Top with roasted red pepper strips, either parmesan or cotija cheese, some more anchovies, toasted pumpkin seeds or seasoned croutons, scallions and maybe a little fresh cilantro. A few pieces of grilled chicken will turn this salad into a dinner.

Romaine dressed with Avocado Caesar Dressing

Forking Good!

The Forking Truth

Chef Vivian Howard’s “Best Picked Beets She Ever Ate”

Chef Vivian Howard is a James Beard Foundation Award Semi Finalist, She also runs her own AAA Four Diamond Restaurant, she is a host on her Award Wining PBS “A Chef’s Life” TV Show and Cook Book Author. If Someone like Chef Vivian Howard says these are the “Best Pickled Beets She Ever Ate then they must be Forking Great!

Ingredients for about 12 servings

3 lbs beets

3 cups cider vinegar

2 cups water

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3 cloves

3 bay leaves

2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 teaspoon chili flakes

3 star anise

Directions

Put the washed skin on beets in a pot and cover with 2 inches of water.

Boil covered for about 20 minutes or knife tender.

Drain and cool. – Peel when cool.

Slice in 1/2 inch half round and quarter if they are real big.

Combine the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil.

Pour over beets.

Refrigerate and they will be good for three months or can if you want to hold them longer.

Chef Vivian Howard’s “Best Picked Beets She Ever Ate”

These pickled beets are more firm than how I usually do pickled beets. They also are spicier and are infused with more flavors and are not sweet. For me they needed a week for the flavors to develop.

On the TV PBS TV Show A Chef’s Life they had a Beet Farmer on the show doing his version of pickled beets and his trick was to boil the beets leaving the greens on. He said the beets bleed out when you cut the leaves off. I tried it doing a basic pickled beets recipe with just plain white vinegar, sugar and water like the farmer did and the beets do have a much earthier flavor leaving the greens on.

With the extra beet brine from all the beets I’ve been pickling I used some for mini cucumbers for salads.

I also pickled some eggs and made tiny open faced sandwiches.

Chef Vivian Howard’s “Best Picked Beets She Ever Ate”

Enjoy!

The Forking Truth

Bavarian Inspired Potato Dumplings

This recipe is based on German Food Expert Jennifer McGavino’s Recipe for Bavarian Potato Dumplings. Bavarian Potato Dumplings are a Sunday Comfort Food. You can eat them with melted butter and toasted bread crumbs. You can simply pour cold milk on the hot dumplings and eat them that way or serve them with a gravy. There are many variations of Bavarian Potato Dumplings. Kartoffel Kioesse, Rotte Kloesse and Baumnollene Kloesse. Some involve using a combination of raw mushed red potatoes that are drained threw linen cloth and are mixed with cooked potatoes. They take lots of practice before you will be successful because they are even difficult for experts to prepare. Besides incredible fluffy breakfast eggs and BBQ, the only food my father used to prepare when I was a child were similar Bavarian Dumplings….he said his mother made them for him. I took a few liberties to make the dumplings more delicious by infusing the potatoes with flavors and I skipped the extra buttered bread crumbs the original recipe called for because I never had these dumplings that way and for my taste they weren’t needed but feel free to butter up a 1/2 cup of bread crumbs if you desire. The other change I did was that I substituted polenta for farina of the original recipe but not to make a change but due to what I had in my pantry. The dumplings still came out with the same taste…..My husband never had Bavarian Dumplings before and said they came out very delicious. Try them and see what you think!

Bavarian Inspired Potato Dumplings

Ingredients for about 6 servings

5 or more average size russet potatoes – peeled – cooked till tender and chilled (you will need 3 1/2 cups riced)

1 hot pepper – to boil with potatoes for flavor (I used a banana pepper)

1 garlic clove – to boil with potatoes for flavor

1/2 sweet onion – to boil with potatoes for flavor

1 Tablespoon kosher salt or sea salt – to boil with potatoes

2 slices quality white bread – cut in small cubes.

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup polenta (not instant)

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3 1/2 cups of riced potatoes

2 eggs beaten

a few grates fresh nutmeg

a pinch white pepper

Directions

In a fry pan heat up the butter on medium high heat and add the bread cubes and let go till golden brown.

If you didn’t boil your peeled potatoes yet do so now with the hot pepper, onion garlic and 1 Tablespoon kosher or sea salt. Boil potatoes till fork tender, SCOOP the potatoes out with a slotted spoon and toss out the pepper, onion and garlic in the trash. BUT SAVE THE WATER!!!!!!!! You will use the flavored water to boil the dumplings in……The potatoes must be chilled for this recipe to work out so make sure your potatoes are good and chilled. Once chilled…

In a large bowl rice the potatoes.

In a small bowl combine flour, polenta, 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, nutmeg and pepper and eggs. The small bowl mixture will be very thick.

Mix well and combine with potatoes.

Now get a pot on to boil with the flavored water you saved and add enough to boil dumplings.

Once pot boils turn it down to just over a simmer.

I did one smaller dumpling as a test..I rolled it into a big marble and stuffed a small crouton in it then it went into the pot..to check to see if I had enough flour in it and also checked for seasoning. I let the smaller dumpling cook for about ten minutes. I thought it came out perfect.

So then I rolled dumplings about meatball size inserting a small crouton in each.

I rolled the potato mixture into balls.

I boiled the balls 8-10 at a time for 12 minutes a batch.

When I was a child my dad would serve these similar dumplings hot with just cold milk. I served then with unsweetened butter, sliced scallions and remaining toasted bread cubes broken down to crumbs.

Bavarian Inspired Potato Dumplings

These are delicious. These Dumplings came out very similar to what I remember and you might want to give them a try!

The Forking Truth