It is so very amazingly hot here — but still no AC chez nous, so don't start snickering about how I wimped out in July, because I didn't, partially because I live in a reasonable state, weather-wise if not in any other way, and not always the weather, either, now that I remember back-to-back 50-year storms this spring, so never mind — that we are back on the topic of easy cool summer meals!
I loved hearing from you all about the things you like to grill.
It inspired me!
And tomorrow I'm making barbecue pork sandwiches by putting a nice cheap piece of pork butt in the slow cooker while I'm out.
This salad is a favorite — Will often requests it for his birthday dinner, which is in March (so that isn't very south-of-France-y, but he really likes it. Not that they don't have March in France {“Mars”} but, oh… never mind that either).
I like the flexibility of this dish. With the basics, you can veer off in a quite Mediterranean direction, or make it more of a potato and fish salad. However you do it, it's delicious.
Here you will find Julia Child's recipe. Now, notice I don't have hard-boiled eggs this time, but I do have corn. Why? Because this type of food should be made with what you have left over, not put together from scratch!
So if one night you have steak, potatoes, corn, and green beans (and remember to do some hb eggs), you can see how easily you could put together this salad!
I always have homemade vinaigrette of some kind lurking around, don't you? Please don't tell me you buy salad dressing!
Very few things have more weird ingredients, taste weird, and cost more, unit-wise, then boughten dressing. When you consider how easy it is to make any kind of dressing at all, you will be upset with yourself for every buying it. Not that I'm so great, but I haven't bought salad dressing for twenty-five years.
For this I like a mustard-y (use powdered dried, not your good Grey Poupon, it's not worth it for the most part, and powdered mustard has a lovely emulsifying quality), lemony dressing. Just add mustard and lemon to the recipe above!
As always, I like menus, so I'll tell you what I served it with. You might say it's a meal in one dish, and for a couple of adults, that's true. For meals with kids of various ages, I like to have side dishes regardless. In this case, I had grilled peppers and tomatoes from a kebab dinner a few days before, and of course some eggplant obsession, just a little!
When your fridge has a few dibs and dabs of leftovers, serve them up attractively, why not? When they were first served there was plenty.
I got those little blue dishes from a thrift store for this very purpose. They are small and cute, and children should learn to mentally divide up whatever is in the dish amongst the eaters. I can't abide a hog — a person who, early on in the line, takes more than his share of the goodies! These weeknight suppers are the exact spot to learn to cleave to your allotment.
Not that those are things most kids like.
So if you didn't put corn in the salad, as I did, you might serve corn on the cob and fruit if you need to appeal to little picky eaters. And yes, this is how you get them to like good stuff…not by starving them out but by giving them a chance to try something new along with things they like. And, always, bread and butter.
We're still using our old thrifted picnic tables, and loving eating outside! The Chief made me the napkin holder long ago. I like to use cloth napkins but I'm happy for the paper ones occasionally.
The bread is my favorite rosemary-olive oil-raisin-honey bread*. As I've told you before, I make at least 3 large loaves of any bread recipe and try to put some in the freezer for just such a day when the oven just can't be turned on or extra guests arrive or you've been running around rather than baking.
At first it seems like you can't get ahead on bread, but if you make extra each time you bake, you soon will have a freezer full of helpful loaves and rolls.
By the way, keep your eye out for large shallow serving plates.
There is something so much more attractive about a salad served in a shallow dish rather than a deep one. You can distribute the “goodies” better, rather than having them sink to the bottom. Once I visited friends who had a gigantic, nearly flat wooden salad bowl the size of a young tire, and oh, I coveted that! Someday maybe I'll find someone to make me one!
*Rosemary/olive oil/raisin/honey bread, Like Mother, Like Daughter
1 1/2 cups warm water (110*)
1-2 tsp. yeast (depending on freshness, but not a whole packet, and you can use less if you are also using starter)
7-8 cups flour (whatever, I have no idea how much flour I use — I fill the bowl on my 5 qt. mixer to 2 inches from the top)
2 tablespoons olive oil in 1 cup of warm water (potato water if you have any)
1 tablespoon salt (this is not a typo — most people don't put in enough salt. I think I might actually use a little more than a tablespoon unless I cooked my potatoes in very salty water)
Starter if you have it (I use a poolish that I keep going — I don't use it all in the dough, but add equal amounts of flour and water to a little bit I keep back — I hope that makes sense to you because I don't know how else to say it)
1/4 cup honey
1 cup golden raisins (which I didn't have any of for the bread above, so I used regular old dark raisins)
1 tsp. dried crushed rosemary (yes, dried, which is just much nicer than fresh, there, I said it)
{For pictures of the following process, see my spent grain post.}
In my kitchenaid mixer I put the water and the yeast and let things start to bubble a little. If I have starter, I put in 1/2 cup to a cup.
Then add the flour and salt.
Mixing slowly, add the cup of water with the oil, the honey, and the rosemary.
Then, while mixing, add a little more water, enough to keep the dough from getting hard bits, sprinkle in raisins, and continue adding water until a good dough forms. You don't want to put the raisins in too early or too late.
I'm sorry, this is how I make bread. I don't know how much water I add, partially because I've added a certain somewhat unknown amount of liquid in the starter and potato water, and partly because I hate measuring and I know what the dough should look like.
And what should it look like? It should look lumpy and a little looser than most recipes tell you, because the second mistake (after the lack of salt) home bakers make is to have a dough that is too stiff. That's because they are going to knead it by hand, and it's too hard to knead a soft dough, but a soft dough makes a better bread.
And a less-kneaded but longer- and cooler-risen dough makes a better bread!
So instead, once the flour is all mixed and you have something somewhat resembling what you consider dough but maybe a little gloopier, let it rest for at least 20 minutes.
Just walk away and do something else. You can cover with a wet towel if you like.
After 20 minutes, or 40 minutes, or whatever (you just don't want it crawling up your mixer top), give the mixer a few turns, and you will see the dough smooth out miraculously and the gluten strands form. Turn into a big oiled bowl, cover with the towel, and let rise slowly (not easy in this heat but I don't recommend bread baking when it's 100* anyway!).
Gently turn it on itself — don't “punch down” and don't be rough, but do sort of massage it like it's the sweetest baby — and let it rise again.
Form into at least 3 loaves (gently!), set the oven at 375*, and when it's risen for about 40 minutes, slash the loaves and bake for 40 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 200* in the center of the loaf.
Let the loaves cool completely on a rack. Then dig into one and freeze the other two!
This bread is heavenly with butter and honey.
Suki says
I am just still giggling at the fact that you called Massachusetts reasonable weather-wise!
_Leila says
It will get cooler here, unlike DC!
I took it back, though.
Barbara says
Nicoise is often my birthday request, too (if anyone offers, that is!). I have two versions on my food blog — the first is budget and the second is heart-healthy ( http://blessusolord.blogspot.com/2009/01/salmon-n… ; http://blessusolord.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-pos… ). I will have to try your Julia version — Thanks!
Vanessa Zachry says
This all looks so delicious! Stay cool!
the chief says
You mention the eggplant obsession, but not that (if I recall rightly) this was the first time you'd served eggplant fresh from your garden. What a difference! The flavor was so much richer.
Just thought I'd mention that. Keep up the good culinary work; we appreciate it.
_Leila says
Thanks old boy! I appreciate it!
Mom in MO says
Oh, I agree with you on the salad dressing. My 11-yr and 9-yr old daughters are whizzes at making dressings. Much better than store bought. They much prefer to make it than buy it. And they can tell their friends about their culinary skills…….
margo says
We love salade nicoise! I usually use potato salad when I make it, but yes, it is flexible. And although it looks gorgeous on a big platter, I tend to plate it for each person in the kitchen because otherwise I have bad leftovers if the whole salad is assembled and dressed.
I totally agree about the hog factor. I always worry that I didn't make enough food, and I have started noticing that my family seems to eat to the amount I make. Believe me, I have cut back on portions or on what I set on the table (taking out the planned leftovers first!).
The weather has been so ridiculous here – 82 degrees all through the night – I've been sleeping so badly I know that for a fact. We did put our window units in yesterday, but they're set to 80.
Betsy M says
Just wanted to say that the salad looks wonderful – how could I have not known about this salad all these years? We make something similar sans potatoes, but the addition of potatoes would be a huge hit with the hubby!
Oh and my other reason for commenting is due to that beautiful napkin holder. What a nice one for outside eating!! I am going to get my husband on that project. (Aren't husbands great!) Thanks for the idea.
Barbara says
What a sweetheart your honey is!
Cathy says
Beautiful meal! I agree with “helping' kids learn to like a wide variety of food. If left to their own devices, it will never happen! I NEVER buy salad dressing. Homemade tastes so much better. Early on in my marriage I made a salad and I had bought the dressing my husband used. I then made my vinigerette for my own salad. He took one smell of mine as I walked past him, and said “I see you got the good stuff for yourself” Well, that was that. He won't touch store bought now! LOL. Pennies per bottle and so delicious. I can vary the herbs in season and keep a bottle of homemade Olive Rosemary Oil and Olive Garlic Oil in the fridge to use in my dressings. Delish. The eggplant looks scrumptous!
Becky says
Anyone have a good suggestion for a non-bread starch addition to meals like this on a hot day? My family is gluten-free (by necessity, not choice), and our go-to is rice. But rice has to simmer for a long time and…it is so hot! Also, full of arsenic, and not something you want to serve to your kids all the time. I suppose cold rice could work, but I am not thrilled about the idea. Gluten free bread is expensive. We eat it, but…is there an obvious solution for a cheap, filling, something to go on the side of most meals?
Rachel says
quinoa
potatoes, roasted
loaded cauliflower casserole (it’s better than mac-n-cheese…) — super fast to do
Becky says
Thank you! Forgot to mention that we also have a potato allergy in the house, but I appreciate the suggestions…what’s the secret to the cauliflower casserole?
Amelia says
Have you experimented with different techniques for cooking rice? Once I got a proper rinse, soak, & water ratio, it cooked quickly and it’s covered so I don’t notice any extra heat when I am cooking anyway.
And nope, no obvious starch solutions : -(. Potatoes and rice are the cheap ones. Sweet potatoes and green plantains are great but cost more. I don’t eat corn but I wonder if that might be an option for you to explore. Whole carrots are cheap and can be a tasty, carby side when cooked right, though not neutral enough to have all the time. I have a great gluten free bread recipe but I wouldn’t call it cheap, just less expensive than the store-bought alternatives.
Becky says
Thanks for the tips! It can be tricky with perpetually hungry kids, food restrictions, and a budget. Care to share your bread recipe? I haven’t tried baking my own gluten free bread in years, because my first attempts were so poor.
Christina A says
A friend of mine uses “Gluten Free on a Shoestring”. Not sure if it’s a blog or cookbook, but it might help you.