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Celebrating the Last Week of Summer

I can’t think of any other way to celebrate the last week of summer than by making these salad dishes to enjoy every bite of the intense sun ripened ingredients. Today’s post is meant to help compile ideas for what you can do with these amazing summer fruits and vegetables to create simple dishes to enhance your garden party table or even a small kitchen table for two.

Heirloom Tomato & Bocconcini Salad

Serves 4

6 large heirloom tomatoes, quartered

1 clove garlic

4 bocconcini cheeses, sliced into ¼ inch pieces

A bunch of basil

Good quality extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Place the tomatoes and garlic clove into a large bowl. Using a pestle, smash the garlic clove and then roughly crush the tomatoes in order to let the garlic permeate.

Discard the garlic or save for another use. Transfer the tomatoes and their juices to a large platter. Scatter the cheese and basil leaves, drizzle with the generous amount of oil and adjust with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately with a piece of crusty bread.

Cantaloupe, Prosciutto & Bocconcini Salad

Serves 5 to 6

1 large cantaloupe

20 pieces prosciutto

4 bocconcini cheeses, sliced into ¼ inch pieces

A few leaves of Italian parsley, chopped

Good quality extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Prepare the cantaloupe. My favourite way to cut a cantaloupe is to remove both ends first and place it on a cutting board sliced side down. Then I peel the skin using a fruit knife, slicing downward from the top (the other cut side) all around the fruit till finished. Next, quarter and discard the seeds trying to save as much juice as possible. Slice the quartered wedges into ½ inch slices.

Place the cantaloupe and its juice, prosciutto and bocconcini on a large platter. Scatter with the parsley, drizzle with the generous amount of oil and adjust with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately.

French Pole Bean Salad

The secret to making fabulous French pole bean salad is to only use the very youngest, tenderest beans!

Serves 4

2 ears of corn, cooked and kernels stripped

2 lb young French pole beans, ends trimmed off

6 slices bacon, fried and sliced into ½ inch pieces

½ red onion, chopped finely

½ cup olives, sliced

1/3 cup white wine vinegar

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Cook the beans in a pot of boiling salted water until soft but firm for about 3 to 5 minutes. Don’t over cook them. Using a colander, discard the hot water, and then plunge the beans in a bowl of cold running water to stop further discolouring. When cool, drain well and pat dry.

Place the onion, olives, vinegars and oil in a large bowl and whisk well to combine. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Toss the beans, corns and bacon in the vinegar mixture and marinate for about 10 minutes.

Transfer to a large platter and serve immediately.

Rainbow Swiss Chard Quiche

Nothing brightens up my garden like rainbow Swiss chard. Their dark ruby- red and Canary yellow stalks keep their colour even after being cooked, therefore they earn the best spot in the garden every year along a highly trafficked pathway. What a special way to welcome guests to our front door. They are temptations like those found in a candy store, but thankfully they are healthy ones. Rainbow swiss chard can be cooked the same way as spinach. Bake, sauté, boil, steam and eat as much as you want. They won’t give you a sugar rush!

When I have an abundance of chard, I normally store it for winter. Or if you do succession sowing during summer months, at the latest in early August, the chard can stay in your garden with a protection in the Lower Mainland area (plant hardiness zone 8) all winter long.

If you store the abundance, just blanch in boiling water for about 2 minutes, dunk in cold water and squeeze out the excess moisture. Then, cut into an inch length and freeze in a plastic bag in a small portion. You can throw chard into lasagna, stew, soup, or pie etc., and it is indeed one of my favourite items for our macaroni and cheese dish in winter months because it’s flavours are reminiscent of summer memories.

Rainbow Swiss Chard Quiche

Makes 9-inch pie dish (I use an Emile Henry 9 inch fluted pie dish)

Dough

1½ cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup cold butter, cubed

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vinegar

Ice water

Extra butter and flour for the pie dish

Filling

6 slices bacon strips

5 stalks rainbow Swiss chard, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

3 big leaves of rainbow Swiss chard, chopped into thin strips

A sprig of thyme

½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

¼ teaspoon salt

5 eggs + 1 egg white

1 cup milk

½ cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

¾ cup Gruyère cheese, shuredded

Butter the pan and dust with some flour, then remove excess flour. Keep it refrigerated.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour with salt. Place the butter and the flour mixture in a food processor, and pulse until fine crumbles form, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary (you can do this by using a pastry blender or 2 knives in a large bowl). In a measuring cup, whisk the egg yolk with vinegar and add enough ice water to make 1/3 cup. Drizzle over dry ingredients and pulse until the mixture just starts to come together into a ball. Gently press the ball into a disk, wrap with a piece of plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until chilled.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough to ¼ inch thickness. Fold twice gently, transfer to a prepared pie dish and unfold to cover the dish leaving a 1-inch overhang. Fold the edge inside the rim and flute if using a pie dish. Prick all over with a fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line the pie shell with a piece of parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake in the bottom third of the oven until the rim is light golden for about 15 minutes.

Remove weights and parchment paper, then let cool on a rack.

In a large skillet, fry the bacon over medium high heat until crisp. Drain fat from the pan. Sauté the chard and thyme until softened about 3 to 4 minutes, and add salt and pepper to taste.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and cream. Crumble the bacon and add to the egg mixture along with the chard.

Brush mustard over the pie shell and sprinkle with the Gruyère cheese evenly. Pour in the egg mixture.

Bake in the centre of a 375F oven for about 35 minutes, or until cooked. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Serve immediately (if you would like to make ahead, let cool, cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours. Reheat in a 350F oven for about 20 minutes).

Dough recipe adapted from Canadian Living Magazine

New Potatoes and Crispy Bacon Salad

My potato plants are in bloom with purple, pink and white flowers, making me anticipate the abundance beneath the black soil. Yukon Gold, Russian Blue, French Fingerling and Banana Fingerling are the varieties. Almost all are from last year’s crop, and it seems that each year, I introduce a new variety to my garden when I see something interesting at a local farmer’s market.

There is something satisfying about harvesting potatoes or root vegetables for that matter. I still remember the amazement of pulling sweet potatoes from the ground for the first time one sunny afternoon when I was on a kindergarten field trip.

Today’s recipe is a recreation of a dish that I used to eat when I was working in Tokyo. I could hardly resist picking up my lunch in the food section of a special department store nearby. From corner to a corner, the floor was packed with glass cases full of vibrant coloured salad, delicatessen (okazu), bread, and cakes. If there is a food heaven, indeed, that was it. Be it sweet or savoury, endless delectable options enticed you to a food maze, where you actually hoped to remain lost forever!

New Potatoes and Crispy Bacon Salad

Serves 4-5

12 strips bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces

3 lb multi coloured new potatoes, thinly sliced

5 red or green scallions, chopped finely

¼ cup red wine vinegar

¼ cup white wine vinegar

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt or more to your taste

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Fry the bacon in a medium skillet. Transfer to a paper towel to remove excess fat. Set aside.

Boil water in a large pot. In the meantime, slice the potatoes using a slicer. Chop the scallions. Combine the vinegar, oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl.

When the water starts boiling, add some salt and the sliced potatoes, and cook for about 5 minutes. Drain well.

Toss the potatoes in the vinegar mixture along with the scallions and bacon. Adjust with salt and pepper to your liking. Marinate at least 20 minutes or so in the refrigerator.