Recipe: Not Your Usual Potato Salad

I usually have a photo with each recipe, but for some reason, I’ve never taken one of this potato salad! So, if you make this recipe and send me a good photo, I’ll post it here and give you photo credit!  You can email it to me at laura@yourspiceoflife.com  Thanks!

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Forget what your usual potato salad tastes like….  this is a whole new approach!

Ingredients:

3 lbs. thin-skinned potatoes (red bliss, Yukon Gold, etc), cut into 1/2″ pieces
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dark raisins
1 cup finely diced red onion
2 T white wine vinegar, plum vinegar or white cider vinegar
1 T Hurricane Curry spice blend
sea salt

Method:

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender but still firm inside.
Drain cooked potatoes in colander.
Add olive oil to bottom of the hot pot. Turn heat to low.
Add diced onions and the raisins.
Add vinegar.
Stir in Hurricane Curry.
Keeping mixure on low heat, stir for 2 minutes.
Turn off heat, add cooked potatoes from colander
Very gently, turn the potatoes until they are all coated.
Taste for salt; add ground sea salt if desired.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe: Fresh Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Pasta salad is a summertime staple. It’s quick to make, universally enjoyed, and affordable. The only downside to the usual pasta salad? Gobs of mayo, and overcooked pasta.

You’re not going to find either of those things in this recipe!

 This salad uses extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice; the juice from the fresh tomatoes also adds moisture. And for the pasta, I tend to use only Barilla brand. I think they are the best commercial brand out there, and you can choose from traditional, whole wheat or mixed.

The real star of this dish, though, is the produce. You can add a huge burst of flavor, color and nutrition with the creative use of veggies of all kinds. In this particular version, I used what I had on hand, but the variations are endless.

I’ve posted a similar recipe before — my Campanelle Pasta Salad with Roasted Grape Tomatoes. I adore that dish, but this one uses only raw, fresh veggies. It’s quicker, and although I kind of miss the sweetness from the roasted tomatoes, the fresh burst that you get from the raw ones is equally delicious.

Ingredients:

1 pound Barilla “Campanelle” pasta (this shape gives the small pieces of onion and garlic somewhere to hide)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 medium red onion, finely minced
2 t Viva Italia! blend
1/2 t sea salt (I use my Sicilian Trapani salt but you could use your own favorite)
1 lb grape tomatoes, washed and halved
1 lb fresh spinach, sliced into 1″ shreds
20-25 pitted black olives (an oil-cured variety works best)
Juice and zest of one fresh lemon, or 2T lemon juice
optional: 8 oz crumbled feta cheese

Method:

Prep all of the vegetables before cooking the pasta.

Prepare the pasta according to package directions, al dente. When it’s cooked, drain it well and leave in the colander. Do not rinse it!

Add the olive oil to the same pot you used for the pasta.  Add in the garlic, onion, Viva Italia! and the sea salt.  The residual heat from the pot will very slightly cook the garlic and onion, taking the edge off.

After 2-3 minutes, add the rest of the vegetables, then the cooked pasta. Add the lemon juice and zest. Stir gently to coat. Taste for seasoning. Add a touch more Viva Italia! or sea salt as needed.

The salad can be served warm right away, or refrigerated for later. This yields 4 servings as a main dish or 6+ as a side dish.

 

Recipe: Mexican Molé Soup with Beef & Rice

I own over 30 cookbooks, yet I admit that I seldom crack them open — except for this one:   “What’s Cooking:  SOUPS” by Carole Clements.

“What’s Cooking: SOUPS” by Carole Clements

It’s the variety of recipes that hooked me, along with some real standouts like the Molé Soup that follows below (note: Molé, not mole as in the furry animal — that’s in a different cookbook).

I generally do my own thing in the kitchen, but when you do that, you are limited by your own experience. In other words, even if you have a pretty wide repertoire of tastes and cuisines, it is unlikely that you will be able to whip up a Senegalese dish, while at the same time having a reference point for British-style dishes and Asian and Mediterranean AND North African.

The timing was perfect to receive this book as a gift: my friend Mike knew that I was preparing weekly soups for The Village Scoop here in Hillsdale, along with several private customers. I had wanted to go as many weeks as possible without repeating any soup, and it was starting to become a challenge.

Recipe: Bread, rolls, pizza, oh my!

I have learned how to bake bread… and I feel like I have just invented fire. Yeah, I am Wonder Woman.

You have no idea how proud (and surprised) I am at this accomplishment! Why did I think that making bread was beyond my capabilities?

Basil whole wheat rolls with Viva Italia and parmesan

Recipe: Light & Easy Seafood Chowder

Goodness sake,  it’s April 19th and it still doesn’t feel like Spring yet!  I’m still in “warm and filling” mode, for my weekly soup creations.

When I was deciding what to make this week, an old favorite came to mind:  this intensely flavorful chowder that gets all steamy and fragrant, but that’s super easy to make. If that’s not enough, it’s a LOT lighter than most chowders — no butter, flour or cream.

Recipe: Spicy Grilled Cod

You’ve heard that fish can be a valuable part of a healthy diet. It’s naturally low-fat, high in protein, and easy on the calories (depending on how you prepare it). The health benefits read like an alphabet: fish can help to prevent asthma, fuel your brain, stave off some cancers, lower your risk of dementia, and more.

Recipe: Rockin’ Moroccan Chicken Stew with Couscous

This is my first “illustrated” recipe!

The steps for making this Moroccan Chicken Stew are not complicated, but I thought it would be fun to show you the instructions along the way — you know, the whole picture is worth 1000 words thing.

This dish is a variation of my Moroccan Lamb Stew, subbing chicken thighs, because some people just don’t, or won’t,  do lamb.

Recipe: Stuffed Manicotti with Spicy Turkey Sausage

It’s darn cold around here, these days, so I thought that a nice, hearty lasagna would be just the thing to warm me up. Any excuse to fire up the oven, you know? But lasagna can be a lot of work… so I decided to make some stuffed manicotti instead (doesn’t it actually LOOK just like lasagna?).

Recipe: “Don’t be a turkey 4-bean chili”

It’s chili time!

Yesterday, I took part in a chili cook-off at Catamount Ski here in Hillsdale. This incredibly busy ski resort repeated one of their most popular events, inviting over 20 local chefs and amateurs to compete for prizes and bragging rights. It only cost each guest $5 to taste all of the dishes, and the competitors each paid $10 to enter. All of these proceeds went to the Roe Jan Food Pantry.

The Tavern was absolutely packed, with diners, skiers, cooks and even members of the press. We all lined up proudly with our chili creations in front of us, doling out samples to hundreds of people.

Do you judge a book by its cover?

It’s an old adage — “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Taking this literally,   unless you are a well-known author, the cover is often the only way that people will stop to look at your book.

The same is true of food products. If you are a new kid on the food block, your label may be the only thing that catches a customer’s attention. So it pays to spend a little time thinking about your labels.