Roasted Garlic Lemon Tapenade

This makes a great under-the-skin preparation for roasted chicken.

1 bulb garlic
few drops EVOO
zest of 1 small lemon
4-6 large black olives, diced fine
pinch kosher salt
pinch white sugar

Preheat oven to 300F. Cut off the root (pointy) end of the garlic bulb, exposing the cloves. Drizzle on a few drops of olive oil, wrap in aluminum foil, and bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Squeeze the bulb in your hand and the garlic will squirt out like toothpaste. Mix well with the other ingredients.

Seared Tuna Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette

Dressing

1 Tbsp wasabi powder + 1 Tbsp and a bit water or 2 Tbsp prepared wasabi paste
1/4 cup olive oil

1-2 tsp rice vinegar

1 T honey

1/2 tsp garlic powder

pinch powdered ginger

pinch salt

Mix wasabi powder and water to form a paste. Slowly whisk in olive oil. When thoroughly combined, add vinegar, adjusting amount to taste. Whisk in remaining ingredients. Allow to sit at room temp for at least 1 hour for flavors to blend. Taste, adjust sweetness with additional honey and spiciness with a pinch of cayenne pepper if desired.

Salad

1 8 oz bag lettuce or greens, your choice.

1 dozen calamata olives

1 dozen grape tomatoes, halved

1 avocado, cubed

4 oz feta cheese, crumbled (optional: substitute 2 oz bleu cheese for half the feta)

handful sliced almonds

Toss together lettuce, olives, tomatoes, avocado, cheese. Sprinkle with almonds.

Tuna

1-12 oz or 2-6 oz tuna steaks

2 T toasted sesame oil

1 T chili oil (“Mongolian Fire Oil” is good)

corn or canola oil

sesame seeds

Buy only tuna steaks that are still cryo-sealed and frozen hard. Do NOT accept partially thawed steaks from the display case. Thaw in the refrigerator for 36 hours.

In a bowl whisk together the sesame and chili oils. Open the tuna and roll around the bowl to coat well; cover and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Get a cast-iron or nonstick skillet burning hot over highest heat. Put a little corn or canola oil in the pan. Sprinkle the tuna with sesame seeds, place seed-side down in the pan and sprinkle the top with sesame seeds. Cook for 90 seconds only - DO NOT MOVE the steaks until it’s time to flip them. Flip, sprinkle cooked side with sesame seeds, and cook for 60-90 more seconds. The sides should be just completely grey. Remove from pan and allow to cool.

Slice tuna thinly (about 1/8 inch) along the grain. It should be nicely pink in the center. Arrange atop the salad. Drizzle the dressing over. Serve.

Roast Chicken With Lemon-Garlic Tapenade

a dozen jumbo black olives, diced fine (about 4 Tbsp)
4 Tbsp diced garlic
pinch kosher salt
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 tsp chili oil

In general I disdain prepared garlic; however lately I've found tubs of diced garlic in the deli section of the grocery. It's packed in a little oil. The flavor is very sharp and nutty, and the texture is soft. That makes it perfect for this application. You can certainly use fresh garlic if you want; if you do, mix it with just a few drops of olive oil to moisten it.

To make the tapenade, just combine all the ingredients, mix well, and let it sit out at room temperature for an hour or more. If your olives are anything but American-style mild black olives, you may wish to omit the pinch of extra salt.

Work your fingers gently between the skin of the chicken and the meat. Work carefully so as not to tear the skin. You should be able to free it from the breasts, except for along the keel centerline, and from the thighs and drumsticks.

Distribute the tapenade generously underneath the skin. This works best if you put a blob just under the edge and smooth your fingers along the outside to work the tapenade further in.

Roast the chicken in a 450F oven for an hour and a quarter or until the skin is browned and crisp and the thigh internal temperature has passed 165F.

Leftover tapenade can also be enjoyed as a spread on crackers or toast points, by itself or with cream cheese.

Heirloom Tomato Salad

1 dozen heirloom cherry tomatoes, halved
4 pimento-stuffed green olives, sliced
2 oz cooked pasta, thoroughly drained and chilled
1 pepperoncini pepper
grated or shaved Parmesan cheese
4 large garlic cloves, smashed and minced
1 oz extra-virgin olive oil
fresh-ground black pepper

Saute the garlic in the olive oil over very low heat until it is aromatic. Allow to cool.

Combine tomatoes, olives, and pasta in a bowl, and drizzle on the garlic oil. Break open the pepper, sprinkle on the vinegar juice, and add the pepper halves. Sprinkle on the shaved or grated Parmesan cheese. Top with fresh-ground black pepper to taste.

A quick lunch salad

This poorly-presented bowl of yumminess contains grape tomatoes, scallions, cucumber, olives, avocado, some white rice cooked with golden raisins, and goat's milk feta, all dressed with a couple tablespoons of gently-warmed ginger-scallion oil.

It was quite nice. The green olives were a bit too vinegary, they kind of clashed with the ginger flavor, but the mild black olives were fine. And the occasional raisin was a burst of contrasting sweetness that really highlighted the onions and the saltiness of the feta.

You could make it a much less intense (and much less expensive) experience if the proportions were altered to be more rice and less of everything else: a rice salad with some vegetables instead of a vegetable salad with a little rice.

It was accompanied by a small glass from a bottle of 4-dollar sake from the local whole food market. I think the stuff is intended to be cooking-quality vile, but chill it down and it's really quite tolerable.

Onion soup avocado pasta

Yeah, yeah, another pasta dish. I got a bunch of shells and linguine on sale.

1 large onion

garlic to taste - I like a lot, about half a bulb

1 t turmeric

1 t toasted sesame oil

1 T olive oil

kosher salt

pepper

broth or stock or fond or bouillon

handful olives

half an avocado

a nice fat lemon wedge

parmesan cheese if desired

8 oz linguine

Slice the onion and smash and dice the garlic fine. Put the sesame and olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. When the oil starts to shimmer add the onion, garlic, turmeric, with a pinch of kosher salt and a few grinds of pepper. Let the onion cook down for a good forty minutes or an hour, tossing occasionally.

If you're the kind of person who keeps stock or fond in your freezer, well, good on you. Thaw half a cup or so. If not, dissolve a beef bouillon cube in however much water the instructions say, and reduce it down to half a cup or so. Then add it to the onions and let it simmer down further until it will coat a spoon.

Meanwhile cook half a pound of linguine. Chop the olives, whatever kind you prefer. I've got some mild black ones and some garlic-stuffed green ones. Scoop out half an avocado in one piece and slice it lengthwise.

Drain the pasta and toss together with the onions. Plate, sprinkle on the olives, arrange the avocado on top, squeeze lemon juice on to it and top with fresh grated parmesan cheese if desired.

The onions are piquant, the stock or fond gives you a darkness and together with the avocado you get a luscious mouth-feel, and the olives and lemon juice add a lovely bright note that rides on top of it all.

4 side dish or 2 entree servings.