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.

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.

Poached Salmon Pasta with Cream Sauce

1 lb salmon fillets (4 oz/serving)
1 medium onion, fine dice
1 c Riesling or other semi-dry white wine
1 c half-and-half
1 t hot smoked paprika
double-handful cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 c coconut milk
olive oil
kosher salt

Saute the onion in olive oil with a pinch of kosher salt in a skillet. Whisk together wine, half-and-half, and paprika. When the onion starts to brown pour in the liquid. When it reaches 150ºF, add the salmon. Spoon liquid over the salmon and poach for 8-10 minutes. Test doneness with a fork. Remove salmon, add tomatoes, raise heat to medium and simmer until liquid is reduced by half.

Break up salmon to bite-size pieces. When liquid is reduced, remove from heat and stir in coconut milk and fish. Season with salt and fresh-ground pepper. Serve over pasta, garnishing with parsley and shaved parmesan if desired.

Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

Look at these beauties!

They're on sale at my local vegetable stand. The photograph doesn't really do the colors justice - the reds, the oranges, the delicate shades of green. And the flavor is incredible! They make my mouth explode with delirium. And I wanted to share that with everyone.

Candied Ginger Vegetable Curry

Inspired by a Bulgarian hangover breakfast.

1 medium onion, sliced
1 medium potato, 1/2 inch dice
splash olive oil
handful okra, chopped
1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 cup Bulgarian yogurt (runnier than normal Dannon, or just plain yogurt thinned out with a couple tablespoons of water or white wine)
1 T curry paste
1 t garlic powder
1 t sweet paprika
half dozen grape tomatoes or 1 small roma, chopped
half dozen pieces candied ginger
kosher salt

First: Candied ginger is absurdly easy to make. You can easily find plenty of recipes for it. I'll post mine later.

Put olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, potato, and a pinch of kosher salt, and saute, tossing occasionally, until the onion is translucent.

Reduce heat to low. Add the yogurt and curry paste and stir until well-combined. Mix in the okra, ginger, tomatoes, garlic powder, and paprika. Cover and simmer for half an hour until the potatoes are tender. Add the bell pepper, turn off the heat, and cover for 5 minutes.

Serve over brown rice or some other favored starch.

Stoup

Yeah, for a lot of people every time they hear the word "stoup" their hatred for Rachel Ray gets just a little bit hotter, but I like the perky little spunkmuffin. I've gotten some good recipe ideas from her 30-minute meals show, though I have to say my experience shows she's usually cheating on the time just a little, if by no other means than having a fully-staffed prep kitchen just off-camera.

Anyway...

6-8 cups freshly-made chicken stock
chicken meat stripped from the carcass and shredded
1/4 cup red lentils
1/4 cup pearl barley
1/2 cup split peas
1/2 cup dry white beans
1/2 T garlic powder

8-10 grape tomatoes, quartered

kosher salt

1 large onion
3 stalks celery
1/2 bell pepper
1 moderately hot chile - an Anaheim or Serrano or Mirasol or New Mexico green
4 large cloves garlic, smashed and minced
olive oil
1 t sweep paprika

Strain the stock, return to pot and bring to a simmer. Add the lentils, barley, split peas, beans, garlic powder, tomatoes and salt to taste. Simmer covered for 2-3 hours until the white beans are tender. Coarsely chop the onion, celery, bell pepper and chile and add to a saute pan with the olive oil over high heat. Sprinkle on the paprika and toss to distribute. Saute for 2-3 minutes, then add the garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes more.

Add the chicken meat and sauteed vegetables to the stock, cover and simmer for another 15 minutes. Adjust the seasoning.

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.

Thai-Korean-Shakshuka pasta

OK, first of all, I hear the people asking "wtf is shakshuka?" Last night's dinner was a sort of impromptu version of that with some Asian influence, all served up over pasta.

1 cup (dry) pasta shells

double handful grape tomatoes

1 large jalapeño chile

3 green onions

1 small cucumber

handful feta cheese, crumbled

2 eggs

1/2 cup jarred pasta sauce (no, I'm not proud)

olive oil

kosher salt

Cook the pasta as directed in boiling salted water.

Heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet over high heat. Add the tomatoes with a pinch of kosher salt and let them get a nice char, tossing occasionally. Dice the jalapeño, removing the seeds and membrane, add to the tomatoes and cook until well-softened. Drop the heat to low and add the pasta sauce. Simmer for a few minutes until the tomatoes start to deflate and weep.

Meanwhile, peel, quarter, and slice the cucumber and cut the green onions into 1-inch pieces. Break the eggs atop the sauce. Once the whites begin to firm up sprinkle the feta into the pan. Cover for 3-4 minutes or until the eggs are as done as you want them. Sprinkle on the green onions and kill the heat, let it rest for a minute or two.

Put pasta in a bowl, ladle on some sauce and an egg, top with sliced cucumbers. The cukes and, believe it or not the onions, will cut the heat of the chile nicely.

Serves 2.