mint

All-Things-Green Salad Drizzled with Red Wine-Honey Vinaigrette

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 11 Comments

IMG_8920Light olive-green Baby Lima Beans, grass Green (English) Peas, the palest yellow-green Lady Peas tossed together with emerald mint leaves, brownish-green pistachios and  lime-green pea shoots lightly coated with an easy honey vinaigrette dressing.

Third Thursday Community Potluck was once again upon us and I had to make something good and fast. Digging through my freezer I found a bag each of fresh frozen baby limas, lady peas and green peas. All from the Nashville Downtown Farmer’s Market this past summer and all grown right here in middle Tennessee at local farms.

Which brings me to fundraisers and good deeds and all kinds of things like that. My friend and neighbor, Harriet Warner, sent me some information about a gathering that addresses all of the above. It is the Cumberland River Compact’s 4th Annual “Farm to Fork” dinner which brings top chefs together to celebrate local food, drink and clean water. If you would like to attend this fabulous evening of cool people who are interested in good food and keeping our beautiful Cumberland River clean and fresh go here for lots more information including menu, chefs…who, what, when and where. Or just go right here to buy tickets to be part of this great dinner party.

Now, back to my own little farm to fork dish,….peas and beans thawed, rinsed and drained…blanched in boiling water for a few minutes and again drained.

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Ah ha! A jar of salt preserved lemons hiding in the back of my pantry! I know they are yellow, but might add just the right saltiness to the salad…slivered and chopped.

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Mint from the backyard.

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Red wine honey vinaigrette drizzled on top.

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Tender pea shoots waiting to top off the salad along with some dusty green pistachios to add a bit of crunch.

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All-Things-Green Salad with a Simple Red Wine-Honey Vinaigrette

  • Servings: 12
  • Print

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Ingredients:

  • 3 cups each fresh or frozen Baby Lima Beans, Lady Peas, and Green(English) Peas
  • 1 bunch of fresh mint
  • 2 TBSP’s thin slivers of preserved lemon
  • 1/2 cup shelled pistachios
  • 2 cups loosely packed green pea shoots
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 TBSP honey
  • 2 tsps Dijon mustard
  • sea or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a bit of salt.  Toss in the baby lime beans, lady peas & green peas. Cook for about 5 minutes. Pour peas and beans into a colander to drain. Rinse with cool running water. Leave to drain and cool down for 20 minutes. Place in a large serving bowl.
  2. Pour the olive oil, vinegar, honey and mustard in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake to emulsify. Season with a bit of salt and black pepper to suit your taste. Set aside.
  3. Roughly chop the mint leaves and add to the bowl of beans and peas along with the preserved lemon slivers. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
  4. When ready to serve drizzle the vinaigrette over all and toss gently. Top with the tender pea shoots and pistachios.

Note: This is a perfect salad for a crowd. I made it for the September Third Thursday Community Potluck dinner. You could also cut it in half for a family dinner. There was a little bit left so I ate it the next day for lunch and it was even better!

You can use edamame if you cannot find lady peas. I used summer beans and peas that I had frozen, but store-bought frozen product works great too.

Teresa Blackburn     http://www.teresablackburnfoodstyling.com     http://www.foodonfifth.com

 

Pimm’s Lemonade for a Nashville Potluck Dinner… E.A.T. #9

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 14 Comments

PimmsPimms

Nashville’s Third Thursday Potluck rolls around very month & I always seem to be at a loss of what to take…what should be my offering for this fun event?

When in doubt I make cocktails…seasonal cocktails, libations, tonics, pick-me-ups…whatever I decide to concoct it always includes seasonal fruit or vegetables, an interesting alcohol or two or three & is suitable to the month.

Maybe a Pimm’s Cup?  Wanting to make this classic British refresher even more summer-like with the addition of fresh lemonade & some local summer fruits I got to work.

Here is what I used:

Ingredients for Pimms Lemonade

1 quart of fresh Lemonade, 2 cups Pimm’s Liqueur, 1 cup Limoncello Liqueur, a handful of blackberries, sliced apples, pluots or plums, peaches,  cucumbers, orange slices & lime slices & fresh mint.

Pimm's Liqueur

It is as easy as this:

1. Mix together in a large pitcher or jar the Lemonade, Pimm’s & Limoncello. Stir well.

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2. Add cut up fruit to the pitcher filling pretty full. Cover & chill at least 2 hours before serving. Pour mixture along with some of the fruit over ice in glasses with a sprig of mint.  The fruit is deliciously tasty, crisp & cold after steeping in the mixture

Printable Recipe Here

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It’s summer, Drink your fruit! (It’s Gluten Free!)

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“Crop Circle Tabbouleh / Third Thursday”

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 2 Comments

“Crop Circle Tabbouleh”

Ingredients:

Gather the following: Fresh, Ripe, Local Peaches & Strawberries, Cilantro, Parsley, Mint, Spring Green Onions, Jalapeno & Sweet Red Bell Pepper, Wheat Berries Cooked, Balsamic Vinegar, Olive Oil, Honey, Herbs de Provence, Sea Salt & Black Pepper (Amounts really don’t matter just use whatever amounts you want of each based on your own personal palate.)

1. Chop finely Spring Onions, Parsley, Cilantro & Mint. The onions I used came from the Downtown Farmer’s Market and the mint from my garden.

                                                       2. Carefully peel ripe peaches & cut into a large dice.  I used a combination of Alabama and Georgia peaches                                                              that started showing up at our local Farmer’s Markets last week.

  


                                     3. Let cooked Wheat Berries cool completely. Finely chop a bit of Jalapeno pepper & Red Bell Pepper for garnish.Wash                                                   &  trim Strawberries, let drain. The small sweet berries in this salad came from a farm in Ridgetop, TN.

4. Choose a large round serving dish and place cooked wheat berries in the middle a bit “domed” spreading out to the edges.  Add each prepped ingredient in a circle around the domed center, creating a “crop” circle!

Cover loosely with plastic wrap & refrigerate until ready to serve. 

5. Mix a simple Vinaigrette using the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, herbs de provence, sea salt & black pepper. I make quick vinaigrettes in small canning jars and shake to mix ingredients. Taste and adjust.

To Serve: Remove Crop Circle Tabbouleh from refrigerator anda drizzle Vinaigrette over all, add a large serving spoon.

The destination for my “Crop Circle Tabbouleh” ……………..

“Third Thursday May 2011 at Gigi’s Home”

Third Thursday’s Potluck was held this month at the home of Hat Maker and Gardener Extraordinaire Gigi Gaskins. Also hosted by Nancy Vienneau who invited some out-of-town guests who livened things up for us all.  Third Thursday’s are always much-anticipated by all of us who attend regularly and even more so as a bounty of  seasonal crops  are arriving daily, fresh from farmers all over our area here in Nashville.

Out-of-town guests, Kathi Speller and Lanette Mohr read about Third Thursdays in the current issue of Relish Magazine (check it out online at relish.com) & as they were both nearby on this particular Third Thursday they  joined our pot luck dinner party.

Image Gallery of the evening of food, conversation, laughter………..

                                                             

                 

                                                                                        

                                                                                  

Good food, new & familiar friends, a beautiful May evening.

Bon Apetit.

(My “Crop Circle Tabbouleh” was inspired by a recipe by Nigel Slater in his Tender, Vol II  cooking book. His recipe was for a Peach and Mint Tabbouleh.)

(The styling for”Crop Circle Tabbouleh” was inspired by an article I recently read on Crop Circles and by my good friend, Nancy Vienneau.)

A bit about Crop Circles from Wikipedia:

A crop circle is a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rapeseed. Crop circles are also referred to as crop formations, because they are not always circular in shape. While the exact date crop circles began to appear is unknown, the documented cases have substantially increased from the 1970s to current times. 

Since the early 1990s the UK arts collective founded by artists Rod Dickinson and John Lundberg (and subsequently includes artists Wil Russell and Rob Irving), named the Circlemakers, have been creating some crop circles in the UK and around the world both as part of their art practice and for commercial clients.

Using local crops to make circles in food seemed a natural progression. Teresa B.

A Month of Mango Madness

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 15 Comments

I have recently had mangoes on my mind.  Right now they are very plentiful, the prices are at a seasonal low, there are at least two varieties in most local markets from Mexico and  it seems that all the photo shoots I have worked on this month have had mangoes as part of the process. Mangoes in salsa, mangoes in cocktails, mango puree, mangoes as props.

I even took a photo of mangoes while in Mexico earlier this month!

Not one to waste this lovely fruit, I have been bringing home many of the leftover mangoes from photo shoots and working them into all my meals. Last night I added cut up mangoes pieces to a quinoa salad. This morning I simply peeled and ate the perfectly ripe fruit with some greek yogurt. Today with a few of these delicious mangoes remaining on my kitchen counter I felt some urgency to use them before they went from the “just right” to the “not so right” stage of ripeness. I was hot, sticky and tired from doing some yard work and wanted a cool-down drink for lunch. With some cold buttermilk in my refrigerator I concocted a lassi using mangoes & raw sugar.

Mango lassi

Mango lassi is most commonly found in India and Pakistan though it is gaining popularity worldwide. It is made from yogurt, milk or water and mango pulp. It may be made with or without additional sugar. It is widely available in UK, Malaysia and Singapore, due to the sizable Pakistani/Indian minority, and in many other parts of the world. In various parts of Canada, mango lassi is a cold drink consisting of sweetened kesar mango pulp mixed with yogurt, cream, or ice cream. It is served in a tall glass with a straw, often with ground pistachio nuts sprinkled on top.

“My Very Simple Mango-Buttermilk Lassi”

Ingredients:

2 cups peeled & cut up Mango; 1/4 cup raw sugar; 4 cups good buttermilk(I used fresh buttermilk from JD’s Dairy in Russelville, KY); ice cubes; mint leaves for garnish

To Make:

1. Peel and chop two or three ripe mangoes to make 2 cups.

2. Put chopped mango, buttermilk & raw sugar in a blender and puree until very smooth. Taste and adjust sweetness if desired.

3. Fill glasses with ice. Pour mango lassi over ice and add mint for garnish. This drink will cool you down, give you one of your daily fruit requirements as well as a dose of protein & calcium.

As I was drinking my lovely cool-down lassi I thought that it would probably have a very different yum factor with the addition of some dark rum. So be it! With just a few adjustments I created a new cocktail for warm Spring evenings, or late lunches!

“Mango-Rum Lassi Cocktail”

For this you make the mango lassi using the recipe above. You will also need: dark rum; additional raw sugar to rim the cocktail glass, mint and ice.

1.   Rinse martini or other cocktail glass in cool water. Shake off excess moisture and turn glass with wet rim upside down in a saucer of raw sugar to coat rim. Pour about 1/2 to 1 ounce dark rum into martini glass.Add a few ice cubes. Pour mango lassi into glass to about 1/2 inch from rim. Garnish with mint. (Adjust alcohol according to your taste.)

A perfect cocktail. The ingredients are simple & easy to find. It is lovely to look at & refreshing. The crunchy raw sugar on the rim melds with the mango and rum flavors in a most delicious way.