All posts tagged: onions

Haricots Verts with Parmesan and Pine Nuts

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 I’m a salad fanatic, and I’m always trying to think of salads that don’t rely on lettuce to do the heavy lifting.  When I saw these french beans in the market, a light bulb went off.  Here’s my take on a frenchy haricots verts salad, perfect for Summer.  Super easy, super fresh. First you need to trim the beans, flash boil them, then plunge them into an ice bath to quickly stop the cooking process and give the beans a bright green color.  Be careful not to overcook!  You want the beans to be crisp and have a real bite to them. While you’re waiting for the water to boil to cook the beans, prepare the pine nuts and red onion.  Mince the red onion and toast the pine nuts (watch carefully–don’t burn them!) Now bring it all together.  Whisk the garlic oil with the lemon juice (see MC’s Romaine Salad for instructions on garlic oil).  Add the french beans and the red onion.  Toss to combine.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Top with …

MC’s Romaine Salad with Red Onion and Garlic Lemon Dressing

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This salad has been in my family for decades.  My grandmother made it for years and then my mother took over, adding her own little touches.  My mom has served this for a family of four on a random Tuesday night and to over 50 people at a formal Christmas dinner.  It fits in and impresses anyone, anytime.  It has reached a point of perfection, so much so that Nick literally wants to eat it every night (and sometimes pack some for lunch the next day.) The ingredients and methods are simple, but an important note: you MUST make the infused garlic oil (for the garlic lemon dressing) at least 24 hours ahead of time.  If you try to rush this step, you will be unimpressed with the results.  Here you go, MC’s legendary romaine salad.  First, the dressing. Roughly chop 8 cloves of peeled garlic and plop into a glass jar.  Nothing fancy here. If you’re using a smallish jar, fill with canola oil to the top.  If using a larger jar, just go …

Pickled Red Onions

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Why do some things just sound so complicated? Complicated as in, making buttery croissants or anything with fondant. For reasons I can’t explain, I put “pickling” in that category of complicated… until I tried this recipe from Anne Burrell. I have been a huge fan of Burrell since the first time I dined at Centro Vinoteca in the West Village of NYC. When I discovered she had her own show on the Food Network, I couldn’t wait to start watching and to see which recipes she would reveal from Centro Vinoteca. In browsing through her collection of recipes, I spotted her recipe for escarole salad with pickled red onions. Yaay!!! I loved that salad! You can imagine my surprise when I realized that “pickling” those red onions, was super duper easy. And the results were super duper delicious. A note on the pickled red onions: Though I made these for the escarole salad, I happily had leftovers. These pickled onions would be wonderful on sandwich or hot dog. (Nick is experimenting with hot dog combos, …