End of Summer Lunch Part Deux
Miss Maggie’s Kitchen Salad Recipe
Last week I mentioned I would share the recipes from my previous blog post, End of Summer Lunch. I’ve written before about Héloïse Brion of Miss Maggie’s Kitchen, and her cookbook, and even the original winter version of this salad recipe. It is a bright composed salad that lends itself to seasonal variations easily. A composed salad is generally creating an individual salad usually in layers on each salad plate and drizzling the dressing over the top of each salad, versus creating one large salad in a bowl and tossing everything together.
Where you have pear and endive in the winter, you can have mixed summer greens and ripe peaches in late summer. The dressing is simply sauteed shallots in a little olive oil with warmed chopped pecans and almonds, placed over your bed of greens. Slice your desired seasonal fruit and place on one side, slice and place your burrata cheese on the other. Mix juice of one lemon and one tablespoon of honey, add salt and pepper and spoon over each salad. It is a simple salad with big flavor. Use the freshest and finest seasonal ingredients you can.
This salad has it all. You have your fat with the olive oil, nuts, and cheese. You have acid with your lemon juice. You have a hint of sweetness with your honey and fruit. You experience different textures throughout the salad when eating.
Dorie Greenspan’s Goat Cheese and Fig Quick Bread
This is a great recipe for entertaining, and for apéro hour. It is a cinch to make like a banana bread, with no yeast, kneading, waiting, etc. It is a quick savory bread that really captures many of the essential flavors of Provence and the Mediterranean. When I first read this recipe I knew it was going to be really good! How can you go wrong with goat cheese, dried figs, honey, olive oil, fresh herbs, and even citrus zest. It gets better, Dorie Greenspan suggests that you can easily substitute ingredients such as dried tomatoes instead of figs, different neutral oils, different cheeses, basil instead of parsley, and lemon instead of orange. She also suggests serving it warm and in thick slices. Heaven!
Goat Cheese and Fig Quick Bread
Lovingly Adapted from Dorie Greenspan for New York Times Cooking
Ingredients:
butter
4 ounces very cold soft goat cheese
4-6 moist plump dried figs, such as Mission, cut 1/4-inch pieces
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1-1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 large eggs at room temperature
1/3 cup whole milk lukewarm
1/3 cup olive oil or another neutral oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 clementine or 1/2 tangerine zest
Directions:
1) Center a rack in the oven and heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8 to 9-inch loaf baking pan with butter.
2) Cut the goat cheese into 1/2-inch pieces. It can be messy, and sticky, so don’t worry. Keep in refrigerator until needed.
3) In a small bowl, toss together the figs, parsley, rosemary, and thyme; set aside.
4) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. Working in a different medium bowl, whisk the eggs until blended, then whisk in the milk, oil, and honey.
5) Pour the wet ingredients over the flour mixture, and using a sturdy spatula, stir until the dough is almost blended. You’ll still see some streaks of flour, and that is okay. Scatter the fig and herb mixture over the dough, and then cover with the chilled bits of goat cheese. Grate the zest of the clementine or tangerine over the cheese. Using as few strokes as possible, stir everything together. Once again, it might not look perfect, and once again that is fine. Scrape the dough into the baking pan, and use the spatula to poke the dough into the corners, and to even out bumpy top.
6) Bake for 34 to 38 minutes, or until the top is golden, the bread has started to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a tester or toothpick inserted into the middle of the bread comes clean. Unmold the bread onto a rack, turn it right side up and let cool. Wrapped well, the bread will keep for a day or two at room temperature. Time: 50 minutes. Yield: 8 servings.
Mixing the Fig and Herb Mixture Into the Dough Before Baking
Dessert is light with fresh seasonal berries topped with vanilla mascarpone cheese. Mascarpone is a light, slightly sweet Italian cheese that is easily spreadable for toast and bagels, and also used in desserts. To make vanilla mascarpone cheese simply combine well 8 ounces mascarpone cheese with a heaping tablespoon of sugar and 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. Place a dollop on top of your berries, and add a bit of Demerara sugar for glisten. Enjoy!
Fresh Seasonal Berries Dressed With Vanilla Mascarpone Cheese