Category: Dana Treat Original

New Favorite Noodles

August 4, 2010

Several months ago, I had lunch with a friend at a relatively new local restaurant called Nettletown.  It has been getting a lot of buzz lately and I took precious babysitting time to go check it out.  I am not a restaurant reviewer but I can tell you that within a very modest space, very exciting über-local and sustainable food is happening.  If you want more information, Tea wrote a great post about Nettletown here.

From the specials list, I chose a dish that turned out to be one of the most interesting and delicious dishes I have eaten in a long time.  I don’t remember everything exactly but I know for sure that my shallow but well-filled bowl contained fresh rice noodles, very firm and perfectly flavored tofu, sea beans, mizuna, and shiitake mushrooms.  There may or may not have been other delicacies in there.  I was pretty hungry that day and I still only made it through about half of my dish.  I dislike leftovers but I loved my noodles so much that I took my unfinished portion home with me and ate them later that night.

Since then, the dish has haunted me.  I have been back to Nettletown twice and have been dismayed to find it absent from the specials menu.  So, I have attempted to re-create the dish.  Three times.  The first two times I was so hungry and distracted by the time the dish was done that I didn’t have the energy or patience to take a photo.  (Fellow food bloggers, can I get an amen?)  I just figured I would make it again.  These are flavors and ingredients I love so why not use “no photo” as an excuse to repeat?  Each time I refined the dish a little more.  Some things stayed constant, others changed.  All three times I hoped to use fresh rice noodles and was never able to make that happen in spite of looking for them at my local Asian market.

So what is going on here?  First I made a marinade/sauce.  I cut the tofu into pieces, put them in a small baking pan, and poured about half the marinade over top.  I sautéed up some shiitake mushrooms until they started to brown and added just a touch of soy sauce at the end.  I rinsed sea beans, pre-cooked and then rinsed the rice noodles, and I allowed the tofu to bake long enough to absorb the marinade and develop a bit of a crust.  I assembled the whole dish together, poured the remaining sauce over top, and quickly seared bok choy halves to put on top.

This is not exactly the dish I had at Nettletown.  I’m still going to keep tweaking it and I am going on a fresh rice noodle quest.  But I’m getting close.

One Year Ago:  Zesty Tofu Wraps

Rice Noodles with Marinated Tofu and Shiitake Mushrooms
Dana Treat Original
Serves 4

I tried both the angel hair thickness rice noodles and the more fettucine thickness and preferred the latter.

For the marinade:
2 inch pieces of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 garlic clove, minced
2 stalks lemongrass, outer leaves removed, minced
6 tbsp. soy sauce
3 tbsp. honey
3 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1½ tbsp. mirin
Zest and juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. canola oil
2 tbsp. water
½-1 tsp. red pepper flakes

12 ounces extra-firm tofu, blotted dry and cut into 1-inch cubes
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed and cut into thick slices
4 baby bok choy, sliced in half
Large handful of sea beans, rinsed and drained
Mizuna leaves (you can substitute spinach)
1 pound rice noodles

To make the marinade/sauce, mix together all the ingredients in a medium size bowl.  Taste for flavor balance and add more soy, honey, or lime juice to taste.  Put the tofu in a shallow baking dish (an 8×8-inch pan is perfect) and pour about 1/3 of the marinade over top.  Allow the tofu to sit for at least half an hour, turning the pieces periodically.  You can also refrigerate the pan, covered, for up to one day.  Reserve the rest of the marinade.

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Place the baking pan in the oven and bake until the marinade is absorbed and the tofu is developing a bit of outer crunch, 30 to 40 minutes.  Turn the tofu once during baking.  Set aside.

Heat a medium non-stick pan over medium heat.  Add just a bit of canola oil and then the mushrooms.  Allow to cook with out turning too much so that they get a bit browned.  Once they are soft and have released all of their liquid, add about a tablespoon of soy sauce.  Stir until the soy sauce is absorbed and set the mushrooms aside.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add the rice noodles and cook until just tender.  Check the package for how long they need to cook and be sure to taste them to make sure they are done.  Drain and immediately rinse them with cold water until they are cool.

Heat a bit more oil in the same skillet in which you cooked the mushrooms.  Add the bok choy halves and cook just until softened a bit, about 3 minutes.

To assemble the bowls, place a small handful of mizuna at the bottom of a wide shallow bowl.  Top with ¼ of the noodles.  Pour ¼ of the marinade/sauce over the noodles.  Top with some tofu, sea  beans, mushrooms, and a couple bok choy halves.


Category: Asian, Dana Treat Original, Main Course, Noodles
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Tender Tart Dough

July 20, 2010

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

We are all familiar with that saying, right?  I have to say that I don’t agree.  Especially when it comes to cooking.  I have spent a lot of years in the kitchen working as a personal chef for three years, catering parties, teaching a few classes along the way, and I still feel like I have things to learn.  I love taking a cooking class here and there.  Besides getting great food to eat, I usually learn a thing or two.  (And sometimes I walk away with the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever.)

A few weeks ago, I took a class at Delancey.  You know about Delancey, right?  If you read Molly’s blog, then you surely do.  Molly and Brandon have a friend named Olaiya who is a talented chef and caterer.  She teaches cooking classes all around town and a few Mondays a month, she teaches there when the restaurant is closed.  I took a sweet and savory tart making class partly because the timing worked for me, and partly because I could always use some pointers when it comes to tart dough.

If you look at recipes for either pie or tart dough, they often come across as overly finicky and sometimes even alarmist.  Like if you overwork the dough, or allow it to become too warm, or add too much water the sun will suddenly start rising in the West and setting in the East.  At least, that is how I always read them.  Consequently, I have always been nervous working with tart and pie dough.  I do it, but I don’t like it.  After years of practice, my dough almost always comes out fine but I dread the process.  Watching Olaiya handle her dough with such confidence boosted mine a bit.  She also sent around samples of the dough at its “ready” point and it was much wetter than I have every allowed my dough to become.  I don’t know if you have ever tried to roll out dough that was too dry, but let me tell you that having dough crack all over your board and not hold together is not a pleasant experience.

For last Friday’s party, I wanted to make Pissaladière but I wanted to use dough rather than the puff pastry I have used in the past.  I wanted to make bite-size tarts and, while I could have made something work with my old method, I was eager to try out my new-found dough confidence.  Forgetting that I just bought adorable tartlet molds in Paris, I opted for mini-galettes.  The dough was as dreamy to work with as I hoped and these tarts came together quickly.  The next day, I made a double batch, wrapped the four disks of dough well, and put them in the freezer to have at the ready for next time(s).

I have to admit – I didn’t taste these bad boys.  Brooke sent me an email about two hours before the party was set to begin saying that their numbers jumped from 20 to 30.  (Maybe because their studio is air-conditioned and it was 94 degrees that day.)  She understood that there was nothing I could do but if I had anything extra to please bring it.  I had 28 galettes and I brought all of them.  But I feel pretty confident that these were good.

One Year Ago: Asparagus Ragout

Mini Pissaladiere
Dana Treat Original
Makes 24-28 mini tarts

You can easily cut this recipe or you can opt to make one large tart rather than the small ones.

Olive Oil
24-28 cherry tomatoes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 large yellow onions, peeled, cut in half, and thinly sliced
2 tbsp. fresh lemon thyme (or regular thyme), plus more for garnish
About 20 Kalamata olives
1 recipe Olaiya’s Tender Tart Dough
1 egg beaten together with 1 tsp. water

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.  Place the cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle them with olive oil, then give them a sprinkle of salt and a few grinds of pepper.  Using your hands, toss well.  Place the sheet in the oven until the tomatoes are very soft and starting to brown, about 20 minutes.  Turn the heat down to 375ºF and set the tomatoes aside.

Meanwhile, heat two large skillets over medium heat.  Add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil to each one, then add the onions – splitting them between the two skillets.  Give each one a healthy sprinkle of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften.  Turn the heat down to medium-low, add the thyme, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally and scraping up any brown bits, until the onions are very soft and a deep brown, about 45 minutes.  (If you have a cast iron skillet, use it!)  If the onions seem very wet, allow them to drain.  Set aside.

Remove your dough from the refrigerator.  Working with one half at a time, and on a lightly floured surface, pat the dough into a slightly larger and flatter disk.  Cut the circle in half and then each half into either 6 or 7 pieces.  Using your hands, coax each piece into a circle, then roll it out to about 1/8-inch thick using a rolling pin.  Repeat with the other dough pieces.  Brush each piece with some of the egg wash and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

Spoon about 2 tbsp. of onions into the middle of each circle, leaving a 1½-inch border.  (You will need to continually eyeball your onions to make sure you have enough for all the dough.)  Pull one side of the dough up, then turn it a bit and pleat the dough all the way around the circle.  This will happen quite naturally, just go with it.  Once you have finished with all the dough, brush each tart with a bit more of the egg was and then place in the freezer for 10 minutes.  Repeat with the other half of the dough, and then with the other disk of dough and the remaining onions.

Bake the Pissaladiere, one sheet at time in the oven until the pastry is a nice golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.  Remove and allow them to cool on a rack.  Before serving, top each one with a tomato and a couple of olive pieces.  Garnish with thyme if desired.

Olaiya Land’s Tender Tart Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1¾ tsp. salt
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. (2¼ sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
8 tbsp. (or more) ice water
1½ tsp. apple cider vinegar

Blend flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor.  Add butter; using on/off turns, process until coarse meal forms.  Add 8 tablespoons ice water and cider vinegar; blend until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by the teaspoon if dough is dry.

Gather dough together.  Turn out onto work surface; divide dough in half.  Form each half into ball and flatten into disk.  Wrap disks separately in plastic and refrigerate 1 hour.  (Can be made ahead.  Keep dough refrigerated up to 2 days, or enclose in a resealable plastic bag and freeze up to 1 month.  Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.)  Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.


Category: Appetizer, Dana Treat Original, Main Course, Party Food, Tart
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Leftover Love

July 16, 2010

True confession time.  I have a deep dislike of leftovers.  There.  I said it.  Randy would be happy to spend the rest of his life eating left over food out of plastic containers, but I would rather eat a plain bagel than last night’s dinner tonight.  Why?  I don’t know.  I have no good answer for you.  If forced, I still need to make something fresh – a crostini or a big salad – to negate the leftover-ness of the meal.

Leftover ingredients fall into a slight different category.  Bits and pieces that I can be creative with feel more like a challenge to me than drudgery.  As I do more catering, my refrigerator can, at times, have some pretty interesting things in it.  I did that party last Friday and then friends came over for dinner on Saturday.  I was thinking I wanted to keep things pretty simple after making appetizers for 25 people but, as usual, I got kind of carried away.  I started with the idea of making a Spanish tortilla for dinner using up the leftover potatoes pieces and Romesco sauce.  Soon a crostini with balsamic sauteed red peppers got added along with a green salad featuring watermelon, haloumi, and fennel.  And homemade white chocolate chocolate chip ice cream sounded like a terrific idea for a hot night.  Can simple food still be called simple if there are many different components?

Remember those chickpeas?  Remember that when I tasted them at Cantinetta they were the fresh kind?  Well, when I want to the store to buy the zucchini that I decided to add to the tortilla, my Whole Foods had fresh chickpeas.  What is a girl to do but buy them, painstakingly pop each one out of the skin while she should have been doing countless other kitchen tasks, quickly boil them and give them the olive oil, lemon juice, and Pecorino Romano cheese treatment?  {Moment of silence.}  Those things are so good.  Check out my bean section on the side bar to your right and you will see that I love me some chickpeas.  Fresh is a whole different animal.  I mean really different.  Fresh they taste more like a pea than a bean and they are tremendous as a garnish on this tortilla.

This is a non-traditional way of making a tortilla because the potatoes are already cooked and I just served it right from the pan rather than turning it out.  I know this.  Please don’t sic the tortilla police on me.

Tortilla with Potatoes and Grilled Zucchini
Dana Treat Original
Serves 6

2 medium zucchini, cut into thirds lengthwise
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1½ cup potato trimmings or cooked slices of potato
10 eggs
½ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, divided
¼ cup fresh basil, julienned

Preheat a grill to high.  Place the slices of zucchini on a baking sheet and toss with a drizzle of olive oil, a healthy pinch or two of salt, and a few grinds of pepper.  Place each slice on the grill and cook, until grill marks appear, turning once.  Make sure the zucchini are tender but not mushy.  Remove and allow to cool.  Cut into 1-inch pieces and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF with the rack in the middle position.  Heat a large cast iron skillet, or other oven-proof pan over medium-low heat.  Drizzle olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl then give them a good whisk.  Add in the potatoes, zucchini, ¼ cup of the Pecorino Romano, the basil, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper.  Carefully whisk the mixture together and then pour it into the pan.  Cook slowly, occasionally scooping up the edges of the tortilla to let some of the raw egg seep around the edges of the pan.  You don’t want to stir it and you don’t want to cook it so fast that the bottom gets brown.  Turn down the heat as necessary.

When the edges are looking set but the middle is still runny, scatter the remaining Pecorino Romano over the top and place the pan in the oven.  Bake until the middle is set, about 15 to 20 minutes.  Carefully remove the pan from the oven (it will be extremely hot) and allow to cool for 10 minutes.  Slice it into wedges and serve topped with Romesco sauce.  (And fresh chickpeas if you are lucky enough to find them.)


Category: Dana Treat Original, Eggs, Main Course
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Partying with Potatoes

July 15, 2010

Once upon a time, long long ago, I was a yoga instructor.  In the fall of 2001, I got laid off from a job that I hated in Seattle.  I decided to go to San Francisco for an Ashtanga yoga teacher training.  I worked my ass off, got good at what I did, then landed back in Seattle and found work.

My very first job was teaching in a gym that had a studio which housed mostly aerobics classes.  Consequently, it was freezing, glaringly lit, and kind of stinky.  My first class there had two students.  One I never saw again and the other came to almost every single class I taught thereafter.  He was an enormous African American man named Vester who had been a pro football player.  He set his mat down in the very same spot every class and even if he wasn’t there, which was extremely rare and only when he was on vacation, no one took his spot.  One day, Randy and I were walking downtown when I spied Vester on the sidewalk.  He had on leather chaps, leather jacket, bandana, combat boots, and black eye-hiding glasses.  The guy was about 6′8″ and probably 300 pounds.  I know Randy thought I had taken leave of my senses when I ran over to him and gave him a big hug.  But that was the thing about Vester.  He looked mean but was actually incredibly sweet and sensitive.  He was an intergral part of my class.

As much as I hated that space, I loved those students.  I had Lisa who was a stage manager for the Seattle Rep Theatre and whose body was so flexible that I would often have her demonstrate things rather than me.  I had Stephanie who, with her fabulous friendly energy, changed my class from people sort of eying each other nervously to actively engaging with one another.  I had Lindsey who had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and who wore her bald head with grace and pride.  And I had Brooke, a Pilates instructor for the University of Washington dance department who brought her sweet boyfriend David to class.  At first I knew he didn’t want to be there but over time, I think he grew to like me and my style.

After two years of teaching (there and elsewhere), making friends, building my class from two to forty students, Randy and I moved to London.  I lost touch with almost everyone.  I have run into Stephanie who is now teaching yoga classes all over town.  I have not heard about Vester, Lisa, or Lindsey.  Through the power of blogs and the internet, I got reunited with Brooke.  She reads my blog.  She and David (now married) opened a Pilates studio not far from where I used to teach them yoga.  She is a devoted foodie and francophile.

Those good folks recently had a party for their students and the ever-thoughtful Brooke asked me to cater it.  Brooke is allergic to eggs and cow milk, so I wanted to make things that she could eat.  Sometimes I just get an idea and my head and have no idea where the inspiration comes from.  I decided I wanted to make potatoes with a Romesco dipping sauce.  In my head I saw a bowl full of potatoes and a bowl full of sauce and a cute tin of bamboo toothpicks to unite the two.  Then I realized that it would not be easy to eat.  No Pilates studio needs Romesco sauce on their floor.  I changed my approach to hollowing out the potatoes and putting the Romesco sauce directly inside.

How to prepare the potatoes…  Boiling, in my opinion is not kind to potatoes.  It is fine if you are making a salad with them where they will be cut up or mashed.  But if you want them whole, the potatoes get kind of wrinkly and the skin separates from the flesh.  They also taste kind of water-logged.  While the flavor is better if you roast them, the same skin separation thing happens.  I remembered seeing a recipe where you roast the potatoes at a relatively low temperature on a baking sheet filled with coarse salt.  I was so excited about this approach, anticipating crispy exterior and creamy interior, that I bought a couple of extra boxes of salt for the future.

Ultimately, the potatoes didn’t end up as fantabulous as I had hoped, but they were certainly good.  The skin was still more shrively than I would have liked.  Still, I would try this method again but only if it is not 94ºF outside.  Maybe on a normal day when I don’t mind the oven being on for a significant amount of time.

Moving on.  This Romesco sauce is ah-may-zing.  It’s not just this recipe.  Just about any Romesco that includes fried bread, almonds, roasted red pepper, tomatoes, and a significant amount of sherry vinegar is something I want to eat.  I remember making this version when I was a much less experienced cook.  It was the suggested accompaniment to a chickpea stew and at the time, I thought it was an awful lot of fuss for a sauce.  Then I tasted it.  These many years later (and it has been a lot of years), my brain told me Romesco sauce and it told me to find this recipe.

One last note.  Be sure to save the trimmings of the potatoes.  Just put them in a container and refrigerate them for a day or two.  You can use them for a Spanish style tortilla you can top it with some of the leftover Romesco sauce.  Recipe coming tomorrow.

One Year Ago:  Honeyed Goat Cheese Tart with Pistachio Crust
Two Years Ago:  Green Goddess Salad with Romaine, Cucumbers, and Avocado

Romesco Filled Potatoes
Dana Treat Original (mostly)
Makes about 30

This is how I cooked my potatoes but feel free to use any method you like.  Just make sure they keep their shape.

2½ pounds small red potatoes
Approximately 3 lbs. kosher salt

For the Romesco: (Inspired by Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone)
1 large slice country bread, toasted
½ cup almonds, coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
4 Roma tomatoes
1 tsp. sweet paprika
1 roasted red bell pepper (jarred is fine)
¼ cup sherry vinegar
Olive oil

For the potatoes:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Pour a thick layer of salt onto a large rimmed baking sheet.  Place the potatoes in rows, making sure they don’t touch.  If necessary, pour salt in between each potato.  Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until tender when pricked with a paring knife.  Remove from the oven, allow to cool, then brush off the excess salt from the potatoes.

For the Romesco:
Put everything except the vinegar and oil into a food processor.  Sprinkle with a large pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper.  Process until smooth.  Add the vinegar and process again.  Add just enough oil to keep loosen up the mixture but not so much that it becomes runny, about ¼ cup.  Taste and adjust to make sure the sauce has plenty of piquancy and enough salt.  (You will have a lot of sauce which is not a bad thing.  It keeps for up to a week, covered, in the refrigerator.)

To assemble:
Cut a very thin slice off what you want to be the bottom of each potato.  (This will help the potatoes stand upright.)  Cut a larger slice off what you want to be the top.  Using a small melon baller or a paring knife, scoop out some of the potato innards.  Leave a shell of the potato and don’t take too much of the inside out – you will want to still taste the potato.  Using a small spoon, carefully fill the potatoes with the Romesco sauce and top with a parsley leaf, if desired.


Category: Appetizer, Dana Treat Original, Party Food, Potatoes, Vegan
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Big French Salad

July 4, 2010

Right before I left for France, like an hour before, I read this post by the ever thoughtful and ever hilarious Cheryl.  She had just celebrated the same birthday that I was about to fly off and celebrate, and she chose to be very quiet about what they actually did.  It was just the thing I needed to read before my trip.  I realized I had been approaching this vacation with more thoughts about how I would write about it than with thoughts of how I would experience it.  I never obsessed about the food I was going to eat but I was kind of obsessing about the fact that I wasn’t obsessing.  What food-loving person doesn’t plan her every meal and snack in Paris?

I had a vague idea of some of the things I wanted to eat but I really wanted to try and keep things fluid.  I think staying more relaxed about expectations means a smaller chance of disappointment.  In my mind, I composed a list of things I would like to eat, but I tried to not have any emotional attachment to those things.  My list included:  crèpes, croissants, café crème and baguette with jam each French morning, felafel in the Marais, Berthillon’s salted caramel ice cream on the Île St. Louis, and somewhere along the line, a big French salad.  Any or all would have been fine.

The truth is, Paris is not a great city for a vegetarian, especially at dinner time.  Not only is French food meat-heavy to begin with but, in my limited experience, the Parisians seem to be as baffled by the idea of not eating meat for a main course as they were when I studied there 20 years ago.  I get funny looks when I say I don’t eat meat, not even poisson, and inevitably I end up with a plate of vegetables for dinner.  Good vegetables, but still.  This is not the case if you go to a Moroccan restaurant or an Italian restaurant, both of which are easily found all over Paris.  But if you are going traditional French, vegetable platter it is.

As it turns out, I didn’t have a crèpe, only one café crème breakfast because I slept late every morning (poor me!), only part of a croissant, and I did not get my big French salad.  I eat a lot of salad in my life so you might be surprised to see a salad on my “want to eat” list.  Have you ever had a French salad?  I don’t mean the palate cleaning greens that you see in multi-course meals, I mean the kind you find in any good brasserie.  A filling, healthy, perfectly balanced salad.  You see, Paris is a pretty good place to be a vegetarian at lunch time.  Omelets, crèpes, salads and pommes frites are in abundance.  They look at you a little strangely when you ask to leave the poulet off the salad, but it is still filling and wonderful and features that perfect, mustardy, and oh-so-simple and yet totally perfect French vinaigrette.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to make some of the food I missed (including the main course portion of an Indian dinner at a beloved restaurant in London), some of the food I ate successfully, and some other things that were inspired by the trip.  But for now, salad.  And a few photos.

The morning of the baguette and café crème.

Let me tell you, it was hot in Paris.  Like 90 degrees hot.  Also let me tell you that my parents are both leaning and I am standing upright.  And my mom is still taller than me.  5′3″ baby.  I got the short gene in the family.

Yes, I got my salted caramel ice cream.  As much as I wanted to, I was not actually two fisting it here.  Just holding Randy’s while he took the photo.  He had sorbet.  If it had been more salted caramel, I would have eaten his.

One Year Ago: Spring Vegetable Salad
Two Years Ago: Mushroom Pearl Pasta with Sweet Peas and Goat Cheese

Big French Salad
Dana Treat Original
Serves 2

You will notice green beans in the recipe but no green beans on the plate.  The whole time I was eating my salad, I felt like something was missing.  All the while the already-blanched beans were calling to me from the refrigerator.  Next time, drink wine with dinner not before.

Salad:
1 handful green beans, trimmed
2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
1 handful cherry tomatoes, halved
1 10-oz. can corn, drained
1 carrot, peeled and shredded
½ small avocado, cut into ½-inch pieces
2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and halved
Several leaves of romaine lettuce, torn

Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette:
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
Juice of ½ a lemon
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. chopped chives (optional)

For the salad: Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil.  Have a bowl of ice water ready.  Put the green beans in the water for 2 minutes, then scoop them out and into the ice water.  You want them blanched, not cooked, so they still have a crunch but are not raw.  Once they are cool, drain the beans.

Meanwhile, add the potatoes to the water and cook until just tender, about 10 minutes.  You don’t want mush so if anything, undercook them a bit.  Drain the potatoes.

Lay some lettuce down on each of two dinner plates.  Group the remaining vegetables around the plate and don’t forget the green beans.  Drizzle dressing over the salad and serve with a crusty French bread.

For the dressing: Put the mustard, vinegar, lemon juice, a healthy pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper into a glass jar.  Top with the lid and shake vigorously.  Remove the lid and pour in the olive oil.  You want this dressing to have a lot of bite, so you will use less oil than the traditional 3:1 ratio.  Top with the lid and shake vigorously once again.  Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.


Category: Dana Treat Original, Salad, Salad Dressing
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