Thursday, August 5, 2010

Our New House Salad



Well I recently found a new salad recipe and it' perfect because it contains under 5 Ingredients and the ingredients are all in my backyard...well the most important ones at least.
Saturday mornings before my C, I would get up and have some coffee and watch Food Network.  So now that I'm home and things are settling down I resumed my Saturday morning ritual minus the coffee. 

The following recipe I seen while watching- 5 Ingredient Fix with Claire Robinson and the recipe is Baby Heirloom Tomato and Cucumber Salad.  I had to make some adjustments because I didn't have Heirloom Toms in my garden or Basil Infused Olive Oil.  I need to learn how to make that -the RIGHT way.

Before I get to the recipe - Have you ever seen one of these in your garden.....LOL

  
I love playing with food!

Anyways here is the recipe:


Ingredients


1/4 pound country bread, cut into roughly 1-inch cubes
5 tablespoons basil infused olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup aged balsamic vinegar
2 pounds assorted mixed baby heirloom tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled and seeded, if necessary

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, toss the bread cubes with 2 tablespoons of the basil olive oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Arrange on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes, then toss the bread cubes and bake until golden, another 3 to 5 minutes. In a small saucepan, over low heat add the balsamic and simmer until reduced by half.



Cut the smaller tomatoes in half, quarter the medium tomatoes and slice the larger tomatoes. Cut the cucumber, lengthwise in half, and slice it into half moons or dice it into cubes.


In a large serving bowl, mix the tomatoes, cucumbers and remaining oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste.



Add the bread cubes and toss. Drizzle with the reduced balsamic and serve.





OK - I found it hard to make the reduced Balsamic - but I did attempt it and it was OK.  The second time I made this salad I didn't reduce the balsamic and it was good.

Basil Infused Olive oil....well the only thing I could think of was to take a cup of olive oil and add to it basil that I twisted and tore with my little hands.  I did it this way because I thought it was a better way to release the basil flavor.  Then when I put the basil in the cup I also smashed the leaves some more with a fork.  Who knows I could be crazy, but it worked for me.

As you can see I used grape toms and I left the peel on my cucs- cuz I like it.

We are so lucky to have cucs, basil and a bit of toms in the garden.....I had to buy some extra toms from a lady down the street.  Everything fresh from the garden tastes so good.

Last night we had a little fire and ate salad.






It was a pleasure meeting you last night Mr. Toad, I'm glad you enjoyed feasting on the insects that feast on my garden.  

  Life is good. 

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