Sasha's Kitchen: Herbed Goat Cheese Salad with Strawberries

Goat cheese is one of my favorite foods, and I especially love it in a salad, when it is breaded and warm, the way they do it in good restaurants.  It's actually not that hard to achieve the same result at home by using the proper technique.  This salad, with a homemade basil dijon vinaigrette is enhanced by any seasonal fruit, but this time of year, it is great with fresh local strawberries, which can be arranged outside the perimeter of the salad for a pretty presentation.  This recipe serves four as an appetizer, or two as a dinner salad.


Sasha's Herbed Goat Cheese Salad
5 oz salad mesculin greens
sliced fresh strawberries
9 T canola oil
1 T dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, diced
3 T red wine vinegar
1 T finely diced basil
4 oz herbed goat cheese, cut into four rounds (I used Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery)
2 egg whites
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs

First, slice the goat cheese into four rounds.  Then, scramble the egg whites with a whisk and coat in the whites, then cover with the panko.  Recoat with the whites and cover with a second layer of panko.  Place on parchment paper (so it doesn't stick to the plate) and put in the freezer for half an hour.  Heat up canola oil in a frying pan and fry for about two minutes on each side over medium high heat.  Place on paper towel to absorb excess oil.  Serve while warm.  To make the dressing, whisk together the garlic, vinegar and dijon mustard.  Pour in oil and mix constantly into the vinegar base to emulsify.  Add the basil and mix well.  Add about 2/3 of the dressing to 5-6 oz of salad greens.  You can add a bit at a time to get the desired effect so you don't get a soggy over dressed salad.  Serve with sliced strawberries.

Sasha's Kitchen: Herbed Goat Cheese Salad with Strawberries

Sasha's Kitchen: Peach Salad

Here's a new post on a lovely peach salad, perfect for the summer. Can I just add that it is absolutely too hot outside - actually 104 here in New York, which is heat beyond where a nice juicy peach is really helpful. But peaches are great in the summer, so I couldn't resist this peach salad, with fried goat cheese.

Sasha's Summer Peach Salad (serves 2)
Mixed greens
4 oz goat cheese
2 eggs
panko bread crumbs
toasted almond slivers
prosciutto or braciole (optional)

Vinagrette:
1/2 cup canola oil
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T dijon mustard
1 T diced mint

To prepare the goat cheese, form a 4oz package of goat cheese into four balls. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Heat canola oil in a pan, and then coat each ball of goat cheese in the egg and then with panko bread crumbs. Repeat coating in the egg and panko for a second layer. Fry immediately in the oil until nicely browned but not melted, about four minutes or so on medium high. The key here is for the balls to be nicely browned, soft and warm, but not either melted or frozen on the inside.

Slice the peaches and assemble the salad with toasted almond slivers, peaches and greens. You can add prosciutto and/or braciole as well if you prefer.  Top with the vinaigrette mixture above.

Sasha's Kitchen: Peach Salad

Sasha's Kitchen: Farro Goat Cheese Salad

I have been to a number of farm to table style restaurants where I have had some fabulous farm fresh salads that incorporated farro in lieu of or in addition to lettuce or fresh greens. Farro is a nutty cereal grain that is perfect in a salad, served slightly warm. The two best farro salads that I have tasted, with a variety of garden fresh, farm to table ingredients, have been at Al Di Li, here in Park Slope, as well as Hen of the Wood in Waterbury, Vermont last summer. Here's a picture of that Hen of the Wood salad that incorporates farro, here. So, I decided it was time to try my hand at preparing some organic farro as part of my own salad. I knew putting in some goat cheese was a must, and a bit of mint. I considered but opted against basil this time, and added some baby spinach greens with the farro. A bit of sweetness was needed to balance the flavors, and since Brad is not a big fan of beets (which might have been my first choice), I opened for apple, which i caramelized in a bit of passion fruit juice.

My husband Brad didn't think he would like this (he kept calling it Pharaoh all week in preparation for the upcoming holiday of Passover, referring to the Steve Martin King Tut song from SNL). But he wound up loving the farro in the salad.

Sasha's Farro Goat Cheese Salad with Caramelized Apples (makes two salads)

2/3 cup of farro grains (cook in water, like rice)

two large handfulls of baby spinach

1 granny smith apple, peeled and sliced

1/3 cup passion fruit juice

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 T fresh mint leaves

4 oz goat cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup canola oil, 2 T balsamic vinegar, 3 T lemon juice (for the dressing)

Cook the farro according to package instructions, much the same way you would cook rice. While the farro is still warm, assemble the other ingredients for the salad. While the farro is cooking, prepare the apples by caramelizing the apple slices in a saute pan with the passion fruit juice until they are browned nicely, but not burnt. Top with the dressing. This salad was amazing, fresh, healthy and delicious. My husband was a huge fan of the farro, so we will be making it again soon.

Sasha's Kitchen: Farro Goat Cheese Salad

Sasha's Kitchen: Romaine Salad With Goat Cheese Fritters, Dried Cranberries, Pecans & Passion Fruit Dressing

Last week, I had a wonderful salad with goat cheese fritters, pumpkin seeds, boston bibb lettuce and dried cranberries at the Farm On Adderley (click here to read my review), I was inspired to create a similar salad using goat cheese fritters.  I had tried to deep fry goat cheese years ago in making a salad and it was a disaster - the goat cheese melted during the frying process. This time, I did a bit of research and learned that the process would work effectively if you freeze the goat cheese for about 45 minutes (not longer) prior to the battering and frying.  It worked, and the salad was a huge success at my Saturday brunch with our guests.

For the salad dressing, I did a unusual take on a fruit reduction vinaigrette and created my own passion fruit reduction using some Welch's passion fruit juice that I purchased at the grocery store.  The dressing was sweet but complemented the goat cheese and the tangy dried cranberries in a lovely way, and had the distinct flavor of passion fruit that I love so much.  Another note, I absolutely would have loved to use Boston (Bibb) lettuce with this salad, but it wasn't available fresh right now at my grocery stores and organic market so I had to settle for romaine, which was pretty good, as well.

Sasha's Romaine Salad With Goat Cheese Fritters, Dried Cranberries, Pecans & Passion Fruit Vinaigrette (4 salads)
Large head of romaine lettuce or Boston (Bibb) lettuce (2 heads if you use Boston lettuce)
dried cranberries
chopped pecans
8 oz goat cheese
2 eggs
dried bread crumbs (I recommend using plain bread crumbs, not Panko for this recipe)
2 cups passion fruit juice
1/2 cup canola oil

To prepare the goat cheese fritters, form the goat cheese into 12 balls.  Put in the freezer for about 45 minutes.  Remove frozen balls of goat cheese from the freezer, batter in beaten eggs, and coat with breadcrumbs.  Deep fry following the instructions for your deep fryer, or in a large pot with a couple inches of oil.  If you are using a hot pot, about three inches of canola oil and a heat setting of about 350 degrees is what my husband used (yes, it's true, Brad did the deep frying, not me because I hate deep frying!)

To make the dressing, reduce the passion fruit juice to about 1/2 a cup by heating on high for about 20 minutes or so.  Then, mix with the canola oil to form a dressing.  Assemble the salads with the lettuce, pecans, goat cheese balls and dried cranberries.  I was very happy with the reception I got from this salad from our brunch guests!

Sasha's Kitchen: Romaine Salad With Goat Cheese Fritters, Dried Cranberries, Pecans & Passion Fruit Dressing