Sasha's Kitchen: Simple Spinach Pear Salad

This is a recipe for a simple, yet beautiful and healthy salad. Baby spinach is just about one of the healthiest greens that you can include in your diet, which is why I chose to include it in this salad. Usually pear salads are made with greens like watercress, or endives, but in my opinion, baby spinach works much better. The combination with the goat cheese is delicious. I recommend sauteing the pears a bit, which gives the perfect residual sweetness to the salad, which balances nicely with the spinach. To prepare the dressing for the salad, simply use balsamic and canola to make a vinaigrette. Top the spinach, almond slivers, pears and goat cheese crumble with the dressing.

Sasha's Simple Spinach Pear Salad
baby green spinach
2 anjou pears, peeled and sliced
crumbled goat cheese
slivered almonds
balsamic vinegar
canola oil

Sasha's Kitchen: Simple Spinach Pear Salad

Sasha's Kitchen: Food & Wine Pairing: Maple-Glazed Tuna with Potato-Pear Salad and Wagner Vineyards 2007 Riesling

Last  night we had a wonderful three course Saturday night dinner.  I made a wonderful bruschetta using black truffle oil for the appetizer, and then we had a recipe from Marcus Samuelsson's cookbook, New American Table, maple-glazed tuna with pear potato salad.  For dessert, we had my newest cupcake recipe, some pretty little coconut cupcakes.  For today, I'm writing about the tuna, but the other recipes will appear on the blog soon.  The truffle oil was such a nice addition to my cooking and well worth the $15 I spent on the bottle.  I plan to use it in making truffle creamed spinach next week.

At any rate, I am a huge fan of Marcus Samuelsson's culturally infused style of American cooking, with all the cultural influences from his own background as many of the different cultural and culinary traditions that make of America.  I'm not sure that this recipe has too many of those unique influences, but it is still a great recipe.  The salad was the perfect pairing for the sweet glaze on the tuna.

Wagner Vineyards' 2007 Dry Riesling, from a wonderful Seneca Lake winery in the Finger Lakes Region was a great pairing with the fresh fish and the sweetness of the maple-mustard glaze. I love so many of the finger lakes wineries because of my affinity for excellent Rieslings - and they make some of the best in the world.  Wagner's Riesling was crisp with plenty of citrus, and hints of apple or tropical flavors as well.  It was a nice smooth Riesling with a gentle sweet finish.  We really enjoyed it - thanks for sending me the wine, Wagner :)

Maple-Glazed Tuna with Pear Potato Salad (from Marcus Samuelsson's New American Table)
Fish
1 T dijon mustard
2 T maple syrup (use the real thing, please)
juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup olive oil
Four six oz tuna filets (I only made 2, but made the full salad and glaze anyhow)
salt and pepper
4 cilantro sprigs

Salad
1/4 lb olive oil
1 lb baby yukan gold potatoes (cut into quarters)
2 bosc pears (I used three for extra pear flavor)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
salt and pepper
juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups of shredded baby spinach (the original recipe only called for 1 cup, but I prefer a bit more)

First, whisk together the mustard, maple syrup, lime juice and a tablespoon of olive oil and set aside for the glaze.

Season the tuna with salt and pepper on both sides.  Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the tuna and cook for 30 seconds on each side. This should be enough to sear the outside of the tuna, but the inside should remain raw.  It goes without saying that to make a recipe like this you must use the freshest, high quality tuna. I also sliced the tuna before serving, but that was mainly for presentation.

Remove the fish from the pan and glaze with the maple-mustard sauce on both sides. Garnish with the cilantro and serve with the pear-potato salad.

To make the salad, heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  Add the potatoes and saute until golden, about 12-15 minutes. Add the pears, red onion, garlic, almonds and curry powder and saute another five minutes.  Toss with the lemon juice and baby spinach after removing from the heat.



This was a delicious combination!

Sasha's Kitchen: Food & Wine Pairing: Maple-Glazed Tuna with Potato-Pear Salad and Wagner Vineyards 2007 Riesling

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Warm Pear Arugula Salad

So I'm trying to post a couple of 'healthier' recipes since I've noticed most of my posts tend to not be very health conscious. Jenn and I try to eat salads as often as possible but I only have a few different ones that we eat often so I'll have to start experimenting a little to find some new options to post. I love my Trader Joe's spicy pecans and Gorgonzola cheese so those tend to be in most of my salads. I also try to include some sort of fruit or berries. This one uses baby arugula greens, the nuts and cheese and warm pears sauteed in a little butter and brown sugar. I love arugula but it's pretty bitter so I like to have something sweet to balance it out. I serve it with homemade balsamic vinaigrette and people seem to like it so far!

Ingredients:
Baby Arugula
Trader Joe's Sweet and Spicy pecans
Crumbled Gorgonzola
Ripe Pear, Sliced and sauteed in butter, sprinkled with brown sugar
Homemade balsamic vinaigrette:
-1 part good quality balsamic vinegar
-2 parts good extra virgin olive oil
-salt, ground black pepper and minced garlic to taste

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Warm Pear Arugula Salad

Sasha's Kitchen: Pumpkin Pear Soup - Another Pumpkin Soup Variation

Earlier this month, I introduced my recipe for pumpkin cashew soup, which I served at a recent seven course vegetarian dinner party.  It was such a delicious soup, that I decided it was worthwhile to do some additional experimentation with pumpkin soups, using organic pumpkin puree.  Thus, for the next soup in this series, I decided to prepare a pumpkin pear soup, using a homemade puree from fresh poached pears.

Several years ago, I used to make a delicious recipe for squash pear soup, using pureed squash and pears, so I figured that pumpkin and pear would be an equally dynamic combination.  Here is the recipe that I designed, which is a deviation from my pumpkin cashew soup, in that it is not really spicy (just a bit of smokiness from the chipotle) and leaves out much of the sweetness, to allow for the natural sweetness of the fructose from the pears.  In addition, I decided to add a bit of nutmeg and star anise to help balance out the flavors.

To prepare the pears, they need to be cooked, so you can puree them.  I chose to prepare them by a simple boiling job (essentially poaching in a pot of water with 1 tablespoon of sugar). This is quite simple, but be sure to peel away the skin from the pears first.  After about 5-10 minutes when they are soft, cut off the fruit and puree it in the Cuisinart.

4 1/2 cups chicken stock
3 cups pumpkin puree
4 pureed poached pears
4 tsp chipotle (not really spicy at all, just smoky)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 star anise
2 T maple syrup
1 cup creme fraiche or reduced fat sour cream
pumpkin seeds

To prepare the recipe, bring the chicken stock to a boil with the star anise,  Add the three cups of plain pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) and whisk to combine.  If you think it is too thick, you can add a bit more chicken stock, and if it is too runny, you can add a bit more pumpkin puree, at any point in the process.   Next, whisk in the pureed pears, maple syrup, chipotle and nutmeg.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and feel free to adjust the other spices to suit your personal tastes.  Reduce to a simmer and stir occasionally for 15-20 minutes.  At this point, if you need to, you can add a half a cup of extra chicken broth if the soup is too thick.

Remove the soup from the heat and mix in the creme fraiche or reduced fat sour cream, to make the soup somewhat creamy.  This is key to getting the creamy and delicious flavor of either the pumpkin pear soup.  But, if you are trying to make the soup more lowfat, you could even substitute non-fat sour cream.

Serve the soup with a tablespoon or two of pumpkin seeds and a healthy sided dollop of sour cream.  This soup is smooth and delicious, and pretty healthy as well.  It's easy to see why pumpkin soups are so popular in restaurants around America this time of year.  This was one of my favorite soups that I have had in quite awhile.

Sasha's Kitchen: Pumpkin Pear Soup - Another Pumpkin Soup Variation