Grilled Vegetables with "Boiled" Salad Dressing

I grew up in a city that supplies most of the south of Vietnam's vegetable need so vegies have always been a huge part of my family's diet, especially when meat was something we could only afford once in a while and even when we did, it was in small quantities. However, the only salad I ever ate before getting out of the country was my city's signature dish: escarole salad. My grandmother has her own "recipe", which turns out great salad most of the times. I say most because now that she's older, her taste bud has changed a little bit. She's still a wonderful cook though. Oh, I forget about the occasional watercress salad too. I wasn't such a big fan of that though. To me, watercress, when raw, has this strange peppery taste. 

Anyway, so when I came to the US, I realize that there are so much fewer and at the same time so much more varieties of greens here. How do I explain this? I guess that is with respect to what I was used to. Okay, it's common to find things like kales and chards, etc here but at the same time, it's not as easy to find watercress, bitter melons, water spinach, etc. So what the dining hall offered in terms of vegies was either broccoli or cauliflower most of the times. That left me no choice but turning to the salad bar. I suppose that is always a staple at any college dining hall. I had no trouble eating iceberg, or romaine, basically any kinds of lettuce. But I was always hesitant when it came to consuming spinach or the like raw. It certainly is an acquired taste. Culinarily, I have grown significantly over the years. Who says that a US college education is only about academic achievements? That's something I will have to talk about in another post though.

So I do eat salads now that I cook for myself, but I don't really like the same old lettuce, cucumber, tomato. So when I saw this salad featured in Food and Wine, I was so happy. Why? One of my favorite roots was there! Beets! Have I mentioned that I love love love beets? I do!!!!! My grandmother used to make beet potato and carrot soup often. I think that's where I learned how to eat and love beets. Anyway, this recipe is perfect for when you want to entertain and are sick of doing some sort of a chopped salads. It takes a little bit more prep than most salads, but the result is going to be refreshingly wonderful, at least I find it to be so. 

Here is mine, of course you should let your creativity takes you to other sorts of plating. 

INGREDIENTS:

Adapted from Hugh Acheson's recipe

Make 8 servings

12 baby beets, assorted colors, trimmed
12 baby carrots, peeled and trimmed
8 baby turnips, peeled and trimmed
16 medium asparagus stalks, trimmed
8 baby leeks or large green onions, or even better, ramps, trimmed*
4oz arugula
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the dressing:
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1tsp all-purpose flour
Pinched of cayenne pepper
1tsp butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1Tsp + 2tsp lemon juice
1/2tsp finely grated lemon zest

*If you only have access to regular leeks, cut them into quarters.

METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 400°. Put the beets in a baking dish, cover with foil and roast till tender, about 35-40min. Let cool, peel and cut into halves and place on a baking tray.

In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil, add carrots and boil until crisp-tender, about 3-4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the carrots to a baking tray. Add the turnips, cook for about 3min until just tender. Remove to the tray. Add the asparagus, cook until bright green, about 2min. Remove to the tray. Add the leek, cook until just tender, about 1min.

Halve the carrots and turnips. Toss with olive oil and salt and pepper. Put aside until shortly before serving.

In a heat-proof bowl, mix the first 6 ingredients of the dressing together. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water (make sure the water only simmers and not boils), whisk constantly until the mixture just thickens. Remove from heat, add butter and cream. Then add 1Tsp lemon juice and the lemon zest. Mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Before serving, light a grill. Put the vegetables on for a few minutes until a nice char/grilled marks forms. In a large bowl, toss the arugula with the remaining 2 tsp lemon juice and 2 tsp olive oil. Add some salt and pepper. (I know I know, salt and pepper went into the dressing too but it's important to season everything along the way and not just rely on the dressing.) Line each serving plate with equal amount of arugula. Place the grilled vegetables on top, as whimsical as you would like. The dressing could be passed around at the table or poured on top of the salad, whichever way you prefer. Enjoy!

Simple Chocolate Truffles

This is Pierre Hermé's "black-on-black" truffles recipe. It's simple, it's delicious. What more can you ask for in a chocolate recipe? I have to warn you, though, that making truffles is a messy task. But I can assure you that it's absolutely worth it! Try making them once and believe me, you won't return to the truffles that have months as their shelf-life. You might not be able to stay away from your favorite local chocolatier(s) but those mass-produced, preservatives-laden ones? Forget it!

INGREDIENTS:

Make about 3 dozens

9 oz/260 g good quality bittersweet chocolate (Valrhona Caraïbe recommended), finely chopped

1 cup/250 g heavy whipping cream

3 Tbs/50 g unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature (it is important to have butter at room temperature)

Good quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder 

METHOD:

Put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients. Make a well in the middle.

In a sauce pan, bring the cream to a full boil, then pour the hot cream into the center of the chocolate. If there is a skin on top of the cream, strain the cream through a fine mesh. Use a flexible rubber spatula to gently stir the cream into the chocolate in concentric circles increasing in size until the ganache is smooth. Let it rest for a minute.

Add the butter piece by piece, stir gently to blend, make sure each has completely integrated before the next one is added. 

Put the ganache in the refrigerator. When it is cool, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 3 hours. It can stay chilled overnight.

Put a generous amount of cocoa powder into a bowl. Sift the powder if you see lumps. Place a sheet of parchment/waxed paper on a baking sheet. Scoop about a tablespoonful of the chilled ganache for each truffle, put the dollops on the lined baking sheet. I used a small ice cream scoop for ease but you could just use a spoon.

Dust the palms of your hands with cocoa powder and roll the mounds of ganache between your palms to form rounds. There's no need to make them perfectly spherical, they could be edgy just the way truffles the mushrooms are. Drop each ball into the cocoa powder, roll it around so that it is well coated and then gently toss it between your palm to shake off the excess powder. Once it is finished, return it to the lined sheet. 

This is how they look like, in various stages of doneness:

I made these using Valrhona Caraïbe but with Guittard cocoa rouge so they look a little, well, rouge.

The truffles can be served as soon as they are made or they can be stored in the refrigerator for a day or two, covered and away from food with strong odors. I find that a tin can/box lined with parchment/waxed paper is perfect to keep these.

You could play with adding your favorite kind of pepper powder or finely chopped candied orange peels, or some liquor (adjust the amount of cream to accommodate the extra liquid), or steep peppercorns in the cream before adding the strained cream to the chocolate (PH has a recipe using Sichuan peppercorns). The choices are endless, well, sort of! Have fun making them by yourselves, or with friends and family!