This week's beet harvest and a simple salad to toss them in to!!!

Roasted Beet Salad               Serves 4

15 beets

6 tablespoons walnut oil- 3 tablespoons for the beets, reserve the remaining 3 tablespoons for the dressing

salt & fresh cracked pepper

2 oranges, peeled and segmented into pieces, slice between the white pith- squeeze what's left of the oranges into a bowl and reserve that juice

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped into pieces

4 tablespoons of champagne vinaigrette

1 tablespoon fresh tarragon

salt & fresh cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Toss beets with walnut oil and season with salt and pepper.  Place on a baking sheet and roast until tender.  About 40 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Once they have cooled, the skins will peel off easily.  Cut into quarters.  Add the beets and orange segments to a bowl.

For the dressing, add the champagne vinaigrette, the reserved orange juice, the tarragon, and salt and pepper to a small bowl.  Slowly drizzle in the walnut oil, whisking the entire time.

Toss the beets and orange segments with the dressing.  Top with toasted walnuts.  Serve!



Cool foodie iPhone apps!!!!!!!

Here are a few food and wine apps that I love on my iPhone!

open table- search eateries for available reservations

urbanspoon- restaurant recommendations

Food Network-recipes and videos from all Food Network Stars

zagat- fresh restaurant ratings and reviews

Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner- search for recipes by keywords, type of meal, or even how much time you have to prepare it

Epicurious- over 27,000 recipes from Gourmet and Bon Appetit that creates grocery lists from recipes you like

locavore- find locally grown foods that are in season

iFarmMarket- database of over 4,600 farmer's markets across the US

hellovino- wine to pair with food

Fromage-over 650 cheeses with descriptions, regions they are from, and wines they pair well with

Fresh Wahoo Salad

June is a great time for offshore fishing in North Carolina.  So as a tribute to one of my favorite fish to catch and eat, I urge you to try this delicious, yet simple, recipe.

1 lb fresh wahoo
2 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
2 fresh bay leaves
2 lemons- 1 sliced and 1 juiced
2 tablespoon mayonaise
2 bunches of scallions
1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 tablespoon Tony Chachere's creole seasoning blend

Serves 4

Poach the wahoo by placing it in a sauce pan and covering with water.  Place on stovetop burner over medium to medium low heat.  Add the sliced lemon, peppercorns and fresh bay leaves to the poaching liquid.  Be sure the poaching liquid does not come to a boil, as this will toughen the fish.  Poach fish until cooked through, about 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.  It will turn completely white.

If the wahoo still has its skin, remove it after cooking.  The skin should peel off easily.

Remove fish from poaching liquid and cool.  While the fish cools, prepare the salad.  Combine the mayonaise, juice of one lemon, scallions, red bell pepper, and Tony Chachere's seasoning blend in a bowl.  Stir to combine.  Once fish has cooled, tear fish into large flakey peices and add to the bowl.  Toss lightly to blend.  Taste for seasoning.  Add more Tony Chacere's if needed.  

Video - The Culinary Connection

Here’s a clip of what I can do for you in your kitchen through The Culinary Connection. Sound interesting and exciting? Get in touch with me.

melindap@sumlingroup.com

828.638.6766

Welcome!

Welcome to Chef Melinda's blog! I'm setting up a blog as a way to share recipes with my friends and family. I'm also hoping to reach others online that are interested in discovering new and exciting recipes.


My company, The Culinary Connection, specializes in sharing the expertise in food and wine to make your home a magical place. Clients have told me that they're comfortable with the cooking process, just have trouble coming up with new and different recipes. After hearing this from several different clients, I thought a blog would be a great way to share recipes with people who need help getting out of a cooking "rut!" 


Starting this week, I'll post a weekly recipe. Most of the recipes I've personally made for my family. There may be slight changes in the ingredients or directions that I made to make the recipe even more perfect! Please email me or comment here if you want to know about substitutions or other changes to any of the recipes. 


I'm also working on a separate Chef Melinda webpage so check back in to see the progress on that. As soon as it's up and running, I'll share the link!


I hope you enjoy the upcoming weeks and all the new recipes!


Cheers!


Chef Melinda