Here I was thinking blood oranges season is on its way out, mostly because I associate with other "winter citruses." But I just looked it up on the wonderful web and the its season is December through July. Woohoo! That means many more chances to make salads such as this Blood Orange & Tangelo Salad. And what a looker too. I love citrus wheels. And it's much easier than segmenting. The tangelo, a hybrid between a tangerine and a grapefruit, is my first and I am pleased for a few reasons. It's super juicy, easy to peel & wheel, citrusy without being too acidic, and beautifully saturated with a more tangeriney hue.
To dress up those handsome wheels, I added kalamata, toasted pinenuts, thinly sliced red onion, and spring baby greens. I like pitting olives myself if needed. Some say that it's better to buy olives with pits and home-pit it for freshness. I guess it's similar to buying whole fruit vs. sliced and smooshed into plastic containers, whole romaine lettuces vs. pre-cut in plastic bags (always dry by the way), etc. Any opinions on this? Most of the time I buy olives it's for snacking so I don't really have too much experience for comparison. I just enjoy nibbling the meat around the pit.
Store-bought puff pastry is an awesome ingredient. I probably will never make puff pastry at home unless I wish insanity upon myself. Unfortunately the only place I can get puff pastry is a regular markets, not at my usual Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Booo. And I've only seen one brand available, Pepperidge Farm, and they use high fructose corn syrup. Another booo. So this week I had to foodshop at three different locations. God I hate that. LA traffic + crazy 3 location food shopping + bad drivers = unpleasant. So I loaded up on the puff pastry along with puff pastry shells, filo dough, and mini-filo cups, not wanting go back for a very long time.
Maybe I can ask a few bakeries if they sell or would sell puff pastry for a plebian like me. Then I can make even more delicious Sun-dried Tomato Parmesan Palmiers with the bakery puff pastry. Mmmm, puff pastry. So good. Butter, flaky, crispy on the edges. I think I would have done it more justice if I had rolled the palmiers better. I think the dough was supposed to be rolled twice on each half. But it was still delicious. Seriously, puff pastry = delicious.
Coincidently, Marilyn's dessert for this menu was almost the same exact dessert I was going to make yesterday but didn't have enough time to... Baked Apples with Caramel Sauce. Just typing out that name is making me salivate. I even bought Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey to go with mine. Why can't my job be just eating?! It's only 9:15 in the morning and I'm already getting myself hungry.
A catered menu for www.writingpad.com
8 comments:
hiya! butter puff pastry is available at surfas, that's where i buy mine. i think you might want to check at nicole's in south pasadena....would that be closer to you?
thanks santos! i guess i've been too consumed with everything else there to notice. surfas is actually right on the way home (mid-wilshire) from work. perfect. :) god, i love that store. wish my pocketbook loved it too.
i heard they opened up a café since the last time i was there. gaaaah more pocketbook-suckingness.
yoony, that salad looks awesomely juicy. very nice. i went to surfas recently to build my equipment list... so far i'm at around $1,500. *sigh* must work harder haha.
whoa, what you get? i have a lot of stuff i need but haven't worked on the to-buy-kitchen-tools list. i need to get a mandolin.
oh yeah, do you know a good place i can get my knife sharpened? i'm not sure if i want to do it myself.
Nice oranges and salad.
As to puff pastry, I think you can and need to make your own puff pastry ;-) Seriously, I have bought some in the US before and it is nothing compared to homemade, trust me, unless you find a baker's.
I made a batch here for this recipe if you are interested:
http://www.beaskitchen.com/blog/2006/03/06/tartelettes-tatin-a-la-mangue-mango-tatin-tartlets/
Good luck!
Those Palmiers were delicious - great for my plain ride the other day. The only problem: I didn't close the ziplock bag very well so now I have puff-pastry flakes all up in my work bag.
Surfas might even offer sharpening. I would just look up any cutlery shop in the yellow pages. should cost no more than like $5 per knife.
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