Beet, Peach, Blue Cheese and Lamb's Quarter Lettuce Sandwich

Makes sandwiches for 2, with leftover beets for salad

Lamb's Quarter is a green that grows wildly in the New York area and it' s an easy thing to forage for, but I bought these.

1 large beet, about 6 ounces, sliced super thin (I did mine on a Japanese mandoline)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 loosely packed cups Lamb's Quarter leaves
2 ounces high quality blue cheese, such as Cabrales
1 ripe peach, sliced

In a medium saucepot bring vinegar and 1 cup of water, salt and bay leaf to a boil. Add beets, Bring back to a boil, cover, remove from heat; let stand 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Heat a small saucepan over medium low heat. Add olive oil and Lamb's Quarters, sauté until Lamb's Quarters have wilted. Remove from heat, squeeze out the liquid, and coarsely chop.

Toast 8 slices of hallah or 4 slices of brioche like bread. While the bread is still hot, crumble the blue cheese on the four slices. Spread the softened cheese (the heat will soften it) across the pieces of bread. Divide the greens, beet, and peach evenly among half the bread slices. Grind a bit of fresh pepper on top. Top with blue cheese spread bread.

Summer Salad Composee

I always thought, when I was a student at French culinary school, that the Salad Composee was overtaught. I thought it merited a nodd. But, now I see that it teaches a very clear culinary lesson. When you cut anything to be eaten, how you cut it determines (with other factors) how you will taste it. The Salad Composee is interesting because it serves its' components separately, amassed on a plate. Traditionally each part of the salad is dressed individually, before the plate is arranged.

Whenever you make a dish, particularly a salad, the larger chunks will spend more time in your mouth, on your tongue. They'll get more "air time". So, in this salad my melon was very pungent and ripe, it would take over the more subtle flavors of say, the cucumbers, so I sliced them super thinly. You always want to consider what will make the perfect bite. What do you want to taste the most? Make it bigger. If every element plays against the other in proportion, things should work out quite well.

One thing to remember: if you are cooking something, different rules apply. Things like root vegetables generally can be mixed when cooked and cut to the same size for even cooking… more on chopping at some later time…


1 cup cucumber, cut in 1 inch slices
1/2 cups super finely sliced melon
1 small endive, thinly sliced into rounds
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup finely sliced raw beets
3 mint leaves, minced
juice of 1/2 lime
2 teaspoons olive oil
coarse flakey sea salt and pepper, to taste


Place all the vegetables in sections inside a large salad bowl. Scatter the mint leaves, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.

Sweet Potato with Salad and Dirty Cowboy Dressing

Serves 2

Dirty Cowboy Dressing
The yam was so sweet smelling while it cooked, that I knew it needed several bitter flavor counterpoints: coffee and endives.

1 tablespoon fresh mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
5 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon finely minced red onion or shallot
1 teaspoon freshly ground coffee
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon fresh chopped cilantro leaves
2 leaves lemon basil, finely chopped

1 large garnet yam, cut in 1 1/2 inch pieces
2 Belgian endives, chopped into 1" rounds
1 small head red leaf lettuce, torn
1 avocado, pitted and cut in 1 inch pieces

In a large bowl, whisk together the first ten ingredients until uniform and smooth, set aside. Place the yam in a small saucepot with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Remove when yams are easily pierced with a paring knife, drain. Set hot yams in dressing, toss to coat. Divide greens between two plates, top with yam salad and avocado.

1 -2 -3 Vinaigrette

In French cooking there are a few standard sauces that serve as the base for variations. Technically they're called "mother" sauces. Appropriately, I learned this from the mother of my French exchange program family. I always think of it as 1 - 2 - 3 sauce because that is the proportion of the recipe. One mustard, two acid, three oil. In any vinaigrette you need three basic elements: mustard, an acid (like a lemon juice, verjus, or vinegar), and an oil.

I call this sauce a base or "Mother" sauce because you can easily derive many variations of vinaigrette from it. Switch a sesame oil and a rice wine vinegar and the sauce has Asian flavors. Substitute a gentle hazelnut oil for the olive oil or a purple mustard for the traditional Dijon, or use a grainy mustard… you get the idea, the variations are infinite.


1 - 2 - 3 Vinaigrette
You need a lot less dressing than you think. A rough estimate is 5 cups of loosely packed bite sized pieces of salad to one recipe of vinaigrette.

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
3 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
pinch sea salt
pinch freshly ground pepper


The trick to getting a really creamy vinaigrette lies in emulsifying it properly.
Whisk together the salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar to form a uniform paste. Add the olive oil in an extremely slow steady drizzle while you whisk briskly. Every once in a while to check the olive oil is fully encorporated and the mixture looks creamy. This recipe can be multiplied and made in the blender.


There are a couple of things I like to keep in mind when I make a salad. I love to make the dressing in the bottom of the bowl, before I put in the greens. I set the greens loosely on top. This way the salad is all ready to go to the table and await tossing. If you toss the salad just before you serve it, you end up with crisp greens rather than the wilty sludge that comes from a premature tossing. When you do serve it, toss the salad a lot more than you generally believe is necessary. That way everything is definitely coated.