Reader I have been absent a long time. Sorry. You haven’t missed too much. I grilled Chicken breasts on the grill for the first time as well as made a recreation of Cool Britannia Ice Cream that basically ate shit. But I promise a more conclusive write up of that when I make it again, hopefully working out the kinks.
So I have decided to take a mini break from “condensing “my notes to write this quick entry about a rather inspired spin of veggie sides. I was watching Martha Stewart (of course) and she made a crab salad that looked fantastic. But what is more important for this story is the vegetables it was served with. The guest chef (I regretfully proclaim ignorance on his name as I caught this segment half way through) prepared this fantastic looking crab salad and served it with blanched asparagus, blanched zucchini, and fennel (to name a few). Well this inspired me to create my own blanched veggie salad with shrimp. Well let me re-phrase: I hate zucchini and am not a huge fan of fennel (unlike a certain Italian Food-Network chef with a great rack and bobble head. Along with her unwholesome love of lemons (“lemon’s again?! I don’t live in CA Mrs. Delorentis and those don’t actually grow on trees… in this climate”) she uses Fennel I swear once and episode.
Ranting aside though, I decide that I want to try to incorporate this blanching technique, which I love, to a different, more colorful salad. Blanching, if you don’t already know, is the process of boiling a vegetable in water for a few minutes, then “shocking” it in cold water to promptly stop the cooking. See this Martha Instruction if you want more information.
Basically, what this process does is take out some of the “crunchiness” of your veggies, while preserving their fresh from the garden flavor. I personally don’t think there is anything more fabulous then blanched green beans for example which lose a lot of their, for lack of a better word” harshness and crunchiness, but are still as fresh tasting as they were fresh out of the ground. In fact as I write this I am sad that I didn’t have fresh green beans when I made this recipe and I am resolved to replace the frozen peas when them the next time I make this.
The recipe as made is as follows:
Peel 2-3 carrots, and then “peel” them until you are at the very center of the core, producing long linguine-like strands of carrot. (imagine when you are done peeling, and have discarded the outer skin, that you are going to continue peeling until there is nothing left of your carrot)
Remove the hard, tough bottom ends of 4-5 asparagus and do the same as to the carrots (I found it was helpful to start at the bottom and end at the tips though feel free to also trim off the tips and throw them in with the asparagus “noodles” when you are blanching)
Also prepare 3 radishes but trimming the end and slicing thinly ( I did mine on a mandolin) and some peas and corn
[a side note about the corn; I froze it last year when it was in season the last time and forgot about it, but man was it good. Vowing to freeze a whole ton this summer]
Place peas and corn in boiling salted water. Cook for a few minutes until bright but softer. Place in ice bath. (I found it helpful to place a strainer in the ice water so I could easily spoon in the hot veggies and remove them with minimal effort) do the same for the carrots (these take a lot longer…maybe 4 minutes). Finally do the asparagus (it should take only a minute or two). Place all the cooled drained veggies, as well as the radishes in a bowl and toss with a light vinaigrette and salt and pepper (here is a good place to try something like a champagne vinaigrette and the taste will stand up well to the vegetables)
Toss and serve with sautéed shrimp.
