Arugula Salad with Candied Pecans, Crispy Onions, and Bleu Cheese in Champagne Vinagrette

This salad is light, yet rich in complementary and sensual flavors. The burnt, smoky flavor of the onions is tempered by the creamy bleu cheese, and the sweet spice of the pecans is brought out by the fresh tartness of the arugula greens. And of course, each of the ingredients has its own aphrodisiac power.


Arugula: The aphrodisiac powers of arugula were first made known in ancient Rome and Egypt, as it was associated with fertility. It is also said that this digestion-promoting green helps to clear the mind.

Pecans: Cultures throughout global history have celebrated as symbols of fertility. In ancient Greece, almonds were thrown at newlywed couples to wish for a fruitful honeymoon. In addition, the healthy fats in nuts help to produce testosterone.

Onion: In Arab folklore, mixing the juice of an onion with honey produced a potent cocktail for male virility.

Cheese: Cheese contains a large amount of PEA, phenyl ethylamine, which is believed to release the same hormones that are released to the brain during sex.



Arugula Salad with Candied Pecans, Crispy Onions, and Bleu Cheese in Champagne Vinaigrette

Serves 2

For the salad:

1 small Red Onion
1 Tbsp Date Sugar (or raw cane sugar)

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Allspice

1/4 tsp freshly ground Nutmeg

1 tsp Canola Oil

1 tsp Honey 1/2 cup

Pecans
2 handfulls Arugula

1/4 Bleu cheese, crumbled from a fresh wedge

For the dressing:

1 small shallot

1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3/4 cup Champagne vinegar

1 Tbsp Grain mustard

1 Tbsp honey

Salt and pepper

Green tea, to thin dressing as desired

Pre-heat oven to 400-degrees Fareinheight. Slice onion in half along its length; peel off outer skin. Make thin slices of onion in half-moon arcs. Spread out on broiler tray and put in oven to cook for 10-15 minutes, until onions are crispy.

In a small bowl, mix cinamon, allspice, nutmeg, canola oil, and honey. Toss in pecans, and coat completely. Place spiced nuts in broiler pan in 400-degree oven. Roast until nuts are fragrant, about 7-10 minutes.

In a small food processor, chop up shallots. Add the remaining ingredients and blend in processor. Add green tea (or another neutral liquid, like vegetable broth) to thin dressing as desired.

Toss arugula greens with dressing in a large bowl. Plate greens in a small mound, sprinkle with onions, pecans, and bleu cheese.

Beer-Glazed Sausages with Charred Onions and Polenta

A few weeks ago, Emily's friends from Vienna were in town, visiting New York. They spent the week walking around the city, shopping and dining, clubbing and drinking. Whenever they were around the apartment, I naturally inquired about Viennese cuisine -- its pastries, its savories, its sweets. As the week progressed, I began craving German food, though I had rarely -- if ever -- had during my life. I proposed that on their last night I make everyone dinner to satisfy my craving, which had manifested itself in a craving for sausage.

I came up with this recipe for a sausage meal, which I think seems to be a marriage of German food (with the sausages and beer) and Mediterranean cuisine (with the polenta and roasted tomato. In keeping with this Austro-Mediterranean theme, we served the meal with a rich Catena Malbec wine instead of beer, which paired rather well with the buttery sausage and the charred onions. But to top off our meal, the Austrians pulled out some strong vodka, which we served with a Sour Cherry Tart from Silver Moon Bakery, and a lesson in key German phrases.

Somehow, the beer "sauce" that I originally intended to make came out as more of a glaze, perhaps because of the high yeast content of the beer I used. The result was deliciously thick, salty, and a bit sweet: a perfect last meal with new friends to say auf wiedersehen, a bittersweet goodbye.

BEER-GLAZED SAUSAGES WITH CHARRED ONIONS AND POLENTA

Serves 4-6

Six uncooked sausages, bought from butcher
1 small yellow Onion, cut into quarter-circle slices
½ cup Dark German Ale
2-3 vine tomatoes, cut in half
Fresh thyme
Olive oil

1 cup Polenta corn meal
2 cups water
½ cup grated Parmesan Cheese
Pinch of salt and pepper

Turn on broiler to high.

Cut tomatoes in half along their width. On a small dish, pour a circle of olive oil, add a sprinkling of salt, pepper, and fresh thyme leaves. Rub tomatoes, on the cut side down, in olive oil and herb mixture (these will be the tops of the tomatoes that face up in the broiler). Sprinkle a bit of Parmesan cheese on top of oiled tomatoes. Arrange tomatoes in a broiler pan, and put under broiler. Cook all the way through, until soft. Remove from oven and let cool.

While tomatoes are under broiler, heat a large sauté pan on high. Add oil to pan, turn down to medium heat, and add sausages. Begin cooking sausages by browning on all sides. Add onions and fresh thyme leaves to sausages. Turn sausages occasionally to cook through on all sides. When onions begin to brown, cut sausages in half length-wise and then in half across, keeping links in pan to continue cooking. Sauté sausages, cut side down, adding ale. Turn town heat to let mixture simmer, cover, and cook sausages all the way through, allowing onions to char.

In a medium-sized pot, bring two cups water to a low boil. Add polenta in a thin stream, stirring mixture with the other hand. Turn down heat to a simmer and stir polenta slowly. As the mixture begins to thicken, add parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Turn off heat, stir occasionally.

Keep an eye on the sausages to be sure that the meat cooks all the way through. When onions turn black and begin to char and the beer turns to a thick glaze, the dish should be ready.

Spoon a helping of polenta on a plate, arranging sausages and onion on top. Set one half of a roasted tomato on the side. Garnish with a sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves.

Guten appetit!

Grilled Pizza

A few years ago, my mother got a brand-new double oven with a pizza stone in the bottom unit. The purchase prompted a winter-long foray into the delights of homemade pizza, with seasonal ingredients for toppings, and pizza dough that was always made from scratch (and a variety of health-conscious flours). My father and mother would call me in New York to relish in their latest pizza discoveries, including ingredients like parma prociutto, fresh herbs, winter squash, Piave cheese, smoked mozzarella, and even tofu. The era of the Boboli pizza was thankfully over, but with the coming of summer heat, my mother forbid anyone from turning on the oven, and my family's obsession with artisanal pizza was halted.

That is, until Italian cuisine guru Mario Batali introduced me (not personally, though I have seen him scooting around the West Village on his sea foam green Vespa and bright orange Crocs) to the wonders of grilled pizza with his recipe for Grilled Marghertia and Olive-Fontina Pizza.

With a cool, oven-heat-free house, my family's faith in and appetite for pizza was restored. When I went home for Memorial Day weekend this year, we kicked off our summer with an old grilled favorite: Grilled Pizza with Grilled Onions, Arugula, and Goat cheese. My recipe calls for the onions to be grilled, lending a rich, smoky flavor, and a quick dough that doesn't require hours of rising time, but still retains a fluffy, doughy quality that crisps nicely when grilled.


GRILLED PIZZA WITH ONION, ARUGULA AND GOAT CHEESE


For the dough:

2 c. whole wheat flour
1 pkg. or 1 tbsp. active dry yeast
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. warm water
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. honey

For toppings:

1 Vidalia or Spanish onion
1 handful of fresh baby Arugula
1/4 cup of Goat Cheese
Olive oil
Minced herbs
Salt & Pepper


Heat grill on high and cover to retain heat.

Pour flour into a large mixing bowl or electric mixer. Add yeast and salt, and mix well (on slow speed if using mixer). Add water, oil and honey, and mix well to incorporate into a dough. Whole wheat sometimes needs more water than white flour, so if dough seems dry, add a bit more water. Knead the dough a few times into a ball. Cover with a moist cloth and place in a warm spot for 10 minutes to rise.

Cut onion in half, cutting east-west, to reveal circular onion ring. Remove skin. Slice onion into 1/2-inch circles. Brush with olive oil or spray with cooking spray and set on grill on low heat, monitoring them carefully so that they become soft and turn brown, but not char or burn. Separate rings in a pile onto a plate.

For a delicious olive-oil pizza base, put minced herbs in a small bowl with a pinch of salt and a pepper. Add enough oil so that the mixture is 1/4 herbs and 3/4 oil. Set aside. Crumble goat cheese onto a small dish and set aside. Measure out enough arugula to cover pizza and set aside on a small dish. Put all prepared ingredients (this is called the mise en place) on a tray to take outside, where you will put the pizza together on the grill.

Before heading outside to the grill, pound and knead out dough into desired circular shape, about 1/2-inch thick. The amounts of this recipe can make two smaller, manageably-sized pizzas. Place on a board to take outside.

Take all ingredients outside to the grill, with a brush for the olive oil and a large grilling spatula to flip pizza.

Brush one side of the pizzas with olive oil and herb concoction, and place the olive oil side directly on the grill on medium heat. Brush the other side of the raw dough with oil. After about 7-10mins, or when browned and grill marks show, and flip to other side carefully. After about 5mins, brush grilled top with olive oil again. Carefully put arugula on grilled top, followed by crumbles of cheese, and then the onions, to weigh down. Close cover on grill, and let cook for another 5-7mins, or until toppings are cooked and bottom of crust is browned.

Remove pizzas and arrange on board. Cut pizza into small wedges or rectangular strips. Serve as an appetizer or as a main course with salad.

This particular pizza goes well with a light, summer wine. We had a nice Sancerre, whose melon, citrus, and mineral tones were a refreshing complement to the rich, grilled flavor of the pizza.

Buon appetito!