Dining Al Fresco

[maleficent]

Today being Memorial Day, in addition to the actual significance behind it, it's also the official start of summer and that means summer bbqs.

Share your best outdoor dining vittles... From the grill or sides to be served with the tasty treats from the grill...

Panzanella
(Italian Bread Salad)
8 slices Italian country style bread 2 days old (or toasted if you cant get 2 day old bread) Bread slices should be thick
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
3 tbs good quality balsamic vinegar
4 cups fresh tomatoes, cubed
2/3 cup Bermuda onion, thinly sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic minced finely (OK, I used about 4 -5 but I'm really into garlic)
1 large cucumber peeled/ halved and sliced
(this isn't traditional, I like it for the additional crunch and color)
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, shredded,
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
(I am not a salt user at all, but this definitely needs salt..the amount used will be depending on the ripeness of the tomatoes)
(I also used Celtic Sea Salt for this recipe - rather than a plain old table salt)

Coarsely crumble the bread into a large serving bowl.
Add the tomatoes, onion and basil.
Toss.
Drizzle on the olive oil and the vinegar. (if you can find a good bottled salad dressing that'll work too)
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Toss well coating the bread with the oil and vinegar.
Refridgerate for several hours while the bread gets soggy soft and soaks up the dressing and the juice from the tomatoes.

Let come to room temp before serving...

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Chilled Beet Salad

4 large beets, fresh
1 medium red onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Scrub beets to remove any dirt or soil. (Do not peel, as the peel slides off easily after cooking).
Place beets and enough water to cover them in a medium-sized saucepan. Cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 45 minutes, until beets are tender, but not mushy.

Drain and rinse with cold water. Hold each beet under cold running water and slip the skin off. (Wear gloves during this step, otherwise you will have pink hands) Slice beets into chunks.

Slice onions into rings. Add to beets.

Mix oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a small bowl and pour over beets and onions. Gently mix to combine.

Chill for several hours before serving.

It's also really nice if served with warm crostini with goat cheese smeared on it.

[ophelia783]

They both sound great, mal!

[ironchefkorea]

I'm too lazy to figure out measurements in my head right now. Maybe later.

Asada Tacos
Asada
- skirt or flank steak
- pound and rub with cayenne, cumin, salt, pepper & olive oil
- grill, slice, chop.

Tacos
- grilled white corn tortillas (guererro or homemade)
- asada (see above)
- diced white onion
- fresh cilantro
- crumbled queso fresco
- avocado slices
- pico de gallo (see below)

Pico De Gallo
- red salad tomatoes, medium dice
- red onion and/or white onion, small dice
- jalapenos and/or jalapenos fresnos (red), small dice
- fresh cilantro, fine chop (set it to your personal preference, but I like my ratio of 80% leaf to 20% stem. I like a lot in my pico de gallo, but it's up to you)
- fresh squeezed lime juice

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Peach...Something or Other
- halve and pit fresh, ripe yellow and white peaches
- brush with compote syrup (see below)
- grill until flesh is cooked through with nice cross-hatched grill marks
- serve with a canelle of marscapone cheese, barquillo wedge (barquillos are spanish waffle cookies, similar to a light waffle cone), pomegranate/raspberry coulis (see below)

Compote Syrup
- combine a 2:1 ratio of white sugar to water in a saucepan
- add a pinch of salt and heat until clear (bring to a boil)
- cool in an icebath and whisk in a splash of plum wine (alternatively, you could use any generic fruit liqeur) and a pinch of cinnamon

Pomegranate/Raspberry Coulis
- mash frozen raspberries onto a sautee pan. slowly add pomegranate juice (made from mashing pomegranate seeds in a sieve) and simple syrup (1:1 sugar:water syrup with a pinch of salt, heated until clear. I like to use 2:1 syrup, for a little more control). bring up to a boil and mash again through a sieve. Cool and set aside.