Greek-Inspired Watermelon Salad

This is the best way to beat the heat people. It's also probably the simplest salad you'll ever make, so simple in fact I can probably give it to you in one paragraph. Basically get a watermelon. I like using mini watermelons but then there's just never enough. It's the perfect beat-the-heat food. It's cold and refreshing, and it's not to sweet. Cut out about 8 to 10 large cubes and put them in a bowl. Don't do anything else to them and don't shock them into ice, it's going to make them dry out. Now time for the Greek flair. Feta cheese, fresh mint, and extra virgin olive oil. Make sure all of these are of prime quality. I'm serious. None of this dried mint in a glass canister, no feta cheese crumbles, and no 'light' EVOO. You want to use the best Extra Virgin olive oil you can find because you're going to dress your salad in it, and it has to taste fantastic because you are not cooking with it. 

Mint needs to be so fresh you could smell it in the next room. Most grocery stores will sell fresh mint in bushels, and one of those is more than enough. You'll only need about 7 to 10 leaves. And most importantly, the feta should be a block in brine. That salty brine water will serve as such a great clash to the sweetness of the watermelon in this symphony of natural raw flavors. Cut up perhaps the equivalent of a handful of feta cheese and throw into the bowl. Feta crumbles on its own so you'll get those wonderful crumbs that will automatically coat the watermelon. Then, slice up the leaves of mint however you want, but make sure they are big hearty slices so that you get an explosion of flavor with every bite, and toss those in as well. Coat with a generous douse of EVOO and a pinch of coarse sea salt (no regular salt!) and mix gently with salad spoons. Ladle out a hefty portion and enjoy. The flavors combine so beautifully, also it's absolutely refreshing and uplifting. When temperatures reach triple digits, there's nothing better.

Bon Appetite!

Summer Potato Salad with Parsley

A perfect accompaniment to sweet tea is a light starch-based salad. People always think of potato salad as being grainy, heavy, and too dressed. And that doesn't have to be the case. The key to a good potato salad is cooking the potatoes correctly. They should be almost undercooked. Right when the begin to soften, stick either the sharp part of a thin knife or a wooden stick to see if you can stick it all the way through if you can, immediately take the boiled potatoes off the heat and shock them into cold water. Try to cook them without the skin as that will release all of that grainy mess and make them less starchy. To accent the heaviness of the potatoes you want to use fresh spring ingredients like onion and parsley. Parsley is such a godsend, it tends to perk up any dish. It's up there with my three favorite herbs next to thyme and dill, and has a quality of freshness that can clean up even the densest and heaviest of dishes. Also, it's good for breath and garnish. 

So basically break off about 20 stems of parsley off a bushel and slice up half of a yellow onion (yellow is better for eating raw than a white onion, it tends to be not as acidic). Mix the two together and once you've chopped up your perfectly boiled potatoes (3-4) add them all together. 

The other ingredient I like to put in just for silky texture is about 2-3 hard boiled eggs, but you don't have to. The flavors go really well, and when dressing something with mayonaisse, like this salad it is always good to have some kind of egg component. Boil the eggs for roughly 15 minutes until hard but not overboiled to where they are green. Chop finely and add to the mixture. 

Now my favorite part, the dressing. Most people dress potato salad with mayonnaise perhaps a dash of paprika, and in most cases yellow mustard which I find beyond disgusting. My secret ingredient is Lowensenf Mustard that you can buy at any European market. It's imported Bavarian mustard that I first tried at Schmidt's perhaps the most authentic German restaurant in California on Folsom street in San Francisco. It is to die for. It is sweet, a little bit tangy, and full-flavored with just the right amount of crunch from the mustard seeds. A heavy dollop of that with two tablespoon fulls of mayonnaise, as well as a generous amount of seasoning with kosher salt (or preferably pink Himalayan salt) and fresh ground pepper and you're ready to mix until the salad is evenly coated. Serve on a piece of rye or pumpernickel toasted bread and a glass of sweet tea. It's the perfect light lunch for the hot weather.