Category Archives: French Fridays with Dorie
vanilla vegetable salad {ffwd}
This will be short and sweet. There’s not much to say about this week’s recipe selection for French Fridays with Dorie: Vanilla Vegetable Salad. This is a very simple salad made interesting by an intriguingly exotic dressing. It’s just some mixed greens topped with long ribbons of carrots. (I don’t like raw squash, so left that out.) The surprise in this recipe is the vanilla extract in the lemony vinaigrette. The vanilla flavor is there, but isn’t too strong, so it’s not cloying. It provides a touch of mystery. I had this salad for lunch along with a mini zucchini gratin. I liked it, but it didn’t knock my socks off so I doubt I’ll make it again.
To see what the other Doristas thought, check out their links here. Happy Friday!
tuna and mango ceviche {ffwd}
On first glance, ceviche, the Latin American cured fish salad and this week’s selection for French Fridays with Dorie, doesn’t seem very French. Dorie explains that this dish inspired by the cuisine of Senegal, who exports avocados and mangoes. I’m not clear how those influences jump from Africa to the Americas but I’ll take it on faith.
I love sushi, and I’ve ordered ceviche in restaurants. It never occurred to me to make ceviche at home, mostly because of the raw fish issue. Somehow I trust a restaurant’s sources more than my own. I’m just not sure how comfortable I am with the quality of what I can buy, and whether the citrus juice really cooks the fish enough for it to be safe to eat.
As I did for the tuna confit, I bought frozen ahi tuna steaks at Trader Joe’s. It wasn’t sushi quality, but it was frozen which I think kills any parasites. Because the package of tuna was a full pound, I added the juice from an extra lime for some added “cooking action”. We didn’t get sick so that was probably OK.
The rest of the dish was reminiscent of the mango guacamole that we make all the time, with the extra addition of grated ginger.
This made a lot, and since it didn’t seem like it would keep, the two of us ate most of it for dinner. With the leftovers, I picked out the tuna chunks and microwaved them, then stirred them back in. It wasn’t as good as dinner, but at least nothing went to waste.
This definitely wasn’t my favorite from Around My French Table, probably not even in the top 50%, but I chalk that up more to comfort with food safety, than flavors.
To see what the other Doristas thought of their ceviche, check out their links here. The recipe can be found here on Food.com.
A Plateful of Happiness 