Food Swap/Street Food

It's time to swap again! Plus this month I am actually going to record what I make from Susan Feniger's Street Food before the dog days of the month. I chose to make the Heirloom Tomato Salad for the potluck, plus I adapted the Ginger Dust recipe . (I also made Lavender Sugar and Rosemary Salt, but no recipe is really needed for these flavored items.)

I was vacillating about what to make for the potluck until I looked through this month's cook the book selection. In fact, I was still torn, Beet salad v. Tomato salad, but Tomato salad won for several reasons. I just saw my first heirlooms of the season this past week, plus this recipe is super simple with only a few ingredients. Additionally it has the twist of Black Garlic (just found this website!) which is new to me. I'm still on the hunt for the Black Garlic, since the three Asian food stores I visited didn't have it for sale. Instead I did as she suggested in the recipe and blended the cooked garlic with the balsamic vinegar. This is a nice summer recipe, light and fresh. If you tossed in some mozzarella, you'd have a version of Insalata Caprese. I made it the day before and the juice from the tomatoes watered down the dressing, so next time I would take them separately and then toss it together before serving.

Up close and personal salad.

Sideways Salad.

 I chose to make the Ginger Dust as a swap item because I thought it would pair nicely with my homemade sugar and salt. The recipe for Ginger Dust is also very simple, and it seems that I could replace the ginger with a different herb or spice to create a similar "dust." Which is what I ended up doing, since I didn't have any ground ginger in the house. Oops. Instead of ginger, I used Earl Grey Tea. People at the swap asked me what I would suggest to use it on, and they gave me ideas! Truthfully, I use the flavored sugars for baking or stirring into drinks, but they would also be a great meat or tofu dry rub. Of course you can also add them to any dish you're cooking instead of a plain salt/sugar. This Dust has sugar and salt with lime zest, so you can't let it sit on the shelf, and you should use it within a week. J.K. just gave me a bottle of ground ginger, so I'll make the original recipe and post the results. Stay tuned.

Earl Grey Dust. Next time I would pair this with orange zest instead of lime.

Lavender Sugar, Rosemary Salt, Earl Grey Dust

J.K.'s madelines, chocolate dipped, of course!

I took home a treasure trove of goodies again from this swap, and scored lots of desserts from the potluck table as well. I'm already thinking about what to make for the August Swap! Maybe I'll finally make beer bread. Or I was also thinking about chocolates, or maybe soup–a chilled soup. Lots of time to ponder, so if you're a swapper and have a request, let me know!