Delicate Pea & Potato Salad

Today is one of those hot August days that calls for some cool food. I made a salad with peas and potatoes and believe me, the vegetables do the talking in this one. I picked the peas at Charpia Farms in the spring. I blanched and froze them, and today, the peas were just perfect! Instructions will be below on how to use frozen peas. The potatoes are the Sunlite brand.

The salad has a delicate flavor and you really taste the freshness of the peas and the creaminess of the Sunlite potatoes. Hope the Sunlite company won’t mind me saying that. These new lower carb potatoes are being grown by select farmers, and I love, love the flavor.

Another salad that I made and dearly love is Broccoli Salad. You’ve all had it, I know. I’m sure you have the recipe in your file, but for those that don’t, I’d love to share. Today was one of those days that I didn’t have the usual ingredients so I made it with sliced toasted almonds and grapes. The problem with this salad is that I can’t stop eating it!

I also roasted chicken breast and sliced it to serve with the salads. The recipe is below. Enjoy your Southern Sunday Dinner. You’ll remember the occasion with your family a lot of years from now.

The Recipe-

Pea & Potato Salad

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 cups green peas, fresh or frozen

3 tablespoons finely chopped light green inner celery stalks including leaves

2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion, plus 1/2 tablespoon for garnish

1/2 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill, plus 1 teaspoon for garnish

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon Country Dijon Mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

Place potato cubes in a sauce pan and cover with salted water. Cook the potatoes until tender. Drain potatoes and set aside in a bowl large enough to mix the potatoes and peas with the sauce. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil and add the peas. Cook for 5 minutes. Drain the peas and place into the bowl with the potatoes. Add the celery and onion. In a small bowl, add the dill, sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and mustard. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with the remaining dill and red onion.

Broccoli Salad with Toasted Almonds & Red Grapes

Words can’t express how much I enjoy this salad. Okay, I really enjoy it. I’ll say it no more. I change this salad around every once in a while. Today, for example, I didn’t have raisins which I usually use in the salad, so I used red grapes. I think I liked it with the grapes even better because of the sweetness. I also didn’t have sunflower seeds so I used toasted almonds. I liked those better as well.

I was working at Disney right after culinary school as an “on call” chef. I was in the kitchen in one of the restaurants and was told that we were out of salad and was asked to make one as fast as I could. So, I gathered the ingredients and made a lot of this salad. It was gone in a flash. I didn’t have any recipes with me that day and this was one of my personal, at home recipes, but in spite of not having amounts, the salad was still really good.

The Recipe-

Broccoli Salad with Toasted Almonds & Red Grapes

12 ounce of fresh broccoli florets, cut into bite size pieces

1/2 cup finely chopped red onion

1/2 cup toasted, sliced almonds (toast in microwave for one minute)

1/2 cup grapes, halved

1 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoon cider vinegar (or, rice wine vinegar which has a more delicate flavor)

Place broccoli, onion, almonds, and grapes into a large bowl. In another bowl, mix mayonnaise, sugar, and vinegar. Pour the mayonnaise mixture over the broccoli mixture and toss to coat the florets. Chill before serving. Serves 8.

The Recipe-

Chicken Breasts with Olive Oil, Lemon Juice, Paprika

The chicken breasts are easy to cook. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking pan with foil. Place the desired number of chicken breast in the pan. Make a mixture of 2 parts oil to one part lemon juice, and sprinkle in paprika, salt and pepper. Pour it over the chicken breasts and bake until done, basting with the liquid as it cooks. The chicken breasts temperature when done should be about 170-177 degrees on a meat thermometer. I’ve been using this same recipe since 1964 and it has served me well. Serve with horseradish sauce.

Hamburger Steak Smothered in Onion Gravy

This is bringing back a meal that you don’t see much anymore. An old Southern dinner or supper with hamburger steak. This one back in the old days, would have been called hamburger steak smothered in onion gravy. In our house, this was served with rice and gravy, two seasonal vegetables, and always sliced tomatoes in summer. Cornbread or rolls would be on a plate in the middle of the table.

Hamburger steak was never served for Sunday dinner but it was served for weekday  dinner which was our mid-day meal, or it was served at evening supper. It was one of our favorites. Today, I would not hesitate to serve it for Sunday dinner, just like I did yesterday.

After reading my comment about our big mid-day meals, I know what you must be thinking. Yes, many households like ours had a big dinner around noon everyday. In the summer when school was out, my sister and I would go to the table and daddy would come in and sit with us and we’d eat together. Another plate was always set in case someone stopped by, and my dad would invite them to “dinner”. It would happen often and a meal at our house was rarely turned down, especially by daddy’s cousin, Sam Lewis. Remember, there were no restaurants in the country, so someone could be caught away from home at “dinnertime” and have no place to eat.

That evening for supper, there might be another meat, and part of the dinner that was served earlier at noon. I remember the days when some people didn’t refrigerate their food. They’d leave the food on the table and cover it with a white tablecloth. At night they’d uncover the food, reset the table and eat.

I’d better stop writing about old memories, otherwise I’ll have a book, and you might be bored to death. The recipe is below, and I hope you’ll give my version of this old Southern recipe a try. I think you’ll like it. Let me know. I hope if you grew up eating hamburger steak, that you will enjoy the food and the memory.  Hugs!

As you can see, I had two large and one small steak. I made the small one because I’m dieting this week. What a heck of a time to diet, right? Just remember that you can add or subtract from this recipe. If you need 6-8 ounce steaks then buy the appropriate pounds of ground sirloin.

Hamburger Steak, Smothered in Onion Gravy

Steak

1 pound ground sirloin

1 cup chopped Vidalia onion

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon Sweet Baby Ray’s Vidalia Onion Barbecue Sauce

Salt and pepper to taste (I added a teaspoon salt and less freshly ground pepper)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Place the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl. Mix well. Divide sirloin into any size and shape you like. Add the oil to a hot iron skillet. Sear steaks until brown on each side. Remove steaks to a plate. Turn the heat to medium.

Gravy

One large Vidalia Onion, thinly sliced

Olive oil as needed

3 tablespoons flour

1 (14.5 ounce) can low-sodium beef broth

Salt and pepper to season, if needed

Add enough oil to the pan drippings to make 2-3 tablespoons fat (you will have some drippings from the meat) and then add 3 tablespoons flour. Keep stirring the flour in the oil until the flour  browns. Add the beef broth. Use a fork or whisk to blend the liquid and flour. Place the steaks back into the liquid and add the onions. Cook until onions are tender, gravy is thickened and steaks are done.