mixed greens with fried prosciutto and paneer in a cara cara vinaigrette

Tonight, I threw together a salad from things lying about the fridge. It gave me a chance to practice the technique of segmenting oranges, and to write about paneer, a fresh cheese so easy to make yourself you'll wonder why no one told you sooner.

I always encourage substitution and experimentation, but this salad was SO BLOODY GOOD that if you wanted to duplicate it exactly, I've provided the exact ingredients below.

That being said, for substitutions, the most obvious might be parmesan crisps instead of prosciutto (for the veggieheads), any vinegar instead of white balsamic, and any orange instead of cara cara.

You'll need:

paneer, aka fresh cheese (see below)

a cara cara orange, segmented

a whack of mixed greens

white balsamic vinegar

red grapes, halved

prosciutto

olive oil

pepper

salt

Segment an orange by cutting its top and bottom off (about a centimetre) so it sits flat on a cutting board. Using a filleting or other long thin knife, carefully cut away the rind in gentle arcs from top to bottom. You should have a naked orange now, preferably with no pith left on the flesh. Slice alongside the natural segment dividers in the orange, creating skinless, pithless wedges of orange.

You'll be left with an orange "skeleton", which you can squeeze into a small mixing bowl; this juice will be the base of your dressing and you should have at least a tablespoon or two of it.

Fry some prosciutto in a bit of oil until crispy, then break into chips. In the same hot pan, use the juice you just squeezed to deglaze any bits of prosciutto, and reduce the volume of juice by half. Add your vinegar, a pinch of salt, and fresh ground pepper, reduce a bit further, then take off the heat and whisk in a glug of olive oil.

Assemble the salad starting with your greens, then layering on your orange segments, grapes, cheese, and prosciutto chips. Pour the dressing, still warm from the pan, all over your salad. By far one of the tastiest salads I've ever had.

PANEER:

A fresh, acid-set, unripened cheese made from three simple ingredients you almost certainly have in the kitchen. Tasty, healthy, ready in minutes.

You'll need:

1 litre of milk (whole is ideal, but I used 2% and it worked out just fine)

a glug of regular white vinegar

salt

a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth (though you could even use your hands!)

Bring milk to the boil. Once roiling, add a glug of vinegar, and watch. If your milk doesn't separate into curds and whey within seconds, keep adding small splashes of vinegar until it happens. Once the whey is as transparent as its going to get (meaning that your milk solids have fully separated into curds), strain the lot of it through a sieve or cheese cloth, or if you have neither on hand, let the mixture cool and simply drag the cheese out with your hands and wring it dry. Rather inelegant, but if the curds have clumped well, it'll work fine. Discard your whey, unless you own pigs, in which case you should mix it into their water for a high protein all-natural supplement.

Season with salt (and pepper and other spices if you want), and store in an airtight container in the fridge. The paneer should keep for up to a week, but I wouldn't venture much longer.

It's best fresh, and lovely on salads, with fruit, layered into lasagna, eaten with curries, or used in place of ricotta (omit the salt if you're throwing it into desserts).

rump roast

Premium top sirloin and rump roasts were on *massive* sale at the grocery store today, and at $2.50/lb, I bought two: one to roast, and one to cut up and freeze for a good stewing beef later. I have all sorts of things to say about why meat should never be this cheap -- namely, the idea that $2.50/lb doesn't begin to reflect the true cost of raising, feeding, killing, and shipping an enormous mammal -- but being an almost-starving actor with an inordinately high rent... I bought it. Pollan forgive me.

There's something so beautiful and primal about a roast: fire + meat, at its simplest. You could dress it up all fancy, but this cut is so tasty, I used the simplest of rubs.

You'll need:

top sirloin or rump roast (look for "prime" or "premium" if you're going to dry-roast, as opposed to braise in a liquid)
freshly ground or cracked pepper
beer or wine (red or white)
a few garlic cloves
mustard powder
garlic powder
onions
salt
oil

for the gravy:

wine (i prefer white here)
lemon juice

corn starch
butter

Let your roast come to room temperature by leaving it out of the fridge for about an hour, then pat dry with paper towels. Thickly slice or wedge some onions, enough to fill the bottom of your roasting pan (which should be just big enough to fit your roast). Sprinkle some pepper and drizzle a bit of oil onto the bed of onions.

If you like garlic and your roast is 3 pounds or larger, use a thin, sharp knife to pierce slits in the meat and insert slices of garlic into them. If your roast is smaller than 3 pounds, either make your slices really thin, or mince and mix it into the rub below, since your cooking time won't be long enough to really let the garlic melt into the meat.

Mix a generous palmful of salt, about as much fresh pepper, and a heavy pinch each of garlic and mustard powder, then coat the roast thoroughly with it. If you've never cooked a roast before, the amount of salt you're applying will seem like too much. It's not.

At this point, you could sear the roast in an oiled pan, or cheat: an in-oven sear is splatterless and almost as good. Set your oven to a fast broil (at least 400F), drizzle your seasoned roast with oil, place on your bed of onions, and broil fat side up until nice and brown. Then turn your oven down to 325F, pour some beer or wine into your roasting pan, and cook for 20-25 minutes per pound, including the initial broil time. If you've got time to kill, you can roast as slowly as 250F, but you should loosely cover with a piece of foil since it's going to be sitting in there in the ballpark of anywhere from 4 to 6 hours. If choose the latter, this is when a meat thermometer comes in handy. And a good book.

Let your roast sit for at least 10 minutes before carving it or all your juices will end up on the cutting board (some will anyway). While waiting, make a quick gravy out of your beer/wine/onion/drippings concoction by tossing the lot of it into a saucepan on high heat and reducing it to taste. Alternately, you can discard the onions and use only the liquid, or use just some, or chop or mince them into the sauce, or slap it into a blender, etc, etc...

Mix a teaspoon or two of corn starch in as much water to form a slurry. When your gravy is reduced to a good, punchy beef flavour, add just enough of the slurry to thicken, then toss in a nub of butter, a splash of wine, and a squeeze of lemon juice. If you don't have lemon handy, a bit of any vinegar or acid will do. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

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on the side...

Every manner of TV chef will tell you to "sear your meat to lock in the juices", which is an out-and-out lie. Searing your roast beforehand will actually decrease its volume and moisture compared to a slow and consistent roasting without searing. What it will do, and why you should still sear your meat, is to add big, caramelized, meaty flavour to your roast. Experiment on a smaller scale with two equal pieces of stewing beef and a 350F oven (or two giant roasts if you have the time!) to prove it to yourself.