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Carrot & Roasted Walnut W/Ginger Salad + Winner of Science of Good Food!

I love being creative.

It’s just what I do. I find little time to get bored, but when I do, I sit back and accept the drudgery of my state of mind and maybe, just maybe, eat about 4 cups of green tea ice cream.

(this is only relevant because I recently ordered 1.5 gallons of green tea ice cream, straight from Japan).

Okay so one the fun parts of my foodie career is teaching twice each month at Cook’s Warehouse, a local cooking school/retail store here in Atlanta. Students sign up, ranging from all ages and demographics and come out to learn something about me and all the food I make. I naturally have to submit menus to the school, and later provide the class with recipes. Sometimes, I just make up the recipe, in hopes I’ll actually perfect it by the time I show up for class. Mind you, at this point, the recipe has been printed and given to students.

This means the students (and patient assistants) are following my recipe and trusting what they taste in class is exactly what their version will taste like at home. Well, lucky for my students, I ditch the recipes they have in front of them, and start winging it. Especially in cases where again, I really don’t know what I’m going to do.

Such was the case last week for my first hands-on class (edit: all others have been demos) at CW. On the menu: Cuban style kidney beans with smoked turkey neck (ya’ll know I don’t eat pork which is the mother meat for ALL CUBANOS), which I made in my awesome pressure cooker (cuts cooking time by 75%) served over jasmine rice, chicken croquetas (which I’ve blogged about when I first started and I encourage you to see these bad boys here), really, really, really good sangria with cherry liqueur instead of Brandy, and then this carrot walnut salad.

All of the students were assigned a task in making everything. Because the croquetas are a serious labor of love, I manned most of that, but still had them make the chicken dough and shape into sausage links. Because I wanted to give them really intense practice (ahem), I went for the salad, and convinced them they weren’t missing out on anything major by me making it…

And then I got saucy. The recipe, as I’m reading it, seemed kind of blah: shredded carrots, roasted walnuts, golden raisins, ginger and raspberry vinaigrette. Okay. I mean it sounds good & simple, but for me it was missing something. While one of the assistants mixed the salad, it occurred to me to make a thicker sauce instead of just dressing it with the vinaigrette. So I quickly switched gears and pulled out a skillet, dark brown sugar and a box grinder.

Instead of just mixing all of the dry ingredients, including the grated ginger, I decided to caramelize the ginger in the butter and brown sugar and add the vinaigrette; this would infuse the flavor really well and allow the ginger to simmer down a bit from its raw bite. After a few minutes, it all smelled amazing and the end result was a really nice glaze for the salad. I still drizzled the salad with a bit more vinaigrette and for garnish, some strings of ginger, just in case they wanted that spicy bite!

We served the salad in bibb lettuce cups and went to town! The class was in heaven! And I was happy to have received perfect 10’s from all students in class that night, as written in their evaluation (6 criteria)!

Yay me!

The pictures here are from today’s lunch. The only difference this time is that I lightly and very quickly sautéed the shredded carrots in a dab of butter, only to soften them a bit. And I used brown raisins because I was out of the golden ones (the latter looking better but not altering the taste). Of course, you can opt out sautéing the carrots. If you don’t do so, it’s okay, it’ll just be a bit crunchier, which is just as fine.

I love this salad and it’s now my new fave summer side dish! Full of carotene and great oils from the walnuts! The flavors of smokey & savory walnuts with the sweetness of the raisins and raspberry vinaigrette with a awesome kick of ginger, blend very amazingly well and the texture is perfect. A great alternative to your every day ho-hum green leaf salad. You just can’t go wrong. Now go on and make it! I swear it takes no more than 10 minutes!

**WINNER OF SCIENCE OF GOOD FOOD BOOK CONTEST**

And, on to winner news! Everyone likes to win something, right?! A few posts ago I talked up a really good book that all foodies and geeks would love: The Science of Good Food. In that post, I even shared a pdf of the article I wrote and recently published in a local fine dining magazine. If you missed it, check it out. We all need some food geekery knowledge in our lives! So the lucky winner of this bright red book that you’ll refer to a lot is……

NO. 6 –Shameisa Horne of Atlanta, Ga!! You go girl! You must have put some good energy out there! Congrats to you, thanks for reading FE and do come back and leave comments!!!

***Cooking on Verizon Fios TV***

When I was home in February for my dad’s b-day, I got a call the very day I was flying back to Atl. It was a producer from Verizon Fios TV and he wanted to do a 4 minute feature on me as a DC native, local chef. So with 5 hours before my flight, I unpacked, threw on something, cleaned up my parent’s house (just a bit, from what you’ll see in the vid) and figured out something easy to make. I literally had only 2.5 hours to make this happen and he still had to get to the house! I didn’t mention this earlier, because I have mixed feelings about the video. I’m just not crazy about the quality. I’m definitely thankful for the unexpected call and feature that ran in DC, MD and VA in March, but geesh guy, could you have put some appropriate music in the background?! Wassup with the bedside calming tunes?? Hell, it even almost put me to sleep! Boo…. lol. Go and take a look! It’s the current video under Flanboyant Eats TV. I think you’ll enjoy my story and the yummy food I made; all of which the producer ate! I’ve been invited by Verizon to shoot another feature, so I’ll be back in DC for Father’s Day and will whip something up! I’d love your suggestions on what to make. Leave a comment with a suggestion and if I select your dish, I’ll shout you out in the segment!

Next Up: Salmon and Mango Sliders!

Eat well, love unapologetically, pray with true intention, and take care of yourself.

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Don't forget to check out my debut cookbook!

Enjoy
CARROT & ROASTED WALNUT W/GINGER SALAD

Ingredients:

  • 1- 10 oz bag shoestring or shredded carrots
  • 1.5 cups walnut halves, roasted
  • 1 cup golden raisins
  • 3 heaping Tbsp. freshly grated ginger, parted
  • 6 Tbsp. raspberry vinaigrette, parted
  • 2 Tbsp. butter
  • 2 Tbsp. dark brown sugar

Method:

In small skillet, sauté ginger in melting butter on medium heat. Slowly stir in brown sugar. Caramelize for 4-5 minutes, until sugar has melted and a dark and semi-thick glaze forms. Slowly stir in all but one tbsp. of vinaigrette. Stir for a few more seconds. Turn heat off and set aside. In large mixing bowl, add carrots, raisins and walnuts. Pour in glaze and blend all ingredients until carrots are nicely covered in glaze. Let sit for about 5 minutes so glaze can cool off.  Splash a bit more vinaigrette and mix. Serve on bibb lettuce cup and top with a pinch of ginger strings.

Serves 3 oz. for 7-9. Enjoy!

33 thoughts on “Carrot & Roasted Walnut W/Ginger Salad + Winner of Science of Good Food!

  1. While I’m bummed I didn’t win that awesome cookbook… that salad totally offsets my mood! 😉  I love that you decided to make the dressing saucier, I imagine the ginger flavor really came through.  Total YUM!

  2. Good looking stuff you’ve got up there – I’m also loving that presentation!

  3. GULP!!! This salad looks mouth watering good Bren! The receipe is scrumptous and they way you carmelized the ginger is perfecto! I can’t wait to re-create this one:)

  4. Patsy: yes i’m glad i made it saucier, too. so worth it.
    DiningDuo: I love it too, esp. when I’m not feeling well!
    Helene: Hurray for her!
    Darius: thanks!
    Jen: It really is!! try it girlie!!
    Shameisa: go back and read the post!! 🙂

  5. Hahhahaha! Woooooooo hooooooooo! Oh yeahhhhhh! I won I won!!!! I am the winner of the most amazing cook book!! I am soooooo excited!!! Thanks for picking me judges!! I must say good energy takes you a long way:)

  6. Looks like an amazing salad. Love the crunchy walnuts with the refreshing carrot and ginger — great combination of textures.

  7. What a fantastic salad.  I am always on the lookout for new sides and this one will make many of my summer menus!

  8. Hey all! Thanks for the comments! Yes to the crunchiness and combo of sweet and bite! I hope you try it!
    Erica y Nora: Welcome! hope you ladies come back! I think you too, EAT!

  9. How fun it would be to attend one of your classes!

    I am loving this dish! Ginger is one of my favorite spices to cook with. Great flavors, the crunch and spice factor = delicious!

    I like your style, you have a beautiful space!

  10. gosh i have HAVE to come to Cooks one day girl. how fun!

    anyway that salad looks good. Chickfila does a carrot raisin one but yours is gourmet! Walnuts r good for omega 3 so yippie…i don’t like them but can eat them in salads…actually i might sub the walnut for peacons. WOOH! Gee now i’m more hungry…
    🙁

    And u KNOW i’m proud of you TV star & Latina spokesperson for GM.

    Miss you & praying for your family pretty lady.

  11. This is “off the hook”, how are you luv? So when are you coming to Japan to visit me? I am So proud of you, keep on keeping on!!!

    I have to send my apologies, because of the move, it was just a crazy hell two months.. and I am so late getting my goodies to you.

  12. Salads are my thing. This is a lot different from the “norm”. Sounds tasty and exciting.

  13. Boy, if I loved in ATL, I would so go to your cookin classes. Your fusions are delish! His post made me drool. Perfect salad for the summer too.

  14. Your recipes are always so creative and delicious. This salad looks wonderful and it´s healthy too. You know, eat your veggies. Love the combination of carrots and walnuts!

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