HERE IN THE SOUTH, summers are hot, and depending on where you are in the South, it may be sweltering! There’s a part of us that wants to stay inside in the cool air conditioning, but honestly, who doesn’t love the romantic notion of sitting outside on a beautiful evening with a cool drink, a light meal, friends, and a lot of laughter. It can be pure magic.
We found the inspiration for an evening like this at Rhubarb; Asheville, NC’s Appalachian-rooted, seasonally driven restaurant where Chef John Fleer and his team know how to keep it simple and let the ingredients shine. You’ll find food and drink at their uncomplicated best.
TO KEEP THE MEAL LIGHT, Chef de Cuisine Davis Taylor shared the recipes for Cucumber-Onion Salad and Fried Green Tomatoes with Crawfish Salad. Both are simple and refreshing and easy to scale the quantity up or down! You won’t find yourself spending all day over a hot stove with these. And pardon us, but you’ll be cool as a cucumber when your guests arrive.
Fried Green Tomato with Crawfish Salad
For the Fried Green Tomato:
- Slice ¼ inch think and season with salt, allow to sit on a resting rack at room temperature for 2 hours. This will draw out some of the water in the tomato
- Soak tomatoes in buttermilk spiked with a little hot sauce for 1 hour
- Standard breading: AP Flour >Egg Wash>Cornmeal/Breadcrumb mixture
For the Crawfish Salad:
- 5# clean, domestic crawfish tails quickly blanched
- bacon vinaigrette
- hot sauce (Tabasco)
- squeeze of 1 or 2 lemons
- chives, parsley, black pepper chopped
Yield 1 qt Bacon Vinaigrette:
- ½ cup minced shallots
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup Dijon
- 1 cup bacon fat
- 2 cup olive oil
- 1/5 cup sherry vinegar
- 1 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp salt
Sauté onions in a small amount of fat until soft. Add remaining ingredients and heat until all is dissolved and combined.
Toss crawfish with bacon vinaigrette, a few dashes of tabasco, lemon, chives, parsley and black pepper. Season with salt to taste.
For individual plates, arrange 3-4 slices of fried tomatoes on the plate and top with the crawfish salad. Spoon extra dressing over as desired.
Cucumber – Onion Salad
- 10 cucumbers, sliced thin
- 2 red onions, sliced thin
- 1 bunch parsley chopped
- 1 bunch chives chopped
- 1 bunch basil leaves
- 1 bunch dill chopped
- 1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup nice olive oil
- 1 Tblsp honey
- 1 Tblsp Tabasco
Toss cucumbers and onions with salt and allow to sit 30 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients in separate bowl and mix very well.
Pour over cucumbers and onions and mix well.
Allow to chill for an hour before serving.
Makes 1 gallon.
