Seared Watermelon Steaks with Pistachios and Microgreens

Love watermelon, pistachios and microgreens.  Great summer dish from Chef Jose Andres using all three.  Yum!

Chef Andres

Watermelon says “summer” to me. They are so versatile and full of sweet juice. We make an addictive agua fresca with its pink juice that you can find at Trés and Altitude. At home, my daughters scoop out little balls and freeze them for a cool treat. I love to sear thick slices on the grill or on a plancha. Try this at home. Your family will love it! --José Andrés

Serves 4

1 medium to large seedless watermelon
3 tomatoes
¼ cup Spanish extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
Sea salt
¼ cup chopped pistachios
1 cup packed micro greens (cilantro, mint, arugula), washed
Spanish extra virgin olive oil

OJAI PIXIES! SO DARN CUTE!

DENISE FONDO


Absolutely beautiful Ojai Pixies from the Hollywood Farmers Market.  A true California tangerine developed at the University of California Citrus Research Center Riverside. Sweet, juicy gems.  I love eating one of two for breakfast.  I also love using them in my cooking.  Here is a delicious dish made with other ingredients I purchased from the farmers market.











Roasted Potatoes in Tangerine - Tarragon Olive Oil


8 medium Yukon Gold potatoes medium sliced
1 medium shallot thinly sliced
1 medium garlic clove minced
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup freshly squeezed Ojai Pixie juice
1 teaspoon freshly chopped tarragon  
cayenne pepper, ground pepper, sea salt to taste
                                                                       
In a small mixing bowl combine the Ojai Pixie juice, tarragon and olive oil.  Make sure all the seeds are removed from the mixture.  Let this sit for at least an hour.  Once the olive oil mixture is ready, preheat the oven the 350.  Add the potatoes, shallot and garlic to a large mixing bowl.  Add the olive oil mixture, cayenne pepper, sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Combine gently.  If you want more tarragon, this is the time to do this.


Place all the ingredients into a medium casserole and roast in the oven for about 25-30  minutes.  You want some caramelizing but you do not want the potatoes or shallots to burn.


You can change this recipe by using fresh parsley instead of the tarragon.  You can use sweet onion in place of the shallot.   Add a couple splashes of champagne vinegar.  

Press Trip? Tough gig!

When I tell people one of my jobs is travel writer, their response is usually something like, "Wow!  What a great job!  You must love it!"  I do.  Most of the time.  The part of the job that is tough for me is the press trip. 


There are good aspects to a press trip and I want to write about these first. 


Best element of a press trip is the people I've encountered.  Some of the publicists and writers I've met on press trips have become good friends.  Nothing can top that for value in my life. 


Another important element of a press trip is the opportunity it gives a freelance travel writer to experience a destination we probably couldn't afford on our own.  Working as a travel writer does sound exciting but for the majority of us there is very little money in it.  Payment for our work is also often hard to collect.  We spend a great deal of time trying to get paid for work we've done for editors and publishers who must think we are all madcap heirs and heiresses on a lark.  Ugly side of the job.  So, a press trip may provide us with content for articles we can sell.  Sometimes we have an assignment lined up before we even pack our bag.  One bag.  We travel light. 


Now for the bad bits.


On a press trip I am someone's invited guest.  Could be a hotel, a city, a tourism bureau, a chamber of commerce.  The trip is generally scheduled within a inch of my life in order to experience as much of the destination as possible.  I am going to receive first class treatment everywhere I go on this press trip.  That's the problem.  If I just go with the plan laid out for me on a press trip I am not doing my job as a travel writer. 


I spend as much time as I can on a press trip working outside the boundaries of the official itinerary in order to do my job correctly.  I need to experience a place without people knowing I'm a travel writer.  I need to see what service is like for most people who travel to the destination.  I need to see parts of town and visit businesses my hosts might not want me to visit.  So, I grab every minute I can outside of my scheduled events to get my work done.  I'm up very early in the morning until late into the night to get this all accomplished, while still attending most of the events on the itinerary.  By the end of these trips, I'm as wiped out as the publicist who has to corral a group of feisty personalities through an experience. 


On occasion I go completely off the reservation and SKIP a scheduled event.  I only do this when it makes sense for my work.  Like the barbecue I was invited to on a press trip about a year ago.  I was ordered not to drive myself to the inn where it was being held because the steep route was too dangerous.  What poor person am I sending up a killer mountain to happy inn if I can't even risk the drive?  No one!


For many travel writers press trips are the very best part of the job.  I can understand that, too.  Traveling is one of the most freeing, exciting activities in life.  Enjoying it on someone else's dime?  Just that much better.  


I feel quite strongly that great care must always be given to the work we produce from press trips.  The very point of most travel pieces is to provide helpful information to people considering how to spend their hard-earned cash, and even harder earned days off, on a vacation.  This is the very reason I am thankful for the opportunity a press trip offers me and completely committed to doing my job in whatever free time the official itinerary offers me.**


There are media outlets who absolutely will not allow their writers to take press trips and may not even hire a writer who has accepted one.  I can understand the concern.   The public needs to be absolutely sure a positive review of a destination comes from a writer's authentic experience and not the impressions of a press trip's controlled and skillfully finessed environment.  


**Hello publicist, I know you are asking yourself now  if I really did sleep in that morning I was late for our scheduled breakfast event.  Probably not.  Most likely, I was miles away by the crack of dawn, on my own little journey.  I may have already sampled food from two other breakfast places before joining all your smiling faces around the table.  Ditto lunch.  Ditto dinner.  And people wonder why I'm getting so fat.

Flood of Balsamic Vinegar Knockoffs!

The balsamic vinegar you are using may be nothing more than rice vinegar laced with caramel flavoring and coloring. Not in my kitchen. People work hard to produce great products for us. We should always make the effort to support them. Cheap imitations geared toward maximum profits and minimal consumer satisfaction are just trash. "Ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby!"

According to an article on the website of Italy Magazine, manufacturers of genuine balsamic vinegar are meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture to explore ways to protect true balsamic vinegar products.

Always look for Protected Designation of Origin label or the DOP, if you want to know if your vinegar is a true balsamic.