(lively music) - My daughter Ruthie worked for many summers at a farmers' market, so it's understandable she loves salad.

The husbands?

Not so much.

So, me, I'm the umpire.

But I've created something that will satisfy both of them: salads that have so much protein it fills them up, yet with a huge supporting cast of vegetables.

Using the freshest and best ingredients make a huge difference in my steak, tomato, and mushroom salad.

A creamy bearnaise dressing puts it over the top.

We'll also check out an amazing food initiative to help people in food deserts get fresh produce by giving them coupons for farmers' markets.

And my seared scallop and Butter lettuce salad with tangy grapefruit vinaigrette is an elegant dinner choice for the whole clan.

I'll see you back in the kitchen for some spectacular salads.

You know, Doug, I need one of those there.

- One arugula?

- [Sara] Yeah.

- [Doug] How's that?

- Great.

(cheerful music) - [Voiceover] Funding provided by - [Voiceover] Family owned and Indiana grown.

Maple Leaf Farms is a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

Providing a variety of duck products for home kitchens, Maple Leaf Farms duck helps inspire culinary adventures everywhere.

Maple Leaf Farms.

- [Voiceover] Subaru builds vehicles like the versatile Subaru Forester with symmetrical all-wheel drive and plenty of cargo room, a recipe made for whatever the day brings.

Subaru, a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- [Voiceover] And thanks to the generous support of - There are three simple ways to augment the deliciousness of my steak, mushroom, and tomato salad.

One, salt the steak.

Two, pre-salt the tomatoes.

Three, add the resting juices from the steak to the bearnaise sauce mayonnaise.

Okay, so let's get started.

I am showing you here three steaks.

I had the tri-tip.

This is the flat iron.

And this third one will surprise you.

This is boneless short rib.

They're very tasty, very beefy.

Slightly tougher, but it's doesn't matter because if you cook them rare and slice them thin, they're gorgeous steaks.

Okay, so I'm gonna keep this one here, my tri-tip, and move these guys back.

Now, the first thing I'm gonna do.

Let me just say that if there's one ingredient that's more important than any other ingredient that you cook with, it's salt.

I'm gonna salt this steak on all sides then let it sit for about an hour, but even four hours would be better if you had the time.

I'm gonna leave it one hour at room temperature.

If it was four hours, I'd put it in the fridge.

I'm using a cast iron skillet, what the cowboys used to use.

It's sort of fun.

It gets very hot.

You can get a wonderful sear on the meat.

Now, since it's been sitting here salted, it gets wet, so I wanna pat it dry 'cause you won't get a sear on a steak that's wet, and we want that wonderful crusty outside and that juicy rare inside.

So, we need some pepper as well.

I love pepper on my steak.

All right, I'm cooking it in just some vegetable oil.

I like grape seed.

I actually already tested it.

One way I test it is putting a little drop of water in there.

Let's see.

(oil sizzles) Yeah, that's the noise you wanna hear.

Now, this is a relatively thick steak.

Gonna be anywhere from five to seven minutes a side.

So, the next thing I'm gonna do is salt my tomatoes.

I'm gonna show you a little trick about slicing tomatoes that I learned from my cousin's wife, and she learned it from Rachael Ray, and Rachael Ray learned it from an intern, but I'm gonna say thank you, Heather, for teaching me this.

That's my cousin's wife.

You put your tomatoes in there between two lids, two plates, whatever.

Get down at their level and just cut through them with a serrated knife.

Now, what does salt do to vegetables?

It tamps down bitterness so you taste the sweet, you taste the sour, you taste the tomato.

And let 'em sit for about 15, 20 minutes.

There's our salted tomatoes.

And now I'm gonna go on to mushrooms.

Now, we're having mushrooms raw, and the only time you really wanna eat a mushroom raw is when it's very firm.

So, that was about eight ounces of mushrooms.

Okay.

These are just gonna be so tasty.

I'm gonna check my steak and see if it's ready to be turned, and move on to the cucumber.

All right, let's see how we're doing.

Watch me here.

You see how that moves?

Now, if it wasn't ready to be turned, it wouldn't be able to be moved like that.

Okay, now onto the cucumber.

I'm gonna cut 'em in half.

It's a little easier to slice them when they're cut in half.

(relaxed music) Okay, that looks like about a cup and a 1/2.

So, we've got our tomatoes, we've got our cucumbers.

I'm gonna start my sauce.

My sauce is a take on bearnaise sauce.

It's a a wonderful classic French sauce.

This is a bearnaise mayonnaise.

So, I'm making the reduction.

This is the flavoring.

A couple tablespoons of minced shallot.

We've got 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar.

It can be regular white wine vinegar, it could be champagne vinegar.

And 1/4 cup of white wine, dry white wine.

Equal parts.

And then we're gonna add some dry tarragon, but I feel like it really adds intense tarragon taste, so that's about a tablespoon and 1/2.

And then key to this, here's my wine, is salt.

I like to add the salt in the beginning and reduce this mixture slowly.

I feel that it gets more of the flavor out of everything.

Okay, so that's gonna reduce, and I'm gonna come on down and make homemade mayonnaise.

So, what goes into a mayonnaise is basically egg yolks and oil with some other flavorings in there.

So, I'm gonna put two yolks in here.

The best way to separate an egg is with your hands, because there's no sharp edges on there.

And crack an egg on a flat surface so you don't break the yolk.

Okay, so we're gonna want a teaspoon of mustard.

This helps for the emulsification, meaning for the oil to stay trapped in there.

And then we want just a pinch of cayenne.

There's a pinch.

Here's 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Now, I'm using kosher salt.

Actually a better choice for this might be iodized salt, because it's finer grains.

Occasionally it's a good idea to use iodized salt, which is table salt, it has usually iodine added to it, because we do need iodine in our diet.

So, I'm gonna need a tablespoon and a teaspoon of this.

I'm just gonna go in here first.

So, this is a lemony mayonnaise.

Not strongly, but nicely lemony.

Okay, about a tablespoon.

A tablespoon and a teaspoon.

There we go.

Let me get rid of the excess, 'cause the next thing we're gonna add is our oil, and we need a cup of flavorless oil like vegetable oil, like safflower, sunflower, or my favorite, which is grape seed oil.

So, let me just turn my steak, yeah, (laughs) on the other side to sear it.

Ooh, this is looking very good.

Okay.

So, here's what you do.

Turn on your machine.

You put the oil in here and it will slowly drip down through the hole at the pace that you want it to.

See how that's thickening up nicely?

Okay.

What I'm gonna do is take out about 1/2 a cup, so let's say this is about 1/2 a cup.

Okay, so I'm gonna take the temperature of the steak.

This is such a thick steak I can go down through the top.

We're looking for about 120.

Yeah, that's looking good.

Okay, so I'm gonna get it out 'cause it needs to rest for about 10 minutes.

So, we cover it loosely.

And here we go.

I've got my reduction, I've got my mayonnaise, I've got my resting steak.

I am gonna go get the fresh tarragon to finish my sauce.

I'll be right back.

(cheerful music) Okay, so I've patted my tomatoes dry here.

So, everything is gonna get combined now.

My steak has rested for 10 minutes.

Resting is so key, because if I slice that steak right away, all the juice would come streaming out and I would have a dry steak.

So, all our vegetables go in here.

First of all, I'm gonna add my reduction which I've let cool.

This is my bearnaise reduction.

I'm gonna add that to my mayonnaise along with my meat juices, and there's gonna be more meat juices coming out when I carve it, so I'm gonna wait for that, and I might add a little bit of water because this is a very stiff mayonnaise, and some fresh tarragon, which I just picked.

Now, it's funny.

People who hate tarragon somehow love bearnaise.

I don't know.

Like my children, they won't eat it anywhere else, but they love it in bearnaise.

Okay, so there is our dressing.

Now, it's important to salt the salad as well as we already salted the tomatoes, but when you toss a salad, don't just make sure the dressing is well-seasoned.

Make sure the salad is too.

I'm gonna put a little bit of this on here and I'm gonna toss it with my hands, which is the best way to go 'cause you can be very gentle.

Just very lightly dress 'cause we're gonna drizzle some more of that on top afterwards.

All right, let me quick wash my hands and get the lettuce all set up.

Okey dokey.

So, this is Butter lettuce, which is wonderful, Butter or Boston.

And what's so great about it, we've washed it and sort of left it whole, is that it looks like a flower, so we're gonna sort of nestle everything in there like a flower.

Make a base, and our steak is gonna go on top.

So, let's put some of this in there.

You have to cook with your hands, and, you know, when you're home it doesn't matter.

It's not like you're in a restaurant.

Make sure, of course, that your hands are clean.

Now we're waiting for our steak.

Here it goes.

I wanna show you something very important about this steak 'cause, as I said, these are tough steaks.

There's a grain, and it's very easy to find the grain.

You can see it, its ridges.

If I cut the steak like this with the grain, it would be inedibly chewy, but cutting across the grain is gonna make it very tender.

I cooked it rare, so I hope you like it rare.

So, here we go.

See, the grain is going just like this, so I'm gonna cut right across it.

We've got such a nice crust.

Ah, there we go.

Okay.

Wow, doesn't that look delicious?

Now, you see how thin I'm cutting it.

That is a key part of eating these steaks.

One more piece.

I'm gonna lay it out and drizzle a little more sauce on top.

This is a little restauranty, but, hey, why not?

One more slice for that side.

This is a pound steak.

It should feed four people.

Of course, my husband would eat the whole thing.

All right, here we go, a little more sauce on the meat.

I'll put a little fresh tarragon on top and we'll be good to go.

(cheerful music) So, there we have it, a hearty steak for a weeknight, and this would be perfect in the summertime when tomatoes are really ripe and wonderful or really welcome for a lighter meal on a winter night.

Why not?

(gentle music) - My name is Christine Bassette.

My husband and I run Killam and Bassette Farmstead in South Glastonbury, Connecticut, and we eat with our five children and our 85 year old partner Henry Killam, run this farmstand, and support our families on it.

(gentle music) - My name is Jessie Steele.

I'm a hairdresser.

My son Kaden is a year and 1/2, and I think it's very important for his physical growth to consume fruits and vegetables on a regular basis.

Thank you.

- [Voiceover] Christine and Jessie, two mothers, live radically different lives in totally different communities, but they were brought together by this man.

Michel Nischan founded an organization, Wholesome Wave, that makes healthy food more affordable, and what they found was that in poor neighborhoods, it isn't just a lack of grocery stores that keep people from eating fruits and vegetables.

- There once were grocery stores in these communities, and when the economic climate changed and most of the people living here didn't have money to shop the entire grocery store, buy fresh fruits and vegetables, the grocery stores left, so we really felt that affordability was the key.

(relaxed guitar music) - [Voiceover] So they used private money that essentially doubled the value of food stamps spent on fruits and vegetables.

- Here's my card for $10, please.

- So, we're gonna swipe your card for 10 and then we're gonna do 20 in tokens.

- [Jessie] Excellent, thank you.

- [Voiceover] Jessie is a customer, part of an assistance program for low income women with children.

- When I use my card, say I spent $10, they will give you $10 in tokens so you get a free $10 to spend on whatever you'd like within the market.

- [Man] 8.50.

- It's a win-win.

(laughs) - [Man] Okey doke.

- By interacting with the farmers, you get to know them on a personal level, how their food is grown.

You know there's no pesticides, no chemicals.

I don't have to worry about what's in it.

- [Voiceover] That's where Chris comes in.

Her farm used to sell their produce wholesale at 1/3 of the price they got at the farmers' market.

Now it's even better.

- Our sales at the farmers' markets have doubled since we've started taking the coupons.

We found that certain ethnic people wanted collard greens, bok choy, so we decided that we would add that to what we're growing.

It makes a huge impact on what we grow.

- [Voiceover] The program has been so successful that a farm bill last year provided $100,000,000 to double food stamps when spent on fruits and vegetables.

It was the rare bill with bipartisan support.

- So, we had Democratic support because we were proving that underserved consumers wanna feed their families better, and on the right side of the aisle, the farmers hire more people, they put land in production, they make infrastructural investments.

That's classic American small business support.

- [Jessie] I think we'll take some peaches.

- [Voiceover] So, on this day two mothers, Christine and Jessie, meet at Bridgeport, Connecticut's farmers' market.

- [Jessie] Apple.

- [Voiceover] Not because it's trendy or fun, but because for them it's a vital part of being a mom.

- Thank you.

- [Jessie] Thank you very much.

- [Christine] Have a great day.

- My son Kaden, he's smart, he's very intelligent for his age, and I really think that, bottom line, it's from being fed healthy food.

(relaxed music) - Farming life for us, the best part about it is being able to spend time with my five children and my husband.

Every part of what we grow or produce has our heart and soul in it because it's our pride.

(cheerful music) - Scallops are so naturally sweet that they practically sit up and beg for an acid counterpart.

Lemon's the usual go-to acid for fish and seafood, but in this case I chose grapefruit instead because I thought that grapefruit juice cooked down would contribute body to the base of the vinaigrette.

I have some beautiful-looking scallops here, and the first thing you wanna do if they come with this little muscle on them, is you wanna take it off.

This is what attaches the scallop to the shell.

Let me add a little grape seed oil.

And most important thing is that they don't smell like anything, the A, and B, when you go to buy them you wanna make sure that you get what's known as dry scallops.

And the troubles are way out at sea, these fisherman, and so they're out for days and the scallops would go bad if they just kept them and then brought them in, so they throw them into a liquid that has some preservative in it, so they end up soaking up all that liquid and sort of picking up a chemical taste, which is not something you wanna do.

This is regular all-purpose flour.

I like to coat delicate items like scallops with flour because it helps to give it a crispy coating on the outside and it sort of protects the tender meat inside and keeps it from getting so dry.

So, let me get these guys in here.

I'm just gonna do a few batches.

You don't wanna flour your scallops, or anything for that matter, ahead of time because if you do, it will sweat and get gummy, and then the whole point of the flour, which is to protect it and keep it crispy, just goes out the window.

These take a couple of minutes a side, and the way you know that they're done, that looks good, is because they're quite firm to the touch.

Either use a nonstick or a stick-resistant pan.

This is a stick-resistant pan here.

Now, I'm gonna come on down and get started with my dressing.

First we've got our fresh grapefruit juice, and I'm using pink 'cause I like the color.

And we just squeezed it right in here, 1/3 of a cup.

And we're gonna boil it down to about two tablespoons.

Meanwhile, we're gonna add some chopped shallots to the dressing.

(lively music) Let me go take a look at my scallops here.

Oh, that's beautiful.

Take that to my dressing down here.

All right, so to the shallots we're gonna add a little bit of sugar, just 1/8 of a teaspoon, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt, so we're gonna need a little more acid, and the acid that I'm gonna choose is rice vinegar, regular rice vinegar, not seasoned.

Seasoned has both sugar and salt added to it.

We don't want that.

We wanna control it here.

One teaspoon.

And we're working with Boston lettuce, also known as Bibb or Butter lettuce.

Let me get my scallops out.

We're just gonna park them and let them come to room temperature.

So, here goes our grapefruit juice in here, about two tablespoons.

And then we're gonna finish this off with a little bit of oil, and we're going with the same ratio of roughly double the amount of oil to the amount of acid, so we have three tablespoons of acid here, two tablespoons of the reduced grapefruit juice, and one tablespoon of rice vinegar, and now we're gonna add six tablespoons of grape seed oil.

(upbeat music) There's our dressing.

All right, we've got our scallops done.

Let me come on down and do my avocado.

So, first we're gonna take the pit out and then we're gonna cut it into cubes.

This is always fun.

I feel like every time I open up an avocado it's sort of a surprise.

Will you be happy with what's inside or will they'll be some things that make you unhappy?

Oh, I'm very happy.

No little brown spot.

What I'm gonna do is just score it to get it into cubes.

This is sort of the lazy person's way.

Some juice from the scallops.

We're gonna add that in there too to marry the whole thing.

Okay, so now it's grapefruit time.

Take off the top and the bottom.

The reason we wanna avoid the white part, it's 'cause it's very, very bitter, that pith.

What you do is you take your knife between the membranes.

One last thing to do, which is some fresh herbs, perfect with this salad, so I'm gonna go out and get some chives from my garden.

(lighthearted music) Now, let's toss everything up.

I'm gonna add my avocados to the lettuce, most of the dressing.

There goes the grapefruit.

Now, we're using 3/4 of a pound of scallops for this.

A little more drizzle of dressing.

Yes.

We're gonna do our sunflower seeds, and, last but not least, some chives.

Okay, so this salad's for me.

I think I'm gonna take it outside and have it with a little glass of wine.

(cheerful music) Ooh, what kind of wine would go nice with this salad?

Well, a Chardonnay.

I've got one here that has lots of citrus in it, and we've got the grapefruit in the dressing and the citrus in the wine.

They're just a perfect match.

They sort of mirror each other.

A salad in the garden with a glass of wine.

This is absolutely my idea of relaxation, and I guess that's the point.

You'll have more time to relax if you make these easy breezy salads on a weeknight.

Thanks for joining me.

I'm Sara Moulton.

I'll see you next time on Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(cheerful music) - [Voiceover] Sara's Weeknight Meals continues online.

For recipes, helpful tips, messages, and lots more, visit us on the web at saramoulton.com/weeknightmeals and go to our YouTube channel, Sara's Weeknight Meals TV.

Funding provided by - [Voiceover] Family owned and Indiana grown.

Maple Leaf Farms is a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

Providing a variety of duck products for home kitchens, Maple Leaf Farms duck helps inspire culinary adventures everywhere.

Maple Leaf Farms.

- [Voiceover] Subaru builds vehicles like the versatile Subaru Forester with symmetrical all-wheel drive and plenty of cargo room, a recipe made for whatever the day brings.

Subaru, a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- [Voiceover] And thanks to the generous support of