Radish and Goat Cheese Napoleon Recipe

This radish and goat cheese napoleon recipe was inspired by an elegant beet appetizer I had several years ago at Spago, Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. Colorful layers of sliced, pickled Cherry Belle radishes, candied walnuts, goat cheese spread and rounds of whole grain noor thin bread give the dish its visual appeal. The pungency from the radishes offsets the velvety smoothness from the goat cheese. Sprinkled with candied walnuts, arugula and a few sprouted radish shoots as garnish, a larger portion of this light salad could be served as a one-dish meal. I finished the salad with a flavor-matching vinaigrette, a scrumptious sesame and candied walnut salad dressing.

The bread used in this dish is a new product from my friends over at California Lavash. It’s made with whole grains and is studded with black and white sesame seeds. It’s a great choice if you want to make a healthy dish, but I obviously didn’t do that today! I’ll be posting a couple more recipes using the bread later this week, and if you’d like to try them out, you can enter this week’s giveaway. Good luck!

Creme de Betterave (Cold Beet Soup Recipe)

We just picked our last large batch of beets from the garden. I steamed the candy striped beets, red beets and golden beets and blended them with a mixture of bean and rice porridge (I used mung beans). I've started introducing new foods to my 9-month old baby Aria, and the natural sweetness from the beets works well for infants.

It's pretty nutritious and filling for adults too, so I served the same dish for the family dinner but with a twist. I added pistachio paste for extra flavor and coarsely crushed pistachios for crunch. And for the dinner presentation, I topped the thick soup with goat cheese-infused cream. Who said "baby" food can't be delicious?

There are still a few more days to enter the giveaway and maybe win a Teflon BBQ grill pan. All you need to do is enter your email address. I'll pick a winner on Monday, August 13^th at 12AM. It's very easy to participate. Also make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and Teflon, or follow @phamfatalecom and @TeflonBrand and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "The #giveaway is live! Enter to #win a BBQ grill pan from @phamfatalecom! What's your favorite meal to #grill?: http://bit.ly/MvWiVG" Good luck everyone!