Ingredients

½ onion, small dice
1 ½ celery stalks, small dice
1 ½ lemongrass talks, chopped
¼ jalapeno, seeded and chopped
4 ½ ears cut-corn from large ears
1 cup coconut milk
7 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup cilantro
3 kaffir lime leaves
.5 tsp. salt
.25 tsp fresh white pepper

Procedures
Gently sweat first five vegetables for 45 minutes with the chicken stock.
Add the heavy cream and coconut milk and slowly simmer for 20 minutes.
Add cilantro and lime leaf and blend until smooth.
Season with salt and white pepper to taste.
Pass through china cap then chinoise for extremely smooth veloute. If you prefer not as smooth with a little more texture, then don’t drain completely.

Created from vegetables and fruits grown in the kitchen gardens at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, this salad is simple but very flavorful -- as is the citrus vinaigrette that comes with it. Feel free to add Dijon mustard to take the dressing to another level.

Ingredients
Serves 2

1 Quart Baby Greens Mix
6 each Belgium endive spears
2 Tbl. Carrots, Julienne
2 Tbl. Red Bell pepper, Julienne
2 Tbl. Red Torpido onions, Julienne
6 each Pineapple, sliced paper thin on plate
6 each Yellow grape tomatoes, halved
1 Tbl. Jicama, julienne
1/2 orange Orange segments
10 each Lime basil Leaves, Torn
1/2 tsp. Lemongrass, Fine Chopped
1/2 each Kaffir Lime Leaf, Fine Chopped
3 Tbl. Tropical Citrus Dressing
To taste Salt and fresh ground Black Pepper
2 Tbl Optional: Wonton wrapper, julienne and fried
6 each Optional:  Sautéed Citrus Prawns

Method

Slice 3 paper thin pieces of peeled pineapple and place in a circle on a plate. Place the Belgium Endive spears in the center pointing out and the 3 orange segments in between the endive. Toss the remaining ingredients except wontons in a bowl with enough dressing just to coat ingredients, check seasoning and place a small amount in center of plate. Garnish with prawns and fried wonton shreds. (Click "read more" for dressing recipe.)

The title of this recipe says it all. It's an easy chopped salad using a lot of great summer garden produce, with the capers adding a little salty kick to the mix. It's a salad you really can't go wrong with (you can almost never go wrong mixing mozzarella cheese with tomatoes, basil and garlic, period) -- so feel free to eyeball how much of each ingredient you want.

In case you need reminding, here are the ingredients:

Mozzarella (a big ball of the soft mozzarella works best)
Basil
Onions (red or white)
Garlic
Capers
Tomatoes
Balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil

The capers that I used when I made this salad were sent from a friend in Italy and heavily salted so I first rinsed them thoroughly -- letting them soak and changing the water a few times. This step can probably be skipped depending on how you feel about the brine your capers are in.

I then chopped the onion, garlic, basil and mozzarella cheese and put them all in a bowl to marinate in balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil.

Then I chopped the tomatoes and strained and patted them with a paper towel to get rid of the excess water. I put the tomatoes into a separate container and into the refrigerator, then added the capers to the marinating onion, garlic, basil and mozzarella and put them into the refrigerator as well.

When it was time to serve I added the tomatoes to the marinating mix for what was now a chopped tomato, onion, garlic, basil, caper, mozzarella salad.  Voila! or -- since this is really an Italian salad -- Ecco!