Tossed salad classics

 

Caesar Salad appetizer

When I was growing up (I realize I say that a lot about food!), we had a leafy green salad on the dinner table almost every night. I notice now that my family has cut way back on such salads. We’ll sub a green vegetable, like asparagus or green beans, or the other night it was a marinated cucumber salad. We also really like main-dish salads—Big Mac salad, taco salad, Columbia Salad. I have mixed feelings about this because I think there’s a real place on the table for a salad that highlights lettuce and dressing, maybe with a bit of bleu cheese, avocado, tomato, but the focus is on greens and the  dressing.

According to internet wisdom, whatever that is, home cooks should be familiar with two classic dressings: Julia Child’s Sauce Vinaigrette and the original Caesar from Cesar Cardini. Ladies first.

Julia Child's Sauce Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons wine vinegar or a combination of vinegar and lemon juice 

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

1/8 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and/or salad oil, such as grapeseed oil

1 1/2 teaspoons minced shallot or scallions and/or ¼ teaspoon dried herbs, such as tarragon or basil

Big pinch of freshly ground pepper

Directions

Combine vinegar, mustard, and salt in a bowl; whisk until dissolved. Whisk in oil, shallot (or scallions and/or herbs) and pepper. (Alternatively, combine all ingredients in a screw-top jar; cover and shake vigorously for 30 seconds to blend thoroughly.) Taste carefully and adjust seasoning as desired.

Traditionally, the oil/acid ratio in a salad is 3:1, so it’s of note that Child calls for 5:1.

Caesar Salad

If you’re ever on a quiz show and asked, “In what country was Caesar salad invented?” be sure to say Mexico. The salad was a last-minute inspiration by Caesar Cardini at his restaurant in Tijuana in 1924. Traditionally, it is tossed tableside. There is much controversy today over the use of the raw egg yolks—I use them, figuring in the US the egg has been pasteurized (mostly I wish they weren’t but this is an exception) and the vinegar will “cook” it. You do you.

Ingredients

2 egg yolks

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

4 anchovies, chopped

½ Tbsp. Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 cloves garlic minced

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

¾ cup freshly grated parmesan

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

Directions

Whisk two egg yolks in a bowl until creamy (about two minutes). Add the olive oil and whisk until well combined. Stir in the anchovies, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, and lemon juice until completely combined. Add salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Serve with romaine lettuce (no other), croutons, and shaved parmesan cheese.

Some culinary experts claim the original Caesar was no tossed at all, but individual leaves were served, each tipped with a bit of the dressing. I have had it served that way in restaurants. It makes good finger food. We experimented with it as an appetizer (photo above).

Wilted lettuce

Let me add one more that I think should be classic, especially if you can get spring lettuce freshly pulled from the ground.

Ingredients

6 strips bacon, diced and fried – reserve the grease

2 Tbsp. vinegar

4 cups leaf lettuce

Some people add mustard, brown sugar, onions, radishes, etc. but this is the way my mom did it, and I prefer.

Fry the diced bacon until crisp. Remove from skillet to drain on paper towel. Meanwhile tear four cups lettuce into your salad bowl. Pour warm bacon grease over lettuce (if you need to heat it a bit, do so—it must be warm). Splash vinegar over salad and toss until every leaf is coated. Taste for seasoning—adding salt, pepper or sugar, more vinegar or more oil, is up to you.

 

Marinated salads – my new summer favorite

 

Bean salad with a salmon patty--a favorite lunch

In summer, my mom always kept in the fridge a container of cucumbers and sliced onions floating in a mix of equal parts vinegar and water, with a liberal sprinkling of salt and pepper. I’ve taken up mom’s habit, except I add a pinch of sugar to soften the vinegar a bit. You kind of have to do it by personal taste.

But sugar has been either a problem or a continuing source of amusement for me this summer. I’m amazed at the amount of sugar called for in lots of recipes, but especially  marinated salads. A friend in California who shares recipes online sent her recipe for Catalina dressing, which Christian likes on taco salad. But it had something like a cup of sugar—I used a tsp. The ranch dressing recipe was similar.

I’ve been keeping at least one summer salad as snack source all summer—the beloved three bean salad (my recipe calls for one tsp honey), various bean salads (there are so many recipes!), even pea salad, although it doesn’t keep as long as the others. Sometimes I substitute a sour cream dressing for the cucumber but, again, the shelf life isn’t as long as the vinegar-based salads. Sometimes the salad of the week is the classic Texas caviar (see Gourmet on a Hot Plate: Texas Caviar - CORRECTION)

Christian likes our marinated salads, but Jordan and I are the ones who eat the most. We can easily make a lunch of a small bowl of cottage cheese and bit of salad. Here’s one she particularly likes:

Corn and black bean salad

1 can black beans

1 can black-eyed peas

1-1/2 cups frozen corn, cook and cooled

½ cup finely chopped red onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

Dressing

½ tsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. white vinegar

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1-1/2 tsp. fresh lime juice     

¼ tsp. each salt and pepper

How I changed the recipe: originally it called for two Tbsp. sugar, but I cut that down to ½ tsp. The recipe also called for two large tomatoes, chopped—they would add color and flavor to the salad, but for something I was going to keep in the refrigerator for a week or so, they weren’t a good choice. The quality would deteriorate much more quickly than the beans and corn. Canola oil was specified in the recipe, but I have heard contradictory reports on it, including that it will upset your stomach, so I used good old vegetable oil. I think olive oil would add an out of place taste. Finally, the dressing added 1⁄4 tsp. cumin. My mom disliked cumin, so maybe I inherited that. I think it improves some recipes, but it added a discordant taste to this salad the first time I made it. Feel free to try it if you like cumin better than I do.

Refrigerate at least two hours before serving.

I am also loving onions this summer, especially the Texas sweet. Did you know you can easily pickle them in your fridge and use them for accents on everything from hamburgers and sandwiches to salads or to garnish a meatloaf or a steak.

Pickled onion

One large onion, sweet Texas, Vidalia, or red, thinly sliced

½ cup apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. sugar

1-1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup water, hot but not boiling

Pack the sliced onions into a bowl or wide-mouth canning jar. Mix remaining ingredients and stir to dissolve sugar and salt. Pour warm mixture over onion and let it sit for an hour. Be sure all the onion is submerged in liquid. Cover and refrigerate.

You can play with this basic recipe—using white wine vinegar or white vinegar, rice vinegar, etc. Try substituting honey for the sugar. Try pickling tiny baby onions if you often serve cocktails.

Salade Niçoise

 

Salade Niçoise is one of the composed salads, in some ways a tuna version of Cobb Salad but much more complex—not surprising since it is French in origin, having first appeared in the city of Nice. Beyond that, no one seems to agree on much about the dish. One version I read is that originally it was simply anchovies, tomatoes, and olive oil. Auguste Escoffier, the famous chef who lived near Nice, added boiled green beans and potatoes, probably in the early nineteenth century. In the seventies the then-mayor of Nice, himself a cookbook author, decreed authoritatively that the salad should be mostly tomatoes; hard-boiled eggs and tuna were allowed but the green beans and potatoes had to go. Today’s Salade often incorporates all of the above.

Canned tuna is used in most recipes, but even then, controversy hovers. Julia Child insisted on canned tuna in olive oil; others prefer canned in water. And now there’s a new version in the field. Dining alone recently, I decided on Salade Niçoise since I had all the ingredients on hand. Only later did I find out that I had inadvertently prepared the latest version. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients – serves two

3 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. minced shallot

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 anchovies minced (or 1 tsp. anchovy paste)

¼ tsp. salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Whisk dressing ingredients together and set aside.

Six or eight grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise

¼ tsp. sugar

¼ tsp. salt

Eight or ten baby potatoes, either red or Yukon gold, the size of your thumb

A handful of green beans, ends snapped, cut in half if necessary.

3 hard-boiled eggs

1 5-6 oz. can tuna (I prefer water-packed chunk tuna—you want a really good tuna, like Tonino)

Niçoise olives and capers (optional, which means I omit them)

Toss the tomatoes with sugar and salt and let sit while you prepare the potatoes. Boil the potatoes until just tender, let cool a bit and then use a wooden spoon to smash each. Toss with olive oil and fry in skillet until crisp. Drain and cool. (This is a great way to make smashed potatoes for any kind of meal; you can roast in a hot oven instead of frying if you prefer—just be sure to toss in olive oil first.)

If you don’t want smashed potatoes in the salad, just toss the warm potatoes in a bit of the dressing before you put them on the plate. But smashing them was what I thought was such a great idea—and then I found it in an online cooking column.

Boil the green beans until just crisp-tender and cool in an ice bath.

Arrange the salad ingredients in two plates—I like to use soup plates for main dish salads. Drizzle dressing over ingredients and share extra dressing in a small pitcher.

An odd note: Julia Child fancied up her Salade Niçoise by twisting an anchovy on each egg half. Catches the eye.

And a digression: My oldest daughter always wants to know why people say tuna fish salad and not just tuna salad. Ever thought about it?

 

Make it a salad summer!

 

By popular request, (that’s right, two readers!), here is the potato salad recipe I mentioned last week. Thanks to longtime friend Sue Winter for this recipe.

Lemon Potato Salad

(Serves 8)

6 medium red potatoes

1 small onion diced

½ cup celery, diced

¼ to ½ cup parsley, finely chopped

Small jar of pimiento, optional (optional here means I leave it out)

Dressing:

2 tsp. fresh lemon zest

3-4 Tbsp. lemon juice

3-4 Tbsp. salad oil

1 Tbsp. salt (don’t skimp)

¼ tsp. pepper

Boil potatoes in skins until tender. While the potatoes are boiling, make the dressing. You want to have it ready when they are done.

Potatoes are done when a fork meets just a little resistance—you don’t want them so done they crumble. Drain. Peel and dice while still warm. Add onion and pour the sauce over the still-warm potatoes and onion. Stir to coat well. Add celery, parsley, and pimiento (if using). Chill before serving.

And here’s a salad I made recently. This should be eaten the day it’s served but note that you start it way ahead of time. This is a traditional Italian summer salad.

Panzanella, or bread salad

(serves four generously)

6-8 cups artisan bread, cubed

1 heirloom tomato chopped

¼ large English cucumber

½ medium yellow or red bell pepper

1 small red onion

Dressing:

½ cup olive oil

½ cup red wine vinegar

¼ tsp. salt

Pepper to taste

¼ cup fresh basil leaves, sliced into thin ribbons

Purists object, but you can also olives, mozzarella, capers, anchovies, tuna, parsley, boiled eggs, lemon juice, and garlic, according to your taste.

The night before serving or early in the morning because you want those bread cubes to sit out on a baking sheet so they will harden and get a bit stale. Unless the crust is unusually tough, leave it on.

Slice the onion and soak in cold water to soften the taste. Chop remaining vegetables. Whisk dressing ingredients together.

Mix vegetables and bread in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over and toss to combine thoroughly.

Let the salad sit at room temperature at least half an hour—longer is better—before serving. When ready to serve, stir in the basil.

The night I served panzanella, it was an accompaniment to turkey tonnato. Simply spread tonnato sauce on sliced roast turkey, about ¼ inch slices.

Tonnato sauce

½ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup good olive oil

1 6 oz. can tuna in olive oil (do not drain it)

2 anchovy filets

1 generous Tbsp. lemon juice

Freshly ground black pepper

Mix ingredients together and slather on meat. Sprinkle with capers. This sauce is good on veal and pork as well as turkey. You could also serve it on roast vegetables, salad, even as a sandwich spread or a dip with crudities. Just be sure your guests like tuna and anchovies. It’s strong but addictive.

Happy summer eating.

Oh those tea parties!

 

What comes to mind when someone says high tea to you? I think of a snooty woman with a lorgnette holding a fine china cup of tea, her little finger crooked in the air. But according to some web sites, I’m all wrong. That would be afternoon tea, as served in boutique and upscale hotels across the country. Afternoon tea features dainty finger sandwiches, fruit, cheeses, scones, and other sweets or cakes. And tea—a wide choice of fine tea. It’s an upper-class snack that traces back to a nineteenth-century noblewoman in England who became “peckish” during the long hiatus between the noonday meal and dinner, which was often not eaten until seven or eight.

High tea on the other hand is a heavier meal of the working class, usually eaten around 5:00 or 600 p.m. The meal consists of substantial food, enough to sustain a man who had been working hard all day--cold meats, vegetables, pickled fish, potatoes, salads, pies, tarts, homemade bread or crackers with butter, teacakes, and fruitcakes. Legend varies as to the origin of the name—some say people sat in high-backed chairs while eating; others claim they sat at high tables, as opposed to the low tables used for afternoon tea.

I’m an afternoon tea fan myself. My father, a Canadian native and very much an Anglophile in his outlook on life, relished his afternoon tea every day after he retired. He liked his tea as the British do—half milk and half tea—and Mom always had some sweet treat to go with it. But the thing that intrigues me about afternoon tea is the finger sandwiches.

The other night I flew in the face of tradition and served finger sandwiches—cucumber/cream cheese and egg salad—for happy hour. And ate them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the next day. There are a few cautions to remember when making these delicacies. One is the bread: I find that Pepperidge Farm thin-sliced white sandwich bread works best. It holds up rather than turning to cotton in your mouth. For some fillings, such as smoked salmon, rye or even pumpernickel may be appropriate and in other cases a good wheat, but it should be a firm, thin-sliced bread. Also remember that to be really elegant you want to trim the crusts off (I know, wasteful!) and cut the sandwich into diagonal halves or even quarters—or maybe long thin strips, three from each sandwich. Square slices of bread work best, which is another reason sandwich bread is so good.

Another caution is that everything should be finely minced and diced. I make a fairly chunky egg salad, but if it’s for finger sandwiches, I dice the eggs into the tiniest bits. And finally, be sparing with what you use to bind ingredients. You do not want the sandwiches to get soggy. Especially if you make sandwiches ahead, it’s best to coat the interior sides of the sandwich bread with a thin layer of butter. Mayonnaise, or cream cheese spread.

Here’s what I did:

Egg salad filling

4 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled, and finely diced

3-4 Tbsp. mayonnaise

1 Tbsp. capers, well drained and finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Cucumber/cream cheese filling

           Cucumbers have a lot of water content, so slice thinly, lay out on paper towels, salt lightly, and cover with another paper towel. Press to release liquid and let it sit while you prepare the rest of the filling.

1 English cucumber

8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature

¼ c. mayonnaise

1 tsp. dried dill weed (or 2 Tbsp. minced fresh)

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

¼ tsp. garlic power

           Spread each piece of bread with the filling. Top one slice with cucumbers and then add the next slice. Having the filling on each piece in a sandwich presents a barrier to keep moisture from the cucumber from making the bread soggy.

There are countless other combinations you can use for filling. The cream cheese spread above is delicious with smoked salmon instead of cucumber—or maybe both. Try some of these other fillings: chicken salad, perhaps with a touch of curry; tuna salad; ham salad, maybe add thinly sliced apple; pimiento cheese; roast beef with blue cheese; crab with basil and a cream cheese spread; goat cheese and chopped pecans. Use your imagination—the possibilities are endless.

Finger sandwiches make a great light meal for summer. Just add a big salad to the menu. Enjoy!

Quick and easy are my go-to ideas this summer

Maybe it’s the heat, but this summer I’m less interested in semi-elaborate recipes and more inclined to go with quick and easy. One night I fed two teen-age boys, so I had to take into account what they will eat and what not. (My grandson, a picky eater who’s getting better, is always suspicious of my cooking, and his mom keeps telling me not to fancy things up for him.) So here’s what may be the simplest chicken casserole ever. I have no idea where I got the recipe.

Grandma’s chicken casserole

3 cups cooked chicken, cubed

1 can cream of mushroom soup

½ half cup mayonnaise

2 cups grated cheddar (if I have said it before, let me repeat: grate your own cheese; the pre-grated in the stores has filler in it, like ground up wood or something to keep it from clumping; I have this on the word of the cheese monger at Central Market).

3 cups finely crushed Ritz crackers

            Layer in a greased baking dish and bake 20-30 minutes at 350^o

A couple of lessons learned: the recipe called for two cans soup, but I misread (who, me?) and only had one. It was fine the night I served it, but the leftovers were a bit dry. So I suggest the compromise of a half cup of mayonnaise. You can try the two cans of soup, but your casserole may get soggy.

I baked this in my toaster oven in a high-sided round casserole dish, which was a mistake. Somehow that dish focused too much heat on the surface of the casserole, and some of the topping burned. I advise a low, rectangular baking dish—the largest one that will it in your toaster oven, if that is what you, like me, are restricted to using. And maybe lower the temperature to 325 and bake a bit longer.

Which reminds me: one of the best gifts anyone ever gave me is a jelly-roll style pan—like a cookie sheet but with a lip—that fits exactly in my toaster oven. I use it all the time.

Quick and easy appetizer spread

4 oz. crumbled feta

2 Tbsp. Greek yogurt

Honey

In small food processor, blend feta and yogurt until smooth and creamy. (You can experiment with the amount of yogurt—start small and increase if you need to). Chill. When ready to serve, drizzle lightly with honey.

Herb sauce for everything and anything

            Sometimes I buy a fresh green herb—often parsley or cilantro—for a specific recipe that calls for, say, 2 Tbsp. finely chopped. Then the rest of the herb (and they’re not cheap) sits in the vegetable crisper until it gets old and I throw it out. Here’s a better idea:

1/2 cup mixed herbs

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp. salt (I always use Kosher)

1 large garlic clove, grated with microplane

1 small shallot, finely chopped

Use on fish, steaks, vegetables, whatever strikes your fancy. May be doubled easily. Will keep a week in the fridge.

Happy cooking and stay cool!

Summer Soup—again

           

The Fourth of July has thrown my schedule all off, so here it is Saturday night, and I’m just posting last Thursday’s Gourmet on a Hot Plate blog. Hope you had a pleasant Forth—Sophie and I spent it quietly at home. She is terribly spooked by thunder but not so much so by fireworks. Still, I hated to leave her home alone—and truth be told I didn’t have any better invitations.

So I stayed home and fixed myself summer soup and a big salad. I know I just posted about a wonderful cold soup I’d newly discovered, but this time it is an old favorite that I rejuvenated. I love a good thick split pea soup in the winter, but I also love a lighter spring pea soup once the weather turns warm. I cut the original recipe down to serve two—which gave me a hearty soup supper for two nights.

Spring pea soup

½ white onion, diced fine

1 clove garlic, diced

1 small stalk celery

¼ tsp. Celery salt

A pinch or more of dried thyme, according to taste.

1 small to medium potato, peeled and cubed

1/2 package frozen petit peas

2 cups chicken broth

Sauté onion, garlic, and celery, celery salt, and thyme in a bit of olive oil until vegetables soften but are not browned. Add potato and peas to skillet and cover mixture with chicken broth. Simmer until potato is soft. Remove from heat, and let it cool a bit.

Puree mixture. You can either do this is a small food processor or in with an immersion blender. Mixture should not be thick—if it is, it will stick and clog the immersion blender (trust me, I found out the hard way). Simply add more broth. When mixture is fairly smooth—a few whole peas just add interest—season with salt and pepper

Serve chilled with a dollop of good Greek yogurt in the middle. Also garnish with finely chopped parsley or sliced scallions if you wish.