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.

 

Spring is salad time

Panzanella

With flowers blooming and trees leafing out, days growing longer, and weather warming, my mind turns to lighter foods. Much as I love them, I pretty much put stew and casserole recipes aside to wait for next winter. Salads are high on my menus. In the household of my childhood, we had a green salad with homemade vinaigrette almost every night. Fortunately, my family likes salads. I always have leaf lettuce on hand for a quick salad to round out a meal, but lately I’ve noticed that we aren’t eating as many green salads. On the contrary, we’ve enjoyed several no-lettuce salads. Here are two of my favorites (note that you have to prepare some ingredients in each well ahead of time):

Pea salad

This is strictly an adult discovery for me, not something I grew up eating. I first found it at the deli counter of local grocery stores, but I soon learned that making my own was better. Commercial versions have bacon bits which I consider a discordant taste, and the cheese was often small chunks of processed cheese like Velveeta. So I adapted the recipe to my tastes, specifically adding hard-boiled eggs. With cheese, eggs, and peas, this can qualify as a light lunch that hits the major food groups.

Ingredients

1 lb. frozen peas (petite are best)

½ small red onion, sliced

3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

½ small bunch parsley

2 oz. sharp cheddar, grated

¼ cup sour cream

¼ cup mayonnaise

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. Worcestershire

1/4 tsp, each salt and pepper

Directions:

Let peas thaw on counter for about three hours.

Put sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, and Worcestershire in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Stir thoroughly to be sure all ingredients are coated with dressing. Chill at least four hours before serving.

If you want to add bacon, I would suggest frying 6 slices; drain and crumble into salad just before serving.

Panzanella (or Italian bread) salad

This is another one I’ve only discovered in recent years. It speaks to my love of croutons that soak up a good vinaigrette. The recipe I have serves 10-12, way beyond any entertaining I can do in the cottage. I have halved it here.

Ingredients

4-5 cups cubed artisan bread

4 cups (one large or two medium) heirloom tomatoes, chopped

1/3 cucumber, sliced

½ medium red or yellow bell pepper, cut in bite-sized pieces (I omit this—bell pepper and I are not friends)

½ small red onion, thinly sliced

¼ cup good olive oil

1/8 cup red wine vinegar

1/4  tsp. salt

Pepper to taste

1 tsp. dried basil or ½ cup thinly sliced fresh basil

Directions:

Spread bread cubes in a single layer on a cookie sheet and let sit on counter, uncovered, overnight to dry and harden. Or, you can bake them at 300^o F. for 15 lor 20 minutes, stirring a couple of times.

Chop the vegetables, An extra trick: soak onion rings in cold water for ten minutes to soften their bite.

Combine bread and vegetables in a large bowl, preferably non-reactive like glass. Pour vinaigrette (oil, vinegar, salt and pepper) over mixture. Be sure to mix thoroughly.

Let salad stand at room temperature anywhere from half an hour to four hours, stirring occasionally. Add basil just before serving.

Leftovers do not keep well.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for other salads for your spiring enjoyment. Happy eating!

 

 

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.

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.

Summer salads

 

Last week I meant to write about summer sandwiches and salads, but I got so carried away with sandwiches, I figured tacking on salads would be courting bored readers. So, today, here’s my take on salads.

We like them a lot as a one-dish light supper. Even the meat-and-potatoes man among us likes a salad. Two of our favorites are Big Mac Salad and a home-made version of taco salad.

Big Mac salad

Big Mac is just what it sounds like—all the ingredients of a Big Mac, except in salad form. Crumbled hamburger, grated cheddar, chopped tomatoes, pickles, red onion diced or in rings, chopped head lettuce. Dress it with Thousand Island. You can use bottled, but if you do I recommend one of the “designer” brands like Marie’s. Better yet, make your own—my recipe was in last week’s Gourmet column.

My version of taco salad

Taco salad is a flexible thing, and you can pretty much add what you want. But I had a recipe from a long-ago friend that my kids grew up on: Susie K’s Salad. It’s the inspiration for my version of taco salad.

1 lb hamburger

1 envelope taco seasoning or make your own (homemade does not have preservatives and it’s easy, using spices you have on hand)

1 can beans – I like pinto, the rest of the family likes black

Grated cheddar

Chopped tomatoes

Chopped head lettuce

Onion – either red or diced green onions

Dressing – Christian insists on the classic Catalina dressing, which I find too sweet; the seasoning on the hamburger is enough for me, so I take mine out and then dress the rest with Catalina.

Fritos – here’s the important thing about Fritos: add them individually to each serving. The rest of the salad will keep a day if there are leftovers, but the Fritos get mushy and awful.

Make your own taco seasoning: 1 Tbsp. chili powder; 1 tsp. garlic powder; ¼ tsp. onion powder; ¼ tsp. oregano; ½ tsp. paprika; 1 tsp. cumin; 1 tsp. salt; 1 tsp. finely ground black pepper; Crushed red pepper to taste, optional

Store it in the freezer between uses.

Wilted lettuce

           The first time I mentioned wilted lettuce, Christian look appalled. But when I fixed it, he liked it a lot. This is one my mom used to make with fresh leaf lettuce from Dad’s garden. To me, you just fry some bacon and save the grease. Tear lettuce into a bowl, add green onions if you want. Pour warm grease—yes, warm!—over the greens, add enough vinegar, and crumble bacon. But in order to write about it, I went online and looked up proportions. Four or five pieces of bacon should produce enough bacon and grease for a salad for four; the online recipe called for two Tbsp. red wine vinegar and 1 Tbsp. lemon juice. I substituted three Tbsp. apple cider vinegar, and it tasted just like Mom’s.

The best-ever blue cheese salad

Jordan and I can make a meal of this: Christian and Jacob, not so much. But it truly is the best blue cheese salad I’ve ever had. The salad goes together backward and is best if you use a seasoned, unfinished wooden salad bowl. Over time this salad will season the bowl even more.

Garlic clove, split

Salt, pepper

Dry mustard

Crumbled blue cheese

Cider vinegar

Olive oil

Rub the salad bowl thoroughly with both pieces of the split garlic clove and then with salt, pepper, and dry mustard. Not a whole lot of any spice, particularly the mustard. You may have to experiment and find out how much is right for you. Crumble blue cheese into the bottom of the bowl. Add maybe a fourth cup of vinegar—and mush the cheese around in it with a fork, until you have a thick liquid. Add olive oil. Remember, the classic proportions are one part vinegar to three parts olive oil. This is Jordan’s salad, and she makes it for us, but sometimes she gets it a little bit stout. Also it’s easy to make too much—if you start with too much vinegar and then balance with the oil, you sometimes have enough to make salad soup. Just pour some off and save it in a refrigerator container. You want the dressing to coat every bit of the lettuce but lightly.

Add torn lettuce and toss. You might taste and adjust as needed.

A final note: Jordan wants to fix blue cheese salad every night; I want to vary our salads, and I experiment with lots of dressings. But recently I read a rave review of Trader Joe’s Goddess Dressing and bought a bottle—haven’t tried it yet, so this is an untested recommendation.

For fall back, we like Newman’s Own Classic Oil and Vinegar (not the vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar). For a light lunch, cut up a bit of tomato, carrot, onion, cucumber; add enough cottage cheese to sort of hold it all together, and douse it with Newman’s Own. It’s another of those dishes that gets out of hand easily, and I sometimes end up with huge servings.

Have a cool summer eating salad!

 

Summer and salads

 With the end of summer now upon us (well, most places except Texas), I am reluctant to give up the salads I love better than the hot soup of cooler evenings--chicken, tuna, ham or egg salads.

Prowling in some old recipes recently, I found salads and salad combinations I haven’t made in a while. They’re a twist on move conventional salads, and now they've moved to the top of my cooking list..

One recipe calls for squatty wide-mouth Mason jars that you layer with salads—trouble is I never found enough of the right jars—need at least four because these are salads for sharing. I try to artfully (?) arrange the ingredients on a plate. A combination I really love: smoked salmon with egg salad and green beans:

Cook ½ lb. haricot verts until tender crisp and cool. Cut into bite-size pieces. Whisk together a dressing of 1 Tbsp. each Dijon mustard and chopped shallot, 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and toss with beans. Layer them in the bottom of the jar. Top with layers of smoked salmon, again cut into bite-size pieces. Top that with egg salad made the way you like it best—I like a little celery and scallion, some Dijon and just enough mayonnaise to hold it together. (Tired of salads that are soupy from too much mayo.)

Another layered idea: Tuna tonnato with eggplant salad and cherry tomatoes. Tonnato is something that confuses many people but it’s so good—and easy.

 

Blend ¼ c. tuna with 1 large anchovy fillet or a good-sized squirt of anchovy paste (it keeps in the fridge—if you open the whole can of anchovies, what do you do with the rest?), 2 tsp. capers, juice of half a lemon, a bit of olive oil and a bit of mayo. Blend into smooth paste.

For the eggplant: pulse eggplant, roasted until soft, with 1 chopped garlic clove, a handful of parsley, grated zest of one lemon, and a tsp of red wine vinegar.

In jars, layer eggplant, 2 cans tuna minus what you used for tonnato (I prefer albacore packed in water), top with tonnato, halved cherry tomatoes, and croutons. Drizzle olive oil over all of it.

And then there’s plain tuna salad. How do you make yours? I use scallions, lemon, and mayo—plain and simple. But I found a recipe that adds a cup of shredded cheddar to one can of tuna, 1 stalk celery, chopped, a bit of chopped parsley, a good dollop of sour cream. Different and good. Maybe that’s my lunch today…or egg salad.