the kata of salad
(a song for Gene)
Definition of salad for English Language Learners. : a mixture of raw green vegetables (such as different types of lettuce) usually combined with other raw vegetables. : a mixture of small pieces of raw or cooked food (such as pasta, meat, fruit, eggs, or vegetables) combined usually with a dressing and served cold.
Liz and I were dining with our our divine hostess Gene in a Manhattan restaurant. The salad was served and made of romaine. “Why are all the salads in New York made of romaine?” I asked with innocent guile. Gene laughed and said, “Because it comes from California on the Salad Bowl Express.” This was a train that used to bring fresh greens from CA to NY. When Gene would grace us in Alhambra with her sweet presence she would request two things: a ride on a big freeway (well that was easy, because I picked her up at LAX at least once), and to go to the grocery store. Not just any store but a supermarket. Gene (Genevive) wanted to stand in front of the lettuce aisle of a Vons or Albertsons or Hughes and just look. I, being a spoiled rotten Californian, simply did not understand.
Growing up in plenty, being used to seeing its pastures on the 5, the 101 or even the dreaded 99, I have taken it for granted that in California, there is no season for iceberg, greenleaf, butter, or any other lettuces, they are always in the store. With three lettuce-growing seasons a year in the Central and Salinas valleys, I cannot imagine a grocery store without at least five kinds of lettuce, cabbage (napa, savoy, bok choy, red and white) four types of onions (green, white, sweet and red), carrots, celery and all the rest. Being a Californian this is not a birthright it’s just normal.
Which is why the existence of food deserts in this most blessed state is not just wrong. It is evil.
Oil and vinegar, salt, pepper and some other flavors, this is all it takes to make salad dressing. I, being a lazy slug, use Good Seasons Italian as my base. One of my salad stories is from the “Cooking with Claudine” series by Jacques Pepin. Claudine is making salad in the French style, the elements of the dressing going into the bowl first. As she mixes her father opines, “You put in too much vinegar.” To which the daughter of the great man pertly responds, “Not for Mom and me.”
And ah, my dears, there is the rub. How much oil, how much vinegar is the eternal question. The ancient adage, “Be a spendthrift for the oil and a miser for the vinegar,” just doesn’t work . I know what I like, close to half and half. I put the contents of the G S envelope into my jar and add tomato paste or mustard or anchovy paste, depending on my mood and what I’ve got in the house, and granulated garlic and Old Bay. And finally it all comes down to what’s in the bowl.
I love this time of year because it is peach and tomato time. I am a terrible tomato snob, only buying them fresh in August and September. Philip goes to the Saturday Grand Ave. farmer’s market late, about 1pm. The vendors are packing up and don’t want to haul the leftovers back home and are ready to deal. There is a guy who comes all the way from Sanger (the anvil of the Sun) and he has the best tomatoes. The perfect husband comes home with flats of these tomatoes and I go precisely hog wild. Raw tomatoes are in every salad but there are also sandwiches, you know the ones with just good bread, mayo and sharp cheddar cheese, and there is marinara. The big baking sheet comes out, the oven set at 350° and the tomatoes are cored, set on the sheet with onions, everything gets roasted, then into the food processor then into the freezer. It never lasts long. A couple of suppers or a Compline Dinner and the marinara is gone. We just eat tomatoes till our mouths are raw, tomatoes are gold.
Peaches, some of you might not think of them and salad, but I do. Only in these months of cheap,
freestone peaches do I indulge. These slightly green fruit are perfect with ham or any other leftover pork. When not in peach season, apples will be very nice and even raisins. But let us discuss a simple salad. Only recently have I turned my bowl to single leaf salads and that was, as usual, by necessity. How does romaine or greenleaf or even iceberg taste? Romaine is slightly bitter and deeply green. Iceberg does have flavor and it is delicate, but its primary attraction is the texture. There are many who badmouth iceberg but I do love it, probably because of the way I was raised. You cannot have wedge salad (ala Scandia, of blessed memory) without iceberg lettuce. Just eat it because you love it.
So finally, we are simply blessed. We are blessed to be children of California, to live in this state of 3 to 4 growing seasons a year. There is no salad green or cabbage we cannot have. And greens are the cheapest vegetables available. Put the leftovers in it, cut the fruit up in it, fry the bread cubes in duck fat and throw them in. Feta, cheddar and Monterey Jack, just shred or cube them up into the mix. Salad is the easiest and best thing to make for supper and Gene loves salad.
(a song for Gene)
Definition of salad for English Language Learners. : a mixture of raw green vegetables (such as different types of lettuce) usually combined with other raw vegetables. : a mixture of small pieces of raw or cooked food (such as pasta, meat, fruit, eggs, or vegetables) combined usually with a dressing and served cold.
Liz and I were dining with our our divine hostess Gene in a Manhattan restaurant. The salad was served and made of romaine. “Why are all the salads in New York made of romaine?” I asked with innocent guile. Gene laughed and said, “Because it comes from California on the Salad Bowl Express.” This was a train that used to bring fresh greens from CA to NY. When Gene would grace us in Alhambra with her sweet presence she would request two things: a ride on a big freeway (well that was easy, because I picked her up at LAX at least once), and to go to the grocery store. Not just any store but a supermarket. Gene (Genevive) wanted to stand in front of the lettuce aisle of a Vons or Albertsons or Hughes and just look. I, being a spoiled rotten Californian, simply did not understand.
Growing up in plenty, being used to seeing its pastures on the 5, the 101 or even the dreaded 99, I have taken it for granted that in California, there is no season for iceberg, greenleaf, butter, or any other lettuces, they are always in the store. With three lettuce-growing seasons a year in the Central and Salinas valleys, I cannot imagine a grocery store without at least five kinds of lettuce, cabbage (napa, savoy, bok choy, red and white) four types of onions (green, white, sweet and red), carrots, celery and all the rest. Being a Californian this is not a birthright it’s just normal.
Which is why the existence of food deserts in this most blessed state is not just wrong. It is evil.
Oil and vinegar, salt, pepper and some other flavors, this is all it takes to make salad dressing. I, being a lazy slug, use Good Seasons Italian as my base. One of my salad stories is from the “Cooking with Claudine” series by Jacques Pepin. Claudine is making salad in the French style, the elements of the dressing going into the bowl first. As she mixes her father opines, “You put in too much vinegar.” To which the daughter of the great man pertly responds, “Not for Mom and me.”
And ah, my dears, there is the rub. How much oil, how much vinegar is the eternal question. The ancient adage, “Be a spendthrift for the oil and a miser for the vinegar,” just doesn’t work . I know what I like, close to half and half. I put the contents of the G S envelope into my jar and add tomato paste or mustard or anchovy paste, depending on my mood and what I’ve got in the house, and granulated garlic and Old Bay. And finally it all comes down to what’s in the bowl.
I love this time of year because it is peach and tomato time. I am a terrible tomato snob, only buying them fresh in August and September. Philip goes to the Saturday Grand Ave. farmer’s market late, about 1pm. The vendors are packing up and don’t want to haul the leftovers back home and are ready to deal. There is a guy who comes all the way from Sanger (the anvil of the Sun) and he has the best tomatoes. The perfect husband comes home with flats of these tomatoes and I go precisely hog wild. Raw tomatoes are in every salad but there are also sandwiches, you know the ones with just good bread, mayo and sharp cheddar cheese, and there is marinara. The big baking sheet comes out, the oven set at 350° and the tomatoes are cored, set on the sheet with onions, everything gets roasted, then into the food processor then into the freezer. It never lasts long. A couple of suppers or a Compline Dinner and the marinara is gone. We just eat tomatoes till our mouths are raw, tomatoes are gold.
Peaches, some of you might not think of them and salad, but I do. Only in these months of cheap,
freestone peaches do I indulge. These slightly green fruit are perfect with ham or any other leftover pork. When not in peach season, apples will be very nice and even raisins. But let us discuss a simple salad. Only recently have I turned my bowl to single leaf salads and that was, as usual, by necessity. How does romaine or greenleaf or even iceberg taste? Romaine is slightly bitter and deeply green. Iceberg does have flavor and it is delicate, but its primary attraction is the texture. There are many who badmouth iceberg but I do love it, probably because of the way I was raised. You cannot have wedge salad (ala Scandia, of blessed memory) without iceberg lettuce. Just eat it because you love it.
So finally, we are simply blessed. We are blessed to be children of California, to live in this state of 3 to 4 growing seasons a year. There is no salad green or cabbage we cannot have. And greens are the cheapest vegetables available. Put the leftovers in it, cut the fruit up in it, fry the bread cubes in duck fat and throw them in. Feta, cheddar and Monterey Jack, just shred or cube them up into the mix. Salad is the easiest and best thing to make for supper and Gene loves salad.
1 comment:
Reading your blog never fails to make me hungry and to have a further appreciation for some sidelined item that I have forgotten to enjoy!
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