12. THE GOOD GREEN SALAD

Salads are vital to a gourmet meal.

They are not only delicious to eat, and hailed with delight by anyone on a diet, but they have a particular purpose and should be served at a particular moment: after the entree.

In these days of informal service, it is quite correct to serve the salad with the main dish—or to plan a good green salad in place of a vegetable to accompany the entree—but for a proper gourmet meal, a salad there must be, and it is to be eaten after the main course, in order to clear the palate in preparation for dessert and coffee.

While many Western states present the salad before any­thing else (including a shrimp or lobster cocktail), the knowl­edgeable gourmet quietly removes the salad plate to one side where it will await its proper mission in life.

In formal dinner service, the salad is served as a separate course . . . and you will note that all wine glasses for pre­ceding courses are removed at the same time as the entree dishes. At a proper gourmet dinner, it will be too bad for you if you didn't finish the Chambertin with the Chateaubriand; the half-full glass will be firmly removed with the empty steak plate!

No wine is ever served with a salad course . . . because they are mutually exclusive to a gourmet. Both are used to sharpen the tastebuds—but to your palate wine does not mix with olive oil any better than it mixes with water.

THE GOOD GREEN TOSSED SALAD

The tossed green salad, to a gourmet, resembles the "little black dress" to a Best-Dressed Woman. It is absolutely cor­rect for all meals; it can be dressed up or stand au naturel, and it will never be wrong as an accompaniment to any meal . . . although it can be just as dull as one little black dress until you learn a few combinations and permutations.

The memorable salad depends upon its greens—which must be crisp and fresh, and daringly combined—and its dressing.

The gourmet cook devotes a special wooden bowl to salad-mixing. It is never soaked nor too-thoroughly washed. Wipe out with paper toweling, rinse with very hot water . . . just enough to remove any surface oil that might grow ran-cid . . . and wipe completely dry with plenty of paper toweling. A salad bowl seasons with the oil that soaks into the wood; all that should be removed after each using is the temporary detritus of coddled egg or anchovy bit, and un-absorbed oil.

For those who love garlic, rub a cut clove directly about the bowl each time you use it ... or rub the garlic clove on cubes of stale French bread and toss with the salad. These are known as chapons (not to be confused with croutons, which are fried bits of bread).

There is a theory that salad greens should be torn apart rather than cut with a knife . . . and that if a knife is used, it should always be silver. We do not personally hold with this—because hand-torn greens are usually untidy to eat. In our kitchen, we dare to wash our greens, select only the tender inner bits, and cut them into fork-sized pieces with a common paring knife.

Nor has any guest so far protested the result . . .

The amount of greens to be used for a salad serving four people cannot be exactly specified: it will depend upon how well the diners like salad, how large the heads of lettuce, etc., and how many other dishes comprise the meal. In general, if you use a green salad to replace a vegetable or to accompany an entree of spaghetti or baked beans, it's wise to make lots of salad; if the main dish is simple and flanked by vegetables, less greens are needed. Something also de­pends upon the size of salad bowl or plate; half-filled will be easier to eat—and prepare for second helpings with the spaghetti-type of meal.

A green salad can be made of almost anything—and the more combinations you learn, the better your gourmet reputa­tion.

SALAD GREENS are far more varied than you may have supposed . . . and a fair selection of them will be available in any supermarket, although as usual, the people who live in the country will have the best of it.

Lettuce: Simpson, Iceberg, Romaine, Boston, curly red-tinged Western lettuces.

Other Greens: Belgian endive, chicory, escarole, water­cress, and spinach . . . some or all of these are generally available.

Specialties: Sorrel, field salad, dandelions, chard and beet tops, garden lettuce, tiny nasturtium leaves. Occasionally some of these appear, expensively, in the finest gourmet greengroceries of large cities—but on the whole, they can only be had when you have access to a kitchen garden. And if you do—what a salad reputation you can build!

The "good green salad" may also include vegetables: cab­bage (red, white or Chinese), radishes, cucumbers, celery, raw carrots, tomatoes, scallions, thin-sliced white onion rings, avocado or hearts of palm.

Finally, there are the salad herbs, which if fresh may be sprinkled over the salad, or may be incorporated in the dressing if you only have dried herbs. Tarragon, chives, shallots, parsley, chervil, garlic.

Gourmets speak a snob-language of their own. Thus, one "builds" a salad, and "dresses" it—with oil, vinegar, mayon­naise or whatever.

To build a gourmet salad, emphasize greens first; use at least three if there are no vegetable additions. Thoroughly wash the greens and drain in a salad basket. For a major effect, use only the inner leaves and hearts of salad greens. After draining, cut into suitable pieces, pile loosely in a bowl and place in the refrigerator.

Salad dressing is always added at the last moment, prefer­ably at table. Turn-toss the salad so that every leaf is coated with the dressing.

It is quite true that a salad is built; here's how . . .

Place chilled washed greens in the bottom of the salad serving bowl. Add ingredients in the following order, and stop when you choose.

Very thinly sliced white onion rings, separated . . . next a layer of raw carrot ribbons (use the commercial vegetable peeler) . . . quartered or sliced tomatoes . . . sliced green pepper rounds . . . coarsely cut hardboiled egg . . . fresh-minced parsley . . . coarsely cut Bleu cheese (or Gorgon-zola, or Roquefort): any or all of these make a salad, garnished with crisp radishes, scallions, raw carrot sticks and cucumber wedges.

The less greens, the more vegetables—and vice versa— but pile the dish lightly and loosely, whatever you use, and bring it to the dinner table for the final preparation of salad dressing.

The ultimate gourmet presentation of salad, of course, is the ability to dress it freehand before the admiring eyes of your guests—and this is not too difficult, provided you have a steady hand and a little sense of rhythm.

There is only one vital point to a French dressing: it is always one part vinegar to three parts oil. All you have to do is use the same measure—and this may be the silver salad mixing spoon, or one tilt of the vinegar bottle to three tilts of the oil! After the critical oil-vinegar operation, add a tea­spoon of salt (about 4 casual shakes of a small saltcellar) and % a teaspoon of pepper (or 4 generous twists of the pep­per mill).

Then—mix your salad and serve it up with confidence.

Naturally, it is much simpler to dress a salad with a pre­viously-prepared dressing, which you have made at leisure and to which you have given full concentration. A gourmet cook usually makes salad dressings by the quart, in several "flavors," and stores them at the bottom of the refrigerator (to be well shaken before using).

The best known salad dressings are French (Vinaigrette) and Mayonnaise—and it is possible that Shakespeare may have been thinking of them rather than Cleopatra when he wrote "Age cannot wither, nor custom stale, her infinite variety. . . ." for a real gourmet cook can do anything with either or a combination of both.

The tomato-colored sauce sold as French Dressing is not; only the l-to-3 olive oil and vinegar preparation is authentic. Commercial Mayonnaise, however, is regulated by law, and only a true egg-oil emulsion can be sold as mayonnaise dressing.

Other bottled dressings for salads exist in bewildering variety; some are acceptable and all are rather expensive in comparison to making your own, but for emergencies your best bet are the seasoning packets to be added quickly to olive oiland vinegar in a calibrated bottle.

BASIC FRENCH (VINAIGRETTE) DRESSING

This is also used for French hors d'oeuvres, particularly the vegetable salads, or to marinate celery root, etc.

1 cup vinegar: wine, tarragon or malt

3 cups good olive oil

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Place in a quart jar with a tight cap, and shake vigorously to blend. To this may be added any of the following variations:

1. 2 peeled sliced cloves of garlic

2. 2 T minced parsley, 3 minced shallots, 2 minced garlic cloves

3. 1 T minced chives, 1 T curry powder(use malt vinegar)

4. 2 T caraway seeds, 6 boned mashed sardines(use tarragon vinegar – for fish salads)

5. ½ cup minced pitted black olives

4 minced gherkins

2 mashed hardboiled egg yolks

2 T minced parsley

1 T drained chopped capers

1 T fresh chopped chives

6. 1 T dry English mustard

1 T Bahamian mustard

2 T Worcestershire Sauce

(Mix very smoothly together, taking out all lumps, and add to malt vinegar Vinaigrette – a sturdy basic dressing, excellent for Chef’s salad)

7. ½ pound of Roquefort cheese, mashed with ¼ cup port wine

1 T Bahamian mustard

3 chopped scallions

1 T each: Worcestershire and paprika

2 minced cloves of garlic

(Use with tarragon vinegar basic dressing – for plain green salads only)

8. 1 cup basic French dressing made with wine vinegar

2 cups of mayonnaise

3 chopped hardboiled eggs

1 cup chili sauce

1 T drained capers

1 T minced sweet gherkins

2 T heavy cream

(Mix smoothly together: French dressing, mayonnaise and cream – and other ingredients. This is excellent for shrimps)

MAYONNAISE

While this can be readily bought in any shop, many gourmet chefs prefer to make their own mayonnaise. Here's how:

2 egg yolks

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp white pepper

½ tsp dry mustard

2 tsp vinegar

1 cup olive oil

Start with a bowl heated by rinsing in very hot water, then thoroughly dried.

Beat the egg yolks with an electric beater, add pepper, salt and mustard, and a teaspoon of vinegar. Mix well.

Add the olive oil—drop by drop at first, until about V\ cup has been added. Put in ½ tsp more vinegar, continue to beat, and then add the rest of the oil in a slow trickle. Check occa­sionally to be sure the mayonnaise is combining smoothly. When all the oil has been added and absorbed, add the remaining ½ tsp vinegar.

Lemon or lime juice can be used to replace the vinegar— and gives a completely different flavor to the mayonnaise.

Home-made mayonnaise is a matter of minutes in an elec­tric blender—in which case, follow the directions for your particular blender.

AIOU

This is garlic mayonnaise. It is used with French peasant and Spanish meals. It has an extremely rich strong flavor, and is usually served with very plain boiled fish or potato salad, either hot or cold. Aioli tastes best when the garlic is crushed with mortar and pestle, but an approximation is possible with pressed garlic . . . particularly if you have the patience to put it through the garlic press a second time.

1 cup mayonnaise (homemade—if possible) 4 garlic cloves, peeled and pounded to smooth pulp in a mortar

Blend mayonnaise and garlic pulp until it is creamy-smooth.

AVOCADO DRESSING

Peel and halve 2 ripe avocados, place in a lettuce nest, and fill each avocado halt with the following:

1 T olive oil

1 tsp cold strong black coffee

1 pinch sweet basil

⅛ tsp sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 generous sprinkle of black pepper

CHEF'S SALAD

Next in popularity to the green tossed salad, it is used as a main dish. Serve it with lots of hot garlic bread.

Traditionally a chef's salad contains equal amounts of chicken, tongue, ham and swiss cheese, cut in julienne strips and arranged in separate mounds on a bed of lettuce. The dish is decorated with sprigs of water cress, a quartered hardboiled egg and quartered peeled ripe tomato for each portion—plus a few olives and possibly some parsley.

It is always served separately from its dressing, which is Vinaigrette. In restaurant service, a Chefs Salad is served individually—but for home consumption, it is equally deli­cious to present it attractively in a family-sized bowl, to pour over the dressing with fancy abandon, and mix well before serving on separate plates.

Practically speaking, the Chefs Salad usually means ''What­ever is in the refrigerator, garnished With hardboiled eggs and olives, and disguised by plenty of salad dressing!" But there is nothing wrong with this, and thus a Chef's Salad Chez Vous simply contains:

Cold cooked meats and chicken

Firm cheeses: American, Provolone, Swiss, Muenster, etc. Lettuce: plenty of it, any kind

Garnishes: radishes, cucumbers, carrots, hardboiled eggs, etc.

A Chefs Salad depends entirely upon the arrangement of its components. Start with the salad greens, distribute the julienne piles of meats, chicken, cheese, separately over the top, garnish for eye appeal with the yellow-white eggs, red tomatoes or radishes, black olives.

CAESAR SALAD

Romaine lettuce, dressed with lemon juice instead of vinegar. One of the great traditional salads, it stands mid­way between the tossed green accompaniment salad and the main dish Chef's Salad.

2 cups croutons(garlic flavored)

2 heads romaine lettuce

¼ tsp dry mustard

¼ tsp black pepper

½ tsp salt

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

6 T olive oil

juice of 2 lemons

2 coddled eggs

1 small drained tin of anchovy fillets, cut small(or 4 slices crumbled crisp-cooked bacon)

1 dash of Worcestershire(optional)

1 clove of garlic

Prepare the coddled eggs—1½ minutes in boiling water.

Rub the salad bowl with the cut garlic clove. Tear apart the chilled romaine lettuce into sensible-sized pieces. Sprinkle with mustard, pepper, salt and Parmesan cheese. Squeeze the two lemons directly over the salad (use a cocktail bar squeezer and watch out for any seeds that may elude you); add the oil, and Worcestershire.

Break the eggs over the greens, and toss thoroughly until all the egg has been absorbed.

Last of all, and just before serving, and cut anchovy fillets (or bacon bits), and the garlic-flavored croutons . . . it's usually wise to crisp the commercial croutons for a minute or two in a hot oven.

CRAB LOUIE

While no one seems certain who Louie was (and many cookbooks now dignify him with an s instead of an e), this is one of the great main dish salads. It may be served with shrimps or lobster in place of the crab meat—although one cannot know if this would meet with Louie's approval.

1½ pounds fresh crab meat(or three cans Geisha brand)

6 hardboiled eggs

2 tomatoes

black olives

Mayonnaise dressing – 1½ cups

Pick over the crab meat (or drain and devein the canned crab). Mound on a bed of lettuce; dice the hardboiled eggs and sprinkle over crab meat. Top with the dressing, and gar­nish with tomato slices and black olives.

LOUIE’S DRESSING

¾ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup Vinaigrette(using tarragon vinegar)

½ cup chili sauce

1 teaspoon each Worcestershire and horseradish

1 T sweet pickle relish

½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper

MUSHROOM SALAD

This goes with cold sliced chicken or tongue for a Sunday night supper.

1. pound fresh mushrooms
   
   
2. 1 T fresh minced chives
   
   
3. T fresh minced parsley
   
   
4. Vinaigrette dressing

Wash and dry the mushroom caps (save the mushroom stems to use another day).

Slice the mushrooms thinly, and toss with parsley, chives, and Vinaigrette dressing prepared with wine vinegar (4 or 5 tablespoons of dressing—but use enough to coat the mush­room slices).

Chill and serve very cold on a lettuce leaf.

NOTE: This can also be used as part of a truce French hors d'oeuvres plate.

STUFFED AVOCADO SALAD

2 large ripe avocados, cut in half and pitted

¼ cup each, chopped green pepper, celery, grated carrot

1 small boiled potato, peeled and diced

1 T fresh chopped parsley

8 cooked shrimps, coarsely cut

1 tsp fresh chopped chives

2 scallions, chopped

Dressing:

2 T mayonnaise

2 T olive oil

2 hardboiled eggs, chopped

1½ tsp curry powder

1 clove pressed garlic(or ⅛ tsp garlic powder)

Mix the dressing smoothly, combine with other ingredients, and stuff into the avocados.

SHRIMP SALAD

Combine ½ cup mayonnaise with ½ cup plain French dressing. Add 2 tablespoons each chopped capers, gherkins, fresh parsley and 1 T ketchup. Mix smooth, and mix with 2 pounds shelled chilled shrimp.

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