Standard non-standard salad #3
Jun. 16th, 2006 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fredrikegermanFarm share season started this week! Huzzah! Of course, June is the Month of a thousand lettuces. I was never a big salad fan before we started doing farm share. I've mostly made my peace with it.
Ubiquitous in southern France is the salad with chevré toasts and lardons. Here's one version of our take on it.
However many heads of lettuce farm share sends.
Arugula, or, if you prefer English and are unpretentious and cool, Rocket.
I like this better than lettuce anyway. Good thing, since we get a lot of it.
Cucumbers. My loving wife demands cucumbers.
Radishes or those little turnips you eat raw or whatever.
Tomato bits.
Ripe avocado.
Thinnest available baguette. It will be stale.
Goat cheese.
Bacon.
Make salad from all the bits. I usually quarter and seed the cukes. Beware that avocado is yummy in salad, but doesn't keep particularly well; you might want to segregate it so it doesn't take your salad with it if you have leftovers.
Bake (yes, bake) a few slices of bacon. I did this in the toaster oven at 325F or so. It'll come out still-mostly-flat, and you can pour off the fat and clean up.
Slice the baguette into half inch slices. Put a little circle of goat cheese on each one. Toast.
Easiest way to cut goat cheese? Dental floss. It sticks to a knife. I think I got this out of the Cook's "Best Recipe" cookbook, but wouldn't swear to it.
I hear serious gourmands fry their goat cheese after coating in bread crumbs. But I never actually encountered this in France... I think it's really more greasy and more trouble than I'm usually willing to undertake.
Dressing:
Is stupidly easy to make. Why do people pay big money for junk?
Mustard powder or strong mustard
Vinegar and/or lemon juice (I often mix them; pretty much any non-white vinegar works, though malt vinegar gives very different results).
Olive oil.
Sometimes I put in some red currant jam, secret ingredient of the low countries, if I don't use lemon juice.
Sometimes I put in garlic, perhaps roasted.
Salt (sometimes, esp if I use the mortar and pestle)
Pepper
Herbs: The lemon thyme we're growing was particularly good.
Chives are nice. Throw stuff in until it smells good.
You can put onion bits in to salad if you pre-soak them in vinegar. This is my trick now for salads, salsa, and gazpacho: Get the onion into the acid early and let it soak, and it won't be too harsh. Slice very thin, though; dice is not good, long thin shreds are good.
Didn't do onion this time, though.
Someday: Rocket, apple, and walnut salad. Gorgonzola or other bluish cheese with that. Or Rocket, beet, and walnut. Yummy.
Ubiquitous in southern France is the salad with chevré toasts and lardons. Here's one version of our take on it.
However many heads of lettuce farm share sends.
Arugula, or, if you prefer English and are unpretentious and cool, Rocket.
I like this better than lettuce anyway. Good thing, since we get a lot of it.
Cucumbers. My loving wife demands cucumbers.
Radishes or those little turnips you eat raw or whatever.
Tomato bits.
Ripe avocado.
Thinnest available baguette. It will be stale.
Goat cheese.
Bacon.
Make salad from all the bits. I usually quarter and seed the cukes. Beware that avocado is yummy in salad, but doesn't keep particularly well; you might want to segregate it so it doesn't take your salad with it if you have leftovers.
Bake (yes, bake) a few slices of bacon. I did this in the toaster oven at 325F or so. It'll come out still-mostly-flat, and you can pour off the fat and clean up.
Slice the baguette into half inch slices. Put a little circle of goat cheese on each one. Toast.
Easiest way to cut goat cheese? Dental floss. It sticks to a knife. I think I got this out of the Cook's "Best Recipe" cookbook, but wouldn't swear to it.
I hear serious gourmands fry their goat cheese after coating in bread crumbs. But I never actually encountered this in France... I think it's really more greasy and more trouble than I'm usually willing to undertake.
Dressing:
Is stupidly easy to make. Why do people pay big money for junk?
Mustard powder or strong mustard
Vinegar and/or lemon juice (I often mix them; pretty much any non-white vinegar works, though malt vinegar gives very different results).
Olive oil.
Sometimes I put in some red currant jam, secret ingredient of the low countries, if I don't use lemon juice.
Sometimes I put in garlic, perhaps roasted.
Salt (sometimes, esp if I use the mortar and pestle)
Pepper
Herbs: The lemon thyme we're growing was particularly good.
Chives are nice. Throw stuff in until it smells good.
You can put onion bits in to salad if you pre-soak them in vinegar. This is my trick now for salads, salsa, and gazpacho: Get the onion into the acid early and let it soak, and it won't be too harsh. Slice very thin, though; dice is not good, long thin shreds are good.
Didn't do onion this time, though.
Someday: Rocket, apple, and walnut salad. Gorgonzola or other bluish cheese with that. Or Rocket, beet, and walnut. Yummy.
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Date: 2006-06-17 01:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-17 03:53 am (UTC)You know, your wife has been looking for a superhero name for days now. Perhaps this is it!
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Date: 2006-06-17 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-06-17 11:21 am (UTC)What rocket is...
Date: 2006-06-17 10:32 pm (UTC)Re: What rocket is...
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Date: 2006-06-25 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-30 03:02 pm (UTC)