Recently I was thinking about a couple of salads - the kind that make an entire dinner – that I used to make many years ago. We loved both of them, and made them relatively often.
They were fun because in addition to being quite delicious, each of them was just a little bit… unexpected. The flavors blended to a wonderful synthesis, and made a thoroughly enjoyable meal. I’m going to give you the recipes for both of these, as well as a couple of dinner side-salads that have that same “just a little bit unexpected” character to them. Or ok one is kind of a lot unexpected, but wow, so good!
Interestingly, both of the dinner salads come from cookbooks by local Junior Leagues. The Junior League was once, as I understand it, where rich young ladies became introduced to the idea of civic activities befitting their social status, so they could spend their time not-employed, but could still avoid getting bored or feeling useless. That was in the dark ages, though, and now the Leagues seem to be more inclusive, still do good things – promoting voluntarism and charitable works – and, at least around the SF area, have discovered that cookbooks might be a valuable fundraiser for those good works.
All recipes below are in quantities we make for two of us. Ingredients are bolded. For the unusual, mystery measurements, see the end of the diary.
Dinner salad with romaine, cherry tomatoes, two cheeses, bacon, toasted almonds, and garlic croutons in a garlic-lemon vinaigrette (image above)
Back in the late 80s, Mr pixxer, pixxer-son and I were at the legendary Cody’s Books (R.I.P.) and spotted the stunning California Fresh, by the Junior League of Oakland-East Bay. We were living on Not-Much at that point, so we were clearly very impressed by the book, as we bought it straight off. New. The recipes are excellent, though not as “California-modern” as you would expect in the current century. The format is luxurious, and the illustrations, hand-drawn, are just lovely. The salad I’m presenting from this book, with measurements I used recently for myself and Mr pixxer, is called:
Salad Miramonte
Dressing:
Start at lunchtime or mid-afternoon by making the dressing. Mix ¼ cup vegetable oil (I used canola, b/c that’s what we had) and 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, a heaping pinch* of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Add one small (or large, why not?) clove garlic, crushed. Mix the dressing and leave at room temperature at least 3 hours, to let the flavors blend.
Romaine lettuce. The original recipe, for 4-6 people, says “1-2 heads romaine” so exactitude is obviously not a thing. I weighed the torn, washed, and spun lettuce for us in a plastic bag, and it was 6.1 oz. Can’t tell you how much of that was water, unfortunately. Enough romaine lettuce for two generous, dinner-sized salads — perhaps 5-6 oz.
Bacon. I used one strip of thick-cut bacon – 1½ strips would not be too much. Fry the bacon till crisp and drain on a paper towel, blotting to remove as much grease as possible. Let cool so you can crumble it into the salad later.
Cherry tomatoes. The recipe calls for 10 cherry toms – for 4-6 people! LOL! I used 8 for the two of us, and would have been happy with more. Let’s say 8-12 cherry tomatoes (depending on size), halved.
Slivered almonds. Magic flavor! Toast a scant ¼ cup slivered almonds till delicately browned and crisp. The recipe says 325 degrees, 10 minutes. My notes on the page say “Check at 5!” Most recently, I used the toaster oven, which is fastfastfast. Burnt the first batch, but the last was quite nicely done in a few minutes. But: watch them!
[Pro tip: toast more than ¼ cup of the almonds so you can snitch some… yeah, ok, lots… and still have enough for the salad.]
Garlic croutons. Another magic flavor 😊 Mince one clove garlic. Cut some bread into ¾” or so pieces. Neatness doesn’t count. I leave the crusts on. If sticking with the original ratios, this would be 1/3 cup bread chunks for two, but forget that! I actually used about 1½ cups bread chunks, which was two slices from a bakery batard. Recipe says French bread. Use what you like. My notes say dried bread chunks get gummy, but again YMMV, and if you want so use up old bread, might as well try it. Heat about 1 Tbsp butter for each ½ cup of bread you’re using. Add the minced garlic, then toss the bread in the butter and mix it up till well coated, crisp, and slightly browned on the edges. I used med-hi to get a crisp outer crust, but that kinda burnt the garlic. But you’re leaving that behind anyway… Drain the croutons on a paper towel.
[All the above (and even the cheese below) you can do well in advance. I prefer to grate cheese at the last minute b/c sitting around, it can scrump all together again. Just takes a minute, anyway. YMMV – pre-prep it if it pleases you.]
Swiss cheese. My favorite Swiss is Gruyere, so I always use that in this salad. Emmenthaler is probably what the recipe originally used. I did not increase the amount of cheese: Grate 1 1/3 oz Swiss cheese of your choice. Usually best to grate right before using – even directly into the salad – so the gratings don’t reunite into an odd mass before you get to use them.
Parmigiano. I like Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio, (Old/aged Reggio-Parma cheese). 1/3 oz Parmigiano, grated and added to the salad.
Make and serve the salad:
Mix salad ingredients except the croutons and almonds. Toss with the dressing (remove the crushed clove of garlic) till well mixed. Then add the croutons and the almonds, toss again, and serve.
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Dinner salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar, onion, hamburger, kidney beans, and tortilla chips, with Thousand Island dressing
Back in the 80s, when I was in grad school at UC Berkeley, I discovered the Biosciences Library had a cookbook collection! Having had such excellent luck with California Fresh, when I found San Francisco a la Carte, by the San Francisco Junior League. I checked it out, and that is where the second just-a-little-bit-unexpected dinner salad comes from. This is 1/3 of the published recipe. We call this one:
Taco Salad (but its real name is Mexican Chef’s Salad)
Lettuce. You want a substantial lettuce for this one. I favor romaine, but I expect iceberg would be great. Again, enough lettuce for 2 generous dinner salads. Probably 5-6 oz or so. Wash, dry, tear into bite-sized pieces.
Tomatoes. Cut one medium or a couple of small tomatoes (enough for two salads!) into salad-sized pieces. Add to the lettuce when ready to toss. Recipe says to peel them, but … no way 😊
Scoop out 1/3 of a 15 oz can of kidney beans and let them drain a bit.
Cheese. Grate 1 1/3 oz cheddar cheese. Again, I’d just wait and grate this directly into the lettuce, right before dinner, so it doesn’t mat itself back into a blob.
Tortilla chips. Break up a scant 3 oz tortilla chips. Same deal: wait and do this directly into the salad, just before tossing – why not? This is a fun step, actually. {scrunch scrunch}
Hamburger. In a salad? Hey, it says “taco” up there. Cook 1/3 lb hamburger, all squidgled up, till nicely done, and drain on a paper towel. I listed this last, b/c one nifty thing about this salad is the contrast between the still-warm hamburger and the rest of the cold, crispy ingredients. Add the hamburger at the last minute, too.
Toss it all with 1/3 cup Thousand Island dressing, that you have mixed with a splash of Tabasco sauce (optional) and serve immediately. I found some recipes for Thousand Island dressing online, but just went ahead and bought a bottle of it instead, and it was fine (interestingly, Kraft, rather than the hoity toity ones, b/c it had fewer ingredients, and nothing hostile).
You can garnish with avocado if you like, but I find it unnecessary (despite absolutely adoring avocados).
very Unexpected side salad – amazing flavor! 😊
This one is always mind-blowing. Mr pixxer found it in Mediterranean the Beautiful (a series that could sell on beauty alone, but consistently has good recipes). I would never have tried it, b/c it sounds weird, but I’m telling you about it b/c it turned out to be fascinating and absolutely wonderful.
Portokal Salatasi – Orange, Onion, and Olive Salad (from Turkey)
Peel one very large or two small oranges, removing all the skin and pith down to the good stuff. Cut crosswise into rounds about 1/8” thick. Pop out the seeds using a sharp knife. Place in a single layer on a serving plate, or on individual salad plates.
Slice red [Spanish] onion as thin as you possibly can – “paper thin” says the recipe (Benriner would be great) and distribute over the orange slices. The recipe says half an onion for two people. I think that’s too much. Scatter onion till there’s a moderate amount distributed over all the slices (see pic).
Let the onions and/on oranges sit at room temperature for ½ hour.
Cut ½ cup pitted black, oil-cured olives (such as Gaeta – Niçoise will do fine) into halves and distribute over the orange slices. The recipe specifies “sharply flavored.” Pick olives you enjoy. Sprinkle the olives over the oranges and onions.
Drizzle olive oil over all the oranges. Sprinkle on some cayenne if you like (we like).
Enjoy!
Unexpected lunch salad: sweet peppers and beans with ricotta salata, in a sherry/shallot/caper vinaigrette.
This one is from Martha Stewart, and turned up in our daily paper in 2003. It’s just terrific for a potluck, as you can make the veggie and cheese part of it, carry the dressing separately, and then dress when you get to the party and it’s all fresh. It won’t “wilt in the sun,” per Martha. It’s also incredibly pretty, always a plus for making waves at potlucks 😊 But mostly, we just have it at home. This one is somewhat time-consuming, solely b/c of having to thin-slice all the veggies. Other than that – poof! Done!
The original recipe says “serves 10-12” so clearly not intended for empty-nesters at home. I usually make a ¼ recipe, which I’m presenting here — it actually would serve three just fine as opposed to the two servings from the other recipes in this diary. It’s ok, though not ideal, as leftovers, the not-idealness coming from unhappiness on the part of the basil and mint leaves.
Pre-prep:
Prepare an ice bath. Trim 2 oz green beans and 2 oz wax (yellow) beans. Boil in well-salted water for 3-4 minutes, then remove to the ice bath to stop the cooking. When the beans are chilled, dry them with a clean kitchen towel.
Dressing:
Slice one small shallot into very thin half-moons (about 3 Tbs total). Add 1 Tbsp capers, rinsed and drained, 2 ¼ tsp sherry vinegar (this is ¼ of 3 Tbsp, sorry) and ½ smidgen* salt. Mix, and then let these stand 15 minutes, then whisk [this is a dense mixture and “whisking” is not easy – make a stab at it] while slowly adding , 3 ¾ tsp EVOO (=1 Tbsp + ¾ tsp). Whisk till emulsified.
Prep:
Very thinly slice, lengthwise, ¾ lb assorted sweet bell peppers. Red or orange should be included for sure.
Slice the blanched green and yellow beans in half lengthwise, unless they are very tiny ( I think this means everything but itty little French ones, so, “slice the beans lengthwise.”)
Mix the beans and peppers in a large bowl, and toss with the vinaigrette. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Just before serving, tear into small pieces 2 Tbsp loosely packed basil leaves and 2 Tbsp loosely packed mint leaves, and add to the salad.
Crumble in 1 ½ to 1 ¾ oz ricotta salata cheese. Toss the herbs and cheese with the rest of the salad, and serve.
*How do you measure a smidgen???
Back when Renovation Hardware was still interesting, they used to sell a unique (then) set of measuring spoons, shown in the picture. I use mine absolutely all the time. A Dash is half of a ¼ tsp, which is to say, 1/8 tsp. A Pinch is half of that, i.e. 1/16 tsp, and a Smidgen (all praises to whoever came up with that name) is 1/32 tsp. So, good luck with half a Smidgen, called for above 😊 I was delighted to discover, when I tried pinching something or other (I think it was salt) and then measured the pinch with the relevant spoon, that it really measured about a Pinch.
So, What’s For Dinner at your house?
If you’d enjoy contributing a diary to this series, please kosmail ninkasi23, or reply to the comment/schedule she will undoubtedly post below. Thanks for visiting!