COOL FOOD : Toss and Serve

Is salad the casserole of the ‘90s?

In the old days, family dinners, as likely as not, were composed of meat (usually hamburger) cooked with some kind of vegetable (mostly onions and tomatoes) and noodles (generally macaroni), probably with cheese (or, more accurately, cheese-food) melted over it.

If there was a salad, odds are it was a wedge of iceberg (Romaine if mom was feeling fancy) with bottled Thousand Island on top.

That was 30 years ago--practically the Stone Age in this rapidly evolving world of cuisine. We are so much more sophisticated now, culinarily conversant in French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and even Tagalog. We wouldn’t dream of serving something like casserole.

Now our everyday family dinners are much more likely to consist of a piece of grilled chicken or fish served on a bed of greens, garnished with some crisply steamed or parboiled vegetables and dressed with a light, mustard-y vinaigrette. In other words, meat, some kind of vegetable, and greens with a dressing poured over them. Substitute noodles for greens and cheese for vinaigrette and the resemblance is inescapable. “Separated at Birth.”

Of course, given the weather these days, cool, crisp salads make a whole lot more sense than baked noodles, but the impulse is the same--layers of ingredients combined into one-dish meals that get to the table in a hurry.

Dinner salads can be as simple or as complex as you want to make them. They can be made with something as exotic as the mesclun salad mixes from the growers markets (they’re even starting to show up in many grocery stores) or with something as basic as boiled potatoes. They can even be made with fruit.

In fact, the farther from a lettuce-based salad you can get these days, the better off you are. Hot weather in the Salinas Valley effectively tripled prices of iceberg, Romaine and loose-leaf lettuces last month. The heat has broken, but its effects on the produce market linger. Any lettuce that formed a head during the hot weather is susceptible to all kinds of problems, meaning there won’t be much lettuce around, and what there is will be very expensive.

Making things worse is the impact of the food-service industry, which fell behind on its supplies during the peak of the bad weather and now is buying everything in sight to catch up. All told, it will take at least three weeks, maybe longer, for prices to return to normal at the retail level.

So, you can use beans, beets and snap peas; mushrooms and cheese; potatoes and smoked salmon; figs, grapes and plums; or lamb, eggplant and tomatoes. You can even add fried leeks if you want.

Just fight the urge to open a box of Salad Helper.

INCREDIBLE VEGETABLES WITH BLUE CHEESE VINAIGRETTE

6 asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces

1/4 pound wax beans, cut in 1-inch pieces

1/4 pound haricot verts, trimmed

1/4 pound sugar snap peas, cut open along 1 side

6 baby beets, boiled, peeled and halved

1 green pepper, cut julienne

1 sweet red pepper, cut julienne

1 purple pepper, cut julienne

Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

2 large carrots, peeled and shredded

1 chayote, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced or shredded

8 black pitted olives, sliced

Blanch asparagus, wax beans, haricot verts and peas separately in boiling, salted water. Drain and refresh in ice cold water until serving time, then drain well.

In large bowl combine vegetables with beets and green, red and purple peppers. Add 3/4 of Blue Cheese Vinaigrette and toss well.

Arrange carrots on large serving platter. Top with chayote shreds or slices. Heap salad on top in tall mound. Drizzle with remaining dressing. Garnish with olives. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

195 calories; 284 mg sodium; 8 mg cholesterol; 13 grams fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 2.04 grams fiber.

Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

Combine olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice and cheese. Stir well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

FABULOUS FRUIT SALAD

1 small firm-ripe cantaloupe, cut in 1/2-inch wedges

4 to 6 figs, cut in halves

1 yellow or white nectarine, halved, pitted and cut in wedges

3 kiwis, peeled and sliced 1/2-inch thick

2 yellow Mirabelle or black Friar plums, pitted, halved or quartered

1 cup small watermelon balls or dice

1/4 pound Champagne grapes

1 cup strawberries or other berries in season

1/2 cup blackberries

Citrus Sorbet

Arrange cantaloupe wedges to fill bottom of serving platter. Build up salad, using figs, nectarine, kiwis, plums, watermelon, grapes, strawberries and blackberries. Cover and chill until serving time. Garnish with large scoop of Citrus Sorbet. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

453 calories; 28 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 114 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams protein; 3.67 grams fiber.

Citrus fruits provide more juice than pulp, making the texture of sorbets grainy. To improve the texture, stiffly beaten egg whites may be added to the sugar syrup base.

Citrus Sorbet

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

1 large egg white

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon, orange or grapefruit juice

Combine sugar and water in saucepan over high heat. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Beat egg white until stiff. Slowly drizzle boiling hot syrup into egg white, whisking constantly until all syrup is incorporated. Slowly whisk in lemon juice.

Chill until cold. Transfer to ice cream machine and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Makes about 2 cups.

Note: If desired, 1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint or tarragon or aromatic bitters can be added to cold lemon mixture before freezing.

THE GREEK HEAP

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

1 lamb tenderloin

4 unpeeled Japanese eggplants, cut in 4x3/4-inch strips

10 yellow baby pattypan squash, halved

1 cucumber, peeled, halved, seeded and sliced into 1/2-inch thick crescents

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

10 yellow and red cherry tomatoes, halved

10 Greek or Kalamata olives

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Balsamic Vinegar Dressing

Filo Fries

1 basket pea or alfalfa sprouts

Fried Leeks

Stir together garlic and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Brush tenderloin with some garlic oil. Cook on hot outdoor or cast iron stove top grill until it reaches desired doneness. Remove from heat and cut in thin medallions. Grill eggplants and pattypans until tender, brushing with garlic oil as desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Combine cucumber, oregano, tomatoes, olives and 1/4 cup feta cheese in bowl. Add some Balsamic Vinegar Dressing, tossing well.

At serving, place 1/4 of Filo Fries in bottom of large serving bowl. Arrange grilled eggplant, pattypans and lamb on top. Arrange clumps of sprouts around edges. Top with cucumber mixture. Add remaining Filo Fries and toss with remaining vinegar dressing as desired. Sprinkle with Fried Leeks and remaining feta cheese. Toss and serve immediately (only toss when ready to serve, filo will get soggy otherwise). Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

692 calories; 659 mg sodium; 83 mg cholesterol; 36 grams fat; 58 grams carbohydrates; 34 grams protein; 1.96 grams fiber.

Balsamic Vinegar Dressing

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

Stir together garlic, vinegars and oregano and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Filo Fries

1/4 pound filo dough, thawed

Oil for deep frying

Cut filo into 1/2-inch thick strips. Heat oil to 360 degrees. Fry filo, batch at time, until golden brown. Drain well on paper towels.

Fried Leeks

1 leek, white part only

Flour or cornstarch

Oil for deep-frying

Cut leek into thin julienne. Dredge in flour. Heat oil to 360 degrees. Fry leeks until golden brown. (Will turn bitter if overbrowned.) Drain on paper towels.

SALAD OF FRESH MUSHROOMS AND PARMESAN CHEESE (From Judith Barrett’s “From an Italian Garden”)

1 pound fresh mushrooms (crimini, portobello, shiitake or white cultivated or mixture of 2 or more varieties), stems removed, caps thinly sliced

1/4 pound Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, shaved paper thin

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Freshly ground pepper

Salt

Place mushrooms and cheese in medium-size serving bowl.

Combine oil, lemon juice and season to taste with pepper in small mixing bowl. Pour over mushroom-cheese mixture and toss gently but thoroughly to distribute dressing. Add more oil, tablespoon at time, if mixture seems too dry. Season to taste with salt. Be careful not to over-salt since cheese will also add saltiness. Serve immediately. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

204 calories; 373 mg sodium; 14 mg cholesterol; 17 grams fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 9 grams protein; 0.57 gram fiber.

NEW POTATO SALAD WITH SMOKED SALMON AND DILL (From Leonard Schwartz’ “Salads”)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar

4 tablespoons peanut oil or olive oil

2 tablespoons minced shallots or yellow onion

1 tablespoon lemon juice mixed with 1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons minced fresh dill

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound new potatoes, preferably Yellow Finn or other small potato, such as Red Rose

12 thin slices smoked salmon

4 dill sprigs for garnish

1 lemon cut into 4 wedges

Whisk together mustard and vinegar. Slowly add oil, whisking to form emulsion. Add shallots, lemon and water mixture and minced dill. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Scrub potatoes well with vegetable brush. Do not peel. Bring 1 1/2 quarts water to boil with 1 teaspoon salt. Add potatoes, return to boil and reduce heat to simmer, 20 to 30 minutes, until knife easily pierces them. Drain and cool. When cool enough to handle, slice into 1/4-inch rounds (do not peel).

In mixing bowl, combine potato slices with half of vinaigrette. Toss gently to avoid breaking potatoes. Place on platter or on individual plates. Lay slices of salmon over potatoes. Garnish with dill sprigs and lemon wedges. Serve at once with extra vinaigrette in bowl at side. Makes 4 appetizer servings.

Note: Potato salad can be chilled after it has cooled. Chill salmon separately. When ready to serve, assemble platter as described.

Each serving contains about:

251 calories; 696 mg sodium; 7 mg cholesterol; 15 grams fat; 22 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams protein; 0.54 gram fiber.