New Cookbook Makes It Possible to Make and Serve Exciting Salads
by Larry Cox on Apr. 14, 2010, under UncategorizedMixt Salads: A Chef’s Bold Creations by Andrew Swallow with Ann Volkwein (Ten Speed Press, $28)
Produce has never looked as good or been as plentiful as it does this spring in our neighborhood supermarkets. As the temperatures begin to climb in Southern Arizona, the time has come to find ways to be more creative when it comes to salads.
Andrew Swallow is the founder and executive chef at Mixt Greens, exciting restaurants that emphasize salads with locations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Swallow has built a solid reputation for his gutsy approach to salads and his salads-as-meals concept. Take for example three of his signature dishes, roasted corn and hedgehog mushrooms with diver scallops, grilled chicken with asparagus and rocket, and my personal favorite which plays off of a traditional Greek salad, the summer tomato and lemon cucumber with friend tulumi.
This new collections serves up 60 delicious recipes that are helping Chef Swallow reinvent the salad. His recipes are made from scratch and demonstrate just how overlooked the salad has been. Deeply layered flavors, fresh, seasonal ingredients, and a little imagination make many of these dishes sing.
This cookbook is divided into six main chapers: The Seasonal Table; Building a Salad; Spring; Summer; Fall; and Winter. In addition, there is helpful information about salad essentials, from tools to stocking a proper pantry. The recipes are fairly easy-to-prepare and should be accessible to most cooks.
After finding some nice butter lettuce and avocados at my local market, I prepared a salad that featured those ingredients along with citrus and pickled onion. It was light and healthy but best of all tasty.
Captiva
Butter Lettuce with Citrus and Avocado
Serves four
Pickled onion
1 c cider vinegar
1 c fresh lime juice
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 Tbs sugar
1 red onion, thinly sliced
Dressing
3 Tbs fresh Meyer lemon juice
1 Tbs champagne vinegar
1 tsp agave nectar
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 heads butter lettuce, leaves washed and removed
2 avocados, seeded, peeled, and sliced
2 grapefruits, peeled and sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
One half c chopped macadamia nuts, for garnish
Directions
To make the picked onion, combine the vinegar, lime juice, jalapeno, sugar, and onions in a bowl. Let marinate for 2 hours at room temperature.
To make the dressing, combine the lemon juice, vinegar, and agave in a blender. Slowly add the olive oil in a stream and blend to emulsify. Season with the salt and pepper and set aside.
To plate each serving, toss half of a lettuce head with alf of an avocado, half of a grapefruit, 3 Tbs of the pickled onion, and 1 Tbs of the dressing. Season with salt and garnish with 2 Tbs of macadamia nuts.
Although this recipes is supposed to yield four servings, I made extra large salads for two.
