Monday, June 30, 2003

Salad Days. . .   It takes a while to get into the swing of this no-cooking thing, but that first heat wave kicked me into it rather rudely last week!!    This is what I think summer “fixing” (since it’s not cooking) boils down to (so to speak):  fresh ingredients, first of all.  But second, and if you’re like lazy me and haven’t managed to budge it to the Farmer’s Market much this year, it’s all about the condiments.   Most of the year I’m happy with my big can of Fairway Olive Oil – fruity, olive-y, not to heavy tasting and not so expensive.  That, some good French wine vinegar, a shallot or two and some strong mustard, and my salad-dressing needs are taken care of.    In summer things are different.  When you eat a form of salad for dinner every night, the old French-grandmother dressing thing gets old and boring fast.  I realized this the other night (day 2 of last week’s amazing heat) when I had dinner out with Joanne at Republic (a trendy yet cheap place that serves inauthentic sort of asian noodles – but yes, we’re on a budget).  The noodles there are just okay (what do you want in a place that is trendy yet cheap?) but they serve a cress salad that is truly simple and wonderful!  Bitter watercress and cool cucumbers, with a refreshingly tangy/salty ginger soy dressing.  That dressing made me feel cool, yes, hungry again on a hot day, and it made me want to run home and not-cook.  It was all about the condiments.   So, chastised (I fixed myself nothing but cold roast chicken, green salad and tomatoes all week), I revamped our condiment selection a bit.  Rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, limes, and ginger to start, and dug out the fish sauce and aged soy sauce from the back of the cabinet (do these things never go bad?) Using these ingredients, on Friday night I reproduced the delicious dressing.  Try it, you’ll like it!  Not too acidic, quite salty, and sweet-ginger spicy.  It was wonderful on bitter spicy cress, balanced by the cool cucumbers, and the leftovers made a great sweet-spicy-tangy marinade for some tuna a couple of days later.    This week, more experimentation with olive oil.  Philippe (now returned, hooray!) brought back a bottle of “home-made” olive oil from a producer we have on an island off the coast of Marseille.  Nicely flavorful – light color and body, distinct but not fruity olive taste, ever so slightly bitter. . . interesting on its own for dressing vegetables.  We also have an Umbrian Olive oil that is even more astringent, now that I really taste it – good for bitter greens.  I must get something more fruity – Spanish, or Greek Kalamata?  Or both.  And a new aged Sherry vinegar, too.  Without a garden to eat from, and until we can get to the farmer's market, it’s going to be all about the condiments.     9:28:07 AM    comment []