A Salad with Science: Melon Salad Agridolce

The first week in June, I had the opportunity to attend a super-swank reception for a bunch of sponsors because the boss was giving a wine and food pairing talk, headlining as their entertainment for the night. We keep a few good basic smell and taste demonstrations for these kinds of things, and it was my responsibility to prepare them and help set up. As a reward, I got to stay through an absolutely fantastic catered dinner.
I unfortunately couldn't take pictures of the meal due to the working part, but the salad was so awesome I wanted to recreate it on my own, and here's my attempt and additions.

This beautiful jumble of greens, fruit, cheese and nuts - all of which on their own are good with wine, and together make a great starter or even main salad - is just such an awesome combination. What's really cool about the salad, though, is that it echoed some points she went over in the lecture.
- Salt inhibits bitterness. We do this demo in the lab with raddichio and kosher salt; simply take a bite of raddichio, rate the bitterness, then add a tiny bit of salt, taste and rate again. I like a small sprinkling of salt over my lettuce greens, in addition to the salty note you get from the cheese.
- Fat provides a good opportunity to smooth out tannins. In the lab, we demonstrate this using q-tips soaked in tannic acid, but you can note the dry mouth feel after a very tannic wine, or even the walnuts in the salad. Eating something fatty before or alongside, like the cheese, helps to prevent this a bit. And bread, not water, is your best bet for replenishing the lubricating proteins if you have a very tannic wine.
- A salad with a vinaigrette paired with a wine will make the wine taste vinegary. To avoid this, she recommended using a less harsh vinegar, like balsamic, or replacing the vinegar in the salad dressing with the wine you're drinking. This avoids any conflicts. I actually found the WishBone salad spritzer in the red wine vinaigrette did a good job of getting the light coating and flavor I wanted for an individual salad, but if I were making for a crowd I'd toss the greens with a red wine and olive oil dressing before plating with the fruit.
In case you're curious, the red wine served at the tasting was a Le Colombier Vieilles Vignes Vacqueyras Cabernet Sauvignon, and it was darned good with the salad.

MELON SALAD AGRIDOLCE
Inspired by Provence Catering, Philadelphia

salad for one
two to three large handfuls mesclun greens
red wine dressing or vinaigrette of your liking
pinch of salt and fresh grinding black pepper
1 ripe nectarine
1/5 small honeydew melon, preferably room temperature
1 tablespoon dried wild blueberries, or 2-3 Tbsp fresh blueberries
3-4 thin slices asiago cheese
6 or so toasted or lightly candied walnut halves, broken into pieces

Arrange the greens in a large bowl. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt and grind over some black pepper. Toss with just enough dressing to lightly coat.
Cube or thinly slice the nectarine and melon: the fruit can be arranged alongside or around the greens, or you can toss them together for a less formal but just as tasty rendition. Sprinkle over the blueberries and walnuts. Cheese may be arranged alongside in slices, or can also be shaved over the top of the salad.



**update: for other cool food, wine, and science stuff, check out the 3-part story by Mike Steinberger here, who actually apparently visited Monell and got to do a bunch of our taste-tests. Found through Serious Eats.

Lunchbox: Amansala Ginger Salad

I've been hooked on the idea of ginger salads since my boss took me to Rangoon to celebrate my acceptance to grad school. She's a decided foodie, and knows all the great spots in the city I've never even heard of, and knows the owners from way back. So while I chimed in on going for the lentil fritters and the pork in pickled mango curry sauce, when she said we simply had to get the tea leaf salad and the ginger salad, both of which Rangoon is well-known for, I trusted her judgment. Both were excellent - similar ingredients, but the tea leaves had a distinct earthy sort of flavor, while the ginger salad was lighter and spunky without the searing taste fresh ginger sometimes has.
Me being me, I wanted to find some way to recreate those delicious dishes, and a few weeks later I noted a recipe on epicurious that sounded a similar base to what I'd had. I tried finding pickled tea leaves to make it even better, but as of yet no luck either finding them or figuring out how to explain what I'm looking for, and it seems the pickling method is a bit involved. Happily, the ginger component - and really, the tea leaves were novel but the ginger just plain tasty - is easy enough to do in home with a bit of patience and makes a great substitute. With a bit of tweaking it comes close to the flavors I enjoyed there. I'm sure some dried shrimp paste or fish sauce would aid in the authenticity, but I decided to go with the dressing epi posted, and it's really wonderful all on its own.
What I love best about this recipe, in addition to the flavor, is that it's listed for one. This is an uncommon feature among most recipes, sadly even my own, but is great for the lunchbox not only so you know the portion you're doling out but so that it's easy to make fresh and quick each night before. If you can find pre-shredded carrots, you'll save yourself a few minutes, but otherwise the components are simple to prepare. This summer salad is also as far as I can tell nutritious, picking up points for the lunchbox.
This is one of my new favorite salads, and also a contribution to Salad Stravaganza, an event by Lis of La Mia Cucina to gather a new salad repertoire.

AMANSALA GINGER SALAD WITH GINGER-SESAME DRESSING
adapted from Bikini Bootcamp via epicurious

salad for one
1 c shredded Napa cabbage
1 c shredded romaine lettuce
1/2 c shredded carrots
5-6 cherry or grape tomatoes
1/2 avocado
3-4 ounces shredded cooked chicken
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 T toasted sesame seeds
10 cocktail peanuts or to taste
1-2 tsp pickled ginger strands

dressing
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
1/4 balsamic vinegar
2 T low sodium soy sauce
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 Tbsp palm sugar, brown sugar, or honey
2 Tbsp peeled minced ginger
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 Tbsp water

ginger, from New Asian Cuisine
3 ounces fresh young ginger
1/2 c lime juice

Combine cabbage, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, avocado and chicken in a large bowl. Toss with dressing to taste. Sprinkle with scallion, sesame seeds, peanuts, and pickled ginger strands.
To make the dressing: Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
To make the ginger: Peel and shred the ginger (the large holes on a box grater work best for this; you want it in shreds rather than grated) and place in a small bowl or a tupperware container you don't mind contaminating with ginger smell. Cover with the lime juice and marinate in the refrigerator for at least three days. Squeeze the shreds from the juice and discard the lime juice. Keeps no more than one week, covered in the refrigerator.

From Retro With Love: Croissants

A while back I was cruising a used bookstore with Mindy K and got really excited over the possibility of old cookbooks. Not just because cookbooks, old or new, are pretty cool stuff, but because they make very good resources for the Retro Recipe Challenge hosted by Laura Rebecca. Mindy kindly pointed out that although she is a faithful reader of this blog, and generally amused or intrigued by my cooking endeavors, some of my retro recipes have turned out less than appetizing. Duly chagrin, I promptly purchased a 1979 Craig Claiborne New York Times cookbook, figuring maybe this time I could turn things around with such a classy number.
This month's challenge was From Retro With Love featuring foreignish dishes. As per the norm, I did a bunch of paging through before settling on a dish of choice, and what a dish indeed: croissants!

I have always thought of croissants as French, but soon learned that they are in fact Hungarian in actual origin, and that they could be from Mars or Venus and I wouldn't really care because they're tasty. I was also surprised to find out that these little guys are not as excruciating as I'd always thought: yes, they take a bit of time, but they were surprisingly easy. I think this is because of the recipe I followed, and that was a close call. NYTimes' method was more similar to croissant recipes in other books I had, but (a) GH looked easier and (b) it had slightly more butter yet about half the flour NY called for. There was no butter packet, no folding and turning, and no shaping and rising. I was so worried I'd end up with flat hockey pucks of butter - especially since yeast is not my forte - but I was delighted with them. Flaky, uberbuttery, layer-y, crisp on the outside and soft inside, and all told pretty darn awesome. I was kind of hoping for big giant fluffy things, but these made gorgeous little sandwiches all the same. I'd recommend this as a good beginner's recipe: it's probably not the quintessential recipe, but it's fun and a lot easier than the finished product looks.
CROISSANTS
from the Illustrated Good Housekeeping Encylcopedic Cookbook, 1965, Vol.3

1 c milk
1 Tbsp shortening
1 T sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 c very warm water, about 105-110 degrees
about 2 1/2 c sifted flour
1 c cold butter
cream, milk, or half-and-half for brushing

DAY ONE: In small saucepan, just scald the milk. Remove from heat and pour into a large bowl. Stir in the shortening, sugar, and salt. Let cool until lukewarm.
Meanwhile, sprinkle the dry yeast onto the warm water. Stir until dissolved and let stand.
When milk is lukewarm, stir in yeast. Stir in enough of the flour to make a dough that cleans the sides of the bowl.
Turn dough into a large greased bowl and turn once to grease all sides. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down and then refrigerate about 2 hours.
Next, cream the butter until easy to spread. On lightly floured surface, roll and pat dough into rectangle 1/4 inch thick. Spread with one fourth of creamed butter. Fold one third of rectangle over center third, fold other third of dough over this, like a letter for an envelope, making 3 layers.
Again roll out dough into rectangle 1/4 inch thick; spread with one fourth of creamed butter. Repeat folding, rolling and spreading twice. Fold; wrap dough in waxed paper and refrigerate.
DAY TWO: Divide dough in half. Roll each half into 15x10 inch rectangle. Cut in half lengthwise, then cut each half into thirds crosswise, and cut each third diagonally to make triangles. Roll up each triangle from longest side.
Curve each triangle to make a crescent shape. Place with point of triangle underneath onto ungreased baking sheet (I used a nonstick AirBake pan). Refrigerate 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, start heating oven to 400 F. Brush crescents with cream, milk, or half-and-half. Bake about 20 minutes at 400 F and reduce oven temperature to 350 F and bake 10-15 minutes longer.
To freeze: Cool, wrap in foil, and freeze. For serving, place still wrapped croissants on baking sheet and bake at 400 25 minutes.
Makes 2 dozen smallish croissants.