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Lifestyle

In The Kitchen with Terry Paulding

Terry Paulding
Special to the Emeryville Connection
June 2008

Go to the farmers market. Buy some vibrant, gorgeous spring lettuces. Pick the kind you most like – crispy Romaine, perky Little Gem, flouncy oak leaf, autumn-red loose-leaf. But get some fresh lettuce, please. It’s that time of year and you’ll love the flavor of fresh, vibrant, just-picked greens. Once you get it, do treat it like an honored guest. Give it a refreshing bath in several changes of cool water, spin it dry, and robe it with a modicum of good, homemade dressing. You really need nothing more to have a good salad, but if you want, add some of the young and tender cucumbers you’ll find in the market. Or some asparagus shaved into strips with a vegetable peeler. Or if you like, some favorite olives or cheese or spring fruit and some nuts...whatever you like. You will have a happy meal of the best sort. Delicious flavors, excellent nutrition.

As for the dressing, well, that old rule of thumb pertains: you know it as GIGO, garbage in, garbage out. In other words, do NOT get cheap stuff to make your dressing, it won’t be that good! At least use some good extra-virgin olive oil, or a nice nut oil, or a good quality clean-tasting unadulterated vegetable oil (try grape seed or rice bran oil for instance). I try to only buy oils from crops that people might eat. Olive, rice, grapes, nuts – the crops that are not going to be sprayed to death with all sorts of toxins, and whose oils taste good right as they are.

For the sour part, which you need to bring out the sweetness of the lettuce, you can use fresh lemon, you can use good vinegar, which reminds me, while you’re at the market buying the lettuce, taste some vinegars. Maybe some red wine vinegar with juniper and rosemary will tweak your interest. Or some balsamic infused with figs. There are great vinegars to be had, and if not at the farmers market, at least pick a brand in the store that is well made from good ingredients. No need to “make” a dressing. Just lightly drizzle the lettuce with oil, toss it well, and add a bit of the balancing vinegar or lemon, and some salt and pepper. As a rule, you’ll need 1/3 as much vinegar as oil. You want a gentle dressing, not a sopping amount. Enough to taste and enhance without drowning and wilting.

Making a salad is truly playing with your food. Other than rules of thumb there need be no fancy recipes. If you mince up a shallot, you can macerate it in the vinegar for 10 minutes to flavor both, before you add the oil. If you like an emulsified dressing, a little mustard (Dijon or grainy or dry) will help keep the oil and vinegar in suspension, if you whisk the oil in slowly. If you have a very mild, fruity vinegar you’ll need less oil. If you add some fruit juice that’s not too sour (for instance, orange), you need less oil. What you most need, you already have: taste buds. Just experiment, and eat the results. You will not be sorry.

Or if you want a bit more guidance, try the recipe below. Today I made it garnished with the first apricots of the season and toasted walnuts.

Terry Paulding is President of Paulding & Company, a Creative Kitchen, 1410 D 62nd Street in Emeryville. Visit her website at www.pauldingandco.com.