Edible Tulip

Apple Salad with Sunflower Seeds

Friday's lunch at the retreat centre is usually an "empty the fridge and improvise" affair for me. It's the last day of a 6 day workshop and I want to make sure I don't waste any of the produce I have leftover. I plan fairly meticulously during the week what each day's meal will consist of (it makes me feel less anxious and it also helps me be totally organized in my shopping down to every single ingredient) but Friday I showed up around 10 a.m. and didn't have a clue what I was going to face in the fridge. What I love about cooking in the heightened atmosphere of a 2 hour time frame to complete 5 or 6 different dishes that will feed 12 - 18 people is how I lay my eyes on a quick scan of a fridge and a pantry and in 3 minutes I will have tossed together enough variations to feel confident preparing several things I've never tried but have faith will please.

I ended up making a Tibetan red lentil soup with turmeric, lime and coriander, a large cabbage (2 red and 1 green) coleslaw with roquerfort and walnuts, a stacked platter of tomatoes basil and avocado slices, a large spinach salad with sprouts and a mustardy vinaigrette and, with a bag of leftover granny smith apples, an ad hoc salad of apple, celery, raddichio and red onion topped with sunflower seeds that was a hit. I put out some flax and soy bread and bowls of radishes and crumbled cheese and when I went out to sit by the river everyone said "Oh today was our favourite lunch". Who knew. I love when things come together so perfectly unexected like that.

Tomato Salad

Tomatoes scream JULY as much as corn signifies August: the last of the dog days of summer when the sun starts sinking into the horizon and you smell nostalgia in the air. Tomato plants in this part of the country (Ontario) aren’t producing fruit yet but the quality of store bought tomatoes has dramatically improved in the last couple of weeks. I’ve been buying on-the-vine medium sized clusters of greenhouse tomatoes and they’ve been really flavourful and juicy with no trace of mealiness. I don’t eat tomatoes in the winter at all so when June arrives and I’m hankering for summer fruit these do.

This tomato salad is composed of on-the-vine tomatoes. I tend to choose slightly firm fruits that have a deep red hue because I like tartness in my tomato. I do not like a squashed worn out nearly fermented tomato.

I chopped three medium sized tomatoes into cubes
put them in a bowl with olive oil, sea salt, a bit of lemon zest and a drizzle of red wine vinegar
I halved and then halved again Greek jumbo pitted green olives
I crumbed a few spoonfuls of local sheep's milk feta onto the tomatoes
and then I took a few sprigs of fresh thyme and ran my fingers up and down the stem to release the floral herbs (an addition of chopped mint and the spicy globe basil is good too)
then I took my large pepper grinder and ground and ground

A pretty simple lunch with a nice piece of chewy bread. I must note that when I make salads for an entire meal I generally make enormous amounts for myself and eat it out of a deep clay bowl. I don't just eat 1/2 a tomato, I'll eat 5.

For a historical perspective on the tomato you can view

Standing by my Iceberg

Oh, I know all about lettuce: the butters, the baby lambs, the mignonettes, the mizunas, the romaines, the red or green leaf variety, arugula, the pretty mesclun blends, the endives, the oak leaf, the Lollo, the..., well, I can't think of anymore off the top of my head, but I know there are at least a dozen more and I've seen them and most likely eaten them and they are all unique in their own right. Some lettuces are bitter (endive and radicchio) and some are prickly (mizuna and the huge heads of frisee one sees all over France). Some are delicate (oak leaf and boston come to mind) and some are robust and hearty (romaine). I'm a salad freak all year round. I love the simple combination of lettuce and dressing either to end a meal or star in it. Some days a lettuce calls out for a little drama in order to develop her full flavour while other days a lettuce just wants the best olive oil around and a kick of coarse salt. And then there are some days where I the dictator in this whole affair don't want any sophistication in sight. I want simple crunchy watery lettuce dressed up.

This is when I reach for the iceberg bundle wrapped in plastic at my local grocer. I know, I know. It's got white trash written all over it. But one mustn't court stereotypes. Doused in a sesame/ginger vinaigrette with chili oil you need the benign flavour of iceberg because it's not complicated. Covered in a thick avocado coating, the iceberg doesn't whine and then wilt in front of your eyes; she holds her own marvelously.

Spicy Coleslaw

Coleslaw honestly never crossed my mind for about 15 years. It seemed the sort of faux salad - heavy on the mayonnaise, low on nutrients, a side to fried chicken or a jello marshmellow concoction at the buffet table - that I devoutly avoided. But then I got broke. Very very broke and I wrote an article on eating for a week for under $10. Granted there were a lot of dried beans involved but there was also the re-introduction of those indigestible vegetables called brassicas - cauliflowers, broccolis and cabbages. Cabbages can be bought for 89 cents and they last FOREVER. Cooked down slowly they aren't bad, but served raw with a carrot tossed in, and dressed in the indomitable Asian vinaigrette, well, the crowd goes wild. People love this rather new age (i.e. no mayo) take on such a discriminated against vegetable!

Parmigiano Reggiano Salad Dressing

Our closing diinner turned out wonderfully (and I won't make a large point of the fact many were quite tipsy on wine). The barbeque worked brilliantly and I didn't scorch my eyebrows. I had two beautiful 7 lb salmon fillets which I cooked over a medium flame for 20 minutes skin downside in a wrap of foil. I made 2 dressings: a mixutre of capers, lemon juice, freshly chopped dill and olive oil, and a blended mixture of mayo, black olives and cucumber. I had two large square platters of local asparagus with a salsa verde sauce and an enormous pyriamid of Thai potatoes (peanut sauce, coriander, chiles, and tossed with finely chopped roasted peanuts). There were the ubiquitious famous Ace baguettes to sop up leftovers with. And dessert was a gorgeous lemon cake filled with lemon curd and topped with lemon zest whipping cream icing which I added orange edible pansies to and a bowl of fresh strawberries and blueberries mixed with lemon rind and sugar. Everyone was thrilled. But the salad, what is that dressing they asked?

Bored of my typical dressing of tarragon vinegar and dijon mustard and olive oil with sea salt, tonight I went for something wild: a parmesan dressing that I whipped together in the mini blender my grandmother gave me. I had a lot of field mix (baby spinach, endive, radiccio, frisee) but to add some hearty lettuce to hold a richer dressing dressing I used hearts of romaine combined with the baby lettuces in a large wooden bowl. I used 3 garlic cloves, 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, the juice of a lemon, 5 leaves of basil, 1/3 cup of parmesan and 1/2 cup of olive oil. I blended the dressing and tossed with the salad immediately before serving. Voila, a little bit of bite and very happy diners!