WEST COAST SALAD MORNINGS, SALAD DAYS, SALAD MONTHS AND SALAD NIGHTS

     WEST COAST SALAD MORNINGS, SALAD DAYS, SALAD MONTHS AND SALAD NIGHTS

(Congratulations Addie and Joe!) 

   Whew! It's been hot, and even though there's a cool down in the forecast, it's still salad weather. One of my friends has intrigued me with her health and fitness  journey that includes protein rich salads for breakfast, and hers usually include legumes and fruit for a sweet and savory start to the day. 

   I've followed her example a few times already, and while it's slightly odd to be eating tossed salad at 5 a.m., it's not much harder than a bowl of Shredded Wheat with a sliced banana. Ok, it's a little harder, but if you start with a salad spinner of leftover greens, you're 90% of the way there.

   My first breakfast salad included leftover flank steak tossed with blueberries and a scant amount of balsamic dressing over kale, and it was good, but in order for breakfast salad to be part of a weight loss program for me, I would need to stop eating the ice cream salads I enjoy before bed. Anyway, props to you, Jeanne! Your progress is inspiring.

   Did you know that two iconic salads, the Caesar and the Crab Louis are both West Coast originals? Like many great inventions, there's bickering over who did what first, especially with the Crab Louis.

(The Davenport Hotel)

   Louis Davenport came to Spokane from San Francisco  and opened the eponymous Davenport Hotel, where by 1914 the Crab Louis salad was on the menu. Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, other chefs and hotels were claiming the Louis as their own, but it looks like Mr. Davenport was first.  Muddying the water further, a cookbook published in Portland, Oregon in 1912 by the Council of Jewish Women features a recipe for Crab Louis, so who knows?

    I had the pleasure of staying at the Davenport with a group of friends in June when we went over for a wedding. The wedding was held in tiny Elk, WA at the Camden Christmas tree farm, so it was fun to experience the contrast of the rustic farm and the opulent hotel. On this trip I didn't have Crab Louis, but I've eaten it at the Davenport before, and it's delicious, but decidedly simpler than my version of Crab Louis which includes everything but the kitchen sink.

   I've also eaten Crab Louis in San Francisco, and was under the distinct impression that I may have been served Krab, the fish paste imitation product, instead of  fresh Dungeness. I've been catching and eating Puget Sound Dungeness crab for a very long time, so I'm pretty sure I know the difference between Krab and crab. 

   For my version of Crab Louis, you need to have a generous friend who gives you a couple fresh caught,  cooked, cleaned, chilled crab. You should pick the meat out of the shell yourself so you can preview it, and also,  when you bite into your salad and get a bit of shell, you know who to blame.

   For the salad you'll need:

   

   Rinsed, dried, chilled lettuce in bite size pieces (Iceberg is traditional; I use any greens I have on hand)

   diced green onion

   red onion rings

   sliced radishes

   sliced avocado

   diced tomato

   diced sweet pepper

   sliced celery

   sliced cucumber

   chopped hard cooked egg

   lemon wedge

   cooked, chilled, shelled Dungeness crab

LOUIS DRESSING

   This is my version; you could use bottled Thousand Island; you could sub salsa, cocktail or chili sauce for the ketchup; you could go online and look up the versions that include unsweetened whipped cream, or you could be a hillbilly and make it like I do:

   in a small bowl, combine 1 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup ketchup and 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish. Mix well.

Assemble the salad:

   On a platter layer greens, top with the prepared veggies. Drizzle with dressing, mound crab in the center, squeeze a little lemon juice over, sprinkle with the chopped egg and serve the rest of the dressing on the side. The salad pictured here made two servings, but one person ate them both.

   The Caesar salad is said to have been invented by restauranteur Caesar Cardini on July 4,1924 in Tijuana. The salad was a quick-thinking solution after a rush of business left Mr. Cardini with few ingredients in his kitchen, and was tossed table- side with great flair. The original dressing didn't have anchovies, but did include Worcestershire  sauce which is flavored with anchovies.

SALAD

   1 head romaine lettuce washed, dried, chilled and torn into bite size pieces

   1 cup croutons

   1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

CAESAR DRESSING

 1 coddled egg* (procedure follows)

  1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

  3 tablespoons lemon juice

  1 clove garlic, crushed

  pinch of salt

  1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

 1 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste (you can buy it in tubes like toothpaste)

  1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

  1/3 cup olive oil

  To coddle the egg: bring a small pot of water to a boil, gently lower whole, uncracked egg into water and boil for 1 minute. Remove and cool egg under cold running water. Set aside.

   Assemble the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the Worcestershire, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, anchovy paste and mustard until smooth. Crack the egg and whisk the egg into the dressing ingredients.

   Slowly (this is important: slowly) drizzle 1/3 cup of olive oil in a steady stream into other dressing ingredients, whisking continuously. This process is called "emulsification" and is what will turn the egg and oil into a creamy, mayonnaise substance.

   Assemble the salad: place lettuce in a large bowl, pour about 1/2 the dressing over the lettuce, toss to coat. Add croutons, parmesan, toss and add more dressing if desired. Makes about 4 side-salad portions.

   *Eating raw or undercooked eggs may increase your risk of food borne illness.

   Whew, that's a lot of work for salad dressing for the Caesar, but worth doing a time or two just to say you did it old school.  You can go the hillbilly route and use Lighthouse Caesar Caesar salad dressing.  Leftover grilled chicken, shrimp or salmon turns it into an entree that's assembled quickly if you go all hillbilly over the dressing like we do.

   Belated wishes for a Happy National Caesar Salad Day (July 4), and I hope you celebrated National Salad Month all May. If not, we'll just continue the party through the rest of summer. SALAD!

   

   

Fruitfully yours,

KARIN

My salad days/when I was green in judgment---William Shakespeare, from Antony & Cleopatra, 1606