7 Simple Salads: Salads 2 - 7

To recap, despite my disdain for Mark Bittman, I was intrigued by his recent NYT article, 101 Simple Salads for the Season. So I decided to spend a week trying out a new salad each day, starting with number 2, tomatoes and peaches with cilantro. My recent quality time with Bittman has been more fruitful than I expected. The nice thing about these salad recipes is how flexible they are and once you acquire a bunch of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs and accessories, you can start making up your own dishes and playing with what he's suggested. Of all the ones I've tried so far, I think the first one remains my favorite.
















Number 14. Thinly slice carrots, or grate or shred them (the food processor makes quick work of this). Toss with toasted cumin seeds, olive oil, lemon juice and cilantro. Raisins are good in here too. There is no better use of raw carrots.

Lemon juice and cumin are a delicious combination. I could just drink this dressing straight. I bet that marinating the carrots in the dressing for 15 minutes or so would be nice.
















48. Toss roughly chopped dandelion greens (or arugula or watercress) with chopped preserved lemon, chickpeas, crumbled feta and olive oil. (Before you start cursing me out, here’s a quick way to make preserved lemons: chop whole lemons and put in a bowl with the juice of another lemon or two, sprinkle with a fair amount of salt and let sit for an hour or so.)

The preserved lemon trick didn't work out as well as Bittman promised, though maybe I could have chopped the lemons up smaller.
















39. Yucatecan street food as salad: Roast fresh corn kernels in a pan with a little oil; toss with cayenne or minced chilis, lime juice and a little queso fresco. Cherry tomatoes are optional.

This doesn't look particularly great, but it was tasty. The tart lime was nicely paired with the sweet corn. Though it wasn't as substantial as some of the other salads and would have been better as a side dish rather than a meal.















18. Roughly chop cooked or canned chickpeas (you can pulse them, carefully, in a food processor) and toss with olive oil, lemon juice, lots of chopped fresh parsley and mint, and a few chopped tomatoes. Call this chickpea tabbouleh.

This ended up being a nice variation on no. 48 above. I used the remaining preserved lemons and added feta. No tomatoes on hand though.















30. Fast, grown-up potato salad: Boil bite-size red potatoes. While still warm, dress them with olive oil, lemon juice, whole grain mustard, capers and parsley. Chopped shallots, bell peppers, etc., all welcome, too.

I mixed together a dollop of Dijon with another dollop of mayo. Spicy, creamy and tangy. The warm potatoes are key.













So this isn't a salad exactly, but rather a roasted poblano pepper stuffed with cheesy rice and topped with a black bean salad and additional queso fresco. Full recipe forthcoming but it was definitely inspired by my fridge full of cilantro, mint and cheese.

Seven Simple Salads for the Week

Loyal readers of kitchenplay know I dislike Mark Bittman. It’s less about his recipes, and more about his attitude, specifically the attitude displayed towards me and my question during a book talk at the Philly Free Library a few months ago. I won’t go into details, but you can read about my unpleasant encounter at Bite Me Bittman. My friends now get a kick out of secretly cooking with Bittman recipes, waiting till I pronounce my fondness for the dish and then revealing the “man behind the curtain.” I can like the man’s food; I just don’t like him.

That said, his latest feature in the Times caught my eye: 101 Simple Salads for the Season. I cook very little over the summer, disliking the heat my kitchen produces and the lack of central air to combat it. I often get stuck in a rut of Lean Cuisines, peanut butter off a spoon or ice cream for dinner. So his collection of innovative salad recipes has inspired me. Starting today, for the following week, Thursday to Wednesday, I am going to make a Bittman-approved salad each day.

I hit up Reading Terminal for some of the ingredients that ran through many of the recipes I'm interested in: tomatoes, peaches, cilantro, red onion, mint, arugula, celery, carrots, corn, lemons and limes. I'll likely need to make an Italian Market run over the weekend to supplement.

First up? Number 2: "Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice. Astonishing."*

This salad was, in the words of my brother, "bangin'." Peaches and herbs (no, I'm really not trying to be funny, I swear.), are my new favorite duo. I recently made a basil peach jam and the cilantro peach combination in the salad tickled my tongue. In fact, I think the same salad could be really good with basil in place of the cilantro, but try it with the cilantro first. I went for a healthy dose of lime juice which also went nicely with the cilantro (unsurprisingly) and peaches (more surprising).

And the kitchenplayer in me does appreciate how Bittman doesn't specify quantities; it's all about proportions that you think will work, that you'll enjoy.

Ok Bittman, in this imaginary little fight of ours, you're starting to redeem yourself. Let's see what else you got.

*Salt is meant to be included in all the recipes though it isn't specified. I used a nice sea salt.

Bite Me, Bittman

So tonight was Mark Bittman's talk at the Philly Free Library. Bittman is known primarily for his work as The Minimalist in the New York Times and for his mammoth cookbook, How to Cook Everything. I had heard good things about his new book, Food Matters, and how it was a practical application of Michael Pollan's writing on food. In fact, buying his new book was one of the things on my 2009 Food-to-Do list.

I had set up an event for kitchenplay members on Facebook and ended up going with Daniel and Eleanor. The talk portion was great. He was funny, engaging, and committed to his topic. Basically, eat fewer animal products and processed food; eat more vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, and whole grains. I was feeling good about the whole endeavor and looking forward to coming home, sharing the Bittman gospel and my latest recipe for Kale and Chickpeas on kitchenplay.

Then the Q & A happened.

Something I've been thinking about lately is what needs to happen for healthy eating to become a part of the mainstream American diet. I get an adrenaline rush when I think about processed food plants going out of business... industrial slaughterhouses closing up shop... kids growing up on wholesome fruits and not Little Debbies. But then I start to think about the economic consequences of that... specifically, job loss. These plants employ millions of workers, workers with families, in towns that are often built around a particular factory or industry. They work these shitty jobs because that's what is available. And for some politicians, their primary responsibility is to keeping these people, their constituents, employed. These politicians are also the ones who could be making progressive policy decisions towards how farms and businesses get funded, people who could have a critical influence on how our nation thinks about food and its production.

In the 30 seconds I had to ask my question, I must not have presented myself well. I didn't preface it with, "I'm a huge fan, Mr. Bittman, but here is something else I've been wondering about..." And I didn't confirm my adherence to what he was saying.* And perhaps I didn't phrase my question as well as I could have. (Q & A's make me nervous!) Because somewhere between me opening my mouth and him opening his in response, I pissed him off- NOT my intention. I just wanted to know what he thinks will/should happen to the millions of workers in these unhealthy food industries if the "food revolution" -as he called it- succeeds.

He proceeded to call my concern irrelevant. He asked me if I wanted the troops back from Iraq. When I replied in the affirmative, he asked what should happen to the 100,000 jobs that would be lost as a result. His voice raised, he proceeded to decry the jobs and welfare of those people "poisoning" us by making food that is bad for us. He even suggested they should start looking for new jobs now. Right... cause there are sooooo many jobs out there currently.

I guess it's easy to be indifferent about people's livelihoods when you have a sweet deal at the New York Times.

It was a big question. I get that. I also get that I didn't explain it as thoroughly as I could have. I thought about not bringing it up at all. But I also saw an opportunity to get the opinion of a well-respected food writer, one who, however reluctantly, is a member of the "Food Movement," a movement that concerns itself with issues of economics and policy in the way we eat. What I learned from him tonight was... blue-collar people don't really matter. Eat your veggies.

If any of you were there at the talk, I would be interested in hearing your interpretation of events or opinion of the "exchange." Or, if anyone has any thoughts about my quandary, please share. I don't know what the answer is. I think it involves responsibility for others as well as ourselves, supply and demand, creating a new American food industry, politicians, lobbyists and maybe a really awesome mascot- not necessarily in that order.

And yes, it involves eating your veggies too.




* Though if you look at the recipes on kitchenplay, most of which I make up myself, the majority are built around fresh vegetables and legumes.