Thoughts on Salad

Salad mix sure is pretty, isn’t it? It’s hard to believe that all of that goes into your run-of-the-mill mesclun. Despite all of the work that goes into cultivating salad, it really gets the shaft at restaurants as a filler food, or even just as a platform for better things.

When I was working as a waiter, I absolutely despised salads because tables of people would always order them as their main entrees, dressing on the side. C’mon, guys! Don’t fall for that race to the bottom! I felt like they were stripping salad (and food at large) of its gustatory properties and just using it as an “I’m not fat look at how little I’m eating” food.

However, one thing I would definitely recommend trying is a Greek salad. At the Phoenix Café, you can also get one with grilled chicken on top, which works well too. In this preparation, the salad can really stand on its own. No shame!

The Phoenix Café’s Greek Salad

• A large plate of mesclun lettuce mix
• 1 tbsp crumbled sheep’s milk feta cheese
• 4 kalamata olives
• 4 anchovies
• 4 tomato wedges
• 8 cucumber slices

Assemble ingredients in a manner that is aesthetically pleasing! Dress with your own top-secret-recipe Parmesan vinaigrette (here’s one).

Shrimp, Corn & Black Bean Tostada Salad

This morning, I went rummaging through my fridge and freezer to investigate our ingredient situation as I waited for Natalie to wake up and call me. I felt like a looter in my own house; everything looked so alien and mysterious. When’d we get all of that filet mignon in the freezer? Oh right, I guess sometime during the 6 months I’ve been away from home.

Score! A bag of Trader Joe’s roasted corn! Jalapeños! Limes! A whole bunch of other junk! One trip to the farmer’s market later, I had assembled the makings of a vaguely Mexican salad thing. The trip wasn’t without conflict, though: I spent about three hours there and had to restrain myself from buying all those ramps and fingerling potatoes and preserves and winesap apples (!!!). This is what I do on Saturdays in the city! I throw my money haphazardly at the peasantry to assuage my bourgeois guilt!

Shrimp, Corn & Black Bean Tostada Salad

• Dressing
  • 5 tbsp lime juice
  • 3/4 C olive oil
  • 6 tbsp cilantro
  • 1 1/2 minced jalapeño
  • 1 tbsp cumin
• Salad
  • 3 C chopped tomatoes
  • 1 15-oz can of black beans, rinsed & drained
  • 1 C chopped scallions
  • 3/4 C cilantro
  • 3/4 C red onion
  • 6 C lettuce
  • 1 bag of roasted corn/2 husks worth of corn kernels, grilled
  • 24 shrimp
  • 24 tortilla chips

Whisk together the dressing stuff and put it aside. Microwave the roasted corn as per the directions on the bag, then pour some of the dressing on it. Throw the rest of the dressing on the shrimp, which you should then sauté in a pan until it’s all cooked. Combine all of the salad ingredients (and season to taste with pepper and a touch of salt), and garnish with tortilla chips and cilantro.