SUMMER WINE AND FOOD Salads
Hold the mayo
Jennifer Paterson
Then there is the terrible question of trying to get a plain, well-dressed salad, almost impossible; along comes a limp lettuce with beetroot bleeding all over it liberally laced with malt vinegar and strewn with the ubiquitous mustard and cress we used to grow on flannels, and some chunks of tomato thrown in for good measure — disastrous mess. Salads should remain simple and green when lettuce is used. There are of course hundreds of different salads and, now that summer has actually deigned to make an appearance, here are a few to try out. First of all make a good dressing. Every- one has their own ideas on this most important of additions, this is mine. Get a jam jar with a well fitting top. Bruise a skinned clove of garlic, put it in the jar. Add a heaped teaspoon of salt, castor sugar, dry mustard and made up Dijon mustard, moisten with a desert spoon of lemon juice and one of red wine vinegar. A tablespoon of sherry or port makes a good flavour if you have some lying around. Grind some black pepper into the jar then stir it all together. Pour good olive oil into the mixture up to the shoulder of the jar, screw the top on, shake vigorously every time you need it. See what you think of it then add or deplete to you own taste. Most folk seem to like it.
Potato salad made from the new Jersey potatoes is one of the great dishes of the world, I think, but not that horrible stuff bought in delicatessens covered in white slime. Simply boil the potatoes in their skins. Have ready a bowl with enough dressing to anoint the amount of potatoes you have cooked. Peel the potatoes while still hot, plopping them into the dressing to coat thoroughly as soon as possible. If you want to cut them, wait until they cool or they tend to crumble. Now the all- important part; have a great bunch of parsley, chives and tarragon chopped fine, slice enough spring onions to suit your fancy (my fancy is a lot but I realise they do not suit everyone), mix carefully with the potatoes, add more oil if necessary, grind more pepper over the top and serve at will. It should have enough herbs to appear quite green.
Broad beans, young, tender and delect- able are my favourite vegetable of all. Served with butter and chopped parsley they beat asparagus but they also make a heavenly salad. Boil the beans in salted water until just tender. Crush a garlic clove or two in the bottom of a bowl, add ten anchovy fillets chopped roughly. Drain the beans, mix with the anchovy mess, pour enough olive oil to dress the beans liberal- ly, a good squeeze of lemon juice, ground black pepper and sprinkle with chopped parsley. This amount of anchovies would do for about two pounds of beans.
A good rice salad is a useful adjunct, very suitable for cold chicken dishes, but it must be well dressed and interesting. My heart always sinks at the sight of cold boiled rice mixed with sweet corn and maybe strips of raw unskinned red pepper (for the colour you know); that's it, no flavouring, no herbs, no use. Why corn anyway? Corn needs butter. This a goodly mixture: have ready a peeled, de-seeded, cubed cucumber slightly salted, four very thinly sliced shallots, 18 stoned black olives, three sticks of celery chopped and some sliced tomatoes salted and peppered. Boil 12 oz of the rice of your choice in lots of salted boiling water with half a lemon in it. (Keep it a/ dente.) When ready, drain the rice well, place in a large bowl, salt, season and toss with about six tablespoons of olive oil, a dessert spoon of white wine vinegar, the chopped shallots and a lot of freshly grated nutmeg. Stir in all the prepared vegetables except the tomatoes, lie these on top of the rice like a blanket and stew with chopped parsley and torn basil leaves.
Finally a rather curious mushroom salad which I once concocted in despair for someone's birthday buffet. Slice a pound of buttom mushrooms very finely, this is done in a trice with a food processor, otherwise use a good sharp knife and patience, but they must be fine. Make a mixture of ten tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of a lemon, two tablespoons of soy sauce, four crushed cloves of garlic and a few shots of tabasco. Marinade the mushrooms in this sauce for an hour or so then add six oz of thick cream, ground salt and pepper. Make a bed of bean sprouts on a suitable dish, then pour the mushrooms into it. Strew with a generous amount of parsley and coriander chopped well. Endless vegetables like spinach, French beans etc, make delicious salads simply dressed with good olive oil and lemon juice, the one thing to beware of is too much vinegar. It's a killer.
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