Arugula, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Salad with Duck Confit

A rich salad, but one that takes some work because you'll have to make the duck confit (recipe to follow) yourself if you want to get the full richness of the dressing.

For the salad:
1 bunch arugula
1/2 head of frisee
1 1/2 C toasted walnuts, chopped
4 legs of duck confit
2 C dried cranberries or dried cherries
1 1/2 C crumbled blue cheese

Dressing:
2/3 C olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
2 T sherry vinegar
1 1/2 T Dijon mustard
2 T shallot, chopped
2-3 T of confit fat*
3 T of confit jelly*
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 t liquid lecithin (optional, but it emulsifies the dressing well)


Preheat your oven to 425 F, then warm up the duck legs for ~12 minutes.  Cool slightly, then separate the skin before shredding the duck.  Crisp up the skin in a skillet as you would bacon.

Microwave the confit fat and jelly to liquify, then combine with the other dressing ingredients in a blender, and pulse to combine.  Check for seasoning; if you omit the confit fat and jelly you'll probably need to add a fair amount of salt.  Adding lecithin ensures that your dressing doesn't break as easily and makes it thicker and creamier; liquid lecithin can be found relatively cheaply in most health food stores.

Shred the arugula and frisee, then add the walnuts, blue cheese, and cranberries; top the salad with crumbles of crispy duck skin.

*Note: these are things that you can only get by making the confit yourself; after curing I confit my duck legs in a mixture of bacon grease and either lard or duck fat.  When you get done with the confit you can separate out the fat from the liquid that comes out of the meat while being cooked.  The liquid that comes out develops a LOT of flavor and gets a lot of gelatin from long slow cooking (it will set up like jello in the fridge making it easy to separate the fat and liquid).  Both the fat and the jelly bring a lot of flavor and salt, so if you don't have these your dressing will be flatter and need more seasoning; it also won't have the same body, even with the lecithin.

Italian Dressing Mix

An herb blend for making your own Italian dressing.

1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
1 T sugar
2 T oregano
~1 t ground black pepper
1/4 t thyme
1 t basil
2 T salt

Mix these ingredients together, then to make the vinaigrette combine 2 T of the herb mix with 2/3 C of oil, 1/4 C of vinegar and 2 T of water.  As a base I use olive oil and white vinegar, but you can mix it up; as a suggestion I'd try walnut oil and sherry vinegar.  If you use a lower acidity vinegar substitute out some or all of the 2 T of water for additional vinegar.  If you want to stabilize the dressing add ~1/2 t of xanthan gum (1/2 t isn't quite enough, 3/4 t is too much).

Caesar Salad

The salad itself for this is nothing special, just shredded romaine lettuce (two heads works well for this much dressing), grated romano or parmesan cheese, and croutons (preferably homemade, I may post a recipe for those at some point, but it's not hard to figure out how to make them), but the dressing is something special and requires a little work.

4 anchovies, minced and crushed with the flat of the knife
the juice of half a lemon
1 T minced and crushed garlic
1 t worchestershire sauce
1 t dijon mustard
1 egg yolk

Beat these ingredients together in a large bowl, then start to slow drizzle in olive oil, forming an emulsion.  You'll have to add it very slowly at first, then you can add a little more in.  Beat the oil in until the sauce is smooth, thickened, and creamy.  Taste it for both balance of flavor and salt (if it's still aggressively fishy you probably need more oil).

Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam)

A simple and healthy Thai salad.

Salad:
1 3-lb green papaya
12 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
2/3 C roasted peanuts, coarsely ground
2/3 C small dried shrimp

Dressing:
10 T fresh lime juice
6 T palm sugar (or light brown sugar)
6 T fish sauce (this will vary some depending on how salty your fish sauce is)
8 cloves garlic, crushed or very finely minced
Thai chiles to taste, finely chopped

At least half an hour before making the salad combine the dressing ingredients to allow the sugar to dissolve and the flavors to blend.

Peel the papaya then shred it (this is most easily done using a julienne peeler); the resulting shreds should then be lightly bruised.  You can do this with a mortar and pestle, or by laying them out and giving them a few hits with a rolling pin.  Toss the papaya shreds in a bowl, then lightly bruise the tomatoes and add to the bowl.

Add the dressing and toss to coat, then sprinkle the peanuts and dried shrimp onto each portion as you serve.

Notes: Traditionally this would also include some cut and bruised long beans as well, but I'm not a giant fan of them un-cooked.

Fennel and Radicchio Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts

A boldly flavored salad that goes well as a start to a rich meal.  I dress the salad with this orange gastrique, though I tend to add a little extra vinegar as the radicchio can stand up to it.  The amounts of the ingredients are approximate, and you can play with the ratios.

1 C dried cranberries
1 C walnuts, toasted
1 bunch of watercress, de-stemmed
1 bulb of fennel, thinly shaved
1 head of radicchio, torn

Mix everything, then dress with the gastrique right before serving.

Fennel, Cured Salmon, and Grapefruit Salad

A light salad with some more interesting flavors than your typical lettuce salad.  With curing the salmon and making the gastrique this one can take a little while though.

Ingredients:
Fennel cured salmon, thinly sliced across the grain
Fennel, thinly sliced
Sweet onion, thinly sliced
Arugula
Ruby red grapefruit, in supremes

Orange gastrique:
1 C orange juice
1 C sugar
1/2 C rice vinegar, plus some to taste

Make the gastrique by boiling the three ingredients together until it starts to become syrupy.  Taste and adjust the flavor and consistency by adding more vinegar and/or water if needed.

To assemble the salad, mix the fennel and arugula, along with two or three supemes per person and onion to taste.  Top with four or five slices of the salmon, and drizzle with the gastrique.

Spinach Salad

My dad's recipe for a simple spinach salad with a tangy dressing; I often serve this as a first course with Greek food.  This recipe does make FAR more dressing than you need though, so you might want to halve it and find something to do with the other half of the beaten egg.

Ingredients:
1 bunch baby spinach, cleaned and de-stemmed
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
chopped onion
1/2 c sugar
1 T flour
1 egg, beaten
1/4 c vinegar
1/2 c water
1 c mayo
cooked, crumbled bacon (or pancetta)


Directions
Blend sugar, flour, egg, vinegar, and water together over medium low heat; if you think you managed to scramble the egg a little you'd want to run this through a wire strainer.
Add the mayo and beat to combine; this is the dressing for the salad. It should be rich, creamy, and a little tangy.
Present the rest of the ingredients separately and allow people to combine as they like.
This is a very basic recipe, and I usually add a few options; a little grated kefalotyri or even feta can be nice, as well as some olives. Play with it and see what you like.

Classic Caeser Salad

Ingredients for 2-3 servings of dressing:
Freshly Ground Pepper
4-6 fillets of Anchovies cut up into small bits
1 - 1 1/2 T finely chopped Garlic
1 - 1 1/2 t Lee and Perrin's Worcestershire sauce
1/2 a lemon's juice
1 t Dijon mustard
1 egg yolk, preferably local free-range

Mix all these ingredients together, then add a good olive oil slowly while whisking until you get a creamy consistency. The flavors should not be too sharp... FYI the more oil you put in the dressing, the thicker the consistency gets. Make sure the dressing doesn't get too thick.

For the salad:
Shred romaine lettuce, toss with grated romano and crutons. Serve with dressing on the side, and possibly some anchovy fillets for those who like them.