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Caesar salad recipe
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Ingredients
1 clove garlic
4-6 anchovy fillets
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 egg
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
4 slices bread, cut thin
2 tablespoons butter
2 heads of romaine
Procedure
Mash the garlic in a large wooden salad bowl, rubbing it well around the sides. Let it stand thus for a few minutes, then scrape out and discard the garlic pulp. Put the anchovy fillets and cheese into the bowl and mash them to a smooth paste. Add raw egg to the anchovy-cheese mixture and work smooth. If you are concerned about the quality of your eggs for raw use, you may coddle it by cooking it in fast-boiling water for one minute, just enough to cut the edge of rawness. Blend in the oil and vinegar. Neither salt nor pepper is needed.
Make croutons by buttering the bread on both sides, cubing it small, and browning the croutons in the oven until crisp.
Wash the romaine well, dry and crisp it. Break it into the bowl, sprinkle on the croutons and toss lightly in the dressing until every leaf is coated and the dressing absorbed by the croutons.
Serves 4 to 6.
Recipe source: adapted from House & Garden, June 1956
Photo credit: Michael Newman
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| 2. |
November 2007 Newsletter
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To read the full newsletter online, please see: www.kitchengardeners.org/newsletternovember07.html
Dear Kitchen Gardener,
Here’s a question for you: when a gardener in Geneva or Zurich grows chard is it called "Swiss Swiss chard", “Our chard”, “Swiss© chard ”, or something completely different?
I’ve always wondered about the origins of the name “Swiss chard”. Aside from Brussels sprouts, it’s rare that one region gets top billing for a whole species. What’s interesting is that North Americans seem to be the only ones calling chard Swiss these days. Like a James Bond of the vegetable world, this plant travels under many different identities in other parts of the world including silverbeet (UK and Australia), bietola (Italian), blettes (French) and acelga (Spanish).
As it turns out, Swiss chard is about as native to Switzerland as James Bond too. Botanists have traced its origins back by to Sicily. So, why don’t we call it Italian or Sicilian Chard?
There are multiple explanations depending on who you ask and how deep you are prepared to dig. I recently read a column by a chef who claimed that chard is referred to as Swiss “because of its extensive cultivation in Switzerland”. Hmmm. I’ve been to Switzerland before, a few times in fact, and cannot recall seeing it at all. Verdant valleys with dairy cows, yes. Snow-capped mountains, yes. Endless fields o’ chard, um, no.
Another interesting, though implausible, theory is that chard earned its moniker after a “great flee beetle epidemic” which made it resemble Swiss cheese. If that’s the case, I grow many varieties of Swiss spinach, Swiss radishes and Swiss arugula in my own garden each year. Swiss cabbage is one of my specialties.
The explanation that gets the most attention on the internet attributes the Swissness of chard to a Swiss botanist named Koch who is said to have named the plant first. But try finding information on this famed botanist and you’re almost back where you started. Some sources have Koch living in the 19th century whereas others say the 16th. And you thought Austin Powers was a man of mystery!
So, several inquiries and sentences later, the confusion surrounding chard’s name continues and maybe that’s not a bad thing. It’s often when we think we really know something, or someone for that matter, that we start losing interest.
If you’re lucky to have some chard still growing in your garden (mine got wiped out this past week by two consequentive nights of 20°F temperatures ), give it a fresh look and try preparing it in a new way. Similarly, if you’ve got an alternative theory on its name or some better information on our Mystery Man Koch, send it my way. Inquiring minds want to know.
Happy harvests and harvest feasts,
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| 4. |
Vegetables That Cut to the Quick
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By Barbara Damrosch, published Thursday, August 23, 2007 in The Washington Post
As a gardening cook, I always say that flavor is everything, but my evil twin, the lazy cook, knows otherwise. Sometimes I just want vegetables that are easy to slice.
Cooking is all about cutting things up, and a cylindrical variety that yields uniform slices -- quick to do, tidy on the plate -- is what I reach for on a busy day. I'll choose a long, slender beet such as Forono over a round one. I'll grab tapered radishes such as red-and-white D'Avignon, or a daikon, to slice for salad. I might even forgo my favorite Brandywine tomato (delicious but a bit lumpy) in favor of a paste type that makes quick, round disks. I'll skip the flying-saucer-shaped pattypan squash and reach for zucchini. Chop, chop. Pattypans, like round tomatoes, are great for stuffing. But stuff anything on a day when there's 10 for lunch? Not a chance.
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| 5. |
Breakfast Blues?
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I love breakfast foods, and I’ll sometimes prepare them for dinner. But like many on-the-go professionals, I rise early and...
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Everyday Menus: No Cook Recipes
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