Embotits de Nadal/Baby Romaine Salad

Dear Devon,

Happy December 25th! I am picturing you standing next to a Douglass fir decorated with glistening ornaments and holding a warm mug of eggnog. Most likely, you are busy organizing your Christmas feast. Tell me what’s on the menu! Does it involve roasted goose baked in puff pastry, coquille St. Jacques, or tarte tatin? My Christmas preparations will be decidedly less involved and downright low-key. Though miles away from friends and family, I am not without holiday spirit. Barcelona greeted me this morning awash in warm golden light. The damp air of stormy days earlier this week has vanished. After a quick lunch of embotit de Nadal, a local Christmas treat, I plan to lace up my sneakers for a long stroll through the old city.

I have committed the butcher’s case of cured hams, fresh botifarras, cheeses, and pork loins to memory. When something new appears, I ask questions. I am gradually developing a relationship with the energetic ladies behind the counter. Patient, high spirited, and not the least bit squeamish, these ladies have schooled me in everything from chicharrones to the difference between chops and ribs (in Spanish, of course). So it was with equal enthusiasm that the secrets of embotits de Nadal were explained.

Embotit de Nadal is a Christmas terrine, similar in shape, texture, and appearance to a French jambon persillé, only without the parsley. A jellied meat made from ham hocks and shanks, embotit de Nadal is boiled in rectangular loaf pans and cut into quarter inch slices. Hardboiled eggs, pistachios, and black olives are embedded in the loaf, which is also liberally seasoned with salt and black pepper. I bought six slices at a whopping 10 Euros. Instead of Christmas goose, I will feast on Christmas cold cuts.

Though the lady behind the counter gave me some idea of how to enjoy embotits de Nadal, I was still a bit apprehensive. I relied on past lunches in France for guidance, where jambon persillé was often paired with a fresh green salad, pickled pearl onions, and gerkins. The meat has a wonderful texture, not at all rubbery, but soft and supple. The pistachios and olives add a nice combination of salt and fruit. I prepared this Christmas treat with a big fresh salad of baby Romaine lettuce and prunes. The salad was dressed with a light infusion of egg yolk, mustard, and olive oil, and flavored with raw onions and crushed garlic. The salad highlighted the sweet meat of the embotits de Nadal with its crisp and light blend of tender Romaine, rich dressing, and wine-like prunes.

Like most Catalan food, the embotit de Nadal probably has humble roots, originating in peasant celebrations of the Christmas feast with the enthusiastic slaughter of a communal pig. After the choicest parts were tended to, the less tender or desirable cuts of meat were incorporated into a multitude of dishes. Catalan cuisine uses every part of the animal: It is an amazingly economical cuisine. This simple boiled meat is made luxurious with the addition of highly perishable ingredients: eggs, pistachios, and olives. Unlike the silky cured jamon, the shelf-life probably hovers at around a week, if you can keep your hands off it.

In the United States, jellied meat conjures images of over-salted meat sliding from a can. It is a shame that we did not develop the broad range of offerings found in European charcuteries. I am eager to see if a new generation of butchers will change this tradition.

As of now, I am happy to buy embotit de Nadal at the market. Recipes exist but I am neither brave enough nor have a pot large enough to attempt such a gastronomic feat. I leave you with a simple recipe for my delicious baby Romaine lettuce salad. It doesn’t have to be paired with a grandiose entrée. It can be enjoyed from its serving bowl in front of the television.


Baby Romaine Lettuce Salad
(serves 4)

1 ½ heads of baby romaine lettuce
½ lemon, juiced
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1/3 cup finely diced red onion
2 tsp mustard
2 tsp honey
1 egg, hardboiled
¾ cup olive oil
3 prunes

Place diced onion and crushed garlic into salad bowl. Add lemon juice and allow to rest for about 10 minutes. Macerating the garlic and onion in acid will take some of the raw out. Mix in honey and mustard. Slice egg in half and remove the yolk. Using the back of a fork, crush the yolk into the onion-mustard mixture until you form a rough paste. Whisk in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Test for acidity and add more oil as needed.

Slice baby romaine lettuce in half lengthwise. Remove the core and slice in half again. Cut into rough chunks. Roughly chop egg white and prunes. Add lettuce, egg white and prunes to the dressing and toss.

Kale and Avocado Salad

Dear Devon,

Ever since trying kale and avocado salad at the uptown Whole Foods, I've been obsessed with this salad. I immediately bought the requisite ingredients, and began tinkering in the kitchen. My first two attempts were good, but I knew I could improve it. Two weeks later, I have what I think is a pretty darn good salad. Since the salad consists of only a few ingredients with minimal seasoning, fresh, high-quality vegetables are a must. Try to pick kale and avocados at the peak of ripeness. Avoid wilted leaves, limp stalks, and bruised fruits. Limp greens are not appetizing.


Some diners might object to the coarse and chewy texture of raw kale. I find that once you get over the sense that you are a horse chewing on straw, it's not so bad. To avoid this unsavory texture, allow the kale to marinate in the dressing for about 20 minutes before serving. The citrus juices will break down the tough fibers of the kale, softening the leaves. Stalks with smaller leaves yield a tenderer bite. The nutritional benefits of kale are numerous, running the gamut from lowering your risk for certain types of cancer to preventing rheumatoid arthritis or cataract disease. These health benefits are pretty convincing, but in the end, I eat kale mainly because I love the taste.

Blood oranges are a recent, happy discovery. I have eaten them before, but only in Europe. I don't often see them here in the States, so when I saw some plump blood oranges at the market, I grabbed them. Unfortunately, I don't think the season for blood oranges is quite here. The oranges brightened the flavors and freshened the salad significantly, but they weren't as juicy as they will probably be later in the summer. Nonetheless, I would still advise using some sort of citrus fruit, whether it be pink grapefruit, tangerine, or orange. The citrus brings nice color to the plate and when mixed with a lime juice based dressing, produces an unusual flavor, light with a sweet tang.

I like to segment my oranges directly over the salad bowl so that I can collect all the precious juice. After removing all the segments, I give the pulpy membranes a hearty squeeze, to extract every last drop. On top of the fresh juice, a squeeze of lime, olive oil, sesame oil, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Kale and avocado are added directly to the serving bowl and gently tossed. Be careful not to bruise the avocado. While the dressing sets, I cut up some bread and pass out napkins. Allowing the salad to rest is important. It helps break down the leaves while also encourages the avocado to melt into the dressing. The end result is a subtle citrus-avocado infused dressing, studded with vibrant red-orange fruit, dark green kale, and chunky avocado bits. When I look at my salad, I think that summer must be calling.

Kale and Avocado Salad
serves 2

4 stalks fresh kale
1 avocado
1 blood red orange
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
juice of 1/2 lime
large pinch of salt

Segment one blood orange over your serving bowl. To segment, remove the top and bottom of the orange. With the orange sitting upright on its cut end, run the edge of the knife down the length of the orange to remove the rind and white pith. Holding the orange in the palm of your hand, run the edge of your knife in between the white membranes. What should emerge is a clean orange slice, free of any white pith or rind. Give the resulting membranes a hard squeeze. Add the juice of half a lime. Whisk in sesame oil, olive oil, and a large pinch of salt and pepper.

Thoroughly wash kale leaves. Sometimes dirt and mud cling to the leaves and stalks. Don't want that in your salad. Remove the leaves from the stalks and cut into 1 1/2 inch wide strips. Cube avocado. Add the kale, cubed avocado, and segmented oranges into the serving bowl. Gently toss with a large wooden spoon. Set aside for 20 minutes before serving.

Beet and Fennel Salad with Lime and Cilantro

Dearest Michelle,

It's been a rough week. I've had some short deadlines on retouching work, and I had a few misses in the kitchen, plus, even worse, an undocumented success!

The biggest confidence crusher was the ramen. I decided I wanted to make Korean ramen soup from scratch (except for the noodles; I'm not insane). The whole doomed idea started with two beautiful pieces of beef shank, and then cold weather always makes me crave Korean food. It's the best non-dairy comfort food around, as far as I'm concerned.

So I picked up some noodles that looked like ramen at the giant Asian grocery store in Chinatown (an aisle of just noodles! It's amazing), grabbed some mushrooms, veggies, and Korean hot chili paste, and prepared to make my fiance's heart swell with pride. Looks like it would be good, right?





There's no after photo for a reason. It was ok, and I managed to alter the final product to create some satisfactory lunches, but it was more of a using up than a tucking in. Pretty blah, and muddy tasting. I'll conquer it someday.


Sunday I decided to make a Mexican-spices roast chicken to go with the rest of the chimichurri. It was good; the chicken was juicy (it's a never-fail recipe, but I'll write it out in the original form someday), but not overwhelmingly flavored with the spices. It was great with the chimichurri and smashed roasted potatoes, but nothing new or exciting enough to write about.


And then, finally, I found inspiration in the vegetable store. I had a migraine, and I was craving vegetables and vinegar, something clean and fresh. Now, I love beets, and they now show up in our meals on a regular basis. I get this from my grandmother, who will eat them right out of a can. I didn't even know I liked beets until a few years ago; my father hates them, and denigrated the undeserving roots (along with tuna casserole) so much in my childhood that I thought them not worth any attention. Oh, boy was I wrong. They are sweet and tender, and go so well with vinegar. Plus, you know how I love anything with an intense color. Sometimes I mix the leftovers with egg salad; the pickled flavor goes so well with it, and who doesn't like magenta lunch food? (turns out a lot of people think it's very strange, actually)



Here, I took boiled and marinated beets and tossed them with bright, crisp fennel that had been sitting in a little lime juice to mellow it. I'm not a big fan of cooked fennel, but I love it thinly sliced in salads, especially in the winter for some reason. I had limes on hand, so I thought I'd substitute that citrus for the traditional orange that fennel goes so well with. The whole dish is rounded out by a sprinkling of pungent cilantro. It was exactly what I wanted. I just ate the leftovers for lunch with a thick slice of buttered toast, and it was amazing.




Fennel and Beet Salad

1 bunch beets (look for beets with greens attached. These are an indication of freshness, and can be prepared like kale or chard. Leave 2 inches of stem on the beet when trimming leaves off, and don't trim the root)
1 large bulb of fennel, shoots trimmed off
2 small limes, 1 zested
vinegar ( I used orange-muscat-champagne vinegar from Trader Joe's that I am partial to. White wine vinegar would be good as well)
cilantro
olive oil
Dijon mustard
kitchen gloves

Trim and wash beets, then boil till tender when pierced with a knife, about 20-30 minutes. While they cool a bit, make the vinaigrette: squeeze half a lime into a bowl, and add about a 1/2 t mustard, a pinch of salt, the zest, and about 5 T vinegar. Blend, then slowly whisk in about the same amount of olive oil. I tend to like my vinaigrette tart, so keep tasting and use more or less oil as desired, but remember that the beets are naturally sweet. Add juice of the other half a lime if it needs more.
Use the kitchen gloves to rub the beet skins and stems off under running water. I love this part; the skins just slip right off, and everything in your sink turns magenta. Keep gloves on (or your hands will also turn magenta), and slice beets in half, then into half-moons, and add to vinaigrette. Let sit at least an hour, tossing occasionally.
Thinly slice fennel, and let sit in juice of half a lime and a few T of vinegar for a few minutes. Add beets, toss. Sprinkle with a small handful of cilantro leaves; how many depends on final amount of beets and fennel. The flavor should be just noticeable, not overwhelming.

Arugula and Cantaloupe Salad

Dear Devon,

Thanks for having us over the other night. Dinner was amazing! I must confess, I am a bit nervous about cooking with bacon fat. Perhaps I will have a change of heart, but until then, I'm passing along this easy recipe for a delicious arugula salad. It's always good to balance your diet. And as my petite frame can't bear an extra ten pounds, I've decided to skip the train transfer at Times Square and instead walk the seven avenue blocks to and from the train daily rather than skip out on all the great food. True, walking two miles a day is not a substitute for real aerobic exercise, but I figure it won't hurt. Now, the only real issue is the impending cold weather.

Arugula salad is one of my favorites. But, strangely, I don't like the taste of arugula. By itself, I find it overwhelming- too peppery and acidic. How then, you ask, can I say that arugula salad is one of my favorites? Somehow, combined with any number of ingredients, both mundane and exotic, the aggressive flavor of arugula is tamed. The possibilities are endless. Some of my favorite salads with arugula include:

a) tomato, egg, and dried cranberry
b) bacon, hazelnuts, steamed asparagus
c) roasted chicken, figs, and goat cheese.

Lightly dressed with a sprinkling of lemon juice and good drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of salt and optional pepper, arugula salad makes a great first course or a healthy lunch.


In this easy and elegant salad, I include conventional salad ingredients like toasted walnuts and goat cheese, and use diced cantaloupe to liven up the salad. Papaya is also a nice substitute and is actually my first choice. In the throws of fall, this delectable summer fruit is no longer available, or at least not to the budget-minded. Both fruits bring an unusual freshness and lightness to the spicy arugula, buttery walnuts, and tangy cheese. Serving salads mixed with fruit is one of my recent happy discoveries. In fact, I'm surprised it isn't more common, given how tasty it can be.

Picking a melon can be difficult, but I have a few tricks. I look at the veining on the skin: veins should be of an even thickness throughout the melon; the color should be light tan throughout. Check the stem: most melons arrive at supermarkets with their stems removed. Gently press the indentation where the stem used to be. It should be firm but have a bit of give. Finally, the fruit should feel heavy for its size. That's how I choose a sweet and ripe melon.


My dressing of choice is usually a simple lemon juice and olive oil dressing. But for this salad, I decided something a bit more complex would be nice. I chose a balsamic vinegar, whisking in a touch of honey to smooth out the rough edge of vinegar. In general, I don't believe in buying salad dressings- you only need a few ingredients on hand to make a great dressing. It doesn't make sense to use the store-bought stuff.


Arugula and Cantaloupe Salad

2 generous handfuls of arugula, washed and dried
1/3 cup diced cantaloupe
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted
2 tbsp goat cheese
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp honey
3 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Wash your arugula, blotting dry in between layers of paper towels. Use a salad spinner for quicker results. Wash the outside of the melon and slice in half. Remove the seeds and slice into what my sister calls "smiles." Remove the orange flesh, cutting away just where the flesh turns green. Dice the cleaned melon into one inch chunks. Place the walnuts onto a sheet pan and toast in the oven at 350 degrees until fragrant and light golden brown, about 7 minutes. Allow the toasted walnuts to cool before roughly chopping.

In a large bowl, toss together cleaned arugula, chopped cantaloupe, and toasted walnuts. Crumble in goat cheese. Whisk together balsamic vinegar, olive oil and honey. Drizzle over salad and toss. Liberally salt and pepper.

The proportions are general suggestions. Build the salad according to your personal taste. If you like a lot of cheese, add more. Don't like walnuts? Use pecans or pumpkin seeds.

Soon,
Michelle