U.S. the home of innovative salads

Press, 25 February 1984, Page 12

U.S. the home of innovative salads

Food & Fable

by

David Burton

Unlike other European cuisines bound by conventions dictating what flavour must accompany what, American cookery has produced some very novel, even startling mixtures of ingredients. Admittedly, some of their more drastic sweet-savoury combinations seem garish and discordant by our standards, but in the area of salad-making this characteristic American thirst for novelty has paid off. There is a boldness about some of their salads which can only be tasted to be believed. True, in American cookbooks there are listed innumerable formulas too dreadful to be repeated here, but on the other hand certain American salads have received an honour accorded very few international dishes — adoption into the classic French cuisine.

Thus we find a special section on “Salades Americaine" in Gringoire and Saulnier’s “Repertoire de la Cuisine,” a book which contains abbreviations of some 7000 classic French recipes yet, as every bumbling chef knows, is small enough to hide in your back pocket and consult when the boss is not looking. Obviously the hot climate of areas like California, Texas and the southern states encouraged the American salad habit, but an equally important influence was the huge variety of fruits and vegetables available.

Some of these, such as green peppers, sweet corn, okra, avocados, and Jerusalem artichokes, were virtually unknown outside the Americas until this century.

American salads are rarely simple. Most are what the French would call salades composees — composed salads — and many are a mixture of sweet and sour ingredients. Some were brought by the minority groups — coleslaw, for instance, with the Pennsylvania Dutch in the eighteenth century, and potato salad by the Mennonite Germans.

It was not until the late nineteenth century that greens, with or without other ingredients, became the most common form of salad, and only early this century that the characteristically elaborate salads began to be invented, incorporating fruits, nuts and cheeses. About this time, too, the jellied salad mould, also an American innovation, began to appear.

In the south such concoctions are known as “congealed salads” and are still widely eaten where elsewhere they have gone out of fashion. One of the most celebrated of these is Kentucky Salad — cubes of cucumber and pineapple set in gelatine and flavoured with pineapple juice, lemon juice, sugar and a little salt. Probably the most famous of all American salads is the Waldorf — diced unpeeled apple, diced cel-

ery, chopped walnuts, mayonnaise. Surprisingly, the walnuts are a later addition, although a recipe from the salad’s original home, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue in New York, does list them. The correct proportions, the hotel says, are four parts apple, two of celery, to one of mayonnaise, mixed togeher and served in a salad bowl topped with chopped walnuts and surrounded with a border of lettuce leaves.

Only slightly less celebrated is Casesar Salad. For this you will need a tall cylindrical Cos lettuce, rarely seen in this country (a friend who owns the select “144” restaurant in Nelson told me he was growing them especially for

Casesar Salads). A Chinese lettuce can be safely substituted, however, for if it is not the same thing it is certainly closely related. Wash and dry the leaves, and refrigerate while you cut several slices of white bread into cubes and fry until crisp in hot oil flavoured with a crushed clove of garlic. Drain on paper towels.

Now plunge an egg into boiling water and leave for only 10 seconds (if near-raw eggs tend to turn your stomach you can cook them longer, but never leave for more than a minute). In posh restaurants the salad is assembled at the table by the head waiter, who ceremoniously breaks the egg over the lettuce leaves and fried croutons,

and tosses the salad with added olive oil. lemon juice, salt and pepper, and a good half cup of grated Parmesan cheese. Optional extras are fillets of anchovies and Worcestershire sauce.

While stories abound as to the origin of Caesar Salad, only one man, Alex Cardini, is prepared to bet 510,000 and a good bowl of Caesar Salad that he is its creator.

Born in Italy in 1899, and apprenticed to a restaurant kitchen at the age of 10. Cardini went to Tijuana. Mexico, after World War I to join his brother Caesar who owned a restaurant there. In 1927, Alex says, he invented what was originally called Aviator’s Salad, named in honour of fliers at the nearby Rockwell Field, San Diego, California. Later, it came to be called Caesar Salad because of its association with the restaurant. Then there is Chef’s Salad (a combination of romaine, cos, chicory and escarole salad greens, quartered tomatoes, and thin strips of cooked ham, tongue and Gruyere cheese, served with French dressing); Bismarck Salad (shredded lettuce and celery, grated carrot, a thinly sliced Bismarck herring or rollmop, tossed with French dressing and chilli sauce); Three-bean Salad;

and a whole host of chicken and shellfish concoctions, the most famous of which would probably be Crab Louis. This originated in San Francisco and Portland about the same time and consists of a ring of finely chopped hard-boiled egg surrounding a mound of crabmeat on a bed of shredded lettuce. It is decorated either with olives or slices of egg and chopped chives.

There are many, many versions of the special Louis dressing which goes over it, although most seem to agree it should have a basis of mayonnaise to which is added' whipped cream, plenty of chilli sauce, and grated onion; extra ingredients include tomato sauce (ketchup), chopped chives, chopped olives, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and horseradish.

Sometimes Crab Louis is accompanied by Thousand Island Dressing, another great American invention. Although its original recipe has been forgotten, it might have gone something like this:

1 cup mayonnaise, % cup chilli sauce, 1 tb grated onion, and 2 tbs chopped green pepper. Optional extras include Vz tsp Worcestershire sauce, chopped

chives and chopped hardboiled eggs.

Lastly, there is Green Goddess dressing, a superb creation from the famous ornate Palace Hotel in San Francisco, and named after a long-running play in the 19205, starring George Arliss. the great English actor. Green Goddess Dressing: You can easily halve this recipe, but it keeps well under refrigeration. 3 cups mayonnaise 2 tbs tarragon vinegar 1 spring onion, finely chopped 8 to 10 fillets of anchovy, finely chopped 4 tb chopped parsley 1 tb fresh tarragon, chopped (or 1 tsp dried, crumbled tarragon) 2 tbs chopped chives 1 clove garlic, crushed (optiona) Combine all ingredients, mix well, and allow flavours to mellow for at least an hour before using. This is a very versatile dressing which can be used for many salads, ranging from a simple lettuce salad to a seafood or fish salad. It can also be mixed with shrimps as a stuffing for globe artichokes.