meat on my greens

meat on my greens
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

If you’re gonna eat nothing but a salad there oughta be a little meat on those greens.

The first time I encountered salad with meat (well, okay, it was fish) I was traveling in Paris on no money at all. For most of the trip we ate bread and jam, except for one brief moment of terror when we mistook a can of paté for a human-consumptable (come to find out that sometimes, in French, “paté” is “pet food”).

One night we splurged on a prix fixe meal at a place that I vaguely remembered was called something like “Joan d’Arc la Nuit” (or maybe I got that wrong). Twenty-five bucks a head. At the time it was a huge sum.

The salad that came with my meal was adorned with smoked salmon, pickled herring, and two or three other permutations of Northern European preservation methods applied to fish varieties. Whatever it was, it was wonderful. And it convinced me that this was the right way to eat a salad.

Last night I arrived early at a place called Rhapsody to meet litwit for a drink. I missed dinner, so I ordered this little baby while I waited and choka’d a bit (not on the food – with a legal pad. follow the link to figure that out). Arugula, frisee, generous shavings of jicama, and cold slices of duck, topped with a “macerated” kumquat (or so says the menu). Yeah. It was good.

Accompanied by an unremarkable Pinot Noir, but that was my own damn fault. (The waiter recommended it, I suspect, because everyone loves their Pinot since Sideways hit.)

When I’m eating meat on my greens at home I often rustle up a version of Patricia Wells Smoked Haddock and Spinach Salad (from Bistro Cooking, 1989), but I usually wind up swapping in smoked salmon for the haddock (the kind that you buy by the pound from a fish vendor – my preferred digs used to be the Pike Place Market). Or, if the pickings are slim (like they are here in my adopted Chicagoland) I go for a nice smoked trout.

L’Aquitaine’s Smoked Haddock and Spinach Salad
Patricia Wells, Bistro Cooking

2 tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tsp fresh Dijon
1/3 cup peanut oil
2 tbs crème fraiche or heavy cream
salt and cracked black pepper
8 oz new red-potatoes, scrubbed
1 lb of smoked fish (see above)
1 lb tender young spinach, washed and ready to go

Whisk together the lemon juice, salt and mustard. Slowly whisk in the oil and then the cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the potatoes in plenty of salted water, until just tender. Drain, and when cool enough to handle (but still warm) cut into thin slices. Toss slices with a few tablespoons of the dressing.

If you’re using haddock, poach it in a couple cups of milk for about 10 minutes. If you’re running with a nice chunk of smoked salmon or trout don’t bother.

Wells recommends cutting the spinach into a “rustic chiffonade”. Right. In America we just toss it up. So do that, with the dressing that remains, and then top it with the potatoes and the salmon.

Very nice.