Which season do you think is the best for great salads? It’s hard to beat summer, isn’t it, with lots of tender greens and vine-ripened tomatoes?
But let’s not forget December, when winter has clamped down tight and the cold weather has turned the bitter starches in cabbage and chicory family varieties into icy sugar and rendered the chewy, sun-blasted leaves of summer into delicate greens just waiting to be buried in a superb winter salad.
In fact, let’s focus on the chicories. We know we’re supposed to eat more leafy green vegetables for our gut and overall health, and winter chicories tempt us with sweetness, color, nutrition and flavor. So why not take advantage? They’re in our stores now and into March.
Like the cabbage family, the chicories are nutritious. A one-cup serving of any of them provides 14% of your daily vitamin A requirement, 20% of your manganese and 36% of your folate, as well as kaempferol, the antioxidant flavonoid that protects against cancer.
Who’s in this chicory family? Almost all commercial chicories fall into two categories, Chicorium endivia and Chicorium intybus — same genus, two different species. Within each species are several varieties.
Chicorium endivia varieties include the familiar curly endive, also known as frisée, that you used to find on your plate as a garnish when you went to restaurants in those pre-pandemic days. We’ll get back there yet and find frisée waiting for us in all its frizzy glory. But you don’t have to wait. It’s in prime condition now for homemade salads.
A flat-leafed version of the endive is called escarole. It produces flat, shaggy heads with light green centers that are less bitter than other endives. It is the anchor of a winter salad, but it can also be added to stir-fries, sauteed or chopped and added to soups or stews. It’s often sold under different names, such as broad-leaved endive, Bavarian endive, Batavian endive and scarola.
Although it’s called Belgian endive, these familiar, spear point-shaped heads, called chicons, are one of the chicories classified as Chicorium intybus. They’re icy-sweet, slightly bitter and crunchy, and their stiff leaves, separated from the heads, can be used to hoist dips to your lips. They’re available year-around because almost all of them in commerce are raised indoors, but when field-grown and then forced in the dark, this is their time to shine. Another name for these excellent additions to winter salads is Witloof chicory.
Puntarella, another C. intybus variety, are rare to find but worth it. They are the stalks of the Catalogna endive, peeled and sliced into fine curls, soaked in ice water, dressed in olive oil and anchovies and served in the best restaurants in Italy.
If you find loose-headed chicory, with pale green leaves flecked with splashes of red, you’re in luck. It’s the sweetest and least bitter kind of chicory and perfect for a winter salad. On the other hand, those red, tennis-ball-sized heads of radicchio — another C. intybus — are one of the most bitter of the chicories and are prized for the intensity they add when thinly sliced and incorporated into a salad.
None of this means you can’t add tender lettuces, bell peppers, shredded carrot, curls from a block of Parmigiano-Reggiano or whatever else you want to your winter salad. So be creative, have fun and remember the chicories!
Here’s a way to cook this vegetable that develops a unique savory flavor. Braising Belgian endive transforms its bittersweet fresh quality into something deliciously new: a great accompaniment to roast pork and baked apples.
Braised Belgian Endive
Makes 4 servings
4 Belgian endive chicons
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon white granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
In a Dutch oven or iron pot with a cover, place the 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Turn heat to medium-high.
When oil is hot, lay the chicons in the pot for one and a half minutes, then turn them over for a similar amount of time on the other side. They’ll spit and pop in the hot oil.
Add the lemon juice and pinch of salt and sprinkle on the sugar. Turn the heat to low, put on the lid and simmer for 30 minutes.
As a bonus, here’s a recipe for a great winter salad. The sweet, toasted pine nuts make a remarkable contrast with the slightly bitter red and white salad ingredients. The cheesy-garlicky dressing pulls them together.
Escarole Salad
Makes 4 servings
For the dressing:
½ cup olive oil
½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
3 garlic cloves, chopped
Juice of one lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
For the salad:
1 head escarole (blanched inner leaves only)
1 small head radicchio
½ cup lightly toasted pine nuts
Make the dressing by puréeing the garlic cloves and lemon juice in a blender. With the blender running, slowly pour in the olive oil until the dressing is smooth. Add the cheese and blend until thick and smooth. Adjust the seasoning. Refrigerate.
Tear up the tender, blanched inner leaves of the escarole with your fingers. Place torn leaves in a bowl.
Thinly slice the radicchio and toss with the escarole and the salad dressing. Sprinkle the pine nuts over the salad and lightly toss again.
December 02, 2020 at 07:20AM
https://ift.tt/36qJWAN
Winter chicories sweeten salads and more - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
https://ift.tt/3ekeW79
salad
No comments:
Post a Comment