gourmet babble: Archives #1: Fred's Memorial Salad

from 26 June 2001

I used to eat at a little place called Fred's on the Upper West Side whenever I wanted a treat. I could catch the M7 or M104 from my house, go up to 81st or so, walk over to Broadway, get a wonderful salad and entree and killer dessert, and then either hop a taxi or M7 home.

Anyway, they had this salad that just rocked. I mean, it was wonderful. Cures the blues and probably many ills too. My ex-wife loved it too — a sure sign I had to reinvent it for myself. So then, to Fred's (and all the others that have this kind of salad — it's not that rare, actually) — thank you.

INGREDIENTS:

1 apple (or pear)
Golfball sized hunk of goat cheese (or crumbled blue)
1/4-1/2 cup of walnut pieces/halves/wholes
Lettuce, your favorite kind. Make sure it's more than iceberg at least.
Vinaigrette dressing (see below for my hints)

SALAD:

Take the nuts and toast 'em in a pan on medium heat. (Don't forget to shake them every so often so they don't burn.) While that's toasting, core the apple somehow. Take what's left, cut it up into slices about 5-10mm thick. Start 'em grilling. Grill on both sides until soft with nice thick grill lines (well, those are just to make them pretty). At some point the nuts will be done toasting. Put those aside. Assemble the lettuce onto the plates and pour the dressing over it. Throw the grilled apple slices on top of the dressed-lettuce.

Now tear the goat cheese into little dollop-sized chunks, and throw those into the same pan you used to toast the nuts, with the heat on low. (No, don't wash it first. You want the essence of the toasted nuts to get into the cheese. Yes, even that little black stuff that's in the pan. Trust me, it's tasty.) If you're using blue cheese (and I assume that's because you consider goat cheese to be too "wimpy"), just dump the crumbled stuff in the pan. This you want to turn often so that it heats pretty evenly without melting too much. When it starts to melt, kill the heat, and throw the cheese over the salads. (If it melted too much, it changes to "fold". Don't worry, it'll still taste good. Just not as pretty. If you *boil* your cheese, however, then bad things happen, so make sure to pay attention.) Now dump the nuts over this whole thing, distributed somewhat evenly. Garnish with a little more dressing. If you're a pretty-plate-freak like I am, you can do a fancy-cut tomato half and put that on the top, dead center.

DRESSING:

Okay, you can either use your favorite dressing (it's your salad, after all), or *my* favorite dressing (which was Good Seasons vinaigrette, but only when my ex-wife made it, because it came out better somehow), or you can get reeeaaallly fancy and make your own. Here's an example:

The other night I was experimenting with broiled tomatoes (which turned out badly, something more like stewed tomatoes). But, the broiling broth I was using was pretty much straight balsamic vinegar with lots of dill and a few other spices. As the stuff broiled, the juice extruded from the tomatoes went into the vinegar and really infused it with a wonderful tomatoey flavor — almost sun-dried (I suppose 400° will do that). I ate the tomatoes that night, but reserved this herbed-tomatoey-balsamic vinegar. I threw it in with some olive oil and a splash of water. Ta-da: instant tomato-infused herbed vinaigrette.