Today, September 14th …
I always crave salad after a long trip – getting good food in transit is always tricky, getting good salad is doubly so. I have a delightful little American cookbook by the name of:
New Calendar of SALADS: 365 ANSWERS to the DAILY QUESTION “WHAT SHALL WE HAVE for SALAD?”
I don’t think I have featured it before, so I thought today was a good opportunity. The book comes in its own box, has a hanging cord just like a regular calendar and a wonderful cover illustration. It is not dated, but is probably 1920’s. The salad for September 14th is:
Cheese and Apple Salad.
Wipe and pare apples, scoop out olive shape forms, using a French vegetable cutter made for this purpose. There should be 2 doz. “olives”. Marinate at once with French dressing. Mix a cream cheese with ½ c. finely chopped pecan nut meats, 1 tbsp. finely chopped pimento, season with salt, paprika, and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. Shape with the hands into 12 small “olives” the size of apple olives. Arrange in 6 individual nests of small, crisp, chicory leave, placing 3 apple olives and 2 cheese olives in each nest. Serve with French or mayonnaise dressing.
This was not the sort of salad I had in mind. It immediately brought to mind Julia Child’s comment on nouvelle cuisine “It's so beautifully arranged on the plate -- you just know someone's fingers have been all over it.”
Monday’s Story …
To be advised.
Quotation for the Day …
Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. Anatole
2 comments:
I love Julia's comment.
The style of "nouvelle" plating (which was a point of contention at one time) has become so much a part of what used to be known as haute cuisine but which is now becoming known as celebrity chef cuisine (but without that specific name given but rather the name of the chef attached to the food) that if this stylistic component is missing from the plate critical opinion is likely to say that the chef "does not know how to cook". Looks and style have become the critical initial measurement, with the "fingers all over" part being the desired criteria.
Could it be that we live in an age, culinarily, of style over content by method of fingers all over?
loved Julia's comment.. I think food these days tends to be either other the top (thanks Emeril) or take out. What happened to something in between?
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