a salad story

I had been craving peas. I keep frozen peas just about all the time to add to soup or pasta. But I was wanting fresh peas, I was wanting to lovingly shuck them and enjoy them for dinner. It’s June. Peas time. I’ve been wanting to also eat less meat lately. With vegetables that require more effort to prepare, my pathological mind somehow decides these earn their place on the dinner plate where meat is not present. I guess there’s some innate comparison to the incredible use of resources (not only labor) in raising, harvesting, butchering meat. I’d like to not think like that, but at least it means I like to lavish time on preparing vegetables (not to mention how much work and care goes into growing and harvesting them). 

i made this drawing of peas while watching star trek, i love them 

 Nichols farm has some peas. They were deliciously sweet. It was also very hot last week so we decided to have salad for dinner. I started to build this dinner salad around the peas. I love how many other foods work so well with peas - how the peas sit on the surface, absorb fat and flavor, and add a vegetal crunch. I really love peas with pork - with bacon, ham or pork fat. It feels sort of 1950s. We happened to have some Casella’s prosciutto in the pantry. You can buy it in sealed packs that last a while and don’t require refrigeration, which is nice. With the prosciutto I was then thinking about egg, would it be eggy dressing, a poached egg on the bottom of the plate would impart silky egg yolk, and add some protein to the dish. I also love peas with potatoes, and I am there for potatoes in a salad any time. We eat a lot of delicious boiled potatoes in my house. We didn’t have any bread to make croutons, but even if we did, I wouldn’t have thought of it. Poached egg, mustardy piquant vinaigrette, greens, ham. A couple small boiled potatoes cut in quarters at the bottom of the dish (yukon golds from Nichols also) and peas. A bright white wine made this a really beautiful dinner. Le Pressoir de St Pierre from La Grapperie would be divine - it’s a kind of herbaceous Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley with golden acidity and mellow richness, enough to match all the layers of fat in the salad. This wine we have tested happily a few times to see how it is with salad, and can say it is delicious. 

 It was very tasty. The greens got wilted rather fast, however, with the heat of the egg plus the richness of the yolk with the vinaigrette too. I kind of enjoy wilty greens sometimes, just sometimes. They feel in process. They are easy to eat a lot of. But I thought, if I make this again, I will use a hearty green, like escarole, or better yet something that can absorb the dressing without melting like frisee. And I might crisp the prosciutto. And maybe croutons would be better than potatoes, or a nice addition for chew. 

Then I realized, this was just a salade Lyonnaise. Salade Lyonnaise is lardons, frisee, poached egg, croutons, vinaigrette. It is an important dish, a foundation of Lyonnaise cuisine, itself founded in the 16th century when Catherine of Medici brought her chefs to France and ordered them to cook with produce sourced around the country. It’s about layering fat and flavor. The realization didn’t upset but amused me. I wasn’t trying to make an original salad, but I did feel like it was sort of a crazy combination, until I realized, there are very few, maybe no crazy combinations left in this world. This breakfast for dinner / salad for dinner melange is just another delicious corruption of something old. 

 Contaminated salade Lyonnaise 

 Handful of peas, freshly shucked if you can, gently cooked in boiling water for 1 minute 

Couple slices of torn Prosciutto, or Lardons 

Boiled potatoes, cut in quarters 

 Poached egg 

 Hearty greens 

 for the vinaigrette: 

 1 tsp dijon mustard 

 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar 

 4 tablespoons olive oil 

 Sprinkle of salt 

 Mix the mustard and the vinegar, then slowly add the olive oil and finish with the salt. 

 Place your potatoes, your egg and a few pieces of prosciutto on the bottom of the plate. Toss the remaining ingredients in vinaigrette, then pile up on your plate. Enjoy, outside, if possible, with a glass of French white wine. 

a photo i found online someone took of their salad Lyonnaise from Le Bouchon in Las Vegas. 

 Lots of new wines in this weekend - stay tuned to the store, instagram and also - sign up for our email newsletter using the link on this blog for the deep dive on what’s going on every weekend. Hope you get to shuck some peas soon, if that sounds good to you.