A salad of fresh and/or cooked ingredients is a customary part of an Armenian meal, usually served alongside the entrée. In this chapter, I give free rein to imagination with seven composed salads in the Armenian spirit, but with California style. In a further nod to California style, I often serve them as a separate course.
Serves 4
When I was growing up, we always had this and rice pilaf as accompaniments to simple meat entrées such as grilled lamb chops. Iceberg lettuce is essential. Nothing compares to its watery crunch for bringing together the other elements in a way that moistens the pilaf without requiring any oil.
2 large ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped into ½-inch chunks
1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped into ¼-inch chunks
1 large pickling cucumber or small regular cucumber, partially peeled in stripes, and coarsely chopped into ½-inch chunks
½ head iceberg lettuce, cut into ¼-inch-wide strips
2 scallions, white and light green part, trimmed and finely chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl and toss to mix. Serve right away or set aside at room temperature for up to 20 minutes.
Serves 4
This is a salad for the height of the fresh tomato season, late summer to early fall, when tomatoes deserve being featured on a platter. It’s a perfect red, tart addition to a summer menu.
½ yellow, white, or red onion, thinly sliced
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
2 large ripe tomatoes, sliced ½ inch thick
½ green bell pepper, thinly slivered lengthwise
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1½ tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Extra kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
In a small bowl, toss together the onion slices and ¼ teaspoon salt. Set aside for 15 to 30 minutes while preparing the remaining ingredients.
To assemble the salad, arrange the tomato slices on a serving platter. Strew the bell pepper, onion, and parsley over the tomatoes. Sprinkle with the vinegar, then with the oil and extra salt and pepper to taste. Serve without tossing.
Serves 4 to 6
Chickpeas, cranberry beans, red kidney beans, or lima beans can substitute for the black-eyed peas in this legumy salad. Though recipes often call for already-cooked canned peas or beans, I find all the products I’ve tasted too soft and salty. Instead, I recommend pressure cooking ; it’s a fast and easy way to prepare earthy-tasting, plump legumes that aren’t mushy.
1 cup dried black-eyed peas
4 cups water
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 large tomato, peeled, seeded, and cut lengthwise into ½-inch-wide strips
⅓ cup Kalamata olives, pitted if desired
¼ cup finely chopped yellow or white onion
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper
Kosher salt, to taste
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Place the black-eyed peas and water in a pressure cooker or large pot.
To pressure-cook: Lock on the lid and bring to pressure over high heat, about 5 minutes. Decrease the heat to medium-high and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside for 5 minutes. Gently release any remaining pressure and remove the lid.
To cook on the stove top: Bring to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to maintain a brisk simmer and cook for 25 minutes, until the peas are tender but not collapsing. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes to cool and settle down.
Either way, stir in the ½ teaspoon salt and set aside to cool for 5 minutes more.
To assemble the salad, drain the peas. In a large bowl, combine them with the remaining ingredients and toss to mix. Serve right away, or chill first. Will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
AGE-OLD LEGUME WISDOM
Salt is added at the end of the cooking process for a good reason: so that it can easily penetrate and season the legumes. If added at the beginning, it toughens the skin, and the result is tough beans.
If cooking the black-eyed peas (or any other dried legume) in advance, let them cool in the cooking liquid all the way to room temperature, then refrigerate them in the liquid. They will keep this way for up to 5 days.
Fava beans, cooked fresh in spring and early summer, sparkle in a salad embellished with another Old World gem, Armenian string cheese.
5 pounds fava beans, in their pods
2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
4 large butter lettuce leaves
1 cup String Cheese shreds (page 46)
Chive Oil
¼ packed cup chopped fresh chives
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Shell the fava beans and blanch them for 5 minutes in boiling water. Drain, cool under cold water, and peel. Set aside.
To make the chive oil, bring a small pot of water to boil. Add the chives and right away drain them in a colander. Transfer them to paper towels and pat dry. In a food processor or blender, puree the chives with the oil and salt. Set aside.
To make the salad, toss together the favas, mint, olive oil, and pepper. Place the lettuce leaves on a platter or individual plates. Mound the favas on the lettuce and scatter the string cheese across the top. Drizzle with the chive oil and serve.
FAVA BEAN FERVOR
My enthusiasm for fresh fava beans is unbounded, to the extent that I plant many each year so that I can reap their benefits for both the garden and the table. I look forward to their large, pealike flowers with black centers that grace the early spring garden in a decorative way. A little later, in late spring and on to summer, their beans provide legumy goodness to salads and stews. All the while, they are doing garden service as a nitrogen-fixing plant. Later still, when the pods are large, almost bursting at the seam, and the beans have become bitter and my thumbs don’t want to shell another fava (they are a very prolific plant!), they fulfill their destiny by being added to the compost pile to decompose and make rich and nutritious fertilizer for next year’s garden.
Serves 6
A salad similar to this was one of the most popular dishes at my Pig-by-the-Tail delicatessen. Indeed, there were some customers who came in for a pint of it for their lunch on a daily basis. In those days, I made it with feta cheese; for this book, I have revised the recipe to call for yogurt cheese balls. They’re an equally yummy cheese pairing for the lentils, and, if you don’t have the yogurt cheese balls, I suggest using a good quality Bulgarian, Greek, or Israeli feta cheese. French green lentils, for their nutty flavor and firm texture when cooked, are my choice for the salad.
1½ cups French green lentils
5 scallions, white and light green part, ever-so-thinly sliced into rounds
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup walnut oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh scallion tops, for garnish
6 yogurt cheese balls (page 50) or 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
Place the lentils in a large pot, add water to cover by 1½ inches, and bring to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to medium-high and cook until al dente, about 17 minutes. Drain in a colander, cool under cold running water from the tap, and set aside to drip dry for 20 minutes or so.
To assemble the salad, place the lentils in a large serving bowl. Add the sliced scallions, parsley, lemon juice, and walnut oil. Toss to mix and season with salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, garnish with the cheese and chopped scallion tops.
Serves 4
My Uncle Bob, my father’s eldest brother, and his wife, Aunt Queenie, were my godparents. Outside the kitchen door of their Sacramento house was a glorious pomegranate tree, and it was there that I learned to love pomegranates. This salad is inspired by that tree, and the fun days we had sitting in their kitchen on autumn days, munching on Queenie’s tourshi and cracker bread before dinner as we opened freshly picked pomegranates. No one seemed to mind the red juice that spilled out of the fruit and stained our hands—there were plenty of napkins.
8 cups baby spinach leaves
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup walnut pieces
3 tablespoons pomegranate syrup
1½ tablespoons red wine vinegar
Kosher salt, to taste
½ cup pomegranate seeds (optional, see box, page 99)
Place the spinach in a large salad bowl and set aside.
Heat 1½ tablespoons of the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the walnuts and cook, stirring frequently, until toasted, 3 to 4 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-high, add the pomegranate molasses and vinegar, and stir to mix. While hot, add this dressing to the spinach, along with the remaining oil, and season with salt. Sprinkle the pomegranate seeds, if using, over the top and serve right away, while still warm.
GETTING TO THE SEEDS OF POMEGRANATES
The least messy way to get the seeds out of a pomegranate is first to cut the fruit into quarters lengthwise. Then, put the quarters into a large bowl of cold water and pull off the outside “skin.” Discard the skin and, with your fingers, separate the seeds from their enclosing membrane sacs. The seeds will fall into the water and the membrane pieces will rise to the top. Lift off the membrane pieces and discard them. Drain the seeds in a colander. Use them whole to garnish salads or wherever else you’d like a ruby red, tart, crunchy spark to the dish.
Makes 8 cups
The trick to making a truly fine tabbouli is to let the bulgur rehydrate in plenty of water for a good hour (but not longer or it becomes starchy), and then to let it drain for half an hour, so the tabbouli is fluffy, not soggy.
1½ cups medium bulgur
Water
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
2 scallions, light green part only, finely chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh mint leaves
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1½ teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
Place the bulgur in a large bowl and add water to the top. Gently pour off the water and repeat twice until the water looks clear. Add water again, enough to cover the grains by 2 inches, and set aside to soak for 1 hour.
Drain the bulgur in a colander and set aside to drip dry for 30 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Toss to mix and distribute the vegetables evenly. Serve right away, or set aside at room temperature for up to 3 hours, or refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Serves 4 to 6
When I was growing up, melon played a prominent role on our summer table: watermelon, cantaloupe, and, especially prized, honeydews were chilled, sliced, and served without further ado, except for a sprinkle of salt just before eating. In this rather fancy rendition of that treat, mock basterma stands in for the salt element and there’s a bit of lemon and oil to gild the lily. Taking the dish back to its Italian home, prosciutto can substitute for the basterma.
3 cups watercress, leaves and tender stems only
½ honeydew melon
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
12 slices Mock Basterma (page 43)
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons walnut or hazelnut oil
Spread the watercress on a large platter. Scoop the seeds out of the melon, cut it into thin, half-moon slices, and cut off the rind. Arrange the melon slices over the watercress. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the melon and cress. Drape the basterma slices over the melon and sprinkle the pepper over the basterma. Drizzle the oil over all and serve.