I started writing this post two weeks ago, before a deal ate my life. But I still remember this salad. That’s good, right?
Between working a lot and traveling weekends these past few weeks, I have spent next to no time in my kitchen. (Though I’ll admit the enormous pile of dirty pots and pans in my kitchen didn’t help either!) When I discovered myself at home with some time on my hands this past weekend, I decided a spring celebration for one was in order.
Spring has finally sprung in NYC in a serious way. After months of incessant rainy, chilly weather, this weekend brought highs of nearly 90 degrees. Thanks for easing us into it, weather gods. Much obliged. With the weather so hot, I was craving a beautiful spring salad to eat on my balcony (read: fire escape) with a glass of white wine after my scheduled late afternoon bike ride.
My local overpriced gourmet grocery always has unfamiliar produce on hand, and this weekend was no exception. This time, a package of celery sprouts caught my eye. I also grabbed some frisee, radishes, baby carrots (the real thing, with stems still attached, not baby-cut carrots) and sugar snap peas, and some dill and green onions to make a proper dressing.
I prepared my ingredients in advance, so they would be ready and chilled when dinnertime rolled around. It took less than an hour total to toast and boil some pearled barley, wash my greens, make a vinaigrette and slice up the other veggies. Time well spent, in the end, as I made two meals worth of the ingredients! (I also poached some fish to go with, but it wasn’t anything to write home about… so I won’t.) When the weather finally cooled off to a relatively temperate 80-something degrees, I set out, knowing that I had the makings of a fine meal waiting for me when I returned home at dusk.
I ended up making this salad two ways. On Sunday, after my sweaty, dehydrating bike ride, I ate my salad well chilled with a glass of dry Muscadet. And it was as refreshing and spring-like as I had hoped it would be. The chewy toasted barley was a lovely foil to the sprightly frisee and radishes and the sweet carrots and peas. The celery sprouts were a nice addition — they tasted strongly of celery, oddly enough, so I was glad to have the sturdier frisee with which to pair them. I wouldn’t serve the celery sprouts and frisee together on their own, but they did serve as an elegant and sturdy foundation for my salad.
When I left work the following Monday, the heat of the weekend had already dissolved into rainy, bone-chilling day. This time, I decided to warm my salad gently and wilt the greens a little bit in a non-stick pan. The barley was even more toasty, if that’s even possible, and the gentle heat mellowed whatever sharp corners the frisee and celery sprouts might have had. I added a thick shaving of romano cheese to finish it off, which added a welcome richness to the salad.
The coup de grace both days, though, was the dill vinaigrette. There was something about the dill — it’s aroma bloomed when combined with a bit of green onions, white balsamic vinegar and olive oil and a little mustard to tie things together. The dill and green onion combination could stand up to the greens, but it wasn’t so strong that it overpowered any of the other salad components. Having a nice dressing really made this salad shine.
Clacked by Molly B.
on May 08, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
