11.21.06
A Pre-Thanksgiving Salad
This would make a fine supper for the night before the big Thanksgiving feast, if indeed you will be having a big Thanksgiving feast on Thursday. I had it tonight, but if I can find another good ripe-looking grapefruit tomorrow, perhaps I will have it again tomorrow night, even though I am refraining from the gigantic turkey fiesta meal plan on Thursday (I require a lower-maintenance Thanksgiving this year).
1 medium grapefruit (red or yellow)
1/2 ripe avocado
peeled and seeded cucumber adequate to the task
1 or 2 ribs celery
well-washed fresh young spinach, several handsful (or substitute romaine lettuce)
1 Tablespoon whole-grain mustard
2 T hazelnut oil (or olive oil, or avocado oil, or walnut oil, as you like)
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of crushed dried red chili flakes
Rice vinegar (optional)
Peel the grapefruit and use a sharp knife to section out the pulp. Do this over a bowl to catch the juice. Put the fruit in a separate bowl and break into bite-sized chunks.
Peel and cube the half avocado, thinly slice the celery and cucumber, and make sure the spinach/romaine has been well washed and well dried.
Put the oil into the bowl with the grapefruit juice. Add the mustard and a pinch or two of salt, and a few good grinds of pepper and the crushed dried chili flakes if you like that kind of thing. (It’s nice with avocado and citrus, a lesson we should have all learned by now from eating at the better sort of Latin American restaurants, namely, the kind where no one really speaks any English and the food is astonishing and there are lots of happy feasting families around — happy feasting families speaking the non-English language relevant to the cuisine in question being a reliable guide to good ethnically specific eats generally speaking.)
Whisk the dressing ingredients with a fork to emulsify, and taste the dressing. If it is too sweet — that is, if your grapefruit is a particularly sweet one — add a dash of rice vinegar, and taste it again, and correct it further if you need to.
Toss the greens with the dressing so that they are well-coated. Add the celery and cucumber. Toss again. Transfer to plate(s) or bowl(s) and distribute the avocado and grapefruit attractively. Finish with a little flourish of black pepper.
Eat and be happy.
Serves 1 as an entree, or more if not. I recommend hogging it all to yourself and letting other people make their own, though.
It would be nice, if you happen to have them, to pan-roast a few hazelnuts (or ooh, black walnuts!) right before you serve the salad, and maybe chop them coarsely, and throw them in. Dry, heavy pan over a medium-high heat, until the nuts are hot and fragrant. You know how. I didn’t have any hazelnuts, so I didn’t try it, but if you do you should.
This would also be lovely if you happen to have some fresh water chestnuts on hand. Which I actually do, but I didn’t think of it until just now.
Water chestnuts are an underrated salad vegetable (as are Jerusalem artichokes now that I am on the subject of unassuming but delightful crunchy root vegetables that too few people eat), but only the fresh ones. Canned ones aren’t worth the aluminum they’re canned in. Just so you know, fresh water chestnuts are supposed to be hard as rocks. Peel them and immediately put them into a bowl of cold water. Soft bits or yellow bits are rotten, do not eat them. Only the white/cream-colored ones that are hard and crunchy are good. Get them at the Asian market, they’re in season in the fall and winter. Pick through the bin for the best ones. Everyone else does. If you don’t the old Chinese ladies will cluck their tongues at you and may even scold you (if they have for some reason taken a shine to you) for not picking the best water chestnuts available. When in Rome, you know. So get over your squeamishness and pretend you’re the snotty yuppie lady who picks through all the cherries in the entire bin in summertime as if 90% of them were dog turds. That is precisely how picky you have to be to maximize your rate of getting the really good water chestnuts.
I guess now that I remember I have water chestnuts, I have to brave the local Whole Paycheck for a grapefruit and some hazelnuts tomorrow, so I can try this with all the bells and whistles (as it were). It will be outrageous, I can tell you that much. Possibly orgasmic.