This time of year, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut with heavy stews, thick soups, and ponderous roasts. Much to the chagrin of many, salads seem to take a back seat, mainly because folks associate salad fixings with warmer times. But Chef Jerry Pellegrino reminds us that opportunities abound for winter salads.
No doubt we can make regular summer salads all year long, but if you think of a winter salad as a separate idea, then you can have some fun taking advantage of the season. Maryland farmers are very adept at using greenhouses, high tunnels and hoop houses to keep production up in cold weather. But out in the fields, believe it or not, things are still happening. Hardy winter greens like arugula, escarole, radicchio, mustard greens, beets and beet greens, fennel, spinach, mâché and rocket all do well. And because the water economy of the plants are different in winter, the flavors are more intense and less diluted. And this is the backbone of the winter salad: darker, more pungent greens; more cooked vegetables included; and stronger flavored dressings. In fact, Al has seen fields of mustard greens that were Irish green in the dead of winter, especially down in Southern Maryland where it tends to be a few degrees warmer.
But a good salad is more than just green. So, what else is available now? According to Jerry, such things as baby beets are in great supply, along with onions and root vegetables such as carrots and parsnips. It's also a great time to use pickled vegetables: asparagus, peppers, shallots, cucumbers, and gherkins. Nuts are a good component: walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts in particular. Grated cheese, or crumbled cheese is wonderful, with the hard Italian cheeses, and blue cheeses being particularly good for winter salads. Finally, don't forget that cured meats can also be used: prosciutto, salami, pates.
We wanted to put together a typical winter salad that folks could do. Something that is a bit earthy and more deeply flavored than say a Spring salad.
Jerry likes mustard greens during the winter. They are very peppery, very full of flavor and are a great starting point. Then maybe some arugula, which is milder to offset the strength of the mustard greens. And then, believe it or not, there are still pears left over from last fall that the orchard growers have been storing, so we might use some of those. In this case, we think we’d like to peel and bake them. Also, baby beets are wonderfully sweet, and at this time of year you don’t even need to peel them.
So far we have bitter and sweet. How about something salty? The answer is cured meat! It’s natural. Let’s take some nice prosciutto and shred it up for our salad. Different textures, different flavor profile. You could even maybe wrap the pear halves in with your prosciutto. Nice bit of presentation.
And for something sour? The mild sourness of goat cheese would be perfect. We make a lot of goat cheese here in Maryland, and the quality is very high. So we would crumble it up and toss it in.
And we’ll add a little highlight: candied pecans. Just a little bit will go a long way, adding nice, sweet accents.
But you know, we don’t have a completely unified salad until we have our dressing, so let’s put something tasty together. We’d start with extra virgin olive oil and an equal amount of red wine vinegar. Then a little curveball with a bit of orange juice, a dab of tangy brown mustard, and of course salt and pepper to taste.
