Recently I asked a friend why she heats up raw potatoes before adding them to a hot, long-cooked stew. "So they get an idea of what's to come," she replied with a suggestive smile. As eccentric as that may sound, it started making sense to me while I was thinking about end-of-winter salads.
When different ingredients spend time together – be that in a roasting tin or stewing pot, frying pan or wok – juices come into contact with each other, temperatures are coordinated, spices and herbs impart their flavours, with the result that all those diverse components are turned, to a greater or lesser extent, into a single one. Basically, my friend gives her potatoes a "crash course" in heat and steam before they join the pot.
It's much the same with salads and, more crucially, the dressing: the challenge is to make complete strangers – ingredients that have only just met – seem like old friends. Otherwise, it risks seeming like aplate of crudités: individual vegetables, different in texture, look and temperature, all sat next to each other with a thick sauce that couldn't bring them together if it tried.
A well-made salad must have a certain uniformity; it should make perfect sense for those ingredients to share a bowl. The word "salad" derives from the Latin sal, meaning salt, and this is the key here: you need to get the seasoning right – the salt, the oil, the vinegar – to hold together the separate components, give them their due respect, but alsoamalgamate them into one.
Raw cauliflower and lettuce salad (V)
My father often makes this refreshing salad, which relies heavily on the quality of the ingredients. Serves four to six.
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
60ml white-wine vinegar
90ml olive oil
Salt and black pepper
1 small romaine lettuce heart, torn
½ small head radicchio, torn (or 1purple endive)
1 small cauliflower, divided into florets and cut into 3mm-thick slices
2 baby cucumbers, cut on an angle into 1cm-thick slices
200g radishes, cut into 3mm-thickslices
120g dry wrinkly black olives, pitted
½ small red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
15g small parsley leaves, picked
50g purple radish cress (or other cress or micro-herb)
In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, vinegar and oil, then stir in three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt and some black pepper. Toss the salad ingredients in a large mixing bowl, add the dressing, toss again gently, taste for seasoning and serve.
Duck, orange and coriander salad
Serves four.
2 duck breasts
2 star anise
½ tsp white peppercorns
8 whole cloves
Salt
4 blood oranges (or normal oranges)
1 tbsp red-wine vinegar
2 tsp maple syrup
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
½ a large fennel
15g picked coriander leaves
1 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted inahot pan for 2 minutes
20g rocket leaves
½ medium radicchio
Score the skin of each duck breast in four shallow parallel incisions. Repeat with four perpendicular incisions and place in a bowl. In a spice grinder, process the star anise, peppercorns and cloves to a rough powder. Tip this over the meat, add half a teaspoon of salt and massage into the meat. Cover and leave for anhour or two, or overnight.
Heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Juice two of the oranges (you need 100ml of juice) and pour into a small saucepan along with the vinegar and maple syrup. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until reduced to about two tablespoons of liquid, pass through a fine sieve and set aside to cool. Whisk in the lemon juice, olive oil and a quarter- teaspoon of salt.
Put a cast-iron pan over high heat. Lay in the duck breasts skin side down, sear for two minutes on each side, then transfer to the oven for four to six minutes, until the meat is cooked medium-rare. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool down.
Cut the fennel lengthways as thinly as possible, ideally paper-thin. Place in a large mixing bowl and add the coriander leaves, coriander seeds and rocket. Separatethe radicchio leaves, cut them into 2cm strips and add to thesalad. With a small, sharp knife, peel the skin and pith from the tworemaining oranges, cut the fleshhorizontally into 0.5cm-thick slices and add to the salad. Cut the cool duck breast into 0.5cm-thick slices and add this to the salad, too, along with any meat juices that accumulate on the board. Pour in the dressing, toss gently, taste for seasoning and serve.
Beetroot and celeriac slaw (V)
This sharp and sweet salad makes ahealthy quantity, but it keeps well, so you can eat it over a few days. Serves six to eight.
2 small beetroots (250g net weight)
½ small celeriac (250g)
⅓ red cabbage (250g)
4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
Salt and black pepper
20g coriander leaves, roughly chopped
20g mint leaves, shredded
75g roasted, salted peanuts, roughly chopped, plus extra to finish
Grated zest of ½ lemon
Peel the beetroot and celeriac and cut into 2mm-thick slices. Stack a few slices at a time on top of each other and cut into matchstick-like strips. (Use a mandoline or food processor, if you prefer.) Shred the cabbage as thinly as possible. Put all the vegetables in a large bowl, add cold water to cover, then drain and dry on kitchen towel.
For the dressing, put the olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, sugar and a teaspoon of salt in a small saucepan, bring to a gentle simmer over low heat, stir to dissolve the sugar and salt, and remove from the heat.
Dry the bowl and return the vegetables to it. Pour over the hot dressing, mix well and leave to cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Just before serving, add the chopped herbs, peanuts, lemon zest and a teaspoon of black pepper, toss well, taste and add more salt, if needed. Pile on to serving plates and serve sprinkled with more peanuts
Chinese cabbage, fennel and mixed leaf salad
This is a meal in itself, and is inspired by Nancy Silverton, a gifted American chef and baker – the best pizza I've ever had was in her LA pizzeria, Mozza. Serves four to six.
¼ medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1.5cm dice (300g net weight)
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
½ a Chinese or savoy cabbage, cut into 0.5cm-thick slices
1 small head radicchio, cut into 0.5cm-thick slices
1 small fennel bulb, cut into 2mm-thick strips
80g German salami, cut into 0.5cm-thick slices
60g mild wensleydale, cut into very thin slices
150g baby plum tomatoes, cut inhalf lengthways
20g parsley leaves, roughly chopped
2 tsp dried wild oregano
For the dressing
½ tbsp Dijon mustard
1½ tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp white-wine vinegar
½ tsp caster sugar
3 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp olive oil
Heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Toss the squash in the olive oil and season with a quarter-teaspoon of salt. Spread evenly on an oven tray lined with baking paper and roast for 10 minutes, until just cooked, then leave to cool down.
Meanwhile, make the dressing. Put the mustard, lemon juice, vinegar, sugar, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of black pepper in a medium mixing bowl. Slowly pour in the oils, whisking as you go, until you get a thick dressing.
Put all the salad ingredients in alarge mixing bowl, pour over the dressing and toss well. Taste and adjust the seasoning – you may needa touch more lemon juice or olive oil, depending on your cabbage. Serve at once.
