The Rural Voice, 1991-07, Page 39RURAL LIVING
LET US DRESS
OUR GREENS
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
We're having a beautiful early
summer, with the warm days and
sultry nights we usually get in July
and August. Because the warm
weather means more time outside, and
less and less time in the kitchen pre-
paring meals, salads of all kinds
become the mainstay, with the entire
family helping with dinner; nipping
radishes and bits of lettuce from the
garden, cleaning and tearing and cut-
ting them up, and, of course, creating
a dressing for the greens.
I am being presumptuous when I
say greens, because today's salads
include everything from pasta, rice
and potatoes. Still, when one men-
tions salad, the first picture in my
mind in one of lettuce or an assort-
ment of greens. It has become a ritual
in our society recently to consume
vast amounts of lettuce. It upholds
our ideals of physical leanness and a
nutritionally correct diet, and allev-
iates our guilt about consuming meats
and carbohydrates at so many of our
meals.
Lettuce is not a new vegetable on
our tables, however, as it has been
cultivated for its cooling, soothing
qualities sincebefore the time of the
Egyptians, probably originating in
Asia Minor. Much of the ancient
lettuce was grown for its seed from
which a delicious oil was extracted.
Large quantities of this oil have been
found in Egyptian tombs.
Throughout history, lettuce has
been classed with the herbs. The term
"salad" comes from the Latin term for
"something salted" and has become
synonymous with lettuce to the point
that they are now interchangeable.
The business of growing, har-
vesting and shipping lettuce crops
around the world is labour intensive,
and depends on many factors to get
the crop to market in perfect, pristine
condition, fresh from the garden. A
spot of poor weather can shoot the
prices up in a matter of hours, just as
easily as a market full of quickly
deteriorating produce can drop the
prices, since people will not be
coerced into buying more than they
need of this perishable product.
So now that we have this glorious
lettuce home, in shades of green, or
red, what do we do with it? When
you can't walk out to the garden for
your fresh greens, you can keep pur-
chased leuuce for a few days, if it is
carefully washed, wrapped in a damp
tea towel, and refrigerated.
When we were kids, my dad was a
real critic of the salads served at our
table. The pieces of lettuce had to be
torn by hand into bite size morsels, but
my idea was to cut them into chunks
with a knife when he wasn't looking.
But he seemed to know just what I had
done when he sat down to eat. My
children pleased him a couple of
weeks ago when they made a salad
much better than I did at their age!
We have some definite tastes in
our household, and what dresses the
salad ranks among the more important
questions of the day! Sarah likes a
Catalina, which is a sweetened French
dressing, and the rest of us embellish
our greens with shots of oil and
vinegar.
An old Spanish saying provides the
unfailing rule in making a good salad:
"A miser for vinegar, a spendthrift for
oil, a wise man for salt, and mad man
to mix them all together." A very
good basic start to which you can add
horseradish, mustards, herbs and
peppers to vary the flavour.
Creamy garlic is another dressing
of which we have grown quite fond.
It can be made ahead of time, and
stored in the fridge for one week. If
you have a spinach dip, you can dilute
that with a little milk or cream, and
use that for a dressing on pasta or
potato salads.
Here are some dressings we find
easy and tasty for our summer salads.
Lemon Chive Dressing
In a small mixer bowl combine:
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
Beat with electric mixer at medium
speed until blended. Add 1/4 cup
salad oil — 1 teaspoon at a time beating
constantly.
Continue to beat slowly, add
3/4 cup salad oil in a thin steady
stream.
Stir in 1 tablespoon snipped chives
12 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons milk till
desired consistency;
Chill; makes 1 cup of dressing.
Creamy Garlic
1/2 cup sour cream
12 cup mayonnaise
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
For colour, you may add chopped
green chives, green onions, parsley, or
dill. Blend carefully together. Keeps
for one week refrigerated.
Mustard Vinaigrette
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 teaspoon marjoram
2 teaspoons minced green onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon parsley snipped
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
Mix ingredients in a jar and shake well
to mix.0
(Rhea Hamilton -Seeger, in addi-
tion to working in advertising produc-
tion for the Rural Voice, serves as
deputy reeve of West Wawanosh
township (Huron County), and is a
skilled cook and gardener. )
JULY 1991 35