In love with lettuce

FOOD | Julianne Glatz

The lovely young lettuces of late spring/ early summer are gorgeous enough to be ornamentals; some so beautiful they’re worthy of floral arrangements. Green lettuces range from palest celadon, chartreuse, Kelly green to forest. Some are speckled with red – one is named freckles; some varieties, such as Lollo Rosso, are darkly deep burgundy. Some have deeply ruffled leaves; others, such as deer’s tongue (both speckled and plain), are serrated, rounded, lobed or pointed. From spicy arugula to milder leaf lettuces, different varieties have subtle flavor nuances, but all – even the redhued – taste unmistakably green.

Yes, I’ve said it before (in fact, just two columns ago) but I’m saying it again: Grocery produce, though welcome in winter, can’t begin to compare with its freshly picked, locally seasonal counterparts. That’s as true of lettuce as it is of corn, tomatoes, strawberries and peaches. I love arugula’s peppery taste, but the grocery store baby arugula I bought for Easter barely had more flavor than iceberg lettuce. It was OK, but there just wasn’t much there.

Speaking of iceberg lettuce, it’s worth looking for farm-fresh heads of what I think of as “real” iceberg. Mass-produced iceberg isn’t highly regarded by most chefs, except to top tacos or as a base for wedge salads. There’s some fiber but little taste or nutrition. Seasonal iceberg lettuce is a different ball of lettuce altogether. The smaller heads are loosely packed, but pack so much flavor it’s hard to believe they’re the same variety.

Homegrown iceberg lettuce was regularly featured in my childhood late spring/early dinners, dressed always in a Thousand Island-esque dressing of my grandmother’s homemade mayonnaise and home-canned chilli sauce, which I despised. The other garden lettuce I remember was Black-Seeded Simpson, a heritage variety dating back to 1850. It’s still widely grown, not least because it’s one of earliest lettuces ready in spring: a beauty with delicate ruffled leaves. Black-Seeded Simpson is usually available at farmers markets and stands until hot weather. It’s good fresh, makes tasty wraps and is especially wonderful for wilted lettuce salads.

Sure, there are good bottled salad dressings available, but seasonal spring and summer lettuces deserve special treatment. These are some of my spring season favorites. If you can find delicately pungent first-of-the-season green/young garlic, by all means, use it.

This dressing comes from an old Southern cookbook from Louisiana plantations. The sour cream binds the oil and vinegar together, adding a light creaminess without making it heavy. It’s especially good on arugula, kale, spinach and sturdier (i.e. somewhat crunchy) lettuces.

Creole dressing

• 1/2 tsp. dry mustard

• 2 T. sugar

• 1 1/2 tsp. salt

• 5 T. red-wine vinegar

• 4 T. sour cream

• 1 c. olive oil

• 1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper (more or less to taste)

• 1 T. chopped parsley, preferably flat-leaf

• 1 T. minced garlic Blend together the mustard, sugar and salt until no lumps remain. Add the vinegar and whisk until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Add the sour cream and whisk until smooth. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Let stand for at least 30 minutes before using. Keeps for two weeks or more, refrigerated; stir before using.

Variation: Poppy seed dressing Substitute 2 tablespoons poppy seeds for the parsley, use cider vinegar instead of red-wine vinegar, and a neutral vegetable oil. You may also wish to add more sugar.

Green Goddess dressing was invented at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in 1923. The hotel’s executive chef, Philip Roemer, created it to pay tribute to actor George Arliss and his hit play, The Green Goddess. The dressing, like the play, became a hit. It experienced a surge of popularity in the 1970s, and bottled versions appeared on grocery shelves. Some were pale imitations of the original and Green Goddess dressing allure faded. That’s a shame, because the herb-filled genuine mixture is a delight, not only on salads, but as a dipping sauce for crudités, and other uses such as a spread for a fish or chicken sandwiches. Don’t let the anchovies scare you away; as with Worcestershire sauce, they only provide a savory note that’s undetectable in the finished product.

Green goddess dressing

• 2 anchovy fillets, rinsed, patted dry and chopped, or substitute 1 tsp. anchovy paste

• 1/ 2 to 1 tsp. chopped garlic

• 1 c. mayonnaise

• 1/2 c. sour cream

• 1/2 c. loosely packed fresh parsley leaves, preferably Italian flat-leaf

• 1/4 c. loosely packed fresh tarragon leaves

• 2 T. finely chopped fresh chives

• 2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more or less to taste

• 1/2 tsp. salt, or more or less to taste

• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste Place all of the ingredients in a blender or container of a food processor and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender with a rubber spatula as needed. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed. Let stand for at least 30 minutes before using. Green Goddess dressing will keep refrigerated in a container with a tight-fitting lid for at least two weeks.

This brightly flavored dressing isn’t authentically Japanese; it originated in teppanyaki restaurants. These Japanese steakhouses originated as a way to meld Japanese teppan-style (griddle cooking) with Westerners’ fondness for steaks and large (to the Japanese) portions of protein. Prior to the elaborate knife-wielding techniques that produce the main course, teppanyaki meals typically start with a simple bowl of miso soup and a (usually iceberg) lettuce salad with a gingery dressing. Good enough. But I think its lightness pairs particularly well with seasonal spring/early summer lettuces.

Japanese pickled ginger dressing

• 3 T. pickled ginger, chopped

• 3 T. pickled ginger juice

• 1 T. soy sauce

• 1/2 c. seasoned (sometimes labeled as “sushi”) rice wine vinegar

• 1/2 c. neutral flavored vegetable oil

• 1 tsp. to 1 T. crushed fresh garlic cloves, to taste

• Sugar to taste, optional Place all ingredients in the container of an electric blender or food processor and purée completely. Let stand for at least 30 minutes before using. It will keep in the refrigerator for at least two weeks.

Variation: Add two tablespoons white (Shiso) miso for a ginger miso dressing. Reduce the soy sauce to 1-2 teaspoons.

The above recipes are ones I’ve made for years. But this one is relatively new for me. My husband, Peter, found it online and it was an instant favorite. There’s also a steakhouse connection: it’s a “copycat” of the blue cheese dressing used at the New Orleans-based steakhouse chain, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. I’ve never eaten at a Ruth’s Chris, but there are numerous queries about the recipe and many interpretations online. What follows is a distillation of those. I don’t know how close it comes to the original, but it’s so delicious I could (and sometimes do) eat it straight from the jar.

• 8 ounces blue cheese, chilled

• 1 1/3 c. mayonnaise

• 3/4 c. sour cream or Greek-style yogurt or buttermilk

• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

• 1/2 tsp. dry mustard

• 2 tsp. minced fresh garlic, or 1/2 tsp.garlic powder

• 1/4 tsp. onion powder

• 1 T. lemon juice, optional

• 1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste

• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper, or to taste Break the blue cheese into crumbles with your hands. (It’s easiest to do with cold cheese.) Set aside approximately a third. In a shallow bowl or plate, mash the rest of the cheese into the mayonnaise. It should be fairly well incorporated, but still somewhat lumpy.

Combine the mayonnaise/cheese mixture with the remaining ingredients. The amount of salt can vary greatly with the saltiness of the cheese. You may want to thin the mixture with cream or a little more buttermilk. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the salad as desired.

Let stand for at least 30 minutes before using. Will keep, refrigerated, for at least two weeks.

Contact Julianne Glatz at realcuisine.jg@gmail.com.