Julia's Kitchen Wisdom Read Online Free PDF Page A

frizzy lettuce.
    MAIN COURSE SALADS
    MASTER RECIPE
    Salade Niçoise
    Of all main-course salads, the Niçoise is my all-time favorite, with its fresh butter-lettuce foundation; its carefully cooked, beautifully green green beans; its colorful contrast of halved hard-boiled eggs, ripe red tomatoes, and black olives; all fortified by chunks of tunafish and freshly opened anchovies . It’s a perfect luncheon dish, to my mind, winter, summer, spring, and fall—an inspired combination that pleases everyone.
    Serves 6
1 large head Boston-lettuce leaves, washed and dried
1 pound green beans , cooked and refreshed
1½ Tbs minced shallots
½ to ⅔ cup basic vinaigrette
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 or 4 ripe red tomatoes, cut into wedges (or 10 to 12 cherry tomatoes, halved)
3 or 4 “boiling” potatoes, peeled, sliced, and cooked (see potato salad )
Two 3-ounce cans chunk tuna, preferably oil-packed
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
1 freshly opened can of flat anchovy fillets (see box below)
⅓ cup small black Niçoise-type olives
2 to 3 Tbs capers
3 Tbs minced fresh parsley
    Arrange the lettuce leaves on a large platter or in a shallow bowl. Shortly before serving, toss the beans with the shallots, spoonfuls of vinaigrette, and salt and pepper. Baste the tomatoes with a spoonful of vinaigrette. Place the potatoes in the center of the platter and arrange a mound of beans at either end, with tomatoes and small mounds of tuna at strategic intervals. Ring the platter with halves of hard-boiled eggs, sunny side up, and curl an anchovy on top of each. Spoon more vinaigrette over all; scatter on olives, capers, and parsley, and serve.
    VARIATIONS
     
COLD ROAST MEAT SALAD. Thinly slice, or cut into cubes or strips, a pound of cold roast or braised beef, veal, or pork, and refrigerate for several hours in a bowl with sufficient vinaigrette to enrobe the pieces, turning and basting several times. To serve, arrange nicely on a platter, surrounded with pickles, capers, olives, tomatoes, sliced red onions and green peppers, cooked green beans, or whatever appeals to you.
FRESHLY OPENED CAN OF ANCHOVIES. Anchovies go “off” in taste when they sit around in an open can—which is probably why many people hate anchovies.
SYRIAN LAMB SALAD. Marinate for several hours a dozen thin slices of cold roast leg of lamb in garlic-flavored vinaigrette plus several puréed freshly opened anchovies. Mound 3 cups or so of prepared bulgur (cracked wheat; see box below) in the center of a platter, and surround with the lamb slices. Garnish as you wish with olives, hard-boiled eggs, tomato wedges, sliced bell peppers, marinated cucumber .
TO PREPARE BULGUR—CRACKED WHEAT. Stir a quart of boiling water into 1 cup raw, dry bulgur. Let sit 15 minutes, or until pleasantly tender. Drain, rinse in cold water, and squeeze dry in a towel. Toss with 1 Tbs each of olive oil, grated onion, and chopped parsley. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
BREAST OF PHEASANT, DUCK, CHICKEN, OR TURKEY SERVED IN A SALAD. Marinate slices of the cooked breast for 30 minutes or so in the vinaigrette. Then, for each serving, arrange several strips over a bed of tender frizzy lettuce leaves. Baste with vinaigrette and decorate with small segments of orange, thin red-onion slices, and a spoonful of toasted pine nuts.
    MASTER RECIPE
    Chicken Salad Serves 6 to 8
6 cups cooked chicken, cut up into good-sized pieces
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
1 to 2 Tbs olive oil
2 to 3 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 cup diced tender celery stalks
½ cup diced red onion
1 cup chopped walnuts
½ cup chopped parsley
1 tsp finely cut fresh tarragon leaves (or ¼ tsp dried tarragon)
⅔ cup or so mayonnaise
Fresh salad greens, washed and dried
For decoration: all or a choice of sliced or chopped hard-boiled eggs, parsley sprigs, strips of red pimiento
    Toss the chicken with salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, celery, onion, and walnuts. Cover and refrigerate at least 20 minutes or