Greens, pecans, goat cheese & dried fruit

[JAZ]

It used to be when you went to a "high class" restaurant, the apex of salads was the Caesar -- even if it wasn't done at the table, it was still the cool salad to order. It was on every menu. When I first became involved with culinary team building parties (which wasn't that long ago) it was what every client seemed to want, or at least what most clients got.

Now, though, a new salad paradigm has emerged. "Mixed lettuces" or "field greens" or "baby greens" or even spinach -- plus pecans, goat cheese (or sometimes some sort of crumbled blue cheese) and dried cranberries, cherries or strawberries. Balsamic vinaigrette. I can't count the number of these I've seen this salad over the past couple of years, in restaurants, on private class menus, in cooking classes. It's as predictable as Caesar salad used to be.

My feeling is that Alice Waters is responsible. I'm sure this salad was "discovered" in many places at the same time, but I think of it as the quintessential Chez Panisse salad. Now, for all I know, Chez Panisse never served this. Yet after Caesars became salad non grata in the San Francisco cooking class world, most of the chefs and instructors that switched to the greens-pecans-goat cheese model cited Alice as their inspiration.

Maybe it was fresh and wonderful back in the early days. But pul-eez! These days, you can't open a menu without seeing the same old description staring you in the face. And if you happen to despise goat cheese or blue cheese and dried fruit bits (as I do), it seriously cuts down on the number of places you can order a salad. So c'mon, people. Come up with something new. Or go back to the Caesar.

Am I the only one who's noticed this, or the only one who feels this way?

[Verjuice]

What a great coincidence; a friend and I were just discussing this. I said I'd be happy if I never saw another one of these salads on a menu.

Others things I wouldn't miss include French Onion Soup and Fried Calamari. I've just maxxed out on both for this lifetime.

Oh, oh-- and flourless chocolate cake with raspberry coulis. Garnished with powdered sugar and a spring of mint.

[Chris Amirault]

I think that one aspect of this salad's popularity is the ability of everyone to make it their own. Unlike the ubiquitous caesar, which has a very rigid base (romaine, parm, croutons, grilled chicken for $2 extra) this salad seems to have three elements (I'm excluding the greens) that can be fiddled with to make "signature" salads. I know three different people who have declared different versions of this salad as their own by changing cheese, fruit or nut and saying "Mine!"

Disclosure: we had mesclun, hazelnuts, Maytag blue, and sliced apple for dinner in the 94F heat here last night, I should confess. Yeah, fresh fruit: my little variation, don't cha know.

[beccaboo]

One of my favorite late summer/autumn salads, which I thought I invented, is rucola selvatica and lamb's lettuce with candied walnuts, shaved parmesan, and sliced pears tossed in lemon juice, walnut oil, and pepper. Even if it's such a cliché I like it....

[docsconz]

That salad works very well because it is inherently well balanced. The greens provide some bitterness, the dried fruit sweetness, the vinegar some acidity, the cheese a little sourness as well as smoothness and the nuts some crunch. So long as the balance is maintained, it is a great salad. When it is skewed - usually towards- the sweet it becomes cloying and bad.

Despite that, I think that salad is now being eclipsed by a more savory one with greens, eggs, salted meat (typically bacon) and a vinaigrette. Variations include any number of other items. Last night I made a spinach salad with bacon, hard-boiled eggs, sliced turkey, canned Spanish white asparagus and an olive oil vinaigrette with cabernet vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, pimenton and shallot. My family seemed to like it.

[Smithy]

Once again I learn how far behind the times I am. Just 2 weeks ago I had a wonderful salad of mixed spinach and spring greens with dried cranberries, sweetend crunchy pecans and some cheese - feta? - dressed with a cranberry-orange vinaigrette. I thought it brilliant and innovative. I now learn I was only half right.

[TAPrice]

Doc, the salad with hard boiled egg hasn't made it down South, but I'm sure it will be all the rage in a few years.

Could the fruit, nut and cheese salad be designed for the dieter? Maybe the Caesar wasn't substantial enough to work as an entree? Just throwing out ideas here.

[Bueno]

The most popular salad I'm aware of in fine dining restaurants at the moment is anything involving a slow-cooked / poached / soft egg. Typically with a cured/smoked pork component like bacon, or guanciale, pancetta, or prosciutto. A peppery green like arugula or cress, and hard salty cheese like parm or pecorino, or grana. Dressing usually has a mildly citrus component, or based on tarragon.

Edited June 1, 2007 by Bueno (log)

[Pam R]

Yeah, fresh fruit: my little variation, don't cha know.

←

Yeah, mine too.

I've never been a fan of the Caesar. But I've been making a variation of this salad for years. Pears, apples, strawberries, feta, chevre, pecans, almonds, etc. It's all good.

[theisenm85]

As far as fruit, I'm not sure if Chez Panisse is connected, but I'm relatively certain that their "mixed greens" salad with baked goat cheese is a bit of a tradition, if only in the cafe. I know I read something about "that salad", but I can't remember where.

I was there a couple of weeks ago for my birthday, and my girlfriend ordered it. Very good of course, though I may have preferred a slightly stronger goat cheese.

[markemorse]

I'm sure this salad was "discovered" in many places at the same time, but I think of it as the quintessential Chez Panisse salad.

←

Versions of this salad are ubiquitous in Amsterdam as well....though I'm reluctant to trace the lineage back to Alice Waters....might we maybe blame the French instead? Not sure, but this looks like their work.

(I'm kidding about the word "blame", I actually love this salad if the nuts are fresh, there's at least one fresh herb [tarragon, dill, chives], the dressing has a little serious mustard and the whole production isn't very sweet at all...I think people run into trouble when they start emphasizing the sweet element in the dressing: a tsp of honey is all you need, there's already plenty of sweetness in the salad itself).

mem

Edited June 7, 2007 by markemorse (log)

[Arey]

When locally grown arugula hits the markets one of my favorite salads is arugula, walnuts and aged gouda dressed with a basic vinaigrette.

[rooy1960]

i must admit i LOVE all versions of " this" salad. just last week i had a really cool version of the greens-fruit-cheese-nut-balsamic .... at Caribou in center city philadelphia:

lightly char grilled romaine hearts, sour cherries, toasted sliced almonds and and a lovely bleu (likely roq) and a hearty warm thick balsamic. it was divine. the thing i really like about this salad is the versatility to use great seasonal items to create all sorts of yummy combos. having said all that, it is in fact, a pretty predictable item on the menu theses days. but that's okay for me!!

[Catriona]

The version on this side of the Puddle (in both Dublin and London) might be the seared tuna nicoise. It's everywhere. Including my office's staff canteen.

I shouldn't complain, it's one of my favourite "fast food" suppers to make after a long day at work.

[mizducky]

As a person who normally doesn't care much for mixing sweet and savory items, I confess I have had mixed feelings about the greens/nuts/dried fruit salad ever since I first encountered it. That's probably due at least in part to the fact that so many exemplars I've sampled have really overdone the sweetness component, either by dumping on way too many bits of dried fruit and candied nuts, or using a sickly-sweet berry vinaigrette, or some other such gaffe. Yeah, Caesars are at this point way the hell too over-exposed, but at least I could count on them to stay well within the bounds of the savory without any sweet glop on 'em.

But usually I couldn't care less about which dish is fashionable and which passe. I think I recall somebody mentioning several posts back that they felt fried calamari had been way overexposed too (sorry, feeling a little too lazy to find the post). Me, I loved fried calamari before they were fashionable, and I'll probably keep on loving 'em way after they've gone back out of fashion ... and I bet if I wait long enough, they'll eventually come back into fashion again, and I'll still be loving 'em.

But I do care when a dish becomes so fashionable that even the clueless places start doing the dish ... and start wrecking it in the process. That's probably how I wound up running into a few too many sickly-sweet greens/nuts/dried-fruit salads drowning in oversweet raspberry vinaigrettes. Ick. I'll even take the passe chef salad instead.

[Sentiamo]

Last trip to Bali I enjoyed a Mozaic ' Caesar' salad at Mozaic in Ubud.It consisted of polenta crusted soft shelled crab, romaine lettuce, garlic croutons and a parmesan crisp.

I am pleased I bought the menu home with me, I'm enjoying it all over again just thinking of that dish. Thanks for the thread!