Salad Days

Summer solstice. The longest day of the year. The first day of summer! Light is at its peak with the longest day. Time for gratitude. From here to December 21, the days get shorter and shorter. Reason enough to get the most out of every summer's day.

I chose this date and time for hosting the Epitourists lunch, with the theme of Salad Days. In the culinary sense, not the literary: fresh, colourful, appealing, healthy, with a touch of ease and an element of surprise.

Caroline and Kaarina co-creators on the feast.

Home made sourdough foccacia fresh from the oven! Fresh burrata with grilled grapes! Fresh chèvre with basil! Grilled cheese!

Our meal was stretched over 6 hours, with courses that were light and fresh and full of greens and herbs. The most important ingredient overall: deliciousness.

Menu

Burrata with Grilled Grapes

Grilled Radicchio Salad and Sherry Mustard Dressing with 

Grilled Miso Glazed Scallops

Chargrilled Asparagus, Zucchini and Manouri

Green Herb Salad

Sourdough Foccacia

Coupe Colonel and Affogato

Kaarina

I said I’d come up with an amuse-bouche but really I just wanted an excuse to splurge on some decadent creamy burrata to enjoy with friends who appreciate the indulgence as much as I do. The beauty of Ottolenghi’s Burrata with Grilled Grapes is that it can be entirely prepped ahead.

The grapes marinate in olive oil, sherry vinegar, garlic and crushed fennel seeds for a few hours before they go on the BBQ or the grill pan. The resulting nectar is drizzled over each serving and is so heavenly that it threatens to eclipse the burrata as star of the show. Caroline’s freshly baked focaccia was just the thing for mopping up every last drop. 

Diane

For my course I prepared a grilled radicchio salad with sherry mustard dressing from Bon Appetit that had captured my interest. I tested it out with my family first, and although they initially scoffed at the idea of grilled lettuce, they enjoyed the mix of flavours. Kaarina and Caroline appreciated how heat had ramped up the flavours and brought a nutty taste to the plate.

Served alongside grilled scallops with a miso glaze. The course was paired with Garden Booch, (1.8 oz of Seedlip garden topped with ginger kombucha, on the rocks, garnished with fresh lemon verbena).

Caroline

We’ve come a long way from iceberg lettuce days. Growing up, a salad consisted of chopped iceberg lettuce tossed with sliced cucumber, tomato and shredded carrot dressed with white vinegar and Crisco vegetable oil. Thank goodness we have made progress. Nowadays, any vegetable can be made into a salad. Grilled asparagus are simply delicious. Generously tossed in salt and oil, they take no time to do up on a hot grill. Al dente and nutty, they are irresistible. Good ol' Otto strikes again with Chargrilled Asparagus, Zucchini and Manouri.  Manouri is uncommon. I had to make a special trip to the Danforth to find this Greek cheese. In a previous attempt, I used halloumi and found the end result too salty. This salad is elegant and delivers big on flavours.

Bread being a perfect accompaniment to this dish, I put a new obsession to good use and baked a Simple Sourdough Focaccia from The Perfect Loaf. 

 

Kaarina

My dream was that each forkful would be a different taste in my mouth - and that was pretty much how it turned out. Ottolenghi's Green Herb Salad was the first thing I thought of when Diane proposed Salad Days. What better time to pinch and pick through my garden than Summer Solstice when all the herbs are at their peak freshness?

Six herbs came from various pots and the raised herb box that runs along the sunny side of my ramshackle old garage: parsley, coriander, mint, dill, sage and tarragon. I added store-bought arugula (rocket in the UK) and watercress (to replace the purslane in the recipe). The slivers of snow peas (mange tout) added fresh crunch and the toasted sliced almonds and three kinds of seeds each contributed more texture and a new flavour explosion to each mouthful. 

The Herb Salad was the perfect palate cleanser served on its own just before dessert. We agreed that with its bright lemony dressing the salad could be a fitting companion for simply panfried fish. I might also try replacing the lemon in the dressing with red wine vinegar and serving it with thinly sliced rare filet mignon.

Diane

Dessert was simple and refreshing, with a choice of Coupe colonel (zesty lemon sorbetto with a splash of Ciroc) or affogato (bourbon vanilla bean gelato drowned in espresso). We decided to try both.