I appreciate your reading Between the Layers. This is a Thursday post sent to paid subscribers, and I wanted you to receive a preview so you’ll see what you’re missing! Paid subscribers allow me to produce creative and original posts with tested recipes and photography. If you’re able, I’d love for you to consider becoming a paid subscriber! Two Artful (and delicious!) Platter Salads - No. 217One inspired by Frida Kahlo and the other by Anna Maria Horner. Plus a surprise appearance from Martha. Ready or not, summer is here!
WE EAT FIRST WITH OUR EYES. That saying has been attributed to an 18th century Chinese poet who wrote if we eat first with our eyes the food will keep coming and coming and there will be far too many courses. The poet must have known the truth to warn against it. What’s so wrong with wanting to eat a beautiful salad? In 1930s Mexico City, artists Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera hosted festive dinner parties that Frida called "día de los manteles largos," the days of the long tablecloth. In a 1994 book called Frida’s Fiestas, by Marie-Pierre Cole and Guadalupe Rivera, the grandson of Diego, I found a recipe for her simple salad of grilled zucchini, avocado, and salty, crumbled añjeo cheese that might have been served at one of those dinner parties. The salad was part of a meal that appeared in a 2014 issue of Saveur magazine. A visual, artful salad isn’t new, and yet it’s something to remember as we head into summer.
Switching out of winter salad into summer salad mode is much like refreshing your closet.I did a quick scan of my pantry and pulled forward the lighter rice and white balsamic vinegars, and for the time being, moved the red wine and cider vinegars to the back. I put another bottle of avocado oil on my shopping list. I had a nice ripened avocado, and when I opened the fridge I saw a few zucchini. For salad one, I was quickly on my way to making Frida’s salad. You can take the short route and bedazzle her salad with a squeeze of lemon juice or dash of white balsamic vinegar, a drizzle of avocado or olive oil, and a sprinkle of kosher salt and grated lemon zest. Or you can kick off summer with a bang and make an herby feta dressing to snuggle up to the avocado and grilled zucchini slices. I offer both versions. My daughter Kathleen, the salad guru, pointed me to a feta dressing that originally was in a Martha Stewart book, but she’s added all kinds of herbs to it and would recommend goat cheese or the anjeo in lieu of the feta, so now it’s an herby, garlic and cheesy dressing you can make your own.
A nod to Anna Maria Horner with a green apple salad with seared salmon.You might think as a newsletter writer who posts each week that I line up the interviews and knock ‘em out in rapid fire. That’s a little true, but it’s more the case that I get so involved in the subject matter I have trouble parting with it. I learn along the way, which is what keeps writing about food and cooking so interesting to me. When I spoke with artist Anna Maria Horner for the Tuesday post, and we discussed Frida Kahlo, Anna Maria mentioned a salad she had eaten recently that she couldn’t get out of her mind. She had been in Sydney on business and was dining at a Thai restaurant and ordered a salad of salmon and green apple with mint and bright flavors, and she had tried to recreate it once she was back home in middle Tennessee. I scratched my first idea of ‘’Salade Cubism’’—cubes of apple and roasted salmon tossed in a ginger and lime vinaigrette. It feared it might look like my mother’s Waldorf, as if she had tossed in chunks of canned salmon, so I thought a bit deeper as I added wild-caught Coho salmon to the shopping list. I had some fish sauce, mint, a few limes, and even two green apples in the fridge.
I asked Kathleen about that salad as well. She suggested I toss the salmon with grated ginger before roasting. She also suggested sesame oil, chopped roasted peanuts as a garnish to the salad, and a ginger, lime, and chile vinaigrette she had made from one of her favorite salad books called Salad Freak by Jess Damuck, who had worked for Martha Stewart for a decade and made her a salad for lunch most of those days. When Time magazine interviewed Jess Damuck as to why she wrote an entire book on salad, she said: ‘’More often than not, Stewart requested a salad, and she’d dole out some vague instruction, like, ‘I’m in the mood for something light and fresh and truly delicious today.’ ‘’ I can see that conversation taking place. Martha on chaise lounge, fanning herself, craving a light and fresh salad…
So there you have it. Two salads.That’s how I came to construct two artful salads honoring two talented women and built them with what’s in my pantry and a few new ingredients that might continue to freshen up my recipes this summer. And I leaned into talented women for ideas, too. I also fell back on instinct. It’s the little things that get our attention, right? The swap out of a lighter vinegar in the dressing. The introduction of a different herb like mint or fresh basil that say summer. And most of all, when you’re all done, it’s a plate of artful, blazing COLOR—the vivid greens, the lemon yellows, rosy salmon, brightness to wake up our palate and say, ready or not, summer is here. Happy Cooking and Happy Memorial Day!
P.S. Anna Maria’s website is back up and running should you want to check out her collections. And that update I promised regarding sensible gun reform…Conversation will help America come together and push for more sensible gun laws in this country. So was the verdict of a recent town hall in Nashville, organized by Woodmont Christian Church. One of the young victims of the Covenant School shootings here in Nashville, Evelyn Diekhaus, attended this church. One of the panelists, former U.S. Senator Bill Frist said we need to emphasize the words ‘’sensible’’ and ‘’safety.’’ Every one of us who cares about this issue needs to appeal to their local and national lawmakers. There needs to be a groundswell of support for the safety of our children in our polarized country, Frist said. It was the most sensible conversation I have heard on the issue, and it was recorded, if you’d like to listen here... Subscribe to Anne Byrn: Between the Layers to read the rest.Become a paying subscriber of Anne Byrn: Between the Layers to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. A subscription gets you:
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