The Freshest, Coolest Salad You Can Make for Summer or Anytime

Our Fourth of July pot-luck picnic was lovely. Friends gathered in a park opposite the local high school to share a meal and then watch fireworks. Everyone made delicious dishes. One friend liked a chopped salad I made and asked for the recipe. 

Adapted from a classic Persian salad, usually made with roughly chopped tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, Italian parsley and (often) feta, mine is made with a few more ingredients and the bits are cut smaller, so the flavors combine more easily. For a vegan version, omit the feta.

The salad goes well with roast chicken, grilled sausages, charred steak or sautéed tofu or by itself with avocado slices.

For the tomatoes, I prefer cherry tomatoes, but any kind of ripe tomato will do. Only use Persian cucumbers ("cukes"). To build out the flavors and textures, I add cooked corn kernels, chopped green olives and ripe avocado. For the dressing, I prefer Japanese rice wine because it is less harsh than other salad vinegars mixed with extra virgin olive oil.

For seasoning, I keep it simple. Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. For a hint of heat, I sprinkle a small amount of Korean pepper flakes but Italian pepper flakes will be as good. And, with a nod to the time I spent in Morocco where I learned to make pickles, I sprinkle on a few flakes of dried oregano.

Chopped Cherry Tomato-Italian Parsley-Persian Cukes and Feta Salad

Serves 4

Time to prepare: 10 minutes

Ingredients 

1 large basket cherry tomatoes, washed, dried, stems removed, quartered

2 medium sized Persian cukes, washed, peeled, cut into small pieces, the size of the quartered cherry tomatoes 

1 bunch Italian parsley, washed, dried, leaves only finely chopped, stems discarded or saved to make vegetable stock

1-2 tablespoons feta, crumbled, preferably Bulgarian which is creamy and less salty than other fetas

1/4 cup olives, pitted, roughly chopped

1/4 cup charred or boiled corn kernels

1/2-1 ripe avocado, washed, peeled, pit removed, cut into pieces the size of the quartered cherry tomatoes (if serving with slices of avocado, omit in the salad)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (possibly more, to taste)

1 teaspoon Japanese rice vinegar (not seasoned)

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/8 teaspoon dried oregano

Korean pepper powder or Italian pepper flakes, sprinkled, to taste

Directions

Combine all of the above in a salad bowl. Toss well to coat ingredients with the dressing and seasonings. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve cold with a protein or sliced avocado and ice-cold beers or glasses of chilled white wine.

Pickle Me Up! It's Thanksgiving!

Pickles are delicious anytime of the year. For Thanksgiving they are especially good. Their crunch and acidity counterbalances the deliciousness of gravy, mashed potatoes and roast turkey. 

                            

For years I used cukes, the choice of traditional kosher pickles. One year when cukes weren't available, I "made due" with Persian cucumbers. Longer, more dense and thiner than Jewish style cukes, I discovered that Persian cucumbers kept their crispy crunch longer than the cukes I was used to. Ever since then, I use Persian cucumbers when I make kosher pickles.

In the 1920s, my great-grandfather made pickles on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Grandmother Caroline used to tell stories about working in their little grocery store as a child. When customers would want pickles, she would hop off the counter and go out front to the pickle barrels and fish out the ones they wanted.

I never knew my great-grandparents. I never ate their pickles, but I must have brine in my veins because wherever I shop or travel, I am always on the look out for pickles.

Lower East Side Kosher Dill Pickles

When making kosher dill pickles keep in mind four very important steps:

1. Select Persian cakes or pickling cukes, not salad cucumbers, and pick ones without blemishes or soft spots.

2. Use only Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt with no additives. Taste the brine to confirm you like the balance of salt-to-vinegar. The flavor of the brine will approximate the flavor of the pickles.

3. Once the cukes are in the brine, they must be kept submerged in a refrigerated, sealed container.

4. Store the pickles submerged in the brine, seal and keep in a refrigerator where they will last for several weeks.

Ingredients

8 cups water

1-2 tablespoons kosher salt (to taste) only use Diamond Crystal Kosher 

1 cup white wine vinegar or yellow Iranian vinegar (my preference)

5 dried bay leaves

10 whole black peppercorns

10 whole mustard seeds

¼ teaspoon pepper flakes or 1 dried Sichuan pepper, split open

5 sprigs of fresh dill

5 pounds cakes or small pickling cucumbers, washed, stems removed, dried

1 medium sized carrot, ends removed, peeled, washed, cut into thin rounds

Directions

1. In a sterilized glass jar(s) or plastic container(s), add the salt, water and vinegar and stir to dissolve. 

2. Dip your finger in the brine, taste and adjust the flavor with a bit more salt, water or vinegar.

3. Place the aromatics in the bottom of the container. Arrange the cucumbers and carrot rounds inside.

4. Pour in the brine being careful to cover the cucumbers. Reserve 1 cup of brine.

5. To keep the cucumbers submerged in the brine, cut out the bottom of a plastic cup the size of the opening and lay on top of the cucumbers.

6. The cucumbers have become pickles within 24 hours and will keep refrigerated for several weeks. If you like your pickles crisp, enjoy them within a week of pickling.