Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’re here!
This week, I’m continuing my series on the “mother” sauces of California Cuisine. Since California Cuisine does not have an official list of foundational sauces, and I thought it should, I came up with the following list of sauces: mayonnaise, vinaigrette, salsa, Bernaise (or Hollandaise), pesto, soy sauce and basic tomato.
Having concluded my studies on mayonnaise, last week I started my exploration of vinaigrettes.
So far for vinaigrettes, I have featured a terrific chimichurri sauce, a kumquat vinaigrette and a mayonnaise vinaigrette that puts ranch dressing shame. Yesterday, I featured a terrific take on potato salad with a French twist: Potato salad with cider vinegar and caper vinaigrette.
Today, I’m featuring a variety of salads that embrace the abundance of fresh seasonal produce we get here in California. These salads are yet more convincing evidence of why vinaigrette is a solid choice one of the mother sauces of California Cuisine.
Not only is vinaigrette a solid base for many sauces and dressings, such as pasta and potato salad, but a good vinaigrette is the perfect simple, yet elegant enhancement to showcase ultra-fresh produce at its best. A good vinaigrette will enhance, but not hide the fresh, clean flavors of produce year round.
The following salads are excellent examples of somewhat surprising, yet delicious ways to enjoy vinaigrettes with seasonal produce:
Let’s start with this wonderful salad that showcases produce available right now in early spring: sumo and fennel salad:
Sumos are a delicious mandarin hybrid available starting in January and available through about April. They are very sweet and super-juicy and they pair beautifully with the slightly licorice-flavored and crunchy fresh fennel. A simple vinaigrette dressing adds a nice balance to the sweet and earthy flavors of this super-simple, flavorful and healthy weeknight recipe.
Next up is this early summer salad featuring cherries, cucumbers, red onions and arugula:
This salad a real showstopper, not to mention absolutely delicious! The sweet cherries paired with the mildly sharp flavors of the red onion and arugula, alongside the cool, crunchy cucumber slices are perfectly pulled together with a simple vinaigrette that allows each ingredient to shine without taking over.
This wonderful tomato, watermelon, red onion and arugula salad is a hit a summer dinner parties or outdoor bar-b-ques all summer long:
A basic vinaigrette is the perfect pairing for tomatoes at the height of their ripeness, watermelon at its juicy-sweetest and the mildly sharp flavors of arugula and red onions.
A simple vinaigrette also pairs beautifully with blue cheese–the gentle acidity of the vinaigrette against the creamy, silky flavors and texture of the cheese is classic. This pear, candied pecan, butter lettuce and blue cheese salad is a gorgeous salad to serve in the fall when pears are at their sweet and juicy best:
And finally, this gorgeous winter salad of persimmons harvested at their sweet prime in the dead of winter, beets, blue cheese and fennel is perfectly dressed with a simple vinaigrette to offset the sweetness of the persimmons and beets, and as a foil for the creamy tanginess of the blue cheese:
As you can see, vinaigrette enhances produce from every season and has earned its chair at the California Cuisine foundational sauce table.
Join me tomorrow for my final thoughts on vinaigrettes.
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
