California Endive, Fennel, Mushroom, and Walnut Salad Two Ways

Take the basic combination of endive, fennel, mushrooms, and walnuts, and try two vinaigrettes, one a French inspired lemon mustard cream and the other an Italian inspired gorgonzola cream.

Contributor: Joyce Goldstein, Chef, Food Writer and Consultant

Joyce Goldstein is an award-winning chef, food writer and consultant to the restaurant and food industries. Her areas of expertise are menu design, recipe development, staff training, and kitchen planning. For twelve years, Joyce was Chef/Owner of the groundbreaking Mediterranean Restaurant, Square One, in San Francisco. Square One won numerous prestigious industry awards for food, wine, and service. Prior to Square One, Joyce was chef of the Cafe at Chez Panisse for 3 years. She was founder and director of the California Street Cooking School, San Francisco's first international cooking school, and taught kitchen design for the University of California's Department of Architecture. In addition to her consulting work, Joyce was Visiting Executive Chef of the Wine Spectator Restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in the Napa Valley in 1998 and 1999. She received the James Beard Award for Best Chef in California for 1993 and received the Lifetime Achievement award from the Association of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, an organization she helped to found, in 2005. Joyce has written for Gourmet, Restaurant Hospitality, Wine & Spirits, Food & Wine, Fine Cooking, Vegetarian Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle. She has developed recipes for Dr. Dean Ornish, the U.S. Potato Board, POM Wonderful, and the California Rice Council. Joyce has done television journalism and cooking demonstrations, and guest hosts Dining Around on KGO talk radio. Joyce's first cookbook was published in 1989, and she's been a prolific cookbook author ever since. In recent years, Wine and Food Pairing was published in 1999 and Savoring Spain and Portugal in the fall 2000, both for Williams Sonoma. Two books on Mediterranean Jewish Cooking, Sephardic Flavors: Jewish Cooking of the Mediterranean, in the fall of 2000, and Saffron Shores, in the fall of 2002. Enoteca, a book of simple and delicious recipes from Italian wine bars was published in the summer of 2001, Solo Suppers was published in 2003, and Italian Slow and Savory in 2004. Antipasto is due in spring 2006. This salad recipe with two delightful variations appears in Joyce Goldstein's Kitchen Conversations, published in 1997 by William Morrow.

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Chef's Notes

This salad is a study in textures. Crisp fennel, crisp-tender endive and mushrooms, crunchy walnuts, and smooth gruyere cheese. I love the way bitter endive and fennel dance together. If you can't get fennel you will miss a certain exotic anise flavored sweetness. But you can use celery, which is milder, less sweet and, obviously doesn't taste like licorice. With celery the bitter walnuts take on greater importance and need to be controlled because the anise is not there to sweeten the mix. As the celery is blander than the fennel, you may want to play up the lemon by adding more juice and maybe some grated lemon zest to hold the bitter walnuts and endive in check. Incidentally lemon is much better in both these vinaigrettes than vinegar. The vinegar brings out an unpleasant bitterness in the cheese, cutting the more pleasing salty aspects.

Ingredients, French-Inspired Salad with Lemon Mustard Cream

• Note: In the French version we are playing a delicate balancing act between bitter endive, bitter but toasty walnuts, crunchy, anise-scented sweet fennel, mildly salty gruyere, tart lemon and the bite of mustard with mild cream and neutral mushrooms. When this one works, it is a poem.
• 4 small or 2 large heads California Endive
• 2 small bulbs fennel
• 1/4 pound mushrooms, about 2 cups, cut into 1/8 inch slices
• 1/2 pound gruyere cheese, sliced thin, cut into slivers 1/4 wide and 1 inch long
• 1 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped

Ingredients, Lemon Mustard Cream

• 2 tablespoons strong Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons cream
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Remove root ends from the endive and separate the leaves.
2. Cut fennel in half, remove tough outer leaves and cut out core and slice thin.
3. To make the mustard vinaigrette, whisk mustard and lemon juice in a small bowl. Gradually add olive oil and cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Combine endive leaves, fennel, mushrooms and gruyere in a large salad bowl.
5. Toss with vinaigrette. Top with chopped walnuts. Serves 4

Ingredients, Gorgonzola Cream Vinaigrette

• Note: In the Italian variation we omit the gruyere from the salad and put cheese in the sauce. Now we have changed the equation because gorgonzola is saltier than gruyere, and the sharpness of the mustard is gone. So now we're dealing with bitter nuts, sweet fennel, and salty cheese. Here the walnuts become a crucial element, keeping the salt in check.
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola dolce latte
• 1/4 cup cream
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice or to taste
• Pinch salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

  To make the gorgonzola vinaigrette: Puree all of the ingredients in food processor but don't overdo. If too thick, thin with water.

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