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Endive and Apple Salad with Candied Nuts and Blue Cheese

Serves 4

This salad is a study in contrasts: the sweet-and-sour dressing, the crunchy apples and nuts, the slightly bitter endive, and the earthy, soft cheese.

CANDIED NUTS

2 tablespoons sunflower or canola oil

1 cup walnuts, pecans, or almonds

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

Pinch of ground cinnamon

ENDIVE SALAD

6 Belgian endives, trimmed and sliced

2 apples, cored and diced

Maple-Balsamic Vinaigrette (page 89)

½ cup crumbled blue cheese

1 To prepare the candied nuts, heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the nuts and sauté until fragrant and lightly toasted, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the vinegar, sugar, and cinnamon, and toss with a spoon until the sugar caramelizes. Continue until the sugar sticks to the nuts and is no longer grainy. Spoon the nuts onto a plate and let cool; the nuts will crisp as they cool.

2 To assemble the salad, toss the endive, apples, and candied nuts in a large bowl. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad and toss gently. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Top with the blue cheese and serve immediately.

Extend Your harvest Season with Belgian endive

If you have a root cellar or cool basement, consider growing Belgian endives. It is a two-part process: first you grow the roots in the garden, then you force a new plant in the darkness of a cool basement.

Begin in the garden in early spring. Sow the seeds for Belgian endive (also known as witloof chicory) in loose soil, thinning to space the plants about 9 inches apart. Keep well watered and well weeded.

In the fall, carefully dig up the roots. Cut off any side roots. Then cut off the leafy tops to within 1 inch of the crowns, and shorten each root to a manageable length of about 8 inches. Store the roots in a perforated plastic bag in the refrigerator (just as you would store carrots), and remove a few at a time for forcing. Forcing will take 3 to 4 weeks, so plan accordingly.

To force the Belgian endive, pack the roots upright in a deep flowerpot or wooden box filled with well-drained garden soil, sand, or potting soil. Water thoroughly. Then cover the crowns of the plants with about 8 inches of dry sand, soil, or sawdust to keep the growing leaves blanched.

Leave the box in the basement or some other dark spot where the temperature is cool, preferably in the low 60s. Check every few days to make sure the mix around the roots is moist. In three or four weeks, depending on the temperature, tips of leafy heads will begin to peek through the top layer. Cut the bullet-shaped head from the roots and compost the roots. There’s only one harvest (of a “chicon”) from a root.

Belgian endive has a bracing bitterness and a juicy texture. Sliced raw, it makes a fine replacement for lettuce, and it goes particularly well with earthy goat cheese. Fill the spear-shaped leaves with a dab of goat cheese or boursin cheese, and arrange them in a sunburst pattern on a platter to make a very attractive-looking appetizer.

Cooking mellows the bitterness. Halved Belgian endives are terrific braised (25 to 40 minutes), grilled (8 to 14 minutes), or roasted (20 to 25 minutes at 450°F).

Wilted Kale Salad

Serves 4

The kale in this recipe is lightly cooked and then dressed in a Japanese-style dressing. The salad includes carrot for color and arame, a type of seaweed, for flavor. You can find arame at most natural-foods stores and wherever Japanese foods are sold.

½ cup dried arame (sea vegetable)

2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 (1½-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1 bunch kale, thinly sliced (6–8 cups; remove and discard tough stems)

1 carrot, peeled and shredded

2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce, or to taste

1 tablespoon rice vinegar, or to taste

1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

1 Put the arame in a bowl, cover with boiling water, and let soak until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain well.

2 Heat the sesame oil in a large wok or skillet over medium heat.