I continue my Summer of Salad with a delicious bowl of greenery my neighbor Kathryn Gillan prepared last week for her mother Ruth’s birthday party.
The Gillans are fun, generous friends and neighbors. They include my dog Cocoa and me in family events. Ruth’s dog JoJo and Kathryn’s dog Valentina are Cocoa’s best friends and have slumber parties at the Casa Tinky when the Gillans are all traveling.
Both Ruth and Kathryn are accomplished cooks. They frequently deliver meals to my kitchen when I am writing to deadline and don’t have time to cook, a sad plight for a food writer.
They even love me when I mess up … and I messed up big time for Ruth’s birthday party.
Her birthday was on Sunday, Aug. 3. Ruth informed me in advance that myriad family members were coming that weekend to celebrate and outlined the menu for her birthday dinner.
She was planning to serve lobster for 12, plus steak tips for anyone who didn’t care for lobster. (According to her, non-lobster eaters exist. I doubt this. There are certainly none in my family.)
She had asked friends and family members to make a variety of salads. These included a watermelon-feta concoction, potato salad, a tomato-burrata salad, and Kathryn’s kale and sprout salad. (More on that later.)
Ruth said she was planning to order a yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting from a supermarket.
I have nothing against supermarkets, but I told her it seemed silly for her to order such a cake when she had a competent baker (me) living across the road, one who would be happy to bake her such a cake.
Ruth told me it would be fine if I used a mix. As if! I’m not a mix person. And, frankly, my basic yellow cake is so simple that it doesn’t take much more time to assemble than a mix … and tastes exponentially better.
I informed the Gillans that the cake would be made from scratch. I felt very competent in that moment.
The feeling of competence didn’t last. On Saturday Aug. 2, Cocoa and I spent the day greeting visitors at the Hawley Meeting House for the Hilltown History Tour. We returned home, I fed Cocoa, and I took butter out of the refrigerator so that it would be soft enough to cream for the cake.
I planned to bake the cake Saturday night and ice it Sunday afternoon before the party.
At 6 p.m. on Saturday, the phone rang. It was Ruth asking where I was. She and her guests were assembled for lobster, salad, and cake across the road. I had been assuming all along that the party was on her actual birthday — Sunday — but we had never actually discussed the date, which I now learned was Saturday.
I felt awful. I try hard to live up to my obligations. Ruth was her usual gracious self, and I made her a smaller cake the next day, but I felt that I had let her down.
I resolved to try to make my life a little less busy so I could take the time in future to confirm the dates of my commitments. I haven’t figure out how I’m going to do this yet, however.
Happily, no one at the party — well, no one other than this embarrassed baker — seemed to mind having fruit salad instead of cake for dessert. We were all pretty full from the lobster, the steak tips, and the fabulous salads. Even the dogs were sated with lobster. (Cocoa, JoJo, and Valentina are all cute and all spoiled.)
We had a lovely evening of feasting and even a little dancing. My lasting memories (beyond my shame) are of the camaraderie … and of Kathryn’s salad.
Kathryn is a high-end food-service person who caters elegant events on a freelance basis. Most of these parties cost more money than I will see in my lifetime.
Her most recent gig was a high-profile wedding in England at which Elton John stopped in to entertain the guests for an hour. I told her I sympathized with her for having to listen to Sir Elton instead of me. (I sang in Charlemont on the evening of the wedding.)
This affair was lavish and delicious and a great deal of work for her. On her return to the States, Kathryn still got right to work in the kitchen preparing for her mother’s birthday.
She calls her kale and sprouts salad a summer salad. It probably is a summer salad in San Francisco, where she lives when she’s not in Hawley and where fresh produce abounds year round. Here, Brussels sprouts come into season in the fall.
If you want to make the salad, you have several choices. You may purchase sprouts from other areas of the country in a grocery store. You may wait to make it until the sprouts are ready. Or you may substitute a related vegetable. Kathryn suggests a summer cabbage; those should be coming in soon.
She used grocery-store sprouts, and I have to say they were tasty (and of course full of fiber). It may take you a little work to find Tuscan kale, which is flatter and sweeter than the curly variety. It’s worth seeking out.
And Kathryn insists that the almonds be freshly toasted and the cheese freshly shaved. (She uses a microplane for the shaving.)
Enjoy Kathryn’s recipe! Dance a little when you eat it in honor of a lovely summer birthday.
Kathryn’s Summer Kale and Brussels Sprouts Salad
Ingredients:
for the salad:
1 head of Tuscan kale, also known as lacinato kale, torn
15 raw Brussels sprouts, halved and shaved
a handful almonds, roasted, chopped and salted
1 seeded, diced jalapeño pepper
freshly shaved Parmigiana Reggiano to taste
for the dressing:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
the zest and juice of 1 lemon (save a little of the lemon zest for later)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 generous pinch salt
2 cloves garlic, diced or microplaned
1/2 shallot, shaved or very thinly sliced
a splash of fish sauce or Worcestershire (optional if you’re serving vegetarians)
more freshly shaved cheese
for finishing:
additional freshly shaved cheese
a squeeze of extra-virgin olive oil
a little reserved lemon zest for color
Instructions:
In a large bowl mix together the salad ingredients. Combine the dressing components in a jar and shake well. Add a little dressing and a little Parm and toss. Keep adding dressing and Parm until the salad tastes right. Finish with a final “veil” of cheese, the squeeze of oil, and the reserved lemon zest.
Serves 6 to 8.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning food writer and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.