This salad epitomizes the Vietnamese love of contrasting flavors and textures.
These are picnic-worthy not just because of their sugar-encrusted goodness, but because you can make them days ahead of time and serve them as soon as you arrive at the picnic site, before the rest of the food is unpacked. Hey, and if you serve them in the car on the way to the picnic, that's okay, too, though technically that's not a picnic. Admittedly, it's a smallish recipe, but there's a reason for that: the almonds are so good that people would fill up on them if given the chance. Feel free to double the amount.
The mild cream-Dijon dressing keeps this salad wine friendly.
Tender greens with somewhat assertive flavors, such as peppery arugula and watercress or bitter endive, or young dandelion go wonderfully with sweet citrus fruits like oranges, mandarins, and blood oranges, ripe pears or crunchy apples, and figs. Roasted nuts bring out the sweetness in the greens. There are endless possible variations on this theme. One of my favorites is arugula, blood oranges, and roasted pine nuts. Or, for an easy main-course luncheon salad, combine frisée, quartered ripe figs, and walnuts, then top it with thin sheets of prosciutto or smoked goose breast.
A pâté de campagne, or country terrine, is a rustic preparation, slightly more refined than a pâté grandmère mainly in that it uses only a small amount of liver—liver is a seasoning device here rather than the dominant flavor. Also unlike the pâté grandmère, some internal garnish, such as fresh herbs and chunks of smoked ham or duck confit, go a long way. The panade (notice that it's made with flour, not bread) helps to retain moisture and to enrich and bind the pâté.
Ingredients
This salad is a combination of simple elements: mesclun salad, warm goat cheese, roasted garlic and good, crusty bread: a perfect lunch. The garlic cloves, soft and puree-like from roasting, can be squeezed onto slabs of bread, along with the creamy goat cheese, to make an impromptu open-face sandwich as you eat the greens.
Ingredients
The following recipe is a Sichuan classic and one of my personal favorites. More than any other dish, for me it sums up the luxuriant pleasures of Sichuan eating: the warmth of its colors and tastes, the rich subtlety of its complex flavors.