Barbecued salmon, tomatillo salsa, making lettuce last, and defining "sweet" wine - includes recipes

Sunset, June, 1994 by Jerry Anne Di Vecchio

Cool move

When food writer Christine Weber Hale gave a party recently, she served margaritas whirled to a slush with ice, and also accidentally reinvented the wheel. She whirled up a big batch of the tequila-based drink, filled glasses for guests, and had some left over. She stuck the blender in the freezer, planning to pull it out shortly for refills. But the steak came off the grill early and the balance of the margaritas was forgotten--until she spotted it at cleanup time. To her surprise, the drink was still nice and slushy. The alcohol in the tequila (and some of the sweetness in the Cointreau, too) kept the margarita from freezing hard.

So next time you serve frozen daiquiris, margaritas, or similar concoctions using high-alcohol spirits, and want to be ready early, just pop a pitcher of the mix in the freezer several hours before pouring time.

SEASONAL NOTE

Keeping greens crisp

I had just returned from the market with bags of groceries when my pal Sally dropped by for a cup of coffee and a good chat. While we sipped and talked, I unpacked the bags and, as usual, dumped the lettuce into a sinkful of water, broke off the leaves, swished them thoroughly to remove field grit, shook off the water, and laid the leaves to drain on towels. The whole process took 3 to 4 minutes. As I was loosely rolling the mound of greens into the towel and putting the bundle in a large plastic bag, Sally stopped midsentence and said, "Why are you doing that? I just wash lettuce when I'm ready to use it and dry it in my salad spinner."

I was caught a little short. Then the answer poured out, suspiciously like a confession. First, I'm not a salad spinner fan (heresy?). Second, I like crisp, perky lettuce ready to use when I'm running late (which is almost always), and third, I don't like to waste food. Calculating how much salad the family will consume is impossible, so I keep a supply on hand all the time.

If I leave the lettuce in the store bag and put it in the refrigerator, in hours the leaves begin to droop and wilt. A day or so later, there's some slime between the leaves as well as where moisture and leaves touch the plastic; before the week is gone, any remaining lettuce is over the hill and gets tossed. If I rinse, drain, wrap, and store the leaves airtight and chill them as soon as I get home, they're crisp, clean, dry, and ready to use for an indecent period--up to two weeks. Stem ends usually get rusty after several days, but I just snap them off.

The spinner is great if you're going to make salad right away. But if you store those leaves--even overnight--fine, spidery bruises from the spinning show up, and the leaves are in decline.

I also rinse and store other leafy greens, especially herbs, the same way. Ordinarily, tender herbs like basil or greens like watercress don't do well after a day or two. Rinsed, drained, wrapped, and stored like the lettuce, they stay usable for 5 or 6 days. Cilantro is salvageable for 7 to 10, and arugula outlives lettuce.

"Hmmmm," said Sally.