Sasha's Kitchen: Mom's Mandarin Orange Salad With Caramelized Almonds

The following salad is one of my "famous" family recipes. The origins of this salad are unknown, but it first came into my family via my Aunt who allegedly enjoyed it at a 1977 Pittsburgh Steelers Superbowl Party. If that's true, it might just be the best food ever served at a Superbowl Party. Everyone I have ever made this for has loved it, even the pickiest eaters out there. The way I make it is a little different from the original recipe, but it's good just the same.

Lettuce (I use either romaine or Boston butter lettuce)
1 small can of mandarin oranges juice drained
1/3 cup almond slivers
1/4 cup sugar (approximate)
celery (which I sometimes forget)
balsamic vinegar, parsley and oil for the dressing

Caramelize the almonds in sugar. When they are caramelized, allow them to cool and then either break them apart with your hands or chop in a nut chopper. Note: we use the famous "slap-chop" now to chop apart the almonds. My mom breaks them apart with her hands, but my husband and I both find the process to be unpleasant. Plus, my husband prefers to have the almonds chopped into smaller pieces because he worries that otherwise someone might chip a tooth (this shouldn't really be a problem as the nuts are not that hard, but he is a dentist's son).

Top the salad with the almonds, mandarin oranges, celery and dressing and serve. The original dressing that my mom makes uses both parsley and sugar. I always forget the parsley, and purposefully leave out the sugar because it doesn't need it as there is plenty of sugar already in the caramelized almonds.



This makes a great salad for any occasion, but is also perfect if you are planning to throw a Super Bowl party in January.

Note: if you want the salad to last for two days, you should save the extra caramelized almonds in a Ziploc bag as they will un-caramelize if you leave them into the salad in your refrigerator for many hours.

Sasha's Kitchen: Mom's Mandarin Orange Salad With Caramelized Almonds

Sasha's Kitchen: Caramelized Apple, Goat Cheese, Pecan Salad

I love making my own salad dressings. I can make a good Caesar salad (although the emulsification is a bit tricky with a creamy Caesar). But I am not an oil-and-vinegar kind of girl. I like unusual flavorful salad dressings. You can make a salad dressing with almost every kind of fruit - I've used strawberries, blueberries, oranges etc. One of my favorite salad recipes is one I developed as a variation of the "caramelized apple salad with blue cheese, black walnuts and spicy orange vinaigrette" in Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook. His version of this salad, which looks and tastes quite different from mine, is served at his restaurant Mesa Grill in Gramercy. They key to the dressing is a fruit juice reduction - the dressing uses orange juice in his salad, but requires that you boil away the juice for about 20-30 minutes until it is a thicker, stickier, reduced liquid.

Here's my adapted recipe for the caramelized apple salad that I love. This was our dinner tonight.

Spicy Tangerine Dressing (tangerine is much better than OJ - less acidic, as I discovered by mistake when I ran out of orange juice)

1/2 quart orange juice (reduce to 1/4 cup by heating on medium to medium high until thickened, about 20 minutes)
2 T red wine vinegar
2 T diced red onions
1 T ancho chile powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3/4 cup canola oil (I prefer canola oil to olive oil in all of my dressings)
1 T honey

Then puree all of these in a blender to make the dressing. Add the olive oil slowly at the end and blend until emulsified.

Next peel 2 granny smith apples. Caramelize these apples by sauteing in about 1/4 cup of the dressing. The strain the excess liquid. Cool the apples before adding to the salad.

Add to the following

1/4 cup pecans
1 bag of romaine hearts
4 oz crumbled goat cheese

This salad should serve 2 as a dinner salad, or 4 as an appetizer.

Sasha's Kitchen: Caramelized Apple, Goat Cheese, Pecan Salad