PLF on WICC EP 57 Lettuce and salads

For the love of lettuce!!!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Come in and a storming a world of sound.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Jeff Pull on the mic making hearts down the Jeff
Jeff worn a Shotguns Myself Life.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Chef Dead in the background making new be Found.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Song, Girls a Pace They Must Stand any Knight and the.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Driving a conversation.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Song, the Dene from Board Made Dishes, Street Bootstal Tides,
These seth Spring Made Mont and Guys Sun Our Podcast
Our Chess.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Jeff Red got Me Snap you off, the.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Very conversation song on the Fast Say Sound.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
On the knee Sheep fun in the Least.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
And the rest.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Oh Yeah, Happy Saturday, Everybody, Welcome to Plumb Love Foods
right here on the Voice of Connectic at w I
C see. I am your host Chef Plumb, and I
my uh uh superhero chef. Co hosts, of course, is
the legendary chef Jeffrey Here Jeffy, Happy Saturday, buddy, No,
why no, why are you making noises?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
I don't understand.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Well, don't superheroes have to have like a like an intro?
No super makes up for wrestling When when a superhero
comes in, he's like, oh yeah, like that like man
he breaks through a wall and he helps the people
with because they're so thirsty. Oh yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
I think it's the same. Yeah, it's such a weird
thing to say, Jeffrey. I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know. I yeah, we have to well, happy summer, guys,
And summer is a winding down a little bit, got
a few weeks left. That makes me sad to say, Jeffrey,
because I love summer and it's been a it's been
a fun one. The fun thing about this show who
what we've been doing is just talking about some summer foods,

(02:02):
and you know, I think it's can kind of it's
been kind of nice to come on here and not
have a bunch of guests and just kind of give
some knowledge and talk about foods and give you some
of our experiences or some of these summer things.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Definitely, definitely, I just like talking shop, to be honest
with you, I just like getting nitty gritty about certain things.
And when we pick a topic like that, I think
we can really kind of get into it, you know,
like we get to talk about all the different aspects
of it, all the things we like about it, we
hate about it, all that, you know, I think it's
it's a. It's nice to have those kind of conversations.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
It kind of brings it back, and I feel like
we can kind of you know, show off and maybe, hey,
look we really do have some culinary knowledge everybody. But
also it's also fun to do it and people can
learn something and find something fun about, you know, whatever
that topic is.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Like I rered it inspiring for me personally, Like after
we have these conversations like oh yeah, you know corn
or tomatoes or whatever we're talking about, and then I
find myself like getting really deep on it at work,
you know, like trying new things, doing this, playing around
with another recipe, and like, uh so for me, it's
like I hope, I hope, I hope some people are
having the same reaction. Well, last week we did our spot,

(03:00):
our guest spot on The Wonderful Melissa in the morning show.
We talked a little bit about, you know, all the
show that we're gonna have that week, and I told
you about taking garlic and touching yourself on the bottom
of the foot and then the hour you'll taste it
in your mouth. And it's, uh, I want curious of
you if you've done that yet. No, I told you
I have a thick, thick layer of callous on the

(03:21):
bottom of my foot that I don't think anything can penetrate,
not rock, not glass.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, you had to do it to your wife while
you're sleeping, Just just rub a little garlic on her foot.
I don't like the way you said that.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
I'm just joking. Yeah, I might try that. That would
be weird.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Just like, babe, No, just like, why do I taste garlic?
It's so crazy?

Speaker 3 (03:46):
What are you rubbing on my foot?

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Well, I've done it, and I your wife, Well, anybody
who was around have to be open.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
You have to cut the garlic.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, it's like a like a clove of garlic. You
cut in half, so the inside of the garlic clothes exposed,
and you rub that onto you know, open skin, and
then you can taste it in your mouth in an hour.
It takes about an hour.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
I just thought of a new form of torture where
you take jar lick and you put it in like
a foot tub that can lock around someone's feet.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I'm more concerned that you're coming up with torture reforms,
like that's your first go to in your head when
I tell the story.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yeah, I guess that's a little weird.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
It was a little crazy. But this week's show, Friends,
is on that same category. We are gonna be talking
about a topic that none of you are gonna expect
me to say here in a second. But by the
time I'm done with it, you're gonna find yourself craving
a salad. Friends, we are spending all of this today's
show talking all about lettuce yep let us. It sounds

(04:40):
weird to say, but there are so many varieties of lettus.
It's that time of year we can get such great
let us too, So we're gonna talk a little bit
about it. We're gonna talk about some varieties, talk about
some definitions, talk about some things you can do with it,
and then we're gonna end the show with Jeff and
I give you a whole bunch of recipes and things
you can do with different types let us, slid dressings,
all of those things which would be pretty fun. But
before we get to that, a little bit of housekeeping

(05:01):
to get things started. Friends, Listen, I'm telling you right
now there's a really fun event coming up in Norwalk.
You gotta go check it out. It is September fifth, sixth,
and seventh. It is the Norwalk Oysterfest. Jeffy, We're gonna
be there hanging out, having a lot of fun with
our friends at mog Sun. So excited. Look, we're gonna
be surf and turf. Baby, We're gonna be thrown down.

(05:22):
It's gonna be awesome. You got to come check us
out at the Mohegan Sun Tent. Jeff and I are
gonna be featured there doing some fun stuff. We might
even record some stuff for the show there. It's gonna
be a great weekend September. I believe it's fifth, sixth
and seventh or fourth, fifth and sixth. Let me see here.
It is fifth, sixth and seventh.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
A lot of fun, great event. I think that event
for me kind of caps off the summer. I know
it's not a fish at the end of summer then,
but like I feel like that's the end of summer
for me.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Well, it's kind of been done at the bar summer. Yeah,
we've done it a couple of years now, and it's
kind of been the last big hurrah for warm weather
for us before we head back to Manhattan and do
the grind. So it's a I get that we're officially
not at the beach anymore. Yeah, you know here at
the end of the world. I'm over here in Southampton,
and uh, it's different.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
It's different. It is different. It's a little bit different.
But September fifth, sixth, and seventh, the Norwalk Oysterfest comes.
See us out there. We'll talk more about it as
you're closer, but I just want to get it in
your ears so you're prepared and you hear you know,
we should go check that out.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
It's a great, great event. That's a great event. I
mean the music was rocking the whole night. I mean
they have like I mean, you know, it's not like
a Taylor Swift cover band was I mean, I was
just gonna say I was completely They were like, oh,
Taylor Swift cover bands coming out next, and I was like, great,
this is gonna be rough. And it was awesome, like
it like they blew me away. They had several tailors

(06:38):
that were dressing up different body types. It was wild
and it was and they were singing well like perfectly.
It was crazy. It was great.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
It was great, and it's just and then there's you know,
carnime arise, lots of food and it's just a really
fun weekend. So if you come out check it out
nor Rock Oysterfest or September fifth, sixth, and seventh, it's
kind of that same, uh, you know, following up Labor
Day weekend and then boom right that Labor Day more day.
Why do I mix those two up? Jefferey?

Speaker 3 (07:02):
Uh, well, I think Memorial maybor Day.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
No, Labor Day's right, I gotta right, labor later, Yeah,
labor going back to work, Labor later that's good too.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, labor later, Memorial May. Oh, that's pretty good, Jeffy,
Memorial May, Labor later. Yeah, little alliteration for you. There
you go.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
So, jeff when I told you that I want to
talk solid and lettuces, you kind of looked at me,
like what I left?

Speaker 3 (07:27):
No, it was no what I just went because I
thought it was a joke.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, No, I wasn't kidding.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
No, we're going to get into it. I'm excited now.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
But but listen, I mean, I think one of the
things that we get little spoiled with the chefs is that,
especially being private chefs, is that we can get so
much great produce from amazing farmers locally, like the lettuce
greens that I get from you know a farm and
I use out here in Montauk or even you know
when I'm back in Connecticut. It's just completely different than

(07:56):
what you buy in the store. It's it's not even
the same. I think, in my opinion, what do you
I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
I think that there's a there's a handful of brands
out there that are growing, some like hydroponic lettuces that
are still on the root and stuff like that that
that have like a Christmas to it, that that you
can get when it's freshly harvested that day. Like when
you get lettuce and cut down, cut that morning and
then brought to the stand and we're picking it up
hours after it was cut in the field, it's completely
different animal. The flavor is like different. I think it's

(08:25):
a little bit more vibrant, has more to it, like
it actually tastes like something as opposed to sometimes like
as a kid, I used to just think lettuce was
like crunchy water. You know, right right, it's quote Dame drops.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Well, ironically, it's pretty funny crunchy water. I remember saying
that lettus is ninety eight percent water. Most lettuce is
actually are ninety eight percent water. Which is pretty interesting
because when we say that as a joke, but nope,
it's actually true. It really, really truly is. So let's
just talk a little bit about let us for a second,
so we can just get you can lay the groundwork
for it. Okay, So I'm gonna I'm gonna be professor

(08:57):
plum here from it is that? Okay, Jeffy, So what
do you mean that you're gonna teach us what lettuce is? Yeah,
because there is an actual definition for it. So really
there is, there is, there is. So there are four
main types of lettuce, basically. Okay, so it's a crisp head,
a butterhead, romaine, and loose leaf or leaf lettuce. All right,
these are the four main categories of lettuce, right, and

(09:20):
they're all based off how lettuce grows, right, with some
forming like tight heads you know, like a cabbage almost
and others kind of growing like like loose rosettes, kind
of like a romain lettuce. So are you with me
so far?

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah?

Speaker 1 (09:33):
All right, So here's a breakdown. So a crisp head,
right is a a it's formed tight into like a
round head like a like an iceberg lettuce kind of
being the most well known that everyone knows. Right, Iceberg
lettuce is what you know. For me, it's that, you know,
typical lettuce you have to put on top of a burger.
You put on like a blt that kind of lettuce
wed salid. Yeah, it's probably the most well known. And

(09:56):
they're known for their crisp, very crisp texture and they
hold up for a long time. And next is butterhead.
All right, so these lettuce you just made that sound again. Well,
I just wanted to come in and say I really
like butterhead lettuce. Okay, These lettuces have like a soft
buttery leaf. It almost feels velvety on that leaf, don't
you think I do that form? When they grow it

(10:17):
forms very loose round heads. Bib and Boston lettuce are
very common varieties of this. Just to kind of give
you a.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Picture in your head of what I'm talking about, all right, lettuces,
great lettuces.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Now romaine so romain. Actually it kind of encompasses all
the lettuce that grows like an elongated head out of
the ground, right and the leaves that form loose. But
it's I'm sorry, the tall like elongated head out of
the ground right, okay, and their firm and their crisp,
and they have thick ribs that's like the almost stalk

(10:47):
stem parts that the leaves kind of grow off of.
You know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Okay, So just a quick tangent just to ask, is
a chickory a lettuce We're gonna get there.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Don't worry a baby bird, I'm gonna feed you.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, because I'm like, because there's a lot of things
that are shaped like that, right, right, okay, So then we.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Have a loose leaf, right, and this is a type
that kind of grows and to like loose little rosettes
leave excuse me, loose rosettes of leaves rather than forming
a head. They can be green or they can be red,
but they're known for their very very tender leaves. Now
these are all lettuces can be categorized in these four

(11:26):
different categories. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah? Could you give me an example of a loose
leaf lettus? Is that like a red leaf or a
green leaf like purpose? Something like that? Purpose? Yep, you
think like a leaf lettuce.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
You know that some burger restaurants might try to use it,
took fanciers instead of.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
Say that's that's what I actually like to put on
my burger setup is a nice green leaf. I like
that roughly edge of it, you know, but it's a
nice big flat right with a ruffled edge. I think
that's pretty. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
No, no, you're right, and it's something that people definitely
are into and it, you know, I think it's done
more for the h oh what thet wory, It's done
more for the right because it doesn't really it tastes
like much. I think those lettuces don't really taste like much.
Where you can get like, you know, a bib lettus
actually has a flavor in my opinion, Well, yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
Think I think there's like the cool thing about lettuces
when they're fresh, too, is I think that like sometimes
there's like bitternesses to them that aren't in the store
bought lettuces. Like there's different like nuances of flavor and
all the lettuces. I think, yeah, that's what when you
get a good lettuce mix from a farm, it's completely different,
like like like their mesculine mix. If you ever picked
up a mescaline like their own mescaline mix from the farm,
but usually includes all sorts of really cool stuff that

(12:29):
you wouldn't have in a normal mescaline mix totally. And
they're absolutely delicious. Sometimes you'll see like Personlain mixed in
or they'll be uh, you know, a arugula, and I
mean just all these different flavors. So when you when
you make the salad with that, it's just it's just
really delicious, you know, different.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Right, Uh yeah, and it can just the whole texture
thing is a big part of it for me as well.
So let's just get down to brass tax or to
sound really really smart. Lettuce basically is an annual leaf
vegetable of the astor family. All right, what, Yeah, that's
what they're called. It's a I can't say the actual term.
It's as t E R.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Just when I think you're smart and then you go
to the next level and then I'm like, this guy
doesn't have any friends.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
But no, that's not true. I have a couple I have.
You don't it?

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, me, but everybody else that you say you talk
to I believe in. It's a I don't know.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
And lettuce is generally a very rich source of vitamins
K and A, so it's got a lot of nutritional
quality to it. It's delicious yeah, that's what they call it.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
What else is an aster? I'm like, I don't even
know what an aster is. That's why I'm so confused.
You're like, and it's in the astor family, and I'm like,
I'm so glad you asked. It is a herbaceous species
of plants. There's about twenty five thousand species of it,
including shrubs and trees and there.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
All over the world. There's a lot of known as
astor daisies things like that. So that's it's kind of
and they've been around forever too, so that's like the
entire classification of that type of a plant.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
It's a restor. Lettuces fall under that category.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Correct, You can think things like thistle, rag weed, dandelions,
they all kind of fall in that same category. We
already chokes even fall in the same category, and ive
salusify sunflowers, which.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Is describe you're really get in my mind working now.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, so yeah, that's kind of that's what they are,
so it kind of falls in that category. Now, the
next question you're gonna say, and I can read your
mind right now and say, okay, what about kale?

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Where's kale fall in this category? Thank you? Because that's
a big salad. Everyone's eating kale salads.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Correct, And you're right, And kale is a thing. It's leafy,
it's green. However, kale is not a lettuce right now,
they're both you know, leafy green vegetables. Kale actually belongs
in the cabbage family, which so cabbage isn't a lettuce either, correct? Correct,
I asked, So what's that called? Kale is a member

(14:48):
of the baska family, which includes broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage.
It's tough for a little more fibrous textures than lettuces.
It doesn't form like a head if you think about
when you want kale plant, it's just big leaves that grow,
you know. And obviously kale can be et raw and
all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
So okay, I mean I love kale. I love a
kale salad. So brussels sprouts are into that category. Correct,
So what about spinach? Spinach? Listen, you were just getting
all the questions on me, aren't you, Jeffrey. You're hitting them,
which I love. You're like you're going with these things.
And now, like I said, you got my brain, My
juices are growing here. It's like right, right, So spinch.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Well, I'm glad you asked that, Jeffy, and I would
like to answer that question for you. And no, spinach
is not a lettuce. Right Again, both leafy green vegetables,
but they both belong to different plant families. Right, So
spinach is part of is the amaranth family, and let
us belongs like a daisy, like I said before, to
the astor family. It's all about botanical classification. Now doesn't

(15:45):
matter right from a culinary standpoint, because we're getting real
sciencey on it. I don't want to get too sciency
on it, but you know I love food science stuff,
so it's cool, no, I dig it. I think if
you think about like this tender leaves, probably a lettuce, right,
I mean that's that's very general, crunchier, thicker, you know, ribs,

(16:06):
a little bit more of a tougher texture, not a lettuce.
Just keep it simple.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, I would have thought spinach was a lettuce though,
just because it grows like a leaf. And there's so
many different varieties of spinach so as well, you know,
like the you know, you get those like big arrowhead
leaves with the thick stems, and then you can also
get the little baby, little circle perfect little pieces of
you know.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
But think about it. You don't buy a head of
spinach ever. Spinach leaves out almost like the kale, whereas
terming before we're talking about lettuces, they all kind of
grow into a head, whether it's a nice long, elongated one,
whether it's a it's a loose fitting you know, leaves
all together, or tight one.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Like you know, tight ball almost like a all right,
all right, So what about end dives and like Treviso
and Ridicio and that family, that's got to be a lettuce.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
So and dive interesting and Ridicio another great question too. Uh,
en dive is not a lettuce. They are related, but
they're members of the uh they're both members of the
Astra family, right, which is you know, includes arto chokes, chickory,
sunflowers like we talked about. Yeah, it's it's a little
bit different because you know, they're leafy greens using salads.
But one can be bitter and the end dive has

(17:21):
a very distinct texture and flavor profile. So then me
just break it down for you a little bit more
so they both belong to the same botanical family from
a science as poet, right, Yeah, but they are not
it's not a let us technically because of how it grows. Okay,
you know, and Dive and let Us are both using
salads and using salad greens. So again we're talking let
us not salad. You say salad. There's no right or wrong.

(17:42):
You put whatever you want into it.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Right Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, chicken salad.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Sure, sure, you know they belong. And dive is in
the uh oh, it's a Chickorium genus or something like that,
and let Us is the Lactochia genius or whatever it's.
You could have made that up and I would have believe.
This is like boulder dash right now. Listen, top ten percent.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
This is what we do.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
But I like to I like to do this though,
and it sounds crazy, but before we kind of get
down and start talking about all the things and kind
of breaking down flavors and stuff, I think it's important
to understand what these things actually are. I think it
does make a difference.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Yeah, you know, yeah, so I think it helps understand
a little bit about them, which, like from a culinary standpoint,
when you know the root of the science of it,
it kind of helps you understand what you're cooking.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, and how to cook it, which is interesting. You know.
I just think it's really interesting that lettuce is closer
to a you know, daisy than it is a piece
of kale, which is kind of crazy.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
That is kind of crazy, actually, but I guess, you know,
like from a foraging standpoint, you know, I didn't know
all this kind of stuff because I've picked different wild lettuces.
But I don't think there were actually lettuces, now that
you said all these things, I think they were just
you know, edible greens that I just called a lettuce
because I put it into a salad. But they're actually

(18:59):
but like like dandelion greens that must fall under a
not a lettuce.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yes, well it's not a lettuce, but it still kind
of grows the same way.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
You know, data grows exactly the same way. And people
would forge that and you could cook it or you
can even eat it wrang when they're really young, but.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
They're yeah, and just so you're wondering, which does get
really confusing here, And it's the last part. This is
the last part of the test, friends, Is cabbage a lettuce? Right?

Speaker 3 (19:24):
There'll be big question later. There will be if you
think about how cabbage grows.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
It is a leafy green that grows into that head,
you know, kind of forms into a head where all
the leaves kind of get tightly packed. But nope, it
is not a lettuce. It's a different plant family. Again,
we don't need to get to the whole plant families
different types of stuff, but it falls in the same
category as broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts, which I think
is really really interesting.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
So interesting.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, And the difference is, you know, like I said,
different families, cabbage leaves tend to be thicker, cruncher than lettuce. Uh,
the water content. Lettuce tends to have a higher water
content than cabbage. And you know, while both are very healthy,
cabbages often cited as being a richer source of certain nutrients,
you know, but obviously depends on the variety. So interesting, right, Yeah,
And there's been articles too cabbage versus lettuce. Which one's better?

(20:10):
You know, it's it's I don't know. I'm a cabbage fan.
I think cabbage you can do a lot more with it.
You know, we're going to talk about the cooking of
the stuff later on.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
But well, I think, I mean, I think it depends
on the lettuce. You're talking about like certain lettuces can
really hold up to a lot and and you know, yeah,
you know, like I might put bib lettuce against cabbage.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
Okay, I get that too.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
You know, cabbage usually often has a higher vitamin C
content and is you know, higher antioxidants and stuff like that,
where lettuces have quite that kind of quality. I mean
there's lots of vitamins and minerals and that stuff too.
But the same thing. Cabbage is so versatile too. It's
just so much stuff you can do with percent. You
can do so much stuff with it. I'm a big
fan of cabbage, you know, huge. But no, they're definitely not.

(20:52):
They're from different you know, family species.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
So where do collars land or coloreds? Oh?

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Boy, you know that one. I don't know the answer
to off the top of my head.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
Jack, I'm sorry, No, I don't apologize. I just was
in my mind, I'm like, what's a collared?

Speaker 1 (21:06):
I think collars probably fall in the in the category
of like a like a like a spinach. I'm not
spinach like a cabbage. Let's find out here. So college
will actually, no, collars are not let us you know again,
both or leafy colleges belong in the prasca family, which
includes are you ready for this, kale, cabbage, broccoli, So

(21:27):
it's closer to a cabbage or broccoli, which.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Is what I was guessing, Mustard greens, Swiss shard, spinach.
These are all in the same kind of family than
i'd imagine, right Like.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
Look, that's a lot of science right there, and we
come back right here on Plumb Love Foods, Jeffy and
I are going to talk a little bit more about recipes.
Are gonna break down some different varieties for you and
really dive deep into the flavors of these lettus to
stand by friends, Plumbave Foods will be right back Science.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Plumb Love Food. It's right on a Saturday.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
That's why friends are on the Voice of Connecticut w
i c C hanging out with you a chef, Plump
Chef Jeffy. We were spending this day celebrating one of
the most forgotten flavor. Is one of the most forgotten
ingredients in food. Friends, we were talking all about lettuce.
It's summertime, so who doesn't want to talk lettuce, Whether
it's on a salad, whether you make it on a burger,

(22:38):
whether you make a delicious blt is there important ingredients
that kind of seem to not get the attention they deserve. Jeffy,
that's how I think about it.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
I agree. I agree that this is a humble ingredient
that people don't take the kind of ticket for granted.
You know, you just think, oh, it's just as green
stuff in my bowl. But no, there's a lot more
to it.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
What's a BLT without the lettuce? It's just a bt
BT bacon tomato. Nothing wrong with that, but putting lettuce
on there. Oh, now you got something delicious. Now you've
got something crash and you're adding some more vitamins to
your diet.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yeah, listen, you eat some greens. Greens are good for you.
Like more people needed more lettuce.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Do you have a favorite green?

Speaker 3 (23:16):
Yeah? Probably? Little gem might be one of my favorites.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
We'll talk about it.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
What is that little gem lettuce? It's kind of like
a It's like a tiny, tight, crunchy It looks like
a little head of romaine. It's like if Romaine and
Iceberg had a baby and it made like shorter romains.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Okay, like a smaller version of a romain head kind of,
but it's tighter and crunchier. Okay, and do you eat
the whole thing or do you cut it up? I
like the whole thing, and I mean you can do
anything with it. That's the best part about it. Like
Little Jem is like it's like sweet. You can do
like I mean, I've shredded it, I've used it whole.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
I've just cut in head.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
You can brill it, you can really, you can boil it.
You can try it in the pot.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah, I think if I had to pick my favorite lettuce,
I'm gonna go old school man and I'm just I'm
an Iceberg fan. I love a good Iceberg lettuce salad
with cheese and tomatoes some bacon. It's delicious. I think
it's on like it's almost like they ain't broke, don't
fix it.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
So what I will say is I grew up eating
Iceberg lettuce. Me too. Was what I thought salad was
when I was a child.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Much what's better than some chopped up iceberg lettuce and tomatoes,
a little bit of a cucumber on there, and then
a wishbone thousand dole undressing on it.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Yeah, I was gonna go a little further. My mom
would always throw a shredded carrot. You know, she would
grate the carrot into the salad a little. She would
throw the canned black olives.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
On It's I tell you know your mom loves you.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
Yeah, man, I'm telling you my mom always gave me
the black olives.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
But does black oles in a can? That we should
do a whole show in black OUs and a can
because the most terrible thing. I don't know. I don't know,
but I love them. I'm glad you asked, Jeffy. They
fall into the species. Yeah, I don't know. The disgusting,
but what's not disgusting is less disgusting. They are disgusting.
I don't want I think if you're giving somebody Canni

(25:13):
black olives, you don't love you don't love them.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
He said. My mom loves me, and now you're saying
she doesn't love me because they were candle black.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
It was different back then.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
It's different. Everyone did. Everyone liked canna black obs back then.
No one knew anything back then.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yes, and then we learned that great Greek. Then we
learned it or something that they were brought here by
the space aliens that want to destroy us.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
That's not true.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Just what I heard.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
I don't know it's a big pharma.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
I heard it, but I want to go through a
few species of lettuce to talk about them and talk
about what you can do with them and that sort
of stuff. So you feel smarteff because we're going to
test your brain here a little bit.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, hit me.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
So. One of my other favorites is obviously the humble arugula,
also known as rocket or Italian cress. I think rugla
is delicious, has a little bit of pepperinus to it,
a little bit of earthiness to it. The little peppery
kick is delicious, whether you put it on salad, whether
you serve it with some cured meats. That goes fantastic
with What are your thoughts on arugula, Jeffy.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
I love arugula and I find I think there's a
few varieties too that I've I've grown over the years
that I find it a really great I really love
the rocket variety, like the the smaller, tighter kind of leaf.
It kind of grows almost like a lawn, you know,
I'm talking about, like the do the ridged leaves. That's
probably my favorite. But there's a lot of like a

(26:29):
arugula type lettuces, Like do you ever have a upling cress.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
What happened? And what's that?

Speaker 3 (26:34):
It's kind of like a it's like a rugula, but
it's like uber peppery, like much more peppery, and the leaves,
I would say, are fibers. Like you definitely have to
stem it and then I like to chop it kind
of up more and add it to mixes just because
it gives you like this really like whoa, what's that?
You know?

Speaker 1 (26:54):
But you know, I think a rugle also, to me,
is one of those my favorites to use because you
can cook it, like you can take it, throw it
like wilted down on some Pasta's delicious. You even serve
it with just toss a littleit of lemon juice, olive
oil with like a good nice pork dish or a
pork chop is delicious. Or even taking it and make
it into a pesto, blend it with a little bit
of walnuts and gar like a little parmesan cheese, olive oil, salt,

(27:14):
and you know, I'm not trying to get the recipes,
but like it's great for a pesto. You can make
it a ruble a pesto delicious. One of my favorites.
So a aruga, very very very you know, I don't
know forgotten about I think sometimes while not we've already
established in the category of lettuce. Technically baby spinach is

(27:34):
something that people tend to use an awful lot when
making a salad. Not one of my favorite things to use, Jeffy,
but again, same thing. You can you can cook it,
you can eat it raw. How do you feel about spinach?

Speaker 3 (27:46):
So, I love spinach and I love a spinach salad.
I've made so many different spinach salads over the years
of my life. I think they hold up well to
like a warm salad, like if you're gonna do like
a warm vinaigrette of some sort. On spinach, I think
is really great because it sort of wilts a little
bit when you do that. I think it's delicious.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
Great with sup potatoes. By the way, spinach and sweeptatoes
are best friends.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
Spinach souptatoes are really good friends. Spinach and strawberries actually
great friends, great friends.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
My first experience cooking with spinach was when I was
younger working at eighteen restaurant and they had a strawberry
spinach salad and I thought I was fancy.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
Yeah, I was just gonna say that was like, that's
like the first gourmet salad. I feel like my mom
saw like better Home or something like that. You know,
like some idea like we're gonna put strawberries in our salads?

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Right, yeah, which is I mean, strawberries and salad.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
What what are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (28:40):
You're gonna put walnuts and strawberries. Oh my gosh, I
know that.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
I think I think that that was cutting edge at
one point, Like I said, you know, Iceberg, everyone thought
lettuce was chopped tomatoes and chopped cucumbers, and Iceberg lettuce
with creamy dressing or Italian you know, you had like
or you know, a Thousand Island or Catalina fre to
get in there.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
We're gonna get in there and talk about something. The
dressings too later. I love salad dressing. I think salad
dressings are amazing.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Butterhead my favorite brands too.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Oh yeah, Butterhead, Lettuce, you know, butter Lettuce, Boston Bib,
you know, all that sort of butter crunch, that sort
of stuff. It's a very common variety of stuff, but
the most are probably Boston BIB. Like I talked about before,
it's all about the texture of these almost kind of velvety,
you know, it's almost I wouldn't call it buttery right
like Thatt's take. That's going a little bit far with it.

(29:31):
But it's delicious and a great lettuce to have.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
You know. Yeah, I mean we get into it later
and we talk recipes, but I love butter lettuce for
that reason. What you just said it is. It is buttery,
and it has a flavor that lends itself to a
lot of different things. For for raw, I have like
a favorite variety that the Green Thumb's grown, and a
few other places I've seen. I still love the name.
It's called Marvel of Four Seasons, and it's like it's

(29:57):
like a red butter lettuce, like a it's like a
red crunch lettuce.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
It's like you who names these things?

Speaker 3 (30:03):
I don't know, but I love it. I was like,
it's like I I when I see something like that,
I'm like, ooh, you're in it. It's like, you know,
it'd be like Superman of all lettuces. I'm like, what
are you kidding me? I have to have it. I
have to try it.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
It's like I would like to have the Superman of
all lettuce.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
No, but it is, and it's beautiful. And the other
thing is it's like a I love butter crunch lettuce.
I love to like do salads on lettuce leaves. Yea,
and a butter crunch lettuce is one of those lettuce
leaves that makes like a beautiful little cup, you know,
for like a lettuce cup and almost like a spoon
at the end. So it's like if you're gonna do
some sort of like Asian lettuce cup, you can do

(30:39):
like you know, I do a tofu one, I do
a whole bunch of different things, and I just love
that that lettuce particularly is great for it. And it's
great with bosam. Bib lettuce, by the way.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
Which is you'll see common. It's probably the most one
of the most common rids you'll see. It's sold in
that plastic container to protect the leaves because the leaves
are very delicate, yeah of it. But that also that's
what makes it a little bit more expensive because they
have to buy the plastic container. So, you know, bib
lettuce one of our favorites, very very versatile. You think
of any like Jeffy was saying, anything you want to
like make a little lettuce cop of some sort. That's
your winner right there. Butter yeah, a bib lettuce, butterhead lettuce,

(31:11):
definitely a winter Let's talk about cress, right, talk about watercress,
upland crass, curly crass, that sort of stuff, those those
tiny little leaves, you know, the green, tiny little vegetables.
Such a versatile thing to use while it's in a salad,
whether it's making a sauce. You want to make something
super green, get some watercress. You will make it green
as green can be. On a watercress soup, Jeffy, which

(31:32):
I know is one of your favorites.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
I love watercress absolutely, watercress sauce, watercress soups. That's a
world classic ingredient. I feel like people don't use it
as like they used to. I used to garnish a
lot of stuff with the watercress because you can eat it,
like I know, you know that's a big deal to you.
We would dress it salt, pepper, lemon and olive oil
and use it on the plate just because it looks
beautiful like a little a little bush of watercress. It

(31:54):
holds up well to the dressing, so it kind of
keeps its structure. I think it's interesting that Watercress Goes
was great with percentmon, which is awesome per Simmon. Yeah, yeah,
that's the wrong persimmon, perimin. It's some one of those
hard words, Jeffreys. Is it perimon or persimmon Simon? I
think it's per simmon.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
I think there's persimmon pimm Yeah, I don't it's Persimmon's
wrong with us?

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Why can't I get that?

Speaker 1 (32:23):
It's yeah, Simon, I.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
Love listen per Simmons or that's a whole other show.
We can go deep.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
I just I can't we have actual audio of me
trying to say this word, Jeffy getting angry at me
checking Simon.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
Man, this can't be happen, and this is happening. Yeah,
that's how I feel.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
That's how Jeffy feels whenever I say the word for simmon, persimmon.
There you go. Well you got you got the point though,
It's good, Yeah, no, you got the point. Next I'm
talking about here is gonna be en dive, which we
all discussed is not technically a lettuce, but when it
comes to a lot of these lists and things, things
like that, you're making salad that's what we're kind of
going with here. Belgian and dive, French end dive. You know, chickory.

(33:07):
It's that beautiful purple leaf that kind of looks like
a little romaine head. You can find them in the story.
You's just sold in packets of three or four or
something like that in your local grocery store. Very bitter,
but a delicious way to you know, take a lettuce
leave or not a let us excuse me, a leaf
of this and great to use on like a salad
or to even serve an appetized rhome. It's like a spoon.
A lot of people like to do that with it too.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, and dives raw definitely works great in a spoon.
You can slice it up, you can chop it. I
really love braiseden dives, you know. I love them when
you see them really hard and then you cook them
in a little wine of it until they're nice and soft.
I think that's delicious. I love putting it. That's a
great accompaniment to fish or meat of any kind.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
I think great with scallops it is a great one too,
And avocado is really good with that, so.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
You know, yeah, citrus and in dives work really really
well together.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, that's the Actually, I was just thinking that like
citrus and nests, saluid so and dives a great one
keeping it moving here escarroll, which is interesting, which again
falls in the same category as the end died. But
escroll is one of those delicious sauteed vegetables. You know,
it's a type of chickery technically, it's it's bitter, it's mild,
it's leafy, a little frilly edges, you know. And the

(34:15):
one thing I've always hated about this vegetables, I feel like.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
It just goes.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
It doesn't last very long, you know, it's just not
a very hearty vegetable. Like you try to hold it
in your fridge for two days. Next thing, you know,
like you go grab it and leaves or starting to
whiel pretty bad.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
I don't know. But yeah, delicious far I can talk
about absolutely is how to store it, because it's that
there's there's people don't know how to store their lettuce.
Oh yeah, I think it's like a wild thing.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
It's like, are you a chickery? Are you an escroll?

Speaker 3 (34:40):
Guy? I like to cook escroll. I don't like it raw,
but I love like I mean, as an Italian you
know escroll, you know, braced escroll and beans and uh
oh yeah, I've made a yutuca greens for you before,
which is like an upstate New York kind of staple
in a lot of places where it's like a used

(35:00):
for a long time and then sauteed with a lot
of parmesan cheese and crispy piscutto a little breadcrumbs and
then baked and it you know, it becomes just like
really delicious, gooey greens dish.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
You know, it's not.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Healthcare, but it's it's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
What about Frizze, How do you feel about that? Frizze
also falling in the same category chickory, But what do
you think about Frissee, it's a relative of escua roll,
you know, a little lacy leaves, funtry stem.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Yeah, I think just immediately when I think Frizze, I
think of I used to The first French restaurant I
ever worked in was this place with a duke, and
it was the first time I saw frize not as
a garnish on you know, the side of like some
sort of plate. You know, sometimes there's always like a
garnish with a twisted limb and like diners and stuff

(35:45):
like that, because the way it looks, it's kind of
cool looking. And it was like a frog leg dish
with a warm bacon vinegarss frog leg dish. Yeah, it
was like just like fried frog legs that were served
on top of this frize salad with a warm bacon
vinegrette over the top of the like the whole thing.
There's like mustard season stuff. It was. It was really good,

(36:07):
but I remember thinking like this is so French. I'm
so so sophistic, so fancy frieze, and then it's so
fancy later having a like you know, famously the frieze
salad and a lot of restaurants is like, you know,
a lot of frizze with usually a warm bacon dressing
or some sort of bacon vinigrette and a poached egg,
which you know, or a challtte vinaigrette with a poached egg.

(36:31):
It's just so good with some lardones.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
We get in the dressings.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Earlier.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
I have such love for like a bacon dijon vinaigrette.
So simple, but we're delicious and we're gonna talk about
that too. Yeah, Frizze very very fancy French iceberg letus.
We got to talk about for a minute, the classic,
you know, in the crisped lettuce. You know, it's really
really Some people even call it igloo lettuce. You ever
heard of that?

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Never?

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, me either, but that's something that I read that
they call it basket You can form like basketball sized heads,
tyley pack and those leaves crunchy.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
You know.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Again, I think it's a staple to put on a burger,
the staple to put on a BLT. That's the go
to lettuce for me.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Yeah, you know, it's funny. I hated it for a
long time once I started cooking and had other lettuces,
and then I kind of fell in love with it again.
I found it at a farm stand, you know, an
organic variety that they grow, and it really changed my
whole perspective on it again and I fell in love
with the crunch. It just is super crunchy. In fact,

(37:30):
it's one of those lettuces that you could right before
you serve it. I mean it sounds crazy, but I
like to put my bowls in the freezer and interesting
then right before I dress it, like for a wedge,
I'll put the iceberg lettuce in the freezer for like,
you know, three or four minutes right before I serve it.
So it's ice ice, ice cold, and I just it
holds up so well, and the way it crunches when

(37:52):
it's that cold, it almost feels like it's a little frozen.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
And I just love that the play on it, you know,
like that that.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, I think it's a great one. So Iceberg who's
the love iceberg let Us? Romaine, Well, a little gem
we talked about already. Wanted to get into that. But
one of Jeffy's favorites there leaf lettuce or loose leaf
let us they call it. You know, I think, uh,
you know, comes all the different colors. You can get red,
you can get green. It's in a yellow. A leaf
lettuce great and a salad you know. I think we

(38:22):
all have that experience of leaf letus. Jeffy, I know
it's pain about to clean.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
Uh yeah, I guess, I don't know. I really love
leaf lettuce. I think it's great. It's like it's a staple.
And all the salad mixes I buy and and make.
There's a one particularly that I love called black seeded Simpson.
It's just a it's it's good because it's kind of
like it grows really well all year long. It's like
really heat it's like a you know, sometimes lettuce is

(38:49):
in in the really thick of summer in July and
the beginning of August, lettuce tends to wilt a little
bit because of the heat. But this is like one
of those like just really hearty, kind of goes all
year long kind of varieties that it's always available and
I just I tend to love it.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
What about mash How do you feel about mash mash
a little green lettuce, lambs lettuce. Yeah, you know, mash
is another one of those things that uh kind of
like cherviil.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
It's like I was just like, oh, it's like a
fancy name for that's.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
What I feel too. But I feel like it's kind
of falls in that in that bid let us kind
of category where it's like a delicate little lettuce, you know.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
Yes, yes, and and I mean I think dressed and used,
you know, with a bunch of other stuff. It's it's
it's really pretty and it and it but I don't
know if it like tastes like a ton of stuff
to me. You know, it's like one of those lettuces.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
That's very kind of mild and like small and let
us go well you think about like the mineralistic things
with this, like give me some kind of like olive
situation and with some shallots and it works well then yeah, yeah,
I think yeah, I was just gonna say, I've I've
always had mush with different types of seafood as well.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
Yeah, like mush goes well with.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
You know, at least salmon gallops. Yeah, things like that, Like, yeah,
it works great with that. Let's talk a little bit more.
I know we're getting down to it here, Ridikio. You know,
we talked a little bit about this earlier. Again the
same chick or family but bitter, you know, but greatness
sad great when you have a like a vinigrette, it
goes really well with you. I'm saying, like something something

(40:28):
acidic is the word I'm looking for. It really likes acid. Yeah,
and it's super bitter.

Speaker 3 (40:33):
It's a It's actually a fun ingredient to play with
when you're looking for a balance of a dish. Sometimes
I think, like the bitterness of a ridicio or end
dive is it kind of can really when when the
flavors merry together it's really beautiful.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
Also works well if you mix it with the nice
of rugless slade with the men dive, the pepperiness and
the bittery, but it works.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
Yeah, it's honestly, it goes really well with different cheeses,
really pungent cheeses and things like that too. I mean
for years I made an end dive sala with this
like parmesan roasted garlic vinagrette, and then like had like
strawberries and parmesan crisps, and it was just like, you know, really,
it just it just holds the bitterness, holds up to
all those other flavors really well and kind of like

(41:14):
becomes something fun and new when you eat it together.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
It's like, we got to talk about romaine lettuce too.
Obviously the center ingredient in a caesar salad for me.
You know, leaves larger, has a nice crunch to it,
you know, remains a great lettuce. It it can stand
for the grill we talked about. We talk about grilling
at next break. But you know, it's one of those
great lettuces. I think it's kind of been around forever.
You know, I'm a remain fan, Jeffy, Yeah, I'm a

(41:37):
big romain fan. I feel like caesar salad is one
of those like safe salads.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
Yeah, Like when I'm traveling and I don't like kids
a salad, Yeah, I don't want to put myself on
the edge of a four time precipice of some sort
of terrible thing happening to me, I just go, I'll
have the caesar salad.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
Yeah, the safe bet.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
Right, It's always like usually pretty safe. Every once in
a while it comes.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Out ironically as healthy a asalagy. You might think it
is caesar dressing and parmersan cheese. It's a lot of
stuff in there if you're going for health and the
last minute here before we go to break, spring mix
usually a mix of baby lettuces, often called mescaline mix
something like that. You know, prepackaged ones can be they
a got down pat now. I remember when we were younger,
it used to be a little harder to get it.
But you know, this is a great lettuce kind of

(42:19):
mixes up red leaf, green leaf, some other mixes in there.
You know, a good mescaline mix generally means a mix
of lettuces.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yeah, definitely. And if you most farm stands make their
own and they're usually really beautiful. They'll add nasturtiums and
and all sorts of like really cool things that you
wouldn't get in the store. Brought one and they're made daily,
So it's a good thing to do. Go out and
check out your farm stand, ask them about it.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yeah, the farmers market because coming's you know, September coming
here in Connecticut. We have some great, great farmers markets
that are still you know, kicking till not wrapping up
to October. So it's a great time to get it too.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
Yeah, And honestly, right now, as the weather starts to
cool off a little bit, things start to change. It's
lettuces come in so thick, leafy greens all that it's
gonna be so delicious.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Yeah, it's beautiful stuff, man, I'm a big, big fan
of it. So it's worth checking them out and going
to your farm stand, going to your local you know,
farmer's markets there and tell you what, even even grocery
store at this time of year, you're getting those pre
pact ones. I mean they look pretty good, so it's
worth it, and try making your own. Just grab a
few heads from the grocery yourself and make your own
mix out of it. You know ad adds a little

(43:22):
chickory to it, Add some meridicio, get some leaf, some icebery,
mix them up. It's great piece of cake. Jeffy add
some mosh to it. Mush it, you know, mush it.
When we come back friends, our house band The Flames
has written a new song, completely new style song I
never heard before. We're gonna play that for you. Plus
we're gonna talk some recipes, salad dressings and more when
we as we continue to celebrate the wonderful, wonderful leafy

(43:46):
green called let us stay right there checking out Plumb
the Foods. We'll be right back.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
M m Tell me about letters? What is it?

Speaker 2 (44:19):
And how do you use it?

Speaker 3 (44:25):
Can I cook it? What about a letterce souit? Is
that a thing?

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Does that sound gross? Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
You should listen to Plumb Food.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
You should let Chef Plumb and Jeffy teach you the
truth it's about. Tell me about letters?

Speaker 1 (45:00):
What is.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
And how do you use?

Speaker 1 (45:16):
M Oh yeah, love love foods right here on a Saturday.
Oh my gosh, jummie, this is my favorite song I've

(45:38):
ever done. Oh yeah, comebout lettuce?

Speaker 3 (45:42):
What is it? How do you use it?

Speaker 1 (45:44):
My favorite is Lettuce soup restaurant of gross.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
I gave him a handful of notes and it was
surprised me with smooth, smooth, smooth smooth. It was hilarious.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
It was hilarious.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
I don't know shocking about it, man, that they work
hard on that stuff. I don't know about funny. I
think I just want to hear it again. Talk about Letice.
I mean, who's sang that there's I think it was Mitch,
but it must have been Yeah. But they did it,
They did it. I mean we should really one day
just play all the songs they send me, because they'll

(46:20):
come up with three or four songs and U I
usually pick one and then they kind of go with it.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
That's hilarious And that song is my favorite I.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
Think of all time with Lettice.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
It's so funny. I mean, the Johnny Cash theme on
it is crazy.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
How do you use it?

Speaker 1 (46:39):
It was crazy. If you're checking out Plumb Love Foods
right here on w I to see the Voice of Connecticut.
If you missed any part of this program, Jeff, you
can get it anywhere. You download your fine audio from podcast.
You can get it anywhere anywherewhere, anyway, always there, always
We're on the web forever, forever and always on the internet.
That's right, and scrubs us and cancels us for being cool. Okay,

(47:03):
I mean that went negative. I wasn't going to go
that route with it, but I appreciate that. Jeffy, well,
I see I brought it back positive though. We did
kind of kind of like it was like a roller
coaster with me. Your smile, you just gave us hilarious.
We're talking all about let us. We're celebrating the summer.
We're celebrating a leafy green vegetable that doesn't get enough
attention on this program. We thought we'd come out here

(47:26):
and talk all about let us. We just went through
a whole bunch offer varieties and giving a few tips
on it and talking about it. And of course in
the first break, we gave you the science behind lettuce.
What makes lettuce? Why is it lettuce? What's the difference
between let us and cabbage? You know, and you would
be surprised to learn if you go back and listen,
that cabbage and broccoli are closer to related, closely closer,
hang on, it's coming, are more closely related than cabbage

(47:49):
and lettuce. So cabbage and broccoli are closer friends than
cabbage and let us. So make sure you check it out.
If you miss it, go back, download it, put it
on your audio device, listen to your car. You got it.
That's what we do. It would be let us experts
like us. That's right, let us be your experts.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Oh way, way, come on, now on, now, hold on.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
I know I got a little exciting there. So I
think let us has a history, you know, when you
think about it, like when it comes to cuisine, hot
cuisine and restaurants, and I think certain restaurants may have
kind of popped the popularized the salad, you know, which
is interesting. And there's some places that have been out
there for a long long time doing it, and some
you know, very very famous salads that were created at

(48:31):
some of these restaurants. I want to talk about a
few of those, Jeffy, and see I you've ever made
any of them?

Speaker 3 (48:34):
All right? Hit me?

Speaker 1 (48:36):
You've heard the Brown Derby or the originator of the
Cobb salad? No, no, well brown, I've heard. I heard
of the cob salad. I didn't know it was made
in a place called the Brown Derby. Where's the Brown Derby?
Well as a restaurant in nineteen thirty seven by a
gentleman named Robert Cobb. I don't know where that restaurant is,
the Brown Derby, but he's the one who created the

(48:58):
cob salad, and that Cobb soud is that one I
think about it, kind of that salad that has like
a mixed green situation and egg and bacon and cheese,
you know, sometimes corn that salad too, right.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
Uh maybe in Virginia.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Yeah, well, he reportedly used finally chopped leftover to create
the salad. That's where the whole thing came from.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
So finally chopped.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Yeah, the cob salad. I love a cop salad chopped, that's.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
What That's what originally was I usually put out, you know,
I let people choose because I feel like copsa is
one of those things like some people like Italian, some
people like balsamic, some people like like a creamy ranch
or a.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Ranch like a blue cheese. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm
a big fan of it. Like you, I think a
brown of a cop solad is fantastic.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
Yeah, I think cops ouad is fantastic. Like I said,
it can go with any one of those things, and
then you can play around with the ingredients a little bit.
I think the basics are chopped egg, uh, some sort of.
I think it's isn't it blue cheese? Isn't it chopped egg,
blue cheese? Onions? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (50:00):
Brown Derby, by the way, it was from. It was
a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles. Oh so how
about that? And it was famous for it. It's like
brown Derby shaped hat. It was obviously damaged, but it
was damaged by a fire that was from an earthquake,
and then the whole building got demolished and in the earthquake.
So a replica of it actually exists at Disney's Hollywood

(50:22):
Studios in Florida now, so you can go there and
still have that sort of situation if you're interested. So
try that salad, a cop salad, and just know it
came from California.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Right.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
That's interesting. We talked a little bit about our last
break about one of my favorite salads, a Caesar salad, right,
And there's been some debate on where the salad actually
comes from, but it's been credited to be Caesar's Restaurant
and bar in Tijuana, Mexico. Yep, that's what I've always heard, yeah,
which is kind of interesting. I just don't think about,

(50:55):
you know, a Caesar salad being in Mexico. But it's
you know, kind of been credited as the birthplace of
the Cesar South, which is interesting. So yeah, you know,
I just you hear that and you like, see your salad.
I'm thinking, like this sound has been around since Julius
Caesar or something, you know, But that's not true.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
That's what I used to tell people, and then I
was corrected by someone, and then I looked it up
and it was true from Mexico. And now I love
to serve it on Taco Night and tell everyone it's
actually a Mexican salad.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
So wow, I never thought about That's interesting to say that.
So it's pretty good. Yeah, right, and I'm like, uh,
it's Mexican Monday. We're having sea yes, you know. Have
you ever heard of the nineteen oh five salad?

Speaker 3 (51:34):
No, but I bet it was made in nineteen oh five.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Well, it's from the Columbia Restaurant. It's a Tampa based
restaurant famous for its signature nineteen oh five salad, a
flavorful combination of iceberg, lettuce, tomato, ham, Swiss cheese, olives,
and a unique garlic of regno dressing with Spanish olive oil.
The salad was created by waiter Tony Noriega in the
nineteen forties, a pretty famous solid I remember how I've
had nineteen nineteen oh five solid before.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Nineteen oh five salad, I don't think I've ever had that.
It sounds like a chef salad to me, like Swiss
cheese and yeah, it kind of does. Right, Yeah, it's
like which is another one of those shouts I love,
like the chunks.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Of right, right right? How about the chop salad? We
all know the chop salad is, right, So is there
like a specific chop salad? Well, I don't know. I
think the chop slid in my brain kind of falls
that same category almost as the cob salad, just kind
of all chopped up and stuff. But La Scala is
the famous Beverley Hills restaurant know for creating the chop
salad allegedly and search the celebrities, even President Kennedy since

(52:29):
the nineteen fifties.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
So what there's chop salad? Is there a recipe with that?

Speaker 1 (52:35):
There's not. Oh, we can look it up.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
I'm sure, yeah, I can look up let's see, but.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
Yeah, it's a you know, I don't know if it's
the right way or wrong when it comes to a
chop slid. I think you can kind of do whatever
you want with it. That's the fun part of a
chop salad. There's no right or wrong. And for me,
I think a chop sole is delicious. You can put
whatever you want in it and have a nice salad
dressing with it, you know, for me, like I also
like a nice chunky blue cheese dressing. I think with that, yeah, delicious.

(53:01):
What do you got, Jeffie.

Speaker 3 (53:03):
So they're saying the base of a common chopped salad
is one a lettuce, usually a romain or an iceberg.
Two a vegetable or vegetables, usually tomatoes, cucumber, red onion,
bell pepper, sometimes avocado. Third thing they put in a
chopped salad is a cheese, which we they're saying has
to be anything from mozzarella, parmesan, feta, provolone, often crumbled

(53:27):
or cubed. And then they're saying salambie, pepperoni, turkey, chickens, forth,
usually some sort of meat. And then another thing peppercinis, chickpeas, olives,
things like that. Those are optionals, but basically all these
things go into a bowl with your dressing, mix it,

(53:48):
put it on your cutting board, take your mezzaluna or
your knife, and literally just chop it up into little pieces.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Yeah. I kind of like that because it's easier to eat.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
Yeah. I've always loved the chop salad for that reason,
especially on the go, Like if you have like you
have to like eat in your car, it's like the
easiest salad to get on a fork.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. The panzanella salad one
of my favorites. I make a version of that with
tomato and cucumbers, green peppers, and you know the toasted
garlic bread. You know, I take a little garlic bread
and toasted off and put that in there. It's a
delicious one.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
Yeah. I love a panzanella salad and old the old
bread salad. I think we've talked about on this show
before when we were talking tomatoes, But I just think
you know garlic bread or you know fried pieces of
bread or stale bread that's soaked in tomato water, any
of these things, you know with tomatoes that have been

(54:48):
salted and seasoned and then used. It's just it's just
such a delicious combination. I just I can't get enough
of it this time of year.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Yeah, it's an amazing salad. Started at Via Coroda. It's
a New York restaurant held by chefs Jody Williams and
Rita Sodi.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
It's a Tuscan style pansanela salad. That's how they do
it with an age sherry vinegar, which I've never done,
but that sounds delicious.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
With sherry vinegar.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
I've been to that restaurant.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
Oh have you nice?

Speaker 3 (55:14):
Nice?

Speaker 1 (55:15):
How about the Gigi salad? Legendary Beverly Hills restaurant called
The Palm, a very very very popular restaurant. They're all
over the place.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Well, it's a basically basically a variation of a Cobb
salad with iceberg let's baked tomatoes, potatoes, avocado, egg peppers, shrimp,
and a garlic red wine vinagrette. It's a favorite of
actor Rob Low. Roblow is still counted something we should
be commenting on anymore.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
I mean, he's been in some stuff. I guess right,
I mean he's still an actor.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Yeah, I guess so. But yes, that's what that is.
That's what that is. I love that. I love sounds
like that. And the palm is a you know, a staple.
You know everyone knows the palm.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
Yeah, solid, solid steakhouse.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
This one's gonna kind of shock you a little bit.
The salad bar. Do you know who's credited with being
the first place to like nationally make a salad bar
a real thing. Ponderosa, No, Wendy's, the fast food restaurant.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Yeah, Wendy's had a salad bar before they did.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
It was the first national fast food chain to introduce
salad bars back in nineteen seventy nine. It led to
their evolution into the super bar buffet in the late eighties.
Remember you could have like a they would do like
a baked potato thing at the salad bar, like chili
and all kinds of crazy stuff at a Wendy's salad bar.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
Oh yeah, I love a buffet, I really, oh baby.
I mean I go back with the buffets, man, country
kitchen buffets, Chinese buffet, you know, breakfast buffet. I used
to go to an Indian lunch buffet. Yeah. Man, I
see the word buffet and I think deal and then

(56:58):
I go check it out. And then I think options.
I'm an option guy. I like walking around a big
display of foods like like and just and just be
like walk around like I'm a king, like I could
choose whatever. You know what I'm want? Four pieces of bacon,
one sausage. It's a beautiful thing. Man, it's a buffet. Sorry, sidebar,

(57:19):
We're gonna.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
Know what just happened there. That seems like a whole thing.
I've never been a buffet guy at all. I always
think buffets are kind of gross, really, yeah, because you
don't know how long that food's been sitting there.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
And I don't know. Well, I mean, you gotta trust
the people, man. You look at those people obviously don't Yeah,
I mean what about the ground round? You don't remember
the ground.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
I've been to ground round, I've been, I remember.

Speaker 3 (57:40):
But when I was a kid, the best place when
you were you go to the ground round. They weigh
you when you were a kid, and it was a
little embarrassing because I was a chubby kid, and they'd
always be like, oh, this one's gonna be almost a dollar,
you know, and they'd laugh. And my sister would always
be like little skinny thing and she'd be like twelve cents,
and it was as terrible. That was that. That part

(58:00):
was hard, but the but getting inside and getting a
plate and just being like, go ahead, little chubby man,
just go like it was like Disney World for a
poor child. It's like the best thing in the whole world.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Well, I remember the software of ice cream thing there,
which is pretty That's what I'm saying. Can I get
some more?

Speaker 3 (58:16):
Don't get sick, I won't. Oh yes I will, oh yes,
I will cheese.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
But yeah, Wendy's is credited for being like the salad
bar people, which is interesting.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
That's wild because that's not that when I think salad bar,
not first place that comes to mind.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
Again, nationally, there's other places that had salad bars first,
but they kind of did it nationally.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
You know, so the ground round wasn't a national place.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
No ground rounds on a national channel. Think ground rounds
in certain parts of the country.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Remember the Sissler steakhouts.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Well we had Western Sizzler.

Speaker 3 (58:42):
Oh wow, that was a different one.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
That was a different one, Western Sizzler, you know it
was that was his.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
Cousin Eddie down down the way. He was like, you
can't just be Sizzler. I'm the sizzler. He's like, we're
Western sizzler. Sorry.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
Places like the Chopped, creative, solid companies, Green, just salad.
I mean these places are now like you know that
that quick serve type restaurant. Not it's like a step
up from fast food, but they focus all on salads
and kind of making it, you know, national and easier
to get salads you because some places, some parts of
the world having a salad wasn't always easy, but places
like us are doing that now.

Speaker 3 (59:18):
Yeah, you know, honorable mention of salad bars. Have you
ever been to a Wegmans? I have, Yep, yep, yep, dude,
it's the one just opened the Norwalk. Really yeah. They're
a upstate New York state but where I grew up,
and they have a salad bar there, and they used
to have a lady that would mix your salad for you.
You can go through and pick all the stuff and

(59:38):
then bring it to the lady and then she would
like chop it for you and do whatever to it
and make it a little more special.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
It made it feel special, right.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
Oh sancial and it was really nice, bless her heart.
So good.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
So also Sweet Green, which is a it's a chain
particularly known for its focus on sustainability and fresh, seasonal ingredients.
Sweet Green has also gained a cold following in the
United States because of its it's embraced the technology of
automated kitchens. So that's coming your way. We have robots
making your salad.

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
Really, I had no idea that, you know, I've only
been to a Sweet Greens probably once or twice in
my life. And it was like, you know, driving from
here to Boston or something, and like, you know, hitting
a rest area, I'm in there and I'm like, okay,
I don't think I've ever been KFC, No, Wendy's maybe,

(01:00:30):
And then I was like, maybe a salad. I'm gonna
go salad. And it's not a bad place. It's it's
interesting though because you can get it. It doesn't actually
it doesn't mean it's healthy. Well there's when I went,
there was definitely people working there, But that's what I mean.
And it's like, you know, you go through and you
pick all the topics and by the time you get
your salad it's I don't know if I would call

(01:00:51):
it a healthy salad.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
No, I agree, it's the same category as like people
think Trader Joe's is healthy, like.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
You know, yeah, like it could be healthy if you
made real, like good decisions. But like, if you give
me the options of putting you know, shredded cheese and
candied nuts and things on it, I'm probably going there.
Yeah bacon, would you like extra bacon? Ser Yes, you're like,
do I be there? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Come on, baby crazy Jeffrey baking me down. Yeah, I
just didn't know that that was such a thing. Like
it's great. And of course, I mean another example of
a you know, restaurant that's made it's mark, you know,
with with salads, the Cheesecake Factory. They're vegan cobstyle and
their other salads. I mean they have a whole there's
like a whole separate menu at Cheesecake Factory for just solads.

(01:01:37):
Cheesecake menu, Cheesecake Factory menu, it's crazy. Well, it's a novel.
It's not really a menu.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Do like to read? Yeah, it's a novel. It is
it's it's not a menu. It's like it's yeah, it's
like seven pages. The menu is you know, four by
twelve and the font is like six.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
For me, it's like the diner menu in Hell where
there's just you'll never be able to choose what you
want because the options are just they're just so vast.
You're like, yeah, it's like it's but it's all good.
That's the other thing about that place. Everything's over the
top and weird. Like you know, you get like chicken
fingers and they come out on a on a it's
like a platter.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Chicken fingers. It's so funny. Yeah, it's It's not my thing.
I'm not a cheesecake factory guy. I get some people
like it. I'm into it whenever you're into enjoy your food,
but you know, not my thing.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
But they do.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
They have a whole section on salads, and it's kind
of known for having that salad you know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
Hm hm hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
What was the place you go you go to for
a sol when you were a kid growing up and
like what would you eat from a solid.

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
Standpoint, from a salad standpoint.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
We talked about the iceberg and all that stuff, but
was there like a place you guys would go and
you would think about getting a salad there?

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Like I the only salads that I used to really
like because a kid is maybe a Caesar salad someplace
or I loved. I mean, I'm like, oh, I'll have
a tuna salad or a chef salad, you know, with
something that's like mostly meat and not vegetables. You know,
like I like those kind of salads. But then in

(01:03:18):
high school, we had a salad bar in our cafeteria.
So if you didn't want to eat the like you know,
whatever it was, there was like basically you could make
like a chef salad. They had like some chopped cold
cuts and some chopped cheeses and like tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion.
At high school, yeah, my high school, it was like
a small salad bar. It was like a small area
and they had it was usually just like chopped romain

(01:03:39):
or chopped iceberg, but you can like make a little salad.
And like, you know, when I was like, you know,
I started like being an artsy teenager, I started eating salads.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
I'm having a salad.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
I'm like, art sounds are very cool, purprabanied salad.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
I'm having a salad. Mine was it was like an
Italian solid. It was delicious. That would be iceberg lettuce,
you know, simple, it would be a whole bunch of
red onions on there.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
Yeah, we candle that we talked about earlier that are
just terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Yeah, baby, But then like this really just tart red
wine vinaigrette on top of it, and almost it was
still in the South so long. It was starting to
pickle the onions, which is kind of great, and you know,
a whole bunch of fresh cracked black pepper, which I
think has to be on there. But this salad was
just amazing. It had like a feta cheese.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
Where'd you get it?

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
A restaurant called Stavros.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
Yeah, you know, it's funny when you described that, that
reminds me of like the pizzeria salad very much. So yes,
you know, like when you get the salad with the
takeout go you want the anapasta for four and it's
like comes in, it's like it'll be like you said, olives, onions,
art chokes. It's always like pepperccini, the one random one
or two pepperccinis thrown on top, you know what I mean.

(01:04:54):
Like I love Peppercinese. I love peppercinis too. The ones
I used to get always have like salami and provolone
or something like that. Oh yeah, you get fresh monzarella
thrown on top of one roasted red peppers.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
That Solid used to like seriously. Sound for me was
a really really fun one that takes me back just
talking about it thinking about it, I might want to
try to have one for.

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
Yeah, now that you describe it, I it's definitely one
of those sounds, a good sound.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
It's one of those take you back a little bit. See,
this is what I'm talking about. Salad greens can take
you back and give you memories. I mean, I'm sure
you guys listen and have some sort of souad that
you have when you were younger, when you were a
kid or in college that just takes you back to it,
you know. Yeah, we used to go to U Crops,
which is a local grocery store that had a big
salad bar too, similar to a Wegman's, and they would
do all the same things. It was just they were
really into the prepared food thing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
So I love that. It's great. Listen.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
Yeah, as you just talked about, there's restaurants all across
the country that have made their name making salads. So
it's out there. I promise when we come back, Jeff
and I are going to talk about some some tips
for salad greens and some recipes and all that good
stuff youre checking out Plumb of Foods right here at
w I you see the voice. I can stay right
there Plum Love Foods on WY see the voice of

(01:06:27):
the Connecticut Happy Saturday to you. Hope you're having a
great weekend. Go out to dinner to night, go support
our wonderful restaurants all across the state. Maybe go have
a salad. That'd be crazy talk right, I might have
a salad flight, Jeffy, I think, yeah, all this salad salad.

Speaker 3 (01:06:42):
I'm gonna make a salad right, Yeah, finish sounds great.
I'm gonna salad up.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
Yeah. I love a good salad. We're celebrating all things
lettuce and salads on this episode of Plumb Love Foods.
And by the way, if you've missed any part of
the show, you know where you can get it. Go
download it anywhere to get your podcasts and all those things.
You can get the show too. It's there, tons of episodes,
tons of backlog. You can go check them out. I
mean it's actually over five hundred episodes of the show.
Isn't that crazy, Jeffrey, It is crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
That's a lot. What are you looking at I'm just
fixing up my list.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Oh all right, you have a list.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
I'm organizing it. But we're talking recipes. We're talking all
our different recipes.

Speaker 1 (01:07:19):
Yes we are, aren't we?

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
You know? Listen, I think that my thoughts. Someone to
have my thoughts in order.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
Okay, okay, I don't know. You're actually good to put
on like write down.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
Well, I don't have to write it down. I like
to have my thoughts in order because sometimes I get
distracted and I tend to go in tangents. I don't
know about you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:33):
See, I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
Yeah, every once in a while it happens. You Yes, no, sometimes,
all right, takes to admit it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
We talked a lot about different varieties of lettuces. We
talked about some restaurants that have made their name, you know,
serving salads. The power of the almighty salad. I'll tell
you what. I make tons of salads, particularly at work,
even for myself as well. But salads are a staple
of my dinner service every day, and I think one
of the best things. We talked a little bit last
break about a chop salad. And I'll tell you what, Jeff,

(01:08:04):
your chops out to me. It's kind of one of
those go to salads where I can take leftovers and
just turn it all into you get some great greens
and turn it all into a delicious salad. I love it,
a good chop salad and there's no right or wrong either.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
Right, No, listen, a chop salad, man, it's a classic.
And honestly, you can do a Caesar chop salad. You
can do like any salad that you love. You can
throw it together, put it in a bowl, put it
on the cutting board, chop it up, throw it in
a bowl and serve it and people are gonna go crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
I'm well known in my work addles of making the
taco salad using tacos from you know, we might have
tacos on a one night and then I have a
leftovers that turn into a sala the next night as
the you know, in using a little salad cream, little
sauce as the dressing. You know, a taco salad. Like
I said, leftovers. You can call it chop salad, leftover salad,
whatever you want, but it's a go to for me.

(01:08:55):
It's really easy and there's no right or wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:08:57):
Yeah, there's definitely no right or wrong with a chop salad.
I mean for me, I tend to. I love to
just like a summer chop salad to me would be
like tomatoes and corn, and maybe like some grilled onions,
some grilled chicken, some sort of like crispy lettuce. It's
like a romaine or a bib or a little gem maybe,

(01:09:19):
and I like a nice polsamic. Throw some avocado in
that sure, and then just chop that sucker up really
really fine. I like it. I like my chop salad
really chopped.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
Yeah. Yeah, you almost eat it with a spoon exactly.
I want it to be like chop chopped. And I
just there's, like I said, it's something about being at
the ease of eating it. I think there's something that's lost.
Sometimes chefs lose that in a plating. You know, we
get so caught up and like trying to make something pretty.
We don't think like, well, how do you eat it?

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
You know, And with a chop salad, right unassuming there's
no pretension there, it just tastes really good.

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
It can steal the show sometimes.

Speaker 3 (01:09:57):
That's what I'm saying. It just tastes really really good.
You know. Cheryl Staff form mart of Eating used to
do this thing with leftover salads. Sometimes we would do
for family meal the next day. If we had a
big salad that has been dressed, like with all the
stuff on it like you were mentioning before, we would
take it back to the kitchen and the next day
we would put it in a queasin art and we
would pulse it up and make it almost into this

(01:10:18):
like salad chopped salad pesta, we kind of sandwich spread,
and we would put it on a on a hero
and then make like an Italian hero with that being
the base instead of like mayo. And I'm telling you
it sounds crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
Whoa, but it is so good, like like dough my mind.
This is great.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Yeah. So if you have like a dinner salad, right
you make you know, everyone makes a nice like the
wooded bowl salad in the middle and there's always some
left at the end and it's been dressed and you're like, ah,
we're not going to eat it. Whatever, save it, whip
it up just for the next day and get all
the stuff to make an Italian sandwich and use that
as the spread on the bread like a hog spread,
like a hogy spread kind of, and it's it's really

(01:11:00):
good shout out Cheryl Stare from Mart of Eating. Yeah,
and really great recipe.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
When's the last time we did that? Because that sounds great.
I want to try that, you know, it's it's been
a minute.

Speaker 3 (01:11:10):
I have to have I have to have that in
mind when I'm when I'm doing it. But it's it's
definitely a fun thing to do. And it's like, like
you said, I love you. We're we're big leftover fans.
We love like tinking stuff and making stuff again. And
that's one of the things you can do to like
kind of stretch it out and have something for the
next day. Anybody who has a deli, I mean, that's
what I'm telling you, that's a genius move.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
Well could you think of a dress salad? It wilts
down so quickly you think it's not gonna hole, it's
not going to go. I mean that it doesn't look pretty,
but it's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
Yeah. No, And and if I remember correctly, we would
just add a little more salt and pepper to it
when we were posting it up, and uh, you know,
just to make it a little more vibrant and to
be able to pull hold up to the sandwich.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
And man, that that's the move right there, Jeff, I
can't believe we have never told me that one before.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
Yeah, like I said, just came to mind. We're talking,
we're talking salads and fun things to do, and I
was like, oh, man, I remember that. That was a
really cool thing.

Speaker 1 (01:11:56):
Man. That's a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:11:57):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
I like that a lot. That's that's a great move.
I got to give it a try.

Speaker 3 (01:12:00):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
I also really enjoy a panzanella salad. I think I
mentioned that last break, but especially you know, summertime and
getting those beautiful tomatoes from my garden, and I don't know,
it's just it's one of my favorite, Like it's a
meal to me. We do you know, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers.
We'll toast off some baguette. I'll take the bag at
and just you know, toast it and then rub it
with a little olive oil and on a clove of garlic.
I was a rubbed garlic on there, because you know,

(01:12:20):
if you talk early, if you just touch it, you know,
get that garlic flavor.

Speaker 3 (01:12:23):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
Grill them or put them in the oven and roast
them off and just serve it, you know. The tomato
salad over top of that. You know, a little mozzarella
cheese in there, balsamic, olive oil, salt, a lot of
black pepper, fresh basil. Just one of my favorites. You know,
it's a meal in itself, you know, if you look
for a good vegetarian meal.

Speaker 3 (01:12:41):
Oh yeah, you know. My favorite way to serve the
pants and ella is to make like a tomato and
bread teren. I take the tomatoes.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
Oh you told me about this.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
Yeah, chopped garlic, red wine, vinegar, lots of salt and pepper,
some herbs, maybe fresh oregano, definitely, some basil, maybe some parsley.
Mixed up it all up. Let it sit so that
it gets really soupy. You want it to macerate. You
want all the juices to come out of the tomatoes.
Then I take like some thick bread toast points or
thick baguette pieces that i'll cut on a bias. I'll

(01:13:12):
leather them up with some garlic, oil and lathorum. Sorry,
not leather.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
I was about to ask you, is that a new technique?

Speaker 3 (01:13:19):
Then you leather them, which is say no, you can
beat it with this chemical anyway. You take the chart,
You take the pieces of bread, you charm on a grill.
Then you take them back, put them in a treen pan,
a loaf pan, a bowl, put the put a layer
of bread down, Put the tomato with some juices down,

(01:13:40):
layer of bread, tomatoes, juices, layer it up, weigh it,
put it in the fridge overnight. You say, weigh it,
make sure you subscribe. That means you put something on
top of it, a plate with a can on top
of it, something that's going to fit in there, a
strip of cardboard, and something on top of that. A
bag of water works. You can take like a gallon bag,
fill it with water and fit it on top of
whatever it's in there, and that'll weigh it down a

(01:14:00):
little bit. Something that's going to hold it there, keep
the air from for me, and keep it from when
it absorbs the moisture. You don't want it to sub
you know, to come apart and to rise up. You
want it to stay in there and all the moisture
to kind of collect and to become homogenous into one block.
And then you're gonna flip that out the next day
and slice it and serve that with like a little

(01:14:21):
side salad, maybe a rugula, and it's it's so delicious
sounds great.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
I gotta try that. That's I like that.

Speaker 3 (01:14:27):
And even good for leftovers, right, great with leftovers great?
And another thing, great thing with leftover salad. You have
a leftover tomato mozzarella salad, you can just use that
in the layers with the bread. Or if you know,
and you have leftover Christine's, you can take all this
stuff at you know, when you're wrapping up dinner. You
can take all these things and mix them together and
put them in a bowl and weigh it down and
then the next night flip it out and serve it

(01:14:48):
as your salad course.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
That's crazy, that's crazy. Hey, what do you feel about
like grilled lettuces? Because I I'll never forget watching an
episode of Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay years and years
and years ago, and he was at this restaurant and
they served they were serving a grilled lettuce, and he
lost his mind. He was like, why would you why
would you grill the lettuce? It doesn't make any sense
to grill the lettuce. Like he gets so fired up

(01:15:12):
about it, and I was kind of like, huh, because
in my brain, I'm like that can't possibly taste good.
So I grilled lettuce, and you know, I put a
little olive oil and lemon on it, and it's a
great side dish.

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think grilled lettuce has
its place. I don't think you should grill all lettuces.
I don't think all lettuces hold up to being grilled.
But I think grilled greens and grilled lettuce is things
to put a little char little char marks on stuff
so good. One of my favorite grilled lettuce grilled salads
is I'll take a lemon garlic olive oil kind of mixture,

(01:15:45):
chopped garlic, lemon zest and lemon and olive oil. I'll
take little gem, little heads of little gem. I'll just
split him in half. I'll put him in that garlic
oil lemon mixture, just soak him up a little bit,
and then I'll chart the heck out of them. And
then I'll use that lettuce as a caesar salad. I'll
take my caesar salad dressing. I'll take some shaved arm,

(01:16:06):
put some hard boiled egg with it. And it's just
to me, it's such a good salad. It's a fork
and knife salad. You got to like slice up the
little heads as you go, but it's it's like meaty,
the charredness and the lemon and the garlic kind of
charred up in there, and it just becomes the creaminess
of the caesar goes with it so well. With a
little cheese in the egg to me knock out some

(01:16:27):
you know, some big creutons.

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
I love that. And just to debunk a little bit
of myths here for everybody, Yes, a caesar dressing generally
does have anchovies in it. For those of you who
you're if you listen to this show, you're probably a
food person, but you shouldn't be afraid of anchovies. They
add a lot of salt and a lot of mineral
taste to things, and they can make it taste very,
very full. But you can you can make it season
dressing without anchovies in it as well. It's not a

(01:16:49):
big deal. Jeffrey, dude, you.

Speaker 3 (01:16:51):
Want to teach you the easiest caesar like. I work
in a house sometimes where we have kosher guests where
caesar salad has dairy in it, and it's a you know,
it's hard to get past if you're serving meat. You
can't mix meat and milk and meat in the same
meal anyway. I do. It's a cup of cashews, raw cashes,

(01:17:12):
probably three quarters a cup of water. If you want
to do it overnight, you soak them overnight on your
counter at room temperature. I like to do it at
room temperature, so a little bit of bubbles form, so
it slightly starts to ferment. That also will soften your cashes.
But you can just put really hot water over them
and let them sit for ten minutes. Then you take
two cloves of garlic, a squeeze of one lemon, a

(01:17:34):
tablespoon of dijon mustard, a few capers. I look for
a vegan Worcestershire sauce and then salt. Put it all
in a blender, pure it smooth.

Speaker 1 (01:17:44):
And it's it's grazies dress.

Speaker 3 (01:17:46):
It's a delicious caesar dressing. It's absolutely vegan. You know,
it's not low fat cashes or a high fat nut,
but it's definitely healthier than eating you know, a cup
of oil was what you would normally do.

Speaker 1 (01:17:57):
Right that's a great pack right there, and then delicious.
I mean, we should post that recipe somewhere, but that's
a good one. That really is a good one right there.
I've made it before using a little lemon juice. You know,
olive oil, garlic. You know, you basically a bunch of
herbs on a black pepper. And you know, once you
start putting that olive oil and lemon juice together, it
kind of emulsifies. And I put little mustard to help

(01:18:18):
hold the emulsion together. You can make a great dressing
out of that too. It really simple to go on
top of that caesar Esque dressing. How about that?

Speaker 3 (01:18:25):
Yeah, Caesar esqu If you don't want to use nuts,
you can also use silk and tofu works really well
in this situation.

Speaker 1 (01:18:32):
That just makes me feel gross.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
Yeah, but the word I mean, I know, silk and
tofu sounds weird, but it is really a silky kind
of a in it, Like what's the word for. It
doesn't have any flavor of its own. Yeah, it's very bland.
It doesn't have very bland. So you had a lot
of garlic and all the things that go into a
Caesar dressing into the silk and tofum puree. You're going

(01:18:54):
to get a similar result to the cashew and it's
going to be really really good.

Speaker 1 (01:18:57):
Yeah. I think if you're going to grow your lettuces
as well, just to go back to that a little bit.
I think it's important to season the lettuces, you know.
I think it's important to you know, put some olive oil,
put some lemon juice on them, let it sit with
that for a little bit, let it get kind of
into those crevices of the lettuce, you know, as you
work down into it and it hit it with a
good amount of salt, and then finish it with black pepper,
Especially if you're putting on a grill, you want to

(01:19:19):
finish it with a pepper. But I think that's how
you really kind of maximize those flavors. Because you charge something,
you're creating carbon, which if you look at a pH scale,
that's the opposite side of a cidic, So you're charring it,
creating that carbon. You're you're really pushing the edge, you know,
down lower on the you know, on the pH scale
where great flavor is all about balance. So you got
to balance that out. So finishing it too once you

(01:19:39):
come off the grill, a little bit of lemon juice
may not make it taste like lemon as much as
you think, as it just starts to balance out that
scale and bring it back the other way to kind
of get balanced. So lemon juice on charred lettuce way
to go. I'm a big fan of that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
Yeah, I think. I think acid is just so important
to salads and lettuces and bitter flavors in general. What's
your what's your go to like basic salad dressing?

Speaker 1 (01:20:04):
Mm hmm. That's a good one. So my basic go
too easy when I do, is generally a I do
a little bit of mustard, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil.
That's kind of my go to, salt and pepper. You know,
it's simple, easy, you know, go to. If I have
some fresh ribs, I'll throw some fresh ribs and they're
chopped up. Yeah, you know, but that's my basic one.
Lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and a little

(01:20:27):
bit of mustard. I just get the mustard because the
mustard itself can really help hold things together a lot,
so I like to use it for that. So I
have such a hard time making vinegrettes as small batches.
I almost always make them in a blender, like I
make them by usually, like the smallest I can usually
make is a pint. You know, I know, it's crazy,

(01:20:49):
So I have I always have like eight vinegrettes in
my fridge that I like. You know that I'll turn
into of the you know this marinade and this will
go into this and it'll be the base of that.
But for me, it's it's got to be at least
I like to do three, maybe two.

Speaker 3 (01:21:04):
And a half to one.

Speaker 1 (01:21:05):
I like it a little like vinegar ear, like my
basicgret you know, like oil vinegar. But do you have
a particular vinegar you make Like I'm making a quick
you know, this is Jeffy's uick slid dressing.

Speaker 3 (01:21:17):
What is it like like the quick Italian dressing?

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
For me?

Speaker 3 (01:21:21):
Is it would be a tablespoon of dijon, a clove
of garlic, probably like another tablespoon of some sort of
Italian seasoning that I have floating around. Then it would
be two and a half cups of red wine vinegar.
I'd probably squeeze a little lemon if I had some
laying around, and then I would just do like another cup,

(01:21:43):
maybe a little bit more of oil, depending on how
it's coming together. I put in a blender and I
would just wap it until it came nice and smooth.

Speaker 1 (01:21:50):
And then cut those numbers down a little bit you
could make less than.

Speaker 3 (01:21:53):
A pint, I know, but for some reason, I feel
like it doesn't have the same everything it tastes, flavor
or velvetiness that I get when I do it in
the blender. Like I just like that, like yeah, that
way of making it. Like I'm not going to make
one in a bowl, right, Like I can do it
and just and I could do it by eye, but
like when I throw them together fast. For some reason,

(01:22:16):
I just really love using a blender and I do
that all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:22:19):
So it's like whenever I do a party, well, it
multiplies it great, it kind of pulls it all together.

Speaker 3 (01:22:23):
Yeah, and I like the way it looks on the south.
It's a machigan, a nice color.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
I don't know what if you're making a creamy dressing,
what's a quick creamy dressing from you?

Speaker 3 (01:22:30):
Quick creamy dressing for me? We talked about that Caesar,
but you know that Caesar is a good one to do,
you know. I like to make a creamy bolsamic, So
I kind of follow the same steps that I was
doing there that before, but instead of adding oil, I'll
add mayo. So I'll do the same thing. It'll be

(01:22:50):
a little little garlic, some sort of herb, a tablespoon
of dijon, the two cups of balsamic, and then I'll
do a cup of mayonnaise and then I'll purrey that
and it becomes like this really creamy emulsified balsamic, which

(01:23:10):
I just really love to use. I love to put
that with a believe it or not, artichokes, steamed artichokes.

Speaker 1 (01:23:15):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's on here doing God's work. Bro,
Mayo is a joke.

Speaker 3 (01:23:19):
Mayonnaise a lot of things to do with Mayo. That's
certainly true.

Speaker 1 (01:23:22):
That's certainly true. Yeah. I'm kind of with you on
that too. I like doing the emultification. I kind of
do like a creamy like you know, Italian dressing as
what I like to do. I get a lot of
herbs and some garlic and some lemon, and you know,
like you even said before, I'll even jump in there
and get that you know, Italian dry seasoning mix and
add a little bit of that to it and some
black pepper and you know, olive oil. Get a little

(01:23:44):
squirt of mayo in there's as well. Mayo is delicious
with this stuff. You might even go crazy and put
a little parmeers on cheese in it, hit it in
the blender, hit in your food process, so you can
whisk it too, which works well till it really just
comes together. And you know, I tell people all the time,
don't sleep on making that and use it for sauce
or a grilled chicken or grilled fish or something like that.
A great vinagrette or a great salad dress and can

(01:24:05):
make a great sauce for you know, you know, your
main protein as well, not just on salads.

Speaker 3 (01:24:09):
That's definitely true. That's definitely true. I love to serve
fish often grow with a vinaigrette, you know, just on
the plot with I think it's just such a great accompaniment,
especially in the summer, Like you want that like bright
flavors and that acid to kind of like makes you
feel a little lighter.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
So let me ask you for your chef brain as
we end the show on this note here, So we
talk about salads. We've talked about you know, having greens
and you know all the different types of salads and
things like that. What about someone makes a apraisee and
they call it a capraisee salad, but it's just sliced tomatoes, mozzarella, like,
there's no real salad according to our definition aspects to that.

(01:24:48):
Does that stuff make it crazy? You're like, why are
they using these words?

Speaker 3 (01:24:51):
No, because it's like chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad,
ham salad. These are all just homogenized mixes of uh
protein with you know, onions and celery and mannis sauce,
you know, mostly some sort of sauce, and that to
me is delicious. So if someone wants to be like, oh,
like Greek salad, for instance, the original Greek soud, I

(01:25:12):
don't think really has lettuce. I think it's just olives, tomatoes, cucumbers,
and uh pasta, right kinda yeah, like and and feta.

Speaker 1 (01:25:22):
You know, it's like it's like a bunch of it's
more like a chop. What did you still kind of cheeseta?
Why did you say like that?

Speaker 3 (01:25:28):
That's my new thing. I like to when when I
say things with an ethnicity that I connect with, I
like to try to use the youre ridiculous proper annunciation.

Speaker 1 (01:25:37):
It's the only time you've ever tried to properly enunciate
anything that's hilarious.

Speaker 3 (01:25:46):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:25:46):
It kind of makes me creat you know how I
get weird about menu and like and using words aren't
what there actually are and stuff. It just it just
makes me crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:25:53):
Like you wanted to say, and garnished with a rosemary
sprig for no reason?

Speaker 1 (01:25:58):
Well, yeah, it's nonfunctional garnish.

Speaker 3 (01:26:00):
But what if I wrote that on the menu and
serve it to you it said that, Like, would you
be like, Aha, that's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:26:04):
I appreciate that, Yes I would. I'd be like, all right,
well that makes sense. He's saying for no reasons at all,
but to put on here and make it look like
there's a tree limb and I.

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
And I burnt this piece of parsley and then laid
it on the plate for for what because.

Speaker 1 (01:26:22):
Dot dot dot ah, because yeah, I don't know. And
you know, from a seasonal standpoint too, I think, you know,
staying away from tomatoes and things like that, obviously we're
not in season is a is a good idea. But
think seasonally too when you're eating salad greens, you know,
I mean, not all the time. Should we be able
to get beautiful salagreens year round? You know, think about
the time of year that sort of stuff. I think

(01:26:43):
it's important because you get the best quality. And when
it comes to having food, we all want to have
the best food we can possibly get, So try to
eat seasonally, especially when it comes to produce things like this, right.

Speaker 3 (01:26:51):
Yeah, absolutely, And don't give up on lettuce just because
the summer's coming, like oh yeah, and the like fall
lettuces all the way through so good, like until the
first frost. Keep eating those lettuces.

Speaker 1 (01:27:04):
Yeah, and get some nice greens and get some like
acorn squash and butteron and squash, and toast it and
toss it with those greens with a great vinaigrette we
can get in the fall outs. Now, Jeffy, everything's changing.

Speaker 3 (01:27:14):
Oh it's getting wild. It's getting crazy up here. It's
getting crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:27:17):
It must be. If you missed the part of the show,
go down with the podcast everywhere you get your podcast,
of course, follow us on Instagram at four King Chef
that's Jeffrey at Chef Plumb, and of course the show
at Plumb Love Foods on Instagram.

Speaker 3 (01:27:28):
We appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
Guys take some time to hang out with us here
on a Saturday and talk.

Speaker 3 (01:27:31):
Let us.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
It's a lot of fun. Thanks for letting let us entertaining.
You mess it all up. I don't remember friends. It
is one of the most important things we have in life.
Let's give the time it deserves. We'll see you guys
next week. Right here on plump Foods, take care of
friends about to eat tonight. I have a salad

Speaker 2 (01:27:54):
And the rest