Green Harvest Part 1

We harvested the first spinach from our garden this weekend. This is especially exciting because it is the first year that our spinach has actually grown into anything worth harvesting. Last night Steve came over, and I made a nice version of the $11 salad. I grilled about 1.6 pounds of NY Steak from our partial cow from Lau Family Farms and served it over raw spinach with the following dressing:

Spicy Miso Dressing for Spinach Salad (Ming Tsai, Food Network 1998)

1/4 c rice wine vinegar
1 T thin soy sauce
2 T light miso paste
1 T sambal olek [that hot chili sauce with the rooster on the jar]
1/2 T sugar
2 T gari (pickled ginger) [check the label for interesting preservatives...]
1 t sesame oil
1/2 c canola oil
1/2 c chopped scallion greens [I just use a bunch, unmeasured, and chop both the whites and greens]
3 c spinach

* suggestions: sliced or shaved carrots add nice color, as do sliced red peppers.
* I use the scallion whites, too.

1. Combine everything from the vinegar to the oil in a jar or bowl and blend or whisk to emulsify. [I used a wide mouth pint canning jar -- everything fit, and I could use my stick blender. It can be done with a fork, but the miso is kind of thick and a blender works much better.]
2. Thoroughly wash, dry, and chop the spinach into salad-sized pieces.
3. Arrange the spinach on a plate, topping with scallion greens and whites, carrot and pepper if you are using it, and grilled meat as you like it. Drizzle with dressing.

Simple and perfect for keeping the heat out of the kitchen.

The leftover dressing is also god as a dipping sauce for other grilled food or as a strong salad dressing. It overwhelms regular lettuce, but darker greens can stand up to it.