Greek Sandwich Salad Style

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Recently, I went to dinner with my uncle (known as Uncle), who is Gran Fran's brother. For the most part, I'm a lettuce with olive oil and salt kind of salad girl. Uncle ordered just this as his salad, which floored me. I hadn't realized there maybe a family connection to my style of salad. He told me that he has always eaten his salad this way, and that he thought it did come from his parents. Who knew?!

Warm weather has arrived in San Francisco. You never know how long this nice patch of weather will be in town, so it's fun to pretend like we have seasons and cook like it's going to stay warm for a few months.

This weather puts me in the mood for a good salad. I made a nice roast pork with Greek flavor a few weeks ago, reminiscent of a the Greek sandwich I had in Paris.  Since I have salad on my mind, I decided to take all the Greek sandwich fixings and make a huge salad.

Seeing as I don't usually make fancy salads (except for my salad nicoise) , I really had to think about how to layer everything in. Some special dressing, which includes Za'atar, a Middle Eastern spice, added a nice extra kick. It's earthy, sour, salty and just interesting. You can just use oregano here, but I love the unexpected flavor.

You don't have to follow my ingredients exactly, but do put the roast pork, red onions and fried potatoes in the salad as these are the keys to the Greek sandwich-ness of the salad.

Greek Sandwich Salad Style

Ingredients

serves 2

  • 1 heart of romaine lettuce, cut into pieces
  • 2 potatoes, oven fried (recipe here)
  • 8 slices of Greek roast pork (recipe here)
  • 1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
  • 1 red bell pepper, sliced into chunks
  • 8 to 10 small tomatoes cut in half
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon Za'atar spice blend or dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method

  • Lay the romaine on a platter, making a mound in the center.
  • Layer on top the red onions, potatoes, tomatoes and red bell peppers, with the pork on top.
  • Put the mayonnaise, olive oil, Za'atar (or oregano) and salt and pepper into a bowl and mix until combined.
  • Drizzle dressing over the salad and serve.

You can put some nice warm pitas out on the table to serve with this great salad.

 

gran fran and her non-reactive pans

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Gran Fran got some pots and pans in the early 1960s. She loves them. The Wagner Ware (pictured here) is her favorite, with her Le Creuset pots coming in a close second. News Flash! Wagner Ware is NOT non-reactive!! Only to be used for certain recipes, they are still Gran Fran's top pick.I believe Le Creuset came via her love of Julia Child, while the Wagner Ware was more of a day-to-day pot. Each, of course, has its special use.

There are, of course, times when one or the other brands of pots will be always used. While the Wagner Ware is usually used to boil water for pasta, the Le Creuset is its mate for making the sauce (you know, you can't use the Wagner Ware, it's reactive, after all...). There were times when the handles (held on by a single screw) would fall off her favorite Wagner Ware, which would not deter Gran Fran. Instead, she would just grab a potholder and grip it right onto the metal where the handle had been. Joe managed to order some new handles for her, so the pots continued on through the 70s, 80s, 90s and today.

Then, there are the dents and dings that all of the Wagner Ware pots have endured over the years. Gran Fran is a big proponent of shaking her pans whilst cooking. I noticed this on Julia Child's first episode, which featured omelettes. Julia shook her pan to fold the omelet. Gran Fran shakes her pans to keep things from sticking. But, she is known for her noisy pan shaking. You can't hear the dishwasher when she is making something that needs a good shake. And, she also likes to clear the kitchen when she is cooking in case ingredients come flying out of the pan.

Just this morning, I found myself frantically shaking a pan of potatoes and realized I am becoming my mother. In many ways this isn't so bad, but crazy pan-shaking isn't what I had hoped for as an ever-lasting trait from my mother. To be fair, Gran Fran makes a mean pan of fried potatoes, so it's not such a bad trait to have inherited.

As you may remember, Gran Fran just has a big birthday. My plan was to get her a new Wagner Ware pot to replace her dented one, but it's going on eBay for as much as $120 a pop, not including shipping. To me, this seemed excessive for a sentimental gift, to a woman who would less than likely use said new pan when her dented, dinged, handle-less pans have been so good to her.

Fried Potatoes ala Gran Fran

serves 4 as a side dish

*use whatever kind of pan you'd like, non-reactive not 100% necessary here

 

Ingredients:

    • 4 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

 

  • Olive Oil to coat the bottom of your pan

 

 

  • Salt to taste

 

Method:

    • Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

 

  • Heat oil in pan, until hot but not smoking.

 

 

  • Add cubed potatoes to pan, over high heat.

 

 

  • Turn potatoes every 2 minutes. Alternately, you can shake the heck out of the pan.

 

 

  • Lower the heat to medium after 8 minutes. Keep shaking or turning potatoes to keep them from burning. But, make sure you leave them long enough to brown on all sides.

 

 

  • Once they are browned on all sides, remove the pan from the flame and place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

 

 

  • Remove from oven, salt to taste and enjoy!!!