Make This: Citrus Salad, two ways

Variations on a winning dish

After my college graduation ceremony, I went back to the house I shared with several friends and packed my things, stuffing my car with the remnants of a 4-year undergraduate education. That night, my roommates and I threw a party in our backyard. The next morning I got in my car and left town.

I moved to Louisville, Kentucky where I applied for a job at a newly opened restaurant - restaurants being the main option for a young man with a BFA in English and Drama. The manager asked me what I had been up to, and I told her “I just bought a new cookbook.”

“What cookbook?”

It was The New California Cook. I got the job.

I’m lightyears away from that first post-college job, but I’ve still got the book, and the ingredient-led, easygoing California approach it champions still appeals to me. These two salads are a great example of that sensibility: find a nice bit of produce, minimally process it, add a few complimentary pieces, top it with olive oil, and let it rip.

The star of both of these plates is citrus. I’ve been eating lots of it lately and finding good citrus at the grocery - Cara Cara Orange, Blood Orange, Navel, Valencia. These dishes are less a recipe and more a suggestion. If you can get your hands on reliable citrus, here are two plates that would impress most diners or novice cooks. They feel like a restaurant dish but are incredibly simple to produce at home.