dish
the
I’ll see you and braise you FLASHINTHEPAN Great Food No Attitude. Mon-Fri
7am - 4pm
(Breakfast ‘til Noon)
Sat & Sun
531 S. Higgins
541-4622
8am - 4pm
(Breakfast all day)
www.justinshobnobcafe.com
Ever wonder what happens to salad mix when it grows up? Those tender baby leaves get big and leathery in a matter of weeks and farmers can no longer sell them for the premium that salad mix commands. The adolescent foliage remains supple and delicious by almost any standard, but in the jungle of salad mix economics, only the smallest and most tender survive. Enter “braising mix,” a marketing category created by farmers who’d grown tired of watching beautiful, nutritious, and valuable food go to the chickens or get plowed back under. With the advent of braising mix, the only people who lost out were the farmhands who used to take it home by the bagful after work. Oh, and some consumers are losing out too, but only the rare few who actually try to braise the stuff. Indeed, “braising mix” is a misleading choice of name. As any dictionary and most braising recipes indicate, braising involves first browning something, typically meat, and then cooking it in a closed container with liquid for a very long time. It’s a technique designed for turning tough things like shank into falling-offthe-bone delicacies like osso bucco. Those leaves of overgrown salad mix may be getting a bit chewy, but braising them is still like using a cruise missile to hunt deer. Not only is it overkill, there’d be nothing left to enjoy. Luckily for the coiners of the term, few among the general public, including many good cooks, seem to know what braising is. The word sounds brief, glancing, teasing, and suggests a quick spin around the sauté pan rather than the commitment that true braising entails. I’ve no reason to believe that anyone has literally braised a batch of braising greens the way one braises meat. Luckily for aspiring leaf braisers, a new generation of braising mix recipes have emerged. Most of these recipes can be found on the websites of farms that grow and market braising mix, and who can blame them? Just a few weeks ago at my local co-op, braising mix was priced $3 a pound more than salad mix or baby spinach.
by ARI LeVAUX
careful not to splatter yourself in the eye. Ideally, have someone toss the salad while you pour the hot dressing in, allowing as much hot dressing as possible to come into contact with raw, chewy leaf. There are lots of more-complicated hot salad dressings out there, but beware of such recipes online. Many are full of fat and thickeners. While I can appreciate some bacon in my hot salad dressing, I don’t need the flour, butter, eggs, and sugar that some people—evidently salad haters—require to make leaves palatable. While braising mix started out as a way to salvage overgrown salad mix, nowadays it’s typically grown from a special mix of seeds. Gone are the days when farmers picked through the overgrown salad mix to harvest the cookable greens like kale, mizuna, chard, bok choy, and radicchio, while leaving the lettuce behind. The more in need of cooking a particular leaf is, the longer shelf life it tends to have. If you forget about a sack of braising mix in the back of the fridge for a week, it will be no worse for wear. But any lettuce in the braising mix would be reduced to slime after a few days in the bag. The creation of braising mix produced a beautiful gimmick. Less overgrown salad mix went to waste, more got eaten, farmers made more money, and nobody got hurt. The biggest victim was the poor word “braise.” Even though braising mix is just a few days past salad-like tenderness, it’s named for a cooking technique that brings you about as far from salad as you can get and still be in the kitchen. Today, the well-deserved popularity of braising mix adds to the misunderstanding of the meanPhoto by Ari LeVaux ing of its namesake. You could make the argument that braising pulling out a prepped ingredient. After a quick greens are actually really good when braised, albeit rinse, it’s ready for the frying pan, steamer, soup for a very short time in a very small amount of liquid. In fact, I do this a lot on a stovetop. If you add oil to pot, or even salad bowl. If your braising mix is a little too tough for a nor- the pot, when the liquid evaporates the dish phases mal salad, but salad is what you want, one good from steaming to frying. Because it’s like frying and option is to douse it with a hot salad dressing. At the steaming at the same time, I’ve been calling this techsimple end, a hot dressing can be little more than nique “freaming” for years. But do the marketers call minced garlic sautéed in oil with salt and pepper; as it “freaming mix?” No, they do not. Am I bitter? Well, soon as you smell cooking garlic, add vinegar, being maybe just a little. That price inversion, while not typical, shows how strong the demand is for braising mix. It’s become a regular in many high-end kitchens, both commercial and private. Just as salad mix is a labor saver in that you don’t have to trim, clean, and cut a head of lettuce, braising mix allows the same convenience of reaching into a bag and
LISTINGS Congrats to Grads, from Your Friends at Food For Thought!
www.thinkfft.com Mon-Thurs 7am - 8pm • Fri & Sat 7am - 4pm Sun 8am - 8pm • 540 Daly Ave • 721-6033 Missoula’s Original Coffeehouse/Cafe. Across from the U of M campus.
Missoula Independent
$…Under $5 $–$$…$5–$15 $$–$$$…$15 and over
es that sell for $6. Crazy cheap! Crazy delicious! See you the Clark Fork River Market mid month. Lookin’ forward to the sunshine. Xo Bernice. www.bernicesbakerymt.com open M – F 6a – 8p 190 S. 3rd St. W. 728-1358
culinary creations in the great room; visit with the chefs and dine in the kitchen or enjoy the fresh air on the Outdoor Patio. Parties and special events can be enjoyed in the Bison Room. Winter Hours: 4pm - 9 pm Seven Days a Week. $$-$$$
Bagels On Broadway 223 West Broadway (across from courthouse) • 728-8900 Featuring over 25 sandwich selections, 20 bagel varieties, & 20 cream cheese spreads. Also a wide selection of homemade soups, salads and desserts. Gourmet coffee and espresso drinks, fruit smoothies, and frappes. Ample seating; free wifi. Free downtown delivery (weekdays) with $10.00 min. order. Call ahead to have your order ready for you! Open 7 days a week. Voted one of top 20 bagel shops in country by internet survey. $-$$
Biga Pizza 241 W. Main Street • 728-2579 Biga Pizza offers a modern, downtown dining environment combined with traditional brick oven pizza, calzones, salads, sandwiches, specials and desserts. All dough is made using a “biga” (pronounced beega) which is a time-honored Italian method of bread making. Biga Pizza uses local products, the freshest produce as well as artisan meats and cheeses. Featuring seasonal menus. Lunch and dinner, Mon-Sat. Beer & Wine available. $-$$
The Bridge Pizza Corner of S. 4th & S. Higgins Ave. 542-0002 A popular local eatery on Missoula’s Hip Strip. Featuring handcrafted artisan brick oven pizza, pasta, sandwiches, soups, & salads made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Missoula’s place for pizza by the slice. A unique selection of regional microbrews and gourmet sodas. Dine-in, drive-thru, & delivery. Open everyday 11 to late. $-$$
Bernice’s Bakery 190 South 3rd West • 728-1358 May is Cupcake-Maynia month at Bernice’s. Each year Bernice’s spends the entire month showcasing 16 amazing cupcakes. Try one or enjoy all 16! And don’t forget mom on Mother’s Day. Sweet tooth not your thing? Fresh daily lunches are served at Bernice’s M – F from 11am – 4pm. Check out our delicious deli sandwich-
Blue Canyon Kitchen 3720 N. Reserve 541-BLUE (adjacent to the Hilton Garden Inn) www.bluecanyonrestaurant.com We offer creatively-prepared American cooking served in the comfortable elegance of their lodge restaurant featuring unique dining rooms. Kick back in the Tavern; relish the cowboy chic and
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Butterfly Herbs 232 N. Higgins 728-8780 Celebrating 39 years of great coffees and teas. Truly the “essence of Missoula.” Offering fresh coffees, teas (Evening in Missoula), bulk spices and botanicals, fine toiletries & gifts. Our cafe features homemade soups, fresh salads, and coffee ice cream specialties. In the heart of historic downtown, we are Missoula’s first and favorite Espresso Bar. Open 7 Days. $