Today’s salad could be seen as a winter alter ego to this tomato and einkorn wheat salad from half a year ago, and it is proof that my love story with einkorn wheat wasn’t just a summer crush.

Today’s salad mixes the ancient grain (see my previous post for more on the back story) with chunks of spiced and roasted potimarron (a.k.a. Hokkaido squash, my very favorite of all winter squashes), shallots, chopped fresh herbs, and walnuts.

It’s the kind of salad of both substance and grace with a good balance of textures that I am content to eat on its own for lunch, or serve as a side. It travels well, too, so it’s a fine option for a packed lunch, or when you have to take a dish somewhere.

In fact, I first made it to bring as my dinner contribution to our dear friends Derrick and Melissa’s apartment when they were visiting during the Paris snowpocalypse in early December, to go with the duck magrets that Derrick would be roasting.

Maxence liked it so much that when we got home that night — after a vivifying Velib’ ride across a snow-ridden city because we’d long missed the last métro — he specifically requested I write down how I’d made it, so I wouldn’t let it fall down the rabbit hole of good but forgotten ideas.

I followed his advice and scribbled the broad strokes of it in the little cooking notebook I keep, the cover of which makes me smile every time I pick it up. And I made the salad again with the next potimarron that came my way, and then with an unsuspecting butternut squash, and again with a potimarron for our New Year’s Eve party, where it did not quite outshine the guest magician who made our evening so special, but close.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed a warm and cheerful holiday season, that you’ve shared laughter and good meals with the people you care about, and that you’re feeling full of energy and dreams for 2011.

May this fresh new year bring you joy, serenity, fulfillment, and really good skin. I look forward to another year of meeting you here on Chocolate & Zucchini.

Before we kiss 2010 goodbye altogether, I don’t want to miss my chance to reminisce on what it has brought me, thereby establishing my traditional “best of” list*.

Most memorable trip

The most salient memory I will keep from 2010 is, without a doubt, the trip I took to Japan with Maxence. I can even say it was the best trip of my life, and I wish I could bottle up the euphoria I felt for two weeks straight — and also wrap up in a magic doggie bag every single bite we ate, so I could savor them over and over again.

Most rewarding baking project

For the first time ever, I baked a galette des rois to celebrate the Epiphany, the traditional January holiday I wrote about here and again here. It was a success that far outweighed the (moderate) work involved, and I encourage you to try your hand at it too: the official date is this Thursday, but l’Epiphanie is customarily celebrated anytime in January.

Favorite breads

Ever since I found James MacGuire’s instructions for pain au levain in an issue of Art of Eating, it has become our weekly loaf of bread, and I now make it (almost) with my eyes closed.

I also baked a number of batches of these tomato burger buns. They accompanied us through a fabulous summer of near-weekly cheeseburgers — many of them vegetarian, since I discovered with glee that they sell portobello mushrooms at the greenmarket.

Favorite new cooking utensils

My new/old pressure cooker is definitely getting some mileage on my stove: I use it several times a week to cook legumes, grains, soups, and stock.

I have also acquired a used electric coffee grinder (a model very much like this one) that I have repurposed as a spice/seed grinder, to whizz things like flax seeds, cardamom and lemon zest.

And although it isn’t a cooking utensil exactly, we are delighted with the sparkling water fountain that my sister and brother-in-law gave us for Christmas, which allows us to turn still water to sparkling at the push of a button (“abracadabra!” optional).

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Gorgeous braided shallots photographed by Denna Jones.

This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far.

This week’s expression is, “La course à l’échalote.”

Literally translated as, “the shallot race,” it is used in situations of futile competition, when people strive to outdo one another for vain reasons, in a political context or otherwise. It is somewhat comparable to (though less openly vulgar than) the English expression a pissing contest (pardon my French).

Example: “C’est un peu ridicule, cette course à l’échalote pour savoir qui sera le plus rapide à chroniquer le dernier resto branché.” “It’s a bit ridiculous, this shallot race to see who’ll be the quickest to review the latest hip restaurant.”

Listen to the idiom and example read aloud:

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The black radish is bane of the Parisian locavore’s existence: during the winter, the raphanus sativus var. niger pops up regularly in AMAP* subscribers’ vegetable baskets, and it can be a challenge to put it to good use.

An ancient variety that dates back to antiquity, this mega-radish has a black, coarse skin and a white, almost translucent flesh that’s quite pungent in flavor. It is this characteristic sharpness that earned it the nickname of raifort des Parisiens — Parisians’ horseradish — and makes it generally too assertive to eat on its own.

The characteristic sharpness of the black radish has earned it the nickname of “Parisian horseradish” and makes it generally too assertive to eat on its own.

It is, however, a winter vegetable that rewards the eater with lots of nutritional perks — it is a good source of vitamin C, sulfur, fibers and B vitamins, and it is thought to promote digestive health, detoxify the liver, boost the immune system, and fight aging — so much so that its juice is sold in boxes of drinkable phials that you’re supposed to down before breakfast (isn’t that tempting).

Fortunately, there are ways to tame the sharpness of this superfood and reap its benefits at normal meal hours, and my favorite so far is to grate the flesh and add it raw to all kinds of salads.

Today’s salad is a particularly good final destination for the black radishes that make their way into my vegetable drawer: the sweetness of the potatoes tones down the pungency of the black radish, allowing it to simply illuminate the salad like a zesty condiment. A touch of smoked paprika for depth, a scatter of fresh herbs for clarity, and a good sprinkle of walnuts for crunch, and you’ve got yourself a very satisfying, sunny-winter-day salad.

Next up, I want to try pickling black radishes, tsukemono-style, using directions from Elizabeth Andoh’s beautiful book of vegetarian Japanese cuisine, Kansha — I’ll let you know how that works out.

And naturally, if you want to share your own favorites uses for the black radish, I’d be very interested to hear them!

* AMAP is the French equivalent to CSA.

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