Pressure

These two have a lot in common.

In addition to being red, having layers, and needing a strong wash, they're both under pressure.

One because it's pushing down on me, pushing down on you.

The other because it's under a rock, about to become my salad.

Here at the Kushi Institute, we have pressed salad every day. Pressure "cooking" is very different than "pressure cooking."

The former involves pressing the liquids from thinly sliced vegetables mixed with salt so that it "cooks." The latter involves pouring some grains in a pot with some water, screwing on the lid, and ducking when it explodes.

I used to hate pressed salad. Growing up, I thought it tasted like cold, limp, salty cabbage. I used to gulp when I swallowed it. I didn't realize that there are as many kinds of pressed salads as there are "real" salads, and each one is a star in its own way. I'd love to share a couple of these with you now!

The thing you should remember is, pressed salad shouldn't taste bad. If it tastes bad, make it different next time. I learned this with the Worst Dish I Ever Made, Macrobiotic Yorkshire Pudding.

Überpressed Salad

Green Cabbage

Red Onions

Green Apples

Daikon Radish

Step 1: THINLY slice these ingredients. When I say thinly, I mean graze-your-knuckles thin. If it helps, bust out your handy mandolin and grate that way, avoiding your fingers. We have more injuries at KI from the mandolin than any other implement besides, perhaps, the Circle of Pain. I've lost years of youthful-looking knuckle skin to the Circle of Pain. I'm going to have hands like Jane Fonda before I hit 30 because of that thing.

I cut my ingredients to bite-sized widths before slicing. For onions, this means cut them in half once vertically (along the furry top, which has been removed first), cut it in half again long-ways (it should be in tall quarters now), and then sliced super-fine into what we call "Thin half-moons" at Kushi. I'm going to do a cutting demo any day now.

Step 2: After you've cut the apples, place the thin slices in a bowl of cold water. They're going to hang out here for the next two hours as your salad presses, so you can either forget about them or snack on them. It's really whatever you want. I live in your computer. I'm not actually judging you or anything.

Step 3: You hopefully have about 5-6 cups of shredded vegetal material. Add about a teaspoon of salt, and begin mixing and squeezing the vegetables in a LARGE bowl. Don't be shy. Squeeze them like you're wringing out a washcloth. Knead them like bread. Keep squeezing until a pool of water begins to form at the bottom of the bowl.

Step 4: Smush all your salad into a circle, and squish that under a small bowl with the U facing just like that... a U. Not a n. . The two bowls, the big one and small one, should kind of interlock. Now take something really heavy and stick it in the small bowl. Something REALLY heavy. Might I suggest:

-A rock

-A bag of rice

-Harry Potter 1-7 (Book, not DVD. Kids these days...)

-Guilt

Step 5: Wait two hours, remove heavy thing, and drain the liquid.

Sauce:

2 tsp. Mustard-Dill Dijon Mustard (We got it at whole foods)

3 tbsp. olive oil

3 tbsp. white wine vinegar

Squirt of lemon juice

Whisk until emulsified, then add to salad, add your green apple slices if you haven't eaten them all, and enjoy!

Healing Pressed Salad

Napa Cabbage

Green Cabbage

Radish Slices

Red Onion (If your system can handle it. If not, no worries.)

Follow all the steps listed above until Step 5. Here's the sauce I'd use:

1 c. umeboshi plum vinegar OR 1 c. brown rice vinegar.

Let the salad soak in the brine, taste, and give a quick rinse if it's too salty.

Party Pressed Salad

1 c. shredded green cabbage

1/2 c. shredded rutabaga

1 c. blanched crushed almonds

Follow Steps 1-5. Add almonds and ENJOY the sweet with the salty!