Farallon Restaurant Warm Bloomsdale Spinach Salad

Farallon, nominated as one of the best new restaurants in the country in 1997, is a jewel in San Francisco that produces amazing dishes to delight the palate. This is certainly one of them. This salad is made with oranges slices, dates, tobacco onions, a Madeira reduction, toasted pine nuts, butter and sweetbreads. The combination is somewhat magical. This rendition is my interpreta- tion. Read the whole recipe first as the preparation spans 24 hours. The onions take quite a long time as well. The ingredients are broken down by steps. The onions may be done ahead of time.

3 Red onions
1 orange
1 cup of Madeira
2 tablespoons tawny port
1⁄2 teaspoon double concentrated tomato paste 

1 oz. toasted pine nuts
3 cups fresh washed baby Bloomsdale spinach1 leaves 5 tablespoons unsalted sweet butter
1 clove very finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
White pepper Salt

Blanch sweetbreads in several quarts of boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain well. Place in a bowl with bottom lined with ten paper towels, cover with plastic wrap, weigh down with a plate and a brick. Refrigerate overnight.

Tobacco Onions

Slice three whole red onions into uniform slices each 1/8th of an inch thick. Throw away top and bottom slices of all onions. It is important to get uniform results that the thickness is uniform; hence these will cook very evenly. Heat your largest frying pan with some olive oil. Add all the onions reduce heat to very low. Turn frequently maybe ever five minutes. These are not browned but are caramelized after about 90 minutes.

Orange Wedges

Peel an orange with a knife, cut off the top and bottom, taking the outside membrane off as you peel it. Cut the orange wedge segments free of their membrane. Repeat for each wedge. Retain orange wedges for later.

Preheat oven to low.

Madeira reduction

In a frying pan reduce 1 cup of Madeira, 2 tablespoons Tawny Port, tomato paste and the vin- egar by three fourths until it has thickened. Keep hot.

Sweetbreads

2 cups peanut oil
6 3-ounce pieces veal sweetbreads 1 cup Japanese panko bread crumbs Salt and pepper to taste

Season the panko bread crumbs. Liberally coat the sweetbreads with bread crumbs. Deep fry

the sweetbreads in a large steep walled pot by pre-heating the peanut oil to 350o F. Fry the sweetbreads until golden brown. Remove from the heat using a slotted spoon; transfer the sweetbreads to a paper towel-lined dish to drain. Place sweetbreads in oven to stay warm.

In a separate large frying pan, melt butter, add spinach and turn constantly over high heat. Add a little white pepper and the garlic. Toss 1 minute. Then add the orange wedges, the dates, the Madeira reduction and the tobacco onions. When hot correct the seasoning.

Remove sweetbreads from the warming oven. Arrange an individual portion of sweetbreads in the center of a plate. Top with spinach and onion reduction. Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.

Serve.

Notes:

1. Bloomsdale spinach is a delicious home garden variety having a buttery taste with large heavy crinkled leaves that grow erect keeping them free of soil. This spinach is dark glossy green and withstands heat and cold. Bloomsdale spinach was originally released by D. Landreth & Company in the 19th century. “Bloomsdale” was the name of their farm in Bristol,