Vinaigrette and Squaw Bread

DEAR SOS: The Four Oaks restaurant in West Los Angeles serves an incredible appetizer salad with a vinaigrette containing lemon peel. What a way to start a meal.

--ADELAIDE

DEAR ADELAIDE: There are few Class A chefs in the nation who don’t offer assorted baby lettuces, called mesclun . Peter Roelant, the French-trained chef-owner of Four Oaks, adds a touch of candied peel garnish to sweeten the tangy mustard dressing.

FOUR OAKS MESCLUN

WITH CANDIED

PEELS

4 heads mesclun; or 1 head each baby butter lettuce, baby red oak leaf lettuce, Belgian endive and arugula or radicchio

Mustard Dressing

Candied Lemon Zest

Mix lettuces and wash gently with cold water. Dry and toss with Mustard Dressing. Sprinkle with Candied Lemon Zest. Makes 6 servings.

Note: Baby lettuce is term used for lettuce picked when young and undersized. Any similar regular lettuce will do in absence of baby lettuce mentioned. If heads are large use half amount.

Mustard Dressing

Juice of 1 small lemon

1 rounded teaspoon Dijon mustard

Dash salt

Dash black pepper

1/2 cup cold pressed olive oil

Mix lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper in blender. Slowly add olive oil and blend until thickened. Set aside. Makes about 3/4 cup.

Candied Lemon Peel

Zest of 4 lemons, cut julienne

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar or honey

Juice of 1 lemon

Place zest in saucepan. Add water to cover. Bring to boil. Strain and rinse under cold water.

Return zest to saucepan. Add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar or honey. Bring to boil, reduce heat and cook over medium-low heat about 20 minutes or until water has evaporated. Stir in lemon juice and cook 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and cool before using. Makes about 2/3 cup.

DEAR SOS: Help! My daughter-in-law and I both lost our recipes for Squaw Bread. I’ve looked in cookbooks but no luck. Please reprint the recipe.

--ADELAIDE

DEAR ADELAIDE: Our search for an authentic Squaw Bread similar to that sold in bakeries and served in restaurants ended happily when Marilyn Martell, a schoolteacher and frequent county fair blue-ribbon winner, sent us a recipe she developed.

SQUAW BREAD

2 cups water

1/3 cup oil

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup raisins

5 tablespoons brown sugar

2 packages dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, about

3 cups whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 cups rye flour

1/2 cup instant nonfat milk powder

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

Cornmeal

Melted butter

Combine water, oil, honey, raisins and 4 tablespoons brown sugar in blender container. Blend to liquefy. Soften yeast in warm water with remaining 1 tablespoon brown sugar. Sift together 1 cup unbleached flour, 2 cups whole-wheat flour, 1 cup rye flour, nonfat milk powder and salt in large bowl. Add honey mixture and yeast.

Beat with mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Gradually stir in enough of remaining flours to make soft dough that leaves sides of bowl. Turn out onto floured surface and knead until smooth and satiny, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Place dough in lightly greased bowl and turn to grease other side. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down and let rest 10 minutes. Shape into 4 round loaves. Place 2 loaves on each of 2 lightly greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise in warm place until light and doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Bake at 375 degrees 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on racks. While still hot, brush with melted butter. Makes 4 loaves.

DEAR SOS: I hope you can come up with a pineapple chutney I once made using an SOS recipe. It combined raisins and green peppers with the pineapple.

--CINDY

DEAR CINDY: The recipe came from a 1987 column on microwave cooking.