Pea Shoots, Boquerones, Toasted Bread and Sherry Vinaigrette

Luren Jenison’s Foraged Panzanella Salad

  • Luren Jenison’s Foraged Panzanella Salad
  • Luren Jenison’s Foraged Panzanella Salad
  • Luren Jenison’s Foraged Panzanella Salad
  • Luren Jenison’s Foraged Panzanella Salad
  • Luren Jenison’s Foraged Panzanella Salad

NOTES

Luren is using wild foraged beach greens for this recipe, that I must admit, I only came to know through this salad. Sea rocket is a horseradish-y edible beach green, and beach peas are a tender relative of garden peas that grow near the ocean. Accepting that not all of us will find time this weekend at the beach to forage for greens, you can sub arugula for sea rocket, and pea shoots for beach peas. Boquerones are delicate white anchovies, pickled in vinegar, and can be found in the olive/antipasta section of a nice grocery store or deli. Luren quickly broiled some whole sardines and served those alongside the salad, a perfect pairing if you are up for making another dish after all that foraging.

INSTRUCTIONS

Tear a quarter of a boule of sourdough bread into chunks and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh herbs such as thyme and tarragon. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and broil until lightly toasted.

Separate the leaves of two heads of endive and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Broil until soft and very lightly browned.

In a medium bowl combine sea rocket, pinched off shoots of beach peas, micro mustard greens, pea shoots and a generous tablespoon of capers.

In a small bowl, combine sherry vinegar, rice vinegar, olive, minced shallot, lemon juice, sea salt, crushed black pepper and honey, toss with greens and set aside.

Layer the bread chunks and broiled endive leaves in a flat serving dish, add the salad mix and top with boquerones, radish slices and a dash of salt and pepper.

RECIPE

DIFFICULTY

MODERATE

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SERVES

4

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PREP TIME

10 MINS

Toasted Bread

  • 1/4  
     
    1/4 boule of sourdough bread, torn to chunks
  • 2 
    TBS 
    olive oil
  •  
     
    salt, to taste
  •  
     
    freshly ground pepper, to taste
  • 1 
    tsp 
    fresh thyme, torn
  • 1 
    tsp 
    fresh tarragon, torn

Toasted Endive

  • 2 
    heads  
    endive
  • 2 
    TBS 
    olive oil
  •  
     
    salt, to taste
  •  
     
    freshly ground pepper, to taste

Salad Mix

  • 2 
    handful 
    sea rocket
  • 1 
    handful  
    pinched off shoots of beach peas
  • 2 
    handful 
    micro-mustard greens
  • 1 
    handful  
    pea shoots
  • 5-6 
    whole 
    red radishes
  • 1 
    TBS 
    capers

Dressing

  • 1 
    TBS 
    sherry vinegar
  • 1 
    TBS 
    rice vinegar
  • 2 
    TBS  
    olive oil
  • 1/2 
    bulb 
    shallot, diced
  • 1/2  
     
    lemon, juiced
  • 1 
    TBS 
    honey
  •  
    hefty pinch 
    sea salt
  •  
     
    crushed black pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Tear a quarter of a boule of sourdough bread into chunks and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh herbs such as thyme and tarragon. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and broil until lightly toasted.

Separate the leaves of two heads of endive and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Broil until soft and very lightly browned.

In a medium bowl combine sea rocket, pinched off shoots of beach peas, micro mustard greens, pea shoots and a generous tablespoon of capers.

In a small bowl, combine sherry vinegar, rice vinegar, olive, minced shallot, lemon juice, sea salt, crushed black pepper and honey, toss with greens and set aside.

Layer the bread chunks and broiled endive leaves in a flat serving dish, add the salad mix and top with boquerones, radish slices and a dash of salt and pepper.

Everything Luren Jenison touches turns to gold; she’s got style coming out of her ass. Luren is the product of a quilter/labor nurse, and a father whom she describes as a “mad scientist.” The coupling of these two characters makes for an accurate equation to describe Luren herself – a maker, crafter, collector and aesthete, someone who brings wild creativity to everything she does… includes an artful approach to smoking pot. After so many years creating one of a kind events on both an intimate and corporate scale, Luren is tackling a hole in the market that she herself would like to see filled. Why should she, or any of us, smoke pot out of a tacky, swirly glass bowl when the rest of our lives have managed to evolve past the aesthetics we held dear in high school? Beginning in September she will launch www. sweetflag.club and forever transform the way you accessorize and identify with the world of happy toking.

Luren Jenison in Her Own Words

Julia Sherman: Tell me about your plans to start your online shop. What inspired you to move into the “eh….. 4’20 lifestyle” business?

Luren Jenison: We’re working on a web-based retail project for aesthetic pot smokers — a place where you buy your cool mom a pipe, or find something as special and pleasing as the rest of the curated objects you enjoy in every day life, such as nice japanese kitchen shears or a treasured keepsake. We’re trying to create a positive, feminized, de-stigmatized space where someone can wander around and enjoy the experience of finding tools and accessories that are perfect for them, without having to feel the shame of ducking into a headshop.

JS: How would you describe the current aesthetic around pot?

LJ: I would say that the aesthetic and retail experience of shopping for cannabis lifestyle accessories is one of the worst, most unpleasant and frequently avoided experiences around! It can be intimidating, bro-y, and tacky, and I think its a huge barrier against people finding the best thing out there for them, so people end up with swirly glass boners that stink like a dorm room.  However, we’re living in a transitional time, where cannabis is finally out of the closet and moving toward inevitable end of Prohibition and is every day becoming more de-stigmatized and I think its about to be a very positive time for people who enjoy cannabis for its true medicinal, creative and relaxation benefits.

 

JS: Do you plan to design anything yourself for the store?

LJ: We have been collecting some really amazing things from the market, and are developing some exclusive products for the store.  Luckily all of our friends are amazing artists and designers so there are some really refined, amazingly special collaborations on the way.

JS: So many of your projects are ephemeral, do you prefer to work this way?

LJ: I’ve been working in decor, floral, event type fields for many years and I do like the now-it’s-here now-it’s-not immediacy of creating those experiences. They happen, they’re overpoweringly enjoyable, and then they exist only in memory. But I’m excited to be working on this project now, that brings together a collection of objects that can be treasured and enjoyed for a lifetime. Both ways of working are special, because you’re enhancing someones life experience for the better either way, if you’re doing a good job!

JS: You have an incredible knack for design and style, unlike anyone I know.

LJ: That’s a real compliment coming from you! I feel like I’ve just been trying to simplify everything in my life lately…

JS: You grew up in a really interesting family. Can you tell me about your parents and siblings and what it was like to be surrounded but such eccentric and interesting people?

LJ: My sisters and I are all real blends of my parents’ qualities and passions. My mom, Leslie, is an amazing artist and quilter who is really dedicated to her studio practice and teaching and bringing her new techniques to people all over the world, as well as having been a labor and delivery nurse when I was growing up, and my dad, Tim, is a mad scientist, optical wizard, inventor, and mystery solver who delves deep into everything he does and explores further than any average sane person would. We would have Mom scooting us around her quilt frame to hand-quilt her pieces with her, and Dad dragging us over to the warehouse to solder capacitors onto circuit boards and powdercoat and bake face-plates for switchers.  Pretty average stuff.  We all have weird skills in the tool box.

JS: How did you and your sister end up finding these crazy foraged plants?

LJ: I’ve always been interested in plants and flower identification and gardening from hanging in the dirt with my mom, who is also a master gardener. My sister Claire worked with a wild food forager who was a friend of mine in Vermont and Maine a few years ago and we both caught the bug for zipping around in the woods chewing stuff up and spitting it out and delving deep into identifying edible and medicinal plants.  On our way back from a wedding on Bear Island in Maine, we stopped off at some beaches and trails and grabbed all these insanely aromatic, flavorful treasures: scotch lovage, sea rocket, beach peas, tansy, yarrow, beach roses, salt wart, plantain, wormwood, moss. The world opens up in colors and textures once you start crushing up leaves under your nose everywhere you go.

JS: You have traveled all over the world in search of crafts. What are some of the craziest adventures you have undertaken in the name of the the handmade?

LJ: History and chemistry and anthropology were really abstract for me until I started studying textiles from around the world and then it was like time and place and culture and context all clicked into place like the pieces in a puzzle and I want to explore more and forever. I’ve had sort of a clandestine love affair with the southwest since I was 7 or 8 and would go stay with my aunt in Taos, Albuquerque, and Tesuque so I try to sneak down to Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah when possible and drive around looking at plants and talking to crafts people. Some friends and I have gone to the Din’e (Navajo) shepherding and sheep lifestyle conference and been blown away by dust devils and chased by wild dogs while trying to talk to traditional dyers, weavers, and jewelers in some of the reservation communities. 

JS: You are a collector of things. Tell me about some of your collections and found objects.

LJ: Man, I’m in this phase of getting rid of things and I can’t even tell you how many rocks and shells I’ve deposited in people’s planters or on window sills in my neighborhood that were once “the best rock” and now I can’t even remember where they came from. If I keep something or get something it’s because of its special purposefulness, its thingness that is so specific it could be no other “thing.” Rough or refined, utilitarian, spare, purposeful, beautiful. That’s what I like.