Last Chance Foods: Frisée From Florida - a podcast by WNYC Studios

WhenEberhard MüllerandPaulette Saturfirst bought a farm on Long Island in 1997, the idea was forSatur Farmsto be a place where the couple could grow vegetables for Lutèce. Müller was the chef of the famed restaurant at the time, and they thought the farm would simply be a weekend destination.

Now, three decades later, Müller and Satur are full-time farmers with two farms — one on the North Fork and a second in South Florida. During the winter months, when fields in the Northeast are barren, specialty salad greens like frisée are still in season in Florida. Müller explained that having the location in the South allows the farm to supply restaurants and retailers with greens year-round, but there’s also a second and, possibly more important, reason for the bifurcation.

“Our crew, the people who work for us, are really very well trained because it is specialty produce that we grow,” he said. “They also need to make a living. You know, it’s not that easy to be off for six months, and there [are] no jobs out on the North Fork in the wintertime so we decided we need to do something and we founded that farm in Florida.”

Currently, the cool but temperate weather in Florida is ideal for growing the frizzy-looking lettuce frisée. Müller grew up eating frisée in Germany, but he had trouble finding the green when he moved to New York City three decades ago. It was one of the items he was most excited to start growing at Satur Farms.

“It’s an endive and there [are] different variations of endives,” said Müller, who also used to be the chef of Le Bernardin. “There’s the flat-leaf endives that we typically call escarole, and then there is...  the curly endive that’s a coarser grained frisée and then there’s a fine leaf frisée, which is the one that we’re particularly fond of growing. It’s the most challenging.”

Müller describes the fine-leaf frisée as tasting sweet with a subtle hint of bitterness and said that balance of flavors is particularly appealing for chefs. Growing techniques can have a major impact on that taste, he added.

At Satur Farms, they place blanching caps on the heads of frisée four or five days before harvesting. That goes back to the traditional way the lettuce was overwintered in Europe.

(Photo:Paulette Satur and Eberhard Müller/Shonna Valeska)

“In olden times, they used to pack [the frisée heads] in straw,” Müller explained. “As you needed the frisée or the endives, you take the straw out and what happens, because you had this all covered up, you have no sunlight going to it. And so all the leaves turn yellow and tender.”

Now, instead of straw, Satur Farms uses the caps particularly created for this purpose. “They look like Kaiser Wilhem’s hat,” he said. This process is important because the lighter colored parts of the leaves are the sweetest, most tender sections.

The freshness of the frisée also affects sweetness. “Like with everything else, sugar is the culprit for sweetness, obviously, in plants,” Müller said. “As soon as you start harvesting it, sugar converts into starch and that happens in the frisée, as well.”

That’s why, during this time of the year, Satur Farms harvests, trucks, and delivers produce on a tight schedule. Müller estimates it takes 36 to 42 hours to get frisée from the fields in Florida to the kitchens of New York City. “It takes 22 hours to drive from our location in Florida,” he said. “[Then] it takes us four to six hours to process everything and put it back on our trucks and send it back into New York City or to the restaurants on Long Island.”

On the return trip, the trucks carry seedlings, plants and equipment needed at the farm in Florida. The two locations also means that Müller and Satur fly back and forth several times during the winter. That leaves little time for the chef  to spend in the kitchen, but when he does cook, here’s one recipe for frisée that he often uses.

Frisée salad with apples and blue cheese, walnut-cider vinaigrette
bySatur Farms

Serves 4 people

• 2 heads of large frisée or 3-4 smaller ones
• 2 apples such as Granny Smith, Mutsu, Fuji or Braeburn, depending on time of year
• ¾ cup crumbled blue cheese (Maytag or similar)
• ½ cup walnut halves toasted and coarsely chopped
• 3 tbs. cider vinegar
• 1 lemon
• ½ tbs. Dijon mustard 
• 1 ½ tbs. walnut oil
• 2 tbs. vegetable oil
• 3-4 tbs. water
• 2 tsp. sugar or honey
• Salt and pepper to taste

Clean and trim the outer green leafs of the frisée and discard. Cut the inner yellow, creamy part into 1” pieces. You should obtain 3-4 cups of cleaned frisée. Thoroughly wash and spin dry several times and reserve.

On a food mandolin, slice the apples into 1/8 inch julienne. Sprinkle with the juice of half of the lemon to prevent them from oxidizing. Reserve, as well.

To prepare the vinaigrette dressing squeeze the remaining half of the lemon into a mixing bowl, add the cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, sugar or honey, water, salt and pepper and mix well to dissolve the ingredients. Slowly whisk in the vegetable and walnut oil. When you have obtained a homogenous dressing, add the crumbled blue-cheese and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Dress the reserved frisée with this vinaigrette-dressing, add the apple julienne. Sprinkle with the toasted walnuts and serve immediately.

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