We Didn’t Do Independence Alone

This week's recipes are a Fourth of July tribute to France, Spain and Poland, each of which aided the American colonies in their fight for liberty from Britain during our War of Independence.

France was our most important and powerful foreign ally. It apportioned substantial loans and direct monies to the Continental Congress and lent French officers and troops to fight alongside the Americans. 

Too, France signed the Treaty of Alliance in 1781, bringing its full force into war with Britain. That same year, French troops fought under American command at the decisive Battle of Yorktown, which led to a final British surrender and our wholesale independence. 

The recipe here from France comes at the hands chef Gérald Konings of Provence. It is essentially a Salade Niçoise in spring roll form, all the elements of that exemplar salad wrapped tightly in moistened rice paper. It not only is delicious, but is also comely to the eye.

While not allied with the American colonists as the French were, Spain did ally itself with France and then declared war on Britain in 1779, diverting British resources away from its war effort on this side of the Atlantic. Spain also captured British territories in both the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, thus preventing British fortifications there. Finally, and importantly, it encouraged American merchant ships to use its ports in Spain while conducting their overseas European business.

The Spanish recipe here, pan con tomate (“bread with tomato,” photo), is a simple one found on many a table at home and in restaurants throughout Spain as a teaser or appetizer course. It is a straightforward rub on crusty bread of raw garlic and ripe heirloom tomato with, of course, Spanish extra virgin olive oil as a further dressing.

Growing up, we all learned of the valiant heroics of two Polish military officers who came to the Revolutionary colonists' aid and fought alongside them: Tadeusz Kósciuszko and Kazimierz Pulaski.

Kósciuszko, a Polish military engineer, was a brigadier general in the Continental Army, oversaw the crucial fortifications of Saratoga, and supervised the military construction of West Point, to the point of such consequence that the British never attempted to take it.

Pulaski, like Kósciuszko, was made a brigadier general and fought bravely alongside the colonists at several battles, including the Battle of Brandywine, during which he saved the life of General George Washington. In 1779, he died at the Siege of Savannah while leading a cavalry charge.

The Polish recipe here is bigos, a Polish “hunter’s stew.” Certainly a wintertime dish, it nonetheless profitably makes for summer dining if served outdoors al fresco on a cool summer’s night. It is best constructed a day ahead and refrigerated so that the flavors develop.