Salads

OK, so as you can see, my camera cord finally got here, and I am using this as an opportunity for some completely shameless food porn of salads.

Salads are awesome… especially in my house, because I make them. My mom is a gourmet cook, and that’s how I got most of my knowledge of food. The kitchen is her domain, and so when I expressed interest in helping, she finally decided that I could “do the salad.”

In the past, the salad has always been a selection of fresh greens with a simple mustard vinaigrette. Very simple, very French, and very easy to do when you’re also preparing roasted rack of lamb, roasted new potatoes, and frenched green beans topped with sauteed scallions, which is a typical meal from when I was growing up.

When I was first awarded this task of assembling salads, I stuck with the formula, once in a while throwing in a tomato. Then maybe a vidalia onion. Then I’d rummage through the crisper and find some leftover corn on the cob or a few boiled beets, maybe some toasted leftover bread with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Now that I’ve found my footing, salads have become as gourmet as the main course. Sometimes we even feature two salads on the table, as we did tonight: a salad with fresh greens, beets, and goat cheese croutons, and the gigi salad below.

Summer is an amazing time to eat salads as a main part of a meal, and all three of these salads feature enough variety in ingredients and nutrients alike to serve as a meal, especially on a warm summer day. Enjoy!

emiglia

This first one is a lobster salad my mother made. Lots of dill… sooo yummy. Just enough mayonnaise to make it creamy without overloading the delicate taste of the lobster.

Lobster Salad

1 cup celery, chopped
2 cups cooked lobster
1 cup good mayonnaise, (homemade, Hellman’s)
1/2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons fresh dill, chopped

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Top with more dill to garnish.

The next salad is a potato salad that uses no mayo whatsoever. This is a great salad for a summer meal, but is also good in the winter when potatoes are some of the only things you can find.

New Potato Salad

2 lbs. new potatoes
1 lb. thin cut bacon
1 bunch scallions, sliced
2 tablespoons mustard
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
chopped parsley

Make dressing: combine vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper, and add olive oil while whisking steadily to emulsify. Slice bacon thinly and fry on stovetop. Boil potatoes until fork tender, and slice while still warm. Combine potatoes, bacon, and dressing. Add scallions before serving, and toss to combine. Sprinkle parsley on top as a garnish.

The last salad, the Gigi salad, was influenced by a salad from the Palm restaurant in New York.

Gigi Salad

2 bay leaves
1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 vidalia onions
4 plum tomatoes
1/2 lb. green beans
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Boil shrimp with bay leaves until just cooked through. Boil water to cook green beans. Cook green beans and shock in ice water. Chop green beans, shrimp, tomatoes, and onions into chunks. Toss together, add salt, pepper, and olive oil, and serve.