So Salad Week… or should I say weeks?
Salad just wasn’t inspiring me into culinary greatness. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just only going to order my salads and never make another one again? Anyways I’m ending salad week after 2 salads and 1 failed (thing that will remain unspoken of).
Before we review salad week(s) I have a recipe for…
Cobb Salad!
Makes 4 servings. Takes 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast, boneless and skinless, cut into quarters
- 8 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
- 2 heads romaine, outer leaves trimmed and washed
- 1 bunch watercress, washed
- 1 tomato, chopped 1 avocado, chopped
- 2 scallions, chopped
- 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
- 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup olive oil
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lay bacon out on a sheet tray and bake in the oven until golden and crispy — about 15 minutes.
Heat a saute pan over medium-high heat and cook chicken in a little olive oil with salt and pepper
Trim the root end of the romaine and quarter lengthwise. Wash thoroughly under cold running water then dry in a salad spinner or by laying out on a paper-towel lined tray in a single layer and patting dry gently. Wash the watercress also and spin dry.
Dice the avocado, tomato, scallions and eggs. Crumble the blue cheese up with your fingers into smaller sized pieces that match the size of your diced vegetables.
Toss everything together in a large mixing bowl and dress the salad with olive oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.
Transfer to a platter or bowl and serve.
Okay so in the salad course Top Chef University talks about all these different types of salads. The Salad Nicoise was a COMPOSED salad. A Caesar Salad is a TOSSED salad and Cobb Salad is a CHOPPED salad.
So basically I just chopped my little life away for about 20 minutes during this recipe. Threw it all in the bowl together and voila. Done.
I really liked this salad. Cobb salad is my usual salad choice so I was happy to make one on my own.
The thing I did in this recipe that I’d never done before…
I removed the pit of an avocado exactly like a Chef!!!
Spike taught me exactly how to do it. Here’s what ya do.
- slice the avocado in half
- twist the top off of the bottom
- which ever side has the pit, CAREFULLY hack your large knife into it.
- turn
the pit will come out exactly like mine.
Take a moment and feel like a culinary genius.
To save a little time and make things a little bit easier I bought crumbled blue cheese instead of a block. I also cut the chicken breast into quarters. You can also hard boil and fry your bacon in advance.
I like things to be quick and easy.
Jus throw everything together in a bowl, top with a little evoo and red wine vinegar. Enjoy!
Salad Week Reviewed:
I learned a few things in salad week:
- I will never make hummus again. I am not worthy.
- it’s okay to boil things together
- you can make bacon in the oven (I didn’t but apparently it’s possible)
- I don’t really like making salads
- evoo and vinegar actually make tasty dressing
That’s it. I think I’m going to stick to ordering my salads and not making them at home.
This Week is Course 5: Sauté, Boil and Grill.
Tonight I’m making Beef Stroganoff and trying out a few awesome sautéing tips.
