You did what to the salad?
The other night Kelly and I went out to one of our favorite restaurant in Pawleys after a very long day at work. We sat at the bar and ordered a couple of drinks to help wash away the day. I wasn't too hungry because I cooked two pork shoulders at the wine shop and they didn't finish until around 5pm; it's now after 8. After my first drink I ordered just an Oyster Caesar salad to tide me over. I guess I really wasn't hungry at all, I just ate the oysters and about a 1/4 of the salad. I asked Jen the bartender to box it up for me. Kelly said that the lettuce wasn't going to hold up too well over night. I said it was cool I was just going to puree it and make a dip out of it.
WHAT?! Make a dip out of it? Normally this may sound strange, but in this case it didn't. She didn't even look at me sideways on this one. When we were in NYC back in September our friend Cathy took us to a killer restaurant in Brooklyn called Locanda Vini e Olii (YOU MUST GO TO THIS PLACE!!!). It's a small Italian spot with unbelievable food. One of the dishes we were served was a crostini with a shmear of what looked like a light green pesto, but with a little more heft to it. I tasted it and a flood of memories washed back into my head. Kelly said what a cool, unique flavor this was, very fresh, garlicky, and lemony. Cathy smiled and asked if I could guess what it was, especially the green part. In an instant I said Romaine lettuce; I knew because I had tasted this before, long before.
Back in college my housemate Alex was a great cook who loved to make really offbeat things to show off his cooking prowess. He loved to make a dish out of the Silver Palate 'Good Times' cookbook called the Ides Of March sandwich. It was basically a Caesar salad, croutons and all, pureed and spread on two pieces of bread. Pretty much exactly what I was eating. He would make this all the time and we would spread it on everything. I thought it was the coolest thing. I have made it myself many times, but not in the last 15 years. I totally forgot about it until that night in Brooklyn.
Towards the end of our night at Bistro 217, Jen boxed up my salad and Kelly and I rolled back to the house. The next morning I saw the box in the fridge, pulled it out and dumped it's contents in the food processor. I was going to loosely recreate that long lost dish I soo loved. I guess I had eaten more than I thought because there was not much there. I look back into the fridge and found about a 1/3 of a bag of fresh spinach that was left over from a few days ago. The spinach was on it's last leg and holding on for dear life. I decide to let it live again by adding it to the remaining Caesar. I buzzed the mixture in the processor a few times to see what I had. I added a little EVOO to loosen things up and adjusted the seasoning with a bit of salt and pepper. I tasted it and drifted back to that long lost spot. Ahh, this is good!
That evening Kelly cut and toasted a few bread rounds and rubbed them with a clove of raw garlic. I smeared my creation on them for a little appetizer. It was close to what we remembered and made totally out of a leftover salad. Talk about efficient.
While I haven't tried to reuse a salad with anything other that Romaine lettuce, I'm pretty sure a 'Spring Mix' or baby greens would not work just because those greens aren't very sturdy. Those greens are better left to their original purpose, salads. I dare you to try this out, it's really good. We're going back to Bistro 217 on Wednesday so I can do this again. But wait, I'll probably be in the 'Burger Mood ' that night so there's no telling what you may get on my next post.
Until then, ciao down!
Penn
WHAT?! Make a dip out of it? Normally this may sound strange, but in this case it didn't. She didn't even look at me sideways on this one. When we were in NYC back in September our friend Cathy took us to a killer restaurant in Brooklyn called Locanda Vini e Olii (YOU MUST GO TO THIS PLACE!!!). It's a small Italian spot with unbelievable food. One of the dishes we were served was a crostini with a shmear of what looked like a light green pesto, but with a little more heft to it. I tasted it and a flood of memories washed back into my head. Kelly said what a cool, unique flavor this was, very fresh, garlicky, and lemony. Cathy smiled and asked if I could guess what it was, especially the green part. In an instant I said Romaine lettuce; I knew because I had tasted this before, long before.
Back in college my housemate Alex was a great cook who loved to make really offbeat things to show off his cooking prowess. He loved to make a dish out of the Silver Palate 'Good Times' cookbook called the Ides Of March sandwich. It was basically a Caesar salad, croutons and all, pureed and spread on two pieces of bread. Pretty much exactly what I was eating. He would make this all the time and we would spread it on everything. I thought it was the coolest thing. I have made it myself many times, but not in the last 15 years. I totally forgot about it until that night in Brooklyn.
Towards the end of our night at Bistro 217, Jen boxed up my salad and Kelly and I rolled back to the house. The next morning I saw the box in the fridge, pulled it out and dumped it's contents in the food processor. I was going to loosely recreate that long lost dish I soo loved. I guess I had eaten more than I thought because there was not much there. I look back into the fridge and found about a 1/3 of a bag of fresh spinach that was left over from a few days ago. The spinach was on it's last leg and holding on for dear life. I decide to let it live again by adding it to the remaining Caesar. I buzzed the mixture in the processor a few times to see what I had. I added a little EVOO to loosen things up and adjusted the seasoning with a bit of salt and pepper. I tasted it and drifted back to that long lost spot. Ahh, this is good!
That evening Kelly cut and toasted a few bread rounds and rubbed them with a clove of raw garlic. I smeared my creation on them for a little appetizer. It was close to what we remembered and made totally out of a leftover salad. Talk about efficient.
While I haven't tried to reuse a salad with anything other that Romaine lettuce, I'm pretty sure a 'Spring Mix' or baby greens would not work just because those greens aren't very sturdy. Those greens are better left to their original purpose, salads. I dare you to try this out, it's really good. We're going back to Bistro 217 on Wednesday so I can do this again. But wait, I'll probably be in the 'Burger Mood ' that night so there's no telling what you may get on my next post.
Until then, ciao down!
Penn
Thank you for this amazing use of leftover salad. I will be trying it next time I have restaurant salad, because there's ALWAYS way too much of it.
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