Dressings on the Side

Two Christmases ago, I was given a fantastic cookbook that I refer to more than any other: Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food. Its a go-to manual for a young(ish) cook like myself. The recipes are seasonal, use simple ingredients and teach you techniques that you’ll use over and over again. No list of crazy stuff you’ve never heard of — usually I already have most of the items I need for these recipes on hand. After using this book for a while, I thought I understood why people are so obsessed with Alice Waters.

That was until I was treated to a birthday lunch at her famous Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse. Now I REALLY get the obsession. My stepmom, her mom and I dined at the cafe upstairs recently and we all ordered the same salad: Beet and Cauliflower Salad with Egg, Capers and Chervil. It was fab! It was maybe the best beet salad I’ve ever had, and it didn’t even have goat cheese. Woah. What? Those are words I never thought I would utter… I feel like a real Judas to my beloved chevre, but really this salad is great.

I felt like a huge dork taking a photo of the salad in the restaurant, so I only got one.

Last night, I made this salad at home, and, lucky me, I found the caper/olive dressing recipe in the Simple Food cookbook. I served it alongside a piece of poached salmon and it was great.

Alice Waters’ Beet and Cauliflower Salad with Egg, Capers and Chervil

Serves: 4

Meaty Monitor: A delicious side salad. Serve it over baby greens and use a whole egg per salad for a more filling lunch.

Ingredients:

• 8 baby beets or 3-4 regular sized beets, any color you like. I used yellow. Remove the leaves and stems
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 medium head cauliflower
• Two hard boiled eggs
• 12 curly sprigs of chervil. Chervil is like a very delicate parsley
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup green olives, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Freshly cracked pepper

Directions:

Rinse the beets, rub with canola oil and roast in tightly sealed tin foil at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (or until easily pierced to the center with a sharp knife.) Remove from the oven, rinse in cool water and remove the skins. Let cool completely before cutting into bite sized pieces.

Remove the cauliflower leaves and stem and cut the head into bite sized florets. Boil a large pot of salted water and blanch florets until just cooked through, about 4 minutes. You want them to still have some bite, so don’t let them cook too long. Rinse in cold water to stop the cooking and let them cool. Peel and quarter the boiled eggs.

To make the dressing, mix the lemon juice, capers, chopped green olives, and chopped parsley in a bowl. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Whisk in a bit of black pepper.  If possible, let  the dressing sit for 15-30 minutes before assembling salads so the caper and olive flavor really infuses the oil.

To assemble the salads, divide cauliflower, beets and eggs evenly among plates. Drizzle the dressing around and over the vegis and eggs. Place fresh curly sprigs of chervil around the plate.

Thank Alice Waters for this one and enjoy!

- Hill