Compared to the Hamersley recipes sampled to-date, this one is more complex. You begin by making a vinaigrette. This one uses lemon juice instead of vinegar, so it went well with the sea scallops I served as the entree. However, I forgot that a "Hamersley shallot" is 1 tablespoon and chopped up one of my giant Harris Teeter Supermarket shallots. This made a very chunky dressing. Mark your cookbooks now: 1 shallot = 1 tablespoon!
After the dressing, you prepare the salad itself. The fennel is the most critical part. Hamersley instructs you to "slice the fennel as thin as you can." Even using my sharpest cutlery, I could not get the slices thin enough. This makes the salad hard to eat and the fennel taste a bit over powering. If I were to make this salad again, I would definitely use a mandoline.
Once all of the slicing and chiffonading is complete, you assemble the salad. Hamersley has you dress the greens first and plate them and then dress the toppings. This is a great way to make sure every item gets coated. However, there is only about 2 tablespoons of dressing per salad--a bit stingy in my book given the size of the salad.
The bottom line: A lot of work for a so-so salad.
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