Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Giles' Salad, with French Dressing



Giles likes to make these special placed ingredient salads in summer. This salad isn’t tossed; it’s carefully laid out so you can pick and choose the ingredients in your bite. It almost always has bits of seafood, but we’ve made it with thinly sliced steak as well.

Salad:

Use any or all of the ingredients below. Use your imagination

Fresh mesclun (mixed salad leaves with baby spinach, arugula, endive, escarole, rocket, whatever)
Red onion, thinly sliced
Avocado, sliced
Mushrooms, thinly sliced
Bell pepper, sliced into strips
Carrots, preferably grated
Cherry tomatoes
Boiled egg
Cucumber, sliced thin

Smoked salmon (Giles likes big chunks, I prefer to flake it or use thin cuts)
Shrimp (we found some awesome marinated big shrimp at Whole Foods that was perfect!)

First pile the greens on the plate. Then put piles of other ingredients around the plate.

French Dressing
This was even better than it looks

½ cup ketchup
½ cup white sugar
½ cup white wine vinegar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 large shallot, quartered
1 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Throw it all in the blender, and blend until smooth. Add a bit of water if it comes out too thick, until you get the consistency you like.

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