I've chosen to relay the original reicpe below, not my franken-version. I've included notes detailing what changes I made so that you'll know what NOT to do. Good luck!
Celery and Herb Salad
From Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan
Ingredients
Vinaigrette
- 1 shallot1, chopped
- 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard2
- juice of 1 lemon
- 4 olive-oil packed anchovy fillets3
- 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt4
- 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
- 1/2 c. olive oil5
Salad
- 1 head of celery6, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 1 bunch of radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 1/2 c. coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 2 Tbsp. coarsely chopped fresh tarragon7
- 2 Tbsp. coarsely chopped fresh dill8
- 4 large eggs, hard-boiled
- salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
- Combine the shallot, mustard, lemon juice, anchovies, salt, and pepper in a blender.
- Blend until smooth and then, with the blender running, gradually add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Set aside.
- Combine the celery, radishes, parsley, tarragon, and dill in a large bowl.
- Add ~1/2 the dressing and toss to coat.
- Peel and quarter the eggs and add them to the salad.
- Drizzle with a little more dressing.
- Serve, seasoning to taste with salt, pepper, and additional dressing.
1 I used 1/2 of a small red onion instead. I usually find this to be an acceptable substitute for shallots, but it now occurrs to me that I probably should've tossed a clove of garlic in as well. 1
2 I used home-made Roman mustard as I generally use to two interchangeably and don't bother keeping store-bought mustard on hand anymore. (Unless I want a bit of yellow mustard for hotdogs or something.) Back
3 I used 4 whole anchovies packed in olive oil and chile flakes. Again, I've never had any issues with making this substitution and I find that the whole anchovies generally break down much better than the anchovy fillets. (Plus they're much cheaper!) Back
4 I think I may have forgotten to add the salt. I don't think the salad tasted particularly under-seasoned, but perhaps a bit of extra saltiness would have helped the overall flavour, I don't know. Back
5 I only used 1/4 c. of oil to make my dressing. That said, TF and I both tasted it after mixing and thought that it tasted fine and didn't need the rest of the oil. I know that this will have resulted in a smaller overall amount of vinaigrette, but there still seemed to be plenty enough to dress the salad. So, if neither the flavour nor quantity of dressing was an issue, then I don't really think reducing the quantity of oil was a problem. Back
6 I think the celery is actually probably the most likely culprit for the less-than-optimal results. I used an heirloom "leafy" celery variety. It was lovely, but the flavour was definitely a lot stronger than your bog standard celery. I'm used to celery tasting more-or-less like crunchy water. It has a lot of texture, but not much flavour of its own. That was definitely not the case for this celery! It actually tasted distinctly celery-y (like celery seed, but in the actual vegetable). This is great for things like soups and stir-fries, but maybe the flavour was a bit too much to blend harmoniously with the other salad components in this recipe. If I try it again, I'll make sure to use a blander variety of celery. Back
7 Sadly, I wasn't able to get any tarragon this week, so I just had to leave it out. I'm sure that won't have helped the final results. Back
8 Our old dill plant isn't doing so hot right now and the new one is still too small to harvest much from, so I could only get ~1 Tbsp. of fresh dill. I tried adding a little bit of ground dill seed (a scant tsp.) to compensate, but this doesn't work as well in salads as it does in soups and stews. That and the missing tarragon probably didn't do any favours for the success of this salad. Back
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