This unconventional salad recipe was brought to you by the country of France which likes to use all parts of the animal(!)
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To prepare (even the night before, if you need to), boil two medium potatoes.
About a half-hour before you’re ready to eat, wash and tear enough lettuce for two people. In France, it’s considered bad manners to cut your salad with a knife so you want to make sure the lettuce pieces are small enough. Ironically, many cafés don’t take this etiquette into account and you have to fold your lettuce in pieces in order to stuff it into your mouth.
Cut two red tomatoes into wedges. This is a cold salad with warm ingredients, which makes it a perfect meal for the in-between seasons. But a ripe tomato is a must. When you have your wedges, spread each one with some pesto and place them on the lettuce.
Take a shallot and slice it in paper-thin slices. One shallot might be a lot for two salads, depending on how big it is. But it’s such a happy thing to eat. Make sure you don’t need to kiss anyone immediately afterwards. Between that and the garlic in the pesto … (ahem).
Then take a chunk of chèvre and cut it in pieces. If you don’t have goat cheese, I think feta (which is sheep) would do in a pinch. But goat cheese is less sour and I think the taste matches very well.
Now comes time for the warm ingredients. If you don’t want to have to wash two pans, I would start by cooking the potatoes. Slice them, cook them in butter, and sprinkle with sea salt, chives and white pepper. Let them brown, then slide them on top of the goat cheese so it melts a little.
And the final touch – the gizzards! Yes, this is what makes the salad unconventional (although the pesto is a nice touch too). In France, our gizzards come soaked in duck fat with glucose syrup. It tastes good.
To duplicate the taste, I would roll each one in corn starch, and cook in butter over low heat for 10 minutes. Salt them, and when the gizzards are cooked, lightly pour honey over the meat to give it that sweet taste. Let the honey caramelise for a minute before putting them on the salad.
I make my dressing while the gizzards are cooking. A skimpy tablespoon of both Dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar. Then 2 full tablespoons of olive oil, and 2 of canola oil. This is what it looks like before you whisk it together.
Pour that over the salads and serve warm. With bread.
Hey! Unconventional salad recipes can be quite delicious.
At least my husband thought so.
- Lettuce
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- Pesto
- 1 shallot
- 2 potatoes
- 1 chunk of goat cheese
- 300 grams of gizzards (tossed in corn starch, butter and honey)
- 1T Dijon mustard
- 1T balsamic vinegar
- 2T olive oil
- 2T canola oil
- Boil the potatoes in advance.
- Wash and cut the salad, put them on two plates.
- Cut 2 tomatoes in 8 wedges, and spread them with pesto. Put on salad.
- Cut a shallot in paper thin rounds and put on salad.
- Cut the goat cheese in pieces and place on salad.
- Brown the potatoes in butter, and add chives, white pepper and salt. Put those on the salad too.
- Finally, toss the chicken gizzards in corn starch. Brown for 10 minutes, salt them and drizzle honey on the top. Let it caramelise. Put those on the salad.
- Toss the mustard, vinegar and oil to make a dressing.
- Serve the salad warm.
I definitely didn’t expect to read about goat cheese, gizzards and boiled potatoes, but hey, you said unconventional.
And I think it transforms to magical.
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