As a teenager, who until recently only ate cucumbers as my vegetable intake (didn’t even like tomatoes), I somehow fell in love with a dish called a “Chef’s Salad”. While on annual visits to family in New York each summer, I had more and more of these substantial salads that often had crisp lettuce, ham, cheese, boiled eggs and an assortment of other ingredients. Doused in thousand island dressing, they were the cat’s meow. My sister took to packing a huge chef’s salad as baon on my long return flight home to the Philippines, and when I opened it up at mealtime inflight (I hated airline food then) my seat mates would almost always do a double take, one guy even offering to buy my salad rather than eat his little plastic container of beef or chicken with mashed potatoes. So suffice it to say, I love these salads, in most of their forms… and throw in cobb salads as well.
At home, chef’s salads are a great way to make use of leftovers after a long holiday period where your fridge it still chockfull with cooked and uncooked goodies. I made this chef’s salad for lunch one day, a huge platter for five people. It had some crisp romaine lettuce, slices of leftover southern ham, cold shrimp from a meal the night before, homemade boquerones, boiled eggs, baby carrots, artichokes, pickled radishes and olives. There were several kinds of tomatoes, pea shoots and some herbs thrown in. A shallot, mustard vinaigrette was the dressing of choice.
Crunchy, salty and creamy with hints of sourness in almost every mouthful. Some things are nearly life long favorites, and this type of Chef’s salad will always be on my short list.
16 Responses
yes, one of oour “fridge clean-up” standards as well. are those tiny pink “teardrops” the pickled radishes? too cute!
millet, yes, the pickling liquid seemed to “dissolve” the very thin young radish skin, turning it otherworldly pink… :)
MM, I’m sure you also included potatoes in your vegetable intake as a teenager.
ami, hahaha, yes, french fries. :)
mouth watering indeed! Permission to “copy” po Sir MM? But of course, your salad is the best :)
hahaha! malamang mas gusto din ni MM ang kamote kaysa sa patatas.
I’m very OC when it comes to washing salad greens. How do you do it thoroughly for pea shoots when they’re so tiny? Thanks MM.
Gigi, soak them in several changes of cool water. Then use a salad spinner to dry them out. But these particular greens come from an organic farmer I trust, so less pesticides, etc. and I don’t get too crazed about washing them… In fact, in a recent delivery of toscana kale, I found a like lady bug in the package… and I consider that a VERY GOOD THING. :) Tok, actually, I didn’t like kamote much as a kid, unless it was cooked with lots of caramelized sugar. :) eynie, take inspiration all you like, that’s what the posts are there for… if only one person every day benefits from a recipe on the blog, I am really thrilled…
I add a bit of vinegar to my last rinse of greens to get rid of wayward cooties! We grow our own lettuce though and know it’s organic. It often comes into the kitchen with a little dirt on the bottom pa.
What a splash of colour! ….and perfect eggs – not a hint of grey.
MM, i still give my organic greens a thorough washing because although there may be no chemical goo there, the soil they’re grown in usually contains chicken manure and other icky stuff. i usually soak the greens for a few minutes first, then throw out the water, and soak again in water with some ice cubes in it, and a last rinse before they’re thrown in the spinner.
Substantial salads = not-so-diet food of choice!
Millet…so that you won’t it have any issues with your greens grown in poop…Google GARBAGE ENZYME! This is what i am doing now and will try it as my cheap fertilizer for my greens which I will start soon!
Ok…don’t be put off by the word garbage…it is not the basura as we know it!
I am curious about where you get your artichokes and ham (is that Rustans?). Love the color and that is one hearty salad :)
Rachiel, the ham are leftover bits from a Southern (U.S.) dry-aged ham from Clifty Farms that my sister brought in her luggage on a visit from NY. The artichokes are bottled and sliced, purchased at S&R (several branches) in Metro-Manila.
Hey, what herbs did you throw in here? I was thinking if basil, chives and some parsley would complement everything.