Salacious Salad and Omelette
Posted on Wed 01 January 2020 in blog • 3 min read
Sometime last year I came across a post on /r/food that I seem to be unable to dig up. However, I recall that it had an infographic asserting that for a salad to be perfect, it had to have
- something tangy,
- something sweet,
- something crunchy,
- some protein (egg or meat),
- some dairy (yoghurt or cheese).
So I goofed around preparing breakfast one Sunday morning, and out came this.
Ingredients
Amounts are per person. Multiply as needed.
Salad:
- A fistful of rocket leaves (arugula).
- Some grapes, the smaller the better.
- A few cherry tomatoes. Best fresh off the vine in the middle of summer, even better if you can mix red, yellow, and purple varieties.
- A few basil leaves.
- A small amount of your favorite cold cut, say a thin slice or two of prosciutto crudo or bresaola (or Bündnerfleisch, if you want to get super fancy).
- A few thin slices of Parmigiano or Grana Padano. Cutting them off the piece with a potato peeler works really well.
- Pinch of black sesame seeds.
Vinaigrette:
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- Pinch of salt
- A few turns of freshly ground black pepper
- Half a teaspoon of mustard
- Half a teaspoon of honey
- A dash of something spicy, if you’re into that sort of thing. Sambal oelek or sriracha sauce will work just fine.
- 3 teaspoons olive oil
Omelette:
- 1 egg
- Pinch of salt
- Butter (for frying)
Equipment
- 1 medium-size bowl
- 2 small bowls
- Whisk
- Small frying pan
Method
-
Prepare the tomatoes: using a properly sharp kitchen knife, cut them into halves, quarters, or slices. Chuck them into a small bowl and sprinkle them rather liberally with salt and black pepper. Stack the basil leaves on top of each other and roll them up like tobacco leaves for a cigar, then cut the rolls into slices as thinly as you can. Throw the thin basil strands into the bowl, add some olive oil, and mix thoroughly using a spoon or your hands. Let the bowl sit on the countertop for five minutes or so, so that the tomatoes start oozing a bit of juice.
-
Make the vinaigrette: in a wide-enough bowl, put in salt, pepper, mustard, honey, and balsamic vinegar, and optionally the spicy condiment. Whisk to mix nicely, then add olive oil and whisk vigorously for 30-60 seconds. The goal is to get an opaque emulsion, with the mustard and honey acting as natural emulsifiers.
-
Throw the rocket leaves and grapes into the vinaigrette bowl and mix thoroughly with (cleanly washed) hands. Let sit for a few minutes so that the vinaigrette can infuse the leaves.
-
Crack egg into a small bowl, beat thoroughly with the whisk so the mixture is homogenous. Add a bit of salt.
-
Make sure your serving plate, pieces of meat, cheese shavings, and black sesame are close by (if you’re a mise-en-place enthusiast, you’ve likely done this already) — once the omelette is ready, you want to serve things up quickly.
-
Heat up some butter in the small pan.
-
Pour the beaten egg in and cook your omelet. It will be very thin so this should take only a minute, perhaps two.
-
Throw the omelet on the plate (don’t fold it) and then start stacking: rocket and grapes in vinaigrette at the bottom, then tomatoes in olive oil and basil, meat, cheese shavings finally sesame on top.
-
Serve.
Nutrition facts
No warranty of any kind on these. Values are per serving.
Calories (kcal) | 343 |
---|---|
Total fat (g) | 28.1 |
Saturated fat (g) | 8.8 |
Total carbohydrates (g) | 12.1 |
Sugars (g) | 8.2 |
Protein (g) | 12.9 |