31 December 2018

Salade de scarole au poulet



Here's a good way to finish up your roasted holiday bird. In my title, I use the word poulet (chicken), but in fact the leftover bird we had was breast meat from a chapon de pintadeau (Guinea-fowl capon). You could cook chicken especially for this salad if you don't have any left over. For example, pan-roasted boneless, skinless breasts or thighs...



Scarole (escarole in English) is a sturdy and tasty salad green that is good served with garlicky vinaigrette and with beets, lardons fumés (chunks of smoked pork), or walnuts. Or all of the above. Those are salad ingredients that complement and tone down the slight bitterness of the escarole leaves.



Another addition can be chicken, or turkey, or Guinea fowl. I put poultry, cooked beets, toasted walnuts, and toasted croutons in my salad on Saturday, but no pork. It was a full meal in one dish. It's a good idea to dress the escarole leaves a few minutes in advance so that the vinegar in the dressing will begin to tenderize them.



The important thing about this kind of salade composée is to mix the greens with the vinaigrette before adding the other ingredients. If you don't dress the greens first, the danger is that the croutons, the chicken, and the walnuts will soak up all the vinaigrette and turn soggy, leaving little or no dressing left for the greens.



Vinaigrette is made by mixing together a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, two teaspoons of vinegar (red wine, white wine, cider... your choice), salt and pepper, and three or four teaspoons of good oil (olive, canola, sunflower, or a combination... also your choice). And in this case a clove or two of garlic, chopped or pressed. Toss the escarole in the dressing, then add the other ingredients and toss again. Enjoy.

14 comments:

  1. Completely off-topic, but I want to post this video of dolphins swimming in the ocean off the N.C. coast near my home town. I hope the link will work.

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  2. Oh, good point about dressing the greens first. Never thought of that! It's probably also helpful, if you have beets in there, because my whole salad always turns pink if I toss the beets with the dressing and the rest of the salad.

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    1. If you mix beets with Belgian endive in a salad, it's true that the endive leaves turn pink.

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  3. It works, thanks for sharing!...a joyful scene!

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    1. We often saw huge schools of dolphins swimming along the coast when I was a youngster. The last time I ever saw those was in the early 1980s when Walt and went swimming in the ocean at Ocracoke Island.

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  4. Lovely the dolphins surfing in N.C.

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    1. I remember going swimming in the ocean there back in the 1960s and having dolphins swimming next to me (or "us" really, because I wasn't alone). The dolphins like to "body surf" just as we did.

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    2. What a nice video to bring back some good memories. I'm glad the dolphins are still there.

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    3. E., you and L. saw the dolphins a few years ago in Beaufort, n'est-ce pas? Not to mention the horses.

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    4. Yes we saw both- I love seeing wild horses especially.

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  5. That salad looks very good, with the beets. Thanks for the tip about dressing the greens first....
    Love those surfing dolphins, having such fun.

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    1. I also dress the beets separately, before tossing them with the dressed greens and other salad ingredients.

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  6. The salad looks delicious and will work well on the diet I am starting tomorrow or the day after! I've enjoyed all your posts this past year, especially the food posts! Those always make me hungry.

    Wishing you and Walt a Healthy and Happy New Year!

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    1. Happy New Year to you, Galestorm. Hope you watched the video of those dolphins that were body surfing at Emerald Isle the other day.

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