The challenge: Finding Baby Red Russian Kale...and pencil thin asparagas. The weakness: I gave up and settled for Red Kale, it happened to be organic, and the smallest asparagas being sold this week. However, settling or not, this is not your mama's salad, at least not my mother's-then again, she never liked leafy greens, nor asparagas. I believe this was true as I was in college when I tried either for the first time.
The recipe: No cooking, yeah! It also went together in less than an hour, including prep time. But this recipe serves four, not six or eight. I shaved the two ounces or so of Parmigiano-Romano cheese I thought I had...later, I realized I had pecorino-romano, must edit previous blog;-). However, compared the Parmagiano-Reggiano already grated to the Wisconsin Parmesan and found it still more flavorful, though only someone directly comparing or a true cheese snob would notice the difference. I may give my okay for using this substitute on second attempts at a recipe.
I began by ribbing and slicing the kale, then I sliced some of the asparagas, and realized the dressing needs to be made first. So, I set the salad/slaw aside and went to work on the dressing. I added the Parmiagiano-Reggiano chesse to two Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice, then I zested the lemon and wondered if I should get one of those really cool zesters I see on cooking battles. The hand-grater works though. And I have a small zester-but that grabs more of the pith than I like. Next I added in small amounts of salt and fresh ground peppper. Then I whisked in the 1/4 cup of olive oil...now I'll be cooking with canola oil the rest of the week and hoping olive oil is on sale this week. I set the dressing aside as directed.
I went back to finishing chopping the asparagas into 1" slices, and added another 1/4 tsp of salt and black pepper(I eyeballed this), and began to mix. Then I remembered my really big stainless steel salad bowl and put it in there to mix. It mixed much easier and I added in the shaved Parmesan and tossed with the dressing. While I waited for it, I checked my garden and returned a phone call. I was only supposed to wait ten minutes, and I was hungry. I think I was on the phone for half an hour, but that's the way it goes. Now I'll need to find kid friendly Emeril recipes to make soon. I'm borrowing my nieces and nephew sometime in the next three weeks.
Then I tasted the salad/slaw, and found it very good. It seemed like it would go really well with white wine, but I don't drink white wine. So I settled for soda and considered that maybe I just wanted wine, or I was considering the recipe I was making next. I get to play with fava beans, then all my dishes will need to washed again.
I will definitely make this recipe again, I have kale growing in my garden, I must introduce my best friend to it, it might get dubbed lizard food, but I'm not sure he can have the cheese or the oil. ;-).
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