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Recipe Time: Palmito del Verde Salad
Jul. 22nd, 2011 06:27 pmNo flowers or bugs involved, I promise. Not in the actual recipe, anyway.
In the midst of my space geeking, I grabbed a can of Hearts of Palm from the local market, mainly because hearts of palm feature prominently in the account of "jungle survival training" as written by Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins. It's a bad damned day in the jungle when you finally machete that palm tree to death, only to find some ant colony already ate the good parts. I was going to serve my hearts of palm with the official NASA can of soup I picked up in Florida (made from the recipe used on Apollo 16), but it's not soup weather.
Instead, I made this salad:
Palmito del Verde Salad
Five hearts of palm, rinsed and drained (the 14.4 oz can offered by Haddon House works nicely)
One ovoline-sized ball of fresh mozzarella
One half a Haas avocado, ripe but still firm enough to slice
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
Two tablespoons black olive paste
Agrumato olive oil (expensive secret ingredient!)
Sea salt and freshly-ground pepper
Slice the hearts of palm on an angle (it looks better); each heart should yield 5-6 discs. Chop the mozzarella into bite-sized chunks. Peel and dice the avocado half. Shred the basil leaves. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss lightly for even distribution.
In a small bowl, combine the olive paste with enough olive oil to make it the desired texture (a couple of teaspoons, I think) for your dressing.
Divide the salad into two equal servings; top each serving with a dollop of dressing. Drizzle with additional olive oil, if desired. Toss lightly to coat the ingredients evenly. Serves two.
Don't ask about the name. It's a Central American slant on a bad pun my husband wanted to use for the name. I could've run with the space theme and called it Green Cheese Moon Salad, but that would just be strange.
PS: Regular extra-virgin olive oil would work, I'm sure, but then you might want to add a spritz of lemon to the dressing.
In the midst of my space geeking, I grabbed a can of Hearts of Palm from the local market, mainly because hearts of palm feature prominently in the account of "jungle survival training" as written by Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins. It's a bad damned day in the jungle when you finally machete that palm tree to death, only to find some ant colony already ate the good parts. I was going to serve my hearts of palm with the official NASA can of soup I picked up in Florida (made from the recipe used on Apollo 16), but it's not soup weather.
Instead, I made this salad:
Palmito del Verde Salad
Five hearts of palm, rinsed and drained (the 14.4 oz can offered by Haddon House works nicely)
One ovoline-sized ball of fresh mozzarella
One half a Haas avocado, ripe but still firm enough to slice
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
Two tablespoons black olive paste
Agrumato olive oil (expensive secret ingredient!)
Sea salt and freshly-ground pepper
Slice the hearts of palm on an angle (it looks better); each heart should yield 5-6 discs. Chop the mozzarella into bite-sized chunks. Peel and dice the avocado half. Shred the basil leaves. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss lightly for even distribution.
In a small bowl, combine the olive paste with enough olive oil to make it the desired texture (a couple of teaspoons, I think) for your dressing.
Divide the salad into two equal servings; top each serving with a dollop of dressing. Drizzle with additional olive oil, if desired. Toss lightly to coat the ingredients evenly. Serves two.
Don't ask about the name. It's a Central American slant on a bad pun my husband wanted to use for the name. I could've run with the space theme and called it Green Cheese Moon Salad, but that would just be strange.
PS: Regular extra-virgin olive oil would work, I'm sure, but then you might want to add a spritz of lemon to the dressing.
