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June 15th is National Lobster Day, so buy a few crustaceans and get creative! How about dressing one of America’s favorite salads with lobster instead of chicken? Here’s a Lobster Cobb Salad recipe from Chef Wolfgang Puck.
> The history of Cobb Salad is below.
> More Cobb Salad recipes.
> A year of salad holidays.
> National Salad Day is May 1st.
RECIPE #1: WOLFGANG PUCK’S LOBSTER COBB SALAD
Ingredients
2 heads romaine lettuce cut into thin strips
2 heads watercress
1 pound diced cooked lobster meat
1/2 pound cooked chopped bacon
1/2 pound. cut green beans
2 medium diced tomatoes
6 hard-boiled eggs (separated into yolks and whites and
then chopped)
2 diced avocados
1/4 pound crumbled Roquefort cheese
RECIPE #2: WOLFGANG PUCK’S BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE
Ingredients
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chopped shallots
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
1. MAKE the vinaigrette.
2. ASSEMBLE the salad ingredients in stripes across a dinner plate and serve with the balsamic vinaigrette on the side.
3. TOAST with a glass of Champagne or other sparkling wine, to the lobsters of the world for tasting so darned good.
COBB SALAD HISTORY
Late one evening in 1937, Bob Cobb, owner of The Brown Derby restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard in Hollywood (photo #5), was scrounging in the kitchen’s refrigerator for a snack.
He grabbed a mix of ingredients: a head of iceberg lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, a cold breast of chicken, a hard-boiled egg, chives, cheese and some old-fashioned French dressing.
He then took some crisp bacon from a chef’s station and started chopping.
He shared the snack with his friend Sid Grauman of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, who came back the next day and asked for a “Cobb Salad.”
It was put on the menu and became an overnight sensation. Movie mogul Jack Warner regularly dispatched his chauffeur to pick one up.
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[1] In this Lobster Cobb Salad, lobster takes the place of chicken. In Bob Cobb’s original recipe, the ingredients were chopped and laid out in neat rows, a version of the French salade composee (composed salad). Presenting the individual ingredients separately gives the salad more eye appeal than a chopped or tossed salad (photo © The Tuck Room | L.A.).
[2] This version of the recipe has diced cheese, ham and turkey instead of the original avocado, bacon, chicken; plus a bonus of crunchy celery (photo © eMeals).
[3] Another format: chopped Cobb Salad in romaine boats (photo © Applegate).
[4] The Brown Derby restaurant in 1956 (photo Public Domain).
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