Add the salad on top of a skirt steak. Photo
© ChickenFriedGourmet.com. |
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We recently discovered Louisiana chef Michael O’Boyle, who writes the blog ChickenFriedGourmet.com. The photo gallery on the site is an inspiration to lovers of nouvelle cuisine, and has inspired us to cook up a storm based simply on his concept.
Lucky people in the Shreveport area can take part in Chef O’Boyle’a Gulf Pig Underground Dinner Club, with changing locations and menus. (Next up: a dinner in late July/early August and two in September/October.)
Chef O’Boyle is a consulting chef to the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, which acquainted us with him by sending one of his recipes.
While most home cooks may not want to take on his Tomato Gelée, it’s easy to whip up his reversal of the conventional steak salad, greens topped with sliced steak.
Here, the positions are reversed.
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Chef O’Boyle topped a skirt steak with pickled green tomatoes and a baby arugula salad, garnished with Parmesan cheese. Create your own variations with this template:
Ingredients
Protein. Take your pick: beef, lamb, pork, poultry or tofu.
Pickled Vegetable. It’s easy to pickle your favorite veggies: asparagus, bell peppers or hot chiles, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, jicama, mushrooms, onions, summer squash, tomatoes, etc. Here’s a quick and easy recipe; you can pickle in as little as an hour in advance.
Salad. Look for “flexible” greens that can be mounded atop the protein, as opposed to stiff lettuces. We like baby arugula and spinach, mâche and mixed baby greens. Toss the salad lightly in vinaigrette right before serving. A good recipe: Whisk together 3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons vinegar and 1 teaspoon Dijon or whole grain mustard.
Garnish. Choose from croutons, freeze-dried vegetables (see Crunchies), dried berries, cheese (crumbled blue cheese, grated Parmesan), slivered nuts, etc.
Preparation
1. Pickle the vegetables (this can be done up to a week in advance).
2. Cook and plate the protein.
3. Top the protein with the dressed salad.
4. Garnish and serve.
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