I went to Kentucky and learned SO MUCH
I also made a Cobb Salad (the perfect Salad For Dinner salad), I promise the two are related
Hello and welcome to Home Movies Tuesday! If you’ve found your way over by some miracle but are not yet subscribed, here, let me help you with that:
A few weeks ago, I flew to Kentucky with our friends Dan, David and Dennis. It started with me leaving my laptop on the plane (auspicious start!), but ended with drinking bourbon and a 6-hour weather related plane delay with an emergency stopover in…Pittsburgh, where I had a bite of my first chick-fil-a sandwich (pass)— auspicious ending?
The next day, we regrouped in Brooklyn to reflect on our trip and all that we learned (growing grains! fermentation is magic! aging is cool! bottling is hard!) and make what is arguably one of the finest Salads For Dinner: the iconic Cobb Salad, for which even I will eat a little avocado.
To unlock the mystery of how Kentucky > Maker’s Mark > Bourbon > Brown Derby > THE Brown Derby > Cobb Salad, then you’ll have to tune in because the visuals do a much better job than I ever could of making sense of what’s going on inside that brain of mine.
Thank you to Maker’s Mark for sponsoring this week’s episode, we would love to come back to visit if you’ll have us! To get your own bottle of Maker’s Mark (possibly hand-dipped by moi?), head here.
A Pretty Classic Cobb Salad
serves 4–6
While I do hate following rules, sometimes it’s nice to color inside the lines. To qualify as a Cobb Salad, the salad must have certain ingredients or else it’s simply just a large salad, and I am happy to oblige (as long as tomato is optional in the colder months and I give all my avocado away and serve the blue cheese on the side for those who don’t care for it). While it can be stressful to assemble a LARGE SALAD like this (so many steps/components), it is nice to treat it like a relaxing project, no hectic rushing, perhaps breaking up some of the steps over two days if you can’t imagine taking 45 minutes to make one salad.
Not for nothing, this shallot/mustard dressing is a great all-purpose recipe to have on hand for greens and salads of all shapes and sizes, as well as roasted vegetables, cooked grains, perfectly cooked fish, etc. It’s tangy and vibrant with enough acidity to make you feel truly alive.
For the dressing:
1 small shallot, thinly sliced or finely chopped
2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons dijon or whole grain mustard
2 tablespoons bacon fat (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil
For the salad and assembly:
1 pound thick-cut bacon (you could do less, but why)
2 (about 1 pound) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 head romaine or 3–4 heads little gem lettuce, tough outer leaves removed, the rest torn into large pieces (or chopped)
½–1 avocado, thinly sliced or chopped
4–6 ounces blue (or feta*) cheese, crumbled
3-4 large eggs, soft, medium or hard boiled**
¼ cup finely chopped chives
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped tarragon or parsley
¼ pound ripe tomatoes (but only if they’re in season), sliced into wedges
*No, this is not traditional, but I wouldn’t let your dislike of blue cheese get in the way of you not making this salad.
**For this salad I like a medium boil. I bring a small pot of water to a boil, add my eggs and boil for 7 minutes. Remove from the water, let run under cool water a minute or two and that’s it. This is a very good not-too-jammy but not chalky egg.
1. For the vinaigrette: Combine shallot, vinegar and lemon in a medium bowl; season with salt and pepper and let sit a few minutes to lightly pickle the shallot. Add mustard and olive oil, stir to combine (you can use a whisk for this but a fork will be fine); season again with salt and pepper and set aside. There! A lovely vinaigrette.
2. For the salad: Cook the bacon, flipping occasionally, in a large skillet over medium heat until crispy, 8–10 minutes depending on thickness. Using tongs, transfer bacon to a paper towel lined plate, leaving about ⅓ cup of the fat in the skillet (I like to save any extra fat and whisk a little into the vinaigrette, or use it to sauté vegetables or fry eggs the next day). Once the bacon is cooled, chop or crumble and set aside.
3. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Return the skillet with bacon fat to medium heat. Cook chicken until cooked through and nicely golden brown on both sides, about 4 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a cutting board until cool enough to either chop, slice or shred by hand into bite-sized pieces; set aside.
4. Spoon a little of your lovely vinaigrette over the tomatoes, give them a toss and set aside so they can get all nice and juicy.
5. Arrange lettuce on a large serving platter or large bowl and top with half your herbs. Spoon half the vinaigrette over and season with salt and pepper; give it a nice toss around. Arrange avocado, blue cheese, halved eggs, crumbled bacon, chicken and dressed tomatoes around in whatever pattern or not-pattern you like. Scatter with the remaining herbs and spoon over remaining vinaigrette.
DO AHEAD: Vinaigrette can be made 5 days ahead, stored tightly wrapped or sealed in the refrigerator.
Fizzy Brown Derby
serves 4–6
I am a fan of any cocktail that features citrus and sparkling water, but especially grapefruit which really does the most, giving sweetness, bitterness and sourness (grapefruit truly has it all!). While a classic Brown Derby is shaken and served up, this version is stirred and served over ice (and topped with fizzy water)–if you want to modify even further, freshly grated ginger would be spicy and lovely.
6 ounces Maker’s Mark
1 cup fresh grapefruit juice, from about 2 large grapefruits
2 tablespoons honey
A few grapefruit slices, optional
Ice, lots of it
1-2 cans seltzer water
1. Combine Maker’s Mark, grapefruit juice and honey in a large glass. Stir till all the honey is dissolved.
2. Pour over a tall glass filled with ice (should come up the glass about â…“ of the way) and top with seltzer water. Garnish with grapefruit slice.
I love slotted spoons. I have a slotted spoon problem. I buy them at the restaurant supply stores, at antique stores, on Etsy. I love them for lots of things, especially boiling eggs.
This is one of my favorite blue cheeses of all time. Everything they make at Jasper Hill Farm I would die for, but especially their Bayley Hazen Blue. It’s salty, creamy and a little…spicy? During the filming of that CNN show nobody has seen (I swore we made a show- two seasons of it in fact!), I went there and saw how it was made and I learned SO MUCH. Widely available across these United States.
The blue tank I’m wearing in Kentucky is perfect. It’s from J.Crew! You can get one here. The fun blouse I’m wearing in my kitchen is from Carleen, I love her clothes (+1 for the denim jacket no longer available, but I wear all the time).
I have to say, watching that was a trip! And now I’ll only buy Maker’s Mark, what a great sell. B- corp, who knew? Their own grain and those animals!
Got any big platter/plate/bowl recommendations for a big salad?
Also, I never know if I’m cleaning my all clad skillet properly. After you have done the bacon and the chi me in there, how are you cleaning it?