In France, salad means one thing: lettuce. In fact, the word for lettuce is salade in French.
When most people talk about serving salade, at least at home, they mean a green salad tossed with vinaigrette, which is often either served at the end of the meal, before or alongside the cheese course, or with an otherwise very heavy meal, such as tartiflette (which is baked potatoes, bacon, cheese, and cream).
Of course, that’s not to say that salads featuring ingredients other than salade don’t exist in France. Called salades composées, these meal salads tend, however, to veer in a completely opposite direction than they do on the tables of health-conscious Americans. Unlike the combinations of lettuce, tomato, carrot, and cucumber (or kale, sprouts, and seeds) you might find on many American tables, in France, a salade composée is often basically an excuse to eat ham and cheese on a bed of lettuce. A good friend of mine here in Paris mocks these “salads,” removing most of the unhealthy ingredients to get to the reason most people order a salad: the vegetables.
As for me, as with most things, I’ve reached an entre-deux, a combination of the French and American salade philosophies, as evidenced by this recent platter, vaguely inspired by a Cobb salad. It quite purposefully features an array of colors, flavors, and textures: raw tomato, corn, button mushrooms, and avocado fulfill the demand for health, whereas rare basse-côte steak, sautéed red onions, and blue cheese round it out nicely.
Arranged in color order atop a bed of sucrine lettuce and drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette just before serving, it makes for a very happy Franco-American indeed.
Cobb-Ish Salad (serves 4)
1 tablespoon duck fat
1 300-gram basse-côte steak
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 heads little gem or baby romaine lettuce, sliced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 1/2 cups corn kernels (fresh, if possible)
1 avocado, sliced
3 ounces Roquefort, crumbled
1 cup sliced button mushrooms
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
Heat the duck fat in a skillet over high heat. Season the steak with salt on both sides, and cook for about three minutes per side. Remove to a board and allow to cool.
Add the onion to the same pan, season with salt, and fry briefly, about 4 minutes, just until it begins to color. Remove from the pan and set aside.
After the steak has been resting for about five minutes, slice it into thin slices against the grain.
Arrange the lettuce on a serving platter and season lightly with salt. Top with, in order, the tomatoes, corn, cooked onions, steak slices, avocado slices, blue cheese, and mushrooms.
Whisk the vinegar and mustard together, and season with salt and pepper. Emulsify with the olive oil. Drizzle the dressing over the salad, or serve on the side, allowing people to add it to their own portions.