Alice Water, Meet Thomas Keller: Little Gems Salad

Out of THOMAS KELLER’S AD HOC COOK BOOK comes his terrific Little Gem salad which he dresses like a rarefied iceberg wedge salad with lardon (a French-go-to, thick-cut bacon), homemade croutons, oven roasted tomatoes, and the very best buttermilk ranch dressing I’ve ever had. I’ve made this so many times now, I’m a pro. But it takes getting used to. 

For the dressing, I make the mayonnaise and then prepare the rest of the dressing by finely chopping the mint and parsley. It’s not super easy to do, but setting it up in little containers before I leave for work, it ships well to work and sits on the plate in the kitchen at the office like a grand feast. And it’s only a salad!

Here’s how I do it.

First I make the croutons:

Making Alice Waters' Croutons for Tommy Boy's Salad

Alice Waters’ Croutons

HER CROUTONS COME FROM HER THE ART OF SIMPLE FOOD. This book is really a reader, not a cookbook. I feel that like Julia Child, you learn from her here as if she is telling a story, not making recipes. I love her style here. Read this book, and get a sense of how to purchase food, how to have a pantry that is full of useful treats, and how to prevent food in your fridge from becoming rotten before you get around to it.

Salad Building Blocks

One of the things that you can salvage is French bread. I’m not a huge bread eater. Two pieces in the morning is sufficient, although fresh bread I could eat all day. Once it’s no longer fresh, just shear off the crusts and then cut into your favorite crouton dice.

Alice prefers torn pieces that she then tosses in oil. As she tries to make sound easy, “Fry little cubed croutons in butter to strew atop a delicate pureed soup.” Well, when it comes to these croutons, just toast them after you toss with olive oil. No need to be extra virgin, you just want them to brown with some oil and dried herbs never hurt
(1/2-1 t dill weed or try combining 1/2 t basil and 1/2 t tarragon), roll the croutons in the oil, place on a cookie tray, toast in a hot oven, flip, and brown. Keep an eye on these, then pull out. If you are only in possession of a toaster oven, you can do these easily in a small toaster over pan. In fact, it’s easier than in the big oven.

At any rate, the oven roasted tomatoes can be subbed out by purchasing them at Whole Foods. But if it’s end of season in October, you can roast your own. As Keller says so blithely, 12 plum tomatoes, 1/2 c extra virgin olive oil, 3 sprigs of thyme, kosher salt and pepper. At 200 degree, slow roast them in a baking sheet lined with foil for six hours or until they are shrunk and dried. Cut the tomatoes in half, place cut side up on the lined baking sheet, drizzle with oil, scatter with the thyme leaves and season with salt and pepper. These are handy afterwards, because when you chop them for the salad, you may find you have left overs. The leftovers work in other recipes of his, so you can create entirely new meals as you finish this step.

Ranch Dressing Drops

Makes about 2 cups of dressing

Buttermilk Dressing

1/4 – 1/2 c buttermilk

1/2 c creme fraiche

1 t finely minced onion

1 garlic clove minced

3/4 t lemon juice

1 t finely minced fresh chives

1 t fresh flat leaf parsley

1 t minced fresh mint (or, I’ve found you can use fresh dill in place of)

1 c mayo (Homemade is so surprisingly easy; according to Julia Child, it’s two egg yolks at room temperature, with a pinch of salt, quickly processed in the food processor; then when sticky, add in 2T lemon juice and 1/4 t Dijon or powdered mustard. Process for another 10-30 seconds; then drizzle in through the mayo hole on the top of the food processor 1-1 1/2 c oil. I use olive oil. It’s more yellow than most mayo, so don’t be surprised if you don’t recognize it!)

• Stir everything together. 
• Done. 
• Love that part. 

If it is too thick, slowly add in more buttermilk, until it’s the consistency you like. You can also make it into blue cheese dressing if you skip the dill and add in 1 1/2 c crumble blue cheese (about 8 ounces worth). I seem to recall that classic American ranch dressing used dill. At least it did when I was a kid. I have tweaked his recipe by using fresh minced onion and fresh garlic. I cannot imagine why these need to be powder as he recommends.

At any rate, arrange the salad on the plate–and again, this works really well with iceberg lettuce, but he recommends the Little Gems–and sprinkle with some STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-THE-FRYING-PAN BACON LARDON.

Thomas Keller's Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

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