I was going to include a Watercress and fresh Water Chestnut salad here, but a number of things stopped me-not the least of which, price. Water Chestnuts, in particular, are expensive, hard to find-and the quality is often very iffy. I have different issues with watercress.
This weekend I substituted romain lettuce-which is a fine, briefly cooked vegetable, and gala apple-crisp and sweet, not wholly different from water chestnuts. My guests and I liked the results. Hope you will, too.
Jerry Weinberg
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 head romaine (cleaned, trimmed, and sliced into 1” strips)
- 1½ apples (gala or other sweet – pared, cored, 1/16" cubes)
- 1 Tablespoon lime juice
- 16 tomatoes (sweet, grape)
- ½ cup carrot (trimmed and shredded)
- 2 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Dressing
- 2 teaspoons light soy
- 1½ Tablespoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- 1 Tablespoon maple syrup (light – or honey)
Instructions
- Place lime juice, tomatoes, carrots, and sesame seeds in jar, cover, shake well, refrigerate.
- Stir soy, oil, salt, pepper,and syrup/honey in a jar or bowl, cover, and refrigerate.
- Bring 2 quarts of water to boil. Drop in sliced romaine. Push down with stirrer or Chinese strainer—15-20 seconds, till limp. Remove with strainer, run under cold water and dry with paper towels. Chop fine.
- On attractive platter (black, if you have one), arrange the romaine in a circle.
- Spoon apples in an inner circle.
- Spoon apples in an inner circle.
- Cover with wax paper, cover that with plastic wrap, refrigerate up to four hours.
- When serving, uncover platter. Shake the jar with the last five ingredients and pour over the carrots and romaine. Decorate with carrot shreds and optional sesame seeds, and serve.
Jicama would be a good sub for the waterchestnuts as well!