I'm back from my brief hiatus! We got married last week so I have been a little busy.
We had a small wedding, just immediate family, and went to Balthazar in SoHo for a long lunch afterwards. As always, the food was delicious, the wine wonderful, and the service was excellent. I had the best salad I've had in long time as my starter - their Balthazar salad. According to the Balthazar cookbook, which my brother and his wife gave us as a wedding gift, this eponymous salad was inspired by an whimsical attempt to include ingredients using every letter in the restaurant's name, which gives us: beets, avocado, lemon juice, truffle oil, haricot verts, asparagus, (lemon) zest, and radishes. Now, I'm missing the final "a". Working from their cookbook, and memory, I can't figure it out! There's also ricotta salata and fennel in there, and 3 kinds of lettuces - romaine (aka cos), mache (aka lamb's lettuce), and radicchio, but none of those gives me an "a" ...
I'm a huge fan of this salad and would go back any day for lunch to get it. Apart from a perfect balance of flavours and textures, what really made it stand out was the lemon and white-truffle vinaigrette. I have some white truffle oil in my larder, which I love to drizzle on plain omelettes and scrambled eggs, and I'm going to start making this lemon-truffle dressing regularly, and using it on the likes of steamed asparagus and green beans. I recommend adding a little lemon zest - there was zest in the salad as an ingredient, and I think the dressing benefits from it when it is to be used in other dishes.
Balthazar's Lemon-Truffle Vinaigrette
Adapted from "The Balthazar Cookbook" by Keith McNally, Riad Nasr, and Lee Hanson.
2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
Pinch of salt
Twist of black pepper
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons white truffle oilCombine the lemon juice, salt and pepper, and lemon zest in a bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil, followed by the truffle oil. If not using right away, store covered in the fridge, and whisk again before use.
By the way, I didn't have the duck confit for lunch, rather opting for the pan-roasted Chicken Riesling (I frequently get chicken when I know it'll be done right) instead, so I can't vouch for it, but the picture in their cookbook shows a crispy leg of duck, so I can't be too crazy thinking they're just getting lazy in the places I've recently visited in Paris!
