Well, what I didn't know is that there's a history to the Cobb Salad, invented by Bob Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby in Hollywood, CA.
A couple of nights before, we had decided to collaborate with friends for Friday, and since Julie makes such amazing bacon bits, I suggested a Cobb. So here was the starting palette, with the Bing Cherries there for the dessert (click on it for the hi-res).
There seems to be a lot of variations on the Cobb, and this was no exception. I couldn't source Roquefort without going to Whole Foods, so I went with blue. I also made blue cheese dressing per this recipe, pictured above, and I cut it down by 1/3 so as not to have leftovers. My second attempt to make mayonnaise failed, just as the first, so I was left using 2/3 cup of Trader Joe's expeller pressed canola oil mayo.
Chopped up the romaine and watercress, dressed with about 2/3 of the blue cheese dressing, plated, then used the remaining 1/3 dressing to mix up with the 5 oz. blue cheese crumbles for the centerpiece (click on the photo for the hi-res version).
Oh, man, was it ever good. Then, later after a few hands of cards, cherry smoothies, consisting of about a pound of cherries (all that were in the bowl) 3/4 can chilled coconut milk, 1/4 can heavy cream, 1 tsp honey, 1 tbsp Artisana coconut butter, and a dash of vanilla.
We had almost exactly the same meal a day ago! Minus the fancy dressing- we used red wine vinegar and olive oil and bacon drippings for the dressing, gorgonzola instead of roquefort and included ham and avocado too. Very yum! the cherries are great right now too!
The vegetables look yummy!
Great, but how do the lemons fit into the cream smoothie? Looks anachronistic to me! :-)
I think that's limes not lemons.
Man, I almost had the mayonnaise last week. It looked good and then I got too impatient with the last 1/2 cup oil. That's my third failed attempt, but it was certainly the closest I've been. My wife just bought another jar of the soybean oil crap (still tasty), till I get another chance to get it right.
Richard,
Your site is terrific. I found you through Mark's Daily Apple. Very inspiring and motivating stuff. Keep up the good work. Try this for your next mayo attempt: use grapeseed oil. Mostly flavorless, it makes the best creamy mayo I've ever tasted. Use one egg + one egg yolk. Mix into that 2 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice and 3-4 teaspoons of dijon mustard. Once mixed, drizzle in the oil, a third at a time, blending thoroughly. I find this recipe comes out best when ingredients are room temp. You'll get about 1 1/2 cups of mayo that'll stay fresh up to two weeks in the fridge.
Richard,
I forgot to list the exact amount of grapeseed oil to use in the mayo recipe: one cup. The very mild flavor of the grapeseed oil is enhanced by the addition of the 3-4 teaspoons of dijon mustard. I hope this works. Thanks again for such an informative site.
To your health,
Paul
I'm saving this page under recipes. That salad looks delicious! And the cherry smoothie. Yum. Why do you put the coconut butter in there?
The coconut butter makes nice tiny little chuncks of delicious coconut added to the flavor of the coconut milk, and whatever fruit you use.
Thanks, Paul. I'll give it a shot.