Brussel Sprouts, Celery Heart, Grilled Fruit, Poached Quail Egg Salad with Preserved Lemon Nori Vinaigrette

Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad

  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad
  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad
  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad
  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad
  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad
  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad
  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad
  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad
  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad
  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad
  • Jeff’s Southern Heritage Salad

NOTES

Requires some technique, mostly cutting the citrus and poaching the egg, and this recipe will be best if you follow Jeff’s recipe for the preserved lemons. His are sweeter than your average preserved lemon. This recipe requires some specialty ingredients, notably quail eggs.

INSTRUCTIONS

To make preserved lemon:

Prepare canning jar. Sterilize jar, lid and ring in boiling water. Set aside to cool slightly.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place quartered lemons on baking sheet and sprinkle with 1 tbsp sugar. Roast in oven for 20 minutes.

While lemons are roasting, make simple syrup. Heat water and ½ cup sugar in saucepan until sugar dissolves.

Place roasted lemons, rosemary sprig, salt and vanilla extract in clean jar. Pour warm simple syrup over to cover completely. When cool, store in refrigerator. Lemons are ready to use in two weeks.

Salad:

For shallot and garlic confit, heat 1/2 inch olive oil (or chicken fat, if desired) over low flame until warm. Add shallot and garlic and gently poach until softened, 12-15 minutes. Reserve garlic and shallots for vinaigrette.

For salad, use a mandoline slicer to shred Brussels sprouts very thinly, add to bowl. Remove outer stalks of celery, reserve for other purposes. Chop very thinly the light green inner celery stalks and leaves. Add to bowl. Mix in shredded cheese. Add pinch of salt, and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Oil a grill pan with grapeseed oil and heat over medium flame. Grill grapes and grapefruit sections until slightly charred, 5-7 minutes.

To make the vinaigrette, chop nori into very small pieces, add to blender. Mince reserved confit shallot and garlic and add to blender with lemon juice. Salt to taste. Add Dijon mustard, sesame oil and red pepper flakes. Blend on medium speed, while slowly adding grapeseed oil, until opaque and emulsified. (If using preserved lemon juice, strips of preserved lemon peel may be added to the vinaigrette.

Toss salad with vinaigrette. Arrange on plate. Garnish with grilled grapes and grapefruit.

In saucepan, heat water over medium flame until simmering, add 1 tbsp cider vinegar. Swirl water vigorously with a whisk to create a whirlpool. Crack quail eggs into a small bowl and then gently drop into water. Cook for no more than 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon, and carefully place onto assembled salad.

Top with salad poached quail egg. Grind black pepper over top. Serve.

RECIPE

DIFFICULTY

HARD

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
SERVES

1

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
PREP TIME

30 MINS

Salad

  • 1 
    lb 
    Brussels sprouts, trimmed of stem and outer leaves
  • 1 
    bunch 
    celery with leaves
  • 1 
    cup 
    shredded Singing Brook, Pecorino or Parmesan cheese
  •  
     
    Pinch red pepper flakes
  • 12-15 
     
    red or black seedless grapes
  • 1 
     
    shallot, peeled and left whole
  • 1 
     
    clove garlic, peeled and left whole
  • 1 
     
    Ruby grapefruit, sectioned into supremes
  •  
     
    peel of 1/3 preserved lemon (recipe included)
  • 1 
     
    drizzle of Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 
    sheet 
    toasted nori (seaweed, found in Asian grocery)

Dressing

  •  
     
    Juice of 3 lemons (or 3 tbsp preserved lemon juice from preserved lemons)
  • 1 
    tbs 
    Dijon mustard
  • 1 
    tbs 
    sesame oil
  • 1/4 
    cup 
    grapeseed oil
  • 4 
     
    Quail eggs
  • 1 
    tbs 
    Cider vinegar

Preserved Lemon (takes 2 weeks)

  • 2 
     
    lemons, washed well and quartered
  • ½  
    cup plus 1tbs 
    golden cane or raw sugar
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    water
  • 1 
    tsp  
    salt
  • 1 
     
    Sprig of fresh rosemary
  • 1 
    tsp 
    vanilla extract
  • 1 
     
    1 pint canning jar, with lid and ring

INSTRUCTIONS

To make preserved lemon:

Prepare canning jar. Sterilize jar, lid and ring in boiling water. Set aside to cool slightly.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place quartered lemons on baking sheet and sprinkle with 1 tbsp sugar. Roast in oven for 20 minutes.

While lemons are roasting, make simple syrup. Heat water and ½ cup sugar in saucepan until sugar dissolves.

Place roasted lemons, rosemary sprig, salt and vanilla extract in clean jar. Pour warm simple syrup over to cover completely. When cool, store in refrigerator. Lemons are ready to use in two weeks.

Salad:

For shallot and garlic confit, heat 1/2 inch olive oil (or chicken fat, if desired) over low flame until warm. Add shallot and garlic and gently poach until softened, 12-15 minutes. Reserve garlic and shallots for vinaigrette.

For salad, use a mandoline slicer to shred Brussels sprouts very thinly, add to bowl. Remove outer stalks of celery, reserve for other purposes. Chop very thinly the light green inner celery stalks and leaves. Add to bowl. Mix in shredded cheese. Add pinch of salt, and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Oil a grill pan with grapeseed oil and heat over medium flame. Grill grapes and grapefruit sections until slightly charred, 5-7 minutes.

To make the vinaigrette, chop nori into very small pieces, add to blender. Mince reserved confit shallot and garlic and add to blender with lemon juice. Salt to taste. Add Dijon mustard, sesame oil and red pepper flakes. Blend on medium speed, while slowly adding grapeseed oil, until opaque and emulsified. (If using preserved lemon juice, strips of preserved lemon peel may be added to the vinaigrette.

Toss salad with vinaigrette. Arrange on plate. Garnish with grilled grapes and grapefruit.

In saucepan, heat water over medium flame until simmering, add 1 tbsp cider vinegar. Swirl water vigorously with a whisk to create a whirlpool. Crack quail eggs into a small bowl and then gently drop into water. Cook for no more than 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon, and carefully place onto assembled salad.

Top with salad poached quail egg. Grind black pepper over top. Serve.

This past weekend, my husband I met my parents at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee, a sprawling property at the foot of the Smoky Mountains, where Farm to Table cooking, wine, whiskey and a rare breed of Italian truffle hunting dogs abound. The farm produces their own cheese, meats, beer, jams and vinegars, all while providing a luxury hotel experience. For each of us finicky New York Jews there were at least five young Southern men ready, willing, and able to accomodate at all times.

In 2013,  The Barn’s Chef Joseph Lenn was awarded the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Southeast, putting Blackberry Farm on the culinary map.  But, when I showed up for my Salad For President guest blogging session, I was met by Jeff Ross… Dissapointed? Not at all. Jeff teaches most of the cooking demonstrations offered on-site, but he has a dirty little secret. Jeff is not a professional chef at all, he is the Master Gardener in charge of the growing the massive amounts of vegetables serving the two restaurants on the property. Jeff was raised in Knoxville, TN and he has been working the land at Blackberry Farm alongside his mentor, Farmer John (seen above), for 8 years.

So, Jeff has a particular perspective in the kitchen — he cooks seasonally and with a mind towards the land. The Blackberry Farm persimmon vinegar he used in this salad is made from the fruit byproduct of Blackberry Farm jams, and the waste from the vinegar is subsequently sent to feed the pigs. Points for showing us that being resourceful can be most delicious. Jeff is a, “wannabe chef, who doesn’t wanna be a chef.” I can relate to that.

Oh, and check out those gigantic tweezers! I have to get me some of those.

Jeff Ross in His Own Words

Julia: Where did the recipe for this salad come from?

Jeff: This salad was inspired by my friend in Miami Michelle Bernstein, the owner/chef of Michy’s.
Michelle visited Blackberry Farm and I adapted her recipe to make it a Winter salad, using the produce I was growing out back and what was available on our farm. I added my own rendition of a sweet preserved lemon, and I had to toss a quail egg in there since the days are getting longer and the quail are now laying. 
We topped this salad off with the Blackberry Farm’s raw Singing Brook Sheep’s Milk Cheese.

Julia: How did you get started cooking?

Jeff: I’m a history buff. My love of plants and cooking comes from my interest in the traditions of the region and my own cultural background as part Scot and part Cherokee. I draw from old cookbooks, anecdotal knowledge, researching what the early settlers and Native Americans ate and cultivated. The Cherokee in this region lived alongside the settlers from Ireland and Scotland, but they had all been displaced. They inevitably shared agricultural, religious and cultural practices, as well as a history of subjugation. This story can be traced through culinary and farming practices.

Julia: What’s going on the garden now?

Jeff: I’m working on a Wellness Garden this year. Some of the most nutritious foods we can eat are wild plants, so part of the plot will be left wild and part will be cultivated. I am planting native plants like lamb’s quarter (related to quinoa), and purslane (a kind of succulent), and encouraging edible wild edible weeds to grow in between.

Julia: What is your salad philosophy?

Jeff: Think outside the lettuce.