Herb Salad with Bacon Avocado, Whole Radishes and Oysters

Molly and Cass’s Farmer’s Market Salad

 

 

 

  • Molly and Cass’s Farmer’s Market Salad
  • Molly and Cass’s Farmer’s Market Salad
  • Molly and Cass’s Farmer’s Market Salad
  • Molly and Cass’s Farmer’s Market Salad
  • Molly and Cass’s Farmer’s Market Salad

NOTES

Light lunch salad, picnic meal. Requires really fresh greens, and of course, the freshest oysters. Make sure you purchase an oyster shucking knife from the fish monger.

INSTRUCTIONS

Keep your oysters on ice and in the fridge while you cook. You should take them out just before shucking.

Slice lemon and put aside. Add 1 tbs horseradish to a small dish. I am into ISH brand lately.

Mince shallot and put in a small dish, cover with sherry vinegar. Congratulations, you just made “Mignonette Sauce.”

Wash and dry all your herbs. Remove leave from the stems of dill and chervil. Tear leaves off of the little gem lettuce, tear them in half if they are too big to be bite size, but they should be small.

The process of putting this salad together is best done with a little intuition. Taste your herbs, see what you like best, and favor that. You can’t go wrong, just try and find a balance between all of the herbs and toss them together in a bowl.

Mince shallot. Squeeze juice of lemon into a small dish, add mustard and whisk in your olive oil until emulsified.

Toss salad with dressing, sprinkle with sumac, lemon sea salt and cracked pepper. Shave or micro-grate Pecorino on top. Slice the avocado just before serving. Drizzle with lemon juice and sea salt.

Wash radishes well, remove tops. Place in a bowl next to a small dish of flakey sea salt. Either Maldon or something with flavor. Molly’s Lemon slat was far more exotic, but it looked something like this one from WIlliams Sonoma.

Lay oysters on a plate with crushed ice. Get a hand towel ready, and start to shuck. This is a good instructional video on how to do that.

Add your own fixings to the oysters – salt, lemon, horseradish, mignonette sauce. Choose your adventure.

RECIPE

DIFFICULTY

MODERATE

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
SERVES

3

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
PREP TIME

15 MINS

Salad

  • 1 
    bunch 
    sorrel
  • 1 
    bunch 
    frisée lettuce
  • 1 
    bunch 
    chervil
  • 1 
    bunch 
    dill
  • 2 
    heads 
    little gem lettuce
  • 1  
    bunch 
    baby mizuna
  • 1 
    bunch 
    red baby mizuna
  • 1 
    cup  
    mature arugula
  • 1 
    cup  
    pea shoots
  •  
     
    pecorino cheese
  • 1 
     
    Bacon avocado (use Hass if you can't find Bacon Varietal)
  • 1 
    bunch 
    whole french radishes
  •  
     
    extra sea salt for dipping radishes

Dressing

  • 1/2 
     
    Meyer lemon, juiced
  • 1 
    tsp 
    Lowensenf German mustard (Cass swears by this brand)
  • 1/2 
     
    shallot
  • 1/4  
    cup 
    olive oil
  • 1 
    tsp 
    Sumac
  • 1 
    pinch 
    Lemon infused Sea Salt (a treasure from Molly’s mother’s trip to Abu Dhabi)

Oysters

  • 1-2 
    dozen 
    West Coast Oysters
  • 1/2 
    shallot 
    minced
  • 3  
    tbs 
    sherry vinegar
  •  
     
    horseradish, fresh or in a jar
  • 1 
     
    lemon

INSTRUCTIONS

Keep your oysters on ice and in the fridge while you cook. You should take them out just before shucking.

Slice lemon and put aside. Add 1 tbs horseradish to a small dish. I am into ISH brand lately.

Mince shallot and put in a small dish, cover with sherry vinegar. Congratulations, you just made “Mignonette Sauce.”

Wash and dry all your herbs. Remove leave from the stems of dill and chervil. Tear leaves off of the little gem lettuce, tear them in half if they are too big to be bite size, but they should be small.

The process of putting this salad together is best done with a little intuition. Taste your herbs, see what you like best, and favor that. You can’t go wrong, just try and find a balance between all of the herbs and toss them together in a bowl.

Mince shallot. Squeeze juice of lemon into a small dish, add mustard and whisk in your olive oil until emulsified.

Toss salad with dressing, sprinkle with sumac, lemon sea salt and cracked pepper. Shave or micro-grate Pecorino on top. Slice the avocado just before serving. Drizzle with lemon juice and sea salt.

Wash radishes well, remove tops. Place in a bowl next to a small dish of flakey sea salt. Either Maldon or something with flavor. Molly’s Lemon slat was far more exotic, but it looked something like this one from WIlliams Sonoma.

Lay oysters on a plate with crushed ice. Get a hand towel ready, and start to shuck. This is a good instructional video on how to do that.

Add your own fixings to the oysters – salt, lemon, horseradish, mignonette sauce. Choose your adventure.

When you eat lunch at director Molly Schiot and actor/comedian Cass Bugge’s cottage-like oasis of a house, you have no sense that you are across the street from Paramount Pictures in the heart of Hollywood. Well, maybe if you happened upon their landlady/neighbor, Kitten, a former Russ Meyer girl whose leopard-print laden apartment is adorned in posters of her former (butt naked) 36-24-36 self, Hollywood might come to mind.

You might recognize Molly and her dog/muse Maddy from the first episode of The Dog Whisperer where (In Caesar Milan’s words), “Molly learns to adjust her energy to help Maddy relax and feel more confident about men.” Well, hopefully, you are more likely to know Molly’s directorial work on videos for The Raveonettes, Bleached, Mark Ronson and for brands like Miu Miu andLevi’s. You might know Cass from her collaborative character comedy show held at Bar Lubitsch, “American Town Hall,” where she,Matt Hobby and Mary Grill, pretend to be the President, Secretary and Treasurer in a different town every month. If you don’t know about this, you have already missed too many opportunities to experience genuine laughter, so go check it out. Ok, enough gushing.

The three of us flew by the seat of our pants and made an improvisational salad at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market on a Sunday morning. We were inspired first by a big mesh bag of Pacific oysters, and then by a farm stand with an incredible array of herbs and greens (we couldn’t even identify half of them). The woman behind the register described her chervil as “the love child of tarragon and parsley.” Sold. The “Bacon Avocado” was all my idea. I just couldn’t go back to New York without eating one.

Molly and Cass in Their Own Words

Julia: You two are the poster couple for SaladForPresident. I think I have had a salad every time I have eaten at your house. Is there something you cook that isn’t healthy?

Cass: Molly is the healthiest eater that I have ever known. Once, I asked her what junk food she would eat if she could have ANYTHING. She said “A Kashi pizza.” When she goes out of town it’s “Homemade Spaghetti Carbonara To the Rescue.” It’s so delicious and makes my pants hurt so good.

Julia: Cass, Your mother is Filipino, and she told me there is no salad in her home country. Is that true?

Cass: Hah! She did? Well, I just googled “Filipino Salad” and the first thing to come up was “Filipino Macaroni Salad.” Which is American mayonaise macaroni salad made in the Philippines.

Julia: Your dog Maddy is more of human being than I am. Does maddy like salad?

Cass: Maddy’s palate is much more French than Californian: she loves bread and cheese.

Julia: Molly, You recently made an ESPN 30×30 documentary about hockey “Goons,” or “enforcers.” I imagine these are pretty tough guys. If you invited them over to your postage stamp sized Los Angeles house for a casual Saturday afternoon herb salad and oysters, do you think their impression of you would change for the better or worse?

Molly: I can’t answer this question because they wouldn’t be able to fit past the door.

Julia: Will there be salad at your wedding, and if so, can I help you make it?

Cass: There will be now that you’ve offered!