Alton Brown. You gotta love Alton. He’s no chef, but he is a scientist and movie maker who techniques the hell out of any recipe he creates. He couldn’t just tell you to whisk together all of the ingredients in his fresh broccoli salad recipe. No, that would be blasphemy. Instead, he specifies that you whisk together all but the oil, then slowly drizzle the oil as you constantly whisk.
Man, Alton reminds me of my dad! Yes, we know that technique makes a better emulsion, most of the time, but if there’s mustard in the recipe, then it’s going to emulsify no matter what! It’s really, really not always all about technique.
There are a few things that attracted me to this recipe. First off, it uses raw broccoli. Most broccoli salad recipes call for blanched or even steamed broccoli, and I like the way that this recipe would be chock-full of the nutrients in one of my favorite cruciferous veggies.
Here’s where Alton’s obsession with technique comes in handy: because he has the broccoli marinating in the dressing for over an hour, it “cooks” the broccoli just a bit to take that “raw” edge off. It’s quite nice. He specifically doesn’t marinate the other ingredients as long, because who wants soggy tomatoes or brown and wilted basil? It does benefit this dish to pay attention to the little details Alton includes in his directions.
Yes, there’s a place for technique, but what’s lacking from the recipe, for me anyway, is that certain something. There’s no bing-bam-boom ingredient, no taste bud surprise, no unique combinations of flavors. It’s a lovely side dish, but not one quite memorable enough to have me make it again, most likely. Because I’ll forget about it. You got that, right?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jul 01, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I made a really similar salad not long ago that I absolutely loved. It was broccoli, tomatoes, chickpeas, feta and almonds, with a balsamic dressing. Maybe throw in some cheese next time?
That’s hilarious, because as I was tossing the final ingredients together, I turned to Keith and said, “Man, I so want to throw some feta in here!” I wanted to stay as true as possible to Alton’s recipe for the test drive, though. I didn’t admit that I used almonds instead of the nuts he called for, but I will now!