May 28th - Wasabi

We didn't have anyone signed up for wasabi night for the longest time, and I admit that I was a bit disappointed. The reason I was disappointed was because I once had this great smoked salmon and wasabi salad at The Lafayette Inn in Stanardsville, Virginia, and I wanted to try and recreate it. On Wednesday of this week (an off-night for Cafe Davis) we went over to Julie and Kevin Caran's house to help them baby-proof in anticipation of the new member of their family. While we were sitting around, supervising Kevin's screen replacement skills, we started talking up wasabi and bemoaning our lack of guests. Thankfully, Kevin and Julie were willing to step in and help us out.

The menu for the night was panko fried green beans with wasabi cucumber ranch dip; hot smoked salmon with herb salad and wasabi vinaigrette; fried grouper sandwich with wasabi coleslaw; and sweet potato fries with wasabi mayonnaise dip. I'll start with the salad....

As far as my re-creation efforts go, I don't think this was a success. Maybe I need to return to The Lafayette and give their salad another whirl, because I couldn't quite remember what was in the original. This didn't taste, to me, like a faithful reproduction. It was, however, still pretty darn tasty. Oddly enough, the salad had three different salad dressings on it - each one contributing something important that gave the salad a nice balance of flavors. This picture isn't great - I promise it tasted better than it looked.

Hot Smoked Salmon with Herb Salad and Wasabi Vinaigrette
(from Global Chef)

Ingredients
10 slices smoked salmon (3 inches long)
20 ounces herb salad containing mizuna, frisse, cilantro, flat parsley, and snipped chives
20 cherry tomatoes
2 peppers (red and yellow)

5 ounces Red Pepper Vinaigrette
- 1 Roasted Red Pepper (skinned and seeded)
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 ounce red wine vinegar
- 3 ounces olive oil
- salt and pepper

3 ounces Wasabi Vinaigrette
- 1 ounce wasabi mustard
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 lime, juiced
- 2 ounces salad oil
- 1 tsp honey
- salt and pepper
- a touch of sesame oil

3 ounces Lime Vinaigrette
- 2 limes, juiced
- 2 ounces salad oil
- salt and pepper

10 pieces of chives

Preparation

• Wash the herb salad and cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters
• Slice the red and yellow peppers into rings and place into iced water.
• Create the red pepper vinaigrette. Roughly chop the red peppers, place in a blender with the mustard and red wine vinegar. Blend into a paste and incorporate the oil, season to taste and strain through a fine strainer.
• Create the wasabi vinaigrette. Blend the mustard, egg yolk and lime juice. Incorporate the salad oil and season.
• Make the lime vinaigrette. Whisk the lime juice and oil, season to taste. 
• Toss the herb salad, cherry tomatoes, and sliced peppers with the lime vinaigrette. Plate the salad in a tight, neat pile.
• Flash grill the salmon. Sit the salmon on top of the salad. Drizzle the red pepper vinaigrette around the plate and streak the wasabi vinaigrette across the place. Garnish with a long cut chive.

Finally, a note on the guests. Kevin and Julie once lived in Atlanta where they were friends with my friends Dely and Gail, former Cafe Davis guests. I love this small world. Because of our Atlanta connection, Kevin and Julie brought over an Atlanta-themed Monopoly game. Kevin destroyed us. Teaching chemistry isn't his calling - he really should be a slum lord. Here are the victors (1st and 2nd place). They look like they're taunting us with their spoils, don't they?