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Easter Salad
Lay on individual plates four crisp pieces of Romaine in fan shape and between the stalks lay thin, wedge shaped pieces of hard cooked egg. On each of the leaves place small balls made from chopped pickled beets, capers, minced celery and thick mayonnaise dressing and garnish with tiny pink radishes and a few asparagus tips.
An assembly salad with no cooking beyond the eggs and asparagus, so the whole thing depends on how well the beet mixture holds its shape.
- Romaine"Four crisp pieces" is best read as four stiff leaves per plate, most likely the pale ones from the heart. Outer leaves flop and will not hold the fan shape; save them for another use.
- Binding the ballsDrain the pickled beets thoroughly and blot them dry, then chop fine rather than grating. Wet beets will not roll, and the mayonnaise thins out on contact with the brine. Add just enough dressing to bind, chill the mixture 30 minutes, then shape with two teaspoons.
- ProportionsNone are given. A workable ratio is roughly two parts chopped beet to one part minced celery, with capers to taste, perhaps a tablespoon per cup, since they are assertive.
- Hard cooked eggsOne egg quartered lengthwise gives four wedges, one per leaf. Cook 10 to 11 minutes for a set but not chalky yolk, then cool in ice water so the shells slip and the wedges cut cleanly with a thin wet knife.
- Asparagus tipsBlanch two to three minutes in salted water and shock in ice water to keep the green. Canned tips were widely used for garnishes of this kind and are soft enough to collapse under handling; the recipe does not specify which was meant.
- Mayonnaise"Thick" is the operative word. Commercial mayonnaise works, but a bottled dressing or salad-dressing style spread is too loose to hold the balls together.
- Assembly timingBuild the plates no more than an hour ahead and refrigerate. The beet mixture bleeds pink into the leaves and the mayonnaise if it sits, which spoils the intended contrast.
- YieldThe instructions describe the assembly of a single plate, so scale by the number of guests. Allow one egg per person, and by our estimate roughly a quarter cup of the beet mixture.