Green Bean Potato Salad
1.5 lbs green beans (hericots verts are recommended but my grocery had a fresh stock of blue lake which need to be cooked a tiny bit longer)
1 lb fingerling potatoes (chef recommends 1 inch for less waste)
sachet (10 peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, 2 stalks of thyme)
salt
1 cup walnuts
fleur de sel
3 radishes (1 inch)
1/4 cup minced shallots
1 cup sherry vinaigrette (1/2 cup sherry vinegar, 1/2 cup red wine vinegar, 1 1/14 cup good olive oil)
2 tbsp minced chives
4 black mission figs, halved
lemon
16 slices iberico or prosciutto
olive oil
Beans
Bring a big pot of salted water to a boil (1 cup per gallon). The water should be enough to blanch the vegetables without losing the boil. Trim the beans (he takes scissors to a bunch, snipping them off all at once!) and cook till just tender (2-3 minutes). After straining, dunk them in an ice bath and dry on paper towels. I ended up chopping them in half after the blanch because the blue lakes are much bigger than hericots verts.
Potatoes
Slice into 1/4 thickness and discard ends (I kept them...) Add potatoes and herb sachet to a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a simmer and cook until tender (10 min).
Walnuts
Heat oven to 375 and toast the walnuts on a baking sheet (with parchment) for 10 minutes. After they are cooled on a plate, season with fancy salt.
Radish
Mandoline the radishes so they are very thin but still hold their edge color. (I eat the ends!) Soak them in an ice bath till ready to serve.They will need to be dried before adding to the dish.
Presentation
The recipe calls for composing the dish, which entails to paraphrase; Dressing the potatoes, shallots, and walnuts. Seasoning with salt and pepper. Sprinkling with 1 tbsp chives and tossing. Then, arranging only half the portion on a serving dish. Studding the top with 4 fig halves. Mixing the radishes into the rest of the salad and layering the radished salad over the not radished salad. Placing the rest of the remaining figs on top. Sprinkling the salad with chives and a tiny squeeze of lemon juice. And finally, plating the ham with a drizzle of olive oil and serving it alongside the salad.
Or... you can break up the ham and toss everything all together and be done with it. Still tastes pretty darn good this way. One bite with a little morsel of everything in it is the way to go.
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