Basque Salad a la The Silver Palate Cookbook

When Fae posted her recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook, I knew I had to have that cookbook.  It came in the mail when I was on vacation, so I had some exciting reading material when I got back.  And lo and behold, look what recipe I found!  Basque Salad.Now, I have never seen or heard of such a salad in all my travels and eating my family’s food, so I am not sure what makes this “Basque” but I thought I would give it a whirl.

I got my ingredients together (and using Fae’s handy-dandy photo tricks, I took these pictures!)

Ingredients, and this time, all of them!

Basque Salad

Recipe By     : Silver Palate Cookbook, Rosso & Lukins, ’79, p. 217
Serving Size  : 8                 

1/4 cup olive oil
12 green onions with tops — thinly sliced
1 teaspoon whole saffron — scant
2 cups converted rice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (I think this makes it very salty, so maybe cut it back to 1 teaspoon or less)
4 cups chicken stock
1 pound medium size raw shrimp — shelled/deveined
1/4  pound hard sausage (salami, pepperoni or other) — in julienne strips
1/2  pound prosciutto — thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper — cored/julienned
1 red bell pepper — cored/julienned
1/2 cupchopped parsley
salt — to taste
3/4  teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Heat oil in a heavy pot. Add green onions and saute over Medium heat,
stirring, for 5 minutes or until wilted. Add saffron and cook for 2 minutes longer.

The Saffron Rice

Add the rice and stir, coating grains well with oil. Season with 1 1/2
teaspoons salt, pour in chicken stock and stir. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes, or until rice is just done and all liquid has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork and let cool somewhat.

Par-boiled shrimp

Meanwhile, bring 2 quarts water to a boil, then add shrimp. Immediately remove from heat, cover and let stand for 2 minutes. Drain shrimp and reserve.

All into one pot; my favorite kind of dishes!

Transfer cooked rice to a large bowl. Add shrimp, sausage and prosciutto,
red and green peppers, parsley, salt to taste and black pepper. Toss well.
Arrange on a large platter and serve at room temperature.

Now, in all honesty, I wasn’t feeling super great when I made this dish. And like I mentioned above, it was very, very salty with the salt it called  for and the salty meats.  The shrimp could have been flavored some, too.  Biff loved it, though!  I prefer my mom’s Basque rice, though.  All in all, a good frist outing in The Silver Palate Cookbook and I can’t wait to try another one!

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