54. Corn Bread Salad

This is such a perfect salad for late August.  Tomatoes are delicious and taste like, well, tomatoes this time of year, and heirlooms are gorgeous and affordable.  I grow tomatoes in my tiny little urban garden, and I’ve had my eye on three different varieties of heirlooms, waiting for them to ripen so I could make this salad.  Today was the day.   

Smitten Kitchen did an adaptation of this salad, which was originally found in Lee Brothers Southern Cookbook.  This is good, simple, southern food.  Butter lettuce with just a bit of bitter greens, beautiful tomatoes and sweet Vidalia onions, and homemade crispy cornbread come together with a buttermilk herb dressing.  I served it with barbecue chicken, and I half expected to hear the sound of cicadas chirping outside.  

There are three parts to this salad:  the salad itself, the cornbread and the dressing.  

Ingredients

1 recipe Crispy Corn Bread (below) or 3 cups of 1” cornbread cubes

1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes (4-6 medium), chopped

6 cups roughly torn butter lettuce

2 cups bitter greens, such as arugula or dandelion greens

1 Vidalia onion, thinly sliced into rings (if you can’t find a Vidalia, you can use Maui.  But Vidalia is from Georgia, and Maui...is not).

1 recipe Buttermilk-Lime Dressing (below)

Preheat oven to 250.  Scatter the corn bread cubes in a single layer on a half sheet pan and bake until the pieces are lightly toasted, about 7 minutes.

Place lettuce, greens, tomatoes, onions and cornbread in a large bowl, and toss to combine.  Drizzle with buttermilk dressing, season with salt and pepper and toss again.  Serve immediately.

Buttermilk-Lime Dressing

3/4 cups buttermilk

5 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice (2-4 limes...measure it)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp honey

1/4 cup finely minced fresh basil

1/4 cup finely minced fresh flat leaf parsley

1/4 cup finely minced green onions

1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a small bowl until combined.  Transfer to a sealed jar (or cover the bowl) and refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.  

Thin, Crispy Corn Bread

1 Tbsp butter

1 1/2 cups stone-ground cornmeal

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 450.  Grease a 12” cast iron (or heavy steel) skillet with one Tbsp butter, leaving any excess in the pan, and place it in the oven.

In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.  In a medium bowl, whisk the egg until frothy then whisk in the buttermilk.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix thoroughly.  Melt the remaining butter and whisk it into your batter.

Carefully remove the skillet from the oven and swirl the fat around to coat the bottom and sides evenly.  Pour the batter into the skillet; it should “sizzle alluringly,” says the Lee Brothers.  Bake for 15 minutes, or until the top of the bread is golden brown and the edge has pulled away from the side of the skillet.  Remove from the oven and let cool before slicing into 1” squares.