The Perfect Salad Dressed with Nut Oil Vinaigrette

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 1½ tablespoons best-quality sherry vinegar or fresh lemon juice
• 1 shallot, sliced paper-thin
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) nut oil (walnut, hazelnut, peanut, pumpkin seed, almond, macadamia, sesame)
• 10 cups (9 ounces/270 g) mixed salad greens and fresh herbs, such as curly endive, escarole, dandelion greens, arugula, radicchio, thyme, small sage leaves, or lemon verbena
• ½ cup (50 g) walnuts, almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, or macadamia nuts, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped (optional)
• 4 ounces (110 g) soft goat cheese, Roquefort, or feta cheese, crumbled (optional)
• 5 to 6 freshly picked blossoms, including nasturtiums, pansies, thyme flowers, rose petals, geranium petals

Note: If using sesame oil from Japan, you will want to use half the amount and add another oil (peanut, olive, or canola) for the balance.

Instructions:

1. In a large salad bowl, whisk together the vinegar, shallot, and salt and pepper to taste.
2. Slowly add the oil, whisking constantly, until the mixture has emulsified.
3. Add the greens and toss until they are thoroughly coated with the vinaigrette.
4. If you are serving the salad before the meal, scatter it with the toasted nuts or seeds and the cheese.
5. If this is a post-meal salad, serve it with just the flowers

• Note: If using sesame oil from Japan, you will want to use half the amount and add another oil (peanut, olive, or canola) for the balance.

Portrait of a Nut Oil Mill

• The buttery aroma of hazelnuts wafts up from the crisp green salad on the plate, yet there isn’t a nut to be seen.
• The salad is that exquisite French creation, a mélange of tender-fresh lettuce leaves dressed lightly in a tangy vinaigrette.
• Yet that hazelnut aroma is devilishly palpable. Where, oh where, is it coming from?
• Jean-Charles Leblanc, from the village of Iguérande in Burgundy, turns out to be the sorcerer behind the aroma of hazelnuts in the salad I am enjoying.
• He is head of a family enterprise called l’Huilerie Artisanale J. Leblanc et Fils, which supplies France and beyond with the world’s finest nut oils.
• The oils, which come from just about every nut in the world, including the rare argan nut from Morocco, make their way into more than just salads.
• I’ve had the Leblanc almond oil drizzled over a tender fish fillet, the walnut oil in a moist cake, the pine nut oil perfuming a bowl of pasta, and the pistachio oil seasoning a plate of avocado                                                     Note: If using sesame oil from Japan, you will want to use half the amount and add another oil  (peanut, olive, or canola) for the balance. If you are serving the salad as a first course, you’ll want to
  add the cheese and toasted nuts. If serving the salad after the meal,
  you’ll just want to serve the salad greens dressed in the vinaigrette