Canadian asparagus and potato salad with maple dijon dressing 🥗 Hi...

This week onHive top chef the theme is salad.

Why do I call this a Canadian salad? Because I made it, and according to the certificate I received years ago, I am Canadian. I also made it in Canada. That's it, that's all.

When most people think of salad, they think of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, etc. But we all know that a salad can be almost anything in pieces with dressing on it. You can make a salad out of shoe laces if you're into that thing.

I have made an asparagus salad with potatoes.

I passed by some decent looking asparagus in the store. It's something I consume no more than 3 times a year. Once, when it's simply not good. I learn my lesson and say no more. The next time it looks really great, thin, and fresh so I give it another go.

This time it looked decent and turned out to be really good but not excellent. In this case it's necessary to cut more of the woody ends off.

I've cooked asparagus in different ways. It's common to put the ends down. They are thicker and take longer to cook.

In the past, I have put them flat in a steamer, in the oven to roast and even on the barbecue. This time I kept the tips out because of the heavier ends.

I don't like over cooked greens so once the water boiled, I took them out and cooled them in cold water and set aside.

I splurged on mini potatoes which I wanted to keep whole.

I always add a generous amount of salt to the water for mini potatoes if keeping them whole. This way when they're in the salad they're not bland. The dressing will have a hard time penetrating the potatoes.

These potatoes remind me of a festival I had gone to in New York State almost 25 years ago. It was a balloon festival situated at a country fair. They had the usual hot dogs, fries, cotton candy, but to my surprise they also had mini potatoes like these. They called them "salt potatoes". They were boiled in salt then tossed in butter. They were put in a french fry container and people just walked around eating boiled potatoes. I thought it was super weird but I got them and I have to say, it was enjoyable. Just plain salty potatoes with butter.

When the potatoes are tender, take them out and cool them in cold water and set aside, or in the fridge.

I decided to use maple syrup in this dressing long before, I discovered that @thebigsweed and @farm-mom were juicing maple trees and running a syrup distillery in their yard!! You can see for yourself.

Hopefully they are aware that us Canadians own maple syrup. The leaf is on our flag.

Moving along...

Maple Dijon Dressing

100g olive oil
100g vinegar
15g lemon juice
15g dijon mustard
35g maple syrup
30 minced shallot
15g garlic
1/4 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried mint (or fresh)
1 tsp paprika
Salt to taste

It wasn't until recently that I finally bought a garlic press. I don't mind chopping by hand but this is a pretty convenient device. It was perfect for dressing, making it nice and fine.

The shallot was chopped with a knife as fine as possible. I used shallot in the dressing so I didn't bother with red or white onion in the salad. I did use green onion though.