Hi, Hivers!

I hope everyone is healthy and doing great :)

I'm really happy to be part of the Hive Top Chef competition for the first time. You may want to click on the link to learn about it and, perhaps, participate, too! I've always wanted to participate because this is like a fun game for those who, like me, love cooking.

The ingredient for this week is salad. At home we love salads as a complete meal; so I managed to make a very simple egg salad over a zucchini carpaccio with an aioli dressing and nuts that was finger-licking good.

I wanted to make a salad that would make a complete dinner and have the flavors of my hometown. For this reason, I thought of eggs, plantain, zucchini and a dressing with an intense flavor of sweet chili. However, I also wanted it to be out of the ordinary for us, so I included parmesan cheese and nuts, which happen to go perfectly with zucchini carpaccio.

This salad is dinner for 4 people (we served pita bread as side dish).

For the salad:

1 small head of lettuce, well washed and drained
2 cups of plantain in cubes of 2 centimeters approx.
2 cups of raw zucchini in carpaccio slices
2 handfuls of nuts: chopped walnuts, whole pistachios, and whole almonds
4 eggs (M)
1/2 cup red onion
100 gr parmesan cheese

For the dressing (sweet chili alioli):

125 ml corn oil
1 egg and one yolk (1/4 cup of egg)
2 tablespoons of white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon of fresh garlic (crushed)
3/4 cup of sweet chili bell pepper, without veins and seeds
1/4 cup red onion

To prepare this salad, the first thing to do is to boil the eggs well. We'll put 2 tablespoons of salt in the cooking water to make it easier to remove the shell. Then we'll let them cool in the refrigerator, so that they remain whole and firm when we cut them into quarters.

Then we'll cut the plantains, which should not be too ripe, so that they keep their shape when cut and boiled. The sweetness of the ripe plantain will give this salad a contrast that you'll appreciate. Discard the veins to provide a smoother texture; 3 minutes in boiling water, over high heat, and a pinch of salt will be enough. Then let them cool and drain well. I left them in the strainer.

While the eggs and plantain cubes are cooling, you can prepare the rest of the salad and dressing.

Wash the sweet chili well and julien it. Remember to remove the seeds and veins, to avoid a bitter and spicy flavors that we do not want in this salad. As you can see, I have cut some little flowers and saved them to sauté and use as decoration.

Slice the onion and sauté with the sweet chili over high heat for one minute. Then add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Remove the pan from the heat. While this cools, you can prepare the mayonnaise base for the aioli sauce.

To make the mayonnaise base of the aioli sauce, which will be a creamy and tasty dressing, pour the oil, eggs, salt, and vinegar in a blender and blend until thickened.

Then add the sautéed vegetables.

It's important that you take the aioli sauce out of the blender immediately, as it hardens very quickly.

The result is a creamy dressing with a nice melon color.

If you want, you can toast the walnuts a little to make them extra crunchy. I did it; I let them toast in the electric oven for 5 minutes at 250 °F.

Cut the zucchini into thin slices, 1-2 millimeters; I used the mandolin from the cheese slicer.

Now we can assemble the salad!

As in any carpaccio dish, place the zucchini slices on the surface; then spread them with the dressing, and on top of the dressing, put the parmesan cheese. I used grated cheese this time instead of shaves.