Grapefruit and Avocado Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...One of the things for which Helen Corbitt is remembered, is the poppy seed dressing she used to dress the grapefruit and avocado salad served in the Zodiac Room at the Neiman Marcus store in Dallas, Texas. She was an well-educated Irish New Yorker who spent most of her food career in the state of Texas, including 18 years as the majordomo of food services for the Neiman Marcus empire. She was by all accounts a modest, but opinionated woman, who wrote five cookbooks and was the first woman to garner the food service industry's highest accolade, the Golden Plate Award. She fed president's and kings and became a trend setter in the 1950's. While she is credited for many innovations, among them poppy seed dressing and cowboy caviar, she insisted she had not created many of the things attributed to her. She did, however, bring them to everyone's attention and made them popular. You can read more about her here and if you are a collector of cookbooks you can find a collection of her recipes, The Best of Helen Corbitt's Kitchens, here. I am a newcomer to her recipes and I wanted to try the poppy seed dressing she made famous. In order to do that, I had to reconstruct the signature salad that she dressed with it. I wanted to share both with you, as together they make a nice summer salad. The dressing would work well with any citrus salad. Is it as good as they say it is? Probably not, but it's nice to have a dressing for fruit salad handy and this one is easy to make and perfectly serviceable. Here's the recipe.

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing ...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of Texas Home Cooking

Ingredients:
Dressing
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon grated onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
Salad
2 grapefruit, peeled and sectioned into cubes
1 avocado, peeled and cut into cubes
4 cups trimmed watercress

Directions:
1) To make poppy seed dressing: In a food processor or with a mixer, combine sugar, honey, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, onion, salt and paprika. Pour in oil and continue mixing until dressing is thick. Blend in poppy seeds. Refrigerated dressing will keep for 2 to 3 weeks. If it separates, process or mix again before serving. Yield: 1 cup.
2) To make the salad: Arrange a bed of watercress on each of 4 salad plates. Top with avocado and grapefruit pieces. Drizzle each salad with 1 tablespoon dressing. Makes 4 servings.

You might also enjoy these recipes:
Endive, Pear and Watercress Salad - One Perfect Bite
Andalusian Salad with Avocados, Oranges and Almonds - One Perfect Bite
Berry Patch Salad - One Perfect Bite
Summer Fruit Salad - The English Kitchen
Citrus Salad - Wine Lady Cooks
Moroccan Fruit Salad - Moroc Mama
Dragon Fruit Salad - Pham Fatale

Guacamole

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Everyone knows that guacamole is dip made of mashed avocado mixed with chopped onions and other seasonings. Not everyone know that Tyler Florence makes a guacamole that will make your socks go up and down. I can say that with authority because several people told me so today. I love most of his recipes, but I don't talk about them a lot because he has fans who regularly report on them. They are a great bunch of foodies and you can read about their kitchen exploits each Friday at Tyler Florence Fridays. I needed a quick dip this afternoon. I had glanced at this recipe several times before without trying it, but I remedied that today and I'm so glad I did. This is guacamole with attitude and I love attitude. I also love this dip. Here's the recipe.

Guacamole...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
6 ripe avocados
3 limes, juiced
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, smashed then minced
2 serrano chiles, cut into rounds
1 big handful fresh cilantro with stems, about 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1) Halve and pit avocados. With a tablespoon, scoop out flesh into a mixing bowl. Mash avocados using either a fork or potato masher, leaving them still a bit chunky. Add remaining ingredients, and fold everything together. Drizzle with a little olive oil, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and give it 1 final mix with a fork.
2) Lay a piece of plastic wrap tight on surface of the guacamole so it doesn't brown and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Yield: about 4 cups.

Chilled Avocado Soup - Sopa De Aguacate

My intent was to use this recipe to make the version of Dublin Lawyer that's in this photo. Gorgeous isn't it? The problem was the cost - it was obscene. I played with some other ideas, but I didn't come up with anything that tickled my fancy. So, rather than do an Irish meal I decided to do one that was green. Save for the salmon, we'll be green from start to finish. The first course is going to be an avocado soup from the Andalusian region of Spain. The last course is going to be lime sherbet that comes from a midwestern kitchen. The soup is lovely and I suspect you'll want to keep the recipe in your roster. For best flavor, the soup should be made in the morning and allowed to chill until meal time. It needs the day for the flavors to ripen. The soup thickens as it sits, so, you'll want to dilute it with ice water before serving. As with all chilled soups, you'll have to adjust the seasonings. I think you'll find it needs to be liberally salted. This is a very simple recipe. I think you'll like it. Here's what you need to do.

Chilled Avocado Soup - Sopa De Aguacate

Ingredients:
1 bunch scallions (about 8)
3 large ripe avocados
1 to 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
1 large lemon, juiced
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika (pimenton)
2 cups chicken broth
1 small handful cilantro or parsley
1-1/2 to 2 cups ice water
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro or parsley leaves for garnish

Directions:
1) In the morning, trim scallions. Coarsely chop white part and place in jar of a blender. Add flesh of one avocado, garlic, and lemon juice. Puree. Add flesh of second avocado; puree. Add third avocado, cumin and paprika. Puree until smooth. Add cilantro. Slowly add chicken broth; blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate.
2) Just before serving, stir in iced water to thin puree. Check seasoning, adding salt and pepper if needed. Transfer to serving bowls. Garnish with cilantro or parsley leaves. Yield: 4 to 5 servings.