Cobby Salad

First of all, I just discovered that I was mentioned in one of the liberal political blogs in Sweden . Per Gudmundson expressed surprise that I, a political secretary working for the liberal party had a blog. About food. Frankly, I don�t find that strange at all. After all, it�s allowed to have more interests than one, right?

Anyway. When I was an exchange student in Long Beach, ten years ago, I discovered the wonders of Cobb Salad. Here�s the official story:

"One night in 1937, Bob Cobb, then owner of The Brown Derby, prowled hungrily in his restaurant's kitchen for a snack. Opening the huge refrigerator, he pulled out this and that: a head of lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, some cold breast of chicken, a hard-boiled egg, chives, cheese and some old-fashioned French dressing. He started chopping. Added some crisp bacon -- swiped from a busy chef.�

And then it made it on the menu.

I had lunch at home the other day, and I was extremely hungry. Extremely. Cobb salad was on the back of my mind, but.. not quite. I wanted blue cheese, and I had no chicken. And it kind of went from there� I decided to do my own version - and I call it Cobby Salad. I snicker as I type, I find it really amusing � not only because it�s cobb-y, cobb-ish, but also because of my cats. See, I have British Shorthairs. They�re one of the traditionally cobby breeds � cobby in this case meaning short and squat, rather than elongated. (And this is all relating to their body type.) Oh well. Without further ado then � Cobby Salad.

These measurements are very rough � I didn�t measure anything, and pretty much just tossed everything together. I know Cobb salads are often presented in pretty stripes, but I much prefer a tossed salad.

-iceberg lettuce, 4-5 large leaves, torn in pieces
-1/2 dl bulgur wheat
-1 avocado, diced
-1 egg, hard-boiled and chopped
-crispy fried, chopped bacon
-red onions, finely sliced
-blue cheese, crumbled
-cherry tomatoes, quartered
-alfalfa sprouts, a large handful
-small handful of toasted pinenuts
-a splash of balsamic vinegar
-a splash of olive oil
-a pinch of sugar
-salt and pepper

I won't bother with instructions - it's pretty much just a matter of getting it all on a plate. However, I did marinate the lettuce, the bulgur and the sprouts in the olive oil and the vinegar, and I added the sugar to that, too. That was the base, and everything else pretty much went on top. It made for a very sturdy lunch indeed. And it as very, very yummy.