Pako Salad

I've attempted to do salads before, but they always end up big screaming fails. I guess I just didn't take the time to really study how greens are prepared, and more importantly, how dressing is made, which is (as I've learned) more than just an afterthought.

After watching so many videos online, I've finally come up with a salad that I think I do pretty good. A salad of Pako (or Fiddlehead Ferns) is a particular favorite locally. Although you don't get to see this salad often in common restaurants, they do turn up at high end Filipino themed restaurants and are very expensive. But pako isn't really expensive. In fact, it's ridiculously cheap. I decided to create one of my own.

Ingredients for the dressing:

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Juice from 10 small calamansi (less if you're using big ones)
1 tsp mustard dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar

How to put the dressing together:

Place all ingredients in a ketchup squirt bottle, close the tip and then shake vigorously for a couple of minutes. That would be enough to combine all the elements in there that normally wouldn't want to combine. Put the bottle in the ref for the meantime.

Ingredients for the salad:

4 bunches pako*
2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped
2 red (salted) eggs (itlog na pula), sliced
kesong puti or feta cheese

*When buying pako at the palengke, they usually sell it by bunch. 4 bunches would be enough to feed at least 4 people. It might seem like a whole lot when you buy it, but take note: you only use the tips of the pako. That means probably around 2" to 2-1/2" measured from the very tip.

Here in San Pablo, one bunch of pako is 5 pesos. Four bunches therefore is only 20 pesos. Crazy, right?

Putting the salad together:

Place the pako in a pot of boiling water and cover. Now, quickly get some ice cubes from the ref and place them in a bowl of water. By the time you get back to your boiling pot, the pako would be ready. This should all take less than a minute. Drain the water and place the pako in the iced water to stop it from cooking. Place the pako in a colander for a minute to allow it to drain.

Take out your dressing in the ketchup squirt bottle and shake it again vigorously for a minute.

In a large serving plate, squirt some of the dressing on top of the plate. Place the pako on the plate. You can now add your other ingredients. add the tomatoes, the red eggs, and the cheese. Generously squirt the dressing over the salad. You can either serve this immediately or you can keep it in the ref for a while covered with cling wrap.

In the photo above you can see some grilled green bell pepper. That's just a little side dish which is very simple to do. Just slice the bell pepper in large slices and grill them on a stove top grill or a fire grill. Grilled green bell peppers are very nice. Try it!