Salad appetizer

Some friends came over for dinner yesterday, and we had a lot to eat and drink. I decided a full menu post would be too long, so I'll break it apart and write about each dish separately, as I have time.

This one is a simple appetizer, following a "Greek salad" idea. As with all salads, and raw foods in general, the quality of the ingredients is what makes it taste good, so this post is only about the presentation. After all, the recipe for the best Greek salad you've ever had is trivially simple: just get the best tomatoes you've ever had, the best cucumber you've ever had, the best olive oil you've ever had, the best onion you've ever had, etc, and combine them!

This presentation gives three servings per tomato. You need a tomato, a piece of mozzarella, cucumber, and parsley or basil (or both) for garnish.

Use a peeler to cut the cucumber in thin slices, and cut the tomato in three equal pieces, each spanning a 120-degree angle. Then slice each tomato piece another three times, careful not to go all the way through.

Cut slices of mozzarella and stuff each slice in the tomato, so that at the end, each tomato third, expands to look like a half. Stick a bit of parsley or basil in the middle slice. You can also use slices of hard-boiled egg or avocado (or even of feta cheese, if that's your thing) instead of mozzarella.

Then, using two long cucumber stripes make a cross on a plate, put a piece of tomato on the cross, and turn the edges to wrap it. Keep in place with a toothpick. Salt, and dress with a spoon of olive oil, or maybe a simple vinaigrette of olive-oil and red-wine vinegar.

Here is how it looks like with a bit of crab dip on the side, my two appetizers. To make the crab sauce, blend crab meat with some crème fraîche until smooth.