Vive La Révolution!

While I am usually pretty loyal to tradition, every now and then I feel the need to heave out the old order, change up the game, and try something a little different. Because that happened this year on Bastille Day, I decided it was the Salade Niçoise that was due for a change.

Who ever heard of mahimahi, prosciutto, and grilled corn on the cob in a Salade Niçoise?  In France until quite recently, corn was food only for pigs, not for humans. I can almost hear the gasps of dismay from loyal Francophiles. And avocado?  Heresy! 

But I had a gorgeous piece of mahimahi left from my brother's gift and a small package of prosciutto that I thought would look pretty folded into the empty spaces on the plate. And if the French could grow avocados, I know it would be the national fruit. Who doesn't love avocado? Even the French couldn't be so contrary.

I kept with tradition to a certain extent - soft lettuce lining the plate, poached cold asparagus spears as thin as a French woman, puckery cornichons, zingy picholine olives, colorful cherry tomatoes, a driz of balsamic vinaigrette - but I curried my deviled eggs and grilled an ear of corn rather than adding a potato salad.

I'm not sure that a loyalist would even call this a Salade Niçoise. Maybe it's a Salade de la Révolution, or a Salade Americaine, since it includes a big mix of nationalities. Whatever you want to call it, it was the perfect ending to a warm, sunny afternoon of gardening.