Apparently I take my life in my hands every time I bake. I always knew this, but somehow I’ve managed to willfully ignore it. See, I am a serial taster. A raw cookie dough eater. A can’t-help-myself-have-to-just-taste-that-cake-batter-raw-eggs-be-damned kind of girl. Remember the huge salmonella outbreak last summer, with millions of eggs recalled? Yeah, even that didn’t stop me.
So it was with great interest that I began to notice a new brand of eggs in the grocery store a few months ago, eggs that are actually pasteurized while still in their shell. I was eager to try them and it would seem that fate was eager for me to try them too. I was invited to be a part of this month’s Progressive Party over at Kitchen Play. And the secret ingredient? Safest Choice Pasteurized Shell Eggs.
If you haven’t heard of Kitchen Play, let me tell you a little more about it. It is the brain child of Casey Benedict, who is also known for her tongue-in-cheek food photography site, Tastestopping. Kitchen Play is designed to bring together food bloggers and PR professionals through a number of means, one of them being the monthly Progressive Party. Each month, six bloggers are assigned a course and asked to create a recipe, all using the same product or kitchen tool. I was thrilled to be invited, and even more thrilled to discover that the sponsor was Safest Choice Pasteurized Shell Eggs.
I was assigned the salad course, and immediately started thinking about how to incorporate the product into a salad. My first thought was to go with hard-boiled eggs, because I’ve always loved a good spinach salad with red onion, bacon and eggs. But when I gave a little more thought to the actual product and how best to showcase it, I realized that cooked eggs kind of missed the point. Here is a shell egg that you can actually eat raw without risking your health. It seemed more fitting to play up that feature. Right then. A dressing made with raw eggs. The obvious choice was Caesar, but that wasn’t quite what I wanted. I wanted something thicker, creamy, like Béarnaise sauce. Béarnaise sauce led me to thinking about salmon, which led to thoughts of smoked salmon, one of the true loves of my food life.
So, a salad with smoked salmon and some sort of dressing based on Béarnaise sauce. Why not mimic my favourite appetizer ever and incorporate capers and red onions as well? And replace the tarragon in the Béarnaise with fresh dill, always a great accompaniment with smoked salmon. Sounded like a pretty great salad to me. I had to play around with the dressing ingredients to get something that was like Béarnaise, but a little less thick and buttery. The first try had too much olive oil, which overpowered the delicate combination of butter and egg yolks. In the end, I think I hit on something that really worked beautifully with the smokiness of the salmon, the tartness of the capers and the sharpness of the red onion.
All with raw eggs. And without taking my life in my hands, thanks to Safest Choice Pasteurized Shell Eggs.
Want to get in on the action of the Kitchen Play Progressive Parties? The great part is that anyone can participate. Just make my salad or any of the other mouthwatering recipes from this month’s party, post about it on your blog, and you will be entered to win $100 (there are six prizes total). Kitchen Play is all about promoting food bloggers so this is your chance to get in there and promote yourself. Check out the details on Kitchen Play’s Contest Page. And to make it easier for you to create one of this month’s recipes, here’s a link to three $1.00 coupons for Safest Choice Eggs.
Smoked Salmon Salad with Dilled Béarnaise Dressing
Salad:
10 oz mixed salad greens
8 oz thinly sliced smoked salmon, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tbsp capers, drained
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
Dressing:
2 tbsp butter
1 shallot, minced
2 egg yolks (preferably from Safest Choice Pasteurized Eggs)
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp powdered mustard
2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
For the salad, divide salad greens among four plates. Arrange other ingredients on top.
For the dressing, melt the butter over medium heat in a small pan. When it is melted, add shallots and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the wine and vinegar and bring to a boil, cooking until reduced by half.
Scrape mixture into blender. Add egg yolks and blend. Add lemon juice, mustard, and oil and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in chopped dill.
Drizzle salads with dressing and serve, passing any remaining dressing at the table.
I am Carolyn, a writer, runner, mother and diabetic. I am also the evil mastermind behind this blog. I live for food. Join me in my experiments in creating delicious low carb, gluten free recipes. 
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Hi Carolyn! I love smoked salmon so much and I will definitely keep this recipe and make it soon. I'm planning to share my smoked salmon salad recipe tomorrow too. So please come check my website tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing!
What a delectable salad, Carolyn…love the addition of dill and smoked salmon.
We used to find pasteurized eggs easily at the grocery store…then they disappeared. I have no qualms about eating raw cookie dough (like this more than cookies!), but I've been leery about serving mousse, etc, with raw eggs to company! Glad pasteurized eggs are becoming more readily available…good info!!!
The only thing I miss since going vegetarian is fish. I never loved meat, but fish is delicious! And my favorite is smoked salmon! Your salad looks amazing! Don't start posting recipes like this every day or I may go pescarian
.
I haven't seen these eggs in our stores yet but I will start looking. It's such a great idea, especially for savory sauces like yours.
Carolyn, what an amazing idea doing a bearnaise sauce as a dressing. Just fantastic and extra yummy flavours with the smoked salmon and dill. I'll have to try this!
Beautiful. I love smoked salmon and this is a great way to use it! I often boil eggs for 30 seconds if I am using raw yolks for a dressing, like Caesar.
This salad looks delish! (I HEART tarragon!) And thank you for the info re: these eggs!
That, my dear, is a lovely salad! I like to live dangerously as well.
What a great use of smoked salmon! I need to find those eggs so that I can feel a little less guilty eating cookie dough:-)
Your brain is so cool! I dig the train of thought that brought you to this fantastic salad. Well done!
Ooo…that sauce looks creamy dreamy! I need to experiment more with raw eggs. Can you believe I haven't tried making a simple mayonnaise yet? And I love the stuff! Such a sin. :-p
those are gorgeous, carolyn! anything with lemon gets my vote! x
It just looks like a summery dish. Gosh, I wish this cruddy weather would leave so I could get in the spring spirit.
OH Boy – Stellar dressing I can see it with the tarragon on a "leftover" London Broil salad K.
So creative and looks amazing!
I just tried smoked salmon for the first time last week and to my surprise I enjoyed it. Great job
Gotta love those who are willing to live on the edge. I get appalled looks and comments from people because I like my egg yolks runny.
This looks fantastic. Thanks for the coupon for the eggs!
Such a delightful salad! Love your choice of dressing
This is a wonderful salad.I can actually eat it as my dinner.Thanks for the recipe.
Have a nice day.
Lovely creation, I ate my fair share of cake batter this weekend!
Carolyn, this salad sounds fantabulous!! I am loving that dressing!
beautifully done wonderful presentation
What will they think of next?
Thanks for the information about Kitchen Play too – I'd never heard of it. Great concept.
I loved smoked salmon, capers and bearnaise sauce. I can't wait to try this.
I love the creativity in this recipe. I am always looking something different when it comes to a salad.
Your salad looks delicious! I love smoked salmon and that dressing looks like a perfect compliment of flavors. I've never heard of pasteurized eggs but that's pretty intriguing. I love to sample raw cookie dough too, despite the dangers!
Carolyn, wonderfully done!! I recently discovered just how much I like smoked salmon and I'm having trouble getting enough, just love it! What a wonderful way to use it. This one is going on my "to try soon list". Thanks!
LOL I am the same way…just have to taste everything…:))))
Your salad looks amazingly delicious, I love salad and I think I will try your recipe too!
Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful Tuesday!
I absolutely LOVE smoked salmon… this sounds like an amazing salad! Thank you for sharing
Great idea for a salad ! Thanks for the recipe !
Beautiful! I agree why can't you recreate your favorite breakfast sauce? Sounds like it turned out amazing, the flavors you used are so perfect:-)
Take care,
Hugs,
Terra
Love salmon of any kind and this salad is wonderful with dill. capers, smoked salmon and the Bernaise dressing! And of course the Safest choice eggs. My husband doesn't like salmon though, so this would be all for me:)
It is so fun to see you go savory! This salad looks fabulous & smoked salmon is one of my favorite foods ever! xo
What a fantastic meal! Did you hear about that woman who is getting sued for $20K for some bad eggs – she volunteered to cook and sell food at a community event.
Yum Carolyn! This looks great. Love salmon and am on a salad kick right now. Thanks for the recipe!!
Wish I was having this for lunch right now!!
Yum…. Carolyn the sauce is to die for! I want to spoon it on EVERYTHING I am eating. Delicious and how fun to do the recipe for Kitchen Play! Awesome!
Great salad! I should try to make this dressing – sounds delish!
Love this salad!
How in the world have I not heard about these eggs yet? Thanks for teaching me something new today! And thanks for the link to the coupon. I'm definitely going to look those up. Oh, and this salad looks great. I love, love, love salmon!
I never heard of those eggs! This salad looks so light and I love smoked salmon. Lovely dressing:)
Yum! I love smoked salmon!!
Love your blog..
I have got to go check out these eggs. The idea of them being pasteurized while still in the shell has me amazed. I think the salad you made to feature these eggs really showcases the ingredient beautiful and sounds delicious as well.
Yummy! I'm glad you used the whole raw-egg thing to your advantage here. It works perfectly.
I love your site too– I'll be back.
This is the first I've heard of these eggs – what a great idea! I'll be on the lookout for them.