Air-dried Beef with Butter Lettuce and Coriander Vinaigrette

Generally, I am not wishy-washy in my response to a dish. I like it or I don't and it's pretty easy to determine what works for me and what doesn't. That's why I am puzzled by my reaction to this very simple salad. I know I was a big fan of the air-dried beef (a.k.a. bresaola) which was something I'd never had before. It was very nice with my good (not great but the best I could find) butter lettuce.

I think it might be the vinaigrette that's throwing me. Generally, I use a 1/3 ratio of vinegar to oil which is kind of standard although some recipes are 1/4. This vinaigrette is a 1/6 ratio. The oilier dressing worked well with the beef but seemed too heavy for the lettuce.

Also, I made a half recipe of the dressing (champagne vinegar, EVOO, salt, coriander seed), but used the full amount of toasted and crushed coriander seed whisked in. And my lunch guest/co-cook and I agreed -- we would have liked even more of the coriander. I'd also like to try this with other kinds of vinaigrette. Maybe a tomato vinaigrette.

Note: Rodgers says to toast the coriander a few seconds -- but I felt that this really had little to no effect and continued toasting (about a minute and a half to two minutes -- until I could smell the coriander but it didn't smell burnt). Next time I will toast the seeds even a bit longer.

The salad was handsome even though I didn't follow Rodgers' plating instructions.

And I am definitely an admirer of the simplicity of the concept behind this salad -- only three elements.

Tried this salad again for dinner with my husband -- made a tomato (rather than champagne) vinaigrette with coriander instead. It was better but not quite there. I think a bit of mustard to tang up the dressing?

I thought this was good, but not as brilliant as some other dishes in this cookbook.

I agree with aj12754 on most points: It definitely needs much more coriander - doubling it is not enough - and it needs to be toasted for longer. It is very pretty even when you don't follow the plating instructions, with its contrast of dark red and bright green. I was fine with the oil/vinegar ratio of the vinaigrette.

I made some scrambled eggs with herbs to go with this, some nice bread, and called it a nice summery main course.