A Gilded Age recipe gets a makeover.
Sometimes the story behind a dish is as interesting as the recipe itself.
The Waldorf Astoria Hotel began as a family feud of epic proportions at the height of New York’s Gilded Age. Two bickering robber barons built competing hotels next to each other on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street. William Waldorf Astor opened The Waldorf Hotel in 1893. Four years later, John Jacob Astor IV used the same architect to one up his cousin and build a slightly taller Astoria Hotel next door in the same style. They ended up calling a truce and combining the two hotels into one property.
The Waldorf-Astoria pioneered things that are standard today – room service, electricity on the guest floors and ensuite baths. Room service orders came with a single rose on the tray. The hotel also invented several dishes – Waldorf Salad, Eggs Benedict, Red Velvet Cake and Thousand Island Dressing.
Their original version of a Waldorf Salad was just three ingredients -- apples, celery and mayonnaise.
Crisp, crunchy, heart-healthy with a twist.
We riffed off the Gilded Age combination with a salad that includes the crunch of celery, the slightly licorice taste of fennel, lime zest and juice to add bright acidity, toasted walnuts and to give it an added tang – sour cream.
This recipe calls for a Honeycrisp apple, a variety that wasn't available back then. Honeycrisp apples were developed in a Minnesota agricultural research center in the late 1980s but didn’t quite take off until 2007. It’s prized for its juicy tartness that’s balanced with its sweetness. It’s a cross between a Golden Delicious and an apple called a Duchess of Oldenburg.
Fennel Citrus Waldorf Salad
Recipe Ingredients
4 stalks celery chopped
1 bulb fennel thinly sliced and then chopped
¼ c mayonnaise
¼ c sour cream
1 lime zest and juice
1 Honeycrisp apple diced or julienned
1 c toasted walnuts chopped
Salt, pepper to taste
Preparation Instructions
1. Wash celery and remove tough strings. Chop stalks.
2. Remove fennel core and thinly slice and chop one bulb.
3. Put fennel and celery in medium to large bowl and mix.
4. Core and then chop or julienne an apple on top of celery fennel mixture.
(Reserve a couple of slices for garnish.)
5. Wash and zest lime and add
6. Juice lime onto apple pieces to keep it from turning brown.
7. Add chopped toasted walnuts.
8. (If walnuts are raw, sprinkle them on a cookie sheet in a single layer and put in a 350
degree oven for 5-8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.)
9. Add mayonnaise and sour cream
10. Mix all ingredients.
11. Salt and pepper to taste.
12. Top with apple slices for garnish.
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