Spring salad with broccolini and scrambled egg 春の菜の花風サラダ

We are having record warm temperature in our area. Some of the cherry trees are starting to turn pink and ready to bloom.  They are predicting the cherry blossoms along the tidal basin will be at their peak the last week of March. To me  rapeseed plant or nano-hana 菜の花 is one of the classic spring vegetables. As I posted before, the substitutes we can get here are either broccolini or rapini. The weekend before I prepared broccolini (quickly blanched) and made this yellow and  green salad on one of the subsequent weekdays. I thought the bright yellow of the eggs and deep green of the broccolini would be very spring-like.

For dressing, I made sesame mayonnaise.

Since I had ripe tomatoes I also added some wedges to make this spring salad.

Ingredients (for two servings):

Broccolini, 8 stalks, only flower ends, quickly blanched in salted boiling water and cooled.

Eggs, two large

Cream, 1-2 tbs

Tomato, one medium, skinned and cut into small wedges.

For Dressing:

Mayonnaise, 1tbs

White sesame seeds, 1 tbs, dry roasted in a frying pan and them ground using a Japanese pestle and mortar or suribachi すり鉢.

Light colored soy sauce, about 1 tsp

Directions:

I placed the broccolini and wedges of tomato in a bowl. I mixed the eggs and cream and beat well and scrambled with a bit of butter. I made sure the eggs were just cooked and fluffy. I seasoned with salt and added to the bowl. I topped with the dressing.

Freshly roasted and ground sesame really made the difference in the taste of the dressing.  Although broccolini does not have the bitterness of nano-hana, it is very close visually. This was a very colorful spring like salad perfect for the warm evening we were having.