Salade Cressonnière

Salade Cressonnière (watercress and Parisian potato salad) teaches one clean principle: timing is part of seasoning. Peppery watercress and cool, dressed potatoes should meet only when the bowl is ready for the table. Bring the leaves in early and they collapse before the first fork arrives.

The original entry assumes a cold pantry with Salade Parisienne (No. 2017) already finished, eggs cooked, herbs picked, and several hands available at service. For four people, the honest home measure is two level cups of the prepared salad and two loosely filled cups of watercress. Equal volume, not equal weight, preserves the intended balance without burying the potatoes beneath a hedge. No saucier, perpetual stockpot, or salamander has work to do here. The extra bowls and last-minute hands are brigade scaffolding, so they go; the prepared component, equal-part measure, and final fold are the dish, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The finished bowl should be pale and herb-flecked, with flashes of yolk gold and crisp green leaves running through every serving. Dry the watercress completely, then fold it in only after everything else is waiting. That final minute decides the salad.