Hearts of Palm Salad with Chef Nora Pouillon

Daviae Cognani: Hi, I'm Daviae Cognani and we’re here at Chelsea Market for Sunday supper, a benefit for the James Beard Foundation and Robert Fulton House's. They’ve gathered 40 of the countries finest chefs, so let’s go behind the burner and meet one of them. I'm here with Nora Pouillon from Nora Restaurant, Restaurant Nora. Nora Pouillon: Oh yeah. Daviae Cognani: In Washington DC and I stumbled on the name because I was just going to say Nora and I was going to say Restaurant Nora and tell me the story behind them in. Nora Pouillon: The restaurant has been there for 30 years. I opened in 79 and that time when you called something on the Nora, like now Daniel and all the other names, people—and the first certified organic restaurant in the country. This is grass-fed organic peas. Daviae Cognani: Okay, can I try that? Nora Pouillon: Yes. And has been cured for six weeks and with this we will serve with salad and the salad is made with—that we put into little Julienne and there are some preserved lemon. Daviae Cognani: And the aroma just comes through. Nora Pouillon: —leaves, cilantro leaves. Daviae Cognani: Italian flat leaf parsley? Nora Pouillon: Yes. Daviae Cognani: So, how did you preserve the lemon? Nora Pouillon: You have to put half a little across on top and then just take salt in it and you’d put it in a jar, fill it up, we’d fill it up with some more lemon juice and you will leave it. Marinade to marinade like this for weeks. You can only use the pea. You don’t use the—inside. You get rid of the particles, it's too salty, we would put a little olive oil on top of this replace it because it has the lemon so it does not need anymore vinegar. And then just present it on top of a—make it look little neat. When you go in the store, you buy the freshest and the most organic thing that’s in season. You come home and then you use the recipe as a guideline. You really don’t follow it completely to the tea, you know? People always said, “Oh but I don’t have to sit home, how can I do this recipe?” And I said, substitute, substitute. Daviae Cognani: So, take on the flavors that you really enjoy and you know put them in the dish and looking forward to visiting you in DC. Nora Pouillon: Thank you. Daviae Cognani: Stay tuned to Behind the Burner, where we give you the tips, tricks, and techniques that are laid in the culinary world on fire.