I never thought I'd call salad sexy but here's an analogy that earns this food its surprising adjective.
When I wake up in the morning, Im just plain ol' lettuce. Limp, uncolorful, blah!
After a shower, that lettuce is looking a little more alive.
Once I add some color to my face and moisturize my skin, I'm almost there.
A spritz of something wonderful and a flip of my hair and I've arrived.
Colorful, cheerful and presentable. I smell good and I look good! Food is no different.
In order to be creative and successful in the kitchen, one has to look at food in a completely different light.
Salad especially merits the right to be more than just some torn greens with hard bread and tomatoes in it, smothered in the most overpowering, taste-bud deadening dressings that are now available. Salad should be light, airy, crisp and fresh. When tossed with an equally delectable dressing, every bite should explode with flavor, thus making salad a hit at your table. So here are some simple tips to keep in mind next time you find yourself hovering over those greens:
1. Choose your green of choice. Whether it be lettuce, spring greens or spinach, make sure your greens are fresh. Discard the outer limp leaves or those turning brown. After greens sit awhile, the outer leaves become unusuable and depending how long you've had it, you still may be able to find quality leaves as you get closer to the heart. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with spinach or bagged salad mixes or other loose greens that are not part of a whole head.
2. Rinse your greens, using a strainer, in cold water, draining well. It's important to blot them after rinsing, so you're not adding water to your salad. Dressing will not adhere to your salad ingredients if they are wet and there is nothing appetizing about finding a puddle of salad water in the bottom of your serving bowl. Some examples of salad greens include: any type of lettuce, spinach, arugula and more. You get the idea!
3. Scour your refrigerator for flavor boosting ingredients. Great salads have texture and a hint of tart and sweet. Depending on what kind of salad you plan to make, whether a side salad or a salad as a meal, will determine how heavy your ingredients should be. I will give ingredient ideas to help you along. But for now, eyeball those eggs, grab that leftover bacon, cut up an onion, grab for those craisins and chop up some almonds. YUM!
4. Add your combination of ingredients into your bowl with your greens. Nice bite-sized pieces are favorable and easy on the salad fork.
I'm one to order salad as a side when dining out. One time, I was seated in close proximity to a couple whose salads were just delivered to their table. I had just placed my order, so I was curious to see what the salad looked like. Without intruding, I subtly watched the couple dig in. OMG! When the gentlemen lifted the fork to his mouth, there was this HUGE slimy and limp piece of lettuce, just dangling from his fork. He put it in his mouth and like you would do with spaghetti, he slurped the leaf unsuccessfully as it pasted itself to his chin. From my angle, it looked like he had a green slithering tongue that just stuck itself to his face. NO! NO! NO! This is just wrong I thought to myself. Needless to say, I cut up my salad prior to any attempt at eating it.
5. To season or not to season the salad is completely left to your discretion. Use salt sparingly, pepper to taste if need be; add a little dried parsley from your spice rack if feeling a bit creative. I like to grind some garden herbs into my salad. An item stocked at your local supermarket in the spice aisle.
6. Choose your dressing. Viniagrette. Cream dressing. Oil and Vinegar. Depending on how complex your flavor profiles are in the ingredients you chose for your salad should determine what kind of dressing to use. The whole idea of adding a variety of flavors is to be able to taste them; So if you drown your salad in a robust flavored dressing.... say for example "Hickory Bacon Chipotle", I don't believe your "craisins" are going to taste like "craisins". So I use this simple rule of thumb: The more ingredients I add to my salad, the simpler and lighter is my dressing. A lettuce and tomato salad deserves some spunk, so get ahead and add that bacon dressing to give the salad flavor. Prepackaged dresssing do have a place in this world. If you are not one to stock up on the bacon or the eggs, the nuts or the raisins, then it's much more convenient to just add these flavors that come in bottled cream dressings.
7. Toss that Salad into Sexy. The aromas that are derived from a well-put together salad takes one's nose straight into the garden of herbs and plenty. Make sure your salad is tossed well, so all the ingredients can be found throughout. At this point, you can top that masterpiece with some grated Romano cheese if that's your thing. A world of flavor, along with a gorgeous presentation. Don't be surprised if they reach for seconds!
In order for food to turn out good, whether you follow a recipe or just throw caution to the wind with your own creativity, you really have to care about what it is your doing. You have to want to make it the best it can be. Even with major time contraints, it doesn't take any longer to do it wholeheartedly than it does to just throw whatever into a bowl and call it dinner, or a salad in this case. The rewards are reaped at the table. I would rather take a few extra minutes to make something they love, then watch even five minutes of my valuable time thrown in the trash.
So here are some sample ingredients and dressing choices.....Enjoy!
GREENS:
Lettuce, Spinach, Arugula, Spring Greens, Butter Greens, Radiccio, Endive
COLOR/FLAVOR/TEXTURE:
Carrots, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Onion, Bacon, Olives, Eggs, Chicken, Turkey, Ham, Cheese, Croutons, Nuts, Raisins, Grapes, Herbs, Green/Red/Yellow/Orange Peppers, Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas
DRESSING:
Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar (can be substituted with any flavored vinegar, i.e., (Fruit, Vegetable or Spice Vinegars), Olive Oil and White Vinegar, Store Packaged Dressing of Choice, Lemon juice, Lime juice
From my experience, any combination of the above two categories make for a wonderful salad. You can use all, some or just two. YUM!
COMING UP.
- COOKBOOK COMBAT
- DIVA DISASTERS
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