The Art of a Good Salad
I was reading the news yesterday and today, wondering if in years to come, people will stop naming their baby boys, "George" just like they stopped naming them Adolf since the 40's. That aside, I was concerned about how the quest for power and a single political unity is not limited to nations who don't speak English as their national language, if you catch my drift. I hate the idea of a single world polity/culture. It would be like eating an iceberg lettuce "salad."
There's an art to a good salad, and when it works, man there's nothing better! Every good salad has a base, preferably with a bit of variety. I'll use the salad I made for dinner tonight as my example. The base was a big handful of mesclun salad which included a bit of iceberg some chicory, arugula, bibb etc. Next I added shaved carrots. I like to shave the carrot partially because I like the way the dressing clings to it and really spreads it around when I toss the mixture at the end. I work off the "a little bit of dressing and a whole lot of tossing" method. It takes a bit of attention and work to make sure that everyone gets their share of the goodies.
After that, I needed a bit of zip, so I added rings of baby red and yellow capsicum. They were sweet with just the barest edge of warmth. Next I added some chopped spring onion, a bit of arrogance, but not an overwhelming amount. Just enough, say, to assert itself without being aggressive. Call it a "British" portion. And what would a salad be without juicy red bits? I added a few plump, vine-ripened, baby tomatoes cut into quarters. The last flourish was a soupcon of chopped celery ('cause a little goes a long way), followed by cucumber quarters. A bit of shaved Kapiti parmesano, and some Baltic, er... balsamic vinaigrette, and I was ready for the protein. In this case, it was about two ounces of sundried tomato and garlic tuna.
Now you have to make salad in a bowl that looks way too big. That's because you have to have room to toss things around without losing any of the mixture. You must toss the ingredients. Stirring damages the delicate vegetables. They have to be gently lifted and mixed, so that that end result is; that every mouthful contains a variety of textures and a blend of flavours which wouldn't be nearly as good all by themselves.
I'll leave my Fruit Salad posting for another day.
There's an art to a good salad, and when it works, man there's nothing better! Every good salad has a base, preferably with a bit of variety. I'll use the salad I made for dinner tonight as my example. The base was a big handful of mesclun salad which included a bit of iceberg some chicory, arugula, bibb etc. Next I added shaved carrots. I like to shave the carrot partially because I like the way the dressing clings to it and really spreads it around when I toss the mixture at the end. I work off the "a little bit of dressing and a whole lot of tossing" method. It takes a bit of attention and work to make sure that everyone gets their share of the goodies.
After that, I needed a bit of zip, so I added rings of baby red and yellow capsicum. They were sweet with just the barest edge of warmth. Next I added some chopped spring onion, a bit of arrogance, but not an overwhelming amount. Just enough, say, to assert itself without being aggressive. Call it a "British" portion. And what would a salad be without juicy red bits? I added a few plump, vine-ripened, baby tomatoes cut into quarters. The last flourish was a soupcon of chopped celery ('cause a little goes a long way), followed by cucumber quarters. A bit of shaved Kapiti parmesano, and some Baltic, er... balsamic vinaigrette, and I was ready for the protein. In this case, it was about two ounces of sundried tomato and garlic tuna.
Now you have to make salad in a bowl that looks way too big. That's because you have to have room to toss things around without losing any of the mixture. You must toss the ingredients. Stirring damages the delicate vegetables. They have to be gently lifted and mixed, so that that end result is; that every mouthful contains a variety of textures and a blend of flavours which wouldn't be nearly as good all by themselves.
I'll leave my Fruit Salad posting for another day.
posted by Tarla @ 6:54 pm
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