SALADS
With Summer on the way, people feel less inclined to eat heavy wintery meals and start moving towards lighter and healthier options, such as chicken or fish dishes, barbeque, and of course, Salads.
Traditionally a salad is considered to be a cold dish of lettuce or leaf, accompanied by a bit of garnish, such as tomato and cucumber.
A salad is a mix of ingredients, usually fruit and vegetable's with a dressing or sauce, usually served cold. Not all salads are cold, not all salads are dressed and not all salads are meat free.
Although an original Caesar Salad didn't contain anchovies, over the years, anchovies have been added as an option, even though Caesar Cardini who created the salad hated the idea of anchovies being added.
Caesar Salad
The Caesar Salad, a firm favorite in many restaurants, was originally created in the 1920's. As the story goes, a Fourth of July rush depleted the kitchen's supplies. Cardini had to make do with what he
had, adding the dramatic flair of the salad being tossed by the chef at the table.
The standard for the salad is romaine (cos) lettuce and croutons dressed with parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, anchovies, and black pepper, but today most places use pre-made caesar dressing, it's only made to order in high end establishments
Mediterranean Salad
The Mediterranean salad like a lot of salads, is wide and varied depending on where you are and whats in season. Usually, no leaf is used, and it has a tendancy to be heavily based on ingredients that have a large water content such as tomatoes and cucumber.
A pretty standard recipe is cucumbers, peeled and diced, tomatoes, diced, then red onion, finely sliced, torn up feta cheese, black olives and torn basil leaves. dressing includes Olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and lemon juice. Vibrant, colourful and refreshing.
Tomato Salad
Tomatoes come in many different varieties, colours and sizes. The tomato salad is celebration of the humble tomato, and dates back hundreds of years to the mayan indians. You basically take different types of tomatoes, of different colours and add torn basil and mint leaves, then drizzle garlic olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add a chopped chilli for a little spicy heat.
Indian Veg Salad
Indian veg salad is a pretty simple affair, the ingredients are diced small and are placed next to each other rather than being mixed together. Diced carrot, tomato, cucumber, red onion, and chana are placed next to each other on the plate, then topped with leaves, seeds and dressing. Chana can be made different ways, the one I know is simply boiled chickpeas with crushed ginger, coriander leaves, sliced chilli, salt, pepper and lemon juice then topped with pomegranate seeds and curry leaves.
The other thing that can be used is moringa leaves. The problem with these is that although the leaves, fruit and seeds are considered by some as having health benefits, the plants themselves contain a toxic substance, that in large amounts can cause paralysis and death.
Coleslaw
Most people don't realise that coleslaw is actually a salad, rather that an accompaniment. It's basically shredded white cabbage, mixed with sliced white onion and grated carrot, coated with mayo.
Potato Salad
Potato salad is looked upon as being in the same culinary group as coleslaw, yet carries the word salad in it's name. Take some new potatoes (or jersey royals, or similar) and drop them into boiling water until they are cooked but firm. Drain them off and allow them to cool down, and start making the potato salad while still warm. The trick is that if you mix the ingredients together while the potatoes are warm, it increases the flavours. So add some herbs to the potatoes, you can use dill, mint, chives or parsley, these are the ones that I have used in the past. I also use shallot, spring onion or even finely chopped red onion. If you like you can add a red chilli. All thats left is to allow everthing to cool and come together, then add the mayo, or natural yoghurt if your watching the calories.
Bibimbap (bi-bim-bap)
As I said earlier, not all salads are cold, bibimbap is a good example of this. There is quite a bit of cooking involved in this one, and although I want to add it to this list, I'm going to keep this short. If you want to give this one a try, check out maangchi on youtube, or just do a youtube search.
Like the Indian Veg Salad, the ingredients are kept seperate on the plate, and layered. Also the food is hot, and it includes beef and a fried or poached egg. Ingredients can include beansprouts,spinach, courgette, carrot, peppers, gosari (fernbrake or bracken), dojari (bellflower root) and is layered on a bed of steamed rice in a large bowl.
Stir fry
Stir fry can be, and by some is, considered a hot salad. It fits all the criteria, and can be served as a meal or a side. Simply chop a mix of veg, add some extras, such as beansprouts, dress with a sauce and add a meat if you wish.
Japchae
Japchae is a stirfry salad made with glass noodles (sweet potato starch noodles), so called because they are translucent, and also shitake mushrooms. Meat can be added, beef or pork are traditional choices, and sesame oil is usually used. Other ingredients include onion, carrot, spinach leaf, and spring onion. The dish is flash fried quickly to keep a cruch to the veg.
Nam Tok
Nam Tok is a thai steak salad where everything is prepped then assembled in a bowl starting with the dressing first, then everthing added to the dressing and tossed. First, you marinade a large steak in soy sauce and chopped lemongrass, and leave for at least twenty mins, then fry the steak until cooked to the desired level usually mid-rare. Allow the steak to rest untouched for at least ten minutes. While the steak is resting, take a large bowl, and make the dressing, using fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice, chilli flakes, toasted rice powder (toast rice in a dry pan then crush in pestle and morter) didn't use rice powder myself, but found this tip on youtube and tried it. I really works well.
Add sliced shallot, mint leaf, spinach leaf, coriander leaf, spring onion, a little crushed ginger, salt and black pepper. Slice and add the steak and toss everything together.
There are loads more out there, every country has one, and they are all worth trying. If you want to eat a little healthier, but your getting bored of eating salads, do some research, have a look around. Search for Shirazi, made from tomatoes, cucumber and mint leaves, or Fattoush, a bread salad made from toasted or fried pieces of pitta bread combined with mixed greens and other vegetables, dressed with black olives and a yoghurt based dressing.
Were you aware that some flowers are, in fact, edible, and go very well in salads. A lot of herbs do actually blossom, and the flowers can be used in many dishes. Allium blossoms from members of the onion family, known sometimes as onion flowers, they blossom from chives, shallots, spring onions, even garlic.
Small flowers grow on rocket if left to cultivate. Basil flowers are white, pink, sometimes purple. Courgette flowers are known as yellow trumpets or yellow horns. Dill blossoms are white, even pansies can be used in a salad or to decorate a meal.
If using edible flowers to give a dish a touch of class, just remember the basics. Don't use wild flowers, or garden flowers, due to contamination or pollution, always buy from a reputable supplier. If you know what you are doing and do some research, grow them yourself, then you will know their provenance.
Only eat the petals, remove the stamen and discard, and be aware of people with allergies.
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