Salad for the meat-and-potato crowd

[Tri2Cook]

I have to do another dinner for the local entertainment series this sunday. Last time it was a light summery meal for ladies. This time it's a cold weather meal for 4 men who are self-described as "Scottish meat and potatoes guys". The person in charge with the entertainment series said "salad, main, dessert". I was thinking soup, main, dessert would be better (and have the freedom to make that kind of decision with this client) but have also considered a lamb or beef and ale stew with brown bread for the main. A soup to start a stew seems kinda not right to me but I'm not sure what kind of salad I'd do for not-salad-guys. I'm not really a salad guy myself as a rule so I can't even do the "what would I want" thing. Any ideas?

[CaliPoutine]

How about a traditional cesear salad? I'm not big on bacon( I know its a Canadian thing though), but pancetta is nice instead of regular smoked bacon.

Or, a nice winter salad with segmented oranges, toasted pecans, dried cranberries and maybe a spring mix or some radicchio.

[purplewiz]

A salad that's gone over well with guys I know is sliced pear/dried cranberries/pecans or walnuts/blue cheese over greens with a sweeter vinaigrette dressing. There seems to be something about the heartiness or chewiness of the nuts and dried fruits that makes it more appealing. Or maybe because it's sweet punctuated by the pungent blue cheese. But folks who aren't much for tossed salad seem to like this one.

Or how about spinach salad with hard boiled egg and bacon and mushrooms? Again, it's a salad with a somewhat more substantial texture.

[CMN]

How about something like a caprese salad. Something about thick slices that seem a bit hardier than a regular salad. Or you could layer roasted vegetables (portabello, squash, eggplant. peppers) with cheese and tomatoes also.

Steakhouses seem to serve a lot of iceberg wedge-type salads with bacon also, so maybe there's something about it that seems more "manly".

[Marlene]

Iceberg wedges with blue cheese and bacon dressing.

If you can get decent tomatoes, tomato and onion salad with blue cheese dressing.

Both steakhouse mainstays and appeal to all the guys I know.

[maggiethecat]

Iceberg wedges with blue cheese and bacon dressing.

If you can get decent tomatoes, tomato and onion salad with blue cheese dressing.

Both steakhouse mainstays and appeal to all the guys I know.

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Um, Word, and just not for guys. We had the iceberg/blue/bacon combo this week and I finished it before I sliced my meat.

[broadway]

A warm salad with bacon or chicken, mushrooms or whatever you fancey and leaves.

Maybe herby dumplings instead of bread with the stew, sometimes called dough boys in Scotland.

Edited November 20, 2008 by broadway (log)

[The Old Foodie]

Boy, I gotta return to e-Gullet. , I have been shamefully absent for an embarrassingly long time (I plead writing deadlines, plural) - this seems as good a thread as any to show my face again.

I would go for a roasted vegetable salad, room temp not chilled, with a robust dressing - maybe Asian style with a hint of chilli.

Janet.

[Jaymes]

Iceberg wedges with blue cheese and bacon dressing.

If you can get decent tomatoes, tomato and onion salad with blue cheese dressing.

Both steakhouse mainstays and appeal to all the guys I know.

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Um, Word, and just not for guys. We had the iceberg/blue/bacon combo this week and I finished it before I sliced my meat.

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I'd agree with this. Men do seem to like it, hence its traditional popularity in steakhouses. The kind of salads they don't like seem to be too fancy, and especially congealed.

What is it with men and congealed salads?

[SeanDirty]

I have to do another dinner for the local entertainment series this sunday. Last time it was a light summery meal for ladies. This time it's a cold weather meal for 4 men who are self-described as "Scottish meat and potatoes guys". The person in charge with the entertainment series said "salad, main, dessert". I was thinking soup, main, dessert would be better (and have the freedom to make that kind of decision with this client) but have also considered a lamb or beef and ale stew with brown bread for the main. A soup to start a stew seems kinda not right to me but I'm not sure what kind of salad I'd do for not-salad-guys. I'm not really a salad guy myself as a rule so I can't even do the "what would I want" thing. Any ideas?

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Ya know all these ideas above sound so veg lovers with meat as an afterthought... Now my friends run asian inspired restaurants and i quite enjoy the bursts of flavor and heat that alot of their dishes bring to the table... Now this is off the Mai house menu in Tribeca

**************** Copied from http://tinquehuong.wordpress.com/2008/04/1...namese-cuisine/

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SPICY BEEF AND POMELO (SALAD)

A favorite of mine simply because it is convenient to serve at dinner parties. It is served cold and can be prepared way before one’s dinner guests arrive.

Furthermore, this dish, like the ones above, balances sweet and savoury ever so nicely. Succulent too!

All you need for the beef marinade:

* 1 tbsp chopped garlic

* 1 tbsp chopped bird’s eye

* (chili padi)

* 2 tbsp chopped lemongrass

* 1/2 cup olive oil

* 1/2 cup fish sauce

* 2 tbsp sugar

* salt and black pepper to taste

Mix them up well and gather up:

* 2# of cleaned hanger steak or steak

Marinate all the above for three hours and grill on charcoal. Cool them down for an hour before slicing into half centimetre-thick slices.

By the way, if you do an extra kilogramme of beef, simply double the amounts to make the marinade. Keep the beef slices for sandwiches as a lean lunch for a couple of days!

Now for the salad. You’ll need:

* 2# sliced grilled beef above

* 1 cup diced pineapple

* 1 cup seedless cucumber, chopped

* 2 cups pomelo grapefruit, sliced (wiki info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomelo)

* 2 tbsp chopped bird’s eye chillies

* 1 cup Vietnamese mint herbs (Rau Ram which is a Vietnamese mint, but has flavors similar to cilantro. You should be able to get it in Vietnamese stores... but if you have to it can be omitted)

* 1/2 cup of cilantro

Combine all these ingredients and toss them together to make a salsa. While leaving it to marinate for around 30 minutes, prepare the lime dressing. You’ll need:

* 1 cup of fresh lime juice

* 1 cup of white vinegar

* 1/2 cup of fish sauce

* 1/2 cup of sugar

* 2 tbsp of chopped garlic

* 1 tbsp of chopped chili or samba sauce

* 2 tbsp of chopped lemongrass

* 1/2 cup of olive oil

Simply whisk them together in a big salad bowl. Once this has become a vinaigrette, get the marinating salsa and mix everything together well before you serve.

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As said before it can be made in advance and actually i think it gains more flavor as it marinades. Again the flavor of the dish is amazing, it is light, yet has meat in it, so leading into a big ol meal shouldent be a problem. The pineapple adds bursts of sweet and salty, and is refreshing. Any meat lover will dig this.

Substitutes, you can use Grapefruit in place of a Pomelo, but you may want to balance it out with an orange as well.

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However i do have to mention that i am a meat eater, i did not eat veggies till i was well over 17... But i sure do love Caesar salads and the wedge of iceberg covered in some kinda thick dressing, and bacon never hurts anything.

Edited November 20, 2008 by SeanDirty (log)

[Jaymes]

Ya know all these ideas above sound so veg lovers with meat as an afterthought...  Now my friends run asian inspired restaurants and i quite enjoy the bursts of flavor and heat that alot of their dishes bring to the table... Now this is off the Mai house menu in Tribeca

SPICY BEEF AND POMELO (SALAD)

I have to say that this sounds really, really wonderful, and I'm definitely going to try it, so thanks for posting it.

But from the description, not sure it would work as a side salad or starter for a meat-heavy stew. Do you think it would?

Edited November 20, 2008 by Jaymes (log)

[SeanDirty]

Ya know all these ideas above sound so veg lovers with meat as an afterthought...  Now my friends run asian inspired restaurants and i quite enjoy the bursts of flavor and heat that alot of their dishes bring to the table... Now this is off the Mai house menu in Tribeca

SPICY BEEF AND POMELO (SALAD)

I have to say that this sounds really, really wonderful, and I'm definitely going to try it, so thanks for posting it.

But from the description, not sure it would work as a side salad or starter for a meat-heavy stew. Do you think it would?

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When i had it i ate it as a side salad... everyone doesn't necessarily has to have a giant bowl... As for with a stew... would a Caesar or iceberg or any veg heavy salad really go with a stew....?? That's whats so great about home cooking, who cares.

[Tri2Cook]

Some really good ideas, thanks everybody. The problem isn't that I can't make a salad, it's that I wasn't leaning towards doing salad. I was leaning towards a soup starter until I thought about doing the stew. What I may do is a roast and veggies based on a beef and ale stew instead and go with the soup anyway but I thought I'd fish for some salad ideas first. Normally when I get a dinner with salad the customer tells me what kind of salad they want but I'm not so sure these guys want salad at all, it's coordinated by the entertainment series. Plus the weather isn't very salad-y here right now (-15c and snow) unless I go with a warm salad.

[JAZ]

Somewhere I have a recipe for a warm potato salad with smoked sausage; depending on what's in your stew, that might work.

[Kim Shook]

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but has anyone noticed that guys actually LIKE salad nowadays? My husband and his BF always get salad for their tailgates, Mr. Kim always requests salad when he gets to plan a meal and salad is my father's (not Ted Fairhead - he's my dad ) specialty - what he's known for and what people ask him to bring to gatherings. It is so different from the "Real Men Don't Eat..." and ladies-who-lunch era that I grew up with.

On topic: I vote for a roasted vegetable salad or a classic Caesar if you decide to serve a stew .

[Tri2Cook]

So I've hit a bit of a snag. I had a plan worked out. I talked to my partner in the catering business (who always tells everybody "he's the cook, I just help out") about what I was going to do and she's not into it. She says a stew is too simple, not fancy enough. She's wrong of course, given the context and budget involved and the fact that anything can be as "fancy" as you want it to be, but I have a really busy schedule this weekend prepping for a large multi course dinner I have coming up in a couple days and don't have time to fight about it so I did the adult thing and said "fine, figure it out for yourself then". So I'm not really sure what we're doing right now. We're really not this unprofessional normally, I usually do the menu and the majority of the prep and cooking and she handles the bookings and paperwork but for some reason she decided to pick this really inconvenient time to assert her opinion on the menu. Oh well, as long as the customer is happy in the end, it really doesn't matter I guess.