Salad (2011 - 2015)

[JAZ]

I also eat a lot of salads for dinner. Unfortunately, I almost never think to take photos of them. Some recent salads: Southwest/Mexican style with romaine, pico de gallo, tortilla strips and skirt steak; shrimp or crab remoulade on greens with tomatoes, celery, hard cooked egg and avocado; "Greek" salad with cucumber, tomato, parsley, mint, olives and feta cheese.

One of my favorite first course salads is apples and celery, sliced thin and dressed in an apple cider and walnut oil vinaigrette, topped with candied walnuts and aged cheddar cheese.

[bmdaniel]

I love rocket. Why isn't it found in every grocery store? I shouldn't have to go to the specialty grocery store

I thought Rocket was just another name for Arugula? In Dallas my biggest problem is finding nice green mixes without Arugula, since my wife won't eat it.

[Dave the Cook]

I love rocket. Why isn't it found in every grocery store? I shouldn't have to go to the specialty grocery store

I thought Rocket was just another name for Arugula?

Yep. Around here -- and it's in every grocery store -- it's labeled bilingually: "Arugula (Roquette)."

[SobaAddict70]

Roasted winter vegetables (brussel sprouts, purple potatoes and mushrooms) and watercress salad, with glazed cashews, peanuts and dried fruit

I'll have the recipe posted later.

Edited March 19, 2011 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[rarerollingobject]

This is truly an eGullet salad, inspired directly by an amalgam of SobaAddict70's beautiful potato creation above, and heidih's idea to roast potatoes with squash and thinly sliced lemons in the Meyer lemon thread.

My riff is roasted kipfler and sweet potato chunks, red onion, thinly sliced lemons, olive oil and thyme. Mixed into mesclun and baby red chard leaves.

[sheepish]

What a good thread! I had a bit of a salad epiphany at The Square restaurant in London last year. An early summer leaf and vegetable salad with half a quails egg and a goat's cheese emulsion as the first course of their taster menu. Possibly the nicest thing I've ever eaten. Went home and tried to recreate something along those lines, with much inspiration also from Michel Bras. What this highlighted to me was that really fresh produce is essential to the extent that I don't think I can buy good enough produce to do something like this justice, which kicked off me digging up the garden and trying much harder this year to grow my own. I produce lamb and pork, but honestly, you can get great lamb and pork without too much effort. You may have to order it, and get it sent to you, but it doesn't degrade from the day it's picked. Most vegetables do. Also a salad has the potential to be the prettiest food you'll ever see as the pictures in this thread prove.

My efforts so far below, but hoping to have a wider range of ingredients to play with this summer.

Testing, testing by *Mrs C*, on Flickr

[dcarch]

Indeed, salad is more than a side dish.

dcarch

Not so sweet watermelon is perfect for salad

Black garlic dressing

Palm hearts, napa hearts, arctichoke hearts, romaine hearts, with rose petals for Valentine's Day

[Fat Guy]

Those are amazingly gorgeous.

How does one make black-garlic dressing?

[Jenni]

dcarch, those salads look absolutely amazing!

[ambra]

With no dispresct to DCarch, as his creations are amazing, but everyone's creations/recipes look/sound delicious. Can't wait to make all of them! I must be needing my vegetables because I can't wait to get out to the store!

[SobaAddict70]

WOW.

[Corinna]

This thread is making me really ready for spring and the farmer's market!

[dcarch]

Those are amazingly gorgeous.

How does one make black-garlic dressing?

Thank you everyone. Cooked vegetables are difficult to plate. Salad vegetables are fresh, alive, vibrant, they always look good on a plate.

I make two kinds of black garlic dressing:

chunky black garlic - chopped black garlic in light olive oil, balsamic and pepper. Put evewrything in a coffee grinder for a few seconds so that the black garlic is still in chunks.

Black garlic sauce - Same as above, add a little soy sauce, and put in coffee grinder blend until smooth. A very dramatic almost totally black dressing/sauce.

dcarch

[emilyr]

I love rocket. Why isn't it found in every grocery store? I shouldn't have to go to the specialty grocery store

Hmm, in Seattle? Surprising. Here in Sydney, rocket is pretty ubiquitous in every supermarket. Though the quality does range from the stuff that has the taste and texture of dry grass clippings, right up to my favourite, the tender large leaf rocket more commonly sold in bunches with their roots and found in the herb section than the salad section.

In the US, rocket is more commonly known by its Italian name, arugula.

[Fat Guy]

Okay I am officially embarrassed by the sameness and lameness of my salads (and vegetable plates). I'm going to need to up my game a lot here.

[Fat Guy]

More of the same:

[slkinsey]

I love rocket. Why isn't it found in every grocery store? I shouldn't have to go to the specialty grocery store

Hmm, in Seattle? Surprising. Here in Sydney, rocket is pretty ubiquitous in every supermarket. Though the quality does range from the stuff that has the taste and texture of dry grass clippings, right up to my favourite, the tender large leaf rocket more commonly sold in bunches with their roots and found in the herb section than the salad section.

In the US, rocket is more commonly known by its Italian name, arugula.

Actually, the Italian name for this leaf is rucola. I'm not sure how or why the American name came to be "arugula." The online etymology dictionary suggests that it came into American English via Italian immigrants from Lombardy dialect (arigola) rather than from Italian per se, and given the similarity that makes sense. Before about 1985, most Italians spoke a regional (or micro-regional or local or micro-local) dialect in the home as a "first language" rather than Italian, and plenty of early 20C Italian immigrants didn't speak any Italian at all.

[janeer]

What a good thread! I had a bit of a salad epiphany at The Square restaurant in London last year. An early summer leaf and vegetable salad with half a quails egg and a goat's cheese emulsion as the first course of their taster menu. Possibly the nicest thing I've ever eaten. Went home and tried to recreate something along those lines, with much inspiration also from Michel Bras. What this highlighted to me was that really fresh produce is essential to the extent that I don't think I can buy good enough produce to do something like this justice, which kicked off me digging up the garden and trying much harder this year to grow my own. I produce lamb and pork, but honestly, you can get great lamb and pork without too much effort. You may have to order it, and get it sent to you, but it doesn't degrade from the day it's picked. Most vegetables do. Also a salad has the potential to be the prettiest food you'll ever see as the pictures in this thread prove.

My efforts so far below, but hoping to have a wider range of ingredients to play with this summer.

Testing, testing by *Mrs C*, on Flickr

Now that is very lovely. Not quite enough, but lovely.

[kayb]

My salads are usually sans lettuce or other greenery, though sometimes I'll get in the notion for it. The problem is that I don't get in that mood often enough but what I'll buy lettuce or spinach or rocket or what-have-you, make one salad, and the rest of it goes bad. But some of my favorites I go back to time after time:

Diced peel-on apples, tossed with bacon, toasted walnuts, feta cheese and honey balsamic dressing.

Marinated veggies -- cauliflower, carrots, cucumbers, white radishes marinated in a rice vinegar-salt-sugar-ginger mix, or a hot brine of cider vinegar, water, dry mustard, turmeric and white pepper. (Kinda fun; turns the cauliflower a brilliant psychedelic yellow.)

Roasted asparagus tossed with canteloupe chunks, diced fresh mozzarella, and a viniagrette of lime juice and oil, sprinkled with grated parmigiano.

Black bean and corn salad with chopped roasted red peppers, a couple of spoonsful of salsa, some cumin and some smoked pimenton. You could add raw onions and bell peppers if you wanted; I don't like 'em, so I don't. I used canned black beans and canned white shoe-peg corn, being sure to drain and rinse the beans well. I keep this stuff in the fridge all the time, and eat it like a salad; my daughter eats it on tortilla chips as a dip.

Diced fresh fruit, whatever's in season, with a dressing of just slightly sweetened creme fraiche.

Roasted asparagus, hearts of palm, ever-so-slightly sauteed mushrooms, barely cooked early June peas, all tossed in balsamic viniagrette and topped with a healthy grating of parmigiano.

And the most astounding salad I've ever eaten in my life: http://www.food52.com/recipes/4106_spring_picnic_pea_salad

[threestars]

I am totally amazed and excited with all your salads dcarch! They look awesome, first the flowers, and then the watermelons! Never tried anything like that but they look delicious!

[JAZ]

Anyone who likes salads should head over the the WikiGullet project and help out with our topic of the week -- Salad!

[Jenni]

Ok, so my photos aren't anywhere near the standard of other photos here, but I promise that the salads are delicious! In case anyone is wondering, the salads were packed in a tiffin box to take on a picnic.

Here are the three salads together.

The largest container is green lentil and tomato salad. Cooked green lentils are dressed with olive oil and lime juice (plus salt to taste). Then chopped tomatoes, finely chopped spring onion and finely chopped seasoning peppers are added. Seasoning peppers are a Trinidadian thing, so maybe you won't be able to get them. They have all the fruity flavour of a habanero but none of the heat. No other pepper tastes like them, but I also make this salad with green or red chillies so you could try that too.

The middle container has courgette and feta salad in it. This is from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian book. Courgettes are cooked briefly, then combined with feta, spring onion, dill, lemon juice and olive oil. It's so simple, but absolutely delicious. I really recommend that you try it!

Ok, so there's no way to make this look good! There are many Middle Eastern and Asian mashed aubergine dishes. This one is roasted aubergine mashed with garlic, tahini, olive oil and a slight splash of lemon (plus salt to taste). I often do mashed roasted aubergine with yoghurt and mint too.

All these salads are good at room temperature or chilled if you desire - season slightly more for chilled as the flavour is lessened when served cold.

[BarbaraY]

No photo but last night we had our very first of the season salad from the garden. Mostly mixed baby lettuces with a couple of paper thin slices of cucumber and a small wedge of Brie. Until one has had a salad of just picked lettuces, they don't know what lettuce should taste like. The difference is amazing.

[rebecca]

A delicious one I have made in the past is a snap pea salad inspired by something I once had at Chez Panisse. It has snap peas, mint and parsley, and a dressing of yogurt, lemon juice, olive oil and s&p.

Edited March 26, 2011 by rebecca (log)

[rarerollingobject]

Two nice clinging-to-the-remnants-of-summer salads for dinner tonight:

Buffalo mozzarella, rocket, white peach, proscuitto and chilli:

Tri colour quinoa with broad beans, preserved lemon, mint and feta:

Edited March 28, 2011 by rarerollingobject (log)