Toss Mah Salad (Salads)

Member Name: jillmurphy

Product:	Salads
Date:	17/04/02 (1286 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No cooking required.

Disadvantages: Careful with the chillis!

The best salads, to my mind, are the simplest ones. There's nothing complicated about salad, and neither should there be. What could be nicer than a gorgeous pile of green leaves with a tiny trickle of tangy French Dressing, or a potato salad in a light mayonnaise with plenty of chives? I love salads, they're made from yummy, fresh ingredients, they're quick, they're easy and you don't even have to cook them!

So, salad making chez Murphy:

First things first I think: dressings. Before you start mixing and matching your salad concoctions you'll need something to dress them with. Don't buy those nasty smelly bottled ones from the supermarket; make your own gorgeous, tasty, sweet and tangy ones. My mother taught me how to be snotty about salad dressings you know. But really, what's the point in creating wonderful salads from all sorts of lovely fresh-as-the-pod-went-pop ingredients if you're just going to pour horrible bottled gunge containing all sorts of preservatives and suchlike all over them? Eh? EH? Be snotty with me, it's not as if I'm going to tell you to do anything difficult, now is it? I'll give you three easy peasy salad dressings starting with?

MAYONNAISE

You might have heard that mayonnaise is incredibly tricky to make. Well, if you don't have a food processor then yes, it is. And if I didn't I probably wouldn't bother to make it, I'd just buy Hellman's and sigh. But I have a food processor and I'm keeping my fingers crossed you do too. You'll need:

1 large egg
1 squeeze fresh lemon juice
1 dessertspoon French mustard
4 fluid ounces olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Ok, put the egg, the lemon juice, the salt and pepper and the mustard into your food processor and whizz it on a low setting for about ten seconds. Then add about two big spoonfuls of the olive oil, cover and whizz, again on a low setting, for a
nother ten seconds. Give it a wee stir and then add another two spoonfuls of the olive oil, whizz again and just keep repeating that until all the oil is gone. All you have to remember to do is to keep the setting low and have a tiny little stir by hand between each turn, and you'll be fine, I promise. If I can do this then anyone can. This makes a rather runny mayonnaise but I like it like that, and it's so much lighter and less sickly than Hellman's, honestly. Make your own mayonnaise just the once, and you'll never open a jar again, truly. If you like herbs then you can replace the mustard with a mixture of freshly chopped herbs of your choice, but I like the sharp tang the mustard adds. This makes easily enough for various salads for four or six people, I suppose. And it doesn't keep all that well, so don't make loads, it's so easy, you really don't need to anyway. And you don't need posh, expensive olive oil, you need a cheap, but lovely light virgin olive oil, don't go spending pounds and pounds, there really is no need for that either.

FRENCH DRESSING

This is my mother's version of the classic. I've no idea if it's authentic or not, but I do know it tastes lovely when drizzled (in moderation, don't drown salads, ever!) over almost any salad, but especially one of green leaves. You'll need:

2 fluid ounces olive oil
3 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Deary me but this is easy. You don't even need a food processor. You can shove all the ingredients together and whizz away on a medium setting until everything is all blended together if you want to, alternatively you can just put everything into a jar or other small container with a tight lid and shake and shake and shake. We do the shake and shake met
hod, or rather Conor and Kieran do, with me shouting, "More elbow grease required! More elbow grease required!" They think it's fun, and I can be lazy. Super! My mother's French Dressing is scrummy: tangy and sweet at the same time, but nothing that will overpower some lovely peppery Chinese leaves mixed with watercress. You don't need heavy, posh olive oil for this either, make sure it's a nice, light one. And don't make lots at a time of this one either, a few drops on your salad is quite enough to enhance.

CHILI DRESSING

This one's for those salads that would otherwise taste way too bland. It's wonderful with avocado. And it's just as easy. You are starting to grow herbs like I told you about ten or so opinions ago, aren't you? Anyway, you'll need:

4 red chillis
2 fluid ounces olive oil
juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons tarragon vinegar

Chop the chillis finely and remember to remove all the seeds and white pith. Also remember not to touch your face, and especially your eyes until you've washed and scrubbed your hands. If you do touch your face, you'll be sorry, I promise you. Once you've chopped them and washed and washed again put the chillis into a flat dish and cover with the salt and the lemon juice. Leave them soaking for about half an hour or so and then drain off any moisture they haven't sucked up. All you need to do then is put the marinated chillis and all the other ingredients into a sealed jar and get your versions of Conor and Kieran to shake. Yummy and hot and wonderful this is and will jazz up any salad you care to mention. Mind you use it in moderation though, and remember to wash your hands!

Now you have the dressings you can start to think about the most important part, the salads them
selves. Mmmmm? Let's see. Chez Murphy we like a simple salad of green leaves dressed with either the French Dressing described above, or the chilli one. Try a mixture of Iceberg Lettuce (lovely and crunchy), Chinese Leaves (peppery and sharp) and Watercress (strong and pungent). If we're looking for something more hearty and filling we love, in summer, a straightforward but yumptious potato salad made from wonderful Jersey Royals still in their jackets with the mayonnaise up there, a few spring onions and lots and lots of freshly chopped chives. Lovely lovely lovely. Still, if you're looking to be a little more adventurous you could try the following ideas, one for each dressing:

CELERY SALAD

4 stalks celery
2 handfuls sultanas
1 green sweet apple
1 small avocado
½ the amount of mayonnaise made above

Chop everything up (not forgetting to peel the avocados!) and mix in with the mayonnaise straightaway. If you don't stir it all together quickly the apples and avocado will turn dark though, so no dilly dallying. This is easy peasy, sweet, juicy and lovely with spiced grilled chicken. Or make double and just have it for a light lunch with a nice crusty roll, eat it with a spoon from a cereal bowl!

SPINACH, PINEAPPLE AND RICOTTA SALAD

1lb fresh spinach
1 small carton ricotta cheese
1 small tin pineapple chunks in juice
French Dressing as above

Washing and drying and roughly chopping fresh spinach is a pain, but it's worth it. Spinach is easily as nice as lettuce, and more "green" tasting, more peppery. It goes wonderfully well with the sweetness of the pineapple and the mildness of the cheese. Just wash and chop the spinach, put it in a huge bowl, drain the pineapple and stir that in, then stir in the cheese. Drizzle a small amount of the French Dressing on top. Oh, this is lovely in the sunshine, it tastes of summer it really does. Eat it outside in the garden
and smile. If you're feeling posh you can sprinkle some crushed walnuts, or crispy grilled bacon, or both, on the top.

TOMATO AND ONION SALAD

2 medium onions
4 large juicy tomatoes
1 squirt lemon juice
Chilli Dressing as above

Peel and chop the onions, place them in a flat dish and squirt a little lemon juice over them. Then pour on a small amount of just-boiled water from the kettle. Cover with clingfilm and leave them to steep for about fifteen minutes. They'll soften and get sweeter in that time. Drain off the water, and pat dry the onions. Then chop the tomatoes, put them in a bowl, mix in the lovely sweetened, softened onions and pour over a smallish amount of the Chilli Dressing. This is a lovely, sharp, hot side salad, perfect as a dressing on homemade burgers, or on the side with anything barbecued. You can also use it as a sort of salsa as a dip at parties.

And they are all the ideas you're getting from me. You should experiement yourself. Try different herbs when you make the mayonnaise, or add a bit of honey instead of the sugar when you make the French Dressing. Use different salad ingredients to mine and don't be scared to stick to the "proper" salad items. Use sweetcorn, or mangetout, or pears, or coconut, or anything you like. Be daring. Use cooked pasta and rice. Try tuna or prawns. Grapefruit segments and prawns go wonderfully well together, especially if you dress them with yoghurt mixed with a little honey, lemon juice and lots and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Just try anything and everything. Have fun. If I've not inspired you, for salad ideas much better than mine you could hop over to:

http://www.saladrecipe.com/default.asp

And here's an even better idea: why don't you grow your own ingredients? Everything is so much nicer fresh, especially salads. You don't even need a garden; you can grow little cherry tomato plants in a pot on
your kitchen windowsill, likewise lots of lovely aromatic and tasty herbs. One growbag on the patio will harvest more than you could ever imagine, just one tiny corner of the garden where the children can have fun and help you too will produce food for salads all summer. I'm the laziest person you could ever meet, and even I grow tomatoes and herbs, it doesn't even take up five minutes of my day. There is nothing nicer than a freshly picked, sweet, juicy tomato you know; your only problem will be not eating it before you've managed to make a salad with it! If you're a bit nervous of all things horticultural and you're worried that your fingers aren't at all green then go here which will show you how easy it all really is:

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/fruitsveggies.h tml
http://www.thegardenhelper.com/kidgarden.html

If you still don't want to grow your own then consider having wonderful, fresh, seasonal produce delivered to your door. I know I'm nagging, but with salads the quality and freshness of the ingredients really does matter. It's a bit more expensive than Tesco and Sainsbury, but if you don't have a good local farmer's market, or decent greengrocer near you then a weekly delivery of produce is worth considering. This company is super:

http://www.organicsdirect.co.uk/odframeset.asp

And that really is it. I'm off, not to bother with salads, no no; there's a bar of Lindt in the kitchen that remains unconsumed. I can't have that, now can I? Anyone know a recipe for chocolate salad?

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