I got some great compliments for my potted cheese dip that I made for the Elite 8 game last Sunday. Both the flavor of the dip—kinda a winey, feta-heavy cold fondue flavor—and my improv culinary skills in making the dip were praised.
Thing is, this dip was one of the easiest things I’ve ever made. I took some leftover cheese, a bit of some type of onion, threw it in a food processor, and added wine until it was the consistency I wanted.
I felt a little bit guilty taking all the praise for a recipe that is specifically designed to be refrigerator Velcro. But hey, I’ll take the credit.
And now, so can you.
Potted cheese
1 pound of leftover cheese (I used half feta, and half milder, other cheeses)
¼ cup of something oniony (onion, shallot, garlic, chives, or a combination)
½ - 1 cup of wine (I used red, red wine)
Couple tablespoons of herbs (something strong like thyme or oregano)
Pinch of cayenne pepper (for luck)
Salt and pepper to taste
Shred/crumble cheese. Place all ingredients in food processor. Blend, then add red wine in a thin stream, a little at a time, until it comes together and gets smooth. Taste, add more salt and pepper as needed. Put into nice serving bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour, or up to 2 days, before serving.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
A world without cheese
Although I called this blog "Garlic is love," if there's one food I couldn't live without, it would be cheese.
From feta to fontina, brie or baby swiss, its salty, tangy, rich mouthfeel is the ultimate comfort food.
Which of course, got me to thinking, what if I had to give it all up?
I don't think I'd want to have fake cheese substitutes. The quality's not the same, and it would only remind me what I was missing.
But there are other foods that have a similar mouthfeel, texture, or taste, that are enjoyable on their own. They don't try to be cheeese, but, if, God forbid, I could never have another piece of cheddar, I'd be eating these foods a lot more often to fill the gap.
1. Avocado.
The fatty, silky mouthfeel of avocado is delightful, and reminiscent of some soft cheeses. It's so smooth, in fact, that there are ice cream recipes that incorporate some avocado into them.
Like cheese, avocado can be eaten in slices, or cubes, and, like cheese, it can be turned into a spread. The flavor of avocado is subtle, so it's more like a cream cheese than a hard or aged cheese.
Recipe: Avocado Gelato(Gourmet magazine)
2. Olive oil
Olive oil, at least the very good ones, are complex like wines and cheeses. Like a thick, golden wine. I like a buttery olive oil as opposed to a grassy one, but both have their place. The nice thing about golden olive oil is that the color is similar to yellow cheese.
A simple snack of fresh bread drizzled with olive oil can help with a cheese fix.
ZeTune olive oil - amazing oil from a small family farm in Lebanon.
3. Hummus
Take the olive oil, add some chickpeas and perhaps some sesame paste, and you've got an extremely thick, creamy dip. Put in a little bit of lemon or garlic, and you could almost believe this was some kind of cheese dip.
Recipe: Carrie's Speedy hummus
1 can chickpeas
1/4 cup good-quality olive oil
juice and zest from one lemon
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
salt and pepper to taste.
Place all ingredients except for olive oil in blender. Pulse until chickpeas disappear, then add the olive oil in a thin stream, keep processing. Taste and adjust seasoning. Put into small, pretty bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve, covering with plastic wrap. Drizzle a touch more olive oil on the top just before serving.
4. Eggs
Dilbert once famously said, "eggs are like cheese from chickens." He's not far off. Both eggs and cheese can be used in similar ways, to thicken, to add body. And both can be nice and creamy.
Dairy-free Lemon curd (adapted from Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook)
1/2 teaspoon gelatin
juice and zest from 2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
a few tablespoons of coconut milk (optional)
Take about a tablespoon of the lemon juice and put it in a small bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over the small bit of lemon juice and let it absorb.
Fill a medium-sized saucepan halfway full of water. Find a stainless steel bowl that nests in the pan well, but doesn't touch the water. Nest the bowl in the pan.
Place everything except for the gelatin and coconut milk in the bowl, and whisk it all together. Turn the heat to high, and stir the mixture constantly for 5 to 10 minutes, until it starts to get quite thick.
Once it gets thick, add the gelatin in and stir until it's combined. Remove from the heat. Let cool for 5 minutes, then stir. Let cool another 5 minutes, then stir in a few tablespoons of coconut milk (optional).
Serve cold or at room temperature. Keeps for several days.
From feta to fontina, brie or baby swiss, its salty, tangy, rich mouthfeel is the ultimate comfort food.
Which of course, got me to thinking, what if I had to give it all up?
I don't think I'd want to have fake cheese substitutes. The quality's not the same, and it would only remind me what I was missing.
But there are other foods that have a similar mouthfeel, texture, or taste, that are enjoyable on their own. They don't try to be cheeese, but, if, God forbid, I could never have another piece of cheddar, I'd be eating these foods a lot more often to fill the gap.
1. Avocado.
The fatty, silky mouthfeel of avocado is delightful, and reminiscent of some soft cheeses. It's so smooth, in fact, that there are ice cream recipes that incorporate some avocado into them.
Like cheese, avocado can be eaten in slices, or cubes, and, like cheese, it can be turned into a spread. The flavor of avocado is subtle, so it's more like a cream cheese than a hard or aged cheese.
Recipe: Avocado Gelato(Gourmet magazine)
2. Olive oil
Olive oil, at least the very good ones, are complex like wines and cheeses. Like a thick, golden wine. I like a buttery olive oil as opposed to a grassy one, but both have their place. The nice thing about golden olive oil is that the color is similar to yellow cheese.
A simple snack of fresh bread drizzled with olive oil can help with a cheese fix.
ZeTune olive oil - amazing oil from a small family farm in Lebanon.
3. Hummus
Take the olive oil, add some chickpeas and perhaps some sesame paste, and you've got an extremely thick, creamy dip. Put in a little bit of lemon or garlic, and you could almost believe this was some kind of cheese dip.
Recipe: Carrie's Speedy hummus
1 can chickpeas
1/4 cup good-quality olive oil
juice and zest from one lemon
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
salt and pepper to taste.
Place all ingredients except for olive oil in blender. Pulse until chickpeas disappear, then add the olive oil in a thin stream, keep processing. Taste and adjust seasoning. Put into small, pretty bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve, covering with plastic wrap. Drizzle a touch more olive oil on the top just before serving.
4. Eggs
Dilbert once famously said, "eggs are like cheese from chickens." He's not far off. Both eggs and cheese can be used in similar ways, to thicken, to add body. And both can be nice and creamy.
Dairy-free Lemon curd (adapted from Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook)
1/2 teaspoon gelatin
juice and zest from 2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
a few tablespoons of coconut milk (optional)
Take about a tablespoon of the lemon juice and put it in a small bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over the small bit of lemon juice and let it absorb.
Fill a medium-sized saucepan halfway full of water. Find a stainless steel bowl that nests in the pan well, but doesn't touch the water. Nest the bowl in the pan.
Place everything except for the gelatin and coconut milk in the bowl, and whisk it all together. Turn the heat to high, and stir the mixture constantly for 5 to 10 minutes, until it starts to get quite thick.
Once it gets thick, add the gelatin in and stir until it's combined. Remove from the heat. Let cool for 5 minutes, then stir. Let cool another 5 minutes, then stir in a few tablespoons of coconut milk (optional).
Serve cold or at room temperature. Keeps for several days.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Pi(e) Day celebration
Because I'm a geek and a food geek, I made a pie in celebration of Pi day, March 14th, 3-14. (Get it?)
I was hoping to work on pie crusts, but as our oven is still broken, I needed to focus on no-bake recipes. So I went with a Jell-O Pie.
Sure, Jell-O Pie is a marriage of 1950's convenience foods and 1960's science. But, at its core, it's Fruit, juice, gelatin, and cream. Mostly. What's not to like?
The traditional flavor is strawberry, though any variation of fruit, fruit juice, and Jell-O can be used. To make it a little bit interesting (and for my sister-she knows why), I made a Mango Tango Lemon Pie.
Mango Tango Lemon Pie
Most of the mango items can be found in the international foods aisle of your grocery store. You could use 2 fresh mangoes here, too, but the canned tastes pretty good and works just fine.
1 graham cracker crust
8 oz (smaller container) Cool-Whip Lite
16 oz canned mangoes (International Foods aisle at grocery store)
Juice and Zest of one lemon
1 packet Lemon-flavored Jell-O
Mango-flavored soda
Canned mango puree or juice
Red and yellow food coloring
Juice and zest a lemon. Add enough mango-flavored soda to make 1/2 cup. Add a half cup of mango juice to the mixture. Heat briefly over low heat until it's just boiling, then turn off heat.
Meanwhile, drain canned mangoes, and chop into bite-size pieces.
Dump lemon Jell-O packet into medium bowl. Add fruit juice, stir well. Add Cool-Whip, stir until all the lumps are out and everything is smooth.
Add 2 drops of red, and 4 drops of yellow, food coloring to the mix (optional).
Fold in the mangoes.
Dump it all into a graham cracker pie crust and toss in the fridge for a couple hours, until it's set.
I've found good luck sticking it in the freezer for an hour, then into the fridge. It means you get to eat it sooner.
You may scoff at Jell-O pie, but I dare you not to lick the bowl clean.
I was hoping to work on pie crusts, but as our oven is still broken, I needed to focus on no-bake recipes. So I went with a Jell-O Pie.
Sure, Jell-O Pie is a marriage of 1950's convenience foods and 1960's science. But, at its core, it's Fruit, juice, gelatin, and cream. Mostly. What's not to like?
The traditional flavor is strawberry, though any variation of fruit, fruit juice, and Jell-O can be used. To make it a little bit interesting (and for my sister-she knows why), I made a Mango Tango Lemon Pie.
Mango Tango Lemon Pie
Most of the mango items can be found in the international foods aisle of your grocery store. You could use 2 fresh mangoes here, too, but the canned tastes pretty good and works just fine.
1 graham cracker crust
8 oz (smaller container) Cool-Whip Lite
16 oz canned mangoes (International Foods aisle at grocery store)
Juice and Zest of one lemon
1 packet Lemon-flavored Jell-O
Mango-flavored soda
Canned mango puree or juice
Red and yellow food coloring
Juice and zest a lemon. Add enough mango-flavored soda to make 1/2 cup. Add a half cup of mango juice to the mixture. Heat briefly over low heat until it's just boiling, then turn off heat.
Meanwhile, drain canned mangoes, and chop into bite-size pieces.
Dump lemon Jell-O packet into medium bowl. Add fruit juice, stir well. Add Cool-Whip, stir until all the lumps are out and everything is smooth.
Add 2 drops of red, and 4 drops of yellow, food coloring to the mix (optional).
Fold in the mangoes.
Dump it all into a graham cracker pie crust and toss in the fridge for a couple hours, until it's set.
I've found good luck sticking it in the freezer for an hour, then into the fridge. It means you get to eat it sooner.
You may scoff at Jell-O pie, but I dare you not to lick the bowl clean.
Friday, January 15, 2010
The Durian
If Garlic is Love, then durian is...durian.
Squatting in the snow in my backyard, durian laid out in front of me on a pizza box, I tried to gather the courage to eat this mysterious and misunderstood fruit.
I saw it, frozen, at my local Oriental Mart. I was stunned. I'd heard of it before--on exotic travel and food shows--but thought it was only available in its native Asia, not my middling Midwest town. I had some cash in my pocket, and figured, for a little more than 5 bucks, I had little to lose.
I noted the packaging. Clear hard plastic case, shrinkwrapped in more plastic. Inside, two fruits were bound up in clear plastic wrap, like fat, cream-colored sausages.
I picked it out of the freezer case, tucked it under my arm, and did a little more shopping. After a while, I noticed a strange smell that seemed to be following me. You know how sometimes, if you have a dog, and the dog is laying down across the room, and all of a sudden, your'e on the couch and you get a whiff of dog fart out of nowhere?
A little like that.
I sniffed my hands. Amazingly, the durian smell had transferred through all three layers of plastic. It was faint, but distinct. And seemed to be getting stronger the more I focused on the scent.
The cashier at the counter wrapped the durian box in another plastic baggie. I smiled at her, and thanked her. I could still smell it as I put it into the trunk of my car. Four layers of plastic.
I thought of my friend Donna, a fearless, brilliant woman, who just had a milestone birthday. She wouldn't be afraid of a fruit. Even if it did grow looking like a big, spiky football that could kill you if it fell on you. I thought of all the other odd foods I'd tried--garlic and honey ice-cream, duck's blood soup, chocolate cheese.
I nearly threw the durian in the trash, unopened.
Now that I had direct experience with how fragrant the durian actually was, as soon as I got home, the whole package went directly into the snowbank in my backyard. We'd just gotten a good foot of snow, and the temperatures weren't getting anywhere near freezing, so it was the safest place for it. I had to shoo the dog away from it a couple times until more snow the following week buried it completely.
Just this week, we got a thaw. I looked out my window and saw the box, the pale yellow sausages staring at me. Taunting me.
There was no way I was tossing the durian, I decided, but no way I'd be eating it in the house. I scrounged in the kitchen for a plate I wouldn't mind getting rid of, a fork and a knife. I put my snow boots on and went into the backyard.
I held my breath, opened the layers of packaging. One, then two, then three, now slicing the end off the tube. I squatted down, dug out a hunk of creamy fruit, and chewed.
The taste was not nearly as strong as I thought it would be, considering the smell. Perhaps this was because it was still pretty cold, and the flavor was somewhat muted. It tasted like a very chewy cantaloupe, mixed in with a very runny and stinky goat cheese, with a little bit of onion character thrown in, especially on the aftertaste.
Even so, I only had one bite. I couldn't decide if I liked it or not, and I had absolutely no viable storage options for the rest of the fruit now that I'd opened it and the weather was warming up. So, still undecided, I closed the pizza box lid, and walked the whole thing across the backyard, to the garage, to the trash.
It would have been nice to figure out something else to do with the fruit, but small steps. I was proud that I'd tried it. The risk taker in me (such as she is) wins out again. And, if for a very short second, it was no longer winter in Michigan, but summer in Malaysia.
Now if I can just find a place nearby that serves Fugu.
Squatting in the snow in my backyard, durian laid out in front of me on a pizza box, I tried to gather the courage to eat this mysterious and misunderstood fruit.
I saw it, frozen, at my local Oriental Mart. I was stunned. I'd heard of it before--on exotic travel and food shows--but thought it was only available in its native Asia, not my middling Midwest town. I had some cash in my pocket, and figured, for a little more than 5 bucks, I had little to lose.
I noted the packaging. Clear hard plastic case, shrinkwrapped in more plastic. Inside, two fruits were bound up in clear plastic wrap, like fat, cream-colored sausages.
I picked it out of the freezer case, tucked it under my arm, and did a little more shopping. After a while, I noticed a strange smell that seemed to be following me. You know how sometimes, if you have a dog, and the dog is laying down across the room, and all of a sudden, your'e on the couch and you get a whiff of dog fart out of nowhere?
A little like that.
I sniffed my hands. Amazingly, the durian smell had transferred through all three layers of plastic. It was faint, but distinct. And seemed to be getting stronger the more I focused on the scent.
The cashier at the counter wrapped the durian box in another plastic baggie. I smiled at her, and thanked her. I could still smell it as I put it into the trunk of my car. Four layers of plastic.
I thought of my friend Donna, a fearless, brilliant woman, who just had a milestone birthday. She wouldn't be afraid of a fruit. Even if it did grow looking like a big, spiky football that could kill you if it fell on you. I thought of all the other odd foods I'd tried--garlic and honey ice-cream, duck's blood soup, chocolate cheese.
I nearly threw the durian in the trash, unopened.
Now that I had direct experience with how fragrant the durian actually was, as soon as I got home, the whole package went directly into the snowbank in my backyard. We'd just gotten a good foot of snow, and the temperatures weren't getting anywhere near freezing, so it was the safest place for it. I had to shoo the dog away from it a couple times until more snow the following week buried it completely.
Just this week, we got a thaw. I looked out my window and saw the box, the pale yellow sausages staring at me. Taunting me.
There was no way I was tossing the durian, I decided, but no way I'd be eating it in the house. I scrounged in the kitchen for a plate I wouldn't mind getting rid of, a fork and a knife. I put my snow boots on and went into the backyard.
I held my breath, opened the layers of packaging. One, then two, then three, now slicing the end off the tube. I squatted down, dug out a hunk of creamy fruit, and chewed.
The taste was not nearly as strong as I thought it would be, considering the smell. Perhaps this was because it was still pretty cold, and the flavor was somewhat muted. It tasted like a very chewy cantaloupe, mixed in with a very runny and stinky goat cheese, with a little bit of onion character thrown in, especially on the aftertaste.
Even so, I only had one bite. I couldn't decide if I liked it or not, and I had absolutely no viable storage options for the rest of the fruit now that I'd opened it and the weather was warming up. So, still undecided, I closed the pizza box lid, and walked the whole thing across the backyard, to the garage, to the trash.
It would have been nice to figure out something else to do with the fruit, but small steps. I was proud that I'd tried it. The risk taker in me (such as she is) wins out again. And, if for a very short second, it was no longer winter in Michigan, but summer in Malaysia.
Now if I can just find a place nearby that serves Fugu.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
2009 culinary recap
I was so busy cooking in the last quarter of 2009, I had little time to blog. Here's a quick highlight of what I was up to between then and now:
* Hosted an epic Halloween party which included two types of punch (both with dry ice smoke), squid-ink pasta, roasted garlic with anchovy paste, and numerous other spooky bites.
* Wrote a 50,000 word novel in the month of November, using dining scenes for inspiration when I was stuck.
* Baked three different types of cookies, some chocolate chipotle brownies, cranberry sauces, green been casserole and saganaki (opa!).
* Got back on the scallops wagon six months after eating some bad ones while celebrating my 5th wedding anniversary.
* Improved my soup-fu (aka improv soup making).
* Made a halfway decent (and somewhat authentic) curry for the first time.
* Fell in love with saba nigiri (mackerel sushi).
* Re-created at home a roasted squash and bean hummus dip that I'd had at a fancy restaurant.
* Lost, then gained back, 4 pounds.
My food goals for 2010 are to:
* Consume wine or cheese older than I am
* Do another "Iron Chef" party with friends, but as a judge, not a competitor
* Master pastry crusts (I'm thinking just about the time that berries and peaches come into season).
* Eat more fish; get more creative with fish meals
* Have more fun with vegetarian food
* Find more fun and delicious local restaurants
* Enjoy food more; worry less
2010 should be a good food year.
* Hosted an epic Halloween party which included two types of punch (both with dry ice smoke), squid-ink pasta, roasted garlic with anchovy paste, and numerous other spooky bites.
* Wrote a 50,000 word novel in the month of November, using dining scenes for inspiration when I was stuck.
* Baked three different types of cookies, some chocolate chipotle brownies, cranberry sauces, green been casserole and saganaki (opa!).
* Got back on the scallops wagon six months after eating some bad ones while celebrating my 5th wedding anniversary.
* Improved my soup-fu (aka improv soup making).
* Made a halfway decent (and somewhat authentic) curry for the first time.
* Fell in love with saba nigiri (mackerel sushi).
* Re-created at home a roasted squash and bean hummus dip that I'd had at a fancy restaurant.
* Lost, then gained back, 4 pounds.
My food goals for 2010 are to:
* Consume wine or cheese older than I am
* Do another "Iron Chef" party with friends, but as a judge, not a competitor
* Master pastry crusts (I'm thinking just about the time that berries and peaches come into season).
* Eat more fish; get more creative with fish meals
* Have more fun with vegetarian food
* Find more fun and delicious local restaurants
* Enjoy food more; worry less
2010 should be a good food year.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Improv recipe: Roasted Curried Sweet Vegetables
This is not the healthiest dish out there, but it sure is tasty. You could probably tone down the amount of oil used, and omit the butter entirely, if you are trying to be a bit healthy. You can, of course, make things less spicy if you don't do well with heat. Make sure to taste the mixture to see if it's to your liking before you slather it on your veggies.
One last note: Unless you are an expert with a knife, do not attempt this recipe without a sharp vegetable peeler. Acorn squash are kind of a pain to peel. You can substitute a small butternut squash, which is a little bit easier to peel.
Roasted curried sweet vegetables
Serves 4 as a side dish
2 sweet potatoes
1 medium acorn squash
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup brown sugar
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 Tablespoons curry powder
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 cloves
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Peel vegetables, cut into 1 inch cubes. Combine the rest of the ingredients except for the butter. Taste mixture and adjust seasoning as necessary. Coat vegetables with mixture.
Put vegetables in large oven-safe dish or wide-lipped baking sheet. Dot with butter.
Cook for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, or until veggies are tender.
One last note: Unless you are an expert with a knife, do not attempt this recipe without a sharp vegetable peeler. Acorn squash are kind of a pain to peel. You can substitute a small butternut squash, which is a little bit easier to peel.
Roasted curried sweet vegetables
Serves 4 as a side dish
2 sweet potatoes
1 medium acorn squash
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup brown sugar
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 Tablespoons curry powder
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 cloves
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Peel vegetables, cut into 1 inch cubes. Combine the rest of the ingredients except for the butter. Taste mixture and adjust seasoning as necessary. Coat vegetables with mixture.
Put vegetables in large oven-safe dish or wide-lipped baking sheet. Dot with butter.
Cook for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, or until veggies are tender.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The Secret of Salads
I may have finally discovered the secret to salads.
But first, a little background.
My grandma J was the salad making expert of the family. Anytime we got together for the holidays, she'd bring a crisp, veggie-filled layered delight. Every bite seemed to be full of mushrooms, radish, tomato or bell pepper. And her salads rarely had cheese. Which makes it especially surprising that I loved them so much.
I thought I hadn't gotten the salad making gene from her, for all my salads tended to be lettuce-heavy and short on veggies. Any veggies I did add were chopped small and tended to sink to the bottom of the bowl.
Last night, while making a salad, I had an epiphany. I must give much of the credit to the ingredients I had on hand. The salad was to be the main course, so I had procured some end-of-summer tomatoes, thick chunks of fresh-boiled chicken, two types of nuts, homemade croutons, and goat cheese. It's kind of hard to go wrong when you start with good ingredients.
For all these years, I'd been chopping my veggies much too small. Sure, that's how my mom did it, but she always portioned the lettuce first into bowls, then sprinkled the veggies on top. Thus, no sinkage. But for salad in the big bowl, if the bites were larger, they rest much better on top of the lettuce.
Comparing this salad to others I'd made, I realized I had put a lot more non-lettuce ingredients into this one. Increasing the amount of other stuff in the salad made it tastier and more interesting.
I also needed to layer like a lasagna. So, a layer of lettuce, then a layer of each of the other ingredients, before I got back to the lettuce. For my normal salads, I had been putting a layer of lettuce between each other ingredient, which meant too much lettuce, not enough other stuff.
With those concepts in mind, I have created a simple salad formula. I'm confident this formula will help me remember what I've learned, so I can create successful salads in the future.
Secret of Salads
1. Start with flavorful ingredients. At least one of the ingredients should be nuts, cheese, dried fruit, bacon, or some other ingredient that packs a flavor punch.
2. Make the ratio of lettuce to other ingredients 1 to 1. e.g. make sure the amount of "guts" of the salad (meat, cheese, nuts, veggies) is at least as much as the lettuce.
3. Ingredients should be in large bite-sizes.
4. Layer like a lasagna.
Here's the salad I made using those rules.
Hearty Chicken Tomato Salad
1 bag pre-washed lettuce
2 cups chicken breast, pulled apart into large bite-sized chunks
1/4 cup nuts
1 cup cherry tomatoes, split in half
2 ounces goat cheese
Bacon Salt croutons (recipe follows)
Put a small layer of lettuce in the bottom of a large bowl. Sprinkle with half of chicken, tomatoes, nuts, croutons. Crumble half of goat cheese and sprinkle on top. Repeat, adding the rest of the lettuce and the rest of the other ingredients.
Serve with large salad tongs so you can get pieces of everything in the salad. Dressing is optional.
Bacon salt croutons
half a loaf of Italian or French bread
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons Bacon Salt (Click here to find Bacon Salt near you)
Slice bread crosswise. Cut into large bite-sized cubes.
Set bread aside and heat butter, olive oil, and bacon salt in a large skillet, over medium heat. Stir to combine.
Once butter is melted, add bread cubes. Stir, making sure that each bread cube gets a little bit of the bacon mixture soaked into it.
Stir frequently until cubes start to brown slightly. Remove from heat. Can store in an airtight container at room temperature for a day.
But first, a little background.
My grandma J was the salad making expert of the family. Anytime we got together for the holidays, she'd bring a crisp, veggie-filled layered delight. Every bite seemed to be full of mushrooms, radish, tomato or bell pepper. And her salads rarely had cheese. Which makes it especially surprising that I loved them so much.
I thought I hadn't gotten the salad making gene from her, for all my salads tended to be lettuce-heavy and short on veggies. Any veggies I did add were chopped small and tended to sink to the bottom of the bowl.
Last night, while making a salad, I had an epiphany. I must give much of the credit to the ingredients I had on hand. The salad was to be the main course, so I had procured some end-of-summer tomatoes, thick chunks of fresh-boiled chicken, two types of nuts, homemade croutons, and goat cheese. It's kind of hard to go wrong when you start with good ingredients.
For all these years, I'd been chopping my veggies much too small. Sure, that's how my mom did it, but she always portioned the lettuce first into bowls, then sprinkled the veggies on top. Thus, no sinkage. But for salad in the big bowl, if the bites were larger, they rest much better on top of the lettuce.
Comparing this salad to others I'd made, I realized I had put a lot more non-lettuce ingredients into this one. Increasing the amount of other stuff in the salad made it tastier and more interesting.
I also needed to layer like a lasagna. So, a layer of lettuce, then a layer of each of the other ingredients, before I got back to the lettuce. For my normal salads, I had been putting a layer of lettuce between each other ingredient, which meant too much lettuce, not enough other stuff.
With those concepts in mind, I have created a simple salad formula. I'm confident this formula will help me remember what I've learned, so I can create successful salads in the future.
Secret of Salads
1. Start with flavorful ingredients. At least one of the ingredients should be nuts, cheese, dried fruit, bacon, or some other ingredient that packs a flavor punch.
2. Make the ratio of lettuce to other ingredients 1 to 1. e.g. make sure the amount of "guts" of the salad (meat, cheese, nuts, veggies) is at least as much as the lettuce.
3. Ingredients should be in large bite-sizes.
4. Layer like a lasagna.
Here's the salad I made using those rules.
Hearty Chicken Tomato Salad
1 bag pre-washed lettuce
2 cups chicken breast, pulled apart into large bite-sized chunks
1/4 cup nuts
1 cup cherry tomatoes, split in half
2 ounces goat cheese
Bacon Salt croutons (recipe follows)
Put a small layer of lettuce in the bottom of a large bowl. Sprinkle with half of chicken, tomatoes, nuts, croutons. Crumble half of goat cheese and sprinkle on top. Repeat, adding the rest of the lettuce and the rest of the other ingredients.
Serve with large salad tongs so you can get pieces of everything in the salad. Dressing is optional.
Bacon salt croutons
half a loaf of Italian or French bread
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons Bacon Salt (Click here to find Bacon Salt near you)
Slice bread crosswise. Cut into large bite-sized cubes.
Set bread aside and heat butter, olive oil, and bacon salt in a large skillet, over medium heat. Stir to combine.
Once butter is melted, add bread cubes. Stir, making sure that each bread cube gets a little bit of the bacon mixture soaked into it.
Stir frequently until cubes start to brown slightly. Remove from heat. Can store in an airtight container at room temperature for a day.
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