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Chefs' salads: toss yourself up a delicious meal! - cuisine
Garde-manger is chef's lingo for the art of the cold kitchen--salad making. So we went to the pros for new ideas on making wonderful, satisfying main-dish salads.
Our chefs shared methods for adding flavor, keeping greens crisp and saving time in the kitchen. They also gave us their super recipes.
Marsha Orosco (pictured here), a chef de pattie--garde-manger at New York's Aquavit, serves up her Tuna and Pasta Salad. Hem's how you can raise the bar on your salads.
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PREPPING GREENS
The heart of a great salad is often crisp, refreshing lettuce. With so many varieties of salad greens now available, even ordinary supermarkets offer choices. Toss in more than one kind, and use these professional tips to keep greens at their peak.
Tearing versus cutting--Many salad aficionados insist that lettuce should be torn and not cut to prevent the edges from browning. But if you're going to eat right away, it's quicker to cut the lettuce.
Washing--Nothing spoils a salad faster than biting down on a piece of grit. For a thorough cleaning, fill a clean sink or large bowl with cool water and the greens; swish the lettuce leaves around, then lift them from the water. Do not allow the greens to soak. Using fresh water each time, repeat the procedure until no grit can be detected on the bottom of the sink or bowl. Even pre-washed greens are improved by a quick rinse to refresh the leaves and wash off any bacteria.
Drying--It's quickest to whirl greens in a salad spinner. (See Gadgets, next page.) Or place just-washed greens in a colander to drain; then wrap in paper towels or a clean kitchen towel and pat to dry. The greens must be very dry or dressing won't cling.
Storage--Wrap washed, dried greens in paper towels and place in perforated plastic bags. Store them in the refrigerator vegetable bin. Lettuce will stay fresh four to five days.
OILS AND VINEGARS
A delicious dressing pulls salad ingredients together. Many professional cooks choose olive oil for its bouquet and depth of flavor. Unlike most supermarket olive oils, Lucini Premium Select Extra-Virgin Olive Oil is produced in Tuscany and is similar in quality to higher-priced brands in gourmet shops. As for vinegar, our chefs named balsamic as their favorite. These aged vinegars have a natural blend of sweet and woody flavors. Look for supermarket balsamics without artificial color, sweeteners or flavors.
TIME-CUTTING GADGETS
There's an assortment of inventive tools to make easy work of preparing salads. There's even a device that helps cut calories.
Salad spinners use centrifugal force to dry greens. Now there are three methods to choose from: the pull cord, the plunger and the new battery-powered version that rinses, then spin-dries at the touch of a button. The automatic salad spinner we tested is from Williams-Sonoma.
Mandolines cut all salad ingredients just so. Most pros rely on this hand-operated machine with adjustable blades for precision slicing. A guard keeps fingers out of harm's way.
Miniprocessors fit conveniently on the counter for superquick chopping, mincing and grinding. KitchenAid's new Mini Prep has a reversible blade for thorough mixing and comes in designer colors.
Misters keep dressing to a minimum by dispensing a fine spray of oil or thin dressing onto a salad. Avoid filling the container with ingredients large enough to clog the apparatus. Tupperware recently introduced a new sprayer, the Aero Mister.
To make salad meals like a pro, turn to Recipes, page 180.
HOW CONVENIENT
The ever-widening variety of packaged, ready-to-eat salad greens is a bonanza for busy cooks. Even the resealable bags help save time. New packaged Baby-Spinach Salads by Dole includes Baby-Spinach Blends with radicchio and with red leaf. These blends are a great way to add variety. When shopping for bagged salads, remember to carefully check the use-by date and look for signs of spoilage.
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