BS: If you don't like salads......

Subject: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 May 19 - 11:00 AM

Well, why not :-)

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 13 May 19 - 11:02 AM

Blame school dinner salads...

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: DMcG
Date: 13 May 19 - 11:07 AM

I don't like salads. That is, given the choice I always prefer something else. I don't mean I would rather starve than eat one.

If you do enjoy them, you will not realise how hard they are to choose not to have. It is by no means rare to come a sandwich menu that says, for example

Turkey and salad
Chicken and salad
Cheese and ham
Tuna and salad

... then pick the only one without salad.
To find you get it anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: DMcG
Date: 13 May 19 - 11:16 AM

As to why - quite a lot of greens taste very bitter to me. White cabbage is fine, but as the greens come along, the bitterness comes back. It is simpler to say 'no salad' than to expect others to cope with the subtleties.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 May 19 - 12:07 PM

I used to think salads comprised of a soggy lettuce leaf, half a tomato, slices of cucumber and Heinz salad cream. They are much better now. I also used to like Heinz vegetable salad which fell by the wayside but we have recently discovered a Polish vegetable salad that is very similar. Of course with my eastern European origins cabbage, including saurkraut, and beetroots have always been on the menu. The biggest eye-opener was when I first went to America almost 20 years ago. They do good salads there and have them as a course rather than a side.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 13 May 19 - 12:21 PM

"I used to think salads comprised of a soggy lettuce leaf, half a tomato, slices of cucumber and Heinz salad cream."

..you left out the vital half a hard boiled egg...

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 May 19 - 02:55 PM

Dave the Gnome, I laughed out loud when I saw the thread title --
as the Italians say,
"ridere per non piangere."

(referencing the disgrace in the music-thread section)

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 13 May 19 - 03:33 PM

Copycat threads are frowned upon around here. But this cannot be a copycat thread because cats don't eat salad. Rabbits eat salad. This is a copyrabbit thread. They're not frowned upon.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 13 May 19 - 03:47 PM

I'm not a fan of salads. There is a chemical in varying degrees in them that give me heartburn. Cucumber is worst, then celery, then lettuce, it is also present in melons. Cooked celery is OK so it must be destroyed by heating. We always have courgettes cooked but I suspect they might have it as well.

I am starting to feel uncomfortable with tomatoes now so perhaps I'm starting to react to them, though it could just be the rather insipid varieties that the supermarkets offer that are the problem.
Tomatoes are also highlighted as a probable irritant for sufferers from join pains by the way.

The worse thing is trying to find a veggie option that does not contain mushrooms.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: leeneia
Date: 13 May 19 - 03:55 PM

I just read a true crime book where a murderer was put in jail, and in a phone call to her son, she complained that they served Miracle Whip.

She didn't miss her children, she didn't say anything about the first-degree murder charge hanging over her head. She objected to cheap salad dressing.

I don't like Miracle Whip either, but I don't take it that far.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 May 19 - 04:51 PM

I had to put up with my mother telling me that her dire salads, swamped in tasteless lettuce were "good for me" for years!!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Donuel
Date: 13 May 19 - 05:36 PM

Miracal Whip is like an enhanced interrogation technique

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 May 19 - 05:41 PM

The dire salads of my own childhood
came from a grandparent's kitchen;
this grandparent had a thing about onions.
As in,
would you like some leafy greens and dressing and so on
with your plate of raw onions?
The onions were not even finely chopped --
the onion would be sliced lengthwise
and these long skinny strings of raw onion everywhere ...

there are things a real cook can do with an onion,
and this grandparent didn't do a single one of 'em.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 May 19 - 06:14 PM

Best salads I ever had were in Tucuman, Argentina. I have photos somewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 May 19 - 06:28 PM

I can't abide salads that have tasteless iceberg lettuce/shop-bought cucumber/halved golfball tomatoes and any other abject ingredient.

Find a half-pound of the finest cherry tomatoes you can find and halve them. Take a perfectly ripe avocado (or two), peel and slice lengthways. Drain a large hunk of mozzarella and slice it thinly. In a large dish, spread out the avo and mozzarella pieces, interleaved according to your artistic proclivities. Once done, chuck the tomatoes on top. Finish with a grating of freshly-milled black pepper and a good drizzling of the best extra-virgin olive oil you can find. This is insalata tricolore, a salad that contains all the colours of the Italian flag. You will LOVE it!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 13 May 19 - 06:42 PM

Happy with pretty basic salads but here's my list:
Ok to:
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Hard boiled egg
Salad cream
Beetroot (only a little, and not soused in vinegar, please!)
Celery (just a little - chopped, not whole stalks)
Crisps
Potato salad (if made with nice new potatoes)
Grated cheese
Feta cheese
Raw carrot
Fresh herbs

No to:
Olives
Spring onions
Other raw onions (bound to bring on IBS!)
Vinaigrette dressing
Anything in vinegar
Walnuts or other nuts - so forget your Waldorf!
Coleslaw of any type
Cucumber (burping it all day afterwards!)
Rocket - bitter ++

And with:
Chicken
Salmon
Tuna
Ham has to be just right: not fatty or stringy

Not keen on cold beef or lamb or anything "pulled"

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 May 19 - 07:33 PM

Simplest salad: cut avocado in 2, remove pit, put vinaigrette into hole left by pit.

I like iceberg lettuce.

Why are all salad dressings sweet these days?

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 13 May 19 - 07:59 PM

Yuk to avocados: should have been on my No list.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 May 19 - 08:37 PM

If you don't love avocados you are wrong.

And I will not endure any establishment that puts raw cabbage into a salad. Likewise, slivers of raw onion. These are seventies abominations of the worst ploughman's-lunch kind, associated with slabs of vile cheap cheddar and that most disgusting of condiments, Branston pickle. Others of similar ilk are salads containing bits of peanut and, worst of all, pieces of skinned tangerine. The Italians understand salads best of all. Grab a good Italian cookery book and be inspired. You won't find iceberg lettuce or Tesco cucumber in any Italian salad recipe. Quite right too. Mind you, Italy hasn't yet come to terms with avocado...

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 13 May 19 - 08:44 PM

I have very specific tastes with salad but the biggest no-no for me is iceberg lettuce. It always repeats on me. Raw apples do the same. Iceberg was the only lettuce available when I was young so it was a bit of a nightmare.

Since discovering cos lettuce I have rediscovered the joys of salads.

One of my faves is Caesar salad but no anchovies.

I love avocado, Spanish black olives (but not so much Kalamata olives - too much vinegar), fresh asparagus, gherkins/cornichons, beetroot, fresh tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, capsicum, steamed and cooled green beans, snow peas, fresh herbs, za'atar, hummus, feta cheese, any cheese varieties at all in fact, boiled egg, smoked ham, Thai beef salad, Greek salad, potato salad, coleslaw with a bit of cold chicken, nuts, olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar. The list goes on.

I hate those fiddly little sticks of raw carrot i.e. julienne. I have to pick them up and eat them with my fingers because trying to stick a fork into them is like trying to nail jelly to a wall.

My Mum used to put onion slices in a bowl with a bit of nice vinegar and let it marinate for a while before serving it. It takes away that repetitive bite from the raw onion.

My trick with the tasteless tomatoes, now that the fresh fruit & veg shop is closed near where I shop, is to sit them on a table with a bit of sun on them for a couple of days until the flavour develops a bit. Better still, grow your own but I'm a bit random with my gardening skills.

Sandwiches - slightly off topic.

My fave sandwich is chicken breast pieces, avocado, sundried tomatoes and asparagus on multigrain. It's the only time I eat tinned asparagus.

A go-to sandwich for me - I am hearing the yukky-yuks already from everyone - is peanut butter and cos lettuce. Seriously. Don't knock it if you haven't tried it. Think satay sauce on salad, e.g. Balinese Gado Gado salad.

But also, on the peanut butter sandwich theme, I also like it with tomato slices, or with banana slices. Not simultaneously, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 13 May 19 - 08:46 PM

Avocado for me, has to have a bit of lemon juice & olive oil, salt and pepper.

Also I forgot to mention cucumber. I take the cucumber bits from Hubby's plate because he won't eat it. I love tzatziki too, i.e. grated cucumber with chopped garlic mixed with yoghurt.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 May 19 - 08:53 PM

To go with your barbecue, grab the best cherry toms you can find. Cut them in half and put in a bowl. Prepare a nice red pepper, cut into slices and add to the toms. Sprinkle with your finest extra virgin olive oil and a splash of top-quality balsamic vinegar (not that ghastly thin stuff: if you're paying less than twelve quid for your balsamic you're wasting your money - it should be almost as thick as runny honey). Mix well. Top this with Romaine lettuce, or Little Gem, chopped up, and a handful of wild rocket, but don't mix the lettuce with the dressing until you're ready to eat (it'll wilt if you do). You can prepare this hours in advance: just cover it with clingfilm. Lovely in a bap with your burger and afterwards with your butcher's sausages, washed down with more red wine than is good for you.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 May 19 - 09:02 PM

I love anchovies in cooked dishes, especially lamb stew and whore's spaghetti, and they're great draped over egg mayonnaise, but not in salads for me, thanks.

You have exquisite taste, Helen. I must say, why on earth would anyone put bits of apple in a salad?

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Stanron
Date: 13 May 19 - 09:52 PM

Salads, I love them. The idea that a salad should not contain cabbage is weird. White cabbage, sliced thinly and then cut finely produces what I think of as cabbage rice. Rice sized pieces of cabbage go nicely into any salad. Red cabbage is coarser but also goes well into a salad. Before I assumed my current small volume diet I would have at least one salad a day in summer. Less in winter. I had several kinds of dressings over the years. Oil based, vinegar based and, most recently soya yogurt based.
A salad can be a carbohydrate free meal. If you require more protein add cheese or mackerel.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 13 May 19 - 10:47 PM

Aw shucks, Steve. - I am never quite sure whether you are being serious or whimsical. :-)

My fave tomato salad recipe is in a book I have owned for yonks. Chop or slice tomatoes and a clove of garlic. Mix together in a bowl and add lemon juice, olive oil and some fresh basil leaves. Let it marinate for about an hour before serving. The flavours infuse through the tomatoes. Simple but yum!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 13 May 19 - 11:53 PM

I used to not like salads too much. But I discovered If a salad is fresh and crisp I enjoy it very much - and I do like cabbage, mushrooms and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds. Freshness is the key. People can be quite creative with what kind if vegetables to toss in- radish, carrots, pea pods, bean sprouts, roasted. Brussel sprouts - all good. The tough part in making a delicious salad is avoiding food that has been shipped from another time zone ( or past the international date line ) and resembles waxed fruit in appearance and taste.

I can't abide tomatoes most of the year - they are tasteless and useless until they are grown local, in season- then they're terrific. A sprinkle of basil, olive oil and cheese and it s a meal in itself.

I cannot however force myself to eat another avacado. I've tried to enjoy them and I can't and I won't try again. Whoever out there is having a good time with avacadoes - you can have all of mine.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 14 May 19 - 12:39 AM

I also forgot to mention that I like the bitter greens like rocket and dandelion leaves.

Thanks for the offer of the avocadoes, lefthanded guitar, but they might be a bit brown and squishy by the time they get delivered to Oz.

I grew an avocado tree from seed. It is now as tall as a two storey house. So far, we have only had a couple of seasons of fruiting and then the maximum yield was about 10, but I still think it's a minor miracle to get such a lovely big tree from a small seed the size of a walnut. I didn't do my homework. I just hoped that the variety would grow and produce fruit in our temperate climate. So far, so good.

Maybe, lefthanded guitar, you think of the avocado the same way that Kipling allegedly did, referring to them as alligator pears and referencing a quote from one of his stories, "the great green greasy Limpopo "

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: JennieG
Date: 14 May 19 - 02:27 AM

Last year on our trip to Canada I had some really nice and interesting salads, the details of most of which have flown out of my head now (blame the severe hay fever which has me in its grippe) but which I enjoyed at the time. I like the idea of tossing some fruit and/or nuts - cranberries, walnuts etc. - into a salad.

Stuff I do not eat are tomatoes and cucumbers, and I'm not fond of more than one tiny sliver of raw onion. Red capsicum is my friend but green is not; if I eat green for lunch (ditto cucumber) it will come back to haunt me all day.

Lurve olives, quite like avocados.

Don't like heavy dressings.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: DMcG
Date: 14 May 19 - 02:29 AM

I think it fair to say this is turning out to be a far more interesting thread than intended!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 May 19 - 02:36 AM

And far less acrimonious than the original :-)

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: BobL
Date: 14 May 19 - 04:06 AM

How well I remember the uninspired and uninspiring salads of my youth (post-WW2 Britain): round lettuce, tomato, cucumber and usually a radish. The dressing was salad cream, a ghastly mayonnaise substitute flavoured with mustard to disguise the inferior quality. Things like olive oil, imported and expensive, were unheard of at the time.

Ugh!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mr Red
Date: 14 May 19 - 04:57 AM

You try avoiding anything that has onion, garlic, chives, shallots, leeks, etc.

"A pickle" is an onion (in their parlance)
Pickle is Branston or Picalili
Caesar salad is idiotform for Caesar salad dressing and they don't know what that is just that they like it so "wots the problem, do you have an alergy?" "NO, my wallet does!" followed by a puzzled look.

And why does BLT have to have mustard? That is a BLTM surely?

Oh the travails of a supertaster.........

Ever tasted Meat? (reference the Horsemeat/Lasagna scandal in the UK) Those masks are there to hide the truth about ingredients, don'tyaknow.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 May 19 - 05:22 AM

As I'm neither rabbit nor slug I eschew raw cabbage in salads. For the same reason I'll not tediously crunch my way through coleslaw either. An organic hearted cabbage, steamed or stir-fried in thin strips, is a different matter altogether. I'm no fan of radishes but I'll eat them to be polite if needs be. A couple of years ago I had to endure one of those pretentious 14-course tasting menu dinners that someone had bought me for "a special treat." The chef must've had a glut of radishes in his garden because they featured in five of the 14 courses. Always very thinly sliced, sometimes cunningly disguised, but radishes nonetheless.

The marinated tomato salad is indeed a thing of culinary beauty, Helen!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 May 19 - 05:44 AM

I sowed wild rocket in my garden years ago and it now pops us everywhere without any attention from me. I use a Jamie Oliver pasta recipe, with lemon, prawns and chilli, to which chopped rocket leaves are added near the end with more sprinkled on top. Gorgeous. I can't envisage a leafy salad without its spicy hit but I'm careful not to include too much stalk. I don't understand how that bagged, washed rocket that supermarkets sell can be so tasteless and flaccid. I won't buy it. In fact, bought bagged salad leaves are never good. Another delightful "weed" that flourishes unsolicited is chives. They are my go-to for a hasty but delicious potato salad made with just warm spuds in their skins, preferably Jerseys, Hellmann's and my snipped chives. I make huge bowlfuls for the assembled company but it always disappears rapidly. Epic with a barbie. Just don't be mean with the mayo, that's all.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 May 19 - 07:11 AM

The trouble with avocados is the difficulty of finding perfect ones. I'm sure that lots of people think they hate avocados because the first time they had one it was unripe, or overripe, or stringy inside or going black. A promising avo in a shop will be evenly coloured, have no soft bruisy areas, will be firm but not rock-hard and will yield to gentle pressure at the tip end (not the fat middle bit). You may need to buy it a couple of days in advance to ripen in a warm place next to a bunch of bananas. Olives are another thing. Mrs Steve wouldn't look at them for years but now we almost wrestle each other to get at them. Some olives are disgustingly soft little things in abject little plastic pots with all sorts of additional stuff such as a weirdly sour dressing, chilli, lumps of garlic, pimiento stuffing or dry little cubes of cheap feta. An almost universal rule in our house is that we buy stone-in olives only. Sicilian Nocellara olives in extra virgin olive oil (not brine - whose daft idea is that) are top of our list. The giant ones from M&S are lovely. If you ever go to the covered market in Almería there's an amazing lady with the best olive stall I've ever seen. We buy gallons of olives there and there are never any left after a few days. I do buy tins of the cheapest stoned black olives for when I do whore's spaghetti. They go in with tinned tomatoes, capers, chilli flakes and anchovies, and definitely no Parmesan. Ladies of the night wouldn't have done posh, I'm thinking.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 14 May 19 - 07:15 AM

Out of season tomatoes can be both tasteless and chewy. I’d rather not have them when they are like that.

When available, I use our own (Little Gem) lettuce, (often Ailsa Craig) tomatoes and (Tasty Green Burpless) cucumber.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 May 19 - 12:17 PM

Caesar DRESSING has the anchovies, unavoidably.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 14 May 19 - 12:40 PM

Are the tiny live slugs occasionally found in salads considered a delicacy in some countries...???

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 May 19 - 12:44 PM

Well I've grown Ailsa Craig and I can't get them to taste of anything. If I really must have full-size toms I'd go for Shirley, but for years now I've grown just Sungold, a lovely cherry tom that has the irritating tendency to split later in the season (which is why shops don't sell them). But that's its only drawback - Sungold is resistant to all those wilt and leaf mould diseases that affect greenhouse tomatoes, so I never have to change my greenhouse soil or grow them in pots or bags, and the flavour is superlative. I don't care at all for outdoor cucumbers. I grow female-only F1 varieties of mini-cucumbers. They knock the shop ones into a cocked hat.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 May 19 - 12:45 PM

The slugs indicate that your salad hasn't been doused with chemicals. Rinse carefully and rejoice.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 14 May 19 - 01:09 PM

They could at least be marinated in salt prior to purchase...

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 May 19 - 02:24 PM

You don't want your little gem to shrivel, surely?

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 14 May 19 - 02:31 PM

Sorry, Mrrzy, no stinky anchovies for me.

I usually make my own Caesar salad & dressing. Cos lettuce, small bits of fried bacon, croutons, shaved parmesan, sometimes chicken breast marinaded with chopped garlic and olive oil for at least an hour. I use a stick blender to make the dressing: olive oil, lemon juice, a chopped garlic clove, about half a teaspoon of dijon mustard with wholegrain seeds, and a chopped boiled egg at the end to make it creamy. I allow Hubby to have his stinky, slimy little "smelly things" on the side - anchovies, that is.

I was trying to think of the name of the book and author with the tomato salad recipe. Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas. My well used copy is over 40 years old.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Bill D
Date: 14 May 19 - 02:35 PM

"rocket"??

Rocket (plant) (Eruca sativa), a leafy vegetable
Diplotaxis tenuifolia (wild rocket), a leafy vegetable cultivated for its spicy flavoured leaves
Sisymbrium irio (London Rocket), a herbal plant in the family Brassicaceae
Hesperis matronalis (Dame's Rocket), a wildflower native to Eurasia, now widely cultivated in many other areas of the world
Blue rocket, another name for aconitum
Reseda luteola (dyer's rocket), a plant that makes a yellow dye

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 14 May 19 - 04:39 PM

Straying off topic again: another of my fave sandwiches is cream cheese and nasturtium leaves on fresh bread, e.g. light rye or multigrain.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 May 19 - 05:01 PM

Diplotaxis tenuifolia is my wild rocket, Bill. The Hesperis is called Dame's Violet this end.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 May 19 - 05:39 PM

BillD,

other BS threads have taken up the naming question,
it can be done again here.

In Italy, that one leafy green insalata
has multiple names
depending on the region,
which names migrated to parts of the world
with the Italians who migrated there.

In these United States
we say "Arugula"       for the greens
that the English call "rocket."


In the northeastern US, where I live,
the franchise/chain restaurant "Bertucci's"
does a dandy entree salad
with grilled chicken breast,
baby arugula,
and artichoke hearts.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 May 19 - 05:46 PM

Arugula here too, though it's a bit pretentious as we all call it rocket.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Raggytash
Date: 14 May 19 - 06:15 PM

I could suggest that if you put Anchovies in a salad it ceases to be a salad by the mere fact you have added something that is not actually salad, but a 'meat' (albeit a fishy 'meat')

Just my twopence worth!!!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 14 May 19 - 08:14 PM

So Raggytash, that includes ham salad, chicken salad, Thai beef salad, egg salad, etc? What about real egg based mayonnaise? Does that muck up the definition of salad too? Enquiring minds want to know. LOL

I think rabbits just eat salad with no meat, fish, eggs - unless a hapless slug got lost in the lettuce-y maze getting munched by the bunny - but in Oz, "rabbit food" is a bit of a derogatory term for a salad without protein.

I'm not having a go at you. It's a totally new spin for me on the definition of "salad" and I'm just trying to roll the concept around a bit to see how it fits in my world. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 May 19 - 08:49 PM

Helen, your salad sounds yummy, but it is not a Caesar salad. Pedant, pedant [to the Pink Panther tune...]


Imma try it later!

Also raw green pepper is great as a bread substitute for sandwiches. Be careful the fillimg doesn't esvape. Put mayo etc in the middle, not on the top or bottom of the fillings.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 15 May 19 - 02:01 AM

Mrrzy, if a Caesar salad has to have anchovies then I am never eating a CS again, but I will be eating my CS-inspired salad lots.

So many times I have read or seen on TV about chefs saying that the anchovies are essential and that you won't know it is there but it will make the salad dressing taste great. These chefs are obviously lovers of seafood and have possibly never conducted a blind taste test on non seafood eaters because I can tell there is anchovy from the first taste, and unfortunately that fishy, cheap day-old, catfood-in-a-can smell just stays with me for hours. Totally yuk!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: JennieG
Date: 15 May 19 - 02:03 AM

I like a proper Caesar salad with anchovies......or, as my friend who has worked as a restaurant server calls them when she is writing down the order, "hairy fish".

Too many places here serve a salad of mixed greens - even the dreaded shredded cabbage - and shredded carrot with a quartered hard boiled egg, a few scraps of bacon, and some cut-up toast, and call it "Caesar salad". No, folks, it isn't.

A properly made Caesar salad is one of life's great joys.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 May 19 - 02:18 AM

growing lettuce as a weed eh? Hardly Rocket Science............




I'll get my trowel

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 15 May 19 - 05:41 AM

My "left-overs" salad for lunch tomorrow at work - baked beans, carrots, potato, paté, ham!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 15 May 19 - 06:26 AM

A Recipe for Salad
Sydney Smith (1771–1845)

TO make this condiment your poet begs        
The pounded yellow of two hard boiled eggs;        
Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve,        
Smoothness and softness to the salad give;        
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,              
And, half suspected, animate the whole;        
Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,        
Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;        
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault        
To add a double quantity of salt;              
Four times the spoon with oil from Lucca crown,        
And twice with vinegar, procured from town;        
And lastly, o’er the flavored compound toss        
A magic soupçon of anchovy sauce.        
O green and glorious! O herbaceous treat!              
’T would tempt the dying anchorite to eat;        
Back to the world he ’d turn his fleeting soul,        
And plunge his fingers in the salad-bowl;        
Serenely full, the epicure would say,        
“Fate cannot harm me,—I have dined to-day.”

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 15 May 19 - 06:53 AM

I've no idea who's right but Wikipedia suggests that the original Caesar salad did not contain anchovies, except as an ingredient in Worcestershire sauce.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 May 19 - 12:27 PM

Just ordered some Diplotaxis tenuifolia seeds from Amazon, Steve. We only have a little garden but we do like things that we don't need to do owt with:-) Any recommendations for planting. Position, space etc. Are they happy growing amongst the flowers for instance?

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 May 19 - 03:36 PM

Blimey, Dave, you can buy wild rocket seeds for 50p or a quid almost everywhere! They don't need anything special, but give 'em a decent patch or two of bare soil to begin with and just chuck the seeds in. They'll grow among your flowers though they'll look a tad weedy. I don't grow anything to eat where I'm using artificial fertilisers or weedkillers or insecticides. The plants bolt quite easily but you can still use the shoots as long as they haven't gone too far. The only problem I've ever had is flea beetle, which eats tiny, neat holes in the leaves. An aesthetic issue only, and you'll still get plenty of unaffected leaves. They are jolly plants that seed themselves freely.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 May 19 - 04:36 PM

Amazon seeds. £1.99. Time taken by me, 1 minute.

Garden centre seeds 50p. Time taken by me. 30 minutes.

My half hour is worth more than £1.49, Steve :-D

Besides, there is the diesel and how much the Mrs will spend when we get there! I think I got the better bargain.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Jos
Date: 15 May 19 - 04:50 PM

Sydney Smith's recipe seems to be for a salad dressing rather than for the salad itself. The salad is just assumed - as being something "green" and "herbaceous".

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 May 19 - 02:47 PM

Woostersooster sauce has anchovies? No wonder. And the hairy fish aren't supposed to be in the salad but in the dressing.

I also prefer 1:1 oil to vinegar but that's me.

Great poem. Onion atoms indeed.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 16 May 19 - 03:43 PM

...Make a stew - my poem, from WalkaboutsVerse, on "One-Pot Cooking"

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 16 May 19 - 04:22 PM

I never knew that Worcestershire sauce contained anchovies, but I have never had a problem with that sauce, or even Asian fish sauce in moderation, so the fermentation process must break down the day-old catfood-in-a-can smell a lot.

Bonzo3legs said: My "left-overs" salad for lunch tomorrow at work - baked beans, carrots, potato, paté, ham!!!!!!

Baked beans like Heinz canned bb's or a home made, totally different dish? My first image was a salad with Heinz bb's which is a bit of a mind blast, so maybe more info is needed to clarify what sort of bb's you are referring to.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 May 19 - 06:10 PM

Apropos of anchovies, I should like to make a wider point. The whole thing about ingredients, especially assertive ones such as chillies, garlic, anchovies and some herbs (rosemary being a bit of a bête noire with me, and coriander with Mrs Steve), is that a skilled cook will always use them to enhance the flavour depth of a dish, never to make them the point of the thing. I'm the only person in my extended family that loves anchovy as a flavour, but they still all devour my Italian lamb stew, which would be a shadow of itself sans anchovies. But the last thing you would ever think about it is that it "tastes of anchovies." Same with my whore's spaghetti. My ragù bolognese contains a lot more garlic that most recipes call for but the garlic I put in is bashed with my fist and chucked in in big pieces, NEVER minced with a crusher (the worst kitchen tool ever invented), the result being a subtle and sweet addendum to the dish, never a massive bad-breath-for-days garlicky hit. For the same reason I will never use dried basil, as that inevitably produces a massively-unsubtle basil hit that is miles away from the real basil flavour. By the way, I use rosemary a lot, especially with roast lamb and with Mediterranean-style roast potatoes, and Mrs Steve cheerily devours lots of coriander in every curry we enjoy. So there you go, anchovy-haters!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 May 19 - 10:12 AM

Coriander fine; cilantro eeeeeeeeeew.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: leeneia
Date: 17 May 19 - 12:32 PM

If you don't like salads:

Chop up one stalk brocolli
Nuke for four minutes, let cool
Drain

In another bowl, whisk the following

2 T nice veg. oil
1 T lemon or lime juice
1/2 t dried dill weed
a little pepper
1/4 t garlic powder, optional

Pour the dressing over the broccoli. Cover and let marinate in the fridge for at least a few hours.

Eat instead of salad for as long as it lasts.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 17 May 19 - 01:46 PM

Really nice Carribean salads (courtesy of Levi Roots and no doubt others). Avocado, Mango, red onion, chili, thyme etc. You can put lettuce in, but its not compulsory.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 17 May 19 - 01:49 PM

What are you on about Mrrzy? Cilantro is Spanish for Coriander. You maybe like seeds better than leaves, or the other way round, but its the same thing, and the word is a direct translation.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 May 19 - 12:49 PM

Same plant but so are nutmeg and mace (as each other). Coriander is the seeds. Cilantro is the stems and leaves. So yeah, coriander fine, cilantro eeeeew. It's a genetic thing .

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 May 19 - 01:18 PM

I also used to think that Brisling sardines were "bristling" eg were mad at being tinned.
The coriander seeds v. cilantro leaves may be American. In my teens (overseas) it was all coriander, sometimes the leaves were Chinese parsley.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 18 May 19 - 03:05 PM

No, they are both names for the whole plant, Coriandrum Sativum. Cilantro is just a Spanish translation. I have lived in Spain, I know very well that any part of Coriandrum Sativum is sold there as Cilantro.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 18 May 19 - 03:20 PM

Nutmeg and mace indeed come from the same plant (Myristica Fragrans), often you can buy the seed whole so you break the mace off from the outside, then break the covering of the nut to get at the nutmeg inside. It has to be well dried before you can do this.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 18 May 19 - 03:41 PM

Mrrzy is right. It is a genetic thing. Scientifically proven. I didn't realise it is only the plant leaves and stems and not the seeds. I had assumed it was all of the plant.

It's only called coriander in Oz, so if someone here asked if you would like coriander in your Thai curry you would have to ask them to clarify whether they mean the seeds only or the whole plant. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Iains
Date: 18 May 19 - 04:20 PM

Bagged salads can present a slight risk of food poisoning, despite being washed with chlorinated water. It is probably a good accompaniment with chlorinated chicken, and best washed down with a glass of chlorinated tap water.
If put off by the above, beware the links below!


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-salmonella-bagged-salads/bagged-salads-may-encourage-salmonella-growth-idUSKBN13O2VM

https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/bagged-salads-pose-salmonella-risk-say-researchers/

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 May 19 - 05:25 PM

Yeah, just the leaves. Interesting that Murricans but not Brits distinguish the 2... Helpful to us mutants.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Neil D
Date: 18 May 19 - 06:40 PM

Crouton or not crouton?

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 May 19 - 02:49 AM

I'll drink a toast to that!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 19 May 19 - 07:46 AM

In the UK, and in Australia, you can buy Coriander as a fairly young plant in a pot, and I used to just use the leaves of this, but its better to use the whole plant, leaves, stalks and roots, just wash the soil off. Some south east asian recipes I find ask explicitly for Coriander root, and I havn't seen this on sale. Normally would just blitz a whole plant. Or you can buy coriander seeds in a jar (or ground if you don't have a spice grinder), these obviously come from a much more mature plant. The recipes I use (which mostly come from British of Australian TV chefs), if they are of south east Asian origin are far less likely to use the seeds than the young plant. If they are of Indian origin they may use the seeds as well as the plant. In Spain (specifically the Canary Islands where I lived for a while) you are more likely to use the leaves and stalks, but seeds are used.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 May 19 - 10:21 AM

No croutons in salad, but I like them as a snack like fritos or something. Bugles.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 May 19 - 07:39 PM

I like the homemade Caesar Salad dressing
served at the Legal SeaFoods restaurants here in
the northeastern US.

Don't know if the A-word ingredient is in there.
I also tell them
to leave off the little hairy fishies.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 May 19 - 12:09 PM

Haha "homemade" on a restaurant menu always makes me laugh.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Thompson
Date: 22 May 19 - 02:50 PM

If you want exactly-right avocados, one way is to buy them frozen (Aldi does them) and thaw as much as you need overnight.

My go-to salad has avocado, lettuce or rocket, sweet cherry tomatoes, capers, very finely sliced shallot or if not available, onion but not much, a thick vinaigrette often made with rapeseed oil, Dijon mustard and white wine vinegar shaken the bejasus out of to emulsify it, and a scatter of just-toasted pine nuts. And a sprinkle of either fine-chopped parsley or fine-chopped fresh dill.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Jos
Date: 22 May 19 - 03:10 PM

'"homemade" on a restaurant menu' is at least harmless.
What I find really alarming is packets of 'hand cooked' crisps - the thought of anyone stirring the boiling oil with their hands is horrendous.

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 May 19 - 03:26 PM

Hee hee they have those gloves now to allow you to reach into boiling stuff... Someone gave my mom a pair and several months later we are in her kitchen and she hands them to me and asks me to fetch something out of the boiling so I do and she says, all surprised, oh, they work!

Subject: RE: BS: If you don't like salads......
From: Helen
Date: 23 May 19 - 06:28 PM

My other favourite salad is Greek salad, with tomatoes, olives, cucumber, capsicum and feta cheese with a lemon juice & olive oil dressing. I know the classic Greek salad does have raw red onion and doesn't have lettuce but I like it with cos lettuce and/or baby spinach leaves and/or rocket and if I have to have the raw onion I do my Mum's trick of premarinating it in a bit of nice tasting vinegar or lemon juice to get rid of the repetition problem.

I always have a tub of feta in the frig. My other fave use for it is making spanakopita or tiropita, or I use it in my vege faux-sausage rolls and the filling is based on mashed chick peas or butter or white beans with whatever vege flavours take my fancy. The most unusual experiment I did was inspired by saag paneer, but using feta for a bigger savoury taste. There are very few foods that I find irresistible but sausage rolls are close to the top of the list, so my bean or chick pea based sausage roll filling is a good substitute.