Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
small portion of fish, meat or cheese and arrange it on a colorful bed of vegetables, greens
and herbs. Bind the whole thing together with a bold dressing of some sort. What could be
better?
Actually, you're probably already making composed salads right now without even real-
izing it. Ever slice ripe tomatoes and dripping-fresh mozzarella, decorate them with dark
green fresh basil and then serve the dish with good olive oil and a loaf of crusty bread? Is
there a better - or prettier - dinner on a sweltering weeknight? That's a very basic example.
How about tossing together canned white beans and tuna, a little olive oil and lemon juice
and some sharp bites of chopped red onion? Or what about thinly sliced steak and room-
temperature steamed potatoes, bound together with a mustardy vinaigrette?
Whereas "composed" may once have referred to how the salad was arranged (preferably
in as static and staid a way as possible), now it has more to do with flavor and the interplay
of taste and texture. Although presentation is still important, the fashion today is for salads
that look like food rather than a painstakingly arranged still life.
What may be even more impressive than appearance is the way these salads adapt to what
you already have in the pantry and refrigerator. Canned white or garbanzo beans, tuna and
smoked salmon; leftover grilled chicken or steak and the vegetables from a big Sunday
dinner. All you need is some sturdy greens, a good dressing and a few condiments, and
you're in business.
Since these salads are served at room temperature, it's best to use meat that is fairly lean.
So remove the skin from the chicken. Or if you're using beef, flank steak is a good choice.
Lately, with more and more groceries stocking meat cut as it is in Mexico, you can also
find very thinly sliced sheets of skirt steak - the kind that's usually used for carne asada.
Through the summer, try to keep at least one head of watercress, frisee, radicchio or curly
endive in the crisper. These greens have the strength - in both structure and flavor - to
match up to almost anything you can throw in the bowl.
Make sure the meat and all the vegetables are cut into bitesize pieces, preferably of a sim-
ilar size. These salads are about balanced combinations of flavors; don't let any one in-
gredient dominate.
The dressing is the unifying factor in a composed salad. For lighter combinations, such as
tuna and garbanzo beans, a simple mixture of olive oil and lemon juice is all that's needed
to point up the flavors. As the ingredients get heavier and bolder, so should the dressing.
Adding a little Dijon mustard and some minced shallots to that vinaigrette will make a nice
