SUMMER SALADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 23, 28 January 1939, Page 15

SUMMER SALADS.

Attractive Dishes For Hot Weather.

There is a Spanish proverb which says that it takes four people to make a good salad—a spendthrift to throw in the oil, a miser to drop in the vinegar, a lawyer to administer the seasoning, and a madman to stir the whole together.

Lettuce is the common foundation for a salad, but practically all fresh vegetables may be used, and it is purely a matter of taste as to whether one vegetable or a mixture should be served. Amongst the vegetables which may be listed as suitable to use are asparagus tips, artichokes, beetroot, celery, chives, chicory, onions, cucumbcrs, cauliflowers, broad and French beans, mustard and cress, parsley, potatoes, radishes, tarragon, tomatoes, watercress, and several fruits such as apples, oranges, pickled gooseberries, and pickled plums.

One great point for success is that the vegetables and fruit need to be young and fresh cut, and also that the vegetable* should not be left to coak in water for a long time; they all need washing and drying, and thiw last process is best done by shaking in a colander and then iu a clean napkin. This drying is somew-hat of a small art, ns, for the salad, the green stuff should be quite free from moisture. Lettuce and endive are best shredded with the fingers or, failing that, with a silver knife—a steel one must never be used. Tomatoes unskinned arc anathema; if plunged Into boiling water the skin peels off very easily. Beetroot, boiled of course, should be cut into fancy shapes, olives and cucumber* sliced, and radishes, unless very young and email, i're also beat cut up. .

Abroad, green salads are frequently served with roast chicken, duck, gooee, etc., and they are, too," a good accompaniment to a savoury omelette. A French salad, strictly, consists of one kind of salad vegetable only, washed, dried and shredded into small pieces, and mixed delicately with a good dressing. German salad is made with sauerkraut, mixed with an equal amount of red pickled cabbage. These are shredded and mixed together, dusted with grated horseradish and a little chopped chevril and minced boiled onion. Finally, the whole lot is towed up in oil, and juet a soupcon of vinegar is added.

The Romans made, it Is reported, a salad of cultivated endive, which, after being washed and dried, was finely .-hopped. Thin being done, gravy and oil were poured over it, and finelyminced onion* were strewn over the whole; before serving, a little honey and vinegar was added, and tho whole lightly stirred to mix.

Swedish salad is made with pickled herrings. The fiah is skinned and boned, and the flesh broken up, and with it is mixed some finely-chopped or minced beef, boiled potatoes and eour apples— all well cut up. Anchovies, skinned and boned and previously soaked in milk and then torn into flakes, are then added, as are also some pickled gherkins, chopped finely, some chopped chevril, and some stoned and sliced olives. These ingredients are well mixed together, and a salad oil stirred in lightly afterwards. If the anehovies are omitted, freshly opened oysters are laid on the salad after all the other preparations are completed. Potato Balad. A very tasty potato salad is made as follows:—Boil about eight medium-sized old potatoes in their skins, peel and slics them thinly, and place them in layers in a salad bowl, sprinkling each layer with some chopped parsley, onion, chives, salt and pepper. Mix two tablespoonfuls of salad oil with one tablespoonful of wine vinegar, add half a gill of hot stock, and pour the mixture over the salad. Mix lightly, garnish with soms slices of pickled beetroot or cucumber and serve before the potatoes are quite cold. Variety may bis introduced by adding a finely-shredded marinaded herring or a few sardines or anchovies. Iced Vegetable Salad. For this one requires some potatoes, celery, cauliflower, mustard and a dressing. Fill a border mould with some chopped cooked potatoes and celery, and season with a little salt, pepper and mustard. Put on this some whipped asple jelly to help, make it firm. Put the mould into ths refrigerator or on to some ice. Take another mould, just a little smaller, and ill ft with broken flower of cauliflower, seasoning, some oil and vinegar, and a little more aspic jelly. Ice this, and torn# oot on top of the first mould. Cover the whole with mayonnaise sauce. rOraage Salad. Cut an orange into sections and remove all the white pith. Set that la a bed of waterereaa and eover with a vinegar dressing.