WINTER SALADS

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 189, 12 August 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

WINTER SALADS

La Cuisine

Salads are n'ever out of season; it is a big mistake to say good-bye to them when summer has drawn to its close. There are numerous ingredients which combine to make really appetising, health-giving and interesting winter salads, chief among them being raw vegetables which are gradually achieving their just share of popularity. When using raw vegetables and salad plants you will find that to make a really good dish the ingredients must be fresh and crisp and quite cold. If it is to be served as the main course of a meal a salad must be nourishing. It must contain some protein foods, such as cooked chicken, fish, meat or cheese, and vegetables, either raw or cooked. Here are two good main course salad recipes:— Remove the bones from the remains of ft boiled or roast fowl and cut the flesh into Binfill pieces. Mix these with the shredded heads of two lettuces, add one tablespoonful of white vinegar, and season the mixture with pepper and salt. Then pile it into the centre of a dish, cover lightly with mayonnaise and garnish with alternate groups of lettuce leaves, hard-boiled egg, chopped gherkin and stoned olives if these are liked. T!he ingredients for the other salads are two hard-boiled eggs, three large potatoes, a little chopped onion, four tftblespoonfula each of haricot beans (cooked, of course), and finely-shredded raw cabbage, salad dressing and watercress.

ByA French Chef Cut the eggs into slices (reserve a few pieces for garnishing) and chop up the remainder. Cut the potatoes into small dice, add onion, cabbage and beans, and blend with 6alad dressing. Arrange on a bed of watercress and garnish with the slices of egg. With Cauliflower An excellent winter salad is made with cauliflower. Divide one large cold boiled cauliflower into small sprigs. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and heap them up neatly in a salad bowl. Cut two tomatoes in slices and arrange them as a border round the cauliflower, sprinkling them with a little finely-chopped parsley. Pour half a gill of mayonnaise or any other good salad dressing over, and serve. Another good winter salad is made with equal quantities of celery and raw apple cut into small pieces, placed in a bowl, and covered with mayonnaise sauce. A border of beetroot or sliced tomato may be added to this dish, which must not be prepared too long before it is eaten, as the apple so quickly becomes discoloured. Valuable Hints When making salads irffSi cooked vegetables, such as potatoes, turnips, cauliflowers, beans, butter beans and

lentils, always dress them whilst they are hot, otherwise your Balad will be spoiled. Especially is this true with potatoes, as they are largely composed of starch. When they are cooked and hot, they expand and are then ready to drink up the dressing and so be well-flavoured right through. When cold, however, potatoes contract, and cannot take up the dressing. All cooked vegetables for salads should be treated in the same way. No one can tell you exactly how much oil or vinegar or mayonnaise to use for a salad. This is a matter for personal preference to decide. Also, I must not forget to tell you that, when making a cooked vegetable salad, marinate the different ingredients separately when hot, leave for a time, then combine them. Here are one or two little useful hints on salad making. For instance, it is often said that a knife should never be used to cut up green salads. This, of course, is all nonsense now that we have knives of stainless steel. There was, however, something to be said for the objection before the advent of the stainless steel knife, because the lettuce, coming in contact with the cold steel, would discolour. If, however, it had been dropped Immediately into cold water it would not have stained. A mistake some people make is that they add salt to the water in which green salads are to be washed. Salt makes the salad flabby and limp looking. Use clear cold water only. If you doubt this try eprinklirfg some salt on a sprig of watercress or lettuce and watch the results.