Chop it up
Our food deliveries come on Fridays so by Tuesday I have to keep an eye on veggies to make sure I used them before they go off.
So time to make a salad! But what kind?…
The green tossed salad was invented in Chicago by chef Harry Salled in the kitchen of the carter hotel in 1921…Lol just messing with you!
The salad has been around since the ancient Romans and Greeks. They ate mixed greens 🥬 with salt and oil.
Salad is a shorter version of the French word salade and sal is from the Latin word salt or salted.
When you think salad you immediately think oh lettuce 🥬 and tomatoes 🍅 salad 🥗
But they are many kinds of salads some people throw in mandarin oranges 🍊 and call it an Asian salad or add feta cheese and now it’s a Greek salad.
Back in 1699 the first mention of a salad was in a book called A Discourse on Sallets, in England… Bu none of the Britons were going to eat sheep’s food.
Salads in England 1699 was not happening.
So let me break down the rules for a salad construction.
First a composed salad is where everything is placed is a certain way vs a tossed salad which everything is mixed together.
Side salad: Normally just a few simple ingredients like greens and tomatoes.
Green salad: It can be composed of green leaf vegetables, raw vegetable carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, etc. then proteins like cheese, meats, beans, and also nuts, berries, and fruit.
By adding more meat or protein and making the salad larger it becomes a dinner salad.
Bound salads: I had explained in my tuna salad post is things bound together with mayonnaise
Like chicken, tuna, egg, potato, pasta, and coleslaw.
Wedge salad: is typically a ¼ slice of iceberg lettuce in a wedge shape. The dressing for it is normally a thick creamy blue cheese or Roquefort dressing which is the star of the salad.
Dessert salads: are sweet like a mixed fruit salad or ambrosia test has fruit marshmallows And cream
Or jello salads ether on the side or on the inside. Don’t forget the obscure ones like cookie salad, Watergate salad, and snicker salad. Dessert salads never contain green leafy vegetables.
Finally the bean and rice salads: wild rice salads, 3 bean, 4 bean salads and so many more.
back in the ’70s and 80’s they used to make Caesar salad table-side.

Caesar salad table-side

Today you can find restaurants dedicated to salads, hundred of books on making salads.
My salad is Asian not because I threw a mandarin orange in it…which I did not.
It”s because the dressing contains sesame seed oil,, ginger, hoisin sauce, tahini rice wine vinegar, and peanut oil.
The steak topping was seared and had the sweet hoisin sauce topping.
If you never tried hoisin as a steak topping you should try it.
The veggies were bits of leftover carrots, purple cabbage, bean sprouts, bits of greens, sunflower seeds and onion and scallions plus leftover hard-boiled eggs from the Sabich i made in dinner #37
Then everything was mixed well the salad was crunchy, crispy sweet and meaty the flavors blend really well. The seared steak elevated it to a real meal you did not need a lot of meats to make it satisfying even for the most carnivorous eater.