8/21/07 Experimental Salads

"Peg, we've been having a lot of salads lately... "

From the produce box last week:
1 bag of yellow peaches
1 bag of juice oranges
1 cucumbers
1 bag of green beans
green chard
green kale
3 zucchinis
1 bag of spring mix salad
mizuna
1 bag of slicing tomatoes
1 box of heirloom tomatoes


experimental salad #3

heirloom tomatoes - green round ones, speckled red ones
spring mix of lettuces - mizuna/arugula/green leaf butter/frisee/red leaf
corn - cooked and off the cob
mint - chopped

thin cut chicken breast - what you would use for chicken paillard without pounding - pan-fried (about 2mins per side)
marinade:
salt
fresh ground pepper
garlic powder
a splash of leftover Lambrusco from night before

salad dressing:
juice from half of somewhat wilted cucumber (reamed and strained)
mint (muddled in cucumber juice and removed)
sugar
juice from 2 dried out mandarin oranges (leftover from last produce box)
pan juices and oil from pan-frying chicken (didn't have much olive oil left in the bottle)

plating the salad:
mix up all the veggies for the salad and place on plate
pour dressing over salad
cut chicken into strips and place on top
(wish I had something crispy to top it off but decided to call it)

From Phil
I am curious about the dressing. Was it tangy or sweet? light or heavy? What were the effects of the cucumber and mint?

Response:
As for the dressing, it was light because it was meant to be a summer salad. The chicken made it more substantial so it can be served as the main meal (reads: I wasn't gonna make anything else). There actually wasn't that much oil from cooking the chicken, and the dressing was a bit thin and not too emulsified. But the chicken flavor was there. It was more sweet than tangy since I didn't add vinegar or lemon juice, just the acid from the mandarin oranges (which were sweet). And the lambrusco added more sweetness. The effect of the cucumber juice and mint was suppose to cool and refresh, and the mint-muddling originated from techniques of making mojitos. Good call on the bacon as something crispy, but I didn't have any (had some pancetta though). Didn't want anything to compete with the chicken I guess. I feel like I'm defending my salad on Iron Chef....

As for a video, I don't know if I can ham it up like I used to. I don't think I would be as creative and spontaneous if I had to think about videotaping or writing things down. It would be like that surviver man having to record what was going on and doing things twice. And on top of that, we would not eat dinner until 11pm. But maybe a photo next time...