salads

SALADS:

Salad is a composition of ingredients that can be eaten raw, cooked, or cold usually served with a dressing and can be eaten as a salad, side dish, appetizer, or as a main course. Salads should be cold, crisp, piquant, colourful, moderately seasoned and attractive. They supply nutrients to the dish.

Types of salad:

Salads are of two types:-

1. Simple    2. Compound/composite

1. Simple salad:  Those salads which consist of one ingredient as body and one or two ingredients can be used as garnish in small quantities. For example-

Name of salad	Ingredients	Garnish	Dressings
Tomato	Tomato	Parsley	Vinaigrette
Beetroot	Beetroot	Onion, parsley	Vinaigrette
Potato	Potato	onion, parsley	Vinaigrette, mayonnaise
Lettuce	Lettuce leaves		Vinaigrette
Cucumber	Cucumber	Parsley	Vinaigrette, sour/hung curd

 

2. Compound/composite salad:  they are more elaborate salads and consist of more than one ingredient. They are divided into five groups:

1)      Fruit salad

2)      Vegetable salad

3)      Meat/poultry salad

4)      Fish/seafood salad

5)      Miscellaneous salad

              The salad has four basic parts:

A.     Base :

Base or under liner is usually a leafy vegetable such as lettuce, cabbage. The main purpose is to keep the plate or bowl from looking bare and to provide contrast colour to the other parts of the salad.

      

      B.  Body:

                  This is the most important part of the salad. Main ingredients of salad is called                    

                   Body. The ingredients used have a balance of flavours and taste.

             C. Garnish:

                  The main purpose of the garnish is to add an eye appeal to the finished product

                  But in some cases it improves the taste and form. It may be a part of the body or it           can be an additional item that will blend and complement.

             D. Dressing:

 A dressing is usually served with all types of salads. It adds flavour, provides food value, helps digestion, and improves palatability and appearance. Dressing is in a liquid or semi liquid form, a mixture of oil-vinegar, seasonings or eggs or cream etc.

The basic dressings are:

Mayonnaise: it is also known as a basic cold sauce and has numerous derivatives. It is used for cold dishes, the coating of fish, meat, eggs, etc.

Vinaigrette: it is an emulsion of oil and vinegar, oil and vinegar can be emulsified in different ratios, based on ratios, vinaigrettes are of different types:

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French: 3 parts oil + 1 part vinegar + French mustard + seasoning.

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English: 1 part oil + 2 parts vinegar + mustard + sugar + seasoning.

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  American: equal quantities of oil and vinegar + seasoning.

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Italian: 4 parts oil+ 1 part vinegar + mustard powder + seasoning.

Lemon dressing: same as vinaigrette using lemon juice instead of vinegar.

Acidulated cream: 3 parts cream + 1 part vinegar/lemon juice + seasoning.

Curd/yoghurt: sour/hung curd also used as a dressing.

Vegetable based salad:

Name of salad	Ingredients	Dressings
Coleslaw	Cabbage, capsicum, carrots	Vinaigrette, mayonnaise
Orientale	Rice, tomato, chopped garlic, green beans, pimentos, fillets of anchovies	vinaigrette
Aida	Curly chicory, tomatoes, artichoke, hard boiled eggs, sweet pimentos	Vinaigrette, mustard
Andalouse	Tomato, sweet pimento, boiled rice, garlic, onions, parsley	vinaigrette
Grande duchesse	French beans, potato,celery	mayonnaise

Meat based salads:

Name of salad	Ingredients	Dressings
Carmen	Rice, red pimento, cold chicken, g. peas	French dressing
Hongroise	Bacon, cabbage, potato, radish, lettuce, paprika	Lemon dressing
Laperouse	Tomato, ham, French beans, artichoke, onions	Mayonnaise
Bagration	Celery, chicken, artichoke, macaroni, tomato, truffles, eggs, parsley	Mayonnaise
Chatelaine	Eggs, truffles, artichoke, potato, tarragon	vinaigrette

Fish based salad:

Name of salad	Ingredients	Dressings
Parisienne	Fish aspic, vegetable salad macedoine, lobster, truffles, herbs, lettuce	Mayonnaise with aspic
Fish mayonnaise	Fish mayonnaise, tomato, parsley	Mayonnaise
Belles de nuit	Truffles, crayfish	vinaigrette
Favourite	Crayfish, truffle, asparagus,
Hollandaise	Smoked salmon, potato, caviar, onions	Lemon dressing

Fruit based salad:

Name of salad	Ingredients	Dressings
Creole	Small melons, salt, ginger, cooked rice	Acidulated cream
Japonnaise	Tomatoes, pineapple, orange, lettuce	Lemon or cream dressing
Dalila	Bananas, apples, celery	Mayonnaise
Eve	Apple, banana, pineapple	Acidulated cream
Waldorf	Celery, apples, walnuts	Thin mayonnaise