Wizard Recipes

Salad, in its most familiar guise, is a cool, crisp, refreshing collection of greens tossed with a piquant dressing.

The possibilities, however, don’t end here. A salad can be created from a seemingly endless array of ingredients, each contributing different flavors and textures and sometimes even dictating different serving temperatures.

Whether prepared with beans or bread, with grains or greens, or served chilled or warm, a salad is always welcome. It can also play a variety of roles. A salad can be an appetite-teasing first course or a tempting side dish, especially at summer barbecues and picnics, but, bolstered with meat, chicken, or seafood, a salad can also serve as a satisfying but light main dish for warm-weather meals.

BUYING , PREPARING , AND STORING SALAD GREENS

Choose crisp-looking greens with no bruised, yellowing, or brown-tipped leaves. Iceberg lettuce should be heavy for its size and feel firm when squeezed.

As soon as you get it home, wash, dry, and store the lettuce leaves. This will keep the greens fresh longer and provide a few days’ worth of salad ready to be put together when you are.

Even prewashed greens should be washed and dried to refresh them and to rinse off any bacteria from the surface of the leaves.

No one wants a gritty salad, so wash greens well. Separate the leaves, submerge them in a sinkful or large bowl of cold water, and gently agitate the greens to loosen the dirt. Lift the greens from the water, leaving the grit to sink to the bottom.

Curly-leafed greens, as well as spinach and arugula, are especially sandy, and dirt often gets trapped in the crevices of the leaves. Wash these in cool water (the slightly warmer temperature loosens dirt better than cold water), and, if necessary, give the greens a second washing.

Dry salad greens thoroughly before using or storing. Not only do wet greens dilute the dressing and make for a less flavorful, soggy salad, but they won’t keep well either. A salad spinner provides an efficient way to dry greens, but you can also pat greens dry with paper towels or clean kitchen towels. If you are washing spinach, arugula, or watercress, remove their tough stems after rinsing.

To store, wrap the rinsed and dried greens in a clean kitchen towel (or in a few paper towels), place in a plastic bag (pressing out all the excess air), and store in the vegetable crisper drawer of the refrigerator.

Tender leaf lettuce will keep for two to three days; iceberg and other sturdy lettuces will keep for up to five days. Very delicate greens, such as arugula or watercress, will keep for only a day or so.

A traditional New Year’s Day supper will bring you fortune in the year to come. Here, our favorite recipes-updated and delicious.

Greens and Black-eyed Peas

These two Southern classics all but guarantee a prosperous year. Some say the greens represent dollar bills and the peas, coins, ensuring wealth and luck.

According to folklore, this auspicious New Year’s Day tradition dates back to the Civil War, when Union troops pillaged the land, leaving behind only black-eyed peas and greens as animal fodder.

Rich in nutrients, these were the humble foods that enabled Southerners to survive. Details of stories differ, but each celebrates a communion of family and friends bound by grateful hearts and renewed hope for good things yet to come.

Cornbread

Cornbread, which some say symbolizes gold, completes the Southern New Year’s triad. Native Americans were the first to bake a cornmeal mixture, and Southerners made it daily when wheat was a rarity in the region.

For authentic Southern flavor, choose a recipe that uses little, if any, sugar and flour. Don’t forget the cracklings, crispy morsels produced during the rendering of lard

Southern-Style Collard Greens

Slow-cooking collards with pork makes them mouthwatering and tender. Their soul-warming taste can be perfected only with the addition of vinegar.

Be sure to save a few uncooked greens to tack to the ceiling for good luck or hang over the door to ward off evil spirits.

Hoppin’ John

This Carolina Lowcountry dish pairs black-eyed peas with rice. The rice and beans are cooked slowly with bacon, fatback, or ham hock along with onion and salt. “Skippin’ Jenny,” as the leftovers are known the day after New Year’s, shows one’s frugality; eating it increases your chances of prosperity.

Pork Supper

The more pork in your meal, the more luck you will have. So don’t just use ham hock and fatback to flavor your veggies; eat a baked ham or pork chops as a main dish.

Quick Collard Greens

Don’t be afraid to try a fresher, quicker recipe for this Southern dietary staple. Sautéed Collard Greens are packed with flavor from chopped ginger and spicy serrano peppers. Plus, they’re better for you and cook in just 26 minutes

Freshened-Up Black-eyed Peas

This dish offers an updated take on black-eyed peas while still delivering the good luck of the traditional dish. Peppery watercress fills in for traditional greens, and Chilean peaches add fresh flair.

Test Kitchen Tip: Frozen black-eyed peas deliver the taste and texture of fresh-they hold their shape and absorb less dressing than softer canned and dried peas. When using in salads, trim the recommended cook time by 5 or 10 minutes and simmer only until al dente.

Pot Likker

Pot likker, the juice left in a pot after collards cook, is traditionally valued as a delicacy and aphrodisiac. Be sure to sop up the vitamin-rich pot likker with your cornbread or make it into this warm and comforting soup.

In the last couple of decades, scientists have discovered more reasons (beyond vitamins and fiber) to pack your diet with fruits and vegetables: phytochemicals. All plants contain these compounds, which protect them from a variety of dangers-from harmful UV rays to predatory pests.

We take in phytochemicals when we eat fruits and vegetables and, as it turns out, they protect us too. Some act as antioxidants, mopping up unstable “free radical” molecules that can damage cells and lead to the development of heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and other health issues. Others work by boosting the immune system.

What’s fascinating is that nature seems to have a way of highlighting these beneficial nutrients by giving them bright colors that allow you to spot them at a glance. For example, anthocyanins make blueberries blue and may help to keep your mind sharp. Tomatoes get their ruby hue from lycopene, a phytochemical that may help to prevent prostate cancer.

To get the maximum disease-fighting power that phytochemicals can provide, choose foods that represent all colors of the rainbow. The USDA suggests paying particular attention to orange (2 cups per week) and dark green (3 cups per week) produce, both good sources of vitamin A and other important nutrients.

Red

Red foods, such as tomatoes and watermelon, contain lycopene, a phytochemical that may help protect against prostate and breast cancers.

Guava
Pink grapefruit
Red peppers
Tomatoes
Watermelon

Orange

Alpha and beta carotene make foods like carrots and sweet potatoes so brilliantly orange. The body converts these compounds into the active form of vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes, bones and immune system healthy. These phytochemicals also operate as antioxidants, sweeping up disease-promoting free radicals.

Apricots
Cantaloupe
Carrots
Mango
Oranges
Papaya
Pumpkin
Sweet potatoes
Tangerines
Winter squash

Yellow & Green, part 1 (leafy greens)

Many yellow and green vegetables are good sources of lutein and zeaxanthin, phytochemicals that accumulate in the eyes and help prevent age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in older people. Leafy greens are also rich in beta carotene.

Artichoke
Corn
Lettuce
Summer squash
Wax beans
Arugula
Chard
Collards
Mustard greens
Turnip greens

Green, part 2 (cruciferous)

Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and kale, provide compounds called indoles and isothiocyanates, which may help prevent cancer by amping up the production of enzymes that clear toxins from the body.

Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower
Green cabbage
Kale

Blue & Purple/Deep Red

Blue, purple and deep-red fruits and vegetables are full of anthocyanins and proanthocyanins, antioxidants associated with keeping the heart healthy and the brain functioning optimally.

Blackberries
Blueberries
Eggplant
Plums
Cranberries
Grapes
Radishes (red)
Raspberries
Strawberries

Many strange-sounding names float around on lists of salad ingredients in fashionable recipe books these days. But not many of us are lucky enough to live close to a well-stocked greengrocer or supermarket with a full array of new-age baby greens.

Often even the produce manager of a large supermarket can’t tell you what you are holding in your hand unless it is next to the sign that labels it.

To help ease the confusion, here is a brief list of “new” ingredients, few of which are actually new. Their availability in quantity is new, thanks to the demands of innovative chefs and today’s eating trends. I have included old stand-byes, too, with alternative names. Names, by the way, vary somewhat in different part of the country.

1. Iceberg or head lettuce is the most popular though the least nutritional of all the salad greens and taste rather blah, like a piece from an iceberg. When you say lettuce, most people conjure up a picture of an iceberg lettuce head. It is easy to grow, easy to store, has a long shelf life and it transports well.

That makes it inexpensive, always available, crisp and crunchy. Ever discover a hidden head weeks after tucking it into the refrigerator? It may be a little brown around the edges, even slimy here and there. But the inside is perfectly crisp and usable.

2. Romaine or cos lettuce has broad, stiff, upright leaves. It is the hardiest of all the lettuces and has the strongest flavor, though it is still mild. Great by itself, it is also good mixed with the more delicate salad greens as it adds a firm, extra crunchytexture and sturdiness.

3. Butter head , bibb, Boston, limestone or butter crunch lettuces are very tender and mild buttery-flavored. They form small loose heads. The various names refer to varieties, but they are fully interchangeable in salads and are not much different in taste.

4. Red leaf and green leaf lettuces don’t form heads and don’t keep quite as long as iceberg lettuce. They, too, have a mild flavor, although more flavorful than iceberg. They add bulk and interest to salads with their slightly wavy-structured, attractive colored leaves.

5. Spinach is popular in salads because of its vivid, dark peacock green color. It stands out and contrasts well among the more subdued colors. Raw spinach has a very mild, almost bland, flavor compared to the cooked form of this vegetable.

6. The cabbage family includes a large number of mild to strong-flavored greens that you may use in small amount with other greens. White and red cabbage are the most common. Both stay fresh and crisp for a long time.

Red cabbage adds a most desirable red to fuchsia color to salads, and in mid-winter it may be the only salad ingredient with a reddish color contrast that doesn’t cut deep into your food budget.

The several varieties of oriental vegetables in the cabbage family, like bok choy and napa cabbage, are very mild, but crisp, beautifully-textured, attractive-colored and readily available.

7. Arugula, also called rocket or roquette, is a small-leaved green with spicy, tangy, unusual flavor that mixes well with any salad green. Some people find its flavor too aggressive-use it in moderation.

The use for salads today actually goes far beyond the first course. We can break down today’s salads into four general types.

Appetizer salads —this is a light first course designed to stimulate the appetite. The body of this type of salad is greens in combination with other vegetables or fruit. The dressing is also light and tart.

A standard green salad with a light vinaigrette dressing is typical for this use. A fruit salad of tart fruits and a light, barely sweetened dressing is also appetite-stimulating. You may add a little seafood, since it isn’t filling in small doses. Nuts and cheese are heavier and you should use them in small amounts. If you’re disappointed in how your entrée turned out or there
isn’t enough to go around in generous servings, add more calorie-rich food to your appetizer salad to partially gratify, instead of just stimulate, the guests’ appetites.

You may also use a light salad as cleansing the palate, an old French tradition. In this case instead of a first course, offer it between two contrasting courses. The salad dressing literally cleanses the taste buds to prepare them for the next movement in your symphony of the meal. In this role, a salad should be especially light, usually nothing more than greens with a touch of dressing and a hint of pepper, and in minuscule portions to satisfy but a small bird’s meal.

Accompaniment salads—these can be heartier than appetizer salads since they accompany the main dish and complement its flavor as well as satisfy appetites. Marinated vegetables may also accompany the entrée and complement it. They go very well with a heavy, somewhat fatty meal. A sour marinade aids the digestion of oil and butter-rich foods. Remember how your stomach craves for pickle or sauerkraut to go with hamburger or a
Rueben sandwich? A fruit compote is also a good example of an accompaniment salad. It goes well with poultry or pork. Gelatin and aspic salads, although much less popular today than they used to be, are perfect examples of accompaniment salads. With the generous amount of sugar and
marshmallow that were so common in the 1950s and 1960s, they could do double duty on the menu—as salad and as dessert. But it is not fair to serve it as two different courses on the same meal. Some might notice it.
Main dish salads —these hearty salads can, and often do, take the place of the entrée. Main dish salads can include anything edible. Start off with simple tossed greens and just keep adding things. You traditionally serve these salads cold, but for improved flavor, serve them at room temperature. Some you may even serve warm. Many bean salads, for example, are best
when served warm.

Dessert salads —usually of sweet fruits or a mixture of sweet and tart fruits. Some cooks like to add gelatin for a firmer consistency. Sweetened whipped cream or toasted nuts are winning toppings. The expected presentation of dessert salads is chilled, even frozen, but their
flavor is far improved if you allow them to warm up to room temperature.

See more here: http://www.wizardrecipes.com/category/salads.html