Those exotic ingredients
Instructions:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.