Delightful Surprises

The other day, I came home to the most delightful aroma emanating from our kitchen.  I don't mean this in a bad way, but our daily salad isn't something that hits your senses full on as soon as you open the door.  However, on this day, I was completely swept off my feet.  The secret ingredient that made the house smell like an Italian bakery was the fresh croutons that were heating on the stove.

The twist was that the croutons were made from spelt bread.  We had been buying bread at Whole Foods made from spelt wheat at the suggestion of our acupuncturist to eliminate traditional wheat from our diet.  Spelt is an old crop with a history that extends back to the Bronze Age, and because it has been in our collective diet for generations it metabolizes differently from modern wheat.  At first, the taste was a little overwhelming, but eventually we grew to love it, and now it is the bread staple of our house.

The crouton recipe is very simple.  You start by trimming the bread crusts and cutting the remainder into cubes. Season a skillet with olive oil and butter at medium heat.  Toss in the bread cubes, letting them soak up the oil and butter.  Spice with O & Co sea salt and herbs for pasta dishes, and add some ground black pepper.  Cook the croutons until crisp on the outside, but make sure they are not hard or overly dry on the inside.  

You can add these croutons to any of your favorite salads with stunning results.  It's funny, but I was never much of a fan of croutons in salads until now.  Who knew that you have to make them yourself, and that your choice of bread makes all the difference.  Spelt has a naturally sweet and nutty flavor that result in a dazzling crouton.  I'm sure that any of your favorite breads will work, but if your feeling adventurous, try the spelt bread.  You, and any of your neighbors with a discerning sense of smell, will not be disappointed.

Peeling back the layers

What does it say about us that our favorite salad ingredient, the artichoke, is a conundrum, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in mystery.  After painstaking preparation, you need to peel back the layers in order to get to the heart, which happens to be the perfect delivery mechanism for a great vinaigrette.  

Lately, the ingredient list in our standard salad has been pretty consistent.  Here's how we start:

• Red romaine
  
• Blueberries
  
• Cherry tomatoes
  
• Red seedless grapes
  
• Artichoke hearts
  

The differentiating factor in these salads is the balsamic vinegar, the olive oil, or the spices that cling to the artichoke hearts and make the salad a unique expression of the day's alchemy.  

Our Summer Project

As you know, the salad du jour blog has been on hiatus for the last three months.  In that time, we've built and enjoyed many great salads. However, we took on a side project that made the task of writing about our latest leafy creations (or setting up a meaningful photograph) to document their momentary beauty impossible.  

Over the last twelve weeks, we had the pleasure of being foster parents to two of the most adorable kittens I have ever seen.  At five days old, they were only a little larger than peanuts, their eyes were sealed shut, and they couldn't hear.  Nevertheless, they needed to eat every few hours, and to keep them strong and healthy we had to learn how to bottle feed them.  After we managed to pour a few millimeters of formula into them, we had to burp them and coax them into letting out the milk at the other end.  This turned into a full-time job.

As they grew, and they seemed to double in size every few weeks, they discovered the joy of standing, of walking, then running.  Soon, they were running sideways, jumping, leaping and turning in mid air, clinging to the side of their cage, to any available furniture, or my pant legs.  They also developed a love for the computer, and following the cursor was about as much fun as a kitten could have while sitting down.  Soon, sitting was impossible, and every blog article we attempted to write looked like this:

ttttttttttttttooooodaaaaay, wwwwwwwwweeeee hhhhhhad aaaaaaavocaaaaaaado iiiiiin ourrrrrrr  sallaaaaaaad.........

So, we took a break.  The kids grew up to be fantastic feline citizens, and both have been adopted out through the Austin Humane Society's adoption program.  I don't think the kittens developed a love for salads while they were here, but we helped to give them a bigger life, which is exactly what we're supposed to do, isn't it?

Grapes across America

In the last six months, just about every salad we've made includes grapes. We keep a steady supply of seedless grapes on hand, and these gems have earned a place of prominence in our salads.  We slice them down the middle and the interior exposure collects and intensifies flavors from the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, the spices, and sea salt.    

There are several varieties of seedless grapes grown in North America, and interestingly, grapes can be crimson, black, dark blue (seriously?), green, yellow, and pink in color.  The USA is the eighth largest grape producer in the world, and because of the grape's natural hardiness, they are grown in numerous areas across North America. Although we've yet to add the dark-blue varietal to our salads, it's good to know that there's an exciting flavor (and color) frontier in the grape world that we haven't experienced yet.

Zest

Here's an idea.  Suppose you're in a groove, making the same basic salad but you're looking for something a little different.  You're thinking that you've got a good thing going, but you want to make a few adjustments to get that salad up on its feet.  Well, one way to goose up a salad is to add some lemon zest.  

Zest is the oil-rich outer rind of the lemon but only the portion with color, not the white pith. It is scraped off with a paring knife or a zester, and it imparts a very intense lemon/citrus flavor to the your salad.  Interestingly, it works with many salad combinations, and you can use it as sparingly or as liberally as you want to provide that extra bit of flavor.  You can buy dried zest, but zesting a lemon is really fun, it gives you a good excuse to buy a zester, and you have a bunch of bald lemons to use for other purposes. 

Sea salt again

The other day, we were sitting around Mike and Liz's table talking about horses, the economy, wine, and of course food, when the conversation turned serious. As the salad bowl was passed from hand to hand, our friend Don stated in a resolute voice, "Hey, I live alone, I could put anything I want in my salad!" He explained further that his salads don't by definition include greens.  Sometimes, he continued, he simply cuts up some carrots, beets, and avocado, and tosses it with sea salt.  That's one of his favorites.

The word "salad" is derived from the old French "salade," which we can trace to the Vulgar Latin "salata,"  which is translated as "to salt." Yes indeed, Don is absolutely right.  The idea of food "having been salted" was the idea behind the salad. Salt is the root of many of our favorite foods, including salsa and sausage, in which their Latin references to salt can easily be seen. Salsa is derived from "salsus," which translates to "salted," and Sausage is derived from "salsicius," which means "to prepare by salting."

Certainly our notion of a salad is broad enough to encompass anything we can think of, but always, it should include a dash of salt.

Ode to the sea

The ingredients that we use for any given salad can vary widely. We can be just as happy eating a salad in which the main ingredient is cucumber, or pineapple, or mandarin oranges. We've added pears, apple slices, or peppers to these salads, and they've all turned out well. The reaon for this is that these salads have one thing in common:  Sea Salt and Herbs.

There's something about a good sea salt and herb combination that brings out the very best in every other ingredient in a salad. We've been using the Sea Salt and Herb bundles from O & Co., especially the Sea Salt Mix for Pasta and Salads, which includes dried sea salt, marjoram, tomato flakes, chives, and onions.  We often supplement the herb list with our own oregano, basil, and always an ample serving of fresh ground pepper.

We'll talk more about O & Co. in later posts on this blog, but regardless of where you get your sea salt, it is an essential ingredient in any salad.