| Explore the infinite possibilities of creating wonderful meals for all occasions with minimum effort and maximum fun. |
|
The quickest and easiest way to change your life for the better is to add more salads. Forget the limp lettuce leaf and tomato fare. We’re talking rich green mesclun and brilliant flowers, wild herbs, fennel and orange with snow pea tendrils, bright peppers, brilliant Swiss chard and almonds – crunchy, delicious, a snap to make and brimming with phytonutrients to detoxify your body, protect from premature aging and energise your life.
|
|
MESClUN & FLOWER SALAD serves 4
What You Need For the Salad 50–75g of 3 or 4 any mesclun leaves: For the Dressing 2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine Here’s How Put all the mesclun leaves into a huge glass salad bowl – I use glass because the leaves are so beautiful that it’s a shame to conceal them. Then, for the dressing, put all the ingredients into a screw-topped jar and shake vigorously to blend. Sprinkle delicately over the leaves and toss very lightly and serve immediately. This is a very delicate salad, and like all delicate things, it needs careful handling to prevent bruising. |
|
A French Provençal word, ‘mesclun’ means a mixture of delicate salad leaves, including such things as curly endive, romaine, red radicchio, flat-leaved parsley, dandelions – even purslane. These leaves are not only easy to grow, most are harvested by cutting a few at a time and allowing the plants to get on reproducing yet more beautiful leaves. You can buy mesclun to grow in your own garden. It comes in packages of seeds called ‘Saladisi’, or one of the ‘Cut-and-Come-Again’ salad varieties. A mesclun salad is so easy to make. It is also one of the most beautiful. This is the kind of salad that I like to serve at the end of a meal, say after a fish soup or a roast or lobster. It is so light that it not only cleans the palate, but leaves you feeling refreshed and renewed, especially when served just after a dish that’s quite rich either in protein or oil. |
|
Salad making is far more an art than a science – a kind of meditation where you play with the most beautiful edible creations of nature to create whatever you fancy from anything available in your fridge or your garden. I am always amused by people who say they love salads but just don’t have time to make them. I can do a salad that is a whole meal for four people on the table in 10 minutes. It is all in knowing how. |
|
Wonderful life-giving foods, and information about what some of them can do to help prevent premature aging, protect you from degenerative conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, enhance your mood, intensify your delight in love-making, even encourage sleep inspired me to write Cook Energy, for help for all of these things is to be found in delicious foods. Recipe This Week Archives |
