I arrived home to find that dinner tonight was dinner for one!
The prospect of preparing a meal for just myself without the preparation of requested diets, flavours and alternate choices using every saucepan and frypan in the kitchen was manageably overwhelming. I elected to make a simple salad!
My simple salad is low in preparation and ingredients, but high in presentation, colour, flavour, nutrition and taste! I use baby cos lettuce because it is light, bouncy and delicate. It provides two shades of green and it has the right level of bitterness for lettuce. Vine ripened tomatoes are full of colour and flavour.
Food must present well. If it looks good, it will be great to eat. If it doesn’t look good …
As a supermarket guy I understand that my customers shop with their eyes, so food presentation to me is paramount!
Ingredients:
1 x baby cos lettuce (they come in pre-pack twin packs)
2 x vine ripened tomatoes (my pre-pack had four)
1 x ripe avocado.
Olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Method:
Wash every lettuce leaf under cold water to remove those crunchy bits of soil. Chop the leaves in bundles and toss into a bowl. Slice each tomato into six wedges, toss into the bowl. Half the avocado length ways, remove the pip and using a dessert spoon, starting at the edges, gently massage the whole fruit from the edges in one piece. Slap it flat side down and slice it up. A blunt knife can work really well if the avo is ripe!
Avocado and freshly ground pepper are one of those matches made in heaven, so with the avocado on the top of the other ingredients, I concentrate grinding the pepper onto the avocado slices, then a little for the rest. Sea salt and lettuce is the other match made in heaven, so a healthy sprinkle of sea salt and a three second pour of your olive oil is your dressing. No balsamic vinegars or other sugars for this meal!
The secret to the salad is in the tossing! Get those salad severs down low and toss by lifting the salad and letting it fall. After three or four tosses, you’ll find that the tomatoes and avocado now reside down south and the lettuce is all you will see! Simple solution: turn the salad over to your presentation bowl and voila, read and green are back in pride of place!
I ate my salad in solitude. Very happy!
At 9.30pm my world turned over and the late dinner requests arrived, the pots and pans reluctantly arose from their slumber and life was back to normal.
I’ll wash up later…
Kindest regards,
Brendan