{"id":5125,"date":"2013-07-12T10:50:49","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T09:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jameswhelanbutchers.com\/info\/?p=5125"},"modified":"2014-08-06T16:05:18","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T15:05:18","slug":"the-art-of-salad-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jameswhelanbutchers.com\/info\/5125\/the-art-of-salad-2\/","title":{"rendered":"James Whelan Butchers: The Art of Salad"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think it\u2019s safe to say that current generations growing up in Ireland will undoubtedly have a much more sophisticated palate than those of us in the vicinity of the half century mark.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What we have had to work hard at in order to re-educate our taste buds, they take very much for granted.\u00a0 I know four year olds who call from the table for someone to \u201cbring the balsamic\u201d.\u00a0 I know a three year old who is barely out of nappies and yet insists on using the micro plane unassisted in order to grate parmesan cheese over her pasta.\u00a0 In school they are learning about healthy snacks, thank God, and the range of fruit available to them is no longer limited to a dry red apple.\u00a0 Oh the red apple, that in my day, was put in the lunchbox but only ever eaten in desperation.\u00a0\u00a0 It rattled around with the flask the entire journey home only to stay on board again, a tad bruised, for the following day\u2019s lunch.\u00a0 They will also grow up with a knowledge and love of summer fruit and vegetables and will not be the salad dodgers that many of my contemporaries are.<\/p>\n

\"Vine<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising that the prospect of \u2018salad\u2019 doesn\u2019t really ignite the fireworks in the average Irish adult\u2019s mind.\u00a0 We were led to believe that a head of iceberg lettuce, a regular tomato and onion slices, smothered in dodgy vinaigrette was the pinnacle of summer eating.\u00a0\u00a0 There was often the added bonus of a mayonnaise drenched bowl of shredded carrot that was audaciously offered as \u2018coleslaw\u2019!\u00a0 Who were we kidding?\u00a0 But we ate it and decided it had summer written all over it.<\/p>\n

Today we are faced with a wonderful myriad of greens from peppery rockets to something with a little more bite like Romaine.\u00a0 Even iceberg lettuce can still be a star in the company of the right things and recently I\u2019ve revisited simple home grown garden lettuce, which is moist and soft and very flavoursome.\u00a0 I love to throw in spinach leaves, lambs lettuce and often will chop in handfuls of fresh coriander, chives, basil or mint from the garden.\u00a0 My bowls of green goodness are good without a dressing or even another ingredient being added.<\/p>\n

My main salad inspiration comes from France.\u00a0 The French know how to do it. By observing what they do, I have been inspired to create some pretty good \u2018Chez Whelan\u2019 signature salads of my own.\u00a0 The first rule of the French salad is excellent ingredients.\u00a0 This is the first rule of food in any language if you ask me.<\/p>\n

Get the vinaigrette dressing right; take time to experiment and perfect it.\u00a0 The simplest contains olive oil (the good stuff I\u2019m afraid!), wine vinegar, salt and pepper all whisked together.\u00a0 You want the overall dressing to<\/p>\n

\"Warm<\/p>\n

be pleasantly tart but the flavour of the oil must still come through.\u00a0 \u2018Dressing\u2019 a salad is also something to be considered.\u00a0 Let\u2019s start with the verb; it’s \u2018to dress\u2019 not \u2018to drown\u2019.\u00a0 Think of the salad as you on a hot summers\u2019 day.\u00a0 You want enough \u2018dressing\u2019 so people can see you are dressed and you are not totally naked, but you want those clothes to be light, complimentary to your frame, enabling you to breathe and leaving plenty of bits open to the air.\u00a0 Dress your salad by all means, just don\u2019t drown it.<\/p>\n

Once you have mastered a basic vinaigrette (of course you can buy it in a bottle but that\u2019s no fun), then you can start experimenting with other oils and ingredients.\u00a0 Use a rapeseed oil instead of olive oil.\u00a0 Add some mustard perhaps and or some very finely chopped garlic or a maybe a shallot.\u00a0 If the dressing is becoming too muddy and thick, add a tablespoon or two of warm water to loosen it out again.\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget your seasoning and taste continuously as you mix.<\/p>\n

A salad should have ingredients you enjoy, it\u2019s personal.\u00a0 I love a green salad with crunchy celery, cucumber and lardons and a drizzle of dressing.\u00a0\u00a0 The lardons give it that salty punch that makes it taste like a day at the beach; real summer.\u00a0 The main thing to know is that you can put anything, particularly cold and raw into your salad.\u00a0 Think balance, soft and crunchy, salty and sweet, moist and dry and don\u2019t forget to get some colour going. After all we eat with our eyes as well.<\/p>\n

Salads are really great sides in the summer. You can prepare them ahead of time and really get imaginative with the ingredients; hard boiled eggs, croutons, dried fruits, nuts and seeds; the only limit is your imagination.\u00a0\u00a0 In the summer particularly I love a good steak with a salad. It\u2019s the best fast food around.\"Basket<\/a><\/p>\n

This post was written by me, Pat Whelan, owner of James Whelan Butchers and a passionate advocate of local artisan food. My family have been producing quality Irish Angus beef for generations using a traditional dry aging process. This tradition is one that I continue to practice at our abattoir on our family farm in Garrentemple, Clonmel. These posts aim to impart some of the wisdom to readers and help them get the best out of the meat they eat! Our meat is available\u00a0online here!<\/a>\u00a0I welcome your feedback to\u00a0Pat@jwb.ie<\/a><\/p>\n

We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of \u00a0James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Handweavers Rathcoole and Kilmacanogue, Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt, Rathmines and Swords in Dublin.\u00a0Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think it\u2019s safe to say that current generations growing up in Ireland will undoubtedly have a much more sophisticated palate than those of us in the vicinity of the half century mark.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What we have had to work hard at in order to re-educate our taste buds, they take very much for granted.\u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[76,498,437,501,500,502,48,497,499,352,474,47,436,503,496,107,303],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n