The fortune-telling of finished food

David W. Cowles

special to the Gateway

Being a follow-the-recipe chef is like being a paint-by-numbers artist. You’ll make a meal, but you won’t win any prizes at the county fair. Sure, recipes are useful when the ingredients are basically the same from kitchen to kitchen and day today, and the proportions are somewhat critical (as in baking a cake). However, if you’re working with meats, fish, poultry, vegetables or other infinitely inconsistent ingredients, when preparing and seasoning a food, you need to be able to conceptualize how it will taste, smell and look after it’s cooked and on the table. I call this the fortune-telling of finished food. Excelling in this ability requires many years of practice and experience, but most everyone can achieve an acceptable degree of proficiency with a little honest effort. Once you’ve made a dish with much too much salt or cayenne pepper, you’re sure to use a lighter hand in the future! I cook almost entirely by instinct, feel and imagination. I rarely measure, except when baking a cake or following someone else’s recipe for the first time. Rather, I prepare each meal with creative artistry by using ingredients of the moment. I’m going to teach you how to educate your mind to match your palate, for, when making salads, nothing is ever exactly the same. Every salad is a new experience. You’re stuck with the veggies of the season, in various sizes and degrees of freshness and ripeness. And, you must prepare every dressing so that the salad will harmonize with the entree for the evening. There are two schools of thought as to when a salad should be served. I serve salads before the entree, in the American tradition, fully believing that a bed of leafy greens in the stomach helps cushion the fall of whatever comes later in the meal, thus promoting good gastric health. My wife, JJ, thinks that theory is asinine. Nonetheless, in my casa, the salad is the overture to the main performance. In Europe, salads are often served after the main course, the theory being that a salad will cleanse the palate before dessert. Another saying advises that it takes four people to make a salad: a spendthrift to measure the oil, a miser to measure the vinegar, a counselor to measure the salt, and a madman to stir it all up. There is more than a small measure of truth to that maxim. There are basically four types of salad dressings: One, the dressing that’s made by applying the dressing ingredients directly to the greens. Two, the dressing that’s made separately, then mixed with the greens. Three, the dressing that’s made separately and merely poured over the greens. Four, the expensive goop that comes in a bottle. If you think it’s too much work to prepare a simple salad dressing, consider this: The list of chemicals, adulterants, additives, colorings and preservatives listed below came from the labels of Bernstein’s Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing, Bernstein’s Creamy Caesar Dressing, Wish-Bone Carb Options Ranch Dressing, and Marie’s Honey Dijon Dressing — all established brands. Is this really what you want to feed your family? Alginate, anchovy extract, calcium caseinate, calcium disodium EDTA, caramel color, cellulose gel, cellulose gum, cream solids, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, disodium phosphate, enzymes, food starch modified, guar gum, high fructose corn syrup, lactic acid, locust bean gum, maltodextrin, modified corn starch, monosodium glutamate, non-fat milk solids, pectin, phosphoric acid, polysorbate 60, potassiuim sorbate, potassium citrate, propylene glycol (an ingredient of antifreeze), sodium benzoate, sodium caseinate, sorbic acid, sucralose, tartaric acid, whey, xanthan gum, yellow 5, yellow 6. When you make a salad dressing at home, you’ll use nothing but wholesome food ingredients, the secret of scrumptious salad dressings. Once you learn how easy and inexpensive it is to make a luscious salad dressing, you’ll never buy that expensive chemical-laden goop again! All salad dressings consist of a minimum of four elements: an acid, such as vinegar, an oil, a sweetener and seasonings. Think of these four elements as being a quartet. Later on, we’ll add other ingredients and progress to a jazz band, and eventually you’ll lead an entire symphony orchestra of flavors.

Basic romaine lettuce salad

Directions

Let’s start with a very basic salad — romaine lettuce with a simple vinaigrette dressing. Separate and wash the leaves of a head of romaine lettuce. Cut off and discard the dark green tops. Slice the leaves one-half-inch thick. Put them in a salad bowl large enough to “toss” the salad. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of sugar over the lettuce. Shake seasoned salt and seasoned pepper (or regular salt and pepper) over the leaves, covering the lettuce with about the same amount you would use if you were seasoning a steak. Splash a little white wine vinegar or lemon juice over the greens, just enough to barely wet them. Then, pour two or three times as much canola oil into the salad. The traditional ratio is 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil, but feel free to modify quantities to suit your taste. Some vinegars are less acidic than others, and lemon or lime juice can be even less acidic, thus requiring less oil to balance. Toss briefly to coat the lettuce with the impromptu dressing, and serve. There, wasn’t that easy? I’ll provide you with a nimiety of salad and salad dressing recipes in future Fastest Chef in the West columns.

Reach David W. Cowles, the Fastest Chef in the West, at dwcowles-gateway@comcast.net.