Born with a silver knife| Goat’s Cheese Salad

When the stork visited my mother she was cooking and in a hurry she forgot to carry the silver spoon but rather dropped the silver knife.No really I mean it literally….I don’t know since when but definitely from early childhood I have been agile with the knife.It was a default that each Sunday meal will have salad chiseled by my hands….here’s how my Salad would look like…..

I hated steel plates for their stoic nature food means celebration and it is best expressed when ordained into fine bone china cutlery.While the rest of the dishes were served into steel ware mine would be the cynosure of the table in fine bone china salad plate.I could actually sometimes sense how jealous the other pots and pans felt when my hero made an entry.

There would be a rose at the center of the plate which would be shaped out of tomato peel.I really don’t remember how I learnt it cause I am recently suffering from amnesia.Must be one of those sad women magazines subscribed by my mother which she never read and only served as a good deal for scrap sale.

Around it would be cucumber slices which had rigged edges a trick my dad had taught me using those old fashioned peelers.I loved cucumber so barely half of it made it to the dinner table and the other half went straight to my tummy as a consolation prize for being the sole contributor.

Then came the boring carrots which were unavoidable due to its beta carotene attributes.Oh my gosh…. my house was a walking talking bio lab where every vegetable was eaten later but first we were preached about its calorie,mineral and vitamin card.Given a chance I would have long replaced that from my salad plate.

Last but never the least were circa soaked onion rings scattered round the edge of the plate.I think this was unavoidable for any carnivore’s tongue.These are smelly yet indispensable allium family in every household and balance the richness of the food you consume.

I would always use the classic dressing of freshly ground pepper,sea salt and lemon juice and this alchemy goes ever wrong.

For me happiness starts at home and a happy meal means more satiated souls.The flavor exploration begins at home. There’s a lot going on under your nose while you chop and cook. Use your nose, follow the changes, and you’ll discover new and delicious things.

The basis for the word salad is ‘sal’, meaning salt. This was chosen because in ancient times, salt was often an ingredient in the dressing. Notes here:”Salad, a term derived from the Latin sal (salt), which yielded the form salata, ‘salted things’ such as the raw vegetables eaen in classical times with a dressing of oil, vinegar or salt. The word turns up in Old French as salade and then in late 14th century English as salad or sallet.” 

—Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 682)

 Modern day salad is tossed plates of mixed greens “messy” and eschewed them in favor of “orderly presentations.” Salad items were painstakingly separated, organized, and presented.

Here’s presenting you my autumn favorite Goat’s cheese salad which can be paired with any dry,crisp or zesty wine or eaten just as is.Hope you like it.This salad is a very quick salad and is ready in a jiffy.