By Madame Escargot 
It has been a long winter. There has been sun at times, even a (very) few days of some high temperatures, but lots of cool weather and much rain. Probably best described as “Highly variable weather, remaining mostly on the cool side.” Week after week of it, for months. Not complaining, I far prefer cool weather to hot, but my point at this time is that it hasn’t really been salad weather since, ooh, last September?
Finally we have reached a period of good weather here in Sagres. Just look at that clear, blue sky. It does remain cool for the season, though warm enough for The Snails to fancy cold food more often than not. Hurrah.
I enjoy creating, and eating, salad dishes. There is much scope.
Here’s a quintet of recent meals with a leaning towards salad.
Salad no. 1: Smoked Salmon rolled around a cream cheese and horseradish filling. A simple “Algarve” Salad, atop some mixed leaves. The Algarve salad is simply ripe tomatoes (salted and left to stand for half an hour) with fresh onion, cucumber, and EVOO1. The mixed leaves are from a new (to me) mélange at Intermarché and are very good indeed.
Salad no. 2 from the same bag of leaves as the first. With Cheese, Apple, Toasted Walnuts, Sultanas, Cherry Tomatoes. Dressed with Walnut Oil and Cider Vinegar. The Cheese is an Azorean cured Cows’ milk cheese with Garlic and Parsley.
Salad no. 3 used up the rest of the bag of leaves (they keep well) and the Cucumber and Cherry Tomatoes. I added Ham, Hard-boiled Egg, and a Coleslaw. The Coleslaw was made from a bag of ready-shredded veg (white and red Cabbages, Carrot, and Turnip). I added the last of the Garlic and Parsley Cheese, and dressed the Coleslaw with Hellman’s Mayo, mixed with Grain Mustard, Cider Vinegar, and chopped Parsley.
Salad no. 4 utilised a second bag of those mixed leaves (I am now addicted to the pea shoots contained therein) and some churrasco chicken from the supermarket.
I added fresh mushrooms, and a Caesar dressing.
The chicken was a massive disappointment
Salad no. 5 was probably the simplest assembly of them all: Burrata, ripe Avocado, Tomatoes, Onion, some very classy Portuguese EVOO, and a liberal drizzle of a Balsamic Creme of lesser pedigree.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil ↩︎