Tips:
- Clean and chill all ingredients ahead of time. Also chill salad plates or bowls.
- Leave salad ingredients in fairly large slices or chunks to give the salad a luscious look and a good texture.
- Thoroughly drain fruits and vegetables before use, and dry the washed greens.
- Toss salad ingredients together lightly; never stir vigorously.
Accent salads with simple trims such as tomato wedges, onion or green pepper rings, radish roses, pimiento strips or cutouts, egg slices or wedges, olives, small whole fruits, cherry tomatoes, nuts, or pickles.
Vegetable Salads
Always tear salad greens into bite sized pieces since cutting them with a knife hastens browning.
Give cooked vegetables an enticing flavor by marinating them for about an hour in French dressing, Drain before sousing.
Peel tomatoes quickly by running the back of a knife over the skin to loosen it, then pull off the skin. Or loosen the skin by plunging the tomato into boiling water for a few seconds or by quickly twirling it on a fork over a flame.
Fruit Salads
To make pretty orange or grapefruit sections, first peel the fruit closely, then cut down the side of one section membrane and slide the fruit off.
To seed grapes in a jiffy, cut them in half with kitchen scissors and remove the seeds with another snip or two.
Gelatin Salads
When unfolding a gelatin salad, rinse the plate or platter with cold water. Loosen the salad with the tip of a knife, dip the mold just to the rim in warm water for a few seconds. Place wet plate or platter on top of the mold, hold tightly together, and invert quickly. Lift off the mold, and center the salad by pushing it gently with the back of a spatula. As the finishing touch, tuck lettuce leaves around and under the salad.
