Enjoying the memories brought back after our weekend picnic I began to think how the simple things in life had been replaced with more complicated and sophisticated tastes in life.
When I was young I had never heard of mayonnaise, it was always salad cream we would have. Our salad too would be so simple, usually containing only cold ham, lettuce, tomato, spring onion and hard boiled eggs. Never cucumber because my dad didn't like it. There would of course be chips with it, or sometimes boiled new potatoes. Beetroot and coleslaw would be on the table for those who wanted it.I had never heard of croutons or dressings. There would be a plate of white sliced buttered bread, and we would drink tea. How things have changed.
The next time you serve a salad be amazed at the changes time and fashion have made to your plate. Continental meats, salads of pasta, rice, and couscous to name a few. A whole host of salad leaves adorn our plates, and there are so many choices of tomatoes and peppers that it would take a whole blog to do them justice.
I wonder do we have too much choice?
I thought it would be nice to make my own salad cream. To pay homage to days gone by. As I write this I am realising by doing so I am indulging in the pretentiousness of the foodie world. I can just hear myself say "Of course I do make my own salad cream" LOL. Therefore negating the simplicity of bygone days. None the less I am going to blog the recipe after all we should know what is in our food. Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Also it made for a, hopefully, good blog.
I don't say this tastes exactly like the bottled stuff but it's pretty good.
The recipe states olive oil but I found this too powerful and used instead a light oil, something like sunflower would do. Or you could try a very light olive oil.
SERVES 4-6
1 tsp English Mustard
1tsp white sugar
203 tbsp White Wine Vinegar
1/4 tsp White Pepper
1/2 tsp Salt
150 mls Evaporated Milk (yes this is right!)
150 mls Oil ( either a very light olive oil or a vegetable oil)
Mix mustard, sugar, salt, pepper and vinegar together in a bowl.
Add in evaporated milk and mix well.
Gradually mix in oil until you have a creamy texture.
Check seasoning and chill until ready to use.
How easy is that?
A trip down memory lane. In a few minutes, with a few simple ingredients you too could be making that trip.
2 comments:
Home-made salad cream, yum.
I haven't made that for ages, you've inspired me to do it again :)
Using sweetened condensed milk was the way my Nana always made her dressing too:) I tried to recreate it a while back for a similar reason to your post Jacqui. One of my fondest memories of salads was simply that you never had 'hot with cold', so you couldn't serve a salad with a piece of hot meat in our family. Barbies were all hot food, or on 'stinking hot days' we'd have salad, but never bbq meat and salad:) Oh, and the cucumbers weren't worth it in those days, it was the old fashioned big ones - I much prefer the thinner ones:)
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