A Pretty Salad Treatment

A Pretty Salad Treatment
by Victoria Challancin

Like most cooks and cooking teachers, I have folders of photos torn from magazines and newspapers of pretty food, interesting "platings," stunning garnishes, and different presentations that vary from the norm. This is a picture of a salad we made in one of my classes for Mexican cooks, inspired by a photo of a similar salad from Southern Living magazine. We made "cups" from peeled strips of cucumber. We then filled the cups with red leaf lettuce, purslane, and watercress. We added a half of a piece of cooked bacon, as did the original recipe, plus a few thin carrot sticks. And although these photos don't reflect it, after forming the salads, we then sprinkled them with crumbled blue cheese, toasted pine nuts, and a drizzle of vinaigrette made with sherry vinegar.