banjotom2 - Posted - 09/16/2011:  20:51:31

I've always been a fan of Italian, Vinagarette, Balsamic Vinagarette, and similar Olive oil based dressings...

Several years ago, after having a heart issue and many warnings to avoid sodium, I was sitting at a local Italian restaurant owned by a real Italian immigrant who's been in this area now, closing in on 40 years...

 His salad dressings are frequently no more than oil and vinegar...

Oil has no sodium in it... vinegar has no sodium in it either...

Mix the two together and you should come up with something good...

Earlier this week I took a half a head of fresh lettuce, added peanuts (for potassium, taste and crunch), sunflower seeds (same idea), American cheese (which I used to avoid, but now like) torn up and tossed randomly over the salad...

I poured Walmart's 'econo' brand of Balsamic Vinegar over the mixture, poured straight Wesson salad oil on it also (not mixing the 2 together... the Italians don't mix them)...

And finally dumped a boatload of Parmesan cheese over the whole thing...

It rocked!

It may have been the easiest, simplest and most palate-satisfying salad I have put together in years... and I believe all contents added equally to the final outcome, although a pre-made, bottled dressing would have detracted from the outcome I wound up with this time...

The combination of balsamic vinegar and generic salad oil separately, turned out to be a winning combination for my Italian-roots-influenced food tastes...

And the sodium had to be minimal... the Parmesan cheese had some, but not overwhelmingly... The peanuts and sunflower seeds had some... but minimally... compared to bottled salad dressings, etc.

I didn't have cucumbers, radishes, red onions, artichoke hearts and the like, so I went simple and it totally rocked...

PS: When my mom was still alive, she would see the amount of Parmesan cheese I would add to a salad... frequently close to 1/3 of a new bottle and she'd say, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Tom... that stuff costs money!"...

Fond memories and great salads...

Tom

banjotom2.com

Edited by - banjotom2 on 09/16/2011 20:53:06

Brian T - Posted - 09/16/2011:  21:13:40

Hah! Another expose' of BIG FOOD. Well done, sir. Pay more, eat less and live. I quite support that.
There is simply no reason to put up with all the crap that's in processed foods.

If you get the chance to peruse the variety, take a look at the cost of exotic balsamic vinegar.
A liter is about the same as an American quart. Close enough, OK?
I have bought a 1/4 liter bottle of balsamic = $ 60.00/liter.
I have seen that stuff run $300.00/liter.

I need to explain how to make decent foccaccia bread,
a gift of the gods to people who mix balsamic vinegar and good olive oil on a plate.

banjotom2 - Posted - 09/17/2011:  02:19:50

Brian,

I'd be interested in learning more about the foccacia bread...

This week, I went out and purchased a new 7 quart slow cooker crock pot...

4 quarts wasn't enough...

I love homemade bread... and homemade 'pretzels' as well...

The big, round, soft pretzels... me brother made them a couple of times in high school... still haven't forgotten them...

And as per Bart's recent remarks, some home made beer would go well with that!!!

Tom

banjotom2.com

Texasbanjo - Posted - 09/17/2011:  05:33:27

If you want to go to a little more trouble, try this -- and there's no recipe, just mess with it until it tastes right:  vinegar, oil  (we use olive oil or  occasionally, canola oil) , a little spicy mustard, a little jalapeno powder (if you like it spicy), garlic powder, onion powder --  or any combination of those items -- stir it all together and try it --  we love that kind of dressing on our salads and it's not fattening and is good for your heart and waist.

rinemb - Posted - 09/17/2011:  06:26:41

BrianT says "There is simply no reason to put up with all the crap that's in processed foods."

Agree. And speaking of salad dressing.  Try  to buy a bottle of any kind of vinigar & oil dreesing, especially any spiced or flavored one WITHOUT THE DANG SUGAR in it!  I have never seen it without sugar.  Especially watch the low fat dressing-they substitute even more sugar into it.

My wife prefers making her own V&O dressings, and she has never added sugar to it. And it is good.   So why all the damst sugar, huh???

Her favorite is rasberry vinigar olive oil and dash or more of an Italian herb/spice mix. Shake and pour.

Brad

 

Brian T - Posted - 09/17/2011:  07:52:59

Lawry's Seasoned Salt has sugar in it. I wrote to them to ask why.

They dodged the question twice to prattle on about the high quality of their products.



So, I sent copies of everything to the Canadian Diabetes Association.



The most interesting thing that I've discovered in my own food by cutting back or eliminating the sugar?

I can taste the rest of it. The sugar seems to have been masking the tastes that I was looking for in the first place.

Home-canned peaches in white grape juice are totally different from the those in a sugar syrup.

There is a valid argument for the preservatives in the convenience food supply. = shelf life.  Hate to admit it but it's true.

Edited by - Brian T on 09/17/2011 07:54:54

bubbalouie - Posted - 09/17/2011:  19:43:11

My wife made foccaccia dough & put  it in the fridge overnight to rise. I got up for a drink in the middle of the night & It had grown & pushed up the shelf above into the top of the fridge!.

She made some wicked pizza with that dough . Light & Airy. It used grated zucchini in there & it tasted good ! In spite of the zucchini.

Penel - Posted - 09/17/2011:  20:06:45

Balsamic or apple cider vinegar only if I'm out of fresh lemons and/or limes to squeeze. 

Oil? Perhaps a tiny bit of olive oil or melted coconut oil, but I'm cutting back on even that. I'm sure there's plenty of lipids in the nuts and avocados I eat.

If I eat cheese its made from raw goat or sheep milk and on sprouted grain bread. I don't confuse the taste of my salads with it. 

If my salads need more flavoring than the fresh citrus juice, freshly ground pepper and minced garlic. 

Brian T - Posted - 09/17/2011:  20:35:01

I can't remember if I've posted this one, a couple of ingredients to alter as you wish, this is kid-tested and kid-approved.

Basil Salad dressing

2 tbsp red wine/raspberry/balsamic vinegar
1 tsp basil flakes
1/4 tsp sugar
stir well to soak/wet the basil leaf fragments
the sugar helps to trap aroma and speeds up the soaking process.
2 tbsp good olive oil last of all.
Mix and let stand (with the occasional mix/shake) for 30 mins+

1. change the vinegar
2. change the herb (mint with a main dish of lamb, oregano or sage for a chicken dinner?)
3. change the oil. . . . I'll use corn oil if the main dish is bison

It isn't such a huge investment in ingredients that you can't fool with it.

Penel - Posted - 09/17/2011:  20:46:40

Perhaps its because I've never smoked (and burnt out my taste buds) but 

is just a weird thing to say, imho. 

Y'all gotta excuse me tonight. Years ago I over heard one of my friends describe me as Mammy Yokum without the pipe but with a lot of education. 

I then reminded her that the fact that Pansy Yokum nee Hunks could read = a lot of education in her community. 

banjotom2 - Posted - 09/18/2011:  07:11:19

quote:

---

Originally posted by Brian T

I can't remember if I've posted this one, a couple of ingredients to alter as you wish, this is kid-tested and kid-approved.



Basil Salad dressing



2 tbsp red wine/raspberry/balsamic vinegar

1 tsp basil flakes

1/4 tsp sugar

stir well to soak/wet the basil leaf fragments

the sugar helps to trap aroma and speeds up the soaking process.

2 tbsp good olive oil last of all.

Mix and let stand (with the occasional mix/shake) for 30 mins+



1. change the vinegar

2. change the herb (mint with a main dish of lamb, oregano or sage for a chicken dinner?)

3. change the oil. . . . I'll use corn oil if the main dish is bison



It isn't such a huge investment in ingredients that you can't fool with it.

---

 Good post Brian...

Tom

Brian T - Posted - 09/18/2011:  07:56:18

Penel: I thought that I could leave the sugar out.
However, reading somewhere in McGee, there was a good reason for some/a little.
If you can smell too much of the herb, those are flavor molecules that you'll never taste.

Brian T - Posted - 09/18/2011:  08:02:12

Tom: you're welcome. I was served the raspberry/basil version in a restaurant, years ago.
My tastebuds were awake that day, I was quite certain I knew what was in it.
Seems to keep OK in the fridge for a few days.

Ronnie - Posted - 09/18/2011:  08:43:08

My daughter says love is like good wine, trampled by Italians

Penel - Posted - 09/18/2011:  09:34:09

quote:

---

Originally posted by Brian T

Penel: I thought that I could leave the sugar out.

However, reading somewhere in McGee, there was a good reason for some/a little.

If you can smell too much of the herb, those are flavor molecules that you'll never taste.

---

Brian, taste buds are like our other senses. For most people, if we crank up the volume of a sensory phenomena the sense that observes it will turn down its reception to protect us from it. 

That doesn't mean what ever is cranked up isn't still there. 

For example; go to a really loud concert and afterwards people who weren't at the concert will ask us why we can't talk in a normal level, why we're shouting. 

After a couple days without bathing, homeless people can't smell themselves. People who wear too much perfume can't smell themselves after a while. 

So too with taste. Crank up any one of the flavors for a while and one's ability to discern that flavor goes down after constant exposure at that accelerated level of exposure. 

That smelling an herb would diminish one's sense of tasting it? No. Its more the other way around. If people can't smell their food they loose their appetite for it.

But that's not to say they aren't still getting the chemical constituents of it by eating it even if they can't smell it.

The extra sugar in your salad dressing, and probably most of our food isn't necessary for their enjoyment unless one has grown to expect all their food to taste like candy, masking all other flavors.

People who find themselves with insulin resistant diabetes (Type 2 Diabetes, a current epidemic) go through a dickens of a time trying to find prepared products without added sugars.

(Btw, if they're consuming food or beverages sweetened with artificial sweeteners they are not "rebooting" their sweetness detecting taste buds down to a normal anticipation of the flavor.)

If one is preparing one's own food from scratch, the extra sugar is just plain wrong to think necessary. 

And by the way, all that stuff in the salad bowl is not without their own flavors. A lot of salad dressing isn't necessary to make them palatable. 

I know my statements might sound dogmatic to some folks, but for those here whose health depends on being reminded this, it can be very self empowering. Food can taste just right the way it comes. 

KE - Posted - 09/18/2011:  10:05:43

banjotom2, you sir, should belong with the Food Forum.  I tried to send you an invitation to make it easy but you do not accept PMs.

The Food Forum is our attempt to deal with the serious lack of a BHO forum for culinary matters.  Until such time as this grievous oversight is corrected, we identify Food Forum topics with the [FF] before the topic title.  It helps us scan for the important stuff.

The other thing you might consider is joining the Food Forum under the Groups feature of the Forum.  All of the culinary topics get linked to that group.

Thanks for all the good posts on food.  This is a subject relevant to every member, and one on which we generally agree (except for mayo and beans in chili.)

Brian T - Posted - 09/18/2011:  10:13:17

McGee was pointing out the food chemistry of a bit of sugar. The original recipe called for 1tsp sugar, which I have found out that I really need to cut down on (T2), everywhere. Consider also that I'm not about to chug-a-lug the bottle of salad dressing, either! Sprinkled on, that recipe goes across 6 generous servings of salad for me. I'm not fond of salads swimming in dressing, never have been.
That sugar does not diminish the aroma. In fact, even less so (perhaps) that the original 1tsp would have done.
No time today to flip through the 884 pages of McGee and find his precise words. I am freezing my buns off and need to get my pellet stove up and running (2-3hrs annual cleaning).

On Food And Cooking
(The Science and Lore of the Kitchen)
Harold McGee rev 2004/2nd ed
Scribner ISBN 0-684-80001-2

This is a dictionary+encyclopedia of food & cooking. Nothing like this likely to be written soon by anybody.

Micki - Posted - 09/18/2011:  17:07:11

quote: My favorite.  making me hungry and I just ate.  Micki

---

Originally posted by Brian T

Hah! Another expose' of BIG FOOD. Well done, sir. Pay more, eat less and live. I quite support that.

There is simply no reason to put up with all the crap that's in processed foods.



If you get the chance to peruse the variety, take a look at the cost of exotic balsamic vinegar.

A liter is about the same as an American quart. Close enough, OK?

I have bought a 1/4 liter bottle of balsamic = $ 60.00/liter.

I have seen that stuff run $300.00/liter.



I need to explain how to make decent foccaccia bread,

a gift of the gods to people who mix balsamic vinegar and good olive oil on a plate.

---

Brian T - Posted - 09/18/2011:  17:45:07

Ha! 6 little meals a day keeps your blood sugar on an even keel.
Brown bread with a lot of bran in it spikes your blood sugar faster than any other bread.
I love being a biologist, just the facts, I don't have to invent anything.

Hungry: tonight is bison porterhouse BBQ steak, Small baked spud with garlic butter and a stinky caesar salad. The way I do this, you can find me in the dark.

I expect to have the best grape harvest ever (well, 10 years). Make some wine, can't be very good from Vitis riparia which is not Vitis vinifera (wine grape). Let it go "off" with Acetobacter = red wine vinegar. If that works, I'll sell 500ml/12oz bottles for $15 each at next summer's Farmer's Market. Have had 3 people come to the house asking if I have any more grape vines for sale. . . . . nice to have sold my prunings for $5/stick. Will start 100 for next year, plus 50 gooseberry and 50 black currant.

Tomorrow, I'll pick all my apples, windfalls included, run them through the power crusher, ferment and make apple cider vinegar.

Ain't food wonderful? TNX for the coffee perc time. . . . worked OK.

banjotom2 - Posted - 09/18/2011:  17:57:23

quote:

---

Originally posted by KE

banjotom2, you sir, should belong with the Food Forum.  I tried to send you an invitation to make it easy but you do not accept PMs.

The Food Forum is our attempt to deal with the serious lack of a BHO forum for culinary matters.  Until such time as this grievous oversight is corrected, we identify Food Forum topics with the [FF] before the topic title.  It helps us scan for the important stuff.

The other thing you might consider is joining the Food Forum under the Groups feature of the Forum.  All of the culinary topics get linked to that group.

Thanks for all the good posts on food.  This is a subject relevant to every member, and one on which we generally agree (except for mayo and beans in chili.)

---

 NE,

I was getting odd and sometimes disturbing notes from members that take issue with some of my tabbing techniques and song choices... that's the only reason I currently don't accept PMs from members... I figured I'd take their JOY TOY (not-nice PMs) away for a while...

Nothing more to it than that...

The food forum sounds like a good idea...

Tom

banjotom2.com

Brian T - Posted - 09/18/2011:  19:44:39

Another bug-splat on the windshield of your life, Tom. There are legions standing with you.
KE: as long as we key the topic together with [FF], Eric will be Idle.