Sick of same old salad? Dress it up with exciting ingredients and recipes
It’s salad time of year again — but nothing tastes better than the ones you’ve made yourself, as cookery writer Sally Butcher would agree. Here, Ella Walker casts a critical eye over her latest book that’s devoted to summer’s favourite dish
It ’s summer, which means switching the oven on is essentially a no- go. Instead, we need salads — and lots of them.
Enter cookery book writer, food blogger and Persian food store owner Sally Butcher (she runs Persepolis in south London with her husband Jamshid — it’s part Persian grocery, part cafe, www.foratasteofpersia.co.uk).
Here’s what we think of her book Salads, which is full of summery dishes that involve far more than chopping up a bit of cos and cucumber...
The book:
Salads: Fresh, Simple and Exotic Salmagundi From Around The World by Sally Butcher — this is the very lovely new paperback version of Salmagundi, which was published way back in 2014.
Who will love it?
Anyone interested in the history of recipes, and how certain dishes have travelled, picking up new characteristics and flavours along the way. Also, if you’re bored of the standard cucumber, lettuce and tomato salad combo, this will get you considering different grains, pairing fruit with veg (there’s a lovely recipe for strawberry with mint and iceberg lettuce) and experimenting with dressings (anything peanutty is a very good thing).
What is it trying to get us cooking?
Salads from around the world, whether hot, cold, warm, meaty or veggie. There’s some really interesting ideas woven into it (spaghetti salad, for instance, is particularly intriguing). There are influences from Spain, Persia, Greece, Malaysia, Indonesia, France and lots more, with Butcher telling sto- ries and snippets of folklore on practically every page.
How easy is it to use?
Very. It’s as though Butcher’s sitting with you giving pointers and handy hints the whole way through, as well as definitions which she spouts with interesting asides, for example: “To French: To score through food (in an artistic fashion rather than in desperation).” The layout is a little haphazard, so you may lose your place (especially if cooking while drinking), but it adds to the genial, friendly na
ture of the book.
Arguably the poached plum salad with pecans (it comes with a cocktail recipe to match), or the Persian broad bean rice salad with ses
ame and dill. Mmmm. Scallop shell salads with chimichurri. The golden flesh of the seared shellfish, shards of julienned peppers a nd c uc umber, the whole lot drizzled in lime juice — it’s a stunner. Or the Hawaiian rice salad — you serve the rice in the pineapple.
The best recipe is... The recipe we’re most likely to post pictures of on Instagram is... The dish we’re least likely to try is...
The avocado prawn jelly salad — it just sounds a little bizarre — it also features vodka, Tabasco and lime jelly crystals.
Overall rating: 8/10.