Mario Batali Peerless Peeler. http://lindamccormick.eahweb.com/Catalog/Spring2009/ -- page 78.
Gramercy dinnerware plate. http://lindamccormick.eahweb.com/Catalog/Spring2009/ --page 9
Italian Stitch 12 inch Square Platter. http://lindamccormick.eahweb.com/Catalog/Spring2009/ -- page 81.
With this tip, you can take any packaged salad and make it look like a million! All you need is a vegetable peeler, a cucumber, a yellow crooked-neck squash (optional), and a bag of salad.
Cut the ends of the cucumber off but don’t peel it. Take the vegetable peeler and make long cuts along the length of the cucumber, ideally cutting a nice thin strip of green cucumber skin on either side of the cucumber flesh. Keep peeling strips of cucumber until you hit the seeds. Then do the same on the other side of the cucumber, and then the remaining two sides. If you want to bring more color into the salad, do the same with a squash.
If you have an abundance of patience and a steady hand, you can actually peel around and around the cucumber from end to end, making a continuous ribbon of cucumber which makes an even more striking presentation. For my purposes, though, I think it looks good enough to have many shorter pieces assembled together and it is much easier.
On your salad platter, you are going to rim the outside edge with “pleated” strips of cucumber ribbon. Reminds me of ribbon candy. Take each strip of cucumber in your hands and just fold back and forth in an accordian manner and casually place the pieces around the outside edge of the platter. If you are using squash as well, intersperse the yellow with the green for nice balance.
Once the cucumber is in position, just take your bagged salad and pile it on the salad platter in the opening left by the cucumber. Garnish as you wish for the particular salad you are serving. In the example shown here, I used mandarin oranges and toasted almond slivers. And did you know you can toast almond slivers in the microwave? Put them in a microwavable container, microwave on high for 30 second intervals, stirring after each 30 seconds, until toasted.
This garnishing technique with the cucumber can be used with any salad you choose.
The asparagus vase is refreshing—-would be great with cucumber sandwiches!
I will try the cucumber/squash ribbon. I think I would like a potato salad with it.
Hi! I’m a new EAH consultant and I just love this idea. I’m going to have to purchase that peeler for myself! Great blog! See you at conference!