The one who invented salads, and rendered people an invaluable service, was a genius.
Historians claim that salad as a dish was known in ancient Rome. In those days, it consisted of one green, seasoned with salt, honey, pepper and vinegar.
For many centuries, the dish existed in this version.
Once in France, in the middle of the last millennium, the salad was slightly modified - they began to cook it with other leafy vegetables: lettuce, green onion and garlic feathers, and mint. In this form, it existed until the end of the eighteenth century, when it finally got artichokes, cucumbers, cabbage.
Since then, the variety of salads began to grow with hardly any speed of arithmetic progression.
Gradually, food compositions began to be supplemented not only with new types of greenery and vegetables, but also with meat, fish - absolutely everything that is suitable for food.
Salad with ham and cheese - general technological principles
Despite this staggering variety of ingredients that can be used in making a salad, there are some rules for the selection of products. Sometimes these rules must be followed to improve the taste of the salad, and in some cases, their observance is associated with health care.
Salad is a dish that is cooked immediately before use. Remember that most vegetable and fruit salads lose their useful nutritional properties an hour after their preparation, and under improper storage conditions they can harm the body. Dress up salads before serving or serve salad dressings in sauceboats, separately, because dressing speeds up the destruction of the beneficial properties of vitamins and actively contributes to the process of fermentation of the dish.
About types of salad dressings
There are two main types of dressings, on the basis of which they prepare sauces for salad. The first type consists of vegetable oils and vinegars. In such dressing, in addition to spices, add a variety of spicy herbs. The second type - thick sauces, based on yogurt, cream. Usually oil and vinegar-based dressings are prepared for vegetable salads, thick sauces are mainly used for meat and fish salads.
For more than a century, mayonnaise has enjoyed immense popularity. Product - high-calorie and tasty. But in those cases when it can be replaced with sour cream, yogurt or vegetable oil, it is still better to give preference to the last of the listed sauces. According to the results of recent medical research, mayonnaise, in addition to having a higher caloric content than sour cream or cream, significantly increases the workload of the liver and the entire digestive system.
Doctors recommend daily to eat at least a spoonful of sour cream, besides contributing to the work of the brain, and mayonnaise be introduced into the diet less often.
This is a useful and noteworthy warning. However, everyone always has a choice.
If you want a sour cream dressing to taste better, you can enrich it with additional ingredients.
Types of salads and serving rules
All salads are divided into components, types of heat treatment.
Vegetable salads include salads from boiled and raw, including leafy vegetables;
There are also salads from meat, poultry, fish and seafood. This group includes salads with the names of their main component, for example: in addition to the main product, poultry salad, onion, greens, and some vegetables are part of chicken salad. These salads are also called mixed. Mixed salads can include vegetables and meat, cheese, eggs, or - fish, vegetables, cheese.
Fruit salads belong to dessert dishes: they consist, as a rule, of fruits and berries, sweet and milk-cream dressings. Although sometimes the composition of dessert salads include not only fruit and berry ingredients, but also other food groups: chocolate, cookies, honey, nuts. The composition of fruit salads can include, for example, zucchini or carrots, although these products belong to the category of vegetable products. Vegetable salads are served to the main, meat or fish dish. Dessert salads are eaten alone or after the main meal.
A salad can be a separate dish if it includes, for example, meat, beans or pasta, which makes it a high-calorie and nutritious dish. If the salad is cooked in a warm way - by boiling, steaming and combining the ingredients hot - it can be served as a separate dish. Typically, these salads are prepared for breakfast or lunch, that is - in the morning.
The form of serving salads can be mixed, that is, when all the ingredients are combined into a total weight; layered salads resemble cakes in shape, with several layers of different components; snack salads can be served in rolls, tartlets; cocktail salads are served in glasses or ice-cream bowls, and at the table they are eaten, putting them on a plate.
It is said that a real cook can cook any dish from what is on hand and for this he needs only two or three main ingredients. Most contributes to this salad. For example, for a salad with ham and cheese, these two components are necessary. All other products can be selected to the main ingredients in accordance with the harmony of taste, using a certain technique of food processing.
Recipe 1. Cocktail salad with ham and cheese, puff
Ingredients:
• Orange
• Ham
• Prunes
• Mayonnaise
• Eggs, boiled
• Feta cheese (or cheese)
• Cucumber, fresh
Cooking:
All products for salad are taken in equal quantities, by net weight.
All prepared ingredients are cut in the same, very small cubes and fit into a high ice-cream pan with a short leg, in layers: cheese, cucumber, boiled eggs, prunes, ham, orange. Each layer of lettuce is lightly coated with mayonnaise. Decorated with the same ingredients. It is also recommended to use knives for figure cutting for decoration.
Recipe 2. Cocktail salad with ham and “Water Lily” cheese
Ingredients:
• Onions, white or onion 3 pcs. (the largest bulbs)
• Ham, chicken 250 g
• Lemon, large 1 pc.
• Cheese, smoked, “pigtails”
• Onions, green (feather)
• Cucumber, fresh
• Egg yolk, boiled 3 pcs.
Sauce:
• Mayonnaise 67% 75 g
• Chopped dill greens 30-40 g
• Water 50 ml
• Black pepper, salt - to taste
• Lemon zest, fresh 25 g
• Garlic - 1 small clove
Cooking:
Large bulbs cut across, zigzag line. Remove the largest, upper scaly plates. The remaining onions can be used for other dishes.
Remove the lemon zest and after, squeezing the juice out of it, make a marinade. Pour lemon juice into a bowl, add cold, boiled water, salt and sugar (to taste). In the marinade, you must put first cut "sepals" of onions, and then - cut a long straw, green onions.
Cucumbers cut into oval plates, ham, as well as green onions, into straws of the same length, 2-3 cm.
Cheese "pigtails" also cut into strips, and then each strip is divided into separate, thin fibers.
Tie strips of ham stalks of green onions between each other, in a bundle, 7-9 pieces.
In a glass or ice-cream bowl with a high leg, put slices of fresh cucumber and green onion stalks - “water lily leaves”. On top, in the center lay the "sepal" of onion flakes. In the middle of the "water lily" set a bunch of ham, tied with a stalk of green onions. On the ham lay out the disassembled "strings" of smoked cheese: you should get a lush, like a lace ball, filling the entire onion in diameter. Therefore, if necessary, lightly apply the cheese mass in the palms, forming this ball. Sprinkle cheese stamens on top of the yolk with crumbs. Put a glass of salad on a plate lined with a napkin. Sauce for salad served in a saucepan, separately.
Mix the water with the mayonnaise, pour the chopped garlic, dill and lemon zest into the mass, season the sauce with spices.
Recipe 3. Cocktail salad with ham and cheese
Ingredients:
• Carrot
• Apple, sweet and sour
• Egg
• Hard cheese
• Pickled onions
• Ham, smoked
• Mayonnaise or sour cream
Cooking:
Prepare the dishes with salted water in advance - for grated carrots, sour-sweet water - with sugar, lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar) - for pickling shredded onions. After half an hour, remove the carrots and onions from the solutions, and lightly dry them.
Ham and eggs cut into small cubes. Next, grate the cheese large, and, last but not least, three sweet and sour apples, after clearing them and removing the core. To prevent the apples from oxidizing, season them immediately and mix thoroughly with sour cream or mayonnaise.
In high ice-bows we start to form a dish - we stack the components nicely, in layers:
1. Pickled onions
2. Slices of ham
3. Chopped Greens
4. Apple
5. Carrots
6. Eggs
7. Cheese.
Salad dressing is better to be served separately, so that the juice does not stand out ahead of time and the dish does not turn into an incomprehensible, thick mass, floating in the gravy.
Before serving, do not forget to decorate the salad. You can confine leaves of green; if you wish, cut out “flowers” from carrots or eggs.
Recipe 4. Tomatoes and olives in a warm salad with ham and cheese - improvisation in the Italian style
Salads are usually served in addition to the main dishes. Such a salad may well be an independent dish, and there is no need to supplement it with anything else, except dessert and coffee.
Ingredients:
• 100 g olives
• 200 g “Cherry”
• 50 ml of olive oil
• 300 g boiled pasta, “bows”
• 200 g cooked ham
• 8 - 10 plates of cream cheese
• Basil and arugula
• 25 ml of lemon juice
• Salt, pepper to taste
Cooking:
Cut ham into thick straws (sticks), 5-6 cm long. Wrap ham sticks into cheese slices. Heat the rolls in the microwave to fix the cheese on the ham sticks. Then cut them into thick circles - each roll. If olives are large - cut rings. Small berries - leave whole.
Cherry halves lightly fry in olive oil. In a pan, to the roasted tomatoes, add the pasta and heat it.
Combine all prepared ingredients, add large leaves of basil and arugula. Before serving, season with spices and lemon juice.
Recipe 5. “Cherry” and Brussels sprouts in a salad with ham and cheese - warm salad
Ingredients:
• 150 g “Cherry”
• 150 g cooked ham
• 200 g Brussels sprouts
• Hard cheese100 g
• Fresh dill
• Olive oil 70 ml
• Garlic white sauce
• Boiled beans 100 g
Cooking:
Cut the cabbage into four pieces and fry until half cooked. Add coarsely chopped ham and beans; Lightly add, put a tomato in a saucepan, and simmer for another couple of minutes.
Transfer to a large salad bowl and season with garlic sauce. Garnish the salad with chopped dill and grated cheese.
Recipe 6. Bulgarian pepper in a salad with ham and cheese
Ingredients:
• 100 g fresh pepper
• 150 g smoked, boiled ham
• Cabbage
• Sour cream and parsley for dressing
• 100 g carrots in Korean
• Hard cheese100 g
Cooking:
Prepared salad, meaty pepper (green and red, for the brightness of the dish) chop thinly, in straws, along with Chinese cabbage. Coarsely grate the ham, chop the ham into long and thin strips. Combine all the prepared ingredients in a large bowl, stir. If necessary, season with additional spices.
Recipe 7. Bulgarian pepper in a salad with ham and cheese
Ingredients:
• Leek
• Cheese, medium soft (with a neutral taste)
• Lemon (juice for pickling)
• Sweet pepper
• Pineapple, canned (cubes)
• Ham, dried
• Mayonnaise with pepper, black, ground
Cooking:
All ingredients, except for mayonnaise and ground pepper, are taken in equal quantities. Leek cut into rings, sprinkled with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar and allowed to infuse. Prepared ingredients are cut into medium-sized cube, including cheese. Ready salad seasoned with spicy mayonnaise, with pepper. If necessary, season the sauce with a small amount of garlic for piquancy.
Recipe 8. Mushrooms marinated in a salad with ham and cheese
Ingredients:
• Marinated chanterelles (small) 150 g
• Cheese, roquefort 70-90 g
• Pineapple (rings) 3-4 pieces.
• Olives, green (pitted) 100 g
• Smoked ham (or balyk) 200 g
• Lemon (for marinade)
• Mayonnaise
• Cabbage, Brussels 10-12 pcs.
Cooking:
Prepare marinade for cabbage, brussels sprouts from juice, sugar and salt. Cabbage, cut into four parts, put in marinade for 45-50 minutes. Cut the olives along the berries, in half. Ham, pineapple rings cut into triangles. Grind cheese on shredder with thin plates, not large. Remove the pickled cabbage from the liquid and let the marinade drain. Connect all products and fill.
Recipe 9. Mushrooms in a warm salad with ham and cheese
Ingredients:
• Mushrooms 0.5 kg
• Cheese, creamy (creamy) 3 tbsp. l
• Ham, boiled 250 g
• Butter (for roasting)
• Cream 15% (for sauce) 50 ml
• Spices, garlic and herbs (for sauce)
• Broccoli 150 g
• Fried potatoes 100 g
• Dill, leek (for serving)
Cooking:
Broccoli mushrooms and inflorescences prepare and fry separately on any vegetable oil.
Fry french fries, ham, cut into strips - also separately. All prepared ingredients are put on a colander after frying to remove excess fat.
After that, they can be put together in a salad bowl and seasoned with sauce prepared from blender-broken cheese, green dill and cream.
Season the sauce with garlic and spices. Sprinkle ready meal with leek. Dress up a warm salad before serving.
Recipe 10. Swiss classic salad with ham and cheese
Ingredients:
• Salted or pickled cucumbers
• Swiss cheese (extra hard)
• Cooked Ham
• Yogurt, savory (for filling)
Cooking:
Traditional salad has many different variations, but it necessarily includes the listed components. The technology of its preparation is interesting - unlike many other salads, this dish takes time to infuse, after its preparation and filling. After aging in the refrigerator, the dish gets the most vivid, rich taste. For a salad, it is necessary to maintain the same proportions of all the ingredients, which are also equally cut with thin and long straws.
Ham and Cheese Salad - Tricks and Tips
• When using boiled vegetables in salads, do not mix them hot, so that the salad retains its freshness longer.
• The taste of the dish most often depends on the way the salads are cut. Try to cut products of the same size. Ways of cutting can be different. If a salad includes peas, or beans in combination, for example, with carrots or white cabbage, then the carrots or cucumbers that make up the salad can be cut into strips or cubes. Cutting methods are usually indicated in recipes as recommended. But no one forbids experimenting - it may well help create a new salad, with a more interesting taste.
