Food Essence Poster

Friday, April 2, 2010

Home-made fruit-veggy yoghurt salad on Good Friday!

Last week was the so-called "salad week" at my workplace. My colleagues and I took turns to prepare salad for lunch. Well...gals like to eat salad because we can fill our stomachs to MAX. without feeling SINFUL! That's the wonder of SALADS~! =D

As I had bought extra ingredients on wed, decided to make somemore of it for today's lunch since my parents are veggy-lovers. Below are pics of the salad I prepared ... ...





I attempted making croutons using my mum's AMC mini pot instead oven. The last time I prepared was using vegetable oil. So this time round, I thought of using margarine to see if it would taste better. Unfortunately, most of the bread cubes were burnt, but still tastes quite well. Then I decided to use vegetable oil for the second batch of croutons. Well, from this experiment, I can conclude the following points:

Croutons made using margaine (left side)... ...

  • easily burnt if left un-tossed

  • saltier

  • less crispy, softer in texture

  • nicer colour

Croutons made using vegetable oil (right side)... ...

  • less likely to get burnt

  • brings out sweet note and fragrance of bread flavor

  • crispier
I then read on the internet, can add more flavour to the crotons by adding salt and pepper in the oil to be tossed with the bread cubes. I would suggest adding basil and onion powder, well just some personal preference! Beside, using olive oil is also a healthier choice.

The ingredients used for the salad included ... ...

  • Lettuce (2 types) 

  • Cherry tomatoes

  • Potatoes

  • Vegetable mix (Carrot cubes, corns and peas)

  • Crab meat

  • Black pepper ham

  • Raisins

  • Home-made Croutons
As for the salad dressing, I provided two types 1) Thousand-island 2) Mixed Berries Yoghurt.

I was afraid my colleauges would not like it with yoghurt dressing. In the salad that I bought to work, I also added green apples and egg toufu which compliments well with the other ingredients. It also added more colours to it which makes the salad more appetizing.  

Today's PH and it really feels so good when I woke up in the morning...oops sorry..I mean late morning..hee! I really enjoyed making salad for my parents! Too bad sis is still in Japan. I feel much happier now with my current job and find myself more lively! And maybe it's the nature of my job and the influence of my colleauges, I began to be more interested in cooking. In the past, I only enjoy baking, but now i enjoys both baking and cooking! Guess I will be exploring more dishes in my upcoming days! Stay tuned! =D