Customer Reviews

Salad Days: Main Course Salads for a First Class Meal

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Marcel Desaulniers, author of some of the most wickedly good dessert cookbooks in my cupboard, releases a cookbook full of more virtuous dishes, probably for those of us who've indulged one time too many in his myriad chocolate desserts.

One thing I particularly like about this book is the serving sizes. Unlike many cookbooks, where the number of servings listed is sometimes (or usually) optimistic, when a recipe in THIS book lists 4 servings, it means 4 VERY generous servings. Also, love or hate the ingredients that go into the salads, all of them turn out looking so delicious that it's (ironically) almost a shame to eat them.

Be warned, however - I would NOT recommend this cookbook to beginners. It can take several hours to prepare one of these salads. When I purchased it, I was expecting dozens of recipes for salads consisting of 6 or 7 ingredients, tops, which you can toss together and serve with a dressing. Wrong. Many of these salad recipes are actually 2 to 4 small recipes combined into one dish (even more if you decide to compliment the salad with the extra "variation" recipes), and the number of different ingredients required for these recipes easily goes from 12-15. Also, many of these ingredients are not things casual cooks will have lying around the house (I have no idea where to find Moutarde de Meaux Pommery mustard), so you have to specifically be in the mood to make a certain salad - you can't just whip one of them together right when you come home from work. Rainy weekends are ideal for many of these recipes.

One thing that I don't believe this book tells you (I may be mistaken), but which many people should guess anyway, is that all of the pasta recipes in this book can easily be substituted with the plain dry kind you buy in supermarkets. If the pasta is flavored (green onion fettucini, for example), you can simply add a bit of the herb/vegetable that was to go in the pasta directly into the salad.

One minor quibble with this book is that compared to other books by this author, there doesn't seem to be as many recipes, perhaps because due to the fact that each salad recipe is composed of several smaller recipes. Most of these are quite good, and the dressing recipes can obviously be made on their own for every day salads. Also, a grilled lemon chicken breast recipe accompanying one of the pasta salad recipes makes an outstanding ciabatta sandwich. In the end, the recipe(s) that make up one salad can often be made on their own for any number of occasions, which is a major plus.

Overall, the salad recipes as a whole are too difficult to make for me to recommend it to beginners, but cooking enthusiasts and/or people looking for substantial, nutritious meals should definitely give it a whirl!

The author of this cookbook is a distance runner and a genuine lover of food. Although we think of him primarily for his fabulous chocolate recipes, he deserves stars for this salad collection. These are truly satisfying and beautiful meals. There are photographs to show you how to compose the salad on the plate: how about greens with tomatoes, pine nuts, herbs, and a honey roasted breast of duck? All of the recipes have a vegetarian version, and a choice of a couple of seafood, poultry, or meat adornments. The three recipes I've made have all been delicious, hearty enough to satisfy physically active men, and well received in both versions. There are also some good reminders for all levels of cooking expertise: encouragement to improvise and try variations on salad dressing and salad ingredients, encouragement to try room temperature for some components. (Haven't we all been served an overly chilled salad on a cold clammy plate? Tasteless.) There are mul! ! tiple steps for preparation and assembly. You are told which ones can be done ahead. It would be a little too frantic to come home at 6:00 pm and expect to just quickly toss these salads together. But there is help for planning. With some preparation, it can mean that there is easy assembly at serving time. This cookbook helped me solve the vegan/vegetarian/food allergy and just plan persnickity food preferances of some of the guests at my house. More importantly, there was some range for intelligence and creativity on the part of the cook. This is a good investment.

I am interested in quick, easy salads, but these were too complicated for a novice cook such as myself. And after a long day at work in the emergency room of a major city hospital, I don't have time for the exacting and time consuming prep work. I cook to relieve stress, not add to my own. Even the dull quality of the photographs, didn't enhance my desire to make any of the salads. I have the chef's cookie AND chocolate book and were were PLEASED with those, thats why I purchased the salad book, unfortuneatly, I was very disappointed. Maybe I'm just a baker at heart. I guess I'll stick to chocolate as a major food group.

Do you love ordering meal-sized salads at restaurants but never make them at home? Then this is the book you need to buy. The salads in this book are scrumptious and colorful. The interesting thing to me about this book is that it presents a couple of variations on each salad. For example one of the recipes in this book is Penne Pasta and Spinach with Oven-Roasted Plum Tomatoes, Toasted Walnuts, Curly Endive, and Cracked Black Pepper Vinaigrette. It has two variations, the grilled chicken breast variation and the pan-seared salmon variation. I would consider this book appropriate for someone with intermediate cooking skills but if you are a novice cook the instructions are excellent and would help you build your skill set.

This is just a marvelous example of the chef who is inventive and researches the items and prep with the at-home type cook in mind. He presents very original, creative salad entrees with a huge array of ingredients, e.g. nuts, berries, fish, fowl, beef, etc. but then adds item options as well as prep and presentation advice along with two additions to the basic salad recipe if so inclined. The possibilities are endless! So good to those of us who enjoy just a great salad as the meal! Marcel is one of the best cookbook producers around .... from chocholate to burgers to salads.

These are main-dish salads. Each recipe has several components to it, and two variations on top of that to top things off. One of my favorite recipes in this book is "Sliced Beets with Curly Endive, Red Bliss Potato Salad, Honey Mustard Roasted Walnuts, and Meaux Mustard Vinaigrette." I'm not normally fond of beets, but they're fantastic in this recipe. The honey mustard roasted walnuts have the perfect blend of sharp and sweet tastes. There are a couple of ingredients you might have trouble finding, but they're generally things you can easily substitute for. The first variation for this recipe is the Walnut-Crusted Striped Bass, and there's also a Honey Duck Stir-Fry variation.

Each recipe has the same "Chef's Touch" section as in "Death by Chocolate," giving suggestions for substitution (the aforementioned mustard), storage, and so on, including even wine suggestions in some cases. My only negative comment on this recipe was that the vinaigrette was too oily for our taste, but it's easy enough to reduce the amount of oil. Each recipe serves four hungry people, and could easily be stretched to 6 or 8 as a side dish.

If you're familiar with Desaulniers' "Death by Chocolate" series, then you're already familiar with his cookbook style. He describes everything in detail, not because it's necessarily complex, but because he wants to make sure he doesn't leave anything out or confuse the reader. Also, while his recipes are usually calculated to be not overly difficult, they do tend to be time-consuming, and often involve a handful of different components that need to be put together. You don't need to be an expert to use his cookbooks, but you do need to be willing to spend time and effort in the kitchen.

But as always, he truly comes through in the flavor department. Peppered Honey Peaches with Warm Pecan Cakes, "Bitter" Salad Greens, and Sour Mash Vinaigrette. Variations: Turkey Scallopine with Basil and Zinfandel; Pecan-Crusted Soft-Shell Crab. Or maybe you'd prefer Mandarin Orange Basmati Rice with Sesame Stir-Fried Vegetables, Tangy Red Cabbage, and Szechuan Peppercorn Vinaigrette. Variations: Orange and Cilantro Barbecued Catfish; Charred Flank Steak. Truly, there's something in here to appeal to almost anyone.

I love this cookbook. I have been using it for about 5 years and still find things of interest. I particularly like the fact that the book tells you how to prepare and present the whole meal, with each menu broken down into: the dressing, the salad itself, assembly of the dish and always two choices of meat or fish to accompany the meal. I often spice up a meal with just a part of a salad - ratatouille tonight and maybe saffron infused arborio rice cakes another day. The ingredients are easy to find and the methodology easy to follow. If you like salads and want something a little different, then this is the book.

I love salad and this is a great addition to my collection. Wonderful salads to try in here.