Tag: Amazon Al Dente Revisited

Kitchen Garden Tips: Washing and Spinning Salad Greens

Published on by Melissa TrainerLeave a comment

Seattle's mild maritime climate allows me to have a wonderful winter garden each year. This Arctic Butterhead always survives the winter and springs to life in the spring. The slugs love to hide in the crevices so it's important to wash it WELL!
Seattle’s mild maritime climate allows me to have a wonderful winter garden each year. This Arctic Butterhead always survives the winter and springs to life in the spring. The slugs love to hide in the crevices so it’s important to wash it WELL!
Without a doubt, a bountiful garden is indeed an awesome way to control the family food budget. But, I know from my own kitchen garden experience, that a garden glut can easily overwhelm the cook. It’s a pleasure to have lots of fresh homegrown vegetables to work with, but if you don’t know how to prepare them quickly and efficiently, all of your green thumb effort will be pitched right back into the compost heap when the items deteriorate in the fridge.

With that in mind, I am going to discuss how to wash and dry homegrown lettuces, greens, and spinach. Although organic mesclun mixes are widely available in produce departments, lettuces are some of the easiest and more rewarding things to grow. The supermarket lettuce mixes can’t compare to a diverse selection of homegrown greens destined for the salad bowl. And, of course, freshness is unsurpassed.

It’s well known that slugs and grit take refuge in the leaves’ crevices, so the greens need to be washed properly. Cleaning is generally done by plunging the greens into a bowl of cold water, swishing them gently, removing them and pouring off the dirty water. It can take a few rounds to completely remove the grit and slugs, and once the lettuce is clean it needs to be dried properly so you don’t have a soggy salad once dressed.

Kitchen towels can work, but the best tool for the task is a salad spinner. Both the rinsing and drying can be done in the spinner, so the task is simplified. I like the Oxo Good Grips Salad Spinner. The three piece dishwasher safe device has a bowl, a perforated basket, and a lid with a non slip knob. It’s easy create the drying centrifugal force by pumping the large knob on the lid. The patented pump mechanism features a brake button that quickly stops the spinning process.

The large spinner has a bowl capacity of 6.22 quarts. The mini spinner is suitable for small families and for drying fresh herbs.

So, getting to the root of things, it’s obvious that having the right tool can put a whole new spin on dinner!

This blog post originally appeared on Amazon’s Al Dente blog in May 2009.

Chill with Frozen Fish!

Published on by Melissa TrainerLeave a comment
Frozen Bristol Bay sockeye. A super healthy and convenient superfood!
Frozen Bristol Bay sockeye. A super healthy and convenient superfood!

So, what’s your opinion on frozen seafood? Do you think it is inferior to the fresh seafood that you can purchase from the fish counter? Have you perused the freezer case in the seafood department lately? Do you regularly stock frozen salmon, cod, or other fish for quick weeknight dinners at your house?

Admittedly, I am quite picky about my seafood, but over the years I have learned that seafood in the freezer is an amazing asset! To be quite frank, keeping seafood in the freezer saves me time, money and the hassle of heading to the grocery store at the dreaded five o’clock hour.

In my household, we regularly keep wild salmon fillets as well as cold and hot smoked salmon in the deep freeze. I often just head to the freezer and pull out a few fillets for dinner. It works for me and it leaves me free to do other things. When defrosted, my previously frozen seafood often looks far better than the seafood kicking around the seafood case.

Even though I have salmon in the freezer, I decided to buy a whole sockeye fillet at QFC last night. I’ve been eyeballing these fillets for some time now, so I thought it would be a good idea to do a little consumer research myself. The wild Alaskan sockeye was from Peter Pan Seafoods and was caught in the FAO area 67, which is Bristol Bay. The sale price was $8.99 per pound and the fillet that I chose set me back about $12, which is a good deal.

Having toured many of the processing facilities in Bristol Bay, Alaska, I know that many of the sockeye fillets are promptly processed and frozen right after harvest. I know this, because I sported hair nets and stood there watching those freshly caught wild salmon race along the slime lines towards the freezer! This rapid processing, of course, protects many of the inherent characteristics of the salmon and brings a very hiqh-quality product to the market. The processors up in Bristol Bay work quickly because the wild salmon arrive in force over the course of about six weeks.

Frozen fish is a fabulous time saver. Often frozen promptly after harvest, frozen fish, particularly salmon, is widely available and is a great time saver for busy cooks.
Frozen fish is a fabulous time saver. Often frozen promptly after harvest, frozen fish, particularly salmon, is widely available and is a great time saver for busy cooks.

Last night, I decided to simply let my sockeye fillet defrost slowly in the fridge. Today, I have to figure out what to do with it. Weighing in at less than two pounds, there really isn’t an excess of salmon for my family of five. I’m just perplexed on what to do with this amazingly bright red wild salmon. Grill it whole? Cut into chunks and pan sear? Cure it into an affordable yet luxurious gravlax for a weekend dinner party ?

So, do you buy the frozen seafood found at your local markets? If so, what do you choose and how do you use it? I have more to say about frozen seafood and will report back on my sockeye fillet, so stay tuned, folks!

Originally published on Amazon’s Al Dente blog on May 02, 2012