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Saturday, April 28, 2012

Pressing Veggies in a Chic Apron

Bonjour, mes amis!

Snackro is taking this show on the road this summer and going to France, where our ancient ancestors wished they lived!*

Traveling macro is never easy, and it's especially difficult when you're in a new city in a new country.  My mother and I are renting an apartment, and since it has a kitchen I will be sharing macro/vegan dishes with her friends in Paris!  I can't WAIT to be inspired by the ingredients and location.  My brain is already whirring!

LES PRESSED SALADES

Today's macro tip comes from Chef Joel of the Kushi Institute, who taught me that pressed salads don't have to taste like cold, wet cabbage.  I asked him yesterday why his pressed salads tasted so much better than mine.

It's okay to press different veggies separately.  Pressing a carrot is like getting tears out of Vin Diesel.  Cucumbers are downright weepy.  If you have a pressed salad with carrots AND cucumbers, press them separately so you don't water down the sweet flavor of certain vegetables.

Be mindful of color.  If you press purple cabbage with rutabaga and green apples, you're going to end up with a giant bowl of purple.  If you mix it all together at the last minute, you'll maintain a pretty mix of colors.

Don't press some things at all.  This is the most counter-intuitive part of pressed salad-ing.  Why call it a pressed salad if not all of it is pressed?  Just let it go and trust me.  If you press a red onion, some of the sweet sharpness gets lost.  There are many ingredients (apricots, red onions, roasted nuts) that we mix in at the very end to great success.

Don't be afraid to go sweet.  I'm deathly afraid of getting raisin-bombed.  You know when you're eating a savory dish and you're like "Man, my life is good.  Delicious food, attractive company, and -BOOGER!"

There are plenty of ways to add sweetness to your dish without raisins.  I hate raisins.  They're like sweet boogies.  Real mature, I know.  I like to add crisp green apple slices, gala apple slices, or fresh pear slices.  They have a gentle sweet flavor that blends with salt for a beautiful, crispy finish.

If I'm going to be cheffing in the city that invented the seven-course meal, I need to look the part.  Today's post is going to detail a pretty serious piece of chef equipment that no chef macrobiotique should be without...



williams-sonoma // logo apron $19.95

anthropologie // tea-and-crumpets apron $32.00

anthropologie //  cuisine couture apron $32.00

anthropologie // trousseau apron $38.00

etsy //  environmentally yours half-apron   $38.00
so apparently this apron is actually a halloween costume.
  awkward.  i'd still wear it.

etsy //  harry potter gryffindor-specific apron    $30.00
if you wore this apron, i'd eat anything you made.  
and i'd wash it down with a butterbeer.

etsy // retro ice blue diner apron $28.50

Coming soon...  superfluous macro kitchen gadgets I really want.

*My ancestors herald from various regions across Britain and Eastern Europe, but the two things they all had in common were peasantry and goat-herding.

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