Tuesday, July 14, 2009

kitchen tip Tuesday…spinning drier greens

One of my favorite kitchen tools is my salad spinner, especially in the summer months when I grow most of my own lettuces or buy the locally grown beauties at my Farm Market.

After a good rinse and a soak in ice-cold water to clean and crisp them, I drain the lettuces in the sturdy basket provided by my OXO Salad Spinner.

After a spin or two, most of the greens, especially the more delicate micro-greens still need to be blotted well with a paper towel to make them ready to allow salad dressing to cling.
I found that during the blotting process, I sometimes tear some of the tender greens. Not usually a problem for a salad for my own meals, but it can be a bit annoying when I am using the greens to style a food photo or make a lovely presentation for guests.

I now use a two-step method to dry my greens and keep even the most fragile ones whole.

After their bath, I take the greens for an initial whirl in the salad spinner.
For the second spin, I add two or three crumpled paper towels and spin again.

After this second spin, I am rewarded with drier greens, intact and beautiful and ready to grace a salad plate for company or their close-up shot.

4 comments:

A Brush with Color said...

Well, who knew? That's a great idea, Terrie! I never thought of doing that. Wonderful. This banner is glorious! And those lettuce leaves look delicious. I will remember this tip--thanks!!

... said...

Thank you for the spinning tip!
Need to replace our salad spinner, as the knob broke off at about 6500 rpm! Green stuff everywhere! : )
Love the photos, as always!

feasting-on-pixels (terrie) said...

De rien and merci mille fois chêre Sue...
glad that I could help.

Salut Bramley, you need an OXO salad spinner...they last forever because of their solid construction.

Merci to you both for your kind comments.

PeterParis said...

When I make it for myself (with in general less nice looking salad), I would just put them on a towel and let them dry for a while. Acceptable? :-)