Salad Days

Just about anything you buy in the supermarket, find in a Farm Shop, or dig up from the allotment can become the star of the show as a salad.Roots, florets and fruits drizzled with oil and gently roast, served with Stokes aioli-style Garlic Mayonnaise with freshly chopped tarragon stirred into it – delicious. Try it with your favourite shop-bought humus – wonderful.

You’ll find our exciting range of Mayonnaise – HERE.Give your dish a theme. Make it colourful. Consider the textures. And, of course, the taste(s). Cooked beetroot, chickpeas, lightly pickled red onion, sliced soused herring, and Stokes Beetroot Relish.

The earthy shards of beetroot, simmered in a sweet red wine sauce, add intense flavours to layer the salad.

If you swap herring for mackerel, our Mustard & Dill Sauce is the one to go for because of its tangy gentle mustard and aromatic chopped dill.The fruits mentioned earlier were tomatoes and peppers of course, but sweet fruits add a dynamic to salads like nothing else. The contrast of watermelon with sharp balsamic vinegar makes a sensational combination in a refreshing summer salad.

Walnuts, fruits, leaves, crumbly cheese and a good French mustard dressing could be the star of any summer platter – see the recipe below.

Choosing the right oil to dress a salad is a matter of personal taste and of course, budget. A good extra virgin olive oil is a traditional winner. I’m tending to switch to the nutty flavour of a good British Rapeseed Oil these days.Classic Salad Dressing

120ml olive of rapeseed oil; 2 teaspoons of Stokes Classic English or Dijon Mustard; a dash of cider vinegar, pinch of caster sugar, twist of salt and splash of orange juice.

Whisk well together and drizzle with a satisfying smile.TIP: Save your Bart or Schwartz spice or herb jars when finished. Put your dressing ingredients in the jar, shake well and serve.

They’re so useful for adding variations to the classic dressing theme.

Add a crushed clove of garlic for instance. Try adding our Sweet Chilli Sauce for a zingy chilli finish. Using Stokes Bloody Mary Ketchup shaken and drizzled into a bowl of tomatoes helps release the intensity of their natural flavour.The absolute, classically satisfying, Caesar Salad. Just add Stokes Caesar Dressing. Couldn’t be simpler.

Both Feta and Goat cheese make perfect additions to a salad, but which, and why?

For most of us it’s a question of taste, with Goat or Chèvre, being an acquired taste, and Feta being allied to Greek Salads and little else.A little-known fact is that both use goat’s milk although some Greek Feta cheeses mix goat and sheep.

Feta is a semi hard cheese, difficult (impossible) to spread but slices and crumbles well. It is salty and tangy together, ranging from mild to often quite sharp. You can literally crumble it over a salad as you might twist a little salt creating outbursts of salty delight against cucumber, olives, tomatoes etc.Goat cheese ranges from soft and fresh to hard and aged. Most common varieties are semi soft, can be crumbled but can also be spread, on toasted ciabatta for instance. Harder versions can be grated like Parmesan cheese, so across the range there’s so much variety.

To describe its taste is difficult because of the range but it’s generally tart, earthy and a little gamy.A big difference between the two is that Goat is a perfect pairing for – well, pears.

Fruit and goat cheese sit well together, figs in particular, which is why our Fig Relish is a perfect partner.

Enjoy the recipe for  these Goat Cheese & Fig Relish Spring Rolls – HERE.

“Salad days” is a Shakespearean idiom referring to a period of carefree innocence, idealism, and pleasure associated with youth.

The modern use describes a heyday, when a person is/was at the peak of their abilities, while not necessarily a youth.

The best known use of the expression in the UK is from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Christmas Message, 2013:

“When I was 21, I pledged my life to the service of our people and I asked for God’s help to make good that vow. Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgment, I do not regret nor retract one word of it.”

And, although the lyrics don’t include the words ‘salad days’, the song reflects the move from carefree innocence to mature reality. Enjoy.