Salad recipes...

Roast Beetroot and Sweet Potato Salad. (foreground of lunch table)
Bunch of Beetroot - remove stalks.
2 large Sweet Potato (1kg)
100gm Chevre (Goats cheese)
Baby Spinach
Fresh Thyme and Parsley
Lemon Juice
Olive oil.
S+P

Fresh beetroot is best for this salad, so get a big bunch and give them a rinse and a quick scrub. Boil them in salted water until the hardness is gone and they are firm - a good way to tell if they are done when they are so hot is to get a kitchen knife and stab one - if the beetroot just holds on and slowly slides off it they are good to go. Get some latex gloves from your csi dress up kit and peel the beetroot, then slice into 8ths (wedges). Pre-heat your oven to full tilt. Peel and slice up your 2 large sweet potato into similar size pieces as the beetroot and toss all in a bowl with a tiny amount of oil just to barely coat the sliced veg. Spread your vegetables out in a pan so they are sitting off of the pan (like a lemon wedge sitting on its peel) Season with salt and pepper. Roast until the beetroot is darkening and sweet potato is golden brown, allow to cool. Wash and spin dry your spinach. Place roast veg. in a large bowl with spinach crumble in the cheese. Wisk together the juice of 1 lemon and 1 tbspn of olive oil toss the salad with the dressing. Tear up about 1/2 cup of thyme and parsley, crush it as you go. Mix herbs into the salad and serve immediately on a platter or shallow bowl.

Kipfler And Tarragon Salad. (middle of lunch table)
1kg Organic kipfler potatoes
Bunch of French tarragon
French Dijon mustard, 1 tbspn.
White wine or red wine vinegar, 2 tbspn.
Whole egg mayonaise, 1 tbspn.
Olive oil, 2-3 tbspn.
S+P

Wash and scrub the kipflers, slowly bring to the boil in salted water. The skins should start to crack and come loose, this is a sure sign they are just about done. Use the knife trick mentioned above to know for sure, but this time the boiled potato should slide cleanly off the knife. Allow to cool before attampting to peel the kipflers, remove the skins and give to a chook? Half the oversized spuds so all are evenly portioned, this will benefit the finishing of the salad. In a bowl wisk vinegar, oil, mustard, mayo and some S+P. Mix the dressing with the spuds and tear the tarragon leaves into the salad, if you like a drowning spud then mix another half batch of the dressing. I prefer a thin coat of dressing, but I am not a strong swimmer.

Salad hints: Always cover your salads with futuristic plastic food wrap and store in a cool spot (they call them fridges) if they are pre prepared. Dress your salads just before you serve them - as this will preserve the flavour and quality of the vegetables for as long as possible - this is because acids in dressings will cook anything in a salad and it will be limp before too long. Bigger is better when mixing a salad in a bowl - get your clean hands in there as they are the best salad tongs. If your mates are squimmish about clean hands on food, ask them which hand they wipe their ass with... That'll sort'em out! Transfer your well mixed salad into a secondary serving bowl.

All the best with these two salads. If your attempts were terrible and made you recoil in horror at the lunch table it is all your fault and you must have done something wrong!!

Bon (Scott) appetit mate!!

Giles