Week 5 - Salad shooter and margarita mix.

Week 4 got away from me - I have no excuse except I had too much food left over from the dinner party? I had spicy sauce on everything for a week.

However, it was finally time to experiment with the salad shooter! Some of you may remember the salad shooter from early infomercials; if not, see here: http://cooks-corner.stores.yahoo.net/pressalshoot.html

I reviewed all sorts of salad recipes, but decided on a simple cucumber salad. The experiment went well, as the salad came together quickly. However, I learned that the salad shooter is not for the precise - you get a lot of irregular shapes based on the circular form of the barrel - see above. I think the grater attachment might produce a little more regularity, though I'm not sure how I feel about a shredded salad, except maybe as topping for something? I also tend to prefer nice even slices myself, though I think these look a little like tropical fish, which is fun. Here's the whole salad:


I had another experiment for the week as well. In preparation for a party I'm helping host this weekend, I thought I'd find a way to make the margarita mix into palatable margaritas. The recipe on the bottle calls for three parts mix to one part tequila and then some ice. I decided to experiment with fresh lime juice, triple sec, and other staples to see what I could come up with, so Jay can go out and buy enough of whatever it is for the party.

The first thing I discovered is that I don't own a shot glass. I'm not sure how this could be true, but it is. I was going to use my tablespoon measure, but it's still covered in thai curry paste from the cucumber salad, which won't help (it's an interesting thought, though - would it take the metallic edge off the mix?). Instead, I found a little tiny wine glass that I used as decoration for my friend Lesley's wedding which was just about the right size. In order to get scale, I've snapped it with a real (regular sized) lime. Or is it an unripe pomelo? You can judge.

I started with three parts mix and one part tequila, the recommended mixture, which tasted exactly like tequila with a sweet tart, a little bit of asprin, and some water. Horrible. I added one-half part fresh lime juice and one-half part triple sec, which was still chemical-ly but better. After a few false starts (lemon juice, sugar, water, sparkling water, pomegranate juice, miso paste), I hit upon something: three parts mix, one part lime juice, a splash triple sec, and a squeeze of fresh orange juice. Then about one and a half parts tequila, shaken, not stirred. Quite good.

I did some quick math and can't wait to tell Jay that he has to buy about 66 limes... Ole!