Croutons….
The fresh salad greens I’ve have been buying at the farmers market the last few weeks have been truly excellent but a girl can’t live on salad greens alone. I like to mix things up a little by adding some very gourmet, buttery rich, fresh homemade herbed croutons into my salad. The boxed croutons are in my opinion, better for making stuffing, they are almost styrofoam like – once you have made your own fresh croutons there will be no going back…I am warning you now, it’s a very slippery slope. Now I must also stress here that the size of the crouton is critically important – using too many croutons or croutons that are too large can upset the balance of the salad and actually make it unpleasant to eat. If you are using soft delicate designer greens you need to make sure your croutons a small, tiny even and are sprinkled over the salad right at the last minute so they stay nice and crunchy. There is definitely an art to this whole crouton thing…
I think the best way to start is of course with really great bread and I happen to be partial to the Ciabatta from A Bread Affair right here in Langley http://www.abreadaffair.com/our_bread.html I like to heat up a generous mixture of butter and good quality olive oil in a large frying pan. Cut most of the crust off the bread and cut it into very small squares. Once the butter is melted and the oil is hot – add 1 clove of finely minced fresh garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Turn off the heat. Add the bread cubes and toss them well in the garlic butter. Toss in ¼ cup of finely grated parmesan cheese, ½ tablespoon of finely chopped oregano, ½ tablespoon of finely chopped flat leaf parsley, a few grinds of freshly cracked black pepper and a generous sprinkling of good salt. Toss the croutons so that the herbs and cheese are well distributed. Transfer your seasoned croutons to a sheet pan and spread them out evenly. Bake them in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes stirring them occasionally until they are nice and toasty…keep an eye, these little gems go from toasty to toast in no time flat! Cool the croutons and store them in a freezer bag or freeze the leftovers. You will be looking for excuses to add these tasty little morsels to just about everything!
