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First, we think about what else we may have in stock that we would want to use up that we think would go well with the base ingredient. We had a shortage of ingredients on this front, as most of what we had in stock was destined for a series of catering events we had planned for later this week. Though we did have a little bit of extra shrimp, broccoli and some fava beans as well.

The next thing to consider is seasonality. What vegetables and/or meats are most in season right now? By choosing the ones that are at their peak, you can deliver the best tasting dish, and often times at the best price as well. The list of ingredients that are in season in early spring would be a post in and of itself, but i consulted a list of those to help get some ideas.

Good with arugula, good with shrimp... just all-around good!

The one that intrigued us most at this point was avocados. They go well with arugula, they are in season, and they also go well with vinaigrettes, which is what salads have on them. This also made the previous shrimp idea seem like a good one as well, since avocados and shrimp are a classic pairing.

So now we were starting to put a dish together. Arugula salad with shrimp and avocado with a vinaigrette of some sort. So what kind of vinaigrette? Balsamic would be too harsh and a raspberry may be cloyingly sweet. To balance these out, and to go with a light, clean taste, I went with my own lemon-lime vinaigrette (which I make with all lemon and lime juice actually - no vinegar...).

Next up, we have to consider the texture. (It's not all just taste people!) avocado, shrimp, small arugula leaves... This is one mushy salad we have here. We need something that crunches here. Had we used romaine lettuce, this may not have been as much of an issue, but seeing where we were, we needed something to provide some resistance to the teeth. Nuts are the most common way of accomplishing this task in a salad, and my first idea was pistachios, which I thought we had in stock. Alas, we were out of those, so I went with toasted pignoli instead. Just something to give it a crunch really - not a major flavor element.

So taste and feel were taken care of, now we had to think of how this salad would look. Plating is not my specialty by a long shot. I had the shrimp on the bed of arugula originally, but they were too heavy and crushed the verticality of the salad. So to make them weigh less, I split them in half. This gave me more surface area to work with from the shrimp, so I used them to ring the plate, and then put the bed of arugula - with nothing to weigh it down - in the center of the plate.

No wonder these things are so expensive - look how hard it is to catch each one!

I dressed the greens with the vinaigrette of course, and sliced the avocado thinly, and arranged it vertically around the arugula - pointing upward like a teepee. It is important to use an odd number of slices in a situation like this. Even numbers of items on a plate look weird to people, odd numbers look stylish - so I used 5 avocado slices per salad. Garnish with pignoli, and we were good to go.

The salad was a hit, and it looked great. The only thing we think we need is something red to make the colors a little more vibrant, but we don't want to use tomatoes. And red bell pepper slivers looked odd as well... So I guess there is still more work to be done on this.

And the fact that no dish is ever perfect - that there is always room to work on it more - is what makes this job so much fun.

I hope you can use some of these ideas next time you are looking to get rid of something from your fridge. And who knows? Maybe it'll be your next great hit!

When life gives you arugula, make some pesto! At least, that's what I've done in the past...

Your salad sounds great--though I was wondering what you were going to do to crunch it up a bit! I'm VERY sensitive to sogginess--so I'm glad that texture is something you're thinking about in the kitchen!

Posted by: bettyjoan at March 9, 2007 2:10 PM

Very cool.

The odd/even number of items was an interesting comment. I think it has something to do with plants. Normally the plants that we eat are Zygomorphic, that is, they only have one line of symmetry, rather than Actinomorphic (infinite # of lines of symmetry). When a plating is Zygomorphic, there is usually a "center" piece also in the odd configuration, flanked by even pairs of brothers. Maybe thats what makes it aesthetically pleasing?

Posted by: Chris Santoro at March 9, 2007 8:16 PM

bettyjoan - yes, texture is incredibly important. Everything from putting a small carrot stick or asparagus spear in a shushi roll to keeping my mashed potatoes chunky is all an effort on my part to make sure that food has some sort of "mouth feel" to it. I think that's why foie gras is served on toast points quite frankly...

Chris - That is a unique reason for why we like food in odd numbers. Very clever. The reason I was told was simply because when you put an even numbebr of items on a plate, the eye is drawn to the center. When you put an odd number on, the eye is drawn to the items themselves. I have no idea if that is true or not, but I have to admit, odd numbers of plate items (you'll also notice there are usually three overall items on a plate - meant, veggie, starch) almost always look better.

Posted by: Matt at March 11, 2007 12:24 AM

The odd/even thing is very interesting. I've noticed this before as well. I'm having a dinner party on Saturday night and have begun thinking about plating of items, but I'm a bit stymied because several of the dishes necessarily involve even numbers of eye-catching things (one course, for instance, will have two scallops, another, two lamb rib chops). Of course I can still plate other items to make the total items on the plate odd, but the even numbers of those central ingredients look terribly boring no matter how I arrange them (on paper).

And then there is the additional question of whether a sauce can count as an item for purposes of odd-numbered plating. Of course it would not if it were something like a vinaigrette on a salad, but what if it were a sauce in a contrast color?

The tidbit about odd/even plating is just the sort of culinary technique that I'd love to hear more of.

Posted by: Barzelay at March 12, 2007 4:08 AM

I can upload this pic as an avatar? Size is not big! I think it should work? Some help please?
Me in San Francisco2008

Posted by: Molirealala at March 22, 2008 5:32 AM

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