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lettuce


idun
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How do you dry your lettuce, I bought my first salad spinner just after I moved to France and have had spinners since.

I have been to french friend's homes and they have a rounded mesh  basket, looks a bit like an egg basket... with big handle and they go outside and shake it there, big circular movements.

Would I use a tea towel......... or kitchen roll??????? I just wouldn't as I wouldn't think of it. The only thing I do dry in fresh tea towels is bonduelle's tinned macedoine veg, if I want to make up a quick macedoine.

Also, I was also told never to cut lettuce, but tear. Not sure if that is right or not, I do know that since I bought a non metal lettuce knife, it doesn't brown at the edges......and I wrap the rest of the lettuce  in aluminium foil before fridging it.

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I use both; spinner for large amounts and basket for small amounts.  And I tear all lettuce leaves but I like them to be bite-sized pieces because I HATE it when the leaves are too large to eat tidily!

I use kitchen towels to dab dry bulgar wheat for tabouleh; don't like couscous, the texture is yuck IMHO!

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I use a spinner which I find Good, but OH (who is a chef) tells me it bruises the leaves so when he's around I use kitchen paper or a tea towel that is only used for drying lettuce.

I tear the leaves, only use a knife to shred finely the leaves as we're about to eat.

Now another question, do you find that lettuce browns even if it hasn't been cut? I can't seem to keep any lettuce, other than iceberg which is not my favourite. I prefer the batvia and red leaves but they turn so quickly.

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Well I was told that lettuce should be kept in foil and keeps better and I have found that to be so.

I never spin so long that the leaves are bruised, don't want them bone dry after all[:D]........

I never used to like iceberg at all, but as others in the family do, would buy it and actually I quite like it now. I do like a little in a mixed salad, as it gives and extra crunch.

I have never had bulgar wheat taboule. I make taboule with semoule grains..... think that what is you called cous cous mint.  We love it, our son even snacks on it. Maybe it is the way I make it???? I have never used a recipe, just one of those things that french folk taught me, au pif.

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My take is that I never just eat lettuce on it's own, at all, and so as they are not the tastiest of things..... I would say that the texture is the important thing for me, and biensur a good vinaigrette.

I do put it in sandwiches which always have sauces in them too.

So,  I have not noticed any difference. And the frisee, which is bitter is just as bitter here too, and I always mix it in with other leaves, as I don't like it on it's own.

When we can, we buy endives here and they are just the same, poached or in salads.

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Thanks, you have just reminded me about cress, the little leaved stuff you can grow easily yourself.

I just love egg and cress sandwiches and haven't had any for a while.... funny how your forget old favourites sometimes, at least I do.

Fancy cooking...... lovely...... but some simple things are firm favourites with me.[:D]

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I find the choice of different lettuce-y things much more varied in France than the UK. In the latter, it's cos/romaine, iceberg, and normal floppy, whereas in France you have these plus chicorée frisée, oakleaf (green and red), and then "endives" both white and red (which both cost the earth in the UK).
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You lot obviously shop in different places from me. I can buy endive easily and inexpensively locally, and our daily salad is usually a mix of whatever lettuce I've bought which can be rocket, frisée, romaine, little gem, lollo rosso....

And I don't throw much away, which is seldom my experience in France, where I can buy a head of lettuce one day and find it rotting in the fridge by day 3.
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We bought some endives last week, and they were fine, but we both agreed, that it was the wrong time of year......... they were something that we ate in autumn in France.

I agree, lettuces didn't keep in France, the heat in summer meant that much fruit and veg and salad stuff, never kept long. That was the reason for our family I would buy one batavia at a time and unless I had lots of folks round, would not buy a selection.

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Only buy lettuce in the summer, and from the market if I can.  They go off or have no taste otherwise. Winter I like to use jeunes pousses d'epinard .... the advantage being that if they go a bit soggy you can use them as a veg.   I use a spinner when I do wash lettuce, as I always put a vinaigrette on it so bruised leaves don't matter to me.

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