Sinful Salad

by Dan Lefevre

Calorie counting is for wimps! If you're into tasty salads and care more about taste than a high calorie and fat count, then this salad is for you.

Just about everything goes great with a warm flour tortilla, and this fat-laden salad is no exception. Rich in taste and exploding with calories, you'll enjoy this combination as a delicious spread on any type of breading, but particularly on warm tortillas. The salad I highly recommend you make and enjoy uses the following ingredients: mayonnaise, avocado, corn, bacon, and fresh hard boiled eggs. Sounds good already, doesn't it?

There are two types of salads in this world: those that rabbits would love to eat, and those that are creamy and full of sinful calories. Which do you prefer? Most people of green, red, and yellow vegetables when they think of a salad; lots of lettuce, lots of juicy veggies (like tomatoes), maybe some sunflower seeds, and finally a teaspoon of salad dressing. But that's not the kind of salad this article is going to teach you to make. This salad is for the kind of person that enjoys egg salad, seafood salad, potato salad, and chicken salad. All of those types of salads use one chief ingredient other than the meat: lots and lots of mayonnaise!

Perhaps the simplest of all mayonnaise-based salads is egg salad; crack open a half dozen hard boiled eggs, cut them up, and then add several heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise and mix it all together. While a traditional egg salad is delicious on its own, you can take the taste to a whole new level by adding corn, avocado, and freshly cooked peppered bacon. But be warned, this type of salad is laden with calories and fat! Calorie counters should avert their eyes, and go chase down a head of iceberg lettuce and some low fat dressing.
 
Step one is to hard boil a bunch of eggs. How many you make will obviously determine how many people can feast on this salad (or maybe you can make a large amount of it and eat it all by yourself over a few days). Spread a single layer of eggs in a deep pan, and then fill the pan with enough water to cover them by at least one inch. Fire up your stove and bring that water to a boil, then lower the heat down to medium and let the eggs simmer for three minutes. After those 180 seconds have passed, remove the pan from the heat and cover with a lid. Leave the eggs in that water (and covered) for at least thirteen minutes. This will make perfect hard boiled eggs. Before you consider them done, however, it's always a good idea to crack one open and see if it's cooked to your liking. After the eggs are done, set them aside in a cold bowl of water to cool down.
The second step in making this awesome salad is to pan fry some peppered bacon. Make it crispy but don't burn it! The trick to cooking bacon is to remove it from pan the moment it looks almost done. This works because the bacon continues to cook after you remove it from the pan. The hot grease, even though it's cooling down, will cook the bacon for another few minutes. Place the bacon on a few sheets of paper towels to drain the grease.

Now that the bacon is done, let's get back to those perfectly hard boiled eggs. Peel them and slice them into small squares. Then do the same for the avocados (small squares), and place both of them into a bowl. Don't cheat and start eating! Wait until everything is mixed together.

The dressing is next. Add the mayo, drained corn, mustard, curry, and the chopped and diced tomatoes to a bowl. Mix together, and then add the lemon juice and bacon. Mix again. Now pour that creamy dressing concoction into the bowl with the hard boiled eggs and avocados. Mix together, and enjoy!

As mentioned in the beginning, if you heat up a few flour tortillas and spread this salad onto them, you'll be hooked for life on the extraordinary taste. Just don't tell your cardiologist - he might not approve!

10 hard boiled eggs, peeled
3 ripe avocados
2 large tomatoes
6 slices of cooked, peppered bacon
1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
2 cans of drained corn kernels
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1 tablespoon curry powder
4 tablespoons lemon juice

About the Author

For great tasting salad dressings, please visit: RedShell.com

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Ready to Eat Salad Is Likely to Cause Food-Related Illness

by Sarah Wilmcow

Ready to eat salad is considered one of the products most likely to cause food-related illness, said Professor Hugh Pennington, an emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland -- who worked for the British, Scottish and Welsh governments as an expert on microbiology and food safety.

His claim follows a Health Protection Agency investigation into an outbreak of salad-linked Cryptosporidium infections that affected around 300 people in England and Scotland in May.

In the analysis of the exposure to different salad vegetables a significant statistical association was found between infection and the consumption of pre-cut spinach. The strongest association with infection was found to be with consumption of ready to eat pre-cut mixed salad leaves from a major supermarket chain.
These findings suggest that one or more types of salad vegetables could have been contaminated.

That is largely because greens are grown directly in the soil, and some pathogens can only be killed by heat or strong detergents, not just water. Certain types of bacteria found in the ready to eat salad bags can be almost impossible to kill, unless the leaves are irradiated - a process the public would oppose.

"You could irradiate it - but that would be a `no, no` with the public. You just can`t be absolutely sure that the bagged salad you are buying - which has been put through a chemical wash to kill the bugs, is actually free of them."

Food pathogens are very good at clinging on to salad and the risk from cryptosporidium, salmonella and listeria is very real.

"I would advise people to thoroughly wash salad even when it says it has been washed and is ready to eat," Pennington said.

Vegetables are fine and safe if they are cooked in the traditional way of boiling them to death. The only danger comes when you eat them raw.

The responsibility falls on the people who produce food. But much of our vegetables are now grown in countries that do not necessarily have the same hygiene standards. The consumer has no way of knowing how the food has been produced.

Cryptosporidiosis is most common in children aged between 1 and 5 years, but it can affect anyone. People with weak immune systems are likely to be most seriously affected.

There is no specific treatment for cryptosporidiosis. Most people with a healthy immune system will recover within one month. It is important to drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration.

Cryptosporidium is found in soil, food, water, or surfaces that have been contaminated with infected human or animal faeces. People may also be infected by consuming contaminated water or food.
Source: http://www.haccpeuropa.com/2013/03/26/ready-to-eat-salad-is-likely-to-cause-food-related-illness/

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Food Safety Conultant

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