Friday, January 4, 2008

I heard they make good cigars...


…But they make great salads

OK…if nothing else this has to win for “Best Picture I’ve Ever Taken of Food” Oh…man I get hungry all over again looking at that.

This is a Cuban Salad that I found on www.epicurious.com . It was so simple it’s almost embarrassing! First I cut up different colored bell peppers, and sliced up some Mayan Sweet onions. I dumped 4 cans of drained Garbanzo Beans in a bowl, next 3 cans of Goya Octopus in garlic sauce, added the onions and peppers, and a little rice wine vinegar. I seasoned with some red pepper flakes, coarse salt, and freshly ground pepper, then I squeezed a half a lime over it, and garnished with slices of the other half of the lime. This has to be mixed up periodically to keep the juices from settling on the bottom, and is best if made the night before.

I brought this to Bible Study a few weeks before this blog started, and I was disappointed that I didn’t get a picture. My “re-make” came when they asked us to bring a dish to pass to work for our pot-luck.

This salad is not for people who are afraid that their seafood will actually taste like seafood. Canned octopus has a very pleasant taste that flavors the whole salad, but is not for the “fishy sissy”. The salad looks wonderful when it’s served. It’s colorful, and it has many textures that make it not only delicious, but very fun to present to those who are not afraid of new tastes.

For the most part I got pretty good reactions to the salad. One person didn’t realize that there was octopus in the salad, and didn’t appreciate the surprise too well, but I got many compliments. Although I love the taste of this salad, to me it is all about the textures that it combines. Between the starchy garbanzo beans, the crisp onions and peppers, and the chewy octopus, this salad is one of my favorite recipes of questionable taste.

If you tried it I’d like to hear what you thought…