Side dishes are hardly the stuff of culinary news. Like caddies in a professional golf tournament, they are necessary, but not often noteworthy.
While sides are not celebrities, a good chef can launch them into the limelight, often using color to announce “flavor here!” Think of:
- Candied cabbage and plums to go with squab
- Beet varieties and citrus segments combined to accompany grilled salmon
- Different vegetable mashes/purees (sweet potato, beets, spinach) piped into stripes alongside a meat
- Mashed pumpkin with a squid ink butter sauce for black and orange, perfect for Halloween
- A molded combination of black, white and wild rice with bulgur wheat, toasted nuts, dried cranberries and apricots with chopped spinach or chard added in and Parmesan cheese to “glue” it all together.
- White rice cooked with chorizo to make an orange side to roasted chicken
- Chopped tomatoes added to couscous cooked in tomato juice for a red side.
These are just a few delicious examples I uncovered as I talked to chefs for the article “Many Sides of Color” for the National Culinary Review September 2011 issue (see the right side under “My articles--Colorful Side Dishes”). It offers more detailed descriptions of these sides, leading to some pretty professional, tasty entrée accompaniments.
Jody
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