Ingredient: Lettuce or leaves
Category: Vegetables - Salad
Season: All
Lettuce
The Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae.
It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable.
In many countries, it is typically eaten cold and raw, in salads, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes.
In some places, including China, lettuce is typically eaten cooked and use of the stem is as important as use of the leaf.
Both the English name and the Latin name of the genus are ultimately derived from lac, the Latin word for “milk”, referring to the plant’s milky juice.
Mild in flavour, it has been described over the centuries as a cooling counter balance to other ingredients in a salad
There are six commonly recognised Cultivar Groups of lettuce which are ordered here by head formation and leaf structure; there are hundreds of cultivars of lettuce selected for leaf shape and colour, as well as extended field and shelf life, within each of these Cultivar Groups:
Butterhead, also called Boston or Bibb, forms loose heads; it has a buttery texture. Butterhead cultivars are most popular in Europe.
Chinese lettuce types generally have long, sword-shaped, non-head-forming leaves, with a bitter and robust flavour unlike Western types, appropriate for use in stir-fried dishes and stews.
Chinese lettuce cultivars are divided into “stem-use” types (called celtuce in English), and “leaf-use” types such as youmaicai (Chinese: pinyin: yóumàicài) or shengcai.
Crisphead, also called Iceberg, which form tight, dense heads that resemble cabbage.
They are generally the mildest of the lettuces, valued more for their crunchy texture than for flavour.
Cultivars of iceberg lettuce are the most familiar lettuces in the USA.
The name Iceberg comes from the way the lettuce was transported in the US starting in the 1920s on train-wagons covered in crushed ice, making them look like icebergs.
Looseleaf, have tender, delicate and mildly flavoured leaves.
This group comprises oak leaf and lollo rosso lettuces.
Romaine, also called Cos, is a head-forming type with elongated leaves.
Summer Crisp also called Batavian, which form moderately dense heads with a crunchy texture.
This type is intermediate between iceberg and loose-leaf types.
Some lettuces, especially iceberg, have been specifically bred to remove the bitterness from their leaves.
These lettuces have a high water content with very little nutrient value.
The more bitter lettuces, the ones with pigmented leaves contain antioxidants.
All lettuces and salad leaves should be eaten as fresh as possible.
Storing
The best way to store lettuce is to remove the root.
otherwise leave them whole and enclose them in a polythene bag in the lowest part of the fridge.
Preparing lettuce
Washing should be avoided if possible, as once the leaves are wet it’s difficult to dry them again and you simply can’t get dressing on to wet salad leaves.
Take a damp piece of kitchen paper and wipe each leaf, the lettuce leaves remain dry and can more easily be coated with dressing.
If you have to wash the leaves:
Plunge the separated leaves briefly into cold water and place them in a salad basket,
Either hang them up after a good shaking or else swing the basket round and round outdoors.
Finish off by drying the leaves carefully with kitchen paper.
Never use a knife when you prepare lettuce, because cutting tends to brown the edges of the leaves, use your hands to tear them.
Breaking up the leaves too soon can cause them to go limp quickly , always leave them whole, if possible, until you’re ready to serve the salad.
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