Easy Zucchini Salad

This salad is delicious and takes 5 minutes to make. I got the idea reading a menu for restaurant week from Lupa Restaurant in New York City, http://www.luparestaurant.com/home.cfm Take a baby zucchini and slice into ribbons on a Benriner, http://benriner.com/ This is one of my favorite kitchen tools. It is how I get paper thin slices in a moment. and how my food takes on a professional quality. It is an easy to clean inexpensive version of the french mandoline.
Lay the slices over a plate of arugula. Then slice some good aged Pecorino also on the Benriner, over the zucchini. Dress with good extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of lemon juice. Finally grind a little black pepper over all and dot with Maldon Salt, http://www.maldonsalt.co.uk/. Maldon salt is chunky so just a little is all you want. It gives you a big salt bite but does not permeate the whole dish. Eat immediately before it melts for the best result.

Cooking Made Easy # 1

There is a trick to cooking easily and quickly. Make something, eat some, keep a bit for later, use it in something else. This saves time. It also saves all the little leftovers but because it becomes something else it is not leftovers and it is not boring. The trick is to learn what combinations you like and to be creative with what's in your frig. I am an old fashioned home cook and I have other things to do than cook all the time so I cook sequentially. What I mean about that is that on day one I might make a vegetable. Day two I might roast a chicken. Now on day three that vegetable I made becomes a side to the chicken and I might just cook a little rice. Learning to cook this way means you never become a slave to the kitchen for a whole day but there is always something around. Sometimes I do my cooking while I am having my breakfast..I find I have a lot of energy in the morning so doing a quick simple vegetable or making a quick marinade is not much extra effort and is a good type of multitasking. Breakfast time is a good time to make a little salad dressing..If I do it then I will have dressing for the week and salad making becomes less laborious.