You can win friends with salad!

Spinach salad with chorizo and chili-cocoa dressing

Paired with Dogfish Head's Theobroma

Chili-cocoa dressing

Rice wine vinegar
Salt

Your favorite chili powder

Yellow mustard powder

Canola or vegetable oil

Sesame oil, just a touch

Cocoa powder

Salad

Baby spinach, washed and dressed

Sweet potato, shredded and fried

Manchego cheese, shredded
Rendered chorizo

Carmelized pears
Jicama, julienned

Oh yeah you can win friends with salad!  If you do it right and put cheese and meat and fried shit on it!  Fail, and you may face a lifetime of ridicule and rejection. 

This is just as healthy as the image makes it appear, and also just as delicious.  So this all started with a day off and plans to go visit some friends for dinner.

I headed to the store and Theobroma was in my hand soon enough...ancho chili, cocoa nibs, annatto.  A few other things and I was back home, ready to start making love to some spinach with some things I had on hand.

You can prep this all ahead of time.  Be sure wait until just before serving to assemble and dress it because you can't win friends with soggy, mushy salad.  Everyone will hate you instantly for serving them a wilted, wet, one texture mess.  A great man once said "Mushy salad is the stuff from which enemies are born."  You don't want to die alone.  You want people to like you.  Just be patient about dressing your salads, and you will have a much more fulfilling life.

The pears can be carmelized in the fryer you use for the shredded sweet potato.  To make the dressing, start with the rice wine vinegar, some salt, a good dash of  chili powder, and a touch of mustard powder.  Start whisking in the vegetable oil to create an emulsion.  At the end, add the sesame oil and cocoa powder until it tastes impressive and worthy of approval.

Dress the spinach and top the salad with all the goodies.  Make it look fancy, but not pretentious.  You don't want to look pompous.  Match the occasion.  That up there, it's total casual.  For a really fancy dinner, I'd plate small servings on absurdly oversized plates and maybe make a cool design with the dressing.  Serve and enjoy a lifetime of approval from your peers!

Tonight, I succeeded.  And the beer pairing was excellent.  The cocoa really brought the salad and the beer together.  I didn't get much of the chili flavor in the beer, but it was still very good.  Smooth for 9% ABV.  The food we were served by our hosts was delicious too, so we left as friends and we were all spared embarassment and shame tonight. 

I can now rest my eyes, knowing that I will not be alone tomorrow.  You can win friends with salad.  Goodnight fellow food lovers.