Chinese chicken salad

I've been wanting Chinese chicken salad for about a week now and although it's the "wrong" season for salads, I decided to make it today. I knew it was going to make a lot, so I invited my friend over to join me.

The thing I love about salads is you really can add in whatever you have and make it work!

Here's my delicious recipe for Chinese chicken salad:

Salad
1 C. cooked shredded or diced chicken
2 C. shredded cabbage
2 C. romaine lettuce
1/2 C. chopped snap or snow peas
1 C. chopped cilantro
1 C. chopped celery
1 C. shredded carrots
1 C. thinly sliced red pepper
1/2 C. diced scallions (white and green parts)
1 C. mandarin oranges
1/2 C. toasted sliced almonds
1/2 C. fried lo mein noodles, ( I didn't have any so I crumbled up a package of Ramen noodles and threw that in instead)

Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine.

Dressing:
juice from 1 lime
1/4 C. rice wine vinegar
1/2 C. toasted sesame oil
1/4 C. soy sauce
pinch of sugar
1 cube of frozen ginger

Combine all dressing ingredients in a leftover jam jar with a lid, shake vigorously until combined.

This salad was really a snap to make and feeds at least 6 for lunch.

Chinese for everyone

It's late and I've just finished catering the Burr Mansion Christmas Tree party with the catering company that I work for called Festivities. I'm pooped and didn't cook today. I ordered Chinese food for the girls and our babysitter. I did celebrate a special birthday yesterday with some dear friends and felt filled with gratitude for their friendship- it's so true there is no greater gift than friendship.

Anyhow, I wanted to quickly share a good vinaigrette recipe that I used today while having lunch with my friend and neighbor. It's a lime mint vinaigrette and very easy:

1/4 C lime juice
2 tbs. Dijon mustard
10 finely diced fresh mint leaves
handful of finely diced flat leaf Italian parsley
1/2-3/4 C. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
optional- shredded Parmesan cheese

Whisk lime juice and mustard together, add in mint, parsley, salt and pepper, and slowly whisk in olive oil. Season to taste and adjust olive oil. Dressing is very tangy and delicious and will keep in the fridge for a week, but trust me, it won't last that long. It's also good drizzled over shrimp, fish or chicken.

Ok, I'm off to collapse into bed. Have to prep for a 30 person cooking class/birthday party on Saturday.

Super salads

Did another weekend wedding. Here's a picture of me with 130 salads that we just plated. I made a nice lemon basil vinaigrette:

1/2 C. lemon juice
1 handful fresh basil or 4-6 cubes frozen basil
2 cloves garlic or 2 cubes frozen garlic
1/2 sliced red onion
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Add first 4 ingredients into a blender and when combined, slowly drizzle olive oil in until the dressing emulsifies. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

It was a beautiful sunny fall day here and we hung out, rode bikes to the beach and are planning to have leftovers from last night:
rice, green beans, carrots and coconut shrimp.

Will let you know how the kids like the "chicken"...

Do you chimichurri?

I am taping a television show tomorrow morning and was inspired by the recent successful inclusion of plantains into our home. I've included the recipe below for tomorrow's show.

It will air on Connecticut Cablevision Channel 12 this weekend under the What's Cooking segment.

I pregrilled the chicken today and prepped a lot of the veggies, as we only have 12 minutes (which, by the way is an eternity in TV time!!)


Springtime salad with grilled chicken, plantains and Argentinean Chimichurri dressing

www.timetoeat.info

For the chimichurri dressing

▫ 4 cubes frozen parsley
▫ 4 cubes frozen cilantro
▫ 4 cubes frozen garlic
▫ ¾ C. olive oil
▫ ¼ C. red wine vinegar
▫ kosher salt and pepper to taste
▫ red pepper flaked (optional)


Salad
▫ mixed field greens or arugula
▫ ¼ thinly sliced purple onion
▫ ½ thinly sliced red pepper
▫ ½ C. cherry tomatoes
▫ ½ C. blanched green beans
▫ ½ diced avocado
▫ 2-3 boneless skinless grilled chicken thighs (Perdue chicken strips could also be used)

Plantains
▫ 1 C. canola oil
▫ 2 plantains
▫ 1 tbs. kosher salt
▫ 1 tbs. sugar
▫ 1 lime


To make plantains:
Heat oil in a large nonstick pan on medium high heat. While oil heats, slice plantains on the diagonal 1” thick. When oil is shimmering, add plantains so they don’t touch. Cook for 5 minutes per side or until golden. Drain on paper towels and squeeze a generous amount of lime juice over plantains. Sprinkle with a pinch of both sugar and salt. Eat immediately.

To make the Chimichurri dressing:
Crush all frozen herbs in a bowl with the back of a fork. Add olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and a red pepper flakes to taste.

To assemble the salad:
Place lettuce in a bowl; add onion, pepper, tomatoes and green beans. Slice the chicken into strips and add avocado before serving. Place the plantains around the edges of the salad and add dressing before serving.

Redemption

Tonight's meal was a HUGE improvement from last night. This was the first officially glorious day in New England. It was over 70, and I sent my husband to fuel up the propane for the grill.
I had bought some frozen boneless, skinless chicken thighs from Trader Joe's and wanted to see how they tasted. Although I buy a lot of frozen veggies and shrimp, I don't usually buy any other frozen products.

In the morning, I took out 4 thighs and stuck them in a Ziploc bag with some soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, a little peanut oil and a drizzle of honey. When we got back from the beach, I fired up the grill to high, and once it was really hot, turned it down to medium. I placed the thighs on the grill, closed the top and went inside to assemble the rest of dinner. I peeled 2 sweet potatoes, cut them into thick fries, drizzled them with olive oil, cumin, a hearty shake of pepper and Lawry's season salt. They went into a 425 degree oven on a Silpat lined cookie sheet for about 30 minutes.

I also assembled a salad of arugula, frozen peas (they thaw in a few minutes in the salad), some feta cheese, and some diced cucumber. I made a quick dressing from the juice of 1 lime, olive oil, kosher salt, pepper and cumin.

Once the roasted sweet potato fries were done, I squeezed the juice from 1/2 lime over them with another shake of cumin and let them sit. I brought the chicken in, sliced it, and added it to the salad. I brought out some leftover whole wheat tortillas as the kids like them, and we ate our first meal outside.

My kids LOVED the chicken that we picked out from the salad, and ate theirs wrapped in a tortilla with guacamole (Trader Joe's and Costco both sell really good "fresh" guac-in-a-bag).

The next three days are supposed to be beautiful, I guess the soup pot will be replaced with the grill!

What are you doing with the leftover eggs?

As promised, here is the Tuna Nicoise Sandwich I did today on WTNH. It's a great way to use all of those leftover hard boiled eggs; it also makes a great salad over arugula for a crowd.

Nicoise Tuna sandwich

• 1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar, plus additional to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus additional to taste
• 1/8 of a small red onion thinly sliced
  black pepper to taste
• 1 6-ounce can tuna packed in olive oil
• lemon juice to taste
• washed arugula
  2 tomatoes sliced
• 2 hard-boiled eggs-sliced
• Niçoise olives, pitted
• Baguette
  
  Combine the onion with 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, red-wine vinegar, salt, and several grinds of black pepper in a bowl. Let sit for at least 10 minutes, can be made 1 day in advance.
  
  Add the tuna (including the oil) and Niçoise olives. Season with fresh lemon juice, red-wine vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.
  
  Slice baguette in ½ lengthwise. Scoop out a little of the insides of the bread. Add a handful of arugula, a couple slices of tomatoes, then add about half the tuna mixture and 3 to 4 slices of hard-boiled egg. Generously drizzle with a little more olive oil.
  
  *This sandwich can also be served as an appetizer with slices of baguette.

Dinner tonight was barbecued chicken drumsticks, steamed broccoli and egg noodles.

I preheated the oven to 450. Lined a cookie sheet with foil and laid out the drumsticks in a single layer. I doused them with barbecue sauce and baked them in the oven for 25 minutes. While that cooked, I steamed some broccoli and boiled some water for the egg noodles.

I also made a salad with the leftover marinated red onions from this mornings TV show, feta cheese, cucumber, tomato, a large handful of flat leaf parsley and romaine. I drizzled the salad with a little more olive oil, a healthy pinch of salt and pepper and the rest of the red wine vinegar that the onions were in.

It was an easy meal because the chicken needed no tending to and the broccoli and noodles cooked so quickly. The girls loved the chicken and ate 2 drumsticks a piece.