Grilled Chicken Salad from Martha Stewart

Oh my oh my. Martha Stewart. Just when I was ready and set to give up on you. Just when I felt like every recipe in your magazine required the purchase of either (a.) a new specialized baking dish or kitchen utensil or (b.) a farm in New Hampshire, you came through for me.

In the May issue of the magazine is the feature "Lunch in the Garden," in which Dana Gallagher rewarded several of her friends for helping rescue her weedy garden by serving them a delicious lunch that she made largely with the fruits of their own labor.

It was another one of those serendipitous moments for me. I was leisurely leafing through the magazine, just about to quit my Martha habit cold turkey, when I spied the recipe for the Grilled Chicken Salad. It listed several ingredients that happened to come in my box again this week (thanks be to seasonal cooking once again! Dana Gallagher's garden and the Abundant Harvest Farms both seem to have produce that understands it should be ripening right now. Those smart little veggies.).

Lettuce, peas, mint, lemon? I've got that!

This recipe is really easy to put together, especially considering lots of it can be done ahead of time. If you've been around here for very long at all, you know I love something that can be done ahead. There just isn't time between school and karate class and baseball practice and piano lessons and scout meetings to really dedicate any length of afternoon/evening to the kitchen. This salad let me marinate the chicken in the morning, grill it while I cleaned the veggies and whisked up the dressing at lunch time, and throw the salad together just in time to intercept the starving family as they zipped though my dining room. The chicken can actually be cooked at any time during the day and kept refrigerated until showtime.

I sat at dinner and ate and ate and ate until I was uncomfortable (which has been pointed out to me, isn't easy to do with a salad). It was just so delicious that I couldn't stop! I didn't know how I was going to feel about mint in my salad, but it was amazing! I am hoping to get more peas right quick so I can make this one again!

Here is the recipe just how Martha presents it. The only substitution I made was to use Romaine instead of butter lettuce. I think the butter lettuce would have been even better, but Romaine was what I got this week, and so Romaine is what I ate. I also cooked a little less chicken (feeding only five, rather than the 20 or so that seemed to be at the featured garden party). I loved that it called for both legs and breasts. The kids love eating chicken drumsticks!

Grilled Chicken Salad
from Martha Stewart Living May 2012

• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (from 3 or 4 lemons), divided
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic (4 cloves), divided
• 5 boneless, skinless chicken-breast halves (10 to 11 ounces each)
• 12 chicken drumsticks
• 2 cups shelled fresh peas (from 2 pounds in pods)
• 2 tablespoons minced shallot
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves, plus 1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves (from 2 bunches)
• 1 to 2 heads butterhead lettuce such as Bibb or Boston, trimmed and separated into leaves

Directions

1. Whisk together 1/4 cup oil, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon garlic. Pour over chicken, and refrigerate 2 hours.
2. Cook peas in a large pot of boiling water until just tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, and submerge in ice water to stop the cooking and retain color.
3. Preheat grill to medium-high heat or set up grill for indirect heat. Remove chicken from marinade, and grill chicken, turning often, until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees, 15 to 20 minutes for drumsticks and 20 to 25 minutes for breasts. Let cool, and refrigerate until ready to serve. Just before serving, cut chicken breasts into thick slices.
4. Whisk together remaining 1/2 cup oil, 1/3 cup lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon garlic, the shallot, mustard, salt, and chopped mint in a medium bowl. Arrange lettuce, whole mint leaves, and peas on a large serving platter. Toss chicken in dressing, and arrange on salad. Pour remaining dressing over salad.

Corn Fritter Stack

Meatless Monday took Labor Day off. Which is not to say that I ate meat. It is just to say that I didn't post anything about it.

I spent the whole weekend with my family at Bass Lake.

For those who aren't from California, (and for some of you who are but have never heard of Bass Lake), it is the best lake in the state. Or maybe the world, but I can't vouch for all the lakes of the world. Minnesota itself has 10,000 that I've never seen, for starters. It is located just south of Yosemite, right about here:

But Bass Lake is beautiful. The water is clean-ish (for a lake), the area is gorgeous, and the air and water temperatures make for tons and tons of hours spent tubing, swimming, floating, canoeing and kayaking.

But not cooking.

So, I don't have much to write about this minute. But I will tell you about these delicious corn fritters that I found on meatlessmonday.com. They should probably be served as a side dish or salad, but we ate them as the main course for our meatless Monday. Along with some potatoes and a green salad, maybe it wasn't the most conventional meal, but it sure made our bellies and our faces happy.

Corn Fritters

1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
corn cut from 3 grilled cobs
1 shallot, minced
oil, for coating the skillet
3 large tomatoes
1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves
balsamic vinaigrette

Combine the flour and baking powder. Stir in the milk, egg, corn, and shallot.

Heat a skillet on a stove set at medium. When it is hot, coat it in oil. Drop the corn mixture in approximately 1/4 cup mounds, and flatten with a spatula to about 1/2 inch thick. Cook about 2-3 minutes, until it is getting dry around the edges and bubbles are forming. Turn, and continue to cook about a minute more, until it is cooked through.

To serve, stack corn fritters, slices of tomato, and basil leaves. Dress with a bit of vinaigrette.

Quinoa Caprese Salad

For most of the summer, I spend my Friday afternoons at the pool. Quite a few mothers (the number ranges from 5-15 on any given Friday) and anywhere between 10 and 40 kids take over the neighborhood pool for a few hours. There is no structure to our afternoon... other than the fact that there are always more hot dogs than there are kids, plenty of junk food to go along with the hot dogs, and something a wee bit more nutritious for us moms to eat.  


If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time whatsoever, it will not surprise you to learn that I usually volunteer to bring some sort of salad or vegetable to our poolside potlucks. 


Last week, it was Quinoa Caprese Salad. I love tomatoes and fresh basil, and both are flourishing in my garden (and my AHO box) this week.  I decided to combine the tomatoes and basil with some quinoa to make a salad that would be easy to transport to the pool, gets better and better as it sits and the flavors meld, and is fresh and yummy. Of course, since there are always plenty of extra veggies around here, I added in a few others. Why not, eh? You can add more veggies if you have them, or skip some if you don't. I had zucchini, celery, and shallots in the fridge, so that is what I used. You could also add diced bell peppers, corn, parsley, peas, or really anything else you want. I don't think there is a possible way to ruin this one.

Quinoa Caprese Salad

1 cup uncooked quinoa

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 small shallot (minced)

1 medium zucchini (diced)

2 ribs of celery (diced)

8 ounces grape tomatoes (cut in half)

8 ounces fresh mozzarella (cut into small cubes)

about 10-12 leaves of basil, chopped finely

salt and pepper to taste

Cook the quinoa well ahead of time, to give it time to cool. Bring two cups of water to a boil. As soon as it boils, add the quinoa, lower the heat to low, cover and let it simmer for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, fluff it with a fork. Let it cool completely.

Stir the olive oil and vinegar into the quinoa. Chop the veggie and cheese and stir them in. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Chill completely before serving.

just peachy

I just can't get enough of summer! It is beautifully hot around here and I am soaking up the sunshine and the outdoors just as much as I can.

We are eating most meals outdoors, which means: less mopping and sweeping indoors, which means: more time outdoors! It is such a happy cycle.

I am also trying to do most of my cooking outdoors. I love my grill. It makes me happy. The kids are all around me while I cook, doing their busy kid things... riding bikes, kicking a soccer ball, climbing trees.

Today, it was grilled chicken breasts with peach salsa. I think I may have died and gone to heaven.

The salsa is sweet and spicy, tangy and fresh. It livens up the chicken (which I marinated in a simple olive oil and lemon mixture), and makes the meal really unique. As a matter of fact, I am considering buying a whole bushel of peaches and canning some of this stuff with the peppers and mint my husband is growing in our garden. I'll let you know how that idea pans out.

Peach salsa

4 ripe peaches

2-3 Tbsp chopped shallots

1 jalapeno, chopped (stem, seeds and ribs discarded)

Juice of a lemon

2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint

2 Tbsp minced ginger

1 teaspoon sugar

Salt and black pepper to taste

Just chop all the ingredients and stir to combine... at least a couple hours before you are going to eat it, so it has a chance to meld.

(This recipe is my own special little take on the one I found here.)

Real food, fast

I watched a cooking show once a long long time ago, and the chef (I think his name was Yan?) told me that when using my wok, the secret is to remember that it is "Stir-fry, not stare-fry. Keep stirring it, don't just watch it!" The trick is to crank the heat up all the way, and keep the food moving so it doesn't burn.

The high heat makes for quick cooking time, and that makes this meal perfect for a weeknight. Even a weeknight when you have to go to your kids' parent-teacher conferences, and you will only have a few minutes to get it all on the table when you get home, for example. You can do all of the chopping, and even some of the cooking ahead. As a bonus, it all cooks in one pot, so you will have very few dishes to wash.

Here's a fun story. In college, I had a roommate one semester who was an exchange student from China. All she unpacked in our kitchen was a wok, a cleaver, 2 sets of chop sticks, and a bowl. She was able to cut her food up, cook it, and eat it all with those four items. And everything she cooked was delicious. Even when she came home from the grocery store with a vegetable she had never heard of. "What's this?" "Celery." "Okay. It's good?" "I'm sure it will be when you are done with it!"


But anyway, here we go:

First, you want to chop up all of your vegetables and your meat. You will have a hard time constantly stirring, if you pause to chop in the middle of it all. The exact amounts don't matter. Event the seasoning can be approximated, which makes this very easy to cook.

Start by warming your oil in the wok, on high heat. Once it gets hot, add in a minced garlic clove, about a tablespoon of minced lemongrass, and a tablespoon of minced ginger.

Since you are cooking at a hight temperature, the seasonings will brown very quickly. As soon as they are golden, throw in all of your tougher, thicker vegetables. I used a shallot and two carrots, cut into 1/4 inch slices. You could also do broccoli, celery, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, etc. Whatever you have in your fridge is what you should use in your dinner.

Once the shallots are clear, you can add your meat. I used two chicken breasts, but you can add whatever you like. Keep stirring and cooking this until the meat is cooked through, about 5 minutes.

At this point, if you really do have a crazy schedule, you can pause and leave the rest for later. For example, you could leave it sitting while you head out to your parent teacher conference. If you are going to be gone for more than an hour, I would stick it in the fridge, but if it's a quick trip, just turn the stove off and go.  If you are going to a parent-teacher conference, though, I would either make sure you wear an apron, or change your shirt. That way, as you enter the classroom, you won't look down and see greasy garlic splattered on your front. Just a suggestion.

Now you are ready to add your leafy vegetables.

I very carefully picked out a variety of greens. Bear with me as I use their Latin nomenclature:

Clockwise, from upper left: red leaf with green stem, green leaf with white stem, red leaf with red stem, and green leaf with green stem.

Okay, I didn't really carefully pick them out. I got them out of my CSA box. Whatever they are. I am pretty sure the one on the top right is bok choy. The others? I have no idea.

Then I threw in another bunch of leaves for good times. This one, I happen to know for sure, is a beet green. I know this because I cut it off of the beets.

 You can use whatever type of leaves you want. If it wasn't picked out and delivered to me in my box, I would buy a head of bok choy or napa cabbage. Or even regular green cabbage. Do you still have half a cabbage left over from Saint Patrick's Day? Use that.

Don't spend time chopping these up nicely. They cook down so much that you can start with pretty big pieces, in any manner of crazy shape, and it will all make perfect bite-sized pieces in the end.

You may feel like you have a ton of greens, but it won't be soon. Here is my wok filled to the brim with the fresh chopped leaves:

And here is my wok a few minutes later, once I'm done cooking:

So, now that you have your wok filled to the tippy top of health and vitality, keep stirring. Cook this all until the greens are wilty but still green. That will take about 5 minutes. Then, put a lid on it, turn the heat down to low, and stir together some sauce. I used a tablespoon of soy sauce, two tablespoons of hoisin sauce, and a teaspoon of corn starch to thicken it all.

Once you have the sauce ready, stir it into the veggies and chicken, and serve it with quinoa or rice. Or if you are watching your carbs, just serve it as it is. 

Here is my recipe, if you care to try this at home:

Vegetable chicken stir-fry

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

1 Tbsp. minced lemongrass

1 Tbsp. minced ginger

1 shallot, chopped fine

2 carrots, chopped into 1/4" slices

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 head of bok choy

1 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp hoisin suce

1 tsp. cornstarch

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat. Once it is hot, add the garlic, lemongrass, and ginger. As soon as they are golden, add carrots and shallots to the wok. Stir these constantly until the shallot is clear and the carrots are tender (3-4 minutes). Add chicken, and stir fry until it is cooked through (5 minutes). Add bok choy, and continue to stir until the leaves are wilted, but still green (3-4 minutes). Turn heat to low, and cover.

In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and corn starch. Stir this into the vegetables and chicken, and serve immediately.