More Amazing Salads

I have always been looking for a good salad recipe to use up left over chicken. This Thai Chicken, Coconut and Coriander Salad with Crispy Shallots is the best one I have found yet. If you don’t have any left over chicken, poach the chicken in the dressing as in the recipe., Coconut and Coriander Salad with Crispy Shallots

Thai Chicken, Coconut and Coriander Salad
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
Fresh or frozen lime leaves
2 Thai birds eye chillis, lightly bashed
Small bunch coriander
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar, or brown sugar
2 chicken breasts, trimmed
40g toasted coconut chips (try Ocado)
½ a cucumber
3 carrots, peeled
1 red pepper, cut into very thin rings
1 lime
3 shallots, peeled
Sunflower oil
Sea salt

Place the coconut milk, fish sauce, the stalks of the coriander (saving the leaves for the salad), the chillis, the sugar, a teaspoon of salt and the lime leaves in a saucepan. Add the chicken breast and bring to the boil. Gently simmer to poach the chicken for 12–15 minutes or until cooked through. Remove chicken from the pan and rest. Turn up the heat on coconut milk and reduce until a few tablespoons remain. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Strain and add the juice of the lime. Taste and adjust seasoning. It should be fragrant, spicy, sour and sweet.

Meanwhile, shave the cucumber and carrots, leaving just the cores, with a peeler. Put in a large bowl with the coconut chips, the red pepper and coriander leaves. When cool enough to handle, shred the chicken.

Slice the shallots as thinly as possible. You can use a mandolin or food processor. Place in a small saucepan and just cover with oil. Over a high heat, stir the shallots frequently until they are golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on kitchen paper. Spread out thinly and allow to cook. Lightly season with salt and fluff up so that the shallots go crispy.

Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, and Parmesan

When you get to my age and you have been cooking as long as I have, it is really hard to find recipes that are fresh, exciting or different but this simple celery salad is really exciting. I’m not even that keen on fruit or nuts in savoury dishes but the celery, lemon and the chilli really balance out the sweetness. It made a very tasty lunch!

Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, and Parmesan
Serves 2
½ cup/large handful raw almonds with skins8 celery stalks, thinly sliced on a diagonal, use leaves too
6 dates, pitted, coarsely chopped
Zest of one lemon plus 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chunk of Parmesan, shaved
4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Very small pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Toss almonds, celery, celery leaves, lemon zest and dates in a medium bowl; season with salt and pepper. Mix the lemon juice and olive oil together well. Add a small pinch of chilli flakes and mix through the salad. Serve with shavings of parmesan.Add the chicken to the bowl with the vegetables and then dress with the dressing (you may not need all of it.) Pile onto plates and top with the crispy shallots.

Warm Salad of Avocado, Baby Spinach and Bacon, Poached Egg

Salad Tiede was all the rage about 10 years ago. Literally translated as “warm salad” it is one of those culinary terms which just sound so much more exciting in French than it does in English. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have to taste exciting. Super quick and simple it relies on really great ingredients to transform it into something really special, so use the best bacon, avocados and eggs that you can find.

Warm Salad of Avocado, Baby Spinach and Bacon, Poached Egg
Serves 2
8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons
2 organic, free-range eggs
Large handful or two of baby spinach leaves
2 ripe avocadoes, cut into large chunks
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Splash white wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Put a small pan of water onto boil. Fry the bacon in a little olive oil until really golden and crispy in a heavy bottomed frying pan. Remove the pan from the heat from the heat. Put the spinach leaves into a large bowl with the avocado chunks. Add the red wine vinegar to the pan with the bacon and allow to bubble away. Add a dash of white wine vinegar to the pan of boiling water, turn down the heat and carefully crack in the eggs. Poach until the whites have totally cooked but the yolks are still runny. Remove with a slotted spoon onto some kitchen paper to drain. Stir the mustard into the pan with the bacon. I should have cooled a bit by now. You want the mustard to amalgamate with the bacon fat and the vinegar, not cook. Season and pour the bacon and dressing over the spinach and avocado. Toss well and tip into bowls. Top with the eggs and a good grind of black pepper. Serve straight away.

Baked Eggs - No Ham!

Another food scare which once again confirms that we just do not know what is in our food unless we prepare it all ourselves.  Hugh, the other half, has taken this one to heart. Even though we never eat ready prepared meals he has decided to not only give up nasty supermarket ham (as I have been telling him to do forever) but to go from one extreme to the other (as always) and give up meat all together (apart from free-range chicken!) 

This is an admirable principle but since it is me that does all the cooking, one that I am obviously going to have to endeavor to cook on my own. Not that it is really such an undertaking.  We don't eat that much meat anyway, preferring to let the vegetables be most prominent and predominant. 

Plus, my current series of cookery lessons  with Riverford, are all vegetarian, so I am always looking for new and exciting ways with vegetables. The challenge will do me good. Hugh expressed an interest in some baked eggs but there are so many variations, it was hard to know where to start. So many countries have there own take. In France alone, they not only have Oeufs en Cocotte but I distinctly remember having to learn endless page after page of variations in Escoffier for my catering exams, from Meurette to Florentine to a la Truffe

Then there is the Basque Piperade - Tomato, Red and Green Pepper Stew with Eggs, or the spicy North African variation of Shakshuka.  Mexico has Huevos Ranchos which is a similar concoction but with the addition of a Tortilla, more of a tomato salsa than a sauce and re-fried beans. But there is no need to stick to a particular recipe - you can add all sorts of herbs or vegetables - Tarragon, broad beans, courgettes, potatoes or kales work particularly well.

If you don't fancy a tomato based sauce then they are equally delicious with Spinach and Parmesan or even some smoked fish.  And of course you could add meat - crispy Parma ham, bacon or Chorizo all work super well with eggs but obviously not if you are a vegetarian who only eats free-range chicken!

Shakshuka
Seves 2
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion (thinly sliced)
3 cloves garlic (very finely chopped)
1 (28 ounce) can good quality plum tomatoes
1  red pepper (cut into thin slices)
1 fresh red chilli (very finely chopped)
2 teaspoons cumin
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 handful fresh coriander (chopped)
4 eggs

Heat the oil in a all metal frying-pan. Add the onions and saute gently until tender, about 5-10 minutes. Add the red pepper, some salt and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Add the garlic, red chilli and the cumin and saute until fragrant, about a minute. Add the tomatoes and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20-30 minutes. You will need to add  a cup or so of water to stop the sauce over-reducing. Stir in the coriander. Check the seasoning and adjust. Preheat your oven at 180 C. Make a little well in the sauce, where you want to eggs to go and add them carefully. Put in the oven and bake for about 5 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs.

Huevos Ranchos
I like to make a huge batch of beans because I love them.  I use them up in Tortillas or Soup but you can half the recipe if you like.
For the Spicy Black Beans

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 Spanish onion, chopped 
3 sticks of celery, finely chopped
3 large garlic cloves, minced (about 2 tablespoons) 
1 to 2 teaspoons sea salt 
1 tablespoon Chipotle Chilli Paste ( try Trees can Dance)
2 teaspoons ground cumin 
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
1 teaspoon dried marjoram or handful of fresh oregano
2 tablespoons of tomato puree
500g dried black beans, soaked overnight
Small bunch of coriander, finely chopped
Tomato, Chilli and Coriander Salsa (Pico de Gallo)
Flour Tortillas
Nice ripe avocados

Heat oil in a heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat; add onion and celery. Reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes or until tender. Stir in garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add the tomato puree and the Chipotle paste, the salt, the herbs and spices. Stir and cook 1 minute. Give everything a good mix and add the drained black beans. Cover with cold water and simmer, uncovered for about 30 - 45 minutes until the beans are cooked. You even want to slightly over-cook the beans for this dish. Remember, they are meant to be re-fried, which is not necessary but they do need to be creamy in texture to bring the whole dish together. Taste and adjust seasoning.  Add more chilli, salt, pepper or cumin if necessary. Finally add the coriander.

Place your tortilla in an all metal frying-pan. Pile some beans on top.  Make a well in a couple of places and crack in your eggs.  Bake in a medium oven until the eggs are just set (or how you like them.)  Serve with plenty of salsa and slices of avocado.