Chicken and chores (1): Chinese Chicken Salad

I'm not chickening out with this blog, but sometimes my preoccupations lie elsewhere. Cooking then is done in advance for a few meals to have perfunctorily. I had chicken, I had veggies, so lots of things could be done. The Barefoot Contessa's Chinese Chicken Salad, a recipe for parties and 12 people seemed a good ticket to draw on a Saturday fraught with chores. I give original sizes. See my notes at the end.

Chinese Chicken Salad (From: Ina Garten, Barfoot Contessa, Parties!)

8 split chicken breasts
olive oil
salt, pepper

1 pound asparagus, rends removed, cut into thirds diagonally
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, cut into thin strips
4 scallions, sliced diagonally
2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, toasted

Dressing:
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, toasted
1/2 cup peanut butter
4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (I did at 180 °C)
Put the chicken in an oven pan, coat generously with the olive oil, and season with salt and pepper, roast for 35-40 minutes until it is just cooked. Set aside, until cool enough to handle.

Blanch the asparagus until al dente, combine with the bell pepper strips and the scallions. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, cut it in strips, and mix with the vegetables.

Combine all ingredients for the dressing, pour over chicken-vegetable mix. Lastly, add the scallions and sesame seeds. Can be eaten cold or at room temperature.

Notes
Great party idea, with some changes here:
I used small pieces of steamed broccoli instead of asparagus.
I used 1/4 of a red onion instead of scallions.
I used 1/2 teaspoon garam masala instead of honey (I never ever believe that in Chinese food sugar is original).
I didn't bother toasting those sesame seeds.
I used white sesame paste instead of peanut butter, and light sesame oil.

Steamed chicken and bell pepper

Like May, June will have its share of disruptive moments due to home renovation. The little cuisine we do, will be of the most light and easy kind. Taty's steamed chicken and steamed bell pepper are ready in no time. Light food accompanied by a tasty bell pepper sauce.

Steamed chicken and bell pepper

From: Cuisine nature... à toute vapeur (Taty Lauwers)

4 chicken breasts (with skin if possible)
salt
lemon juice
4 red bell peppers

I oped for orange and yellow bell pepper, to distinguish from the yellow bell pepper strips.
Cut 3 bell peppers in long strips. Cut 1 bell pepper in little cubes.

Steam bell peppers for 5 minutes, then add chicken breasts, steam for 8-9 minutes more. If you like, first fry the chicken in a pan in some oil to give them some color.

Bell pepper sauce: Blend cubes of bell pepper, a bit of oil, with lemon juice and salt. The result is an unctuous sauce.

Eat, then proceed having a mind filled with other concerns.

Two omelettes

Forget the ocean, though it's near. Forget the pizzazz of Silicon Valley. Sunny dust settles in the tiny farmer's town of Pescadero. The American flag stands exceptionally tall. At Duarte's Tavern, locals greet each other, greet the owners and have a second breakfast.
It's not yet eleven and too early for artichoke soup, though the kitchen is full of Spanish clatter. Pans sizzling and bread ovens warming up. I ordered the Mexican omelette: a perfectly folded thin omelette enveloping one long green pepper.
When I read Jason Epstein's account of making omelettes au bain marie, and over low heat, Duarte's omelette sprang to my mind. And when a friend gave me some very fresh eggs, I tried my hand at it.
As I prepared it without butter, my first attempt still ended up as scrambled eggs.
At Duarte's I had room left for Olallieberry pie, freshly baked and still hot. Thanks, Tea and Cookies, for luring me to the delights of Northern California!

Al fresco: springtime minestrone

Last week the minestra at an Italian local restaurant was not exactly the same as the one I had ordered there a few months back. On both accounts however it was greatly satisfying both to palate and the eye.

So it dawned on me: minestrone takes advantage of the cook's taste for color, his whim or the season's vegetables. This soup looked prim with its slivers of yellow bell pepper, a green leafy vegetable and soy sprouts. And it also had brown beans, chickpeas and white beans tossed in.

So after cleaning out my fridge first to be methodical about buying my weekend vegetables next, I got hold of some springtime stars -fresh pea pods! bright green-leaf paksoy!- and made my own springtime minestrone. I've posted the drill before.

To summarize my cues from The Harry's Bar Cookbook, here are 3 big steps:

1. Frying an onion for 10-15 minutes until browned.
2. Adding the vegetables and stewing them for 15 minutes with a bay leaf and seasoning.
3. Adding both broth and tomato paste, letting come to a boil, then letting simmer for 15' minutes. If the soup's too thick, add some more boiling water.

I quickly made my own 15' vegetable broth mainly with leek and winter turnip - 15 minutes is my favorite cue in soup making.
Then I was getting all geared up, realizing this could be my first evening meal al fresco.
The sun was abundant while I was chopping away. Here are my spring vegetables and legumes:
-leek
-green celery
-carrot
-1 tomato, peeled
-green peas
-1/4 huge red bell pepper
-pakshoy leaves, chopped
-1 new potato
-brown and white beans and a few chickpeas

Note: it was my first meal al fresco on a day without airplanes and a sunset tinged by volcanic ash.

Getting chummy with young herring

The week before an early Easter: fresh fava beans and green peas, daylight saving time, Spring cleaning, eggs, tulips, and fish with an MSC label - Marine Stewardship Council. The supermarket had MSC labelled young herring -maatje in Dutch- so this fish was game for lunch. Good fuel for the afternoon chores.

Young Herring (Maatje) Salad

Taking the three main ingredients from a salad by Michael van Straeten in his book Super Salads -chickpea, red bell pepper and herring- then doing my own thing.

1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
2 young herring fillets (2 maatjes), cut in pieces
1/2 can of chickpeas, rinsed well
1/2 cucumber, chopped
sesame seeds
pumpkin seeds
A few salad leaves
chives, chopped
argan oil (for its nutty taste)
pepper
a dash of chipotle chili powder (for oomph)

Arrange the salad leaves on a plate, and fill with the chopped vegetables, seeds and onion, which all have been mixed and coated with argan oil. End with the herring on top.

Devour, then continue working.

Paprika Chicken

Paprika is our word here for Bell Pepper, but also for the bright red and sweet goodie that fellow blogger Oleandri brought from Hungary last year. Time to put the spice to good use. For stewed chicken no one has been a better guide to me than Claudia Roden, whose chicken recipes are easy. From the book on Jewish cooking.

Paprika Chicken (Claudia Roden + from memory)

1 chicken, in four (or a variety of chicken pieces)
olive oil
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 big red bell pepper, deseeded, chopped roughly
1 big yelllow bell pepper, deseeded, chopped roughly
1 teaspoon of sweet paprika powder

Fry the chicken pieces in a pan in some olive oil until golden on all sides. Remove the pieces and set aside.

In the same pan, fry the onion and the garlic, and when soft, add the bell pepper. Stew for a bit, then add the chicken and the paprika powder and stew over moderate heat until the meat falls of the bones, and is done, about 45-60 minutes.

The bright color of this heartwarming dish and the sauce combine well with boiled potatoes.

Yummy dressing and a few useful cupboard items

White almond paste, white sesame paste (tahini), and peanut butter are my favorite items to make a salad dressing or to be used on a slice of bread.

I've made this potato and red bell pepper salad with pine nuts before, see link here, but I prepared it again with a dressing for which you need white almond paste. Almond paste makes for a slightly and naturally sweet dressing without use of something sweet such as vinegar.

Here's the recipe for sauce amandine from Taty Lauwers' book Cuisine nature à toute vapeur which I recommend (old ISBN number 2-9520338-1-1).

Yummy dressing: Sauce amandine

2 tablespoons almond paste
3-4 tablespoons tepid water
1/2 pressed clove of garlic
1 tablespoon parsley
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 shallot
some salt or soy sauce or tamari

Chop the shallot very finely, stir the water into the almond paste, then further combine all ingredients, stir well.

Red Alert: Sweet Potato-Red Bell Pepper-Paprika Soup

The best cooking experiences for me are like leaves in a dangerously warm yet stormy Fall: haphazard, from a recipe that coincidentally crosses my path. Here's a recipe on a notecard distributed at my food store for which I had all ingredients at home: Sweet Potato-Red Bell Pepper-Paprika Soup. This nicely thickish soup is the perfect red alert for the +6° Celcius weather that scientists ominously predict.

Sweet Potato-Red Bell Pepper-Paprika Soup

Serves 4

olive oil
1 clove of garlic, chopped
2 red onions, chopped (or 1 yellow one)
2 sweet potatoes, chopped
2 red bell peppers, (peeled and), diced.
1 clove of garlic
1 teaspoon paprika powder
freshly ground pepper
salt (optional) or some other herbs (thyme, rosemary)
800 ml broth

Braise onion and garlic in olive oil for 3 minutes, then add the sweet potato, (and dried herbs instead of salt) and stew for about 5 minutes. Add the red bell pepper and season with pepper, stew for 10 minutes more until tender over low heat.

Mix the vegetables, then add the broth, which has been heated before in another pan. Mix again to unctuousness.

Serve at once, sprinkle paprika in each plate for garnish.

Note: I have to go saltless these days, so I replace with herbs, fresh or dried. The original recipe adds the broth after the onion, and cooks the sweet potato and bell pepper in it, but I never follow that method. See my older recipes for soup to know where I get the mustard from.