Category Archives: Salads

Caprese Salad

How gorgeous is this? Who knew that my sister the OBS Housekeeper could make something so delicious and yet so casually arranged? Note that the mozzarella slices are not exactly the same size, and that the basil is scattered rather, shall we say, capriciously, and yet, there is a symmetry to the dish that pleases the eye. And of course the palate.

Did you know the OBS Housekeeper made this recipe up all by her little old self? Who knew she was so talented? I’m just a little verklempt here, give me a second….

Okay, now I’m fine. OBS wanted me to be sure I told you about the history of the Caprese Salad, which, in case you haven’t noticed, contains the colors of the Italian flag.

The History of the Caprese Salad

The Caprese Salad, or Inslata Caprese as we Italian affectionados call it, originated from the Isle of Capri in the Campagna region of Italy in the 1950’s. The traditonal Insalata Caprese uses cow’s milk mozzarella, tomatoes, and olive oil garnished with oregano and arugula. Elsewhere in Italy, basil is used as the garnish.

Tradition dictates that only olive oil be used in the Caprese Salad, but here in America, what do we care about tradition? We love balsamic vinegar, and so we use it.

OBS Housekeeper thinks I’m nuts, but I think the Caprese Salad was really invented as a homage to the big rocks of the Isle of Capri. They remind me of big mozarella slices. See?

The basil is the green stuff growing on the rocks. If you zoom in you can see it there on the big rock on the left.

Now, all that is missing are the tomatoes…

And there you have it! Thanks, OBS, for a delicious salad.

OBS Housekeeper’s Caprese Salad

2 – 3 large tomatoes
16 oz. fresh mozzarella
Lots of chopped fresh basil
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Use an apple corer to core the tomatoes. Slice them about ¼ inch thick. Drizzle olive oil over slices and set aside. Slice the mozzarella into slices about ¼” thick.. Layer the slices alternately on a plate or in a low dish. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over top. Sprinkle lots of fresh chopped basil over all. Salt and Pepper entire dish. ENJOY!

A Brazilian Thanksgiving Eve : Moqueca de camarão, Mango & Avocado Salad and Pudim de leite

I know, I know. It’s ridiculous. But every year, on the night before Thanksgiving, we have a dinner party.

You see, my friend Andy and his daughter are clowns in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. So their family stays with us the night before in order to be able to get to the parade on time (5:30 am for the clowns), and we all have a nice dinner together. For the past two years, our friends in from Maine have also joined us. It’s a wonderful, low-key evening, and I look forward to it every year. I try (usually unsuccessfully) to keep the fare light, and we all try to end the evening early so the clowns can get to bed.

Of course, part of the reason I can enjoy Thanksgiving Eve is that I do not have to cook dinner the next day. We head to Philly on Thursday morning, and tag team two family back-to-back dinners. (Don’t ask… ) I usually bake a pie and bring some sides, but that’s the limit of my responsibility.

This year’s Thanksgiving Eve dinner was a challenge. Isabelle cannot have anything fermented or with cow’s milk, and one of the kids is now a vegetarian. It took awhile, but I finally hit on the perfect menu – Brazilian fish stew (most of which is made ahead), and mango and avocado salad with a lime vinaigrette. Dessert was flan with fruit. (Oops, Isabelle. I got so caught up with the Brazilian theme I forgot about the milk. Did you even have dessert?) We served a white pinot, but I don’t know if this was the best choice of wine. Suggestions are welcome…

The kids set the table with the fancy dishes, and we put up votive candles all around the apartment. Emily S. Arrived early and helped us set up the appetizers (Thanks, E.S.!), which were crostini topped with chopped liver or white bean and sage puree, olives, baby carrots, apple slices, roasted peppers in oil and a wonderful sheep’s milk cheese from Fairway.

I had a great time. This year, the clowns were in bed by 10:30 – not too bad – and the rest of us hit the sack by 11:30. Thanks, Linda for doing the dishes. We missed you Sam, but hope to see you at Christmas. Happy Thanksgiving!

Moqueca de camarao (Brazilian Fish Stew) (See original recipe at Epicurious.com)

This goes down in culinary history as one of the best dishes I have ever had. It’s a great dish to make to amaze your friends, and so easy.

The original recipe calls for pureeing the diced tomatoes, but I chose to keep them whole. I’ve also re-written the recipe to reflect how I prepared it ahead. If you are making it just for yourself, and not ahead of time, use the Epicurious version. I was not able to find dende oil (red palm oil) at my usual sources (Fairway and Gourmet Garage), but am determined to get it before I make this again. I cannot imagine this stew could taste any better than it already does, but from what I have read, that oil puts the flavors over the top.

Sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
1 (14- to 15-oz) can diced tomatoes including juice

1 cup well-stirred canned unsweetened coconut milk (to be added just before adding shrimp)

Shrimp marinade
1 1/4 lb large shrimp in shell (21 to 25 per lb), peeled and deveined
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoons salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Last-Minute Additions
1 tablespoon dende (palm) oil
4 tbsp coarsely chopped cilantro

Accompaniment
Cooked white rice (I used Basmati)

Cook onion and bell pepper in olive oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened, 8 to 10 minutes. Add cayenne, 1 tablespoon cilantro, and 1 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add tomatoes and simmer briskly, stirring, until mixture is very thick, about 15-30 minutes.

Make marinade and keep, covered, in the fridge till you are ready to use it.

About 40 minutes before serving, start your rice cooking. Then toss shrimp with marinade in a large bowl, and let sit in fridge, covered, for about 20 minutes. (Not any longer, or you will have ceviche).

5-10 minutes before serving, stir coconut milk into sauce and bring to a boil. Add shrimp mixture and cook, stirring, until shrimp are just cooked through, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in dende oil and remaining 4 tablespoons cilantro and season with salt and pepper.

Plate individually, first putting rice into a small bowl, then inverting it onto the plate. Spoon the stew over the rice. Keep bowls of stew and rice on the table, though – everyone will want seconds!

Mango and avocado Salad with Lime and Honey Vinaigrette

salad greens (We mixed red lettuce with mesclun)
large ripe mango, halved, pitted, peeled, sliced
2 small avocados, halved, pitted, peeled, sliced
Juice of 1/2 lime
3 tbsp honey (Depends on how tart or sweet you like it.)
1 tbsp hot water
½ cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Whisk the honey and lime together with the hot water. Gradually whisk in the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss greens with ¾ of the dressing. Arrange mango and avocado on top of greens and drizzle remaining dressing over them.

Pudim de Leite (Brazilian Flan)

There are many ways to make flan. Some recipes use eggs, others add corn starch or use cream instead of milk. All start with caramelized sugar, which forms the base (and later, the top) of the dish. This is the Brazilian version, from Maria Brazil web site, with a few modifications on my part. You can use a ring mold if you are being traditional. I used a Pyrex glass dish.

1 cup sugar (for the caramel)
1 12-oz cans sweetened condensed milk
Equal volume of regular milk (use the can to measure)
3 eggs
1 quart strawberries, washed and drained
Lovely cookies

Place 1 to 2 inches of water in a large roasting pan. Place the pan in the oven and preheat to 325°.

Put the sugar into a heavy saucepan. Heat over medium high heat, stirring almost constantly, until the sugar melts into a golden brown caramel. (Watch carefully, it goes slowly, then turns color quickly.)

Pour carefully into pyrex dish or mold. (Listen for cracking noises as the sugar cools and cracks!) and spoon it a bit up the sides of the dish. Be careful not to burn the sugar and yourself. Let it cool.

Whisk together the condensed milk, regular milk and eggs. Pour this mixture through a fine sieve into your prepared dish. (This gets any little egg lumps out).

Place the dish carefully into the center of the roasting pan with water. Bake for about 1 hour. (You will know it is done when you can insert a knife inserted into the center without the custard pooling into the defect you made.) Carefully remove the dish, Let it cool to room temperature and then place in refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Just before serving, run the tip of a knife around the inside of the mold. Place a deep platter over the mold and invert: the flan should slide out easily. If not, give the mold a firm but careful shake. Cut into squares. Plate with a spoon of caramel sauce on top, two strawberries and a little cookie.

Serves about 10.

Category: Food

Sweet Potato Curry Puffs, Chili Fish with Sweet Lemon Salad

It’s only taken me three years to finally make something from Donna Hay’s beautiful cookbook Off the Shelf, which I received some time ago as a holiday gift from Irene. It’s not that I don’t look at the book – I do. The photos are gorgeous, and the food looks really good. Donna Hay started her career as a food stylist, and it shows. I swear, she could make a dirty pot look appetizing.

But the book is almost too gorgeous to be called a cookbook. It reminds me more of a coffee-table book about cooking. Think of a paper verion of Giada De Laurentiis’ show on the Food Network. I hate that show. It’s over-edited, over-produced, perfect knife sounds overlaid whenever she slices an onion, fancy angle shots on the food, that perfect little smile every time she looks at the camera. Annoyingly perfect. And nothing like a real kitchen.

But I do like Off the Shelf. Why? Because, despite the styling, the recipe ideas in it are wonderful. Really. And they’re different, yet often very simple to make. Recipes like warm potato and tuna salad, spaghetti with asparagus and lemon cream, salmon on fennel salad, crisp rice omelet. There are a lot of light recipes in here, too.

The book is organized atypically, if not exactly intuitively, according to category of staples that you might have on your kitchen shelves. (Some might argue that miso paste is not really a staple for most of us, but we’ll let that go.) Chapter titles are Pasta, Rice, Grains and Lentils, Mediteanean, Asian, Pastes (harissa, miso and curry pastes, mustards), Bake (flour, baking powder, nuts chocolate)and Sweet (sugar, honey and the like). Within each chapter, there is a section called Basics, then Tricks and Tips, then a whole lot of recipes.

Hay’s point in organizing her book this way is to get you thinking about ingredients in your cupboard not just as something on a shopping list for one recipe, but as inspiration for meals. That’s a good idea for cooks who might buy Asian Red curry paste for a single recipe, then stick it in the fridge and forget about it for a year. If you find yourself asking “What else can I use this stuff for?” then Off the Shelf is the book for you.

Every single recipe in this book has an accompanying photo. To make room for the photos, the recipes are written in the briefest of form, anywhere from 4 – 9 on a page. This means that there are few instructions. For example, the recipe I made last night starts out “Cook 1 tablespoon peanut oil, 1 chopped onion and 1 tablespoon Thai green curry paste for 1 minute.” Cook it where? On the stove? In the oven? And in what kind of pan? And what size onion? Now, I knew to saute it, and because I read the recipe, that I’d need a pan big enough to hold the sweet potatoes that were coming up next. And I used a medium onion. So if you know a bit about cooking technique, the recipes have all you need, and you’ll appreciate the opportunity to do your own thing without being spoon fed. But if you’re a fledgling cook, this book may not be for you.

One other thing – Quantities are often weight, not volumes. But I don’t mind that, I have a great little kitchen scale with a bowl attached. And I feel so European cooking by weight…

In addition to her cook books, Donna has a web site and a magazine. Her motto is “Turn simple into special”. Here’s a quote form her bio:”…cooking has allowed her to create a brand that is accessible to anyone who has a kitchen.” When I read that, I realized what exactly it is that annoys me about her book – she is using branding techniques on simple foods, selling us capers and flour and sugar as something more than the plain ingredients they are. She doesn’t need to do that, anymore that Giada needs to overlay sizzling sound clips when she throws a pice of meat into a pan. It’s over-styling. She should have put the energy into writing the recipes, as far as I’m concerned.

…But I’m rambling. The whole point of this post was to tell you that I finally got over myself enough to actually make a few items from the Off the Shelf, specifically from the Pastes chapter. I made Chili Fish with Lemon Salad, and served it with Sweet Potato Puffs. The meal was absolutely delicious, and my family loved it. The three items were a great combo on the plate and on the palate.

So now, depite my complaints about it, I’m totally sold on this cookbook as a great source of ideas, and can’t wait to make something else from it.

Sweet Potato Curry Puffs

These are like samosas. They have a nice bite to them. Since the recipe itself was written as a single paragraph with ingredients in the sentences, and lacked basic intruction or an ingredient list, I’m re-writing it here the way I think Donna should have.

1 tbsp peanut oil
1 chopped onion
1 tbsp Thai green curry paste
600 gm (about 3 cups) peeled and finely diced sweet potatoes (I used yams)
3/4 cup coconut cream (I assumed that meant coconut milk)
1/2 cup thawed frozen peas
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 beasten egg
5 inch puff pastry rounds (Sorry, that’s all she says. Actually, what she says is “Place [mixture] in the middle of 5 inch puff pastry rounds.” Not how much filling, or how much pastry. I’d say you need pastry enough for about 24 rounds, but have no idea how much pastry I’d need to make to get that. I used store bought pastry, got 16 puffs, and had some filling leftover.)
8 oz Yogurt
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint (or more)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat 1 tbsp peanut oil till hot, then saute 1 chopped onion and 1 tbsp Thai green curry paste for 1 minute. Add sweet potatoes and coconut cream and cook, covered, over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add peas and chopped coriander and allow the mixture to cool. (Actually, I added the coriander with the potatoes.) Meantime, roll out puff pastry and cut into 5 in rounds. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place round onto sheet, and place about 2 tbsp filling into it. Fold over pastry and press edges to seal. Brush with egg wash. Bake for about 20 mins till puffed and golden. Serve with plain yogurt blended with some chopped fresh mint.

Chili Fish with Sweet Lemon Salad

The real star of this dish is the lemon salad, so I’m giving it it’s own photo. It is absolutely an amazing little side dish that I know I’ll be making again and again. You can really use any Asian spice rub on the fish. It’s the combo with the cucumber and the lemon salad that makes it special.

Sweet Lemon Salad
4 lemons
1/2 cup sugar
1 red chili, seeded and chopped (That may be too hot. We used red chili pepper flakes, about 1/8 tsp)
1/4 cup chopped mint
cracked black pepper and salt to taste

Peel the lemons, removing and discarding the white pith. Chop the flesh into a dice. (Hard to do this without losing all the juice, so we just used a grapefruit knife to get out the sections and served them whole. In Hay’s book, it looks like thye used a tiny melon baller to get the lemon pieces.) Combine with sugar, chili, mint, pepper and salt.

Chili Fish on Cucumber
4 – 7 oz pieces firm white-fleshed fish (We used Telapia)
2 tbsp Asian red chili paste
2 tbsp cilantro (chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp peanut oil
2 sweet cucumbers, sliced to serve

Spread the chili paste on the fish and sprinkle with coriander. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. (We used a regular saute pan, and needed a little more oil) Add fish and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until tender.

To serve, place the cucumber slices on plate, top with the fish. Spoon some lemon salad on the side and serve.

Category: Food

Thai Salad Swings Both Ways

This particular evening, I was in the mood for Thai Beef Salad. But my eldest daughter is a vegetarian – I knew she wouldn’t eat it. So I decided to make two versions of the salad – one for the Carnivores (with beef), and one for her (with tofu). As it turns out, we all loved the tofu, Carnivores and Veggies alike. So the meat eaters mixed some of the tofu into our salads along with the beef. Luckily, this still left enough tofu for my Daughter the Veggie to take some salad to school for lunch the next day. And it tasted just great.

Thai Salad Both Ways

One of my all-time favorite recipes is the Thai Beef Salad from the Frog Commissary Cookbook. The Commissary was Steven Poses’ cafeteria-style gourmet restaurant cum wine bar/bakery that, along with its upscale companion The Frog, led the Philadelphia Restaurant Renaissance in the 1970’s. Some wonderful restaurants opened in those years in Philly, and put the town on the map forever as an amazing place to dine out. The Frog, Astral Plane, The Aspen Café, Judy’s, The Blue Moon, The White Dog, Jack’s Firehouse – Mr. TBTAM and I have fond memories of many wonderful meals at these great restaurants, some of which are still around today. (Not to mention Le Bec Fin…)

The Frog Commissary Cookbook features Poses signature dishes from his two vanguard restaurants. It is one of those cookbooks of mine whose pages are stained and torn, whose cover has long since come off its bindings, and whose recipes I return to again and again. The recipes are an eclectic mix of East and West with great appetizers, dinners, soups and amazing desserts and party food. The carrot cake recipe alone is a national classic. Poses designed all the recipes in an apartment kitchen, not a professional kitchen, and every dish is worth making.

The original recipe calls for already-cooked beef, so I’ve modified the recipe to include how I cook the beef and tofu for this salad. I didn’t have scallions, so I used red onion. My daughters ate up the cucumber before I could add it to the salad, and the bean sprouts were not fresh enough at the market, so you don’t see them in the photo. Otherwise the recipe is the same as the original.

Spicy Peanut Dressing
½ cup unseasoned rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup corn oil
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
¾ tsp minced garlic
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 ¼ tsp soy sauce
1 ¾ tsp Thai hot sauce or Tabasco
1 ¼ tsp minced fresh ginger
2 tbsp lime juice
1/3 cup coarsely chopped salted roasted peanuts

Whisk together all ingredients (except the peanuts). Refrigerate. Add ¼ cup peanuts to the dressing just before mixing with salad. Reserve the rest to sprinkle on top (see below).

Beef or Tofu
1 ½ pound sirloin beef (don’t slice it till after you cook it) or 1 block tofu (cut into 1 x ¼ inch strips before you cook it)
Peanut or vegetable oil
2 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp pepper
1 tsp ground fennel (I wanted to add some ground star anise, but didn’t have any)

Combine salt, pepper and fennel.

Beef: Rinse beef and pat dry. Rub in a little oil, and the spice rub. Heat 1 tbsp oil in saute pan till hot over med-high heat, then add beef and cook, about 8 mins. per side, till rare. Remove to cool a bit, and cut into 1 ½ x ¼ inch strips.

Tofu: Sprinkle spice rub over tofu slices. Heat 2-3 tbsp oil over medium high heat. Add tofu, and saute, turning once after about 4-5 minutes. Cook till nice and crispy on both sides. Remove to drain on paper towels.

Salad
2 medium-large cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and sliced into ¼ inch thick crescents (about 2 ½ cups)
¼ pounds snow peas, semmed, blanched 20 seconds
½ pound bean sprouts
1 ¾ cup julienned red peppers (about 2 medium)
2 cups finely slice red cabbage
1 cup thinly slices scallions (I used red onion)
Romaine leaves
½ cup chopped salted roasted peanuts

For the beef salad: Just before serving, combine the beef, the cucumbers, snow peas, bean sprouts, peppers, cabbage and scallions with the dressing. Plate the romaine. Arrange the salad ingredients atop. Sprinkle with the remaining peanuts. Serve.

For the tofu salad: Just before serving, place the tofu on a flat plate or low bowl and pour a little of the dressing on top to flavor them. Combine the cucumbers, snow peas, bean sprouts, peppers, cabbage and scallions with the rest of the dressing. Plate the romaine. Arrange the salad ingredients atop, tofu slices last. Sprinkle with the remaining peanuts. Serve.

Shrimp Louie Salad, Mac & Cheese

Every couple of months or so, my mother-in-law Irene, the Greatest Home Cook in the World, visits us. She and her husband Marvin never arrive without the Blue Cooler. And in that cooler they carry, along with Irene’s special cereal, Marvin’s buttermilk and a few tasty leftovers from their fridge, the ingredients for the dinners Irene has planned for us during her stay. These are often supplemented with items bought by us from the short shopping lists that Irene phones up ahead of time.

I long ago gave up feeling insulted that Irene feels the need to bring food along or plan the meals for her visit with us. I love her cooking too much, and just enjoy both their company and their food. Every once in a while I do put my foot down and insist that she let us feed her, but mostly I just join in and chow down. And what better treat than to walk in the door from work at the end of a long day, and find Iene in the kitchen, Marvin and my husband Paul setting the table, the kids happy and the smell of garlic in the air? If there is a heaven for working mothers, this is it.

This particular night, my in-laws were headed to see “The Odd Couple” with my kids, so dinner was “a quick meal”. Shrimp salad like no shrimp salad I’ve ever had before, and a test run of the latest macaroni and cheese recipe from the NY Times, served with garlic bread. (Susan, no comments please, you’re just jealous you weren’t here to eat it.)

Irene’s Shrimp Louis Salad

This recipe is based on the classic Crab Louis Salad, the origins of which are not entirely agreed upon, but which seems to have been created sometime at the turn of the 20th century in a restaurant on the West Coast. Some say it is named after King Louis XIV who was known for his enormous appetite. It is always pronounced Loo-ey. (Let’s sing it together, shall we? Louie, Louie…)

Irene uses Trader Joe’s frozen shrimp, which are really delicious. She keeps them in her freezer at all times. (One of these days, I will do a post about her two, count ’em 2, kitchen freezers and what’s in them… ) The amounts and proportions of ingredients will really depend on how many people you are serving and what you like, but do keep her proportions of the shrimp and celery, and obviously the dressing and artichoke recipes are made as written.

Ingredients
Shredded romaine lettuce
1 ½ pound cooked shrimp, cut into bite sized pieces
3 stalks crisp celery, cut up
Some sliced scallions
Louis Dressing (recipe follows)
Marinated artichoke hearts (recipe below)
Cherry tomatoes
A few hard boiled eggs, cut into quarters
Black olives
Cucumber, peeled and sliced
Red onion, slivered (salted or not, your preference)
Slices avocado
Lemon or lime wedges

Toss the shrimp and celery together with just enough Louis dressing to hold it together, really just a little. (You’ll serve more dressing on the side late, so keep it light at this point.)

Plate the lettuce on a large serving platter. Heap the shrimp salad in the middle. Arrange everything else prettily. Scatter scallions atop everything. Serve with lemon wedges and Louis dressing on the side.

Irene’s Louis Dressing
1/3 cup French vinaigrette Dressing (Made using the ingredients below)
– 1 ½ tbsp Dijon
– 1 tbsp Worcestershire
– 1 tbsp honey
– ¼ cup olive oil
– salt and pepper to taste
1 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup chili sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup sweet India relish
1 tbsp minced scallions

Mix well.

Irene’s Marinated Artichoke Hearts
Trader Joes again, this time a bag of their frozen artichoke hearts. (Manhattanites, take heart – a Trader Joes is coming to Union Square, finally!)

Put artichokes in just enough water to cover, with some chopped garlic and a little olive oil. Simmer till most of the water is evaporated and artichokes are tender. Add 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp champagne vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Cool before using.

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese (adapted from the NY Times)

Julia Moskin wrote a really nice article in the NY Times recently about her search for the ideal mac and cheese recipe. This was one of the ones she made. Some minor changes were made for this meal. Irene left out the butter and the extra cheese for the top, and baked it in a 9 by 12 glass baking dish instead of a smaller pan as called for in the original recipe. This change in pans results in lots of the crispy top and bottom of macaroni and cheese that is my favorite part of the dish. It was still quite rich, and I’m going to make it myself sometime soon using a little less cheese.

1 cup cottage cheese (not lowfat)
2 cups milk (not skim)
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Pinch cayenne
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
½ pound elbow pasta, uncooked.

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees and position an oven rack in upper third of oven. Use 1 tablespoon butter to butter a 9×12 inch glass pan.
2. In a blender, purée cottage cheese, milk, mustard, cayenne, nutmeg and salt and pepper together. Reserve ¼ cup grated cheese for topping. In a large bowl, combine remaining grated cheese, milk mixture and uncooked pasta. Pour into prepared pan, cover tightly with foil and bake 30 minutes.
3. Uncover pan, stir gently, sprinkle with reserved cheese and dot with remaining tablespoon butter. Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes more, until browned. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Category: Food

Chicken Salad Susan

“Am I the only one who sees the irony of this activity in relation to your determination to lose weight?” writes my friend Susan. “Reading this blog has made me go up a dress size! Paul has brought home great bread in at least two entries. How can you resist that?”

Of course, she is right. Having spent most of my post-childbearing years at a weight unspeakably higher than that at which I was married, I spend much of our mutual conversation bemoaning my condition and planning weight loss strategies. And then I go and do a food blog. With bread.

Fortunately Susan, never one to wallow in a situation, has a solution to the issue at hand: “I’d like to introduce you to the Cooking Light website. Make these recipes look as good as the one in your blog and we will surely be svelte in no time.”

So, Susan, I am taking your advice. Tonight I made the chicken salad that we made at your beach house this summer. It is the best chicken salad I have ever had, and it is low fat. Even better, the recipe is adapted from one in Cooking Light Magazine. So there.

I renamed it Chicken Salad Susan in your honor. And before you make another comment, I only put the roll in the picture to make it look pretty. (Actually, that’s a lie. I ate it.)

Chicken Salad Susan (adapted from Cooking Light Magazine)
I never liked non-fat mayo, but I swear in this recipe you cannot tell. I think it is because of the cilantro. And, for those cilantro non-lovers out there, it doesn’t really taste like cilantro in this. I have no idea why, but I promise you’ll like it.

3 cups chopped cooked skinless chicken breast (about 3/4 lb)
1/3 cup chopped scallions
1/4 cup fat free mayo
1/4 cup fat free yogurt
1 tsp chopped cilantro
1/4 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Combine ingredients. Serve.

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