Asian Chicken Salad

Sometimes good things can come out of rotten ones. This was the case the other day when my car battery died. My car battery dying is actually an ongoing winter problem for me. The problem lies with a feature of my car to prevent the battery dying, ironic I know. See if you leave the lights of the car running and turn off the car most of the time they go off when you open the door. Really it is a great feature, until the days that are so cold that the little button that senses the car door has opened freezes.

And really who wouldn't be overjoyed to have a dead battery when it is obnoxiously cold out? So most of the time I check on cold days to make sure the lights went out. Somehow this is preferable to me, better then turning them off and then having to remember to turn them back on. Well Wednesday I was in a hurry after parking my car, and anyway it didn't seem that cold. Actually when I went back out to my now dead car, it wasn't very cold, the snow had melted off the top. However the lights were on and the battery was dead.

So, after calling triple A I had a 45 minute to an hour wait. Thus my happy image of going to my favorite food store before picking up Julian from preschool disappeared. However we had just loaded a bunch of stuff from our storage unit in the car. I was so happy to discover the June 2006 issue of Gourmet in the trunk. This issue was from right before we moved, so I had never looked at it before. Inside I found an Asian chicken salad that provided inspiration for dinner that night. I had a very incomplete list of the vegetables called for, but that doesn't usually phase me. I also changed the dressing quite a bit, adding and subbing. The salad I made would not be recognizable to anyone reading the original, but still delicious. I only got to eat the leftovers for lunch because I beat Lewis to the fridge the next morning. The moral of the story is, if you have different vegetables to work with, go ahead and make this salad. I would not hesitate to make it with a green and some warm or cold roasted vegetables, or I would sub seasoned firm tofu or tempeh for the chicken.

Asian Chicken Salad

3/4 of a pound snow peas, trimmed and sliced into 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces

1 1/2 cups napa cabbage, shredded

1/2 lb. baby spinach thoroughly washed and spun dry

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp lemon juice

3 Tbsp fresh orange juice (I used a minneola tangelo)

1 Tbsp miso paste (I used white)

1 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp sherry vinegar (you can substitute white, cider, champagne or any other light vinegar)

1/2 tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste, at least 1/4 tsp

1 1/2 tsp Asian sesame oil

2 Tbsp grape seed oil (or vegetable or olive oil)

2 cups shredded cooked chicken from leftover roast chicken or rotisserie chicken

1/4 cups finely chopped cilantro

1/4 cups sliced almonds, toasted

2 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

2 oranges (I used minneola tangelos)

Cook the snow peas briefly in boiling salted water that you have added a splash of extra virgin olive oil to, until tender. Approximately 1 1/2 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Place in a large salad bowl with napa cabbage and spinach.

In a small bowl whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, orange juice, miso paste, sugar, vinegar, salt, black pepper, sesame oil and grape seed oil until emulsified. Mix the chicken with 1/3 of a cup of the dressing. Add the chicken to the greens and add toasted almonds and sesame seeds. Toss with enough of the dressing to lightly dress the whole salad.

Supreme the 2 oranges, doing the final slicing between the membranes over the salad bowl to catch the juice. When you have supremed the oranges squeeze the membranes to add the juice the salad. If you don't know how to supreme citrus good directions can be found here.

Cabbage Again

... or when will winter end? It is the first week of March and I am thoroughly sick of winter. I am ready to walk out of the house without having to hog tie my children into snow pants, boots, coats, hat and gloves. I am ready to walk outside without having to search for socks for everyone. I am even ready to hear the ice cream truck and tussle with my children over expensive corn syrup filled garbage. Mostly however I am ready for a new collection of vegetables to cook with and spring and summer ways to cook. However I still have winter CSA vegetables to deal with and it really is too cold outside for me to use my grill. So for now I still have to cook piles of root vegetables, cabbage and butternut squash.

As I stared at my cabbage I knew I could not braise it again. I find as the chef I get more tired of ordinary food preparations then anyone else in my family. I think that may be because I spend all that time preparing the food, while my family only encounters it at the table. So for this weeks cabbage I stayed away from any this winters usual methods and broke out my salad bowl. Mind you this does not mean I made a mayonnaise based coleslaw, somehow I have never liked traditional coleslaw. For the first half of the cabbage I made a Greek Salad. Green cabbage that has had boiling water poured over it mellows and gains a slight sweetness that makes it the perfect green for Greek salad. The second half of the cabbage I also shredded and poured boiling water over, the next day I made a variation on the Coleslaw with Buttermilk Horseradish Dressing from Deborah Madison's, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Greek Salad with Cabbage

The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines

1/2 head green cabbage cored and shredded

1 green pepper cored and sliced into chunks

1 cucumber peeled and sliced thin

handful of kalamata olives

Feta cheese sliced into small chunks

1 scallion sliced thin or some very thinly sliced sweet onion

dried oregano

1 very ripe tomato, don't use ordinary supermarket ones, it is better to do without

Greek Salad Dressing, recipe follows

Place the shredded cabbage in a colander and pour a pot of boiling water over them. This softens the cabbage a little and sweetens it while removing the sharp bite. Let stand for a few minutes until it is sweet enough for you, then rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

It is really best if you marinate the feta, onion, pepper and olives in enough of the dressing for the whole salad and oregano to taste for 1 hour before assembling the salad. However we were hungry so I just marinated it for a few minutes.

Greek Salad Dressing

3 parts high quality extra virgin olive oil

1 part lemon juice

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Mix with a whisk to emulsify. I used 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 3 tablespoons olive oil

Coleslaw with Buttermilk Horseradish Dressing

Adapted from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Dressing

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup sour cream or yogurt (I used sour cream)

2 tsp prepared horseradish

1 garlic clove (my garlic was a little old and became overpowering, this time I year I should have left it out)

salt

2 Tbsp chopped cilantro

1 tsp sherry vinegar (you may substitute fresh lemon juice, white wine vinegar, cider vinegar, champagne vinegar or red wine vinegar)

Combine the buttermilk, sour cream and horseradish in a bowl. Chop the garlic with 1/8 tsp kosher salt, smashing both with the side of the knife to form a smooth paste. Add the cilantro and chop and smash some more to bruise the herb. Add to the buttermilk mixture and stir in vinegar, adding more to taste.

1/2 head of green cabbage cored and shredded

2 carrots cleaned (or peeled depending on your preference)

salt

freshly ground black pepper.

Place the shredded cabbage in a colander and pour a pot of boiling water over them. This softens the cabbage a little and sweetens it while removing the sharp bite. Let stand for a few minutes until it is sweet enough for you, then rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

Place the cabbage in a serving bowl and shred the carrots on top, I just used a peeler and peeled them straight into the bowl, but you can grate them or slice them into matchsticks. Toss with the dressing and freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste.