Sweet chilli chicken salad

Some people and a bit of salad

This is a delightfully fresh-tasting salad. Grateful thanks to chef extraordinaire, Miss Kate "K-Dog" Turner for the recipe.

Serves 10.

Chilli chicken salad ingredients

• I large bag rice noodles
• 2 whole cooked chickens*
• 3 red peppers
• 1 bunch spring onions
• 2 carrots
• 1 cucumber
• 2 mangoes
• 3 avocados
• I bag mange tout (snow peas)
• I bunch coriander (cilantro)
• Peanuts - about 4 handfuls (I have small hands. Maybe 3 handfuls if you have man-hands)
• A large quantity sweet chilli dressing

*Preferably, buy and cook your own chickens. As in, buy dead chickens then cook them. Though if you want to buy live chickens, spend time raising them, then slaughter and cook them, I take my hat off to you.
Instinct tells me the £4.49 ready-cooked chickens from Tesco probably didn't have a happy a life. If you didn't like the Henry Pig salad photo, consider becoming vegetarian. Personally, I prefer to know that my lunch lived a happy life before it was slaughtered so mI could eat it.

Sweet chilli dressing ingredients 

• Juice of 1 lemon
• White wine vinegar, or preferably, rice wine vinegar - about the same quantty as the lemon juice
• Sugar, or, preferably, palm sugar (1/4 cup), dissolved in the same quantity boiling water
• I dried chili, de-seeded (keep the seeds)
• Coriander powder
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 4 crushed garlic cloves

How to make sweet chilli dressing

1. In a small pan, mix together the lemon juice, vinegar, sugar in water, powdered coriander, fish sauce and garlic cloves.
2. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes, till it starts to thicken.
3. Add the crumbled dried chill along with the seeds.
4. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. 

How to make chilli chicken salad

1. Cook the rice noodles in some light chicken stock for about 5 minutes.
2. Drain and refresh under cold water.
3. Immediately toss in 1 teaspoon sesame oil, or, if you have some to hand, some sesame-based dressing.
4. Toast raw peanuts lightly in a pan then crush. 
5. Slice the peppers into long, very thin strips
6. Slice the spring onions diagonally into short strips.
7. Cut the carrots and cucumbers into julienne strips.
8. Cut the mango and avocado into thin strips.
9. Chop the coriander.

Lay everything out on separate plates and let people help themselves.**

**For salad club only. At home, mix everything together with the noodles and top with the toasted crushed nuts. 

Crunchy salad

Crunchy salad

Tonight I made teriyaki salmon with rice and a crunchy salad from the very few fresh vegetables I had lying around in my fridge. I wanted a tangy dressing to go with it, but since I didn't even have a lime I made this dressing out of store cupboard ingredients. While it didn't have the same zinginess that fresh herbs and lime would give, I think it worked really well.

Ginger and sesame salad dressing ingredients

• 1cm piece root ginger, grated to a pulp, which will give you about 1 teaspoon ginger pulp
• 3 tablespoons rapeseed oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon hot chilli blend (from a tube)
• 1 teaspoon coriander blend (from a tube)
• 1 tablespoon plum seasoning
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice 
• A few drops light soy sauce

How to make ginger and sesame dressing

• Grate the ginger finely. You wll end up with about 1 teaspoon grated ginger pulp.
• Add all the ingredients to a screw-cap jar and shake vigorously to combine.

I hate chopping chillies so always have one of those tubes of chilli blend and jars of chilli sauce in the fridge. While some recipes really do need fresh chillies, if you just want a little kick of heat, these work surprisingly well. 

Coriander blend in a tube, however, really is a last resort, and nothing like the fresh stuff. But its a handy thing to have in the fridge for coriander-related emergencies. 

I used plum seasoning (not sauce) to give a sharpness to the dressing. If you don't have any (and I suspect you won't, as I'm not entirely sure why I do) then use extra lemon juice, or, even better, lime juice. 

You don't have to use rapeseed oil either, but if you use olive oil use a light one that doesn't have a strong flavour. The sesame oil, however, is essential. 

Ingredients for crunchy salad

• 3 water chestnuts
• 2 spring onions
• a 5cm piece carrot
• a 5cm piece cucumber
• 1/4 iceberg lettuce
• 1/2 teaspoon each of white and black sesame seeds (or just use 1/2 teaspoon 1 type if that's what you have) 

How to make crunchy salad 

1. Slice each water chestnut into about 5 or 6 slices.
2. Slice the spring onions into 5cm lengths. Split each piece horizontally into thin slithers.
3. Slice the cucumber and carrot into thin strips (julienne).
4. Shred the lettuce into thin slices, about the same length as the rest of the vegetables.
5. Mix all the vegetables together in a bowl. 
6. Add a couple of tablespoons of the dressing and toss to coat the vegetables.
7. Lightly toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan over a low heat.
   If you are using white sesame seeds, they will turn golden brown so you know when they are done. If you are only using black seeds, just keep moving them around in the pan for about 2 minutes; they will start to smell toasted when they are done. In either case, do not attempt to multitask - you need to watch them all the time or they will burn. 
8. Scatter the seeds over the salad.

 

 

 

 

 

Apple and rocket salad

I'm not a big fan of courgette and so the idea of it raw in a salad has never really appealed. For some reason, however, I decided to give it a try, and was gobsmacked: raw courgette is sweet and creamy, a million miles from the bitter watery cooked version. It makes me wonder why we ever bother to cook it at all. 

Based on this success, I have decided to incorporate it into a variety of salads.Here's one I made today to go with some lasagne and garlic bread.

Enough for 2 as a side salad.

 

Apple and rocket salad ingredients

• 1/2 small bunch rocket
• About 4 leaves little gem lettuce
• I banana shallot, finely chopped
• A 5cm piece cucumber, cut into thin matchsticks
• A 5cm piece courgette, cut into thin matchsticks
• 1 small English apple cut into thin matchsticks
• A small amount of blue cheese (I used Gorgonzola)

 

Apple and rocket salad dressing ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• juice 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon grain mustard

How to make apple and rocket salad

1. Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a small screwtop jar and shake well to combine
2. Rub a cut lemon over the apple as you slice it to prevent it from going brown.
3. Toss the leaves in the dressing.
4. Pile onto a large plate.
5. Sprinkle over the onion, followed by the cucumber, courgette and apple. 
6. Break up the blue cheese into very tiny morsels and scatter these over the salad.

A few toasted walnut pieces would have worked well in this salad too, but I didn't have any.

Thai chili beef salad

Danielle and Courtney with Thai beef salad

This salad was amazing - I urge you to try it. 

It's very simple to make, only requiring a bit of chopping and steak frying. Even the dressing is effortless. 
 

Thai chilli beef salad ingredients for 12

• Fried steak, cut into thin strips.  
• 3 packs rice noodles
• I cucumber, cut into fine strips
• I yellow or red pepper, cut into thin strips
• I bunch spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 bag cashew nuts, chopped
• I bag ready washed spinach
• Mint and coriander, finely chopped
• Green and red chillies, finely chopped 
• Dressing: 3 parts sweet chilli sauce, 3 parts lime juice to two parts fish sauce

For lunch you only need a little bit of steak, otherwise you'd be stuck in your swivel chair for the rest of the afternoon, unable even to swivel. We used 3 steaks for 12 people. Last night, I used 1 rump steak for 2 of us.

Smoked salmon and new potato salad

Heaven, Courtney, Kate, Danielle, Yuki, Andrea, Gina, Joyce

The problem with writing up Salad Club recipes is that quantities are rarely specified. This means they can be little vague, although generally the quantities seem to work out fine.

This week, however, we had a large turnout, and thought a few extra potatoes were needed. We 'steamed' these in the microwave by cutting them in half, placing in a large tupperware container, covering with boiling water and cooking on a high setting for 10 minutes. I have to say they worked well. Thanks to Kate for the instructions on microwaving potatoes. . 

Smoked salmon and potato salad with horseradish ingredients

Enough for 12

• 3 packs smoked salmon
• New potatoes, boiled
• 1 cucumber, cut into matchsticks
• String beans (aka green beans or French beans)
• 2 avocados, roughly chopped
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• 3 bags watercress*

Creme fraiche and horseradish dressing ingredients

• About 500ml half fat creme fraiche
• 1/2 large bunch dill
• Small amount chopped fresh parsley
• 1 bunch chopped chives
• Rind of 1 unwaxed lemon
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 tablespoon hot horseradish sauce
• Salt and pepper

How to make fraiche and horseradish dressing

1. Chop the herbs finely and mix together with all the other ingredients.
2. Season to taste, adding more lemon and horseradish till the dressing has the right balance.

A word on watercress

*I watched some rubbish programme last week where James Martin annoyed me about how watercress was underused. Rubbish! Watercress is ubiquitous!

Watercress is a great salad ingredient but doesn't hang around in a good condition for very long. If you get it mixed with other leaves in packets from the supermarket its always the first one to go soggy. You end up either throwing out the whole lot or picking out the rotten watercress to salvage the rocket and spinach. Packs of just watercress from the greengrocer need using up within a day or two before they turn slimy and unusable.

Of course, watercress doesn't just belong in salads. Its peppery taste and vivid green colour can be turned into a cracking sauce to go with fish, or, my favourite, fishcakes.
 

 

 

Salad Club: Tastes of Morocco

From left: Kate, Peggy, Yuki, Danielle

I've been on holiday for a week and in my absence it seems that Salad Club was also on a break.
On my return, we have a Moroccan themed Salad Club.

I am responsible for the hummus and roasted red peppers. I do my usual hummus recipe.

For the roasted red peppers, I do some online research, and find that controversy rages as to the best way of doing this. Some roast the peppers over a naked gas flame. This seems like a tedious and slightly dangerous method to me. So then. Oven? Grill? Whole? Quartered? Who cares? Does it really make that much difference? The answer is probably yes. Having cut and deseeded the peppers and roasted them in a hot oven for about an hour, I took them out and put them straight into a tupperware box with a clip lid, thinking this would make the skins easy to peel off when cool. Wrong. After about half an hour I ended up with an incompletely peeled pathetic little heap of pepper pieces.  I swear, next time I buy them in a jar.

Sorry for cutting your head off Danielle

The rest of the Salad Clubbers brought in the following:

• Cooked chickpeas
• Steak
• Tomato salad
• Artichokes
• Lemon couscous
• Halloumi
• Cucumber, cut into chunks
• Salad leaves
• Steak 
• Chopped dill
• Chopped parsley

For the couscous (Yuki)

Add the rind of half a lemon, some thyme and Moroccan spice mix to the couscous then cover with boiling water and leave to soak for about 10 minutes.

For the tomatoes (Kate)

• Dice tomatoes and add the following:
• Garlic
• Parsely
• Dill
• Spring onion
• Lemon peel
• Cumin
• Ras el hanout
• Curry powder
• Nutmeg
• Red wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper

 
As for the quantities, you're on your own here - this is Kate's secret recipe and She. Will. Take. It. To. The. Grave. 

For the steak (Peggy)

• 1 kg steak
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed or very finely chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or more to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon chili pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cliantro (coriander)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil  

How to make the steak (as dictated by Peggy)

1. Stab the steak all over repeatedly with a knife. Pretend its that inconsiderate person that was taking up too much space on the tube this morning*
2. Dunk the steak in the 'marinade'. Apparently you are supposed to actually marinade the steak, though I have to say it worked perfectly well without marinading.
3. Make sure you poke some of the pieces of garlic into the holes made by stabbing the steak.
4. Fry the steak in the marinade for a while, then turn it over and fry the other side. My guess is as good as yours as to how long 'a while' is. The marinade will evaporate, leaving a paste.
5. Leave the steak to cool in the paste, then cut up into slices. 

*author's own addition.

All the homemade ingredients this week were exceptional, but the star Tosser had to be Peggy for the steak.

With thanks to article contributors Yuki, Kate and Peggy.  
Additional thanks to Yuki for HTML formatting help.

Salad Club III: Who is him? Greek salad

Today's salad is in honour of our former Greek colleague. We miss you, Nikki Papadaki.

Authentic Greek salad does not contain lettuce or chicken. For some reason, our version included cooked chicken, but I did draw the line at lettuce.

Greek salad ingredients

• 2 packs feta cheese (400g in total)
• 1 large cucumber, cut into cubes
• black olives, a large tub
• 1  red and 1 yellow pepper, cut into cubes
• 2 punnets cherry tomatoes
• 1 small red onion, very finely sliced
• 1bunch mint
• 1 bunch basil
• Cooked chicken

 
 
 
 

Greek salad dressing ingredients

• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Thyme
• Salt & pepper

 

Greek salad accompaniments to serve

Hummus, tzatziki, pitta bread. 


This week's salad club got a little out of hand. There were too many members (9) and too many slackers. We almost ran out of food and I had to send out rules. 

This week's star Tosser was Amber, who brought in home made tzatziki. Kate also deserves a special commendation for the salad dressing.




 

Salad Club II: Mexican chicken

Mexican chicken salad ingredients

• 1 whole cooked chicken 
• 2 ripe avocados 
• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes
•  2 Cos lettuces, or 1 Romaine lettuce (any crispy lettuce will do) 
• 1 small red onion 
• 1 tin sweetcorn 
• 1 tin kidney beans 
• Coriander (cilantro, I am bilingual), chopped (optional) 
• 1 quantity salsa dressing

How to make Mexican chicken salad

This is the easiest salad to make in the world, since we bought a cooked whole chicken from the supermarket. 

1. Pull the chicken meat off the carcass
2. Chop the tomatoes in half
3. Cut the cucumber into thick slices, then quarter the slices
4. Finely chop the onion
5. Slice the avocado into thin slices
6. Put everything in separate bows
7. Empty the sweetcorn into its own bowl, and the beans into another
8. Get Courtney to make the salad dressing.

Enjoy!

My version of bread salad (panzanella)

A couple of weeks ago we had the most glorious, searingly hot Sunday. With nothing in particular to do, I spent the day pottering between the garden and the kitchen, making salads and reading recipe books.

This salad is based on the classic panzanella (bread salad) combination. It is perfect for a hot summer’s day, especially with a chilled glass of rosé. 

Bread salad ingredients

• 2 large, ripe tomatoes
• Half a yellow or orange pepper
• Half a cucumber
• About 8 pitted black olives
• Small bunch fresh mint
• 50g feta, ie 2 slices from a 200g pack (Waitrose feta is delicious)
• ¼ to ½ small red onion
• Small ciabatta loaf

Bread salad dressing ingredients

• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Small clove garlic, crushed

Optional

• A few sprigs basil
• A few sprigs parsley

How to make bread salad

1. Heat the grill to a medium setting
2. Cut the ciabatta in half lengthways and rub with some olive oil
3. Grill for a few minutes till lightly toasted
4. Chop the tomatoes, pepper and cucumber into bite-sized chunks
5. Half the olives
6. Chop then onion very finely
7. Chop the mint and parsley, tear the basil (chopping will bruise it)
8. Add everything to a large bowl
9. Chop half the feta into small cubes and add to the bowl
10. Crumble the remaining feta and add that to the salad too

How to make the dressing

11. Put the dressing ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake to combine.
12. Pour over the salad and mix everything thoroughly.

Finally...

13. Break the toasted ciabatta into largeish chunks and add to the salad just before serving.

The dressing will make the bread go soggy so this salad needs to be eaten straight away.

Bread salad for lunch

If you’re making this salad for lunch, you will need to keep the toasted bread in a separate bag and add to the rest of the salad just before eating.

The bread can make this salad quite heavy so leave it out if you prefer.

If you still want your salad to be substantial, add a handful of cooked chickpea instead of the bread.