Salads: Chicken, Tuna, and Couscous

Sometimes after Wife goes to bed at night, I pick up a book to read. Sometimes it's intellectual, like "Guns, Germs, and Steel", and other times it's a thriller like "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". But every so often, I reach for a cookbook. Yes, a cookbook. I know what you're thinking, this guy's a weirdo. While that may be true, I'm a damn good cook and you're reading this blog after all, aren't you?

My favorite cookbook to read is "Ad Hoc at Home" by Thomas Keller. It's big, has a great mix of simple and complex recipes, gorgeous pictures, and helpful diagrams. As I was perusing this one night while Wife was sleeping, I saw the most beautiful whole-roasted chicken and I drifted off to sleep dreaming of its golden-roasted skin and light garlicky flavor. A couple weeks later, Wife had the idea to get a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store to make Chicken Salad. I showed her the recipe and we decided to just roast one ourselves (more on the roasting process later). It was fate, I knew it.

You can see we have more than one salad recipe in this post. After we made the Chicken Salad, we got a little salad-obsessed. Lucky for you, we decided to share.

Mom's Chicken Salad

by Diane

2 pounds cooked, shredded chicken

1 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1-2 large bunches of red grapes, halved

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

1/4 large red onion, minced

1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Add more mayonnaise or thin out with a splash of milk, depending on how creamy you'd like it. Adjust all other ingredients to taste.

Spoon onto a piece of your favorite bread and serve with a pickle.

Mediterranean Tuna Salad

by Mark Bittman

Two 6-ounce cans tuna, preferably packed in olive oil, drained

Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

1 small shallot, minced

2 tablespoons capers, rinsed, drained, and chopped

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

3 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1-2 more if using water-packed tuna

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Serve with a piece of romaine lettuce on naan or a pita, and some little cornichons on the side. 

Zucchini and Couscous Salad

1 medium zucchini, cut finely into rounds

1/2 sweet onion, chopped into thin strips

8 ounces uncooked Israeli couscous or grains blend

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

Salt and pepper, to taste

Bring chicken broth to a boil in a small saucepan. Add 1/2 tablespoon of butter and the couscous and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium skillet and cook onions for about 3-4 minutes. Add zucchini to onions and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the zucchini; they are done when still slightly crunchy.

Add couscous to the vegetable mix and stir together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve while still hot.

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Brown Sugar and Citrus Salmon (plus Biscotti for dessert)

Hubby and I have been eating primarily vegetarian meals lately, mostly because we're too cheap to keep buying expensive meat. The other night we decided to have a nice date and indulge ourselves in a couple of beautiful wild salmon filets. YUM. (We also indulged in a dessert and some champagne...so much for that diet...)

We have made this salmon recipe before and keep going back to it whenever we are lucky enough to have good salmon. It's so simple but seriously so delicious. We ate it with some broccoli and some really nice couscous made with vegetable broth and minced carrots and onions. Paired with an Austrian champagne bought in the summer of 2008 (yes, we've been saving it this long, I have no idea why), it turned out to be quite the meal!



Broiled Salmon with a Citrus Glaze

by Alton Brown

One 1 1/2 to 2 pound salmon filet, skin on and pin bones removed

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons lemon zest

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Place your top oven rack about 3 inches below your broiler. Line a small sheet pan with aluminum foil and place salmon on top. Put sugar, zest, salt and pepper into a food processor and pulse until combined, about one minute. Spread the mixture onto the salmon and let it sit at room temperature for 45 minutes. Turn the broiler on high and let it heat for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, place the salmon on your top rack and cook for 6-8 minutes (or until the thickest part flakes nicely with a fork). Allow the fish to rest uncovered on the counter for 8-10 minutes before serving.

Oh yeah, did I mention I made biscotti? Diet fail.

Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

via Gourmet, December 1994

2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup walnuts, chopped

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar together in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until fully combined. Stir in flour mixture until the dough is very stiff and hard to stir. Mix in walnuts and chocolate chips.

Butter and flour a large baking sheet, then flour your hands. Form the dough into two logs (about 12 inches long and 2 inches wide). Flatten them just a bit and then sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Bake for about 35 minutes or until slightly firm. Cool the logs on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer both logs to a cutting board and slice diagonally into 3/4-inch pieces. Arrange biscotti back on the baking sheet (cut-side down) and bake for 10 minutes or until crisp.

P.S. Photos from our photography field trip coming soon!

The Chopping Block

For Christmas, Wife gave me one of the best gifts I've ever gotten: a place in a cooking class at the local school called The Chopping Block. The class was called Simple French Food, which was perfect for me because as she has already explained to you, I love butter.

We started out the morning (yes, it was a morning class) with some truffle popcorn and our mugs of coffee as we trekked up to the humungous kitchen on the second floor of the shop. The kitchen was outfitted with appliances, knives, and utensils that only exist in your kitchen dreams. Chef Nick was our fearless leader for the morning, and he officially has the most kick-ass garlic mincing technique in the world (perhaps I'll post a video, but don't count on it).

We got cooking right away with another couple our age who were also taking their first class at The Chopping Block. Our menu consisted of a frisee salad with hazelnuts, goat cheese, and a dijon vinaigrette; cobia en papillote with leeks and an herbed compound butter; endive and fennel gratin; fig and thyme bread pudding. We had lots of fun putting together this awesome menu while learning a little bit more about our favorite hobby.

Take a look at the pictures below and you'll see what a delicious time we had!

They had plenty of steel to go around and some of the coolest knives we've ever seen.

The gratin being prepared by our partners, about to go in the oven.

The term "en papillote", or "in parchment", is a French technique that utilizes parchment paper to steam the ingredients inside to avoid losing the nutrients in the oven. This is me prepping my pouch with butter before putting the fish inside.

The cobia and the rest of the ingredients are assembled and ready to be sealed in the pouch (check out that compound butter on the top)!

Bad picture, but that's the finished product. I was too excited to eat this to care about the picture. Sorry...

The frisee salad

Fig and thyme bread pudding! This was not at all soggy and had just the right amount of sweetness. I think I've converted Wife to another dish!

We'll put up recipes as soon as we can. Until then, feast on these images.