Salade composee

As the rain subsides and the sun comes out, salade composee is an easy choice. In fact Kit ate salade composee most of last week, her choice being pasta mixed into a green salad, with the addition of grated parmesan cheese. Also croutons, a new favourite. The family salad dressing is given a twist with lashings of balsamic vinegar, I take some consolation in it not being the really treacly kind. I don't know what she is eating tonight, but I am having green salad with avocado and, providing the store cupboard has them, some nuts.

It's a summer menu.

healing avocado

I did take a photo for Steve's healing avocado recipe. Voila!

Grilled chicken salad with cheese nachos

On a recent family outing we ate cheese nachos at a bar, with jalapenos, guacamole, and salsa. I fancied a lazy meal last night, and bought some low salt tortilla chips and got on with conjuring up my own version. For the hungry I swapped salsa for chicken and added shredded lettuce.

The result was tasty and tangy, and went well with some tv. The heat came mostly from the jalapenos, which also had a nice vinegary edge, that complimented the creaminess of the guacamole. The tang is balanced by the cooked capsicum. The colours were nice and lively for a cold winter’s evening, and would also work on a summer’s day or night, when you could do the chicken on a bbq.

The chicken needs marinading for about an hour.

The capsicum pepper is cooked over the flame of a gas cooker. I’ve never tried it on an electric cooker. I shall experiment with a dry frying pan and report back.

For the more lazy, buy the guacamole.

Quantities are for two people who like their food. The only straight carbs are the tortilla chips.

Ingredients

For the chicken salad

Two skinless chicken legs (thigh and drumstick) or equivalent

Two handfuls of chopped lettuce

Small jar jalapeno peppers

1 capsicum pepper

For the marinade

Juice of 1 orange or similar (about ½ mug)

2 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 crushed chopped clove garlic

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp of sugar

1 large pinch of salt

Generous grindings of black pepper

·        Mix everything together in a bowl large enough to hold the chicken.

·        Slash the flesh of the chicken.

·        Mix the chicken and the marinade, coating the chicken completely.

·        Leave to marinade for about an hour or at least as long as it takes to prepare the rest of the meal.

·        Char the skin of the pepper thoroughly over a gas ring, wrap in foil or baking parchment and set aside until cool.

·        Wash and dry the lettuce and shred finely, spread around a large plate.

·        Drain the jalapenos and scatter over the lettuce.

·        Scrape charred skin off the pepper and roughly chop the flesh (chucking seeds and stem away), sprinkle over lettuce and jalapenos.

·        Grill the marinaded chicken for 7 minutes a side.

·        Wrap in foil and allow to sit for at least five minutes

·        Take the cooked meat off the bone and slice into bite size chunks.

·        Put sliced cooked chicken into the middle of the plate of lettuce and peppers.

For the guacamole

2 ripe avocados

1 tomato

10 sprigs of coriander

½ an onion

1 mild chilli

Salt and pepper

Juice of ½ lime

·        Chop the tomato, onion, coriander and deseeded chilli as finely as possible with the pepper and salt – or blitz in a mini processor/bash about in a pestle and mortar.

·        Cut the avocados into small bits and mash the lot together with a fork.

·        Add the lime juice and stir – adjust seasoning to taste.

Cheesy nachos

1 pkt tortilla chips

Cheddar or similar

Set the oven to medium heat.

·        Get a large heatproof dish and put the tortilla chips on it.

·        Grate enough cheddar over the lot to give a thin covering.

·        Heat for 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

Tuck in.

Steve's avocado sandwich breakfast - healing food and hangover cure

Having listened to tales of Christmas woe, filled with fevers and flu, I was lulled into an unattractive state of smug, a vulnerable place to be. I woke up on Saturday with a sore throat, a headache and backache that made me wonder if I’d been sleep drinking. Painkillers helped a bit, but not enough to stop me feeling very sorry for myself, as I monitored my symptoms to see if I was in the running for the ‘most sick’ title. I am not an attractive invalid.

Fortunately, Steve delivered just what was needed: an open sandwich of avocado with a squeeze of lime, salt and pepper. His original recipe is for buttered toast with marmite and the lime etc on top. I didn’t fancy the marmite, so mine came without. I tried his with marmite and found it edible, much richer, almost chocolatey, and not what I wanted.

The vibrant green of the avocado is definitely a healing hue. Even with a limited sense of smell, and the inability to lift my head properly, the colour and smell of the lime made me feel cheerful and hungry. I ate mine much too quickly, and had another.

I would recommend an avocado per person. For the greedy. Especially the hungover and greedy, oh, and the ill.

Recipe

Ingredients

Ripe avocado

Bread

Butter

Lime

Pepper and salt

Method

Make a slice of toast and let it cool

Butter the toast and spread with slices of avocado.

Squeeze lime juice onto the avocado slices, add pepper and salt.

Eat.