Quick Summer Lunch

No picture, I haven’t made it yet for today, on my way to get the ingredients. But here is a real haiku for you about the salad:

summer tomatoes
small green cucumbers, happy
luncheon – tummy smiles.

Summer is here and it is sooooo hot, the average life span of a popsicle is about 15 seconds. Yes, I have air conditioning but I still like to cook as little as I can get by with. Call it a….Vacation away from the kitchen. No children in the house so that makes things simpler.  Actually, I took this to a friend’s and her kids loved it.  Depending on pasta type or optional ingredients added, this can be vegan or vegetarian or gluten free.

Wonderful summer tomatoes and small crisp, sweet cucumbers are also showing up at local markets. I am having to resort to local markets because a line of storms obliterated my garden. And I am envious of you all who have a kitchen garden.

Now, for super simple healthy lunch or, dinner if you like. No quantities are given. It’s a “do your thing” recipe. And, it is a keep it simple salad…nothing elaborate or stylish here, just good tastes. The best kind for summer.

You’ll need:
pasta – fettucine, rotini, elbow, whole grain, gluten free, whatever.
tomatoes – one per serving (depending on size)
cucumbers – one per serving (depending on size)
green onions – to taste
splash of rice wine vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Dash of sugar or sweetener
Optional – finely chopped basil, freshly grated parmesan, pine nuts, splash of olive oil.

Instructions:  Cook desired servings of pasta al dente, rinse with cold water and drain. Meanwhile, skin or peel tomatoes and cukes. Very coarsely chop tomatoes and cukes. Add to pasta along with salt, pepper, rice wine vinegar. Toss and let sit about 15 minutes for tomatoes to juice out and flavors to blend. Sprinkle green onion and optional ingredients on top and lightly toss. Serve with some crusty bread if desired. Dig in.  NOTE:  I peel or skin tomatoes or cukes this time of year because the peels can be tough and bitter.

WARNING: This salad will not taste the same if you use those mushy store bought tomatoes or big last season waxed cucumbers. if it’s all you have access to, well, then do your best.

Summer’s Coming – Veggie Quinoa Salad

Good stuff this – lots of protein, veggies, flavor – easy to make and easier to eat. Good to keep in the fridge for munching, a quick meal, or to a cookout or potluck. You can add nuts (cashews, almonds, macadamia), beans (kidney, white), strips of spinach or kale, chopped fresh parsley…you can grate the carrot instead of cubing it. Wonderfully adaptive salad.  There are lots of these salads around.  This has an Asian flair to it.  A friend served it last week and I stole the recipe.

Recipe
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups shelled frozen edamame
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 yellow pepper, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/4 chopped scallion (green onion)
1 cup red cabbage, chopped
1/2 tsp. low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 teaspoons fresh ginger, finely minced
1 tablespoon sesame seeds (optional)

Directions
Place the quinoa, water, and salt in a covered pot. Heat on high until it boils, lower the heat to low, and cook for about 15 minutes or until the quinoa is soft and the water absorbed. Pour the quinoa into a medium-sized bowl, and mix in the frozen edamame, carrots, peppers, and cabbage. In a small bowl, make the dressing by mixing the sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, minced ginger, and sesame seeds. Pour the dressing over the quinoa and veggies, and mix thoroughly. Enjoy immediately, or store in a covered container for later.

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Twofer Twosday – Karaage Chicken and Sunomono

East meets South in this Japanese version of fried chicken and a kinda sorta cole slaw – actually an easy pickled vegetable dish which is a perfect side dish.

Karaage fried chicken is a very popular food in Japan – it is served in restaurants similar to tapas restaurants, as a street food, a snack with beer in local bars, picked up and taken home for dinner – but it is an easy and different take on fried chicken. Recipes call for chicken thighs but I use similarly sized strips or chunks of chicken breast meat. it can also be made with firm fish, but usually when the term karaage is mentioned, it refers to chicken.

Tebasaki Karaage – is a variation. Disjointed chicken wings are used and are my favorite. Use the standard recipe using 10 wings and deep frying for – 10 minutes.

I have posted sunomono before. it is a wonderful cooling dish as a side, salad, accompaniement to fried foods, grilled foods, baked foods. Usually made with thinly sliced cucumbers, it can also be made with thinly sliced celery, radishes, and/or sweet onion. I feel like the more the merrier so I add different veggies to mine.

So enjoy your un-Southern Fried chicken and Japanese un-slaw. Good eating for parties, lunch, bento lunches, TV watching food. I have often been asked to bring my fried chicken to get-togethers. “Some ask for the regular and others ask for the Japanese. I always take half and half. It all disappears.

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Kaarage Chicken
4 chicken thighs or equivalent of chicken breast
2 Tbsp Sake
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1-2 tsp garlic, grated
1-2 tsp ginger, grated
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup corn starch
salt and pepper
oil for deep frying (Unless you have allergies or family with allergies, peanut oil is the best oil for deep frying having a higher flash point. A pure vegetable oil such as Crisco is second best.)

Instructions
Cut a chicken thigh into 3-4 pieces (or breast into more pieces/strips).  In a medium size bowl, mix Sake, soy sauce, salt, garlic and ginger with chicken.  Let it sit for 1/2-1 hour. The longer it sits, the more salty the chicken will become.
Mix flour, corn starch and some salt and pepper in another bowl.  Coat marinated chicken pieces with flour mixture.
Heat oil at medium high heat (350F).  Deep fry for 5-8 minutes depending on the size of meat. Drain on paper towels, serve while hot with a few squirts of fresh lemon juice.

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Sunomono
3 Japanese or 4 Persian cucumbers *English cukes can be used. Also thinly sliced celery and/or radishes and/or sweet onion can be added
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seeds
Instructions

Instructions
Slice cucumbers/veggies as thin as you can. Stir in salt, and let it sit for 5 minutes. Squeeze water out from cucumbers.
In a small bowl, mix rice vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce together until sugar dissolves.
Add vinegar mixture and sesame seeds to prepared cucumbers and mix well. Chill for about 1 hour for flavors to marry and veggies to chill.

 

 

 

 

Real Southern Cooking – Some Recipes

Down South, we have a tremendous love for congealed salads.   Now for one thing, y’all need to know that in most cases, salad and dessert can be one and the same.  If you go to a typical southern church dinner or family potluck, you will find a great variety of congealed salads.  Some will be set in the salad area and some will be set in the dessert area – and usually you’ll have two or three of the same thing – one in the salad area, one in the dessert area.

In the 1960’s, congealed salads were wildly popular.  Actually, farther back than that.  I have a recipe from N’awlins, circa 1835 for beouf en gelee.  Also for jellied duck – Charleston, 1875.  We southerners apparently have always had a love for these things.  They run the gamut from Cherry Coke Congealed Salad to Congealed Coleslaw to Lemon/Strawberry/Lime Fluff to Golden Glow to Perfection.  Actually, Perfection Salad is a yankee invention but we ignore that.  We put our fingers in our ears and lalalalala when someone suggests such a thing.

My grandmother Ninny – a true soft voiced southern lady with a spine of pure titanium – made several congealed salads a week, especially in the summer when it was so hot and humid, it was like walking outside into a bowl of oatmeal.  Congealed salad was cool, comforting, and easy to take.  My cousin Billy from New Jersey was visiting one summer and he asks Ninny, “Aunt Josie Lee, how come you don’t just call them Jello salads?”  Ninny replied, “Because William, they are congealed salads.”  End of story. In other words, as we say, “Who’s fryin’ this chicken, you or me?”

Perfection Salad was invented in 1904 by Mrs. John Cook of Newcastle, Pennsylvania (lalalalala) who entered a Knox gelatin recipe contest.  She won third prize – $100 and a sewing machine.  Mrs. Cook said she sliced this salad (sliced salad????) and passed it with a dish of mayonnaise for folks to dab on it.  She liked to serve it with fried oysters.  Perfection Salad is perfect with any kind of seafood, roast meat, fried or barbecued chicken, or fried chicken.  It will liven a dull meal.  Lime Fluff Salad is like Christmas in July – the green and red thing going on with it.  Buttermilk Salad is just good to eat out of the bowl – especially if you can’t sleep and are watching some late night movie from the 30’s or 40’s.  My movie of choice for this one is Bringing Up Baby with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, but y’all make your own choice.  A good friend of mine likes his while watching Seven Samurai.

So I hope y’all enjoy these.  Bless your hearts, eat and be blessed.

  

Buttermilk Salad

1 can crushed pineapple (20 ounces)

2 Cups buttermilk  (regular or fat free)

8 ounces whipped topping, thawed

2 small boxes gelatin (your flavor choice, can also use sugar free)

I am using strawberry jello for this.  Orange is also very good.  Heat pineapple in juice, bring to a boil. Add jello and mix well. Remove from heat and add buttermilk, stir. Allow to cool for twenty to thirty minutes. Stir in whipped topping. Refrigerate until set.

Lime Fluff  Salad

2 (3 oz.) boxes Lime Jello

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese

1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple, undrained

1/2 Cup pecan pieces (more is wonderful)

1 ½ c. cold water

¼ – ½ c. sliced maraschino cherries

Dissolve Jello in 1 Cup hot water. Break up the cream cheese in hot Jello and blend using blender (or hand mixer) until smooth. (I usually cube it first!) Add and blend until smooth, then add the undrained pineapple, the pecan pieces and the cherries. Pour into an 8″ X 8″ dish. Chill and serve!

 Perfection Salad

2 envelopes (2 tbs.) unflavored gelatin.

½ c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 ½ c. boiling water

1 ½ c. cold water

½ c. vinegar (cider or white)

2 tbs. lemon juice

2 c. finely shredded cabbage (shreds better when refrigerator cold)

1 c. chopped celery

¼ c. chopped red/green bell pepper

¼ c. diced pimiento (small jar, drained)

1/3 c. stuffed green olive slices

Thoroughly mix gelatin, sugar, salt. Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water and stir to dissolve gelatin. Then add 1 1/2 cups cold water, vinegar, and lemon juice. Chill till partially set (like egg white consistency).

Now cabbage, chopped celery, green pepper, pimiento, and green-olive slices.

Pour into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pan (spray with cooking spray. May also use any comparable sized mold). Chill the salad mold until firm. Just before mealtime, unmold and garnish your salad. Cut salad in 8 to 10 slices.

“You think I don’t have culture just because I’m from down South. Believe me, we’ve got culture there. We’ve always had sushi. We just called it bait.”  Ben “Cooter” Jones