The Beginning of Summer Salad in Thai-Italian flavors

Grilled Chicken N Pasta Salad with White pea sprouts, Cherry tomatoes, Green Papaya, Lemon grass, Green mango, Cashew nut and three herbs in Lime vinaigrette- Thai-Italian Salad

It is spring now n and I’m back home to see the summer approaching, in the last 2 months the earth has traveled around 250 million kilometers through deep space, coming close to the sun n warming up the soil, melting the ice in the northern hemisphere, bringing the season of transition-the spring. And the mango trees reflect that story, I see the mango trees have blossomed, producing tiny little green dots which will turn into delicious mangoes in the coming 4 months and I smell summer. Here in Kolkata spring is short lived, it didn’t get much cold this year, spring is soon melting into summer and it’s time for the new produce-mangoes are only one of them. 

I am a person who loves salads, so this week I translated this salad in my plate as it was hanging in my mind, it has bold flavors of Thailand mixing with Italian Pasta, making a brand new palate of flavors in my mouth. The salad brings together the flavors of grilled chicken, cherry tomatoes, basil, flat-leaf parsley, coriander leaves, lemon grass, red chili, garlic, lime, red onion, cashew nuts, sprouted white peas- so many ingredients together and it is a healthy plate filled with amazing bites.

The good thing about eating salads is the freshness and the different little taste explosions on the tongue at every single bite which is so much fun…unity in diversity! Did I say that right? Ha-ha. One important thing before making salads is washing some of the leafy greens well under running water, washing away the dirt, because we are eating it raw it is good to take extra care of washing the vegetables.

Fresh lime provides the citrus notes in this salad, so in the vinaigrette I used lime with extra virgin olive oil, if you have lemon use that, you can also replace the olive oil with flavorless oil like soybean oil. The green mango is sour and it gives us that sour fresh bite with that amazing mango flavor, you know what goes really well with green mango, pink rock salt! As for the cashew nuts they add that subtle sweetness in the bites, if you want to add peanuts or almonds-go for it.

The grilled chicken has simple flavors in it, I marinated the chicken breast with garlic, ginger, red chili, yogurt with turmeric n cumin powder and that’s all, one hour is good enough for the marinating, then simple grill them in the oven.

The green papaya adds a very subtle touch to the salad, it is finely shredded, then lightly pounded in the mortar n pestle with the garlic n red chili just to slightly bruise it, it reminds me of the Thai green papaya salad, I would say if you have fish sauce in your pantry, try adding a little bit of that in the salad, though I didn’t do it but you can always.

The salad has three herbs in it-the coriander leaves, the basil and the flat-leaf parsley, and they bring a whole new fresh dimension to this salad, I have used more basil and coriander than parsley.

So now I will take you to the recipe so you can make it.

For The Recipe: You will need

For the Grilled Chicken:

Chicken breast- 1 about 250 gm, boneless and cut into strips about 4 inches long, 1 ½ inch thick

Yogurt- 2 tbsp

Turmeric- ½ tsp

Cumin powder- ½ tsp

Ginger- ½ inch, grated

Garlic- 1 medium clove, grated

Red Chili- 1, cut into thin slices

Salt

Oil-1 tbsp

Butter- for basting

Sugar- a pinch

For the Salad:

Grilled chicken- from above

Red onion – 1, sliced

Cherry tomato- 100 gm, halved

Pasta fusili/ penne/ macaroni/gomiti rigati- 50 gm

Basil- 2 tbsp, chopped or torn by hands

Coriander leaves- 3 tbsp, finely chopped

Flat-leaf parsley- 1 tbsp, chopped

Lemon grass- 2 stalks, inner core cut into 1 inch pieces

White pea sprouts- 50 gm

Red chili- 2, thinly sliced

Green mango- 1 small or ½ medium, peeled and thinly sliced

Green papaya- 1/8 of a medium papaya, thinly shredded

Cashew nuts- 4 tbsp, lightly toasted

Vinaigrette:

Lime juice- 2 tbsp

Extra virgin olive oil- 4 tbsp

Red chili-1/2 chili

Garlic- 2 cloves

Black pepper- to taste

Salt

Pink rock salt 

1. Begin by marinating the chicken strips with grated garlic, grated ginger, sliced red chili mixed with yogurt and cumin and turmeric powder, salt n a pinch of sugar and give it at least 30 min to an hour. Then put your oven on the highest temperature and place the pieces on the grill and give them about 12-15 minutes, baste them with butter once in between, as soon as the chicken gets a slight charred color get them out, otherwise they will go dry.

2. Peel the papaya, then with a sharp Chinese chopper or a big knife give vertical firm strokes on the flesh holding the papaya in your hand or to be safe keep it on a platform and do it, make sure the knife goes a little inside with every stroke and give strokes as closely as possible, you are stroking along the length of the papaya, then rotate the knife at 90 degrees and shave off lightly from the stroked surface of the papaya n you will see fine shreds coming out.

3. Put a frying pan on medium heat, add the cashew nuts and toast them until they get lightly browned which will take about 5 min.

4. Put the water to boil, when it comes to boil add enough salt to make it quite salty, then add the pasta and cook it until it is done, Al Dante if you like it or until they are just soft, drain n set aside.

5. In a big wooden/metal mortar n pestle crush the garlic clove and the red chili together, when they are well bruised add the lemon grass and pound it until it becomes flattened n released its flavor. After that add the shredded papaya and pound them lightly with one hand and turning the mixture over from the bottom with a spoon on another hand, pound until some of the papaya is bruised, then add the lime juice, thin mango slices and bruise again, then add the salt, black pepper, pink rock salt and the oil and give it a good mix.

6. In a big bowl add the sprouted white peas, then the red onion slices, the cherry tomatoes, the herbs, the pasta, the grilled chicken pieces and then add the whole mixture from the mortar onto them and mix well with your hands, season with salt if needed and add an extra pinch of pink rock salt, lastly add the roasted cashew nuts on top and another sprinkling of black pepper. It is now ready for the plates.

Great you made it; plunge a fork and go for the biggest possible bite without choking….now tell me isn’t it something so refreshing and something brand new. I felt the same and as it is so healthy and great balance of protein, carb n fat,  you should include salads like this more often in your diet, share it with people who love salad and who loves trying brand new food. Till then I will say bon appétit.

The Yummy-licious Summer Salad

 Summer salad-Crispy Spinach salad with tomato, cucumber, Bandel cheese n carrot

The way this salad hits the taste buds is unreal. Gushes of saliva rush to mix with the crispy egg-coated spinach, the honey-mustard dressing, the onions, the carrots and the cheese as you munch on-oh! How can I tell you how unreal is that? N I gulped n gulped until the bowl stared looking empty after 5 minutes and I knew I was getting full, but I couldn't stop. I mean people are not supposed to get full by eating salad, right? Especially be eating so much of salad but then I was taken-literally taken n owned by this amazing salad. Oh reader if you have read so far I am only thinking when you will eat this salad and write me about it! It is gonna be so much fun listening to you. In fact when I was eating it I thought I would probably skip the main menu if this salad is being served just before that. Yes it is just that good.

                                                                            Its monsoon here, not yet the end of summer however and in the vegetables market now-a days I get to see fresh bunches of small spinach. Well I am not a spinach fan anyways but the few ways that I like to eat them is when I transform them into crispy spinach in my kitchen. Mostly how I do is I coat the spinach with a light batter of eggs n corn flour and I deep fry them, it takes around a half a minute for each batch to go crispy and its yummm… it takes a bit of patience however.

                                                                   

                                                                        When I started thinking about creating this recipe I first thought the crispy spinach and then I add tomatoes, carrot ribbons, cucumber, slightly golden cashew nuts for their crunch and flavor, the red onion, the lime, honey-mustard dressing and a very special cheese. It is called Bandel Cheese and it is a local cheese here and it mostly comes from the place called Bandel-hence the name. the Bandel cheese is a smoked cheese, the texture is soft n crumbly, it is an un-ripened cheese, they are really tiny, they are like small patties and they will be mostly shorter than the length of you little finger. The first thing you will notice when you bite into the cheese is the smoky flavor. In fact there are 2 kinds of this cheese-plain which are white in color and smoked, brown in color. It is quite aromatic when it is fresh and softly crumbly.

                              Now with this cheese I do something special, the cheese is quite salty, to give it another layer of flavor I make a little caramel and I brown the cheese slices in the caramel and it happens almost in seconds, after that I splash a bit of balsamic vinegar over them and sometimes a pinch of red chili powder if I feel like it n it becomes amazing. In this salad I use that cheese like this. Now I will tell you about the recipe…do make this salad when you get your hands on some fresh spinach and hopefully you will love me at the end of eating that. If you do not have Bandel cheese just go for a soft crumbly cheese like feta, you can even go for ricotta but then let your imagination run free, let it make you happy. Bon Appetit.

 

          For The Recipe: you will need

200 gm of fresh spinach leaves (prefer small if available)

2 Bandel cheese

1 medium egg

3-4 tbsp of corn flour

1 small cucumber sliced in thin round circles

1 medium red onion halved n sliced

1 medium red tomato halved n sliced

1 small carrot, with a potato peeler, make ribbons by peeling it along the length

1 lime

6-7 cashew nuts, slightly golden in oil and broken in pieces

3-4 tbsp of Honey-mustard dressing (use ready-made or make your own)

Salt

Pinch of pink rock salt

Freshly crushed black pepper

1tbsp of vegetable oil, reserved from the oil in which the spinach is fried

1 ½ -2 cups of vegetable oil

   

1. let’s start with the cheese, then cut the vegetables, then we will fry the spinach and then we will assemble the salad. So slice each bandel cheese into 3-4 discs, then in a frying pan place 1 tsp of sugar, sprinkle some drops of water on them for the heat to evenly distribute, on a medium flame let them go to dark caramel stage, then place each disc on that caramel, then turn them over after 10 seconds, you will see they have browned and become softer, then splash 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar on them, as it dries take them off the pan.

2. Peel the carrot and then keep peeling to get the carrot ribbons. Prepare the other vegetable as said. Sprinkle a little lime juice over the sliced onions.

3. Wash the spinach, pat it dry with a cloth, then in a vessel break the egg, whisk lightly to combine, in another bowl add the corn flour with 1 tsp of water, mix it then add it to the egg mixture, add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper in the batter. The batter should be runny n light; you can add more corn flour and a bit water to get to that consistency while increasing the volume. Now heat the oil in a wok, let the oil heat up on a medium flame for 4-5 minutes, don’t make the oil go smoky, we need it below that temperature. So now in the batter dip some of the spinach leaves and first one leaf in the hot oil carefully to test how hot it is. It should take about 10-15 seconds on each side for the batter to crisp up and attain a golden color. Once it is attained fry the spinach leaves like this in small batches, in every batch place about 6 -9 leaves depending on the size of the wok. When the spinach is done sprinkle little salt over them, now  let off the heat  and place the cashew nuts in the oil, let them attain a slight golden hint then take them off.

4. Now with the honey-mustard dressing add the lime juice and mix it, add 1 tbsp of the oil in which the spinach is fried and mix well with the honey-mustard dressing. Now place everything in a big bowl excepting the spinach and add the honey-mustard dressing, pinches of salt and the pink rock salt, freshly ground black pepper and mix until everything is coated. Then lastly add the crispy spinach. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

 And guess what you are done!

    

Now dig in and let the flavors explode!