What do you do when you have leftover chicken from khao mun gai or gai yang? You turn it into a dish befitting the situation. My mother did that best, letting very little go to waste. You could poach chicken just for this salad and it would be delicious, especially if you serve it slightly warm. What’s even better, the next time you make khao mun gai, poach extra chicken to make yum gai the next day. If you’re not starting with leftovers, poach raw chicken and tear it into strands. I like adding the skin — it provides richness and moisture, the way oil does in Western salads. Slice it into thin strands.
Make this salad at the height of summer, when heirloom tomatoes look like they’re about to burst open with flavorful juices. You can use any small, freshly dug potatoes, but try to get a mix of colors.
Depending on how it’s cooked or cut, cabbage can yield all kinds of different flavors, from crisp and peppery in coleslaw to beautifully caramelized, as in this dish.
1. Scald the milk in a small saucepan while constantly stirring. Remove from the heat, add the sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and the butter and mix well until the sugar and salt have dissolved and the butter has melted. Transfer to a bowl.
This is the fresh relief every Thanksgiving menu needs. Greens, both tart and mild, with a few craisins and the simplest and most classic of dressings — solely good tasting oil and vinegar with some salt and pepper. Let all the other dishes on the table cry "Taste all my flavors!" This salad stands serene and elegant in its simplicity.
With some honey, our gremolata will go to new heights.
The salad really does become more flavorful over time, so I like to make it a few hours in advance before serving -- this makes it perfect for a summer picnic or barbecue.
Wild Irish salmon is a now a rare treat, but for the last couple of years we have managed to get a small number from fishermen on the Blackwater River. We treasure each one and eat some fresh, cure and smoke some ourselves, or give them to Bill Casey, our local smoker, to smoke for us. We hot- and cold-smoke the salmon and teach the students both methods of preserving. For this recipe we use cold-smoked salmon, but flakes of the hot-smoked variety would also be delicious.
What's not to love when with an effortless twist a dish becomes something brand-new? Puree the Cantaloupe Thai Chile Basil Salad with an adjustment or two, and you will have a soup that is heaven in a bowl at the end of a steamy summer commute home.
This salsa fresca comes in handy when someone is intolerant to cilantro and the mint and parsley mixture gives it a very unique flavor that goes well with grilled meats.