Devine Eats

I cannot believe that in over two years of posting on this blog I have never posted about this chicken club salad. I'm embarrassed.  Even more so because it's now showing  up in this hastily photographed state.  I had to snap this with my phone before I even finished mixing it all together because I knew the second that it was ready, it would disappear in the blink of an eye.  My apologies for a messy bowl and unevenly distributed dressing.

Chicken club salad is the food of gods. This is not an exaggeration. Right up there with the perfection of a summertime BLT or this lovely dish of Vietnamese noodles, stir fried beef and veggies, this salad has been a favorite from first bite. I've made it for friends and roommates who have in turn made it for their friends or special someones and every last one of those people has proclaimed this "salad" as devine perfection. I can give you references if you don't believe me, or you can just go and make it yourself. Like, right now.

You might think, after taking a quick glance at the ingredient list, that this is merely a salad or panzanella form of a BLT, but in fact it's a whole different beast.  Sure, it has brightly acidic tomatoes, and bacon, and mayonaise and toasted bread but then that mayonaise gets transformed when it's blended with basil and yogurt and lemon juice.  And there are cubes of gently poached chicken and thin rings or green onion dotted throughout.  This is nothing like that classic sandwich.  I'll repeat: this is the food of the gods.

A recent search for the original recipe lead me to a Food Network page saying the contents I was searching for could no longer be found.  Which would really be a shame, except I have here my version, one I've tweaked over the years and I think is even better.  There are more croutons for more crunch!  I use half mayonaise (Best Foods only, please!) and half plain yogurt for the basil dressing and then slather the whole thing over the salad instead of a measly 1/2 cup.  And the bread, use whatever your heart desires as long as it has some structure to it.  One time I used an Italian loaf with lemon zest in it and it was heavenly.

You're welcome.  I single handedly just saved the internet.

Chicken Club Salad
adapted from Sara Moulton

There are several elements to assemble here: poach the chicken, make the croutons, blend up the dressing, fry the bacon and cut up the veggies, but all of this can be done in advance if need be. Store the croutons in an air tight container, the veggies, dressing and chicken separately in the fridge but the bacon is probably best freshly crisped up. About 10 minutes before serving toss everything together in a big bowl and you're good to go.

6 to 8 servings

6 cups of 3/4-inch cubes day old country loaf
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 slices bacon, chopped
3 pounds whole chicken breasts OR 1½ pounds boneless/skinless breast, poached and the meat cut into bite-size pieces
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
4 scallions including the green part, sliced thinly
Quick Basil Mayonnaise, recipe follows
Salt and pepper

Quick Basil Mayonnaise:
2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup plain yogurt 

4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper

In a food processor or blender blend together the basil, mayonnaise, yogurt and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a bowl drizzle the bread cubes with the olive oil, tossing them to coat evenly, and season generously with salt and pepper. Spread the bread cubes in a jelly-roll pan (or cookie sheet) and toast them in the middle of the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until they are golden.  Let them cool. 

In a skillet cook the bacon over moderate heat, stirring, until it is crisp and transfer it with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. 

In a large bowl combine the chicken, tomatoes, scallions, bacon, quick basil mayonnaise, and salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, mix in croutons and let sit 5-10 minutes.

From Veggie Box to Plate

The farm where our CSA box comes from is located in Dixon, CA about an hour and half north east from here.  There it's still warm and the summer crops are still happily providing.  This past week we had our first rain of the season and just like that I switched gears into obsessing over things like apples and pumpkins and stews.  Tomatoes, I love you, but I think it's time for a break.

I'm back and forth on my feelings regarding the aforementioned CSA box.  There's only one more box left in our trial, so I've begun to make mental pro and con lists in my head about the experience.  Quality wise, I haven't really any complaints - except that one time we got an heirloom Tigger melon that teased me with its perfume only to taste like nothing.  I suppose my problem is that some of the shopping and cooking control has been taken away from me.  My meal planning has been reversed.  Instead of using what's in season to guide my menu planning and in turn my shopping, I now search for recipes for specific ingredients and work from that direction.

Pros include the affordability and always having a house well stocked with (organic) vegetables and sometimes fruit.  I'm also all about supporting the small, local farms and avoiding Safeway like the plague.

In the meantime however, while I try and make up my mind, I still need to use up the goods in the veggie box.  I'll keep cooking the summer squashes and finding new ways to use up tomatoes and basil.  And for that I have the help of this dish I found on the NYT website.  It's honestly more than the sum of its parts which is exactly what I needed out of the recipe.  Something to surprise me and remind me to be grateful for harvest time's bounty.  Not quite stewed zucchini that maintain some bite to them melting together with sweet tomatoes and a kick of garlic and basil, it's summertime comfort food.  Fast too.

Zucchini Provencal

recipe from NYT's Recipes for Health

As suggested in the NYT column, I suspect this would be delicious served over some grilled fish, something mild and white.  We just had it with a chunk of crusty baguette and some salami for a light and simple meal.  It was delicious the next day gently warmed with a sprinkle of feta cheese and scooped up with the leftover bread.

4 side dish servings

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 pounds medium or small zucchini thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound ripe tomatoes, grated on the large holes of a box grater

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 to 2 tablespoons chopped or slivered fresh basil (to taste)

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium-high heat in a wide, heavy skillet. Add the zucchini. Cook, stirring or shaking the pan, until the zucchini is lightly seared and beginning to soften, three to five minutes. Remove from the pan, and set aside.

Add the remaining olive oil to the pan, then the garlic. Cook, stirring, just until fragrant -- less than 30 seconds. Stir in the tomatoes. Cook, stirring, until the tomatoes have begun to cook down, about five minutes. Return the zucchini to the pan, add salt and pepper to taste, and reduce the heat to medium. Cook, stirring often, until the zucchini is tender and translucent and the tomatoes have cooked down to a fragrant sauce. Stir in the basil, and taste and adjust seasonings. Remove from the heat and serve hot, or allow to cool and serve at room temperature.

Leftovers

Sometimes I forget that I took pictures of food.  Sometimes I leave pictures crowding up space on my camera's memory card.  Sometimes I don't transfer them onto my computer for 3 months.  Bad food blogger.

Clearly I enjoyed tomatoes this summer.  Actually, that shouldn't even be past tense, I am STILL enjoying tomatoes into fall.  Thank goodness for living in California and thank goodness for San Francisco's Indian summers.  So if you're lucky enough to still catch the season's last trickle of tomatoes -  hopefully before it's too late and you have to hang on to these until another 9 months from now - you might consider making one of these for dinner. 

 

Grilled Steak with Bloody Mary Tomato Salad

A deconstructed cocktail alongside some grass fed beef?  Don't mind if I do!

 Haricots Verts a la Dijonnaise

 

Sopes with Refried Beans, Tomatillo and Avocado Salsa, Feta Cheese and a sort of Pico de Gallo

 

A Simple Tomato Panzanella

(I added a Persian cucumber, because why not?)

Better Late Than Never

What a dolt I've been.

Here I am, advertising pictures of gorgeous produce, promising follow ups and do I deliver?  No.  And it's been almost a month now.  My apologies.  So let's do the run down, shall we?

• The salad mix, bell peppers, candy stripe beets and Reed avocado all went into salads.  The creamy avocado contrasting nicely with the spicy greens and sweet crunch of thinly sliced beets and bell pepper.  I can eat salad for days.  Have I mentioned that before?  Ho-hum, moving on.

• The cherry tomatoes were transformed into smaller shriveled up versions of themselves when I oven roasted them.  Just set the oven temperature to 225F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Slice a pint of cherry tomatoes in half,  and place them on the baking sheet cut side up.  Drizzle a few teaspoons of olive oil over the top, a sprinkle of kosher salt a few unpeeled cloves of garlic.  Toss it in the oven for 2-3 hours, depending on the size of your tomatoes.  Start checking at 2 hours and then every 15 minutes until you have shriveled - but not burned! - morsels with just the slightest hint of juiciness left.  Use them in sandwiches, salads, on a bagel with cream cheese, or if you think they'll be hanging around for a while, pack them into a small jar, cover with olive oil and store in your fridge.  Intense tomato flavor in the dead of winter - oh, yes!

• With the eggplant I made caponata from Jamie Jamie's Italy cookbook (Jamie Oliver).  It was good stuff, especially after it had been sitting for a day so.  I know he gets a lot of flack for not so much printing "recipes" but more of guidelines but he creates some seriously amazing food.  Go ahead and try to look at that cookbook without drooling all over each page.  It's impossible.  I'll post the recipe next week.

• And lastly, the figs.  I bought them with no real idea of what was to become of them.  Stuffed with goat cheese, broiled and drizzled with honey and cracked pepper?  Salads?  Afternoon snacks?  They have such a woefully short season, and I love them so, I couldn't pass them up.  What I ended up making was a galette.  I was being taunted with pictures on Tastespotting and then Alice Q Foodie made one and all of a sudden I was rushing into the kitchen to jump on the bandwagon.  But with a twist!  I chopped up a bit of fresh rosemary and mixed it into the crust.  I could go on and on here, but I'll save it for next week.  You know, to keep you hanging.

Like No Other

Stop what you're doing, go out and buy a watermelon and a couple deep red and golden hued heirloom tomatoes.  Hurry.  Before they disappear for the season and you miss out on something amazing.

I have been obsessed with this salad ever since eating at The Blue Plate in San Fransisco back in August.  I could gush on and on about all the delicious food I ate in that fantastic city, but it all comes back to this salad for me.  Some kind of genius in the kitchen created this salad and put it on the menu where I ordered it one fateful dinner and nothing has been the same since.  Sure the fried chicken and buttermilk dressing it shared a plate with were delicious as well, but it was the salad that I was in a near romantic relationship with.  Complete spotlight hog.  So fresh and unexpected.  Olives, slightly pickled pieces of onion and tomatoes with that quintessential summertime melon and basil?  I could not get enough.  Could you bring me more, in a to-go box, please?

I know these watermelon salads are hip right now, popping up on menus all over the place this summer (if not last summer as well), though they're mostly based on a melon/feta/mint/balsamic platform.  But have you had watermelon and basil together?!?  Blows the mint pairing right out of the water, bringing just a slight bit of the savory element.  I could never love another summertime salad the way I love this one.  Too perfect.


Watermelon and Heirloom Tomato Salad
Inspired by The Blue Plate, San Francisco

I did my best to create some semblance of a recipe here, but mostly I was just tossing things into a bowl until it looked right.  Isn't that the beauty of cooking?  A little bit of this, a little bit of that.  Don't let it sit too long, maybe a few hours tops, all the delicious juices start collecting in the bottom of the bowl and the fruit will go a bit soft.

4 servings 

4 cups watermelon chunks, about 1" square
2 cups heirloom tomatoes, cut into rough chunks
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup sweet onion, cut into 1/8" thick slices
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
a handful of Nicoise olives (I used about 15)

Whisk the vinegar and sugar together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves, add the sliced onion and toss.  Set it aside on the counter for 1 hour, letting the onions soften and get a bit pickled.

Meanwhile chop the watermelon and heirloom tomatoes and put them in a bowl.  Add the basil leaves.  If the leaves are on the smaller side go ahead and leave them whole, otherwise tear larger ones into smaller pieces.  Once the onions are done, fish them out of their liquid with your fingers or a fork and add them to the watermelon/tomato bowl.  Gently give everything a good toss and top with the olives.  Drizzle the vinegar/sugar mix over each serving.