Cooking Crusade

Ah, salad.

How difficult I find you to eat. This probably sounds terrible, but I’m really not a big fan of salad. I know I SHOULD because it’s HEALTHY and what not, but I find a lot of salad leaves quite bitter and really difficult to eat (rocket, you know that i’m looking at you.) I’m also not a big fan of the texture of salad leaves, either.
I guess the only successful way I’ve been able to eat salad is by dressing it up with tasty extra bits to help give it a bit of life.
Of course, I’m not talking about caeser salads, which sadly, are not *technically* salad (well i guess they sort of are, but they shouldn’t be allowed the title of salad, because in my mind, salad is synonymous with ‘healthy’, which caeser salads are unfortunately not.) lol.

The first time I had this salad, it was made by a friend at bible study. When I first tasted it, all I could think was ‘what IS this amazing stuff?’ and continued to eat my way through a big plate of it. After bible study had ended, I asked my friend for the recipe and made it again today.

And here it is, in all its glory.

Krystel’s Salad:
(Originally, the walnuts weren’t caramelised, but I decided that it had to be done.. results were successful. Although I’m not making any claims that caramelised walnuts are healthy, ohhh no.)
Walnuts (about 1/2 – 1 cup, depending on your mood. That’s what I like about salads. You really don’t have to worry too much about measurements … it’s always dependent on my mood..)
A couple tablespoons of brown sugar, butter and a good splash of water (to caramelise the nuts.)
Salad leaves
One pear
Good parmesan cheese (the real stuff, not that fake stuff you use for pasta… y’all know what i’m talking about.) I reckon this would also go good with goats’ cheese, but that’s left up to future testing..

Dressing : (Now this didn’t turn out the best for me. I used three garlic cloves, the juice and zest of one lemon and about 1/3 cup of olive oil and seasoning. I used waay too much olive oil. Need to figure out good ratios for this, but for the meantime..)
Garlic, grated
Lemon juice
Olive Oil
Seasoning
If anyone knows of good ratios for this, I’m all ears!

Caramelise the walnuts.
Toast walnuts in a non stick pan over high heat. Add the butter and brown sugar and melt. Add the splash of water and cook until it caramelises.. make sure you watch it because I nearly burnt mine. Cool on wax paper and bash them up later with a rolling pin to crush them a bit and to make sure they don’t stick together. (Cover with wax paper before so you don’t get toffee on your rolling pin.)
Make sure you don’t eat them all before they hit the salad…. They are damned addictive. This would probably work well with other nuts as well.

I wish I had the ability to make this picture appear more romantic, but.. I just can’t. Its nuts, butter and sugar in a pan and that’s all it ever will be.

Core and slice pear.
Probably best to do this with a mandoline, but I just used a knife. Super thin slices are best, so that it’s not too overwhelming but adds a nice sweetness.

Prepare dressing.
Grate garlic, juice lemon and zest the skin. Mix together with olive oil.

Wash salad leaves.

Grate your parmesan.

Layer.
In a big salad bowl, layer your salad leaves, nuts, pear slices and cheese and give a final toss. Mix up your dressing and toss that in there as well.

Yum! Eat me today. I will fill your tummy with happy and make you feel happy, for you are eating a semi-healthy salad! Woo! Go you!

I got the inspiration for this one from Anh’s food blog, specifically her recipe for roast hoisin chicken and I came up with this chicken cashew nut salad.

I made a chicken marinade using hoisin sauce, grated ginger, sugar, some maple syrup and some soy sauce. I used about 1/2 jar of hoisin sauce, a couple tablespoons of soy, about 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar, a good sized heaped teaspoon of grated ginger and a dollop of maple syrup. I poured everything into a lee kum kee hoisin sauce jar I had leftover and shook the whole mix up, ensuring the sugar would incorporate with the mixture. After shaking it for about a minute, I marinated chicken thighs in several tablespoons of it (so they were thoroughly coated) in a glass bowl for about an hour, then roasted them in a shallow dish for about 1 hour at about 170 degrees in a hot oven until they were a lovely dark golden colour and cooked through. Keep the rest of your marinade in the fridge for next time!

I allowed the cooked chicken to rest for about ten minutes, then I sliced the meat into strips and placed them on top of a green salad (I used a simple Coles bag o’ salad, but you could just use a mixture of rocket, spinach and whatever else you fancy. I also added one chopped up cucumber.) Dress the salad with a simple mixture of balsamic and honey and sprinkle with cashew nuts. Serve. Yum-yum! Low-carb, high protein

Give this one a try!

xoxo
Christine