Kitchen Diary recipes: Salads
As promised, I am putting the text of my cookbook up on this blog. Here are the salad recipes:
Chicken Macaroni Salad
If you have leftover chicken, shred it and disguise it in a salad! I like to make this when I’m feeling lazy. The rest of my family isn’t any the wiser — except, perhaps, for my father, who always wonders who got to the leftover chicken before he could recycle it into chicken sandwiches.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup leftover chicken meat, shredded
1/2 cup garlic mayonnaise
1/4 cup raisins
4 cups cooked elbow or salad macaroni
1 small can pineapple tidbits, drained
Salt & pepper to taste
PREPARATION
Combine all the ingredients in a
mixing bowl and chill for one
hour. Serve on whole lettuce
leaves. Serves four to six
people.
Potato & Chicken Salad
My father’s favorite salad ever, potato salad has become a staple for Sunday lunches and celebrations. When an occasion arises and my father is asked to cook his mechado, he always asks someone to prepare potato salad.
INGREDIENTS
8 potatoes, boiled,
peeled & cut in cubes
2 cups shredded
chicken meat
1 cup garlic mayonnaise
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
Salt & pepper to taste
PREPARATION
Toss the potato cubes, parsley and chicken meat with the mayonnaise in a salad bowl. Season the salad with salt and pepper and toss it some more. Chill the salad for one hour and serve cold. Serves six to eight people.
Tuna-Macaroni Salad
My twin daughters love this salad and it is a regular part of their packed school lunches. They have successfully traded this salad for favors from their classmates. When I caught them doing this after a PTA meeting at their school, Sasha shrugged and looked at Brina, who said: “We know there will be more salad at home, so trading what we brought to school in exchange for having our classmates carry our schoolbags upstairs seemed like a good idea.”
INGREDIENTS
2 small cans tuna flakes in brine, drained
1/2 cup garlic mayonnaise
1/4 cup raisins
4 cups cooked elbow or salad macaroni
1 small can pineapple tidbits, drained
Salt & pepper to taste
PREPARATION
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl, toss well and chill for one hour. Serves four to six people.
Arosep Salad
Make very sure that the arosep (a seaweed that resembles tiny green clusters of grapes) you buy at the market is very fresh. This salad is part of the breakfast served by the Anonas family in San Juan, along with Superlola’s Tapa and fresh, raw oysters.
INGREDIENTS
1/2 kilo arosep
1 liter boiling water
1 teaspoon rock salt
3 cloves garlic, mashed to a pulp
1/4 cup white vinegar
PREPARATION
Add the salt to the boiling water. Blanch the arosep in the boiling saltwater by plunging it in and then draining it after 10 seconds. Serve immediately, with a dip made of garlic and vinegar.
Filipinized Salad Greens
Salad greens are a wonderful addition to any meal — and a healthy one. My colleague, Norman Sison, shared some takeout salad that was made with a Filipino twist with me between stories one busy Independence Day and I liked it so much I had to make my own version of it.
INGREDIENTS
4 tuyo*, fried, skinned, deboned & shredded
2 red eggs, peeled & diced
1 small head iceberg lettuce,
washed, dried & shredded
4 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, peeled & diced
2 carrots, peeled & diced
PREPARATION
Toss all the ingredients together gently in a salad bowl. Chill the salad for one hour and toss it some more with vinaigrette, thousand-island dressing, or any other salad dressing of your choice and serve cold. Serves six to eight people.
*Tuyo is salted, dried fish, usually made with salinas sardines.
Here are my quick-fix recipes for vinaigrette and thousand-island dressing:
Vinaigrette
INGREDIENTS
1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil or sesame oil
1/8 cup balsalmic, cane, or apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, mashed to a pulp
Salt & pepper to taste
1/8 teaspoon dried basil
PREPARATION
Combine all ingredients in a screwtop jar, cover tightly and shake vigorously.
Thousand Island Dressing
INGREDIENTS
1/8 cup garlic mayonnaise
1/8 cup tomato catsup
PREPARATION
Combine both ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
Eggplant Ensalada
My father introduced me to this salad when I was in my teens and I have since discovered that it is wonderful with seafood dishes or on its own, if one is dieting. Many of our family friends ask for this salad when they
come a-calling.
INGREDIENTS
6 eggplants, boiled,
peeled & mashed
1 onion, minced finely
3 cloves garlic, minced finely
Rock salt & pepper to taste
2 teaspoons cane vinegar
2 ripe tomatoes, sliced in thin rounds
Parsley sprigs, for garnish
PREPARATION
Combine all ingredients except the tomatoes and mix well. Garnish with the tomato pieces and sprigs of parsley. Chill for one hour and serve cold, with vinaigrette.
Sweet & Creamy Fruit Salad
What Filipino family gathering is complete without a sweet, sinful dessert? On the Filipino table, you can expect at least four desserts of the mortal sin variety. In my family, this naughty fruit salad vies with the best of them.
INGREDIENTS
1 medium can fruit cocktail
in heavy syrup, drained
1 tetra brik of cream (200ml)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 small can condensed milk
2 drops vanilla extract
PREPARATION
Blend the cream, sour cream, vanilla and condensed milk together in a serving bowl. Add the drained fruit cocktail. Chill for at least one hour and serve.
Fresh Fruit Salad
My daughters are fruit fiends and I put this salad together one morning when they were four years old after they rattled off a list of fruit they wanted for breakfast.
INGREDIENTS
2 green apples, peeled, cored & cubed
2 Valencia or navel oranges,
peeled & sliced in cubes
Juice from one Valencia or navel orange
1 medium dragonfruit,
peeled & cubed (optional)
2 pears, peeled, cored & cubed
1/4 kilo grapes, peeled, halved & pitted
4 wedges honeydew melon, cubed
2 tablespoons muscovado sugar
PREPARATION
Sprinkle the orange juice over the apple and pear cubes to keep them from turning brown. Toss all the remaining ingredients together in a salad bowl, chill and serve cold. Serves four to six people.
