Currabinny Cooks: A lighter take on chicken caesar salad
Grilled chicken salad with lettuce and herby yoghurt dressing.
Up the garden, right at the back, under a few old trees, that is where the vegetable patch has always been. Here in our seaside, salt-saturated, windy patch of land, growing can be a challenge. Our patch is sheltered somewhat by the house and the trees which surround it. The trees conveniently leave a nice gap above the raised beds for whatever sun we get. Currently, there is a small greenhouse, four good, raised beds made with some leftover decking, six old fish boxes, repurposed as planters and two big barrels just for potatoes.
The spot of warm weather we had recently enticed us to start early with our planting. Originally, we had planned to sow our seeds straight into the beds and planters (we did this last year on our rooftop in Dublin to surprisingly good results). Luckily, one of us caught word on the radio of a looming cold spell, some arctic chill coming down from the north, so instead, we created a little nursery of small pots in the greenhouse. Just two days later the earliest signs of tiny green shoots welcomed me when I ventured up there to do a little watering. It was mustard, which is pretty much always the first thing to grow.
Now almost a week on there is plenty of healthy, looking shoots from a wide variety of different vegetables, leaves and herbs. This year we seem to have gone heavier on the variety of leaves we are growing. Two different types of lettuce, chard, beetroot, red-stemmed leaf celery, sorrel, purslane, kale, cabbage, sage, coriander, Russian tarragon, radish, borage, oriental greens and rocket are just some of the tasty leaves we will hopefully be feasting on later this Spring and into the Summer.
We are members of the Irish Seed Savers Association which does amazing work sourcing and protecting endangered, native and special varieties of veg, fruits and other plants. One of the most exciting seeds we got our hands on this year is a Syrian white courgette which apparently found its way to Ireland in the pocket of a refugee and was subsequently gifted to the seed savers. They have a really interesting website with loads of tips and amazing stories and histories of all the exotic, endangered seeds they have. If you join as a member you can then order all kinds of brilliant varieties to grow and plant yourself.
The recipes this week all feature delicious leaves as the star ingredient. Salad leaves are often just seen as a thing to dress and plonk on the side of a dinner plate, but there are so many different flavours and textures you can achieve just with leaves. Incidentally, all the recipes also include red wine vinegar but this is a pure accident we promise.
This is a lovely alternative to the ubiquitous chicken caesar salad. The sauce is lighter, herbier than a caeser dressing but still punchy on flavour. Use whatever lettuce you have or like. We used baby gem and some type of frisée along with a small handful of red mizuna from the greenhouse.
- 2 skin-on organic chicken breasts
- 2 little gem lettuces, leaves washed
- A handful of mixed leaves
- Small handful of basil, chopped
- Small bunch of chives, snipped
- Good handful of pumpkin seeds
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- Small bunch of tarragon, leaves only
- Small bunch of parsley, stalks discarded
- Small bunch of coriander, stalks discarded
- A few basil leaves
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
- Juice of 1 lime
- 2 tbsp yoghurt
- 2 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp honey
- 4 tbsp honey
Make the dressing by blitzing together the herbs, garlic, lime juice and olive oil. Stir through the honey, yoghurt and red wine vinegar. Set aside.
Butterfly the chicken breast, by slicing them and opening them out so they are wider and thinner. Season well all over with sea salt. Heat a little olive oil on a griddle pan and cook the chicken for a few minutes on each side so that they are crispy on the outside and cooked all the way through. Remove to a board and cut into strips.
Assemble the salad in a large salad bowl. Mix together the baby gem lettuce with the herbs and whatever other leaves you are using and season lightly with sea salt and pepper. Place the chopped chicken on top and scatter over the pumpkin seeds. Lastly, drizzle the dressing all over and be generous. Serve.
This has been one of our favourite quick and simple salads to whip up at a moment's notice when such a salad is needed. Its success lies in the satisfying flavour combination of bitter leaves, salty pancetta and sweet but sharp red wine vinegar.
Serves 2 as a side salad or light lunch.
- 2-3 good heads of chicory, endive or radicchio, leaves separated
- 200g pancetta, cut into cubes
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 2-3 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
- Freshly ground black pepper
Wash the leaves, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and place them on a nice serving plate. In a small frying pan, add the pancetta to the pan with no more than a teaspoon of olive oil. Try for a minute or two over a medium-high heat until the fats starts to render and then add the shallot. Fry for another two minutes until the shallot has softened and the pancetta is starting to crisp up nicely.
Deglaze the pan with the red wine vinegar and crack in a nice amount of black pepper. Let sizzle away for a final minute and then scrape out onto the bitter leaves. Toss everything together so that the leaves are somewhat coated in all the lovely flavours from the pan.
Serve immediately.
Steak and watercress is a classic combination but don’t worry if you cannot find watercress. Rocket would work nicely as a substitute as it has a similar peppery flavour. I only realised recently that we have been making
chimichurri all wrong. The key to making the perfect example of this Argentinian sauce is making a saltwater solution called a salumera. This acts as a flavour enhancer and preservative. Chimichurri will get better and better after a day or two so it is best to make this ahead.
Serves 2-4
- 500g hanger steak
- Few sprigs of thyme, leaves only
- Oregano, finely chopped
- Sea salt & freshly cracked black pepper
- Olive oil
- Large bunch of watercress, larger stalks discarded, washed
- Chopped mixed herbs (tarragon, rosemary, thyme, parsley, coriander)
- 200g tomatoes, sliced or quartered
- Olive oil
- 250ml boiled water
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- Large bunch of parsley, finely chopped
- Leaves from 3-4 sprigs of oregano, finely chopped
- Leaves from 3-5 sprigs of thyme
- Leaves from 1 sprig of rosemary, minced
- 4 spring onions, finely sliced
- 2 fat cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely diced
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
First, make the chimichurri. Boil the water, mix the salt in well and leave to cool. Mix together all the other ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Pour over the cooled saltwater solution and transfer to a sterilised jar. Leave to infuse in the fridge overnight. Slice into thin strips before use.
Rub the thyme and oregano all over the steak along with the sea salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Leave to marinate for an hour or so. Heat a griddle pan, skillet or frying pan on medium-high heat and add the steak slices to the pan. Cook until it is to your own personal liking but make sure it gets a nice sear. Remove from heat while you assemble the rest of the salad.
On a serving platter, arrange the watercress, drizzle with olive oil, and scatter through a few chopped herbs along with the tomatoes. Place the sliced steak pieces on top. Using a spoon, drizzle over plenty of the chimichurri and serve while the steak is still nice and warm.
