Monday, June 1, 2009

salad days

Im a South Florida girl.
And as a true South Florida girl I’m used to the warm weather and the humidity and the constant wearing of flip flops. Really.
I’m also quite aware of the fact that Florida is what I like to call "seasonally challenged".
While all you lovely people out there are enjoying your snowy winters and fall leaves, we’re stuck with 4 different seasons of our own: almost summer, definitely summer, kinda-still summer, and "winter". And "winter" is that random week of 60º weather that has us busting out with our gloves, overcoats, and scarves, while the rest of the country is really bitching about the justified 30º. And so.
We are in Definitely Summer. It’s beach weather. It’s flip-flop weather. (But more accurately, right now it’s shitty weather. Rainy and cloudy and thunderstorm-y. Le sigh.)
So when these days roll around the last thing I even want to think about is turning an oven on and getting too fussy with heavy meals. I want light and crisp and refreshing. Like salad.
And for the longest time I was such an awful picky eater. I didn’t eat anything green. That included parsley garnishes when we would go out to eat.
"None of that green stuff, please".
I shuddered at the idea of salad, but as I grew older I got into the habit of better eating. And one day decided: a salad can be comprised of anything I want so why not make a salad of everything I like?
Thus My Favorite Salad was born. Dumb name, I know, but there is no other way to name it. It is my favorite salad. The salad I make constantly. Especially when the days are humid and hot and yucky.
And I must say: there isn’t much not to love about this salad.


So here’s the deal. Grab yourself a medium-sized bowl. Juice a lemon or two right into it. Add in a couple of glugs of olive oil, some soy sauce (and that is the key here), salt, pepper, and minced garlic. Toss in the meat of your choice (chicken breasts are such a perfect option) and let sit for about 10 minutes. This is the simplest marinade and the marinade I use on literally everything. It’s so good and it’s simple. It doesn’t need 4 hours, it doesn’t need overnight, it doesn’t need fussy. My kind of thing.
So as that sits, grab a big bowl this time. Chop up your favorite lettuce (I’m partial to romaine. And spinach. I could eat spinach by the bowl-ful every single day. Oh how things have changed..). Add in cucumbers - seeded and peeled, grated carrots, some handfuls of corn kernels, and a good bit of feta cheese. Toss that around.
For a vinaigrette, I keep it just as simple as the marinade. A couple of lemons, juiced, some olive oil, chopped parsley, and a sprinkle of sugar to balance out the acidity. You don’t even need salt and pepper. Really.
Grill the chicken breasts (or whatever meat) and then let rest for about 5 minutes. Slice up and toss into the salad. Pour on the vinaigrette and sprinkle on sliced almonds (I like them toasted. The toasting gives them an even bigger crunch). Toss.
Now, of course this is a salad and a salad can be anything you decide to throw into a bowl, but you have to try it like this just once.
The heat from the chicken soaks up the vinaigrette and the almonds add the most wonderful texture. Every time I make this salad, it’s common to see every one grab seconds and thirds. It’s that delicious, and on a Definitely Summer day, there is definitely nothing better.

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