Easy to Impress, Loaded Salad

Easy to Impress, Loaded Salad

Last night I stayed up late working on a programming project and I went to bed very late. Today I continued working on that project and I finally got freed up around 2pm and I started to think about dinner. I was too tired and wanted to "cook" something simple, light and easy.  Drove to the supermarket and bought whatever I thought looked good and fresh.

This is what I bought:

• the very large black olives that Eileen likes,
• a ready-made rotisserie chicken breast, just cooked, hot and juicy,
• just a few shallots.  

I had to go "fishing" to get the black olives from the self-help olive bar but I got all of them. 

At home I had the following ingredients that was going to complete the list of ingredients:

• kalamata olives that I like,
• two celery stalks,
• tomato juice, (I like the juice. The juice is good.)
• two small tomatoes, 
• romaine lettuce,
• goat cheese, a.k.a. feta cheese, 
• one large yellow pepper, 
• a few more shallots, 
• roasted peppers, 
• capers,
• olive oil,
• three cloves garlic,  
• parsley, 
• salt and pepper.

Let me just level with you people and say the following. The word celery is derived from the Greek word σέλινον, sehlinon. Also, romaine lettuce is also known as Cos lettuce. The word Cos is the name of a Greek island, Κως, where this type of lettuce was introduced. You come to this blog and you not only read about my cooking but you also receive a healthy dose of word origins and Greek history.

At home I had to deal with Raspy, our cat, who controls everything at home and in our lives and that is why I immediately hid the chicken in the oven.

Obviously, the oven was off and I used it just to hide the chicken from Raspy.

Today, Feb. 20, 2013, I will be making a romaine lettuce salad with chicken, onions and crimini mushrooms. 

I started working on the ingredients, the shallots and mushrooms. I watch on TV a variety of cooking shows and I am very confused when I see the cooks use wet paper towels to "clean" mushrooms. Well, I think this is a lot of malarkey. I keep the mushrooms in the refrigerator and I take as many as I need, I wash them gently with water. The image below shows the sliced mushrooms.

Here are the shallots ready to be sliced. Also, behind the shallots you can see the celery, washed, and ready to be used.

I used the celery to make two virgin bloody marys. I filled two tall glasses with tomato juice, dash of Worcestershire sauce, fresh ground pepper, and finally the celery. I do use the vegetable peeler to remove the outer layer of the celery. This way it is tastier, not stringy, and looks better too.

Here is a bird's eye view of the ingredients. Wait! Who put that beer bottle there? Many years ago, I met an old, wise, man who told me that once the beer is out of the refrigerator you cannot just put it back in there again. It must be consumed and be consumed quickly. I just had to comply with this and complied I did.

Let me not forget the knife sharpener. I use the sharpener every time, before I use the knife(s) and they stay sharp.

I removed the wrapping from the goat cheese, washed it with cold water to remove an remnants of salt and placed it in a bowl.

I added about two tablespoons of olive oil in a hot pan and added the shallots, finely chopped garlic and mushrooms. After the oil was nice and hot I added the juice from the chicken that was in the container. That gives the onions a nice flavor.

Here are these ingredients getting cozy with each other. Of course you can see my most favorite spoon.

I removed the chicken from the supermarket provided plastic contained and sliced it. As you can see I preserved the skin and draped it over the chicken. I added the chicken in a Pyrex dish and added about two tablespoons of water, tented it and placed it in a 350 degree oven for ten minutes to warm it up.

Now it is time to put together the two salads. I try to cut the romaine in small pieces. If the leaf is large I cut it in half lengthwise. The image below shows two leaves that have been cut in half.

I buy the capers in small glass containers and they are drenched in vinegar. For this reason you must wash them well with water before using them.

Here is an image showing the romaine in a plate, cylindrically sliced tomatoes, thin strips of carrot, and the olives. Right behind the two plates you can see the high tech instrument I used to slice the carrot. The plate in the left is for me and the other is for Eileen. How do I know? Eileen likes different olives that I do. How do you like the way I arranged the tomatoes. I was so nervous that I resharpened the knife because I wanted to make sure the slicing was going to be perfect, and it did. I cut the yellow pepper in long, thin strips, diced and put them in the salad and of course on the plate.

I added the goat cheese, chicken and a decent amount of sauteed mushrooms and shallots. Then I carefully placed a few strips of roasted peppers followed by a healthy amount of parsley.

Finally I drizzled a little olive oil and...voila!

This salad is very easy to make and you just can't make it fail.