Summer. The most pointless season here up North. It's so light one can barely sleep. And anyway, should the sum come out, you'll just get skin cancer. And Lord have mercy if you try to protect yourself with sunscreen: then the chemicals in the cream just give you some other form of cancer and on top of that expose you to all sorts of hormonal changes which change your genetic makeup and your offspring is born with horns. At least.
If it rains, there are the mosquitos. Sure, nature is at its most glorious, but you can't really go in there either as then you'll just get bitten by a tick and get yourself Lyme disease and the doctors won't know what to do with you as they don't really believe it's a disease anyway. So, you just go and try to enjoy all this overwhelming greenness that's everywhere, to a point of giving you a migraine. One should be eating salads, but no, sausages are the only think you actually fancy. It's easy, being Finn equipped with a Finnish mentality, I'll tell you!
Luckily it only lasts a couple of funny weeks, this summer. But as you're counting down weeks to the comfortingly gray reality, here's a recipe to keep you going. It's salad, you see. And green - without a tick in sight!
This chicken and avocado salad is almost as diverse as the nature is (based on those documentaries curated by Sir Richard Attenborough), too: eat it as it is, use it as a dip for nachos (in which case you want to cut the chicken into small cubes!), have it with jacket potatos or as a filling for sandwiches.
If you want it more slad-ey, just add more veggies (green peppers work well!). If you want to use it to stuff hot dog buns, this recipe is enough for 10 small buns. For the recipe for home-made hot dog buns, just click here!
Chicken, avocado and corn salad:
4 (small) avocados
the juice of 2 limes
2 tbsp of good mayo
350 g cooked chicken
1-1,5 jalapeños(depending on how fiery you want it)
bunch of coriander leaves chopped
1 spring onion,chopped
150 g corn
1/4 tsp granulated garlic
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 - 3/4 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp black pepper
Cook the chicken. For maximun taste, choose piece on the bone - you'll get the required amount from 3 whole legs. If you're feeling lazy, just buy some rotisesserie chicken. Let cool and chop to cubes of desired size.
Measure avocado, lime juice and mayo into a food processor and blizz to smooth paste. Add rest of the ingredients and fold in the chicken. Check the taste and season as/if needed. Serve.
This would have to be my favourite way to enjoy the salad: toast the buns, stuff with salad and some coriander leaves, drizzle with lime juice and off you go!
Mexican corn beer spiked with lime would be the obvious choice for this - the richness of avocado is not the easiest to pair with wine. This Grüner Veltliner from Austrian Biohof Pratch is a good match though.
It's got mineral acidity which cuts through the richness of the avocade and citrusy notes that go well with lime. Its pepperiness works well with the heat-bringing elements and you might want to try this with spicier Asian dishes, too!
___________________
ANYONE FOR SECONDS?
No comments :
Post a Comment