Early summer salad

STRAWBERRY SPINACH SALAD

2009 Cardamom Kitchen LLC All Rights Reserved

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

1/2 pound boneless chicken breasts

1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced

5 ounces fresh spinach

2 tablespoons crumbled feta

Olive oil (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Preheat over to 350 degrees.

2) Lay parchment paper on a baking sheet.  Season both sides of chicken with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place on parchment paper.

3) Bake for 20 minutes.  Cool.  Shred with your fingers. 

4) Wash and dry spinach. Divide between 4 plates. 

5) Top each serving of spinach with 1/4 cup sliced strawberries, 1 1/2 teaspoons of feta, and 1/4 of the shredded chicken.

6) Dress lightly with olive oil (optional).

America Eats

During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration hired writers to document the food traditions and rituals of America, a sort of Hidden Kitchens of the 1930s. Out-of-work authors--Eudora Welty, Saul Bellow, Richard Wright, Nelson Algren, Zora Neale Hurston, along with artists, anthropologists, librarians, and housewives fanned across the country to gather "an account of group eating as an important American social institution; its part in development of American cookery as an authentic art and the preservation of that art in the face of mass production of foodstuffs...."

The Kitchen Sisters chronicled this vast archive of American eating in the Hidden Kitchens series, in a story called "America Eats" that includes an interview with Mark Kurlansky, author of the new and fascinating book, "Food of a Younger Land: A Portrait of American Food--before the national highway system, before chain restaurants and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional, and traditional--from the lost WPA files."

You can listen to our story, "America Eats," here.

Durian Ice Cream

I've been very crazy making ice cream recently. The reason is either the weather is too hot or I need to finish all the cream before it expired. What a good excuse! Oh yes, I'm quite naughty recently. At first, I was inspired by Small Small Baker's mango ice cream and it was fantastic! Then, I read through a recipe book of "The Perfect Scoop" which had given very details explanation of making real ice cream. I followed exactly the recipe to make a matcha ice cream and dark chocolate ice cream, it's real good!

After trying three types of ice cream, I still had some left over cream so I make this durian ice cream since now is the durian season and it's quite cheap in the market.

I followed the mango ice cream recipe from SSB but using durian. As the sweetness from the durian is very strong, I cut down some sugar to balance the flavour. This is my first time having such a super rich durian ice cream, we find ourselves like eating the real durian and it's totally different from what I bought from the supermarket. It's so flavourful till you will find the smell stay in your mouth for the whole day (no kissing on that day) kekekeke.... :) One thing good about homemade ice cream is we could have the REAL flavour of ice cream!

Recipe:
300g durian, puree
60g sugar
130g plain yogurt
200g whipping cream

Remove the seeds from the durian meat, I know you're going to lick your finger but please do it after you remove all ok :) Place the durian meat and sugar in a food processor to make them in puree. Transfer the durian meat to a large bowl and mix into the yogurt. Whip the cream in another bowl until stiff and fold it into the durian mixture. The recipe from SSB noted that the mixture could be store in the freezer without process it in an ice cream maker. However, I still process it in the ice cream maker to have a better texture. The result was very creamy!
Either you put it directly into an ice cream container or process in an ice cream maker, it has to be chilled in the freezer for 5 hours or overnight. Enjoy and no kissing.... kekeke...