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H’s Swap: 8-31 Curried “Haitian” Chicken Salad

Posted by | September 03, 2010 | THE SWAP | One Comment

SIMPLE “COMFORT FOOD” FOR DINNER: FIRST WEEK OF THE FALL SEMESTER

Shalinee~~

(Note: on your way home from work today (or Dave’s way home) you need to pick up vanilla ice cream…)

It is 10:32 as I sit down to write this. I am totally exhausted; I can barely think straight; and I cut my thumb with a sharp knife while peeling peaches for our swap so my left thumb is throbbing as I try to type this. Anyhooooo………..

Here we are. The first day of the first week of the new fall semester. Braydon and I came downstairs from getting the kids to bed at 8pm. After cleaning up the kitchen and the house, I then began to cook for our swap. It seems to take me about 2 hours each week, sometimes longer. Tonight was exactly 2 hours. I was going fast—and after a long day it just about kills me, every time, but then – when I’m done, like I am right now, I’m so glad I did it. Because now we’re all set for the week.

Here’s what you have this week:

  • Curried “Haitian” Chicken Salad*
  • Pita, Lettuce, Tomato for pita sandwich making with the chicken salad
  • Decadent Potato Chips (I decided that we deserve this treat for the first week back)
  • Peach (and Raspberry & Blueberry) Cobbler for dessert… I know, I know, I broke the ‘no dessert’ rule for this… but I decided that our kids and husbands deserve this treat for Mommy’s first week back (heaven knows this is just as tough for them, if not more so, than it is for us.) Anyway, it is also the height of peach season right now… the farm-stand baskets are overflowing with peaches… and these delights won’t be around much longer… so I took it upon myself to make us cobbler!  BAKE, UNCOVERED, FOR ½ HOUR, AT 375. Serve warm with vanilla iced cream!

*Re: the Curried “Haitian” Chicken Salad~~  After college, Braydon and I lived in Charleston, SC for one year while we applied to graduate school. Charleston has a pretty big food scene. We had a lot of fun eating there. Anyway, there was a little lunch place that we loved, called Doe’s Pita. At that point (1994-95) mainstream healthy-yet-yummy eating was still sort of just taking off. Doe’s was way ahead of their time. Their thing was fresh, healthy, interesting pita sandwiches. We became addicted to their Curried Chicken Salad. It was made with yogurt (not mayonnaise), which was downright radical at the time. In addition to chicken it was loaded with celery, apples, and raisins. My mouth is watering as I type this out. It was stuffed into a pita with lettuce. So simple and so good. After we moved to Boston for grad school there was nothing like Doe’s Pita anywhere to be found. We wanted that chicken salad so badly… that I took it upon myself to figure out the recipe (at the time I could barely boil water, but I was determined). I mastered it. And made it regularly for us. Especially in late summer or early fall… I think because the flavors just work for that time of year (and the weather then reminds me of winter in Charleston—oh, and this chicken salad makes a great tailgate/picnic food). So… fast forward… we moved for the Lehigh job… and 10 years after our love affair with Doe’s Pita we found ourselves in Bucks County and exploring our new “home.” We pretty quickly discovered our favorite area gourmet food shop/farm shop—Tabora Farm. Have you been there? You’ve gotta go sometime. It is lovely. So, one of the first times we were in there we decided to get sandwiches from their deli. They had something on the menu called “Haitian Chicken Salad” and of course we had to ask what that was (!!!). When they described it as “a curried chicken salad,” we knew we had to get it. At Tabora they serve it on whole grain bread with lettuce and tomato. It is basically the same as Doe’s except that I’m pretty sure it is made with mayonnaise (not yogurt). We order it pretty much any time we get sandwiches at Tabora. Owen, especially, is a HUGE FAN of it (he’ll eat a whole container of it – no sandwich, just the chicken salad) in one sitting. Over time I’ve come to sort of have my own recipe for it. And if truth be told, I’ll admit that I like mine the best of all. Mine is plain yogurt; curry; celery; apple; raisins; green onion; diced chicken breast (this time I bought rotisserie chickens because it made my life today so much easier… plus it gave me a good excuse to go to the beloved Wegmans [because I really only trust Wegmans for a good organic rotisserie chicken]), It is great for pita sandwiches, roll-up sandwiches, or just on it’s own (like Owen likes it!). It is also a great packed-lunch-for-work when you dollop a scoop of it on top of a green salad.

It is now 11:03 pm and I’m calling it a day!  I hope you guys like this!  Enjoy!!!


from Heather
to Shalinee
date Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 4:38 PM
subject  your dinner

We had the enchiladas last night— AWESOME. Huge hit. ESPECIALLY WITH BRAYDON. I think he thought he had died and gone to heaven. He loves enchiladas (always orders them whenever we are at a Mexi rest.), particularly w/ tomatillo sauce… and I have never made them at home… ever…! So, it was a big huge deal to him and he loved it. We only ate half and froze the other half…. It was awesome. The salsa was great for B & I but the kids would not eat it. Who knows why? They don’t like feta (crazy I know!), and never have… we’ll have to work on that one because no child of mine could not like feta. Anyway, thanks! It was great!

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