This is hardly a recipe, more like a set of instructions, but I wanted to share it before this long weekend of picnics and cookouts and gatherings, because it is so good and so simple and so perfect for this last official weekend of summer. 

I first had this in South Africa several years ago, as part of a big beautiful lunch spread at a safari camp.  I was impressed by its simplicity, and I had never seen the combo of watermelon and feta before and thought it very exotic.  I have since seen many more dressed-up versions of this – drizzled with vinaigrette, tossed with olives, served with onions slivers.  But I love this simple, fresh, three ingredient original.  I was recently invited to dinner at a friend’s, and we all volunteered to bring something.  Before I expressed a preference, I was ordered to bring ”that watermelon salad” by another friend (not the hostess)!  It reminded me of just how good this salad is.  You can obviously make a larger or smaller batch for your gathering.

Watermelon and Feta Salad

I highly recommend using blocks of feta cut into chunks.  Don’t be tempted by the pre-crumbled variety here as it tends to break down and coat the watermelon with a sandy grit.

½ of a medium-sized watermelon

2 (8-ounce) blocks of feta cheese

A nice big handful of fresh mint leaves

Cut the pink flesh of the watermelon into small, bite-sized chunks and place in large bowl.  I like a pretty glass one to show off the gorgeous colors.  Cut the feta into chunks roughly the same size as the watermelon pieces and add to the bowl.  Finley chop the mint leaves and sprinkle half over the watermelon and feta.  Toss VERY gently to combine, adding the rest of the mint as you do so it is evenly distributed.

This salad does best made within an hour of serving, so the feta doesn’t break down.  To make it ahead, chop the watermelon and toss with the mint, cover and refrigerate.  Cut the feta into chunks and store separately in the fridge.  Toss together shortly before serving.

Serves 8

I am something of a chicken salad savant.  I came late to the party, having an unreasonable and unfathomable aversion to mayonnaise in my youth and childhood.  That, and little exposure to good chicken salad.  I only choked down bad, plastic-container chicken salad out of politeness at parties and luncheons, and maybe a school cafeteria. Chewy chicken, gloopy mayo, or more likely “salad dressing” and unidentifiable chunks of lord-only-knows, frequently scooped like a baseball.  But when the possibilities of chicken salad opened up to me, it was a culinary floodgate released.  I have such a catalog of chicken salads, for every season, every taste, every occasion, it is hard for me to believe that I haven’t posted one here yet. 

Chicken salad done well is a revelation.  Tender cooked chicken lightly bound in a flavorful dressing, perfectly seasoned, with enough additional ingredients to make it interesting, but no so many to make it overwhelming.  A nice bowl of good chicken salad in the fridge means you never go hungry and is a real boon in the steamy summer months.  It’s a great take along for a weekend away or a picnic.  This Lemon Dill version is a favorite of mine, even though I originally created it for my mom, featuring two of her favorite flavors.  The chicken is cooked to maximize the lemon flavor, crispy vegetables and crunchy pine nuts provide texture and a touch of buttermilk in the minimal dressing adds a nice tang.

You may want to argue about my method of cooking the chicken – but I promise, you will be impressed.  It’s based on the way I often cook Moroccan tagines.  Tightly covered, the chicken and lemons will produce a lot of juice and basically poach in a flavorful broth.  The chicken comes out tender and infused with lemon and dill.  It takes an hour to cook, but a few seconds to put together.

Lemon Dill Chicken Salad

Serve this in a sandwich, spooned into lettuce leaves, or on it’s own with a few crackers

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 lemons

1 bunch fresh dill

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

¼ cup pine nuts (or slivered almonds)

½ cup mayonnaise

3 Tablespoon buttermilk

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Place the chicken breasts in an 8 by 8 inch baking dish and season with salt.  Slice one of the lemons and place over the chicken breasts.  Scatter half of the dill stalks over the chicken and lemons.  Cover the dish tightly with a double layer of foil and bake for 1 hour. 

Meanwhile, finely dice the carrot and celery.  When the chicken is cooked and cool enough to handle, cut it into small, bite-sized pieces.  Place the chicken in a large bowl with the diced carrots and celery.  Toss together with the pine nuts.

In a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise and buttermilk.  Zest the remaining lemon into the mayonnaise.  Finely chop the remaining dill fronds and add to the mayonnaise dressing with salt to taste and a few grinds of pepper.  Squeeze the juice from the lemon over the chicken in the bowl and toss to coat.  Pour over the dressing and stir to coat evenly.

This chicken salad will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.  Do not leave it out and return to the fridge.  Spoon out what you need and leave the rest chilling.

Serves 6

I love community cookbooks. The great and broad recipe collections gathered together by Junior Leagues, Junior Auxiliaries, symphony groups, historic homes, garden clubs.  I have a large and ever-growing collection of these treasures.  Some of them are quite professional nowadays, with editors and trained photographers.  But I particularly love the old-school cookbooks, from the Forties, Fifties and Sixties.  Spiral-bound, ragged covers, hand-drawn illustrations and spelling mistakes. These to me are like a glimpse into the life and kitchens of the ladies of a community, how they fed their families and how they entertained.  Little added notes like “good for a ladies lunch” or “feeds a crowd” or my favorite “the menfolk will eat this up.”  Often, the recipes themselves lack detail or clear instructions – you can tell the person who submitted it just jotted down how she makes it, and it seems so second nature to her it doesn’t occur to explain in at any length.  I’ve gotten pretty good at teasing out these recipes. I’ve tried some over and over that just never worked and others, with a little help, are standards in my repertoire.  And isn’t it amazing how recipes seem to resonate around the world?  I have old cookbooks from Detroit, from New Jersey and all over this region and the same recipes keep popping up – with the same unusual ingredients and colorful names.

Of course, my favorite community cookbooks are the ones from the communities I feel connected too.  There are many great ones here in Memphis, and part of what I enjoy about these books is that they are familiar to so many friends and families.  How often have I been at a party and someone comments on a dish and the hostess says, “oh you know, it’s that recipe from Heart and Soul” with that assumption that everyone owns the cookbook.  Or asked a friend how she makes a dish and the answer is “I just use the recipe in Party Potpourri”.  Some recipes do transcend ownership of the actual book.  Everyone just knows a certain recipe and how it’s made – and can recognize it immediately when it’s served.  I love that.

One recipe that has always been in my consciousness is Fire and Ice Tomatoes.  How it got in my mind, I can’t imagine, because as I child I would never have eaten anything resembling a raw tomato.  The original recipe, to the best of my knowledge, is from The James K. Polk Cookbook, produced by the James K. Polk Memorial Auxiliary of Columbia, Tennessee in 1978.  Columbia is the town my mother grew up in, and President Polk had a home there that is now a historical site.  My aunt served on the committee that produced the wonderful Provisions and Politics: Recipes Honoring First Lady Sarah Childress Polk, a follow up to the original Polk cookbook published in 2003.  The book is a collection of new and fresh recipes, with a few old favorites thrown in.  When she started with the project, my first question was “it will include Fire and Ice Tomatoes, right?”  Both my mother and my aunt had no idea what I was talking about – they had to be reminded of the recipe.  So how it became a part of my recipe memory bank, I will never know.  But I do know that it is good.  And it’s the perfect weekend recipe – not that it takes a weekend to prepare, but once you’ve made it, it can sit in it’s container in the fridge to be served up and snacked on all weekend.  These make a great side to a grilled meal, a refreshing accompainemt to a lunch time sandwich, or an elegant first course salad.

Fire and Ice Tomatoes

The original recipe says these tomatoes will keep in the fridge up to 3 days, but I happily keep them up to five. 

6 large ripe, red tomatoes

1 yellow onion

1 green bell pepper

¾ cup white wine vinegar

¼ cup cold water

1 ½ teaspoons mustard seed

1 ½ teaspoons sugar

1 ½ teaspoons celery salt

½ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Cut the tomatoes into eight wedges each and place in a 9 by 13 inch glass or ceramic dish.  Finely dice the onion and sprinkle over the tomatoes.  Core, seed and remove the ribs of the bell pepper and cut into thin strips (if the pepper is long, cut the strips in half).  Scatter the peppers over the tomatoes and onions.

In a saucepan, combine the vinegar, water, mustard seeds, sugar, celery salt, salt and peppers.  Bring to a boil, stirring, and boil for one minute.  Immediately pour the hot vinegar mixture over the tomatoes, then stir gently to combine. Leave the tomatoes to cool slightly, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.  Leave to marinate for several hours, stirring occasionally.

Serve on its own as a salad or a side dish or atop some lettuce leaves.  You can pull out some of the tomato wedges and cut them into smaller pieces, stir in some of the dressing and vegetables and use this like a salsa as well.

Serves 6 to 8

Adapted from Provisions and Politics: Recipes Honoring Sarah Childress Polk

I know.  Frankly, it’s just fun to say.  Succotash.  I could go here with Sweet Summer Succotash Salad. Sunny Season Succotash Salad. Or the trite but amusing Sufferin’ Succotash Salad.  But more than being a pleasure to say, it’s a pleasure to eat. Crispy corn, creamy limas, crunchy bell pepper in a sweet-tart Vidalia dressing.  It screams summer.  And it looks like a big bowl of summer’s bounty. But you may be surprised to see that I use frozen vegetables here. Particularly after I waxed so poetic about fresh butter beans.  But I do think this is a perfect summer dish – because frozen vegetables are easy to prepare, and a quick zap in the microwave keeps the kitchen cool. And in the hot Southern summer, standing in a stuffy kitchen over pots of boiling water while everyone else is out having fun is the last thing anyone wants to do.  Now, I have done this with fresh vegetables – cook the beans in water until just crisp tender, cook the corn in boiling water until also crisp, then scrape the kernels off the cob.  But it takes quite a few cobs of corn to get a good amount for this salad.  If you have the patience and the air-conditioning to go for the fresh, by all means, knock yourself out.  

This salad is also a hostess’s dream. It’s beautiful in a big glass bowl, or charmingly rustic in a big mason jar, or scooped into small jars for individual servings.  Plus, with no mayo, this salad can sit out at your next buffet or barbecue with no worries, and it can be made ahead and is easily transportable to a picnic or a lake, beach or mountain house weekend.  And, it’s just so fun to say.

Succotash Salad

If you can find the vegetables packaged in ready-to-steam bags, go for it, cooking the vegetables for a few minutes less than the package instructions.  You want the veg crunchy not mushy.

16 ounces frozen baby lima beans

10 ounces frozen yellow corn

1 red bell pepper, finely diced

3 green onions, white and green parts, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons chopped Vidalia onion

2 Tablespoons cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/4 cup olive oil

Place the lima beans with about 1/3 cup of water in a microwave safe bowl.  Cover with microwave-safe plastic wrap.  Microwave on high for 3- 4 minutes, just until the beans are tender.  Drain off the water and dump the beans in a large mixing bowl.  Place the corn in the microwave bowl, cover and zap for 2 to 3 minutes, just until the corn is tender.  Drain any accumulated water and add to the beans.

Add the bell pepper and green onions to the bowl and toss to combine.

In a blender or a mini food processor, blend the onion, vinegar, honey and Dijon mustard until smooth. Drizzle in the oil and continue to blend until thoroughly combined.

 Pour the dressing over the vegetables and gently stir to coat.  The salad will keep in the fridge up to two days.

 Serves 8

Ingredients on offer in Chiang Mai, Thailand

I love the flavor of Thai food, but it can be a little time consuming to prepare. This easy elegant wrap is simplified with bought roast beef.  These little lettuce cups make a great appetizer, served on a big, pretty platter, or a simple cold summer supper.  Choose a roast beef from the deli counter that is not highly seasoned or specially flavored and do not have it sliced paper thin. 

Easy Thai Beef Salad Cups

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/2 Tablespoon sesame oil

Juice of one lime

2 Tablespoons light brown sugar

1 scallion

1 small shallot

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 small red chile (optional)

4 mint leaves

4 basil leaves

2 sprigs cilantro leaves

4 ounces deli roast beef

1/2 cucumber

1 head butter lettuce

1/4 cup salted peanuts, chopped

In an airtight container with a lid, whisk together the fish sauce, sesame oil, lime juice and brown sugar until the sugar is dissolved.  Chop the scallion and shallot and add with the garlic to the marinade. (Chop the chile and add to the marinade if using). Chop the mint, basil and cilantro and add to the marinade.  Whisk to mix thoroughly.

Cut the roast beef into thin strips.  Drop into the marinade, place the lid on the container tightly and shake to coat.  Refrigerate several hours, shaking occasionally to keep covered.

When ready to serve, slice the cucumber into matchstick pieces or thin half moons. Remove the beef from the marinade – shake it off, but leaves some clinging to the meat.  Place in a bowl with the cucumbers and toss to combine.  Separate several leaves of lettuce and fill each one with the beef mixture.  Sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

Serves 4 – 6

I always offer to bring a dish when people invite me over, and when they take the offer up, I sometimes get a little flustered trying to come up with something new and different.  This salad has been my staple this summer, when I grill out or when asked to bring something along.  So next time it’s your turn to bring a salad or a side dish to a barbecue (or just doing it for your own), here’s a fun, colorful salad with a difference – a sweet and tangy Cuban-style dressing.

You can absolutely use fresh corn, lightly cooked and cut from the cob, but it takes quite a few ears of corn to get this quantity.  I usually make this for a crowd, so I go easy on the jalepeno in the dressing, but feel free to bump it up a bit.

Cuban Corn and Black Bean Salad with Citrus Mojo Dressing

Salad:

3 (16 ounce) cans black beans, thoroughly rinsed and well drained

1 (12 ounce) bag frozen yellow corn kernels

1 (12 ounce) bag frozen white corn kernels

1 red bell pepper

1 orange bell pepper

½ small red onion

A nice handful of fresh cilantro

Mojo Dressing:

Juice of one small orange

Juice of one lemon

Juice of one lime

¼  of  a small red onion

¼ of a medium jalepeno, deseeded

3 cloves garlic

¼ cup cilantro leaves

1 Tablespoon honey

2 ½ Tablespoons cider vinegar

½ teaspoon cumin

¾ cup

Salt to taste

For the salad:

Lightly steam the corn kernels in the microwave, either in the bag they came in or in a microwave safe dish covered with plastic wrap, for about three minutes.  Drain well. In a large bowl, combine the well drained beans and corn.  Finely dice the peppers and the onion and add to the bowl.  Finely mince the cilantro and add to the bowl.  Gently stir or toss the salad, being careful not to mash the beans.

For the dressing:

Pour the juices (you should have about ½ cup) into the carafe of a blender.  Drop in the onion, the jalapeno, the garlic cloves and the cilantro leaves.  Add the honey, vinegar and cumin and blend until smooth.  With the blender running, slowly drizzle in the oil.  Taste and add salt.

Pour 1 cup of the dressing over the salad slowly, gently stirring to coat.  Taste and add more salt if needed.  Refrigerate the salad for several hours, stirring occasionally to distribute the dressing.  Stir again right before serving.

Serves 10 – 12

Note:  The dressing makes about 2 cups which is more than needed for the salad, but it is great on romaine lettuce, as a dressing for coleslaw or a marinade for chicken or fish.  It will keep covered for a week in the fridge.