Brother John’s Favorite Salad

This is a great meal!  It’s a hot and cold salad, enough to satisfy you but not make you feel too full.  It’s brother John’s favorite!

Ingredients:

Cold Salad stuff – lettuce, tomatoes, scallions, cucumbers – whatever you like.

Hot Salad stuff – red or gold potatoes, onions, bell pepper (any color)

Optional Hot stuff – eggplant, zucchini, what you will

Chicken breasts, steak, or shrimp

Other stuff:  olive oil, vegetable oil, goat cheese, basalmic vinegar, Paul Prudhomme’s Poultry Magic

Note:  Paul Prudhomme’s spices are found in about 1 out of 2 grocery stores in Philly and West Chester, from my experience.  It’s in the spice section, usually bottom shelf.  It’s a thin bottle in a white thin box.  He looks like Dom Deluise.  You can’t miss him.  I use Poultry Magic because it also works on shrimp or steak.  I find the Steak Magic too heavy for seafood and the Seafood Magic, too light on steak.  A country club chef once taught me that.

 

 

Preparation:

Start with the potatoes.  The take the longest.  Use a big frying pan.  Finely slice the potatoes.  Leave the skins on if they look good.  Heat up the pan on medium-high with a nice vegetable oil.  Fry the potatoes.  The thicker they are, the longer they take to cook.  They will stick together.  Don’t worry about it.  They take about 15-20 minutes to get them nicely browned.

While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the cold salad.  Layer the items.  Lettuce on bottom, tomatoes on top.  Other stuff in between.  It’s better to use a wide flatter bowl , than a taller one with a smaller circumference.   Add some balsamic.

Add the potatoes on top of the salad.  Don’t worry about wilting.  Believe me, this is good.

Add goat cheese to the salad in small chunks.

Slice other vegetables in long strips – onions, zucchini, peppers, etc.  Fry them in the same pan, using olive oil, until tender. Add to the top of the salad.

Finally, cut chicken or steak in mouthsize chunks.  (If using shrimp, don’t cut them, but make sure you peel them.) Roll them in a cereal bowl in the Paul Prudhomme spice.  Fry it up in the same pan.  Add to the top of the salad.

Serving:

Since the salad is layered, you want to dig straight down to get all of the layers.  Don’t scoop across the top!

Note:  I do all of the chopping in advance to make the meal quicker when it comes to cooking.  You can also fry the veggies in advance.  When serving later, as in a party situation, just heat the veggies up quickly before you cook the meat, using the same pan.  You will look like a wiz!  A lovely salad already prepared –and the hot ingredients only require one pan!

Enjoy!