I have a sweet memory of pine nuts. When I was a child - let's say around 1985? - one of my pleasure(?) was to sneak into my mom's kitchen and get some pine nuts from a glass jar in the refrigerator. My mom never allowed me to eat those pine nuts enough... I guess, at that time, the pine nut was expensive. I had to ask for treat, "mom, can I have a pine nut? maybe two?". If the answer is no, I - as a troublesome girl - found a way to sneak into the kitchen and find the jar anyway... secretly.
I loved and love pine nut's subtle but sweet flavor. I wanted to research more about the pine nuts in terms of culinary uses, so I took a look some websites. Because I don't think pine nut is popular in French cuisine compared to Mediterranean, Middle Eastern or Italian cuisine, I thought probably the pine nuts from Mediterranean area must be famous. Oh - well, according to wikipedia, the most widely traded pine nut in international commerce is called "Korean Pine". I knew Korea has a lot of pine trees but didn't know the pine nut that I sneaked in to eat was that famous! ;-)
Anyway... the following recipe is actually more like a Korea food. Although most of Korean restaurants in U.S. do not have a cold dish called "nang-chae" which is smiliar to salad (but heavily dressed), it is quite popular in Korea to have the cold dishes on your table.
Chicken Salad with Pine Nut Dressing
with my childhood memory of sneak-eating
(Yield: 4 servings / Cooking time: Less than one hour)
Ingredients:
Chicken Salad
+ 2 skinless boneless chicken breast
+ 1/2 carrot
+ 1/2 english cucumber
+ 1 egg
+ 1/2 lemon
+ salt and pepper
[aromatic ingredients]
+ 3 cloves of garlic
+ 1/2 tsp black pepper corns (about ten pepper corns)
+ 1 dried bay leaf
+ 1 clove
Pine Nut Dressing
+ 1/2 asian pear
+ 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
+ 2 Tbsp pine nuts
+ 1 tsp mustard
+ 1 Tbsp small-diced red bell pepper
+ 1 Tbsp small-diced green bell pepper
+ salt
Yes... there seem to be a lot of ingredients for a salad dish. But, trust me - this is really a simple dish - you need to cook only chicken and egg. We are going to cook the chicken breasts first in simmering water with aromatic ingredients. Then, make vegetables going with chicken and the pine nut dressing. You can make this dish to a cold appetizer as well by plating small portion more delicately.
Procedures:
[Cooking Chicken]
1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. In a pot, which is large enough to hold two chicken breasts, pour water and add clove, pepper corns, bay leaf, crushed garlic cloves and bring to a boil.
2. When the water start boiling rapidly, add the seasoned chicken and turn the heat to medium-low so that the water can simmer not boil. Chicken breasts need to be covered with water. Please add more water if needed.
3. After 8 min, check if the chicken is cooked through. The internal temperature should register 140-150°F. The cooking time depends on the size of chicken breasts. When the breasts are cooked, take them out and rest with aluminum foil cover to keep it warm and to avoid drying.
4. Rest the chicken breasts until they are cooled down enough to handle with hands. Tear the chicken breast with hands to small peices. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.
5. With two cookie cutters, make a ring-shaped mold for chicken. Fill the mold with chicken pieces. Place the chickens in a refrigerator and let them set in the mold completely.
[Vegetables & Garnishes]
1. Prepare vegetables and garnishes as followings.
- Egg: separate egg white and yolk. Whisk gently the white and yolk with a fork to make them smooth, but make sure not to incorporate air. Season with salt. Heat a non-stick pan and spread oil with paper towel (we don't want any access oil). Cook egg white first, and then yolk as thin as you can. Ideally, the egg white and yolk should not have any brown color on them. julienne (1-2mm square x 4-5cm long) them when they are cooled.
- English cucumber: wash the cucumber well, and cut into 2inch(5cm) long. If the peel has bitter taste, peel lightly with vegetable peeler, but make sure keep the light green color. By using a knife (probably pairing knife is easier, although I used regular chef's knife in the picture below), turn the green parts as thin as you can. This will give you thin sheets of cucumber greens. If this is too hard, just julienne (1-2mm square x 4-5cm long) the cucumber.
- Carrot: wash well, peel and julienne (1-2mm square x 4-5cm long) the carrot.
- Red/Green bell peppers: wash well, peel and brunoise (1-2mm x 1-2mm cube) the bell peppers.
After all of your "julienne" & brunoise" hard work:
You will find most of my Korean recipes require a lot of knife work, and yes, it is true.
2. Season cucumber and carrot julienne with salt and set aside until the veigibles are soften enough to squeeze out water. Squeeze out the water with hand. If the cucumber and carrot are too salty, wash in water and squeeze out the water again.
3. Mix egg (white/yellow julienne), cucumber and carrot juliennes.
[Pine Nut Dressing]
1. Grate 1/2 asian pear. We need about three table spoons of graded asian pear for the dressing.
2. Roast pine nuts over pan until the nuts have light brown color. With a small food processor or a spice grinder, grind the roasted pine nuts until it has powder-like consistency.
3. First, mix vinegar and mustard to make sure the mustard is dissolved into the liquid.
4. Then, mix pine nut powder, grated pear, bell pepper brunoise together. Season with salt and pepper.
[Plating...]
1. Spoon the pine nut dressing to a plate. If you use a cookie cutter, it is much easier to make a good-looking circle shape.
2. Take the chicken out of a refrigerator and unmold. Place the chicken ring gently on the pine nut dressing.
3. Lastly, fill the chicken ring with julienne egges, cucumber and carrot.
(Please mix everything together and...)
Enjoy~
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