Just the thought of no internet causes the current generation of youngsters to have heart palpittions, but for us pre-browsers it was television and magazines that broke open our culinary world. Tradition had always dictated what we ate but in the 1980s we started to fel the urge to break out and try new things.
Grocery stores started carrying what we considered exotic ingredients, especially spices, and convenience foods were making their first appearance. Remember Kraft pizzas? Those boxes darned near defined our generation.
Cajun Chicken and Pasta Salad
This dish combines two recipes that emerged as party must-serves in the 1980s.
Macaroni salad had already been around but was typically a mayonnaise-based concoction that substituted pasta for potatoes.
Blackening meat or fish meant burning it, until Cajun spices were just being introduced to us budding cooks and we were blackening everything.
Today you can find a hot version of this dish on many restaurant menus but this salad remains one of my favourites.
This is nearly as good with ham or other leftover cooked meat but worth the bit of extra effort to make the chicken from scratch.
This is a large salad that serves many as a side but makes a nice weekend supper for 6.
Dressing:
1 tbsp. each dry mustard and white wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. honey
½ tsp. each dried oregano, cumin, salt, and black pepper
¼ tsp. each allspice and cayenne pepper
½ cup spicy green or red salsa
½ cup ranch style salad dressing
½ cup mayonnaise, not salad dressing
Cajun Chicken:
1 tsp. smoked or sweet paprika
½ tsp. each salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp. each dried oregano and thyme
½ tsp. each dried garlic and onion powder
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsp. vegetable oil, preferably peanut but not olive
Salad:
1 lb. penne or other medium-sized pasta, prepared according to package directions for al dente and cooled
1 each red and green bell pepper, diced
4 green onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced or diced
1 large bunch fresh parsley, chopped
Make the dressing first. Whisk together all ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use—the longer it sits the better it gets.
For the chicken, combine paprika, salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder and cayenne pepper.
Rub briskly into the chicken breasts and allow to sit a couple of minutes. Fry in a very hot oven-safe pan in vegetable oil until dark brown, nearly black. Place the pan in the oven and bake at 350 degrees F 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Set aside to cool.
Slice the chicken thinly into bite-sized pieces and combine with cold pasta, bell peppers, green onions, celery and parsley. Stir in prepared dressing. Serve right away or refrigerate. Pasta can thicken as it sits so stir in a little warm water to loosen the salad if necessary.
Four Bean Salad
This mixture was on every picnic table for the entire decade. It’s still around but frowned on a bit, I think, by those who don’t believe salads should not come from cans. There was quite a bit more sugar in the original version but I prefer this more tart than sweet—the sharp vinegar edge cuts through rich food, almost like a pickle.
There is some can opening here so quantities are dictated by the size of can you choose. These are all the smallest cans you can buy, about 14 oz. each. Of course you can make any or all of the ingredients from scratch but that wouldn’t really represent the 1980s, would it?
Be sure to thoroughly drain everything but the garbanzos and kidney beans also benefit from a good rinse.
These amounts serve at least 8.
1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 can green beans
1 can yellow waxed beans
1 can red kidney beans
2 green onions, white and green parts, finely chopped
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
Dressing:
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
½ tsp. each salt and freshly ground black pepper
Combine chickpeas, green beans, waxed beans, kidney beans, green onions, celery, yellow onion and red bell pepper.
Microwave vinegar and sugar; stir to dissolve. Cool then whisk in olive oil, salt and pepper and stir into bean mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Cynthia Stone is an information manager and writer in St. John’s. E-mail questions to her at cynthia.stone@nf.sympatico.ca.
