Salads for hot weather
The recent hot weather prompted us to think about salad recipes. The chicken salad recipe, mentioned in an earlier column, was featured at a café in Charleston. We frequently purchased the salad, and on more than one occasion tried to recreate it at home. Unfortunately, we never managed to get it exactly right. One day when we were once again stopping to pick up a pound of chicken salad, the owner, who was frantically juggling a number of catering jobs for delivery that evening, asked if we could stay and help for a few hours. She assumed our "reward" would be some free chicken salad, but instead we asked for the recipe. She very reluctantly shared something close to the original, and that was all we needed to finally perfect it on our next attempt. Once we moved, we were happy we had secured the recipe, and since the shop owner has retired, we feel that we can now share it.
The chicken and turkey salads can both be made ahead, but we prefer to make the black bean ful a couple of hours prior to serving. We freely admit to using canned black beans (rinsed and drained) when we don't want to spend time cooking the dried variety.
