MIKE’S LAWFARE KITCHEN

Kerr'y’s Greek Salad Recipe

Greek salads might be my favorite food. When I told Mike this week that my book club seemed to approve of my first Greek salad, he wanted the recipe. I’m not a cook, but I did combine a couple of recipes from the internet and added sun-dried tomatoes, as Azar’s sometimes does. It was delish, but I didn’t take a picture.

Salad Dressing Ingredients:

• 1/2 c really good olive oil

• 3 T really good red wine vinegar

• 2T fresh lemon juice

• 1t Dijon mustard

• 2T dried oregano

• 1T finely chopped fresh mint

• 1 clove of minced garlic or a shake of garlic powder (optional)

• Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Whisk together and set aside (salad dressing needs to set for a while to taste its best)

Salad Ingredients:

• 4 heads of romaine lettuce, washed, dried and cut into 2” chunks

• 1 long, seedless English cucumber unpeeled and sliced into 1/4” pieces

• 1 bunch of cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters

• 1 thinly sliced red onion

• 1 thinly sliced firm red pepper

• 1 c of pitted Kalamata olives

• 1/2 lb of feta cheese, crumbled or cut into little chunks

• Sun dried tomatoes in oil, as many or few as you like

Toss ingredients in a big salad bowl, gently mix in the dressing and voila!

This will easily feed 8.

Rao’s Famous Lemon Chicken

Mike says a Greek salad is the perfect accompaniment to lemon chicken. A platter of this saucy, zippy lemon chicken goes out to nearly every table at Rao’s in New York City, the Italian American institution that’s famously hard to get into. All the more reason to whip up the old-school classic at home.

This recipe ran alongside Thomas McNamee's 1998 article, "The Hangout."

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh lemon juice (from about 13 lemons)

• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing

• 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

• ½ tsp. dried oregano

• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped

  Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Two 2½-lb. chickens, their legs, thighs, and wings separated and breasts halved on the bone

• ¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley leaves

Instructions

STEP 1

Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 450ºF. In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, oil, vinegar, oregano, garlic, and salt and black pepper to taste.

STEP 2

On a greased baking sheet, generously season the chicken with salt and toss to coat. Arrange skin-side down and bake for 15 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces and continue cooking until the skin is golden and crisp and the juices run clear, about 10 minutes more. Preheat the broiler to high.

STEP 3

Transfer the chicken to the bowl with the lemon mixture and toss to coat, then use a slotted spoon to transfer back to the baking sheet and arrange skin-side up. (Reserve the remaining liquid.) Broil until sizzling and deep golden brown, 10–15 minutes. Transfer to a platter, then pour the remaining sauce over top. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.