Curried Chicken Salad

Although this is a recipe I did not learn from Adriana it is never- theless delicious and very handy to have in your repertoire. I think I invented it, and I like to think that Adriana would have served it had she known about it. She was very forward-thinking and open to new ideas. I remember her on quiet Sunday afternoons poring over the recipe section of the "Famiglia Cristiana" magazine which had just arrived, and she did serve "new" things to her family periodically.

Curried Chicken Salad
Use as many chicken breasts as you think you'll need, depending on how many you're feeding.
Poach these until done in water which you've flavoured with some onion, some celery leaves, salt and a Bay leaf. (That is, cook these together in water for a bit before poaching the chicken.)
Remove the chicken and let it cool. You may reserve the poaching liquid for another time, it's a lovely broth.
In the meantime, mix some store-bought mayonnaise with lemon juice and curry powder to taste.
Cut the chicken into dice, not too neatly and not too small.
Cut some green grapes in half, a little fewer than the volume of chicken.
Chop some celery, including leaves.
Mix all ingredients together. Taste and adjust seasonings. You may want to add salt.
This looks really pretty, and if you've used low-fat mayo, it's good for you too!

One of these times I'll tell you about Adriana's "Russian Salad", though why she called it that I don't know. And then there's "Potato Salad alla Russa". I daresay we have the "Famiglia Cristiana" magazine to thank for both these ideas.