How to win friends with salad

Punchy ingredients and zesty dressings amp up simple side dishes into seasonal headline acts.

G&T drunken chicken with carrots & dukkah

A simple way to poach chicken, really playing on the Chinese version of drunken chicken, but with an English twist. Please note: sipping an actual gin and tonic while making this dish is a must.

Serves 2, plated or sharing

2 free-range boneless, skinless chicken breasts, weighing 230g each, each cut into thirds lengthways

200ml gin

1 tbsp salt flakes

1 tbsp sugar

1 star anise

6 dried juniper berries

3 pieces of dried mandarin peel, or fresh orange or lemon peel (without any bitter white pith)

800ml tonic water

8 baby carrots, washed well, then cut in half lengthways

3 radicchio leaves, washed and shredded

4 large sorrel leaves washed and thinly sliced

2 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 tsp pickled ginger (from a jar), finely chopped

drizzle of olive oil

2 tbsp Dukkah

Place the chicken in a bowl that is large enough to hold up to 3 litres of liquid.

In a 2 litre saucepan, bring to the boil the gin, salt, sugar, spices and mandarin peel. Take off the heat, stir in the tonic water and let sit until cool. Pour the cooled liquid over the chicken, then cover and marinate in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Leaving the chicken in the bowl, strain the marinating liquid back into the saucepan. Bring the liquid to the boil, then turn off the heat. While the liquid is very hot, add the chicken. Cover with a lid and leave for 20 minutes. Check that the chicken is cooked through; if it isn't, let it poach for another five minutes or so.

Remove the chicken from the liquid and place in the fridge to cool. Once cool, pull the chicken into long, fine shreds and place in a mixing bowl.

Wash out the saucepan, half-fill with water and bring to the boil. Add the carrots and cook for 4-5 minutes, or until tender. Strain and add to the chicken.

Mix the radicchio, sorrel, spring onion and pickled ginger through the chicken mixture. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, then place in a serving bowl. Sprinkle with the dukkah … and ka-pow!

Note: The weight of the chicken breast is important so that it cooks through in this gentle poaching method.

Dukkah

I add a little sugar to my dukkah, as I think it helps bring out the flavour of all the other spices. It's a great way to add taste and texture to dishes, and I love it. Makes about 1 cup.

100g hazelnuts

2 tsp white peppercorns

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tsp ground cumin seeds

1½ tbsp salt flakes

1 tbsp unrefined soft brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast for 5-10 minutes. While they're still warm, place them in a tea towel and rub off the skins. Set aside.

Put a frying pan over a low heat. Add the peppercorns and coriander seeds and allow to toast gently, shaking the pan all the time, until you see some smoke or steam rising from the spices. Quickly tip them into a bowl to cool them, so they don't get a chance to burn.

Now lightly toast the sesame seeds and cumin seeds separately, shaking the pan constantly, and tipping them into a separate bowl to the peppercorn mixture.

Using a mortar and pestle, grind the hazelnuts to break them up. Add the peppercorn mixture and grind to a milled pepper consistency. Now add the toasted sesame seeds, cumin seeds, salt and sugar, mixing well.

The dukkah will keep in an airtight container in a cool dark spot for several months.

Baked snapper with fish sauce dressing, cucumber and andmint salad

A simple baked fish dish – but if you wanted, you could serve it equally as well as a marinated raw dish. Remove the skin from the fish, slice it small enough, and there's no need to actually cook the fish at all.

Serves 4 as a main course salad

600g snapper fillet, scaled and pin-boned (ask ya fishmonger to do this for you)

1 large grapefruit (any variety)

50ml fish sauce

50ml soy sauce

1 tbsp castor sugar

100ml grapeseed or canola oil (non GM)

3 spring onions

10 Vietnamese mint leaves, washed and chopped

4 flat-leaf (Italian) parsley stalks and leaves, washed and chopped

1 bullet chilli, chopped (seeds and all)

2 Lebanese (short) cucumbers, thinly sliced lengthways, using a mandolin

1 handful coriander leaves picked and washed

1 small handful mint leaves, washed and torn

Preheat the oven to 220C. Cut the snapper fillet into eight pieces. Arrange the snapper portions in a baking dish, so no pieces are touching each other.

The grapefruit here is very important. First slice off the top and bottom using a sharp knife, then carefully remove the skin and the white pith, starting from the top and working down to the bottom, as if you are following the lines of a soccer ball. Once this is done, and working over a bowl to catch all the juices, slice between each vein to get a perfect segment. Each segment we are going to cut into five portions and place in a dish for later; also reserve all the juice.

Pass the grapefruit juice through a sieve, into a bowl. Whisk in the fish sauce, soy sauce and the sugar and grapeseed oil. Spoon half the dressing over the fish, then pop the fish in the oven for 15-18 minutes, or until cooked.

Chop the spring onions finely, placing the green parts into the remaining dressing mixture, and the white bits in a separate bowl.

To the dressing add the Vietnamese mint, parsley, chilli and the grapefruit segments; set aside.

To the bowl with the white spring onion bits, add the cucumber, coriander and mint, then dress with a little dressing.

Arrange the salad around a large shallow serving bowl or platter. Place the snapper portions on top, drizzle with as much dressing as you desire, then serve straight away.

Smashed figs with blue cheese, walnuts & white balsamic

I wish I'd been introduced to figs a lot earlier in my life. Picking them straight from the tree, sun warmed, is just sublime. Where I live there are hundreds of fig trees overhanging on to footpaths and back laneways, so it would be rude not to help myself to some on the way home.

Serves 2 sharing

5 ripe figs, cut in half

50g blue cheese; I like to use gorgonzola for this dish

10 walnuts, toasted and chopped

8 basil leaves, washed and torn

40ml white balsamic vinegar or regular balsamic vinegar

40ml good-quality olive oil

1 tbsp pepitas (pumpkin seeds), toasted

good pinch of salt flakes

a few turns of white pepper

2 slices bread, toasted on a char-grill

Take two sheets of baking paper, each about 30 centimetres long. On one sheet place the figs, flesh side down, then cover with the other piece of baking paper. Now gently smash the figs using your fingers until they are flat. Once smashed, take off the top layer of paper, leaving the figs on the bottom sheet.

Turn the bottom sheet of paper upside down on to a plate, then gently remove the paper. Crumble the cheese over the figs, then scatter with the walnuts and basil.

Drizzle the vinegar and olive oil all over, then sprinkle with the pepitas, salt and pepper. Serve with char-grilled bread on the side.

Recipes and images extracted from Mr Wilkinson's Simply Dressed Salads by Matt Wilkinson published by Hardie Grant Books, RRP 49.95, available online and from all good bookshops.