Macaroni Salad for the New Year

This blog was put up to document my kitchen adventures and to serve as my online recipe book but it seems that it’s been filled with my restaurant adventures lately. The reason for that is because I’m too busy with Hyphen and all its brands. The holidays were the only time I was able to visit my kitchen again. For Christmas, I made some roasted chicken as per request of my sister. For our advance New Year’s Eve dinner, MB requested a chicken macaroni salad:

I was really thankful that my sister took over the cooking job for the holidays as I needed to work in the store. This is a very simple salad that you can bring to parties or stock in the fridge for impromptu meriendas when friends come over.

You will need:

salad macaroni (cooked according to package directions)

a tub of mayonnaise

some boiled eggs (I used the yolk only)

some cooked ham

pineapple chunks (3-4 packs)

2 big apples cut into chunks

boiled chicken, shredded

relish (one small bottle for 400g of salad macaroni)

salt and pepper to taste

I seasoned the mayo with salt and pepper first then mashed the egg yolks and added them to the mayo. I used around 6 hard boiled egg yolks. I’m allergic to the whites so I skipped that but you can use them anyway if you like. The trick is to mash them very well so that they blend with the mayo. Then I added the ingredients one by one, ending with the salad macaroni. For serving, you can also top it with some grated cheese:

I discovered a few things in the supermarket when I bought ingredients for this dish.

1. Salad macaroni seems to be abundant during the holidays. They’re hard to find on regular days.

2. Packed grated cheese is now available among local brands. It comes in a small pouch that costs around 19 pesos. So convenient for busy people like me!

3. Pineapple chunks are now also available in pouches. I hate opening cans so this is very convenient for me. Plus, it’s not too heavy to bring when I’m alone grocery shopping.

4. There’s this brand of mayonnaise (Homeland, I think) that’s made in the US that is so affordable (Php176 for a big bottle compared to Lady’s Choice and Best Foods that cost Php330 and up) and tastes so good (not sweet like our local mayo). I bought this and bought a pack of Lady’s Choice as backup in case this didn’t taste good. I was hesitant because of the price. When I got home, I told my sister about it and she said, “Masarap yun!” She said that it’s her favorite brand of mayo because it’s not sweet. So I guess I did good on that.

I’d like to thank Kitten for the ham idea and my sister for the hard boiled egg idea.