Ćwikła

Ćwikła is a Polish salad or relish made with cooked grated beets and grated horseradish.

Meerrettich Sahne

Horseradish cream; it's a cold sauce, perfect for trout.

Grate some fresh horseradish root. You need about 4 tablespoons.

Mix the grated horseradish with 150 ml soured cream or crème fraîche. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice, black pepper and salt. Mix well and keep in the fridge for one hour before serving.

Ssamjang (쌈장)

No recipe. Buy the green container.



Ssamjang is made from fermented soybean paste, gochujang (chili paste), sesame oil, onion, garlic, green onions, and sugar.

I love ssamjang as a dip for raw onion. Ssam means 'wrapped' and is usually used to eat leaf vegetables, like lettuce, wrapped around meat, rice and some ssamjang.

Baba ghanoush

Version I tried today:

One large eggplant (made soft in oven)
4 tablespoons tahini*
Juice from 1,5 lemons
1 tablespoon olive oil
Some salt
A pinch of ground cumin

Mash together with fork.

Oops, now I realize I forgot the garlic!

*) I used a rather dark tahini. Maybe white tahini is better for baba ghanoush?

Dim sum dipping sauce

Deep frozen dim sums are handy to keep in the freezer. But they need a dipping sauce.

This one is easy and works perfectly for most dim sum:

50 ml. rice vinegar (I used a good quality Japanese white rice vinegar, there are many variations, some very strong, so taste and adjust the quantities)
50 ml. soy sauce (again, I used a standard Japanese soy sauce, you can use a Chinese 'thin' soy sauce)
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Mix and store in fridge.

Optional: dress up with fresh ginger (julienned), spring onion or chili pepper.

Cacik (Turkish)

A great salad for leftover cucumber and yoghurt. You need:

Peeled and diced cucumber. Sprinkle with salt and drain.



Mash salt together with garlic. I had half a cucumber left and 250 grams of yoghurt. I suggest 2 cloves or garlic.



Mix garlic with yoghurt and add more salt and pepper according to taste.

Cut fresh mint and mix with yoghurt. Taste and adjust salt, garlic.



Ready. Serve as side dish or light lunch.

Tahini Yogurt dip (origin: Sudan)

1 part tahini and 1 part yogurt.

Let's say 150 ml each. Mash 2-3 cloves garlic and salt together. Mix with tahini.

Add yogurt and lemon juice. Two or more lemons for above quantity. Mix with blender.

Serve as dip or appetizer. Garnish with parsley.

Hummus bi-Tahini / Babaganoush

Turkish hummus (from Rick Stein)

Note for the photographs: I didn't have any sumac or parsley.

Mash chickpeas and add tahin, add some hot water and lemon juice. Mash into a creamy sauce. [ I found the taste a bit bland so I would mix salt and garlic into the creamy sauce ]

Put on saucer. Add sumac, cumin and parsley. Add whole chickpeas.



Add hot olive oil with fried garlic and paprika powder. Add more sumac, parsley and thin as a garnish.



Hummus bi-Tahini (lit: chickpeas with tahina)

Based on one 400 gram can of chickpeas.

Puree the chickpeas coarsely.

Mash 2 - 3 cloves of garlic with 1/4 teaspoon of coarse salt in a mortar. Add 4 tablespoons tahini and the juice of 2 lemons. Mix. Variation: add cumin powder.

Add the tahini mixture to the chickpeas and work it with a wooden spoon until a smooth paste. Add some water if necessary.

Serve in bowl covered with a layer of olive oil. Garnish with chopped parsley / black olives / pine nuts / chili powder.

Babaganoush

Babaganoush has almost the same ingredients. Roast 2 eggplants in the oven. Scoop out the pulp with a spoon and puree.

Then: (almost) same as above.

Mash 2 cloves of garlic with 1/4 teaspoon of coarse salt in a mortar. Add 2 tablespoons tahini and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. Mix. Variation: add cumin powder.

Add the tahini mixture to the eggplant and work it with a wooden spoon until a smooth paste.

Serve in bowl covered with a layer of olive oil. Garnish with chopped parsley / black olives / pine nuts / cumin powder / chili powder.

Variations:
* Instead of tahini use a little olive oil and / or chopped tomatoes or an oven softened onion.
* Add 250 ml yogurt.
* Add a little harissa to make a Tunesian version.

Guacamole

This famous Aztec dish has just 5 ingredients:

Ripe avocados
Minced tomatoes
Garlic
Black pepper and salt
Lime or lemon juice

Mash in mortar and pestle. The garlic and black pepper provide enough taste, but you can add red chili. Don't use it a as a dip for supermarket nacho's, but toast some good bread.

And hey, it's vegan! Restaurant critic Jay Rayner Eats leaves and shoots ... himself