Stuffed salmon

This simple snack invokes memories of Peruvian ceviche. Get some smoked salmon, cut thinly and big enough to use as a wrap.

For the filling:
One avocado, cut in very small cubes
One green apple (Granny Smith), cut in very small cubes
100 gram brown shrimp (Dutch: grijze garnaal, French: crevette grise)
Spring onion, cut finely
Basil leaves, cut finely (optional).

For the dressing (taste for the right mix of the ingredients, you should taste the mustard):
Sour cream
Sharp mustard
Lemon or lime juice

Mix the filling and dressing and wrap the salmon around it. Don't use too much dressing, otherwise you won't taste the other ingredients. Keep in the fridge until serving. You can serve the stuffed salmon as part of a green salad. Serve with lemon wedges.

Maman Blanc's Tomato Salad

Slice tomatoes. Big juicy tomatoes. Spread them out on a big plate. Add red onion (sliced).

Dressing:
Shallot (very finely)
Dijon mustard (tablespoon)
Garlic (mashed)
Rapeseed oil (3 tbsp)
White wine vinegar (splash)
Hot water on the end and mix very well.

Drizzle on tomatoes and let it marinate for at least one hour.

Add salt and pepper, parsley and basil as a garnish.

Marinate the tomatoes with the dressing:

Cold beet salad

Cut/dice and mix:

Boiled beet root
Gherkins
Red onion
Sour cream
Dille
Apple
Pickled herring

Coleslaw

I have tried coleslaw (Dutch: koolsalade) before but failed miserably. Now I know why. You can't just use raw cabbage, you have to marinate the shredded cabbage in salt and ample white wine vinegar overnight. This time consuming process softens the cabbage.



The recipe is simple. Shred cabbage and carrot with a mandoline (or electric shredder) in the desired size. I shredded the cabbage more coarse than the carrot. Sprinkle with salt and white wine vinegar and keep in the fridge.



The next day your coleslaw is ready. Mix with mayonnaise or with 50/50 mayonnaise and sour creme. Using sour creme gives the coleslaw a milder taste. I love to add a few caraway seeds. It's pretty tasty without the mayonnaise and/or sour creme as well.

Kartoffel Kapern Salat

From www.marions-kochbuch.de. An excellent way to prepare potatoes a day or even more in advance. Basically, you marinate boiled potato slices in vegetable stock with onion and an olive oil-vinegar dressing.

Recipe for 600 gram potatoes (cook them in shell and peel when warm):

1 - Simmer in a pan for 5 minutes: about 200ml vegetable stock and one onion, cut in small cubes.

2 - Prepare dressing from: 3 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp white wine vinegar (or: white balsamico vinegar), pressed garlic, pepper and salt.

3- Pour stock and dressing over the cooked potato slices.

4 - Add (this is just a reference): fresh parsley, anchovies, 5 teaspoons caper, 12 black olives, 120 gram cherry tomatoes (halved).

Let the potatoes marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This will keep for a few days.

Or:

KARTOFFELSALAT

Voor 4 personen:

kilo vastkokende aardappelen

ongeveer 150 ml hete kippen- of groentebouillon

1 el gladde mosterd

3 – 4 el witte azijn

3 – 4 el zonnebloemolie

1 middelgrote ui, fijngehakt

8 zure augurkjes, fijngehakt

of 3 el kappertjes, afgespoeld

of de helft van allebei

blaadjes van 1 – 2 takjes dragon, fijngehakt

handje bladpeterselie, fijngehakt

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.

Horiatiki

Dressing:
3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, salt. Sprinkle with oregano, pour olive oil over the salad, and toss. Add feta last and sprinkle some more oregano. You need Greek oregano (rigani, ρίγανη) instead of other variations.

Salad:
3 ripe tomatoes, cut in wedges
1/4 red onion, small chunks
1/2 cucumber, sliced in half-moons
1/2 green pepper
120 gram feta cheese
16 kalamata olives

La Salade Niçoise

La Salade Niçoise (the 'original' recipe, without any boiled vegetables. Skip the boiled potatoes and boiled green beans. Young broad beans and young artichokes are not available out of season, so you can skip them if needed. Variation: add capers, cooked white beans, garlic)

Recette pour 6 personnes.

* Ingrédients

pour la vinaigrette :
1 c. à café de moutarde de Dijon
2 c. à soupe de vinaigre de vin rouge (red wine vinegar)
6 c. à soupe d’huile d’olive AOC de Nice
Sel et poivre

pour la salade :
6 tomates mûres et fermes type Saint Pierre
1 petit poivron vert à salade (green pepper)
3 cébettes (ou à défaut 1 oignon blanc) (spring onion)
2 poignées de riquette (rucola) ou de mesclun (salade mélangée typique du Comté de Nice) (mixed green leaves)
3 œufs durs (hard boiled eggs)
1 grosse boite de thon au naturel (can of tuna)
12 filets d'anchois dessalés (anchovy, desalted)
1 poignée d'olives noires AOC de Nice
et selon la saison
3 petits artichauts violets dits poivrade (raw young artichoke) Impossible to get out of season.
300 g de févettes du pays (English: young broad beans; Dutch: tuinbonen) Impossible to get out of season.
10 feuilles de basilic facultatif (basil leaves)
1 cœur de céleri (celery)
1 petit concombre (cucumber)

* Préparation

Faites durcir les œufs puis plongez-les dans l’eau froide, écalez-les.
Boil eggs, cool in cold water and descale

Dans un saladier, préparez la vinaigrette et ajoutez (=to add) les cébettes finement émincées (=sliced).
Prepare vinaigrette in a salad bowl and add finely sliced spring onions.

Nettoyez les artichauts, émincez-les finement et mettez-les dans le saladier.
Clean artichoke, slice finely and add to bowl.

Écossez (=to shell) les févettes. Coupez les tomates en quartiers, ajoutez-les.
Add tomato and shelled broad beans.

Émincez le petit poivron à salade en petits cercles,
Cut green pepper in rings.

Lavez rapidement la riquette ou le mesclun, essorez et répartissez sur les tomates.
Wash green salad leaves, dry and arrange between tomato's.

Décorez avec le thon émietté, les œufs durs coupés en rondelles ou en quartiers, les cercles de poivrons, les filets d’anchois, les olives noires.
Arrange the tuna, eggs, green pepper, anchovy and black olives.

Ciselez les feuilles de basilic.
Cut the basil leaves

Mélangez-la au tout dernier moment et servez.
Mix just before serving

Rode uien op zuur

2 of 3 grote rode uien (of 1 komkommer)
50 ml water
50 ml natuurazijn
1 eetlepels suiker
5 pimentkorrels
5 kruidnagels
mespuntje zout
mespuntje peper
1 madame Jeannette peper

Mengen en 1 dag in koelkast laten staan.

Ceviche

Ceviche

1) 500 gram angler fish (Dutch: zeeduivel). Fillet the fish and cut in small pieces.

'Cook' the fish in the liquid of 3 limes for 40 minutes in the fridge.

2) Cut a halved red chili pepper in small rings.

Cut one red onion in 4 pieces. Slice the 4 parts in thin slices.

Do the same to 6 tomatoes. Remove the seeds.

3) Put the fish, chili pepper, red onion, tomato, 3 tables spoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons coriander leaf and a little salt in a bowl. Mix. Reserve a little coriander to garnish.

4) Cut one ripe avocado in half and slice. Serve on plate.

Instead of angler this dish can be made with any good quality white fish like sea bass (zeebaars), red snapper (rode snapper) or tilapia.

Chickpea salad

Another one in the series 'damn quick and easy'.
Heat olive oil in a pan, add one sliced red onion and cook, stirring, over a medium heat for 6-8 minutes until soft. Add 2 garlic cloves, one chili and fry for another minute. Tip in one can of chickpeas and stir. Squeeze over lemon juice and add plenty of flat leaf parsley.

Remove from heat, crumble over Greek feta cheese and toss well.

... from Gordon Ramsay's 'Healthy Appetite'. I don't own this book, which was apparantly written by Ramsey's side-kick Sarge. Ramsey only wrote the intro and branded the book with his name.

In season: tuinboon (Vicia faba)

The broad bean (Vicia faba) has been cultivated for around 8000 years. Typical harvest time in The Netherlands is June and July.

How to prepare? Shell the beans and blanche for 30 seconds in boiling water. The outer skin of the shelled beans can be pretty bitter, so after blanching you need to take off the light grey skin. You’re left with the bright green inner part, which has a wonderful flavor. But taste first! When the beans are really young, the skin is much less bitter and can be used.

Recipe for 2 persons:

200 gram of bulgur. Take the water you have used for blanching the broad beans and peas, this will add extra flavor to the bulgur. Pour 400 ml of this boiling hot vegetable water on the bulgur and wait for 15 minutes. Don’t boil the bulgur.

Mix the bulgur with:
Shelled, blanched and skinned broad beans
Fresh shelled and blanched peas (also in season)
Diced Greek feta cheese
Sweet cherry tomato’s, halved
50 gram pumpkin seeds

Make a dressing with:
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
garlic, pepper and salt

After mixing the dressing into the bulgur, add a hand of fresh mint leaves, roughly cut, and toss everything over until the flavors are mixed. This recipe only works when everything is fresh. Canned broad beans and peas are no substitute, I'm afraid.

Bread salad. Panzanella

This Italian dish from Tuscany is somewhat similar to gazpacho being in essense a bread salad. Panzanella is also a perfect leftover salad. Throw in anything you like. As long as you use: bread, tomatoes, basil, salt, vinegar and oil.

The base is bread, traditionally stale bread, but fresh will do. Use ciabatta, or any other type of bread. I used pretty heavy sourdough rye (rogge) wheat bread, which worked perfectly. I sprinkled the sliced bread with olive oil, fried it in a pan, then diced it. You can also bake the bread in an oven, toast it or use stale old bread. Good quality bread is essential for this dish. Don't even think of supermarket bread. Ever.

Put the diced bread in a bowl, add canned tuna, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion in chunks. At this point you are free to use anything which is suitable: black olives, capers, diced potatoes, hard boiled egg. But remember: less is more!

Make a vinaigrette with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour over the salad and make sure the bread soaks up the vinaigrette.

I didn’t have any basil, but fresh basil leaves are an important addition. I did use the pine nuts I had left over from the pesto. Blanched almonds will also do nicely.

Good thing this salad doesn’t need any lettuce. I’m not much of a lettuce fan. It doesn’t keep very well and it’s impossible to eat with a spoon.


Alternative:
This recipe for panzanella, as it is known in Italy, comes from Hiro
Sone, the very talented chef/owner of the restaurant, Terra, in St.
Helena, California. Hiro's is, hands down, the best version of this
Italian classic we know.

Ingredients (makes 6 servings)

1/2 small baguette (about 12 inches long)
1 large garlic clove, mashed
Olive oil for brushing
6 medium to large California tomatoes, cut into large chunks
1/2 medium onion chopped
3 Tbsp. coarsely chopped fresh basil
4 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil

Preheat oven.
Split the baguette lengthwise. Rub the cut side of one half very well
with the mashed garlic. Brush liberally with olive oil. Cut the
garlicked half in half again lengthwise, and then cut these strips
into 3/4 inch pieces. Place the croutons on a baking sheet, crust
side down. Bake 30 minutes, until dark golden.
If croutons are made in advance, put the California tomatoes in a
large mixing bowl a bit before you intend to mix the salad, then
drain off and discard any juice that may accumulate.
To serve, add the croutons, onion, and basil to the California
tomatoes. Whisk the vinegar and oil for the vinaigrette. Pour over
all and toss.

Gazpacho

What is summer without gazpacho? On the internet there are plenty of gazpacho recipes floating around. Some even list tabasco and worcestershire sauce as ingredients. I'm somewhat of a purist: keep it simple.

Gaz is thought to be from an Arabian-Spanish word, kaz, a wooden mortar and pestle for grinding or mashing bread (Johannes van Dam: "De Dikke van Dam", page 221. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 2006). If true, gazpacho could be any soup made from ground vegetables, bread and oil & vinegar. Before the 16th century gazpacho was certainly made without tomato, and was most likely more of a bread soup. The basis of gazpacho are good quality olive oil and vinegar.

Start with a few slices of stale bread, without the crust. Don't use bread from the supermarket! Grind the bread together with 5 ripe tomatoes (seeded and peeled), green pepper (seeded and peeled; bake in oven to make this easy), 2 cloves of garlic, 4 table spoons of white wine vinegar (or red wine vinegar), black pepper and salt. According to Johannes van Dam cucumber does not belong in gazpacho.

Like when making mayonnaise, add about 50 ml. of olive oil while grinding the bread-vegetable mixture to a thick paste. Before serving, add ice cold water, or ice cubes, to taste. If eaten as a full meal, serve with cucumber, tomato, onion, bread and boiled egg on the side.