Lemons Pickle for Curry Meals

Just came back from London having ingested copious amounts of Indian food and laksas. So here I am trying to replicate as much as I can the amazing food we had. We went out with Ross and also with Roxanna to Dishoon and ....whoah...we were drooling afterwards. 

How amazing is Indian food? 

So I have been doing all I can to replicate some curries and fortunately Madrid is doing pretty well at having all kinds of laksas, indian pastes, etc. So we loaded up the other day and I have been watching the great recipes of Jamie Oliver for Indian food.

I came across this one and tried to replicate one of the dishes he mentions: Lemon pickles for rice. It was surprisingly good and most of all: SO FAST. So here it is before this slips off my mind forever.

INGREDIENTS:
-1 Lemon
-Some mustard seeds (I got mine from my dijon mustard, I sieved them)
-4 small dried chilis (guindilas).
-some olive oil.
-some turmeric.

STEPS: 

1. Cut lemon in small pieces.

2. Put some oil in small frying pan and add mustard seeds, chilis and turmeric, quickly toss and don't let it burn.

3. Now add lemos and toss around for about 20 mins.

That's it! Add these little guys to your rice to add an extra....something....

So cool. Tasty and tangy.

Yum.

  

Spanish Mushrooms with Jamón Serrano and Rosemary

 I barely do spanish recipes of tapas and pinchos. Most of them require all these really hard ingredients (That is why they taste so good!). 

But this recipe is pretty simple, and no oven is required!

INGREDIENTS:
-8 big mushrooms.
-100 grams of jamon serrano in bits.
-some fresh rosemary.
-1 tsp of minced garlic.

STEPS:
1. Sautee the garlic and the jamon bits in a frying pan until it is all golden and darker, for 5 minutes in low fire. Now add the rosemary to the mix and stir too. 
2. Reserve this mix and in the same pan, now place the mushrooms (without stem obviously) upside down and cook them for about 3 minutes in medium fire. Place lid over them so that they soften.
3. Now flip the mushrooms and fill the inside with the mix of ham, garlic and ham and now cook for another 10 minutes or 12 until they are done. Cover on and off, so that they soften. This wonderful juice begins to come to the surface, mixing with the ham and garlic and rosemary, and whoah it is so good. Make sure you don't burn them. 

That's it. So good, so spanish and not hard. 

Shrimp & Avocado & Grapefruit Summer Salad

Ah this spanish salad was so refreshing and wonderful given today it has been 38 degrees outside. This is the original recipe, but I added a few twists here and there to make it a whole meal, basically I added noodles, chow mein I already had ready to go. (On that note: don't you think Chow Mein are the best noodles ever?? I do.) 

This proportions are for 2 people only.

INGREDIENTS: 
-15 decent shrimp.
-2 grapefruit (one for juice only)

-1 or 2 avocado.

-some lettuce.

-some green onions or red onions diced up in cubes.

-some pasta or Chow Mein noodles for carbohydrates.

For dressing:

-The juice of half of a grapefruit.

-2 tablespoons of apple vinegar.

-2 tablespoons of olive oil.

-salt and pepper. 

STEPS:

1. The preparation is crazy simple. Peel up the cooked shrimp. 

2. Slice up the avocado.

3. Peel up the grapefruit and get all skin off from each segment.

4. Now prepare the vinagratte in a bowl. Mix: grapefruit juice, olive oil, apple vinegar and salt and pepper and give it a good mix. 

5. Now place the shrimp in the vinagrette and let it soak there for 5 minutes. They have to be well coated.

6. Add the diced red onions to the mix.

7. Now prepare the bed of salad and noodles.

8. Place on top, the avocado, the grapefruit, and now pour all the shrimp with the dressing.

That's it. SOOOOO good and most importantly: so refreshing. 

 

My Salad Dressing

 There is nothing more annoying that to have spent 1 hour cooking a main dish and now, of course, you still need to do the salad...seriously. Who has time or energy to season it decently? sometimes I eat the leaves raw cause I am just fed up of cooking.

And this is why it has taken me 13 years to publish a recipe of salad dressing, cause in all these years, I just could not be bothered to make one!

But our trip to Australia taught me a great trick that I do not want to forget. My mother in-law, the queen of salads, adds always a little bit of syrup to them! it is sheer magic, they taste so good. So I figured I could add this to a salad dressing. 

So here is my invention for you all. My dressing is 150 ml total, by the way.

INGREDIENTS:
-80 ml of olive oil.

-20 ml of balsamic vinegar.

-25 ml of apple vinegar.

-25 ml of maple syrup.

-1 tsp of salt.

-some cracked pepper.

-some rosemary, thyme, oregano, and dukah.

No recipe! 

mix it all together and give it a good stir in your jar. Obviously you can correct the flavour, if it is too salty, or sweet or bitter....just add more of the opposite ingredient, but I think my recipe is a great balance.

I'd say Paul Newman would congratulate me. ;)

Colourful Bean & Pepper Salad

 Hello!

Another salad recipe before summer disappears from our lives. Another one of Smitten Kitchen, Deb you are a source of fun in life. This recipe is seriously tasty. Deb Perelman calls it beach salad....hmmm I would't go that far but this salad is seriously good and not too hard.

INGREDIENTS:
-2 jars of white beans.
-3 peppers of different colors.

-1 small red onion.

For the vinagrette:

-6 tablespoons of olive oil.

-4 tablespoons of apple vinegar.

-1 lemon squeezed.

-1 tsp of oregano.

-1 tsp of rosemary.

-1 garlic clove minced.

-1 tsp of salt 

-black pepper. 

STEPS:

1. Rinse the beans of the tins so that you get rid of all that water from the jars.

2. Cut the peppers in slices and roast them at 225 for about 20 minutes until they char a little. Let them cool a bit before mixing with beans.

3. Create the vinaggrette, mixing everything.

4. Pour over the salad. 

That's it. This salad it's real good, well done Deb! Kenton loved it. You can take this salad easily to a pretty beach.

Classic Russian Potato Salad

 This is a good salad for summer that will make your basal temperature drop like crazy. I had to put on a sweater after it, I was so cold! I found this recipe in this website, hoping the lady is Russian! It was pretty good and I think pretty Russian too.

The key magic ingredient of this salad that takes it to another level is fresh dill or eneldo. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is the ingredient that will make this dish like something else and not like the billions of russian potato salad that taste like nothing, or a bunch of white cardboard at best. Finally this salad take about 2 hours to make, because you need to chop, let veggies cool and let it sit in fridge.

INGREDIENTS:
-4 chicken thighs.
-1 and 1/2 cup of peas.

-3 carrots.

-100 grams of  turnip (nabo in Spanish).

-3 big potatoes.

-4-5 big sweet pickles.

-1 cup of mayonnaise approx.

-Fresh dill, lots.

-salt and pepper.

-1/2 beetroot for decoration.

STEPS:

1. In a big pot of water boil the chicken, the potatoes, and the carrots and the turnip until it is all soft for 30 minutes. Get the meat out before once it is cooked. Let is all cool off for 1 hour.

2. Now chop everything into small pieces with a knife: the chicken, potatoes, carrots, turnip, and pickles etc. The reason why you chop it now and not before it's because if you do it before boiling the veggies and everything lose its shape. 

3. Now add everything together in a bowl and add the peas. 

4. Now beging to add the mayonnaise spoon by spoon, and add a lot of dill that you have chopped up. This ingredient is a MUST: fresh dill. Add also salt and pepper and mix well.

5. Now place in some type of oven tray or plate and place a layer of mayonnaise on top and decorate with beetroot. Beetroot is another protagonist of Russian cooking.

6. Stick in fridge for at least 30 minutes and it will solidify and flavors come together.

I tell you this salad will make you cold! Perfect for summer.

Seven Layer Salad

 I made this salad yesterday and it was an utter total success. It is perfect for a picnic and the flavours are all very soft, I would say all kids would love it.  Thank you Britanny! I miss your blog and recipes.

INGREDIENTS:
-2 bags of salad. 
-4 boiled eggs.

-200 grams of bacon.

-3 tomatoes.

-1/2 red onion.

-2oo grams of frozen peas.

-200 grams of grated cheese.

STEPS:

1. Cook the bacon in a saucepan until it is crispy and very brown, let it cool off and absorb the grease with paper towel.

2. Boil the eggs and cut them in quarters.

3. Cut up the onion in very small pieces and the tomatoes in bits.

4. Now that you have all the ingredients ready, begin to layer up in a transparent bowl. Begin with the salad, creating a bed. 

5. Now add the tomatoes, then the onions, the peas, the cheese, the eggs and the bacon.

That's it! Make sure the ingredients are well put around the edge of the bowl so that it looks pretty.

Now serve with ranch sauce! this is salad is not just pretty, it is sooooo good! You can see my photographer helpers. 

This is the other variation, bring a bowl of lettuce and salad and then in a tupperware bring the rest.

  

Vietnamese Vegetable Rice Rolls with Peanut Sauce

 This is a great picnic dish, obviously it is a special one, but just a great way to eat vegetables and the sauce is really fantastic and original. This recipe is from Steamy Kitchen, and seriously I had been wanting to do this recipe since 2013! 

INGREDIENTS 

For the rolls:
-Rice paper wrappers, like 16 or 20.
-About 10 lettuce leaves, soft ones.

-1 cup of sliced carrots.

-2 cucumbers julienned.

-1 avocado in slices.

-1 red pepper in slices.

-1 cup of cilantro leaves.

-1 cup of mint leaves.

-1 cup of basil leaves.

-3 sunny side up fried eggs.

For the peanut sauce:

-1/4 cup of water.

-4 tablespoons of lime juice.

- 5 tablespoons of orange juice.

-1/2 cup of peanut butter.

-1/2 teaspoon of minced ginger.

-1 teaspoon of honey.

-1/2 teaspoon of chopped garlic.

-1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce.

-1 teaspoon of sesame seeds.

-3 drops of almond extract.

STEPS:

1. Julianne the vegetables and have them all ready in bowls. Obviously all ingredients are optional, you just want crunchy vegetables.

2. Prepare the rice paper wrappers, basically you need to dip them in hot water. Dip them and they soften enough, do not dip them in boiling water, it ruins them and you can't work with them.

3. Simply wrap up the vegetables putting a little bit of everything.

4. Create the sauce. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and use hand mixer to blend, it is real good this sauce, peanuty, garlicky, gingery and almondy. It goes amazing.

And just enjoy! This recipe is laborious but worth it. 

Warm Bacon Potato Salad

Spring is coming you all, and salads are due! Finally some cold-lukewarm food for picnics. 

Today I needed carbohydrates. What to do? I looked in the fridge and I had potatoes, some bacon! The bell rang: some cool potato salad. And I remembered these recipes that looked drooling with bacon and green onions.

INGREDIENTS:
-700 grams of potatoes.
-300 grams of bacon.
-1/2 white onion.

-4 sticks of green onions.

-1 teaspoon of onion powder.

-5 tablespoons of vinegar (white or rice).

-2 tablespoons of sugar.

-1 tablespoons of dijon mustard.

-seasoning; salt and pepper.

STEPS:

1. Boil potatoes. Cut in half so that they cook quicker.

2. In the meantime dice up the bacon in small bits and fry until it is brown. Set apart.

3. Now, with the same grease of the pan cook the onions that you have diced up previously. Brown them and set apart.

4. Dice up the green onions and set apart as well.

5. Now prepare the dressing. Mix the vinegar, the sugar, the dijon mustard, the salt and pepper and the onion powder. It has to be sour, sweet, salty all at the same time.

6. Now mix everything together, potatoes cut in wedges or quarter, the dressing and the bacon, onions and green onions together and coat well.

7. Serve warm. 

It's so so good, a great combo of flavours. As my friend Tep says: everything is better with bacon.