RADISHES + CUCUMBER SALAD+MESCLUN LEAVES IN A MUSTARD DRESSING

This salad ticks all the boxes we love in a salad:  simple, fresh, crispy flavours with crunchiness of radishes enhanced by the softness of the cucumber flesh, all happily married under the complexity of the mustard dressing. 

I like to serve it alongside the dishes with rather milder flavours and softer textures such as burgers or roast meets or chicken.

You need:

4-5 medium radishes 
1 medium cucumber

1 tbs of coriander leaves

3-4 green shallots finely slices

A bunch of mesclun salad or any salad leaves to your liking

Mustard dressing:

2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp of Dijon mustard

1 tbsp of red wine vinegar

1 tsp of honey

Freshly ground pepper and salt

Wash and thinly slice the radishes, a cucumber and the shallots.  Place in a bowl together with the salad leaves and chopped coriander leaves.  

Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a small jar, give them a good shake, check the seasoning and pour over the salad. Give it a toss and serve alongside your main course.

Enjoy!!!

SALAD VERDE WITH RED VINEGAR AND MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE AND POMEGRANATE SEEDS

This salad is extremely easy to make and quick to assemble (there is no cooking per se), it involves minimum of ingredients and most of all, its tangy test and fresh crispiness of the ingredients are a great accompaniment to almost any dish you cook whether it is vegetarian, meat, fish or poultry.  

You need:

2 heads of baby cos lettuce

2 medium cucumbers

A handful of chopped fresh herbs (coriander, dill or parsley depending on your taste)

Pomegranate seeds to serve

 

For the vinaigrette:

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp red vine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

½ tsp honey

Salt & freshly cracked black pepper

Method:

Remove the stems from the lettuce and then slice each lenghtwise into quarters and arrange on a plate.  

Using a potato peeler, remove the skin from the cucumbers and continue peeling off the ribbons until you reach the seeds that need to be discarded.  Place the cucumber ribbons over the lettuce.

Finely chop the herbs and sprinkle over the salad.  Take a whole pomegranate, slice it in half, place one half into the palm of your hand seeds down and holding it over the salad, start beating it with a wooden spoon.  This method should easily release the seeds with minimum damage to their shape.

Place all the ingredients for the dressing into an air-tight container and give it a good shake, taste and adjust the seasoning.

Once satisfied, pour the dressing over the leaves and serve alongside a Whole Roast Chicken or use it as a base for Stuffed Mushrooms.

ASIAN SLAW

Despite the presence of Asian ingredients and flavours, I quite often prepare this salad to serve it with grilled steak or roast chicken; the spices are not so strong as to overpower the main dish, rather they add an extra dimension and excitement to the whole meal.  As I explained previously, in my cosmopolitan cooking I don't necessarily adhere to any Asian cuisine in particular but rather enjoy the presence of unusual flavours and ingredients.

Now, that I have cleared that up, let me go back to the preparation of the salad.

To feed 8 people you need:

 ½ head of medium white cabbage

2 red capsicums

A bunch of green onions

1/2 cup of chopped coriander

1 tbsp of sesame seeds (black or white)

Dressing:

4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp of sesame oil

1 tsp of brown sugar

2 tbsp of lime juice (I use the ready made one)

1 tsp of water

2 tbsp of soy sauce

Method:

Pre-heat a small pan on medium high and roast the sesame seeds until golden brown.  If you using black ones, just warm them up to release the flavours.

Get a big salad bowl and using a potato peeler, start shaving off the cabbage discarding the core.  Remove the seeds from the capsicum and repeat the process.  The reason I am using a peeler is not for presentation purposes only but also as the thinner the vegetables, the more flavour they absorb.

Next, slice the green onions diagonally into 2 cm pieces and add them to the bowl together with chopped coriander.  

Combine all the ingredients for the dressing into a small jar with a lid and give it a good shake.  Taste it and adjust the seasoning if needed, aiming for a perfect balance of saltiness and sweetness with just enough of a hint of the clean taste of the lime juice and a hit from the chilies.

This salad is a good accompaniment to a fish dish with similar flavours.  You can find the recipe in the post called "Asian infused barramundi".

Enjoy!!!

BABY BEETROOT + BROCCOLINI + BLUE CHEESE SALAD WITH MUSTARD DRESSING

This salad is great for an entree or as an accompaniment to the fresh oysters as a starter.  Lots of recipes call for the beetroot to be roasted first but I prefer to use canned baby beetroot.  All the beats are of the same bite size that is perfect for presentation and their piquant taste goes very well with the mustard dressing.

You need: (for 6-8 people)

400 gr can of baby beetroot

Bunch of broccolini (if using regular broccoli, use florets only)

100 gr of your favourite blue cheese

5-6 stalks of spring onions (thinly sliced on the diagonal)

1 tbs of fresh parsley (finely chopped)

Dressing:

5-6 spoons extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon seeded mustard

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon honey

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

Sea salt

Freshly grounded black pepper

Method:
Cook the broccolini in salted water until just tender and then place in a bowl of icy water to stop the cooking process and preserve their colour; once cooled - pat them dry.  Chop the beets into halves, finely slice the spring onions and parsley and combine all the vegetables in a big bowl.   In a screw top jar combine all the ingredients for the dressing, shake well and taste.  The dressing should be a perfect balance of sweetness, tartness and sharpness and, of course, to your liking.  Pour over the salad, give it a toss and crumble the blue cheese on top.   

Enjoy!!!

WATERMELON, PERSIAN FETA AND ROCKET LEAVES SALAD

The vibrancy of colours in this salad is a true celebration of summer and the taste, as implorable as it might sound, is utterly delicious, both savoury and refreshingly sweet at the same time.  If you, like me. like the taste of chili, add a few sprinkles of it and let the hit elevated this dish to a totally new level.  Its flavours match beautifully with any meat or poultry dishes, particularly with ones cooked using Mediterranean or Middle Eastern spices.

You need (for 8 people)

1.5 kilogrammes of a seedless ripe watermelon

100 gr of Persian feta

Half a bunch of coriander leaves finely chopped
Small red onion finely sliced into semicircles

200 gr of rocket leaves

1 tbs of chopped mint leaves

a sprinkle of chili flakes (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil,

Salt and freshly ground black paper

Method:

Cut off the rind and then cut the watermelon flesh into 2 cm cubes and place them into a salad bowl.  Crumble in all  the feta and add all other ingredients.  Sprinkle some sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper and give it a gentle toss.  Taste and adjust the seasoning, the sweetness of the watermelon should be perfectly balanced against the saltiness of the feta and the peppery taste of the rocket leaves, accentuated by the hit coming from chilies.  If you have marinated feta in a tin at home, use its oil, it tastes divine and can be added to any salad.

Enjoy!!!

ROASTED RACK OF LAMB WITH MIDDLE EASTERN FLAVOURS + PARSLEY + POMEGRANATE SAUCE

Ever since Yotam Ottolenghi made an appearance on the Australian Food Channel, it sparked interest in Middle Eastern cuisine.  Shop owners recorded a significant increase in sales of spices such as Za'atar and Sumak and you can eat eggs Shakshuka which are now on almost every coffee shop breakfast list and bookings to restaurants that cook this tasty cuisine is sometimes weeks long.  His books "Jerusalem on a Plate" and "Plenty" have become cooking bibles for many home cooks across the globe.

This recipe is quite simple in its preparation and cooking, it has delicious flavours of the Middle East and will proudly grace any dining table over the coming festive season.  

You need for 8 people:

3 racks of lamb approx (3 ribs per person)

Olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2- 3 tbs of sumac (Mediterranean spice available in the spice section of a supermarket or a deli shop)

2-3 tbs of dukkah (same as above)

Method (I call it a one pot wonder as I use the roasting dish to both sear and cook the meat)

Remove the meat from the fridge half an hour before cooking to bring it to room temperature.  Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Rub olive oil over one side of the rack, season it with salt and pepper and sprinkle generously with dukkah and sumac and massage it into the meat.  Place the roasting dish on top of the stove on medium heat, splash some olive oil and when it's hot,  quickly sear the meat on both sides to seal in the juices and give the meat a lovely brown colour.

Once the meat is browned on both sides, place the dish  into the pre-heated oven.  I like to use a meat thermometer to make sure that my meat is not overcooked.  As a rough guide, you need between 15 and 20 minutes to get the lamb to medium rare.
Once the meat is cooked to your liking, remove it from the oven and let it rest in a warm place, I find a microwave oven is a perfect place for it.  Slice the racks into chunks allowing 3 ribs per guest and arrange them on a big serving plate along with roasted vegetables.  I am a strong believer that the food looks great when served on a big plate, it is also easy to share and brings the sense of closeness to people around the table.

The lamp goes beautifully with  Middle Eastern style parsley sauce that adds extra flavour and texture and rather nicely rounds up the whole dish.

Parsley sauce with fresh pomegranate

You need:

Half a bunch of parsley nicely chopped

2-3 garlic gloves grated (add more if you love it or less if not so much)

Pips of half of a pomegranate

5 tbs extra virgin olive oil,

salt and freshly ground black pepper,

½ of tbs of red wine vinegar or lemon juice (whichever you prefer)

1 tsp of pomegranate sauce.

Method:

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl (apart from the pomegranate pips), mix well and taste it, it should have sharp fresh taste with a hint of sweetness from the pomegranate juice and acidity from the vinegar (or lemon juice).  If you are using a whole bunch of parsley, you should increase the quantity of wet ingredients to maintain sauce consistency.  Once satisfied with the seasoning, mix in the pomegranate pips.

Using a teaspoon, spoon it over each of the lamb portions and serve the left-over sauce on the side.

Serve the Lamb with Roasted Vegetables and a summer salad of Water Melon, Rocket Leaves + Persian Feta

Enjoy!!!