Vegetable Salad [vegetarian]

Although I realize that outside my country, this salad is often called 'Russian Salad', here we all know it as 'Vegetable Salad'. It was the most popular salad in Poland for many, many years. No party, celebration or social gathering happened without this dish. Even preparing this salad was a bit of a social occasion, as it was always made in big quantities and very often, at least 2 people were cutting the vegetables and chatting while they were doing it. I remember from my childhood that the women from my family were always cutting the vegetables very thinly because we believed that if the cubes were too big, the salad would not taste as good as it should ;) Nowadays, I actually prefer the salad not to be made of such tiny pieces. It still tastes great, but the preparation doesn’t take as long as it used to in the past.

What I also like about this salad is that you end up with a great by-product – good quality vegetable stock that can be used as a base for many different soups. Obviously, it also works the other way around: you cook the stock that you need and then you use the vegetables to make the salad. Whichever way you are going to do it; you will enjoy the two results!

INGREDIENTS (for 4-6 portion):

4 carrots, peeled,

2 parsnips, peeled,

0.25 celery (approx. 200g), peeled and cut into 2 pieces,

1 small leek*,

1 celery stalk*,

2 apples,

3-4 sour gherkins,

1 tin green peas,

3 tbsp mayonnaise,

salt and pepper.

METHOD:

1. Put the carrots, parsnips, celery, leek* and celery stalk* to a big pan, pour 1-1.5l of water, add salt and pepper and bring to boil.
2. Lower the heat and cook the vegetables until they are tender (approx. 20 minutes).
3. Take the vegetables out from the stock, cool them down.
4. In the meantime, cut the apples and sour gherkins into 0.5-1 cm cubes. After you chop the gherkins, make sure to squeeze out the liquid.
5. When the cooked vegetables are cool, cut the carrots, parsnips and the celery into the 0.5 -1cm cubes (the celery stalk and leek can be discarded).
6. Put all the chopped vegetables, apples and gherkins to a bowl, add the mayonnaise, seasoning and stir well.

* optional, required only if you are making the stock as well.

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Quinoa Porridge with Apples

I have already written about quinoa and its unique features, especially important for people who follow plant based diets. And because of the health benefits, I have used quinoa in dishes instead of rice, in salads and even in a cake. But since I never used it for breakfast dishes, I decided to give it a try. 

When I was at university, there was a time when each day I ate my healthy breakfast - "doctor Bircher's muesli". The name of the dish came from a Swiss doctor who served it to his patients in his clinic. The dish is made of porridge oats that are not cooked but soaked in water overnight, grated apple and all sorts of nuts and dried fruit. So I decided to borrow this concept, but use quinoa (cooked) instead of oats. 

Although I am unable to compare health benefits between the two options, one thing is for sure: the quinoa variation is at least as tasty as the oat one, so you can try it and enjoy.

INGREDIENTS (for 1 portion):

1 apple, cored,

a squeeze of lemon juice,

3 tbsp cooked quinoa*,

3 dried figs, chopped,

4 dried apricots, chopped,

a handful of chopped nuts,

1 tsp pumpkin seeds,

a pinch of cinnamon.

METHOD:

1. Grate the apple (with its skin), sprinkle with a squeeze of lemon juice and mix with the cooked quinoa.
2. Add the dried fruit, nuts, seeds and some cinnamon, stir.
3. The porridge can be optionally served with a dollop of yoghurt and some honey.

* The quinoa can be cooked a day earlier as per the following instruction (the rest can be used in salads or the next day):

1 cup quinoa,

2 cups water,

a pinch of salt,

dash of olive oil

Put the quinoa to a fine mesh strainer, rinse it under running cold water rubbing the seeds with each other with your fingers (for at least 1 minute) and drain well. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a pot over a medium heat and fry the drained quinoa for about 1 minute till the rest of water evaporates. Add water, salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook covered for approx. 15 minutes. Take it out from the heat and let it rest covered for 5 minutes more. Fluff the quinoa with a fork.

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Green and Gorgeous Smoked Mackerel Salad

Whenever I make this salad, it always takes me back a few years to the time and place when we (or rather – my daughter) had it for the first time. A few years ago we went away for a couple of  days to a  pretty little town that in season buzzes  with life but when we were there – it was winter – it was pretty quiet and empty. We were a bit concerned, if we would be able to find an open nice place we could eat, but as we walked along we found heaven: a really amazing slow food restaurant. We had many wonderful dishes there, as we obviously would go there every day, but it was this healthy salad that stayed with us as a memory of that short holiday.

The main reason why this dish has been so memorable may be that I was just so happy that my daughter, who at that time hardly ate any raw vegetables, ordered that salad and loved it! So obviously I quickly worked out my own version and included it in menus at our home. We still love it nowadays as it is a pretty straightforward dish made from simple green ingredients (lettuce, apples, fennel)  that work together perfectly despite the fact that combining smoked mackerel and honey may not be the obvious choice!

INGREDIENTS (for 2 big portions):

1 smoked mackerel,

0.5 Iceberg lettuce, thorn into small pieces,

0.5 fennel bulb, thinly shredded,

1 big green apple (e.g. Golden delicious), quartered and thinly sliced,

3 tbsp olive oil,

1 tbsp + 1 tsp acacia honey,

1 tbsp white wine vinegar,

salt and pepper.

METHOD:

1. Prepare the mackerel: with 2 forks (or your fingers) open the fish in the middle; take out a bone from the middle and remove all the little bones; separate small pieces of the fish from the skin and put them on a clean plate.
2. In a big bowl mix the lettuce, fennel and apple.
3. Make the dressing by stirring together the olive oil, vinegar and 1 tbsp honey, season.
4. Pour the dressing over the vegetables, mix well and move onto a big serving plate (or 2 small ones).
5. Arrange the pieces of mackerel on top of the salad mix, drizzle everything with the 1 tsp of honey.

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Boozy Apple Strudel

It is my little tradition to treat myself to Apple Strudel after a few hours of skiing, when we have a break somewhere on top of a mountain in South Tirol. Since Apfelstrudel comes from that part of Europe, I know I am likely to get the best: wonderful apple filling surrounded by thin pastry. It takes a long time to make dough for the strudel as it has to be very elastic so it can be rolled and stretched really thinly: I have heard you should be able to read a newspaper through it.

I am sure one day I will approach the original recipe but for now I wanted to make a simplified version so I decided to use filo pastry instead. It is also extremely thin and additionally - it gives a bit of a crunch to the strudel. In my version, I replaced breadcrumbs with Amaretti biscuits to enrich the strudel with a nice almond taste; I also soaked raisins in rum for a more adult version. And to make the dessert even boozier, I served it with a whipped cream combined with a bit more of rum. Obviously alcohol doesn't have to be added but on cold winter days, it does warm you up even if you are not on a ski slope!

INGREDIENTS (for 8 portions):

Strudel:

50g raisins,

2 tbsp rum,

500g apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped into approx. 2cm pieces,

40g Demerara sugar (plus extra for sprinkling the strudel),

1.5 tsp cinnamon (plus extra for sprinkling the strudel),

70g Amaretti biscuits, crushed,

3-6 sheets of filo pastry (depending on size),

50g melted butter.

Sauce:

300ml whipping cream,

1.5 tbsp icing sugar,

3 tbsp rum.

METHOD:

1. Soak the raisins in the rum for at least 15 minutes.
2. Preheat a fan oven to 170 Celsius degrees.
3. In a big bowl mix together the apples, sugar, cinnamon, raisins (don’t add rum if any left as it may make the strudel soggy) and the crushed Amaretti.
4. Prepare the filo pastry. If the sheets are big (approx. 40cm x 30cm), place one on a baking tray covered with baking paper and brush it with melted butter. Put another sheet of filo pastry on top and again - brush with melted butter. Repeat till you have used all 3 sheets. If the sheets are smaller, put two of them overlapping each other to get the required size and follow the above instructions to get 3 layers of pastry.
5. Place the apple mixture on one third of the prepared pastry leaving 5 cm out on the 3 sides (similarly to 3 Layered Salmon Strudel - please watch a video for details).
6. Rise up onto the filling the shorter sides of the pastry and the long side that is close to you. Press it gently so it stays on the filling and brush with the melted butter. Now roll up the strudel from the filling end into a cylindrical shape making sure the ending is at the bottom of the strudel. If you prefer not to have too many layers of the pastry on the endings, please watch the video.
7. Brush the strudel with the rest of melted butter; sprinkle the top with a bit of extra cinnamon and Demerara sugar  and put to the oven for 30-35 minutes.
8. Serve it with the sauce prepared by whipping the cream and mixing it with sugar and rum.

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