Category Archives: salads

South American Style Prawn Cocktail

25 Wednesday Jan 2023

Posted by in Fish, Food for One, salads, Snacks and Tapas, Starters

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When I cook for my friends I quite often like to have a theme to the dishes, so once I’d decided on Chicken Burritos as a main course for this particular lunch, I was looking for something to have as an appetiser. There are generally frozen prawns in the freezer, so why not mix them with typical South American salads, tomatoes, peppers, sweetcorn, add a spicy sauce sharpened with lime juice and have a prawn cocktail?

My guests loved it!


Per person

8 large prawns in their shells

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon quinoa – black or red look good, but if you have neither then the white is fine

1 tablespoon diced green pepper

1 tablespoon diced red pepper

1 tablespoon sweetcorn kernels

1/2 small avocado diced

Lettuce leaves to decorate your dishes

For the dressing

1 small clove of garlic

Fresh red chilli – finely chopped

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh coriander leaves or the same of green coriander seeds

zest and juice of 1/2 a small lime

Boil the quinoa until tender.

Drain and put in a bowl with the rest of the salad ingredients.

Peel the prawns reserving the heads and skins.

Fry the prawns in olive oil until just cooked. Remove to a plate and let cool.

To the same pan add the heads and skins. Fry gently squashing the juices out of the heads with a wooden spatula.

Once the prawn heads are cooked and have given out their juices, add the coconut milk and water. Mix well scraping any solid bits at the bottom of the pan into the liquid and squashing the the heads again to add yet more flavour to the dressing.

Let cook down a little and then take off the heat.

With a pestle and mortar crush the garlic, chilli and coriander with a pinch of salt.

Strain the dressing into the mortar and then mix well.

Add the lime zest and juice, mix again, then add the dressing and cooled prawns to the salad and mix to cover all with the dressing.

Line your serving dishes with leaves and pile on the cocktail.

Enjoy!

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Autumn Red Salad

29 Monday Nov 2021

Posted by in salads, Starters, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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I made this to have with the Potato and Chickpea Cakes in the previous post using ingredients that are currently in season here. Fragrant green peppers from the huerta, this years almonds which I love dry toasted in their skins, big winter radishes and plum tomatoes from the local market.

You will need –

Several leaves of red oak leaved lettuce

2 medium tomatoes – chopped into chunks

2 samall or 1 large green pepper

about 20 whole almonds – either with skins or if you prefer without

1 large cooked beetroot – cut into smallish cubes

Winter radish – about 20 thin slices

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tablesoons water

1 teaspoon honey or agave syrup

2 tablespoons extra virgen olive oil

Start by steeping the radishes. The large winter radishes can be quite peppery, so a sweet marinade will make them less so. Mix the vinegar water and honey or syrup in small bowl, then add the radishes. Leave to marinate for at least ten minutes.

Meanwhile dry toast the almonds in a thick based pan over a low heat. Stir regularly to ensure that they are evenly toasted and a little browned. Remove from the heat and put to one side.

Rip up the lettuce leaves and arrange them on a large plate, then add the chopped tomatoes.

slice the green peppers and arrange on the salad.

Remove the radish slices from their marinade and arrange them over the salad.

Put the beetroot in the marinade and stir to cover all the cubes.

Spoon the cubes and vinegar over the salad, then sprinkle on the almonds.

Finally drizzle over the olive oil.

Enjoy!

Market Day Salad Nicoise

12 Tuesday Oct 2021

Posted by in Fish, Main Courses, salads, Shopping, Vegetable Dishes

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Sometimes when food shopping most of the elements of a great recipe just happen to appear before you. In this case, picked this morning french beans, bright green little gem lettuce and fresh from underneath the hen free range eggs. A salad Nicoise is asking to be made. There is no fresh tuna, which I would normally use, but lovely big prawns will do nicely for the fish element. Southern Spain is the land of the tomato, so super tasty tomatoes are always plentiful.

I prefer poached eggs to boiled, I like warm yolks to dribble over the salad, and a vinaigrette dressing to mayonnaise, so here is my version of Salade Nicoise.

Per person

lettuce leaves

1 or 2 tomatoes – chopped

French beans – top and tail them and cut them into about 3cm lengths, then blanch them in boiling water for two or three minutes. Drain and leave to cool.

1 tablespoon corn kernels

1 clove of garlic – chopped

olive oil

7 large prawns – peeled

2 large free range eggs

For the dressing

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon white wine/cider vinegar

pinch of sugar

Firstly mix all the dressing ingredients together thoroughly. You can put them all in a little jar and give it a good shake. Put to one side while you assemble the salad.

Lay the lettuce leaves on a dinner plate to make a bed for the rest of the ingredients. Strew over the tomatoes, beans and corn.

Heat water in a small pan for poaching the eggs.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a small frying pan and add the chopped garlic, fry for a minute then add the prawns. Fry gently until just cooked through. Add to the salad with the cooking juices and garlic.

Poach the eggs, drain and lay on the salad.

Spoon over the dressing, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serve with fresh crunchy bread.

Spicy Cauliflower Salad with Toasted Almonds and Coconut

15 Saturday May 2021

Posted by in salads, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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One of my fellow gardening friends has given me a cauliflower he has grown, and it’s the tastiest most tender cauliflower I have eaten in a long time. I blanched some of the florets in boiling water for a minute, before draining them and adding the florets to a mixed salad the other day, which is when I discovered how exceptionally tasty they were. So today I thought to make them the stars of a salad to accompany some Onion Bhaji.

Half a cauliflower – cut into even sized florets

2 tablespoons desiccated coconut

2 tablespoons almond flakes

2 tablespoons peanut or olive oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 sweet onion – sliced

2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped

1 small green chilli – finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon lime juice

fresh chopped coriander or green coriander seeds

Put the cauliflower florets in a bowl and cover generously with boiling water. Leave to steep for 2-3 minutes then drain. Leave to cool a little.

Put the coconut in a thick based frying pan on a low heat to toast, stirring from time to time. It will suddenly start to brown so don’t be tempted to wander off as I did once. When it has started to brown stir constantly until the coconut is an even golden brown colour, then tip the coconut onto a plate to cool.

Add the almond flakes to the same pan and toast these. Again to a golden brown colour an the tip onto the plate with the coconut.

Again using the same pan, put the 2 tablespoons of oil into the pan, and then the mustard and cumin seeds. Fry for a minute or two until the seeds start to pop.

Add the onions, chilli and garlic and fry gently until soft. Add the turmeric and stir to mix.

If there is enough room in the pan, add the cauliflower florets, or add the contents of the pan to the florets in a bowl. Stir to mix well.

Add the coconut and almonds and mix again. Season with salt, pepper, chopped coriander or seeds and lime juice.

Enjoy!

Mixed Lentils in Tomato Sauce & Ottolengis Spicy Moroccan Carrot Salad.

13 Tuesday Apr 2021

Posted by in Main Courses, salads, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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The first time I made these lentils, I happened to have some leftover carrot salad from the day before which I stirred into my portion of lentils. The mix is so successful that now I plan to have the salad one day, and make enough to have leftovers ready to mix in to the lentils the following day.

The Lentils – this makes four good servings

100 grams yellow lentils

40 grams small white lentils

40 grams red lentils

oil or butter for frying

2 medium sized onions – sliced

4 cloves garlic – finely chopped

fresh ginger roughly 3x2x2 cm – cut into small cubes

fresh green chilli – finely chopped

1 level teaspoon turmeric

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon asafoetida

200 gram tin puréed tomatoes

200 grams tomato passata

salt and pepper

Put the lentils in a bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover. Leave to soak for an hour.

Heat the oil or butter in a deep frying pan and add the sliced onions, garlic and ginger. Fry gently for about five minutes to soften.

Add the chopped chilli and stir to mix.

Once the lentils have had their hour of soaking drain them and add to the pan of onions. Stir to mix in.

Add the turmeric, coriander, asafoetida and the tomatoes. Season with salt. Stir to mix all together.

Bring to a simmer, turn the heat very low, cover and leave to cook for about half an hour. Stir from time to time and add water if the mix is getting to dry.

Once the lentils are cooked add salt and pepper to taste. Serve as they are or with the Ottolengi’s carrot salad which follows, either on the side or mixed in.
Oh and if you were wondering what the little green seeds are decorating the lentils, they are fresh green coriander seeds as my coriander in the veg patch is now going to seed with the warmer temperatures. I can leave the seeds to go brown and dry, but I love the flavour of them, pungent and sweet, so a collect them green, and either use them fresh or freeze them. Enjoy!

Steamed Broccoli & Cabbage with Whole Spices

17 Tuesday Nov 2020

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Although the vegetables in this dish are cooked, you stop the cooking while they still have some crunch, so it’s like a warm spicy salad, which is just as good when left to go cold.

For 2 portions

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon kalonji/onion seeds

peanut or olive oil

1/2 onion – sliced

4 cloves garlic – finely chopped

1/2 fresh green chilli – finely chopped

1/4 red pepper – cut into small squares

1/4 cabbage – finely sliced

Small head of broccoli – broken into florets

1 teaspoon garam masala

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a shallow pan and when hot add the whole cumin, coriander and kalonji. Fry until they start to pop and release their flavour.

Add the onion, garlic, red pepper and chilli. Fry for five minutes.

Add the cabbage and broccoli. Stir well to coat with the onions and spices.

Season with the garam masala, salt and pepper.

Cover and continue cooking until the cabbage has wilted. Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan by about half a centimetre.

Cover and continue cooking, stirring from time to time, for around ten minutes until the vegetables are cooked but still with some bite.

Seaweed Salad & Rice Noodles with Mushrooms

25 Sunday Oct 2020

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Of course mixed seaweed is not a foodstuff that one comes across easily, but if you are, like me, culinary curious and happen across a market stall selling various salted and dried seaweeds the mixed salad is a good one to buy to see if you like it. My sister and I bought 250 grams and I forget how much we paid, it seemed pricey at the time, but that amount makes about 16 portions. The seaweed expandes to more than twice the size when you soak it. Of course it makes a perfect salad to accompany fish.

For 2 portions

60 grams dried seaweed salad – soaked overnight in plenty of cold water

Cucumber – peeled and cut into julienne

6 radishes – sliced

few sprigs of fresh purple basil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

juice of half a lime

Drain the water from the seaweed and rinse the seaweed in more water. Drain and add to the salad bowl together with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well.

RICE NOODLES WITH MUSHROOMS

For 2 portions

50 grams rice noodles – soak for at least an hour in cold water

1 clove garlic

2 cm square piece of fresh ginger – finely chopped

1 tablespoon peanut oil

6 shiitake mushrooms – sliced

6 oyster mushrooms – sliced

1 tablespoon mushroom sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce – Nam Pla

Drain the noodles from their soaking water, put back into the container and pour boiling water over them.

In a wok, fry the ginger and garlic in the peanut oil for a couple of minutes, then add the mushrooms. Fry for a few minutes to cook the mushrooms.

Drain the noodles and add to the mushrooms. Mix well then season with the mushroom and fish sauce and mix again.
Vegans may want to omit the fish sauce, in which case add some salt to the dish.

If you are serving the noodles with the Sea Bass in Coconut Sauce, then you can add a spoon or two of the sauce to the noodles to moisten them.

Thai Pomelo Salad

05 Saturday Sep 2020

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My grapefruit tree seems to have got itself extremely confused about the seasons this year, so surprised me with five fruits ripe in August. The usual season for ripe fruit is late December to March or April. So to celebrate this unexpected bounty I remembered this spicy salad that I had in Thailand many years ago.

As with most salads a little variation can be made without losing the essentials of what makes the salad successful. For this one the essentials are, of course the grapefruit, peanuts, fresh coriander, coconut slivers and the dressing. I’ve used as well on this occasion some alfalfa sprouts and watercress.

For two portions

1 grapefruit – either pink or yellow fleshed

30 grams dry roasted peanuts

piece fresh coconut roughly 4 x 4 cm – peeled and sliced into slivers

small bunch of fresh coriander leaves

small bunch of watercress leaves

alfalfa or other small sprouting seeds – fenugreek are very tasty

For the dressing

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon Nam Pla fish sauce

1 tablespoon agave syrup / honey

1 finely chopped green Thai chilli

Cut the grapefruit in half and then cut away the skin and pith. Cut in half and then into thin slices.

Put into your salad bowl with the rest of the salad ingredients.

Mix the dressing ingredients together and pour over the salad. Mix well.

I served my salad with a Prawn Green Curry, steamed broccoli and black rice.