Cucumber, onion and coriander salad

As per request...
If temperatures where you live are set to hit the high twenties this weekend as well, this might just be the perfect accompaniment the the mandatory BBQ you are planning.
It's a simplified version of Yotam Ottolenghi's. It's easy and quick to make so give it a try!

3 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons sugar (I used palm)
2 teaspoons toasted peanut oil (the original calls for sesame)
One small red onion, halved and finely sliced (use a mandolin, if you have one)
One large cucumber, halved and finely sliced at an angle
One small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped (haters, use mint instead)
One clove of garlic
Thumbsized piece of ginger
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix the dressing and add the sliced onion. Leave it to stand and mellow for at least an hour.
2. Smash your garlic and ginger with a big pinch of salt to paste in a pestle and mortar or put it through a fine microplane grater. Mix this with the prepared dressing, sliced cucumber and coriander. Season to taste. All done!

Vietnamese fried mincemeat

This is a dish I had in a Vietnamese restaurant on an early summer evening. We analyzed its components over dinner and decided it must be quite easy to replicate.
I tried it at home recently and was so pleased with the result, I ate variations of it for the remainder of the week. It is a perfect template recipe in the sense that lots of the ingredients can be substituted for similar things you might have on hand. No rigid list of ingredients so to speak.
If you plan on serving it with rice, make it a bit saucier by adding stock or a splash of rice wine that you let cook off a bit. I liked it with just the protein and the veggies, kind of like a warm, rich salad.

Ingredients:
Minced meat of choice (mine was half pork and beef), ca. 100 gr. per person
Splash of oil (optional)
One garlic clove
Chili to taste
A piece of ginger, the size of your thumb
    all minced
Soy sauce
Fish sauce
    to taste
Chopped veggies (Chinese broccoli, asparagus, pak choi, broccoli are all good options. Maybe add the leafy part after frying off the stem bits.)
Fresh herbs (spring onions, mint, coriander, chive, parsley...?

1. Heat up your frying pan to medium high heat. Add the oil and fry off the meat until evenly dark brown. Stirring every now and then helps.
2. Add the chili, garlic and ginger and fry until nicely fragrant and evenly distributed.
3. Add your veggies and fry off for a couple of minutes. If it is quite a hardy vegetable add a splash of water and cover your pan for 2-3 minutes so they can steam through.
4. Take off the lid, season with soy and fish sauce and add your fresh herbs just before serving. The spring onion is especially nice.

Spiced meatballs with Tahini sauce

Yotam Ottolenghi meets Gordon Ramsay.... At least in the culinary sphere.
I still had a lot of the meatballs from this post lounging in my freezer. It would seem that I am just not a big enough fan of spaghetti with meatballs to use them up in a decent time span. But low and behold I have found a use that has made my stash disappear practically over night!  I spiced up my very decent but standard meatballs before frying with a spice mixture adapted from this recipe.
Meatballs

A big pinch each of allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg, all ground

A little oil to fry

A couple of sprigs of flat leaved parsley, roughly chopped

2 tblsp tahini

One tablespoon lemon juice
a little bit of crushed garlic (optional)

Salt 

A couple of teaspoons water
Sweet paprika

1. Let your meatballs thaw, if frozen. Sprinkle them evenly with the spices and fry in a hot pan with a little oil.
2. While they are frying stir together your tahini sauce. Add enough water in the end to make the tahini mixture usable as dip and adorn with a dash of parpika to brighten it up.
3. Sprinkle the fresh parsley over your meatballs, plate them up with your sauce and serve with toothpicks for dipping.

Meatless Monday comfort food

This was such a simple and low effort dish that I am loath to call it a "recipe". But the combination was absolutely lovely and I will make this again for sure.

Components:
One serving of cooked quinoa
Two to three baby pak choi, sauteed with a little garlic, ginger and chili
One to two fried eggs

Soy sauce to season

This is a very basic template. You can substitute the quinoa for rice and the vegetables can be anything you want or have lying around in the fridge. If you wanted to make this even healthier you could of course steam the veggies and poach the eggs.

Miso Salmon

I recently found sachets of miso paste at an asian market near my house. I have been really keen to start experimenting with miso but never wanted to buy the huge tubs of it before...
This is a really simple misi marinade that you could use on any kind of protein you like.

It was especially tasty on the salmon though!

Ingredients:
One teaspoon each of:
Miso paste
Soy sauce
Runny honey
Shaoshing rice wine or a dry white whine
One piece of salmon fillet, I prefer the skin on variety
To serve:
Wedge of lime or lemon
Fresh basil (optional)
Side and veggies to you taste

1. Mix together your marinade and let the non skin side of your fish soak it up for at least twenty minutes (the longer, the better).
2. Preheat your overhead oven grill to max as well and frying pan with a metal handle. Lightly score and salt the skin of the fish. When your pan is preheated add a tough of oil and put in your fish skin side down. Take the pan and place it under the grill for about three to four minutes. The cooking time depends on how done you like your fish to be and how your specific piece is shaped...
3. Plate up with your sides of choice, squeeze over some citrus and add s sprig of basil for color.
Enjoy!

Pork chops in orange and mustard sauce

Where to begin... I am so sorry for not posting during the whole of march (!). Can state that I was recuperating from a medical procedure for half of the month and we will forget about my blog lapsus? Thanks.
This recipe is another one that came about through hunger and invention. I was going for Nigella's mustard pork chops. To my great disappointment I had to discover that my local grocery store does not stock any cider... Since I had a schriveled orange lounging in my kitchen I decided to use that. The result was actually quite pleasing. Although the dish certainly moved from Normandy into the more Asian influenced territory, as I used some shaoshing rice wine too. The sweetness of the orange juice goes really nicely with the pork.

Ingredients:
Two pork chops
Oil, to fry
One orange, juiced
A small glass of rice or white wine
One teaspoon of grain mustard
Cream, to taste, if desired

1. Preheat your frying pan and season the pork chops with salt and pepper. When the pan is hot add your oil and the chops. Fry until done (two-three minutes on both sides, depending on the thickness). When they are done, cover and set aside.
2. Put your pan back on the heat and use the orange juice to de-glaze. Add the wine and cook off the alcohol. Stir in your mustard. Season to taste, adjust the consistency if needed and add the cream if you are using any. Also check if there are any meat juices from the chops. Add those to your sauce too.
I had mine with some (prefab) gniocchi.

Grapefruit with yogurt

This dish looks pretty enough to be dessert and it certainly is as delicious. But it has recently become my favorite healthy breakfast option. I had always thought mixing citrus fruit with dairy was a no go (because of splitting the latter). It actually makes for a winning combination.
Give it a try. You could also multiply it and serve it at your next brunch...

Here's how easy it is;
One small pot of Greek yogurt.
The filleted segments of one red grapefruit.
Three teaspoons of the juice mixed with one small teaspoon of runny honey.

That's it.