Seafood salad “Starfish”!

This entry is part 10 of 11 in the series Salad

This dish will be the star of your table for any and every holiday. It’s fast and very simple to cook, it doesn’t require a lot of ingredients and it’s pretty and refreshing.

For the salad you will need:

1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice

1 cup of crab meat (seafood mix)

1 potato

7-8 oz of sliced smoked/or freshly salted salmon

1/2 cup of pitted olives sliced

1 cucumber (shredded)

1-2 eggs

2 tablespoons of mayo

1/2 cup of provolone or swiss cheese ( cut into cubes)

salt, pepper (according to your taste)

 

Boil potato and eggs, cool down and shell the eggs and potato. Cut the whole cheese piece into the cubes you will need about 0,25 lbs of cheese of 1/2 cup.

Take the cooked crab meat or imitated crab meat or seafood mix (cooked) pour the juice onto it add some salt and pepper.

Shred the peeled cucumber  and add it to your seafid, then mix it with cheese, cut potato and eggs into cubes and add them to the salad as well.

Mix everything very well, then add 2 tablespoons of mayo. Mix very well again and taste for salt and pepper. I normally add a pinch of salt and pepper, but you may need more.

Take the big plate and form a shape of a starfish with you salad, take your time, because  if needs to be realistic!

Decorate your sea star with salmon slices, so that it would look like a real starfish  tentacles. (or arms) and add the sliced olives on top to give your starfish a structure.

The Starfish is ready. And you can serve the salad chilled or just as soon as you cooked it.

If you don’t eat the salad at once the cucumber will give some juice, so just drain it or add less cucumber if you wish.

We ate this salad very fast and I cook it often even without any occasion , hope you will too!

Enjoy!

Helen.

 

Potato, zucchini, red bell pepper, with bacon and herbs baked in a pot.

This entry is part 4 of 7 in the series Delicious fried veggies

 I was searching the internet for some time to find if this dish is prepared on North American continent, the closes I got was a recipe from allrecipes.com by Jana, but based on name I can say that the author is either from Europe of has roots from European countries. Please help me, if you know how this dish is cooked in North America. The potato baked with zucchini (squash), red bell pepper, onion, carrot, garlic and some meat is popular in Eastern Europe. (It’s cooked in Poland and Hungary, in Ukraine and Czech Republic) In each region it has different twist though. Even in my family it’s cooked differently. I like to experiment. I cook it with meatballs and sometimes with meat (beef, pork or chicken); I cook it even with bacon.

The beauty of this recipe that it’s impossible to spoil, seriously, if you aren’t the perfect cook or if you are just short of time (and guests are about to arrive) this dish will just save you.

For the recipe you’ll need:

6 big potatoes

1 red bell pepper

1 white onion

1 mid-sized zucchini

2 mid-sized carrots

2 cloves of garlic

½ cup of dill

1/3 cup of parsley (optional)

3 tablespoons of sour cream or mayo

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

¾ cup of sliced bacon

¾ cup of shredded cheese

1 cup of water

2 tablespoons of cooking oil.

Now: potatoes, red bell pepper, onion and carrots are the base of this recipe. Everything else – is a mix and match. You can substitute zucchini with squash or eggplant. You can put any meat or sausage in the pots, you can even cook it without any meat. It’s a win-win recipe.

Servings: 6 small pots. One pot for one person (It is one full plate of this summer deliciousness per each person)

Preparation time: 15 minutes.

Cooking time: 45 min -1 h (depending on your oven)

Preparation:

Peel potato, carrot, garlic and onion. Take the seeds out of pepper.

Wash all the veggies: carrot, onion, zucchini, potatoes, garlic and dill (parsley).

Shred the carrot, chop the onion and pepper, cut in mid-sized pieces potato, zucchini, chop the herbs

Set ½ of onion and carrot aside

Mix everything else: onion and potato, zucchini and carrot, herbs. Add salt and pepper.

Slice the bacon. (If you put the other meat: pork, chicken, beef- prepare it).

Take your baking pots: put bacon (or other meat on the bottom), then add your veggies.

Remember you set aside the onion and some carrot. Take it and braise it for 5 minutes in a frying pan. In 5 minutes add some sour cream / or mayo/ and add 1 cup of water, pinch of salt and pepper, braise for 2-3 min.

Pour the sauce you just cooked into the baking pots. (If you want to add the meatballs instead of bacon or any other meat put them on top of the veggies)

Preheat the oven at 375F. Set your pots to bake for 30-45 minutes. (Occasionally check the potato if it’s ready and check if there’s enough water in your pots).

15 minutes before taking the pots out- finely chop the garlic and put a little bit of garlic in each pot. When you turn the oven off add the cheese on top of your baked dish and close the lids let the cheese melt.

Be careful when taking the pots out as they are hot.

I serve the dish directly in the pots, but give the guests a spoon and a plate, if the guest wishes to eat from the plat and not the pot.

***Tip from Helen*** You can cook this dish in a baking dish, but I like separate small baking pots more, they are just more authentic and fun!

Enjoy your summer delicious baked veggies!

 

Rice and Crab salad fast and easy!

This entry is part 6 of 11 in the series Salad

This salad recipe is good with crab meat (as well as imitated crab meat) and shrimps (or you can use both), corn adds sweetness to the salad, rice works as the base of this salad. You can cook it without rice if you wish, but I prefer it with rice, and herbs (dill and parsley, or just dill) are important.

This recipe appeared in my menu, when we lived in Russian Far East near China. I love to cook this salad on a day to day basis or for a dinner party. (Just serve the salad in puff pastry baskets).

The ingredients for this salad are simple and may be found in every pantry.

1 cup of rice

3/4 cup of canned corn

1 cup of chopped crab meat (or imitated crab meat flakes made of fish)

1 carrot

2 eggs

1/2 white onion

1/2 cup of dill

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of black pepper

4 tablespoons of mayo

Wash and boil carrot, in separate pot wash and boil rice, in separate pot boil eggs (until hard boiled). Rice has to be boiled but not too soft and over cooked. Carrot has to be cooked, but not overcooked.

When the rice is cooked, drain it and rinse with cold water.

Eggs: when cooked (in 6-8 min) put in cold water to cool off.

Carrot drain and let it cool down.

Peel and finely chop the onion (1/2 of it)

Drain and rinse the corn (3/4 of a cup)

Peel and finely chop the carrot.

When rice cooled off, mix it with carrot,onion and corn.

Shell and cut  the eggs, wash and chop the dill.

Crab meat: now here you can use: the real crab meat, the imitated crab meat flakes or even shrimps. (I was using imitated crab meat) cut the crab meat in mid-sized pieces and add to your salad.

Add salt, pepper to your salad and mix all the ingredients well.

Add mayonnaise before serving. Enjoy!

 

Stuffed cucumber salad (old recipe from 1927 newspaper)

This entry is part 5 of 11 in the series Salad

This is a recipe of salad from 1927, very extraordinary in implementation I would say.

You all remember this newspaper menu of the 1927 family that I posted on my Facebook page: 

I decided to experiment with the filling , as we don’t really eat celery in my family.

The result was astonishing, my fiancee, who doesn’t eat cucumbers ate this salad and really liked it!

I took one cucumber and  pared it  as it was said in the newspaper. Then I invented my fillings:

For cucumber 1:

Finely chopped cabbage

Honey Smoked Turkey

Pickled cornichons

Lemon basil

Dill

Cucumber 2:

Cherry tomatoes

Red apple

Red bell pepper (boiled for 2-3 min)

Dill

Lemon basil

Salad for Cucumber 1:

Finely chop the cabbage, cut in thin strips the turkey, slice pickled cornichons and finely chop the dill (use half for the other salad). Add the mayo, mix well. Put the salad into the cucumber 1 and decorate with the lemon basil.

Salad for Cucumber 2

Put the red bell pepper in boiling water for 2-3 min, then drain and cool it off.

Cut in the apple in quarters (I used ¼ of the apple, take out the apple seeds, slice the apple, then cut in cubes)

Clean the seeds of the red bell pepper, (I used the half of it) slice, and then cut the pepper in cubes.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves. Mix: cherry tomatoes, apples, pepper, dill and add mayo.

Put the salad in cucumber 2 and decorate with lemon basil.

Enjoy!

Tomato, Onion and Lemon basil vinaigrette

This entry is part 3 of 11 in the series Salad

Fast salad for dinner or lunch.

Minimum ingredients and maximum delight:-)

Will taste best with mashed potato and meat, or rice and fish. Something not s picy and not sour.

Preparation time: 0h:10m

Ingredients:

2 tomatoes

1/2 white onion

1/3 cup of herbs (dill, parsley, basil: any)

1 pinch salt

1 pinch black fresh ground pepper

2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

                                                                                                                                                                                                        1 teaspoon vinegar (any)

Peel the onion. Wash onion, tomatoes and herbs.

Cut the tomato in halves, then cut the half in two and cut in thin slices.

Slice 1/2 of onion (very thin slices).

Finely chop herbs.

Vinaigrette sauce:

Mix: vinegar with olive oil add salt and pepper.

Pour into your salad and mix very well.

Enjoy!

 

 

Simple fast salad with romaine, tomato and pickles

This entry is part 1 of 11 in the series Salad

This is simple and fast dinner salad.

The key to it are pickles, which make it sour and not bland.

You’ll need:

1-2 lettuce romaine hearts

5-6 cornichons

¼ white onion

1-2 tomatoes

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp. basil, lemon basil

pinch of salt

pinch of fresh ground black pepper;

Peel the onion. Wash the onion, tomato, and romaine hearts.

Cut 1/4 of the onion, tomatoes in slices and romaine hearts in mid-sized pieces.

Cut cornichons in slices.  Mix veggies and pickles.

Add chopped lemon basil, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil.

Your salad is ready!

Enjoy!

****Tip from Helen**** Add some dry/ fried bread to your salad (small cubes) and your salad will have absolutely new taste! ****Tip from Helen****

Apple and carrot delicious 2 minute salad.

This entry is part 2 of 11 in the series Salad

This is 2 a minute salad: 2 minutes to cook – 2 minutes to eat. It doesn’t matter how much of it you cook, it will evaporate in the air at the same speed.

Apples and carrots is a match made in heaven, and, if the apple is sweet, you don’t even need a sugar in this salad. (or you may substitute with honey).

All in all a perfect breakfast-lunch-dinner-late night salad – if you are dieting or just hungry.

For this salad you need:

1 big apple

1  big carrot

2 tablespoons of  sugar or honey (may be excluded)

Carefully wash a carrot and an apple, peel, shred, mix. (add sugar, honey if you like)

You may also add walnuts, if you like, but it’s good without them as well.

Eat!

This salad is so simple -  even your kids can cook it. And trust me it’s better than pancakes (and faster)

Enjoy!

Helen.