Italian-style salad two ways

A while ago I've been reading one of the threads on Mumsnet where the poster was asking why you could never find tomatoes as good as she had in Greece in this country. I was rather flummoxed.
Who said there are no good tomatoes anywhere else but in Greece?

I prefer to buy British tomatoes, for example, grown at the Isle of Wight.
And I also grow my own tomatoes, and have been for about 10 years. The tomatoes from our greenhouse are the sweetest little things.
Both my grandmas and auntie grew a lot of vegetables including tomatoes in their gardens in Russia. Italian produce could be excellent. So, excuse me, I'm not rubbishing the Greek tomatoes, but you need to be more broad-reaching.
Of course, if you tend to buy cheap plastic-looking tomatoes, then yes, they don't taste good.

Tomatoes are one of my top favourite fruit, they are versatile and could liven up any salad or pasta dish.
Right now, you can buy beautiful heirloom tomatoes of all shapes and colours.

In summer I tend to make simple salads for dinner, adding whatever I have in the pantry or fridge, so they often vary. Tomatoes go well with many kinds of dressing - a simple vinaigrette, or basil-based dressing.
The easiest salad I enjoy is a mix of tomatoes and cucumber with soured cream and mayo combination, well seasoned, and with a sprinkling of fresh herbs.

The latest Degustabox food box included a bottle of Newman's Own Italian Dressing. I rarely buy salad dressings, as I prefer to mix my own, or just drizzle a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad.
Newman's Own Italian Dressing is their best-selling original dressing made with red wine vinegar, rapeseed oil, olive oil (17%), extra virgin olive oil (2%) and garlic puree. Its ingredients also include white wine vinegar, salt, cracked black pepper, dried onion, brown mustard seeds, spirit vinegar and celery seeds. You need to shake it well before using. It's suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

Italian-style two ways
Ingredients (approximate quantities, as I didn't measure anything)
3-4 big good quality tomatoes
a handful of leaf salad
100g or half a pack of green beans, cooked in salted boiling water
a handful of olives
a few forkfuls of artichoke hearts (pre-cooked)
a dressing of your choice
+
half a tin of tuna chunks
or goat's cheese (vegetarian, e.g. Capricorn)

Slice tomatoes, and season with salt. I remember reading that the tomatoes acquire better flavour if you season them in advance and leave in a bowl for about 15-20 minutes before adding the remaining ingredients. Not sure whose advice it was, but it was one of famous chefs.

Then start adding leaf salad, cooked and cooled green beans, artichokes, olives and either tuna chunks or goat's cheese. For a vegan version, add a vegan cheese.

Add a dressing of your choice, for example, Newman's Own Italian Dressing, which adds a lovely acidic note.

This is the vegetarian version with goat's cheese.

And this is a tuna salad, with the same base, and minus cheese.

Jerte Picota Infused Pimm's

After a few cooler days we are back to hot and humid again. Sigh. I'm not made for this weather, I'm a Northerner through and through. I could never live in the properly hot countries.
On hot summer days we drink lots of iced tea, both bought and homemade.
Ice cube trays are replenished daily.

Pimm's is the quintessential British summer drink. All the pubs in town have boards with offers of jugs of Pimm's. We don't often indulge in it. The last bottle of Pimm's I bought to use in a recipe, lasted me over 2 years. I added it to berry salads and fruit crumbles a little bit at a time, and still it took ages to shift it.
There are many variations of the Pimm's cocktail: some prefer to add borage instead of mint, some go for a ginger beer rather than lemonade or soda water.
Strawberries are lovely, but you can always swap them for another juicy berry or fruit.
Have you tried Pimm's with cherries?

Jerte Picota cherry is the perfect addition in a delicious glass of Pimm's.

Jerte Picota Infused Pimm's (recipe courtesy of Dialogue Agency)
Ingredients:
100ml Pimm's No.1
225g Jerte Picota cherries, pitted
200ml soda water or lemonade
2 sprigs fresh mint
2 slices of cucumber
fresh Jerte Picota cherries, to serve
ice, crushed
Method:
1.Place the cherries into a food processor until a smooth puree is produced.
2. Put the cherry puree, cucumber slices, 1 mint sprig and Pimm's in a jar and mix well.
3. Pour in the soda water/lemonade and add crushed ice, then gently stir
4. To serve, pour into glasses and garnish with fresh mint leaves and Jerte Picota cherries.
Enjoy this refreshing and tasty drink in time for summer!

About Jerte Picota P.D.O.
The Jerte Picota is not only unique because of its PDO status, but also because it's harvested without its stalk. Its shape, too, is unique, with the slight peak at the base prompting the name Picota or peaked.

I managed to find Picota cherries in Sainsbury's (currently at £1 per punnet). I know that the Co-Op used to sell them as well, but I couldn't find them there this year.

They are only available for six weeks per year, but their taste is worth the wait.
For more information, visit Picota.

If you cannot find Picota, or when the season is over, you can always swap them for British cherries.

I fancied trying the recipe, but didn't want to buy the whole bottle, so used a pre-mixed tin of Pimm's with lemonade, as you can see from the photos.

Of course, if you are entertaining, it makes sense to buy a big bottle and mix your own cocktails.

This is a lovely summer cocktail, with beautiful flavours all along.

Are you a fan of Pimm's?

Strawberry, avocado and tomato salsa

"It's just another manic Monday, I wish it were Sunday"... or even better summer holidays. I am sooo tired of school. School mornings are a grim affair. Eddie gets up with an "I hate school" motto, though by the time he actually arrives to school, he is usually cheerful and eager to meet his friends.
I have just had another espresso to keep me going. After the weekend there is usually so much to do. The house looks like Genghis Khan and his army went through and stayed overnight, horses and all.
Instead of clearing the mess I am procrastinating, catching up on yesterday's episode of Poldark.
On Saturday Eddie and I went to see Despicable Me 3. Eddie liked it a lot, I wasn't so enthusiastic.

Our latest Degustabox delivery was over a week ago, and I still haven't used any of the recipe mixes in sachets. On Sunday I bought a whole chicken, partly for making soup, partly for roasting with a Pulled Chicken spice mix for pulled chicken sandwiches.
To complement the meal, I made a quick and easy salsa, with whatever ingredients I found in the kitchen. I had fresh tomatoes and a piece of cucumber, tinned sweetcorn, an avocado and a handful of strawberries.

1 medium avocado
2 medium tomatoes
3 big strawberries
1/3 cucumber
4 heaped tbsp sweetcorn
1/2tsp onion granules
1tbsp chilli-flavoured oil
1tbsp lime juice
1tbsp chopped fresh mint

The recipe couldn't be easier. Just chop all the ingredients, season with sea salt, chilli oil, lime juice, add onion granules (or fresh thinly sliced onion) and mix well. Make it just before you are going to eat.

For the roast chicken I used a sachet of Schwartz BBQ Pulled Chicken mix, which promises an authentic American flavour. It adds a rich smokey flavour to meat. Ingredients include caster sugar, salt, onion powder, smoked paprika, molasses powder, garlic powder, flavourings such as barley and mustard, malt extract and more. You just need to add 2tbsp of tomato ketchup and water to mix a paste, which you then rub into chicken before roasting. I have added juice of 1/2 lime to the paste.

Gado-Gado salad

I've been reading reviews of Kitchen Trotter written by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews for a while, thinking how exciting that travelling via world cuisines food box subscription was. And to my delight, it is available now in the UK as well. I was pleased to receive my first Kitchen Trotter box, which is Indonesia-themed this month. When I opened the box, I realised that I don't know most of the exotic ingredients. For a foodie like me, it is like opening a Christmas present. Oh, the excitement!
Every month Kitchen Trotter delivers a cooking kit to your door. Each box is a surprise, but it will allow you to cook an authentic meal that serves 4-6 people and create 4 authentic recipes. It includes 7+ gourmet items. You can subscribe at £29.00 monthly fee (unsubscribe at any time).

Today my boys are back to school after a week-long break. Eager to start cooking, using the ingredients from  Kitchen Trotter, I decided to make a quick and simple salad called Gado Gado.

What will you need?

Gado Gado recipe (recipe courtesy of Kitchen Trotter)
From the kit
for the dressing:
80g Gado Gado Mix - Asli
2tbsp Kecap Manis - Bango
2 Combava leaves - Terre Exotique

+ add:
80ml water
2 bay leaves

For the salad:
salad leaves (I used gem lettuce, the booklet suggests iceberg lettuce)
4 small potatoes
4 tomatoes
4 radishes
4 eggs
1/2 cucumber

As I was cooking just for myself, I have quartered the amount of ingredients and halved the amount of ingredients for the dressing (I still have some dressing left for another salad tomorrow).

Pour the water in the saucepan, adding the combava and bay leaves. Heat. Once the water starts boiling, add the Gado Gado mix.
As soon as the mix thickens, remove from the heat and mix in Kecap Manis. Keep aside.

What exactly is Gado Gado mix? This is a peanut base dry mix.with sugar, mixed herbs and spices. It is an interesting combination of sweet and savoury, a great base for a dressing.
Dried Combava leaves have a citrus fruit aroma close to lemon. Combava leaves are also known as kaffir lime leaves (which are easily found in supermarkets). This ingredient is very popular in Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Indonesian cuisines.
Kecap Manis (Bango) is apparently an Indonesian cusine must-have. This is a sweet and slightly thick soy sauce which is used in a variety of recipes. I loved the taste of this soy sauce, and can easily see it used in many Asian meals.

Back to our salad - peel and cook potatoes. Cook the eggs to hard-boiled. Slice the tomatoes and radishes.
Assemble your salad by putting the lettuce first, then all the other ingredients. Season with salt and add the Gado Gado dressing over.

Kitchen Trotter suggested this lovely vegetarian salad as a starter for an Indonesian-themed menu. I had it for lunch, and really enjoyed it. The salad itself is not specifically exotic, if anything, I have had salads like that for many years, but it's the dressing which makes all the difference, adding an exotic flavour.

I will be posting more recipes from the latest Kitchen Trotter box, but if you fancy seeing which other countries and recipes were covered in the past, check out Kitchen Trotter posts by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews.

Disclosure: I received the food box for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Sweet mustard pickles

I love pickles, as simple as that. It must be in my genetic material, as the Russians are well known for their fondness for a good old pickle. And I'm always on the lookout for new recipes. One of my favourite boards on Pinterest is Jams, Pickles and Preserves, where I add whichever recipe took my fancy. Browsing through the latest issue of Sainsbury's magazine, I came across a few recipes created by the "preserves queen" Thane Prince. While I haven't liked the sound of the strawberry jam with liquid pectin (I generally don't like added pectin in any jams or jellies as I believe it changes the flavour and the texture becomes too solidified), I was very curious to try her Sweet mustard pickles. If you have the magazine, the recipe is posted on page 80.

I haven't changed anything except using a red chilli pepper rather than a green one, and haven't scooped the seeds from cucumbers.
Having sliced all the veggies - 2 cucumbers, one big red onion and 1 sweet red pepper - with the mandoline slicer (thanks heaven for the OXO Good Grips mandoline slicer, which makes the slicing job a mere doddle), I have sprinkled them generously with salt, and left in the ceramic dishes covered with the plastic film overnight in the fridge. I put the setting on quite thin for all vegetables.

Next morning, I put all the salted slices in a big pasta colander and washed under the running cold water, to get rid of all salt. At that point the vegetables were semi-cured with salt, and nothing special yet.

I left them drain for an hour in the colander rather than dry on a clean towel as suggested in the recipe.

In a saucepan, mix the vinegar with sugar and spices - mustard powder, fennel seeds, celery salt and dried dill, then bring to boil, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Put the veggies into sterilized jars and pack them tightly. Pour the hot brine over the veggies and seal the jars.
Let the jars cool completely before putting in the fridge. The pickles should be ready in a couple of days and will last up to 3 months.

Now, what did we think of the taste? I loved the mustardy sweet flavour, but wasn't very keen on the "muddy" brine. The mustard powder stayed at the top of the jar, and the brine looked like murky water. Next time I try this recipe, I will use mustard seeds instead, they will look much prettier in the jar, and will keep the brine clear.
I also added a handful of baby tomatoes to one of the jars with pickles.

I have tweeted the photo of my jar of pickles to Sainsbury's magazine, they kindly RTed it and tagged Thane Prince. She suggested that the cucumbers should be all covered with vinegar, not like in my photo at the top. I agree with her, they should have been covered, and there was enough brine, but interestingly enough, the photo in the actual magazine clearly shows veggies well above the brine. I guess it was done for the purposes of the picture, but so was my photo, I piled them up higher so that one can see what's inside rather than the powdery mustardy brine at the top.
As the song goes, Do what I say, not what I do. But honestly, this is a sensible advice: if you make your own pickles, make sure they are covered well with brine.
Saying that, one jar is already empty. I did say, I love my pickles.

Open sandwiches for tea

Cucumber sandwiches

Warmer weather just invites us to have tea outdoors. We're lucky to have an enclosed garden. It is so quiet and peaceful in our garden, pretty amazing if you think that the front of the house is facing a busy road. The old trees and greenery make our garden a perfect spot for a leisurely tea. Tea and cakes go well, but so do sandwiches. When I was asked to create freestyle sandwiches with Lurpak, my first thought was those quaint classic cucumber sandwiches.
Of course, there are cucumber sandwiches and there are cucumber sandwiches. They could be soggy little horrors, which are sometimes served at parties. But if you prepare them the right way, they are truly one of the simplest yet elegant and tasty British classic dishes. A national institution. And they're perfect for an afternoon tea, delicate and delicious yet not too filling so you have some space left for dinner later. They might quaint and Victorian, but don't discard them as an old-fashioned trend.

Choose a good sliced bread. My guys prefer Warburtons sliced bread for sandwiches. Sasha with his autism won't eat any other bread, which makes it tricky when we have to travel. Imagine how odd it might look to the airport check-in people, if they decide to open my suitcase. Probably nobody else takes sliced bread to Italy. Italians make all sorts of wonderful tasty breads, but their sliced bread is really not good at all. But going back to our cucumber sandwiches.

First prepare the cucumber. Peel it or leave the skin on. I actually prefer the skin on, especially with young cucumbers. Slice the cucumber thinly. It's up to you, whether you prefer it sliced in circles or thin ribbons. Or even cut into flower shapes with a cookie cutter, I have seen these sandwiches on Pinterest, they look cute, but of course, you waste some of the food by cutting it into fancy shapes.

I used an OXO Good Grips simple mandoline slicer (which I reviewed back in February, see my blog post Valentine's day menu) to slice the cucumber into thin strips. Arrange the slices on a big plate and sprinkle with salt. Leave it for 15 minutes, then pat dry the ribbons with a paper kitchen towel on both sides. The mandoline makes a fiddly job of even slicing very easy and quick.
Take the bread slices and remove the crusts. Butter each slice well.
We have tried many brands of butter spreads, and it's Lurpak that we go back to again and again. I believe it's one of the tastiest butter spreads.
Arrange the cucumber ribbons over the buttered bread, then cut the sandwiches into neat triangles.
If you have access to fresh flowers like primroses and violets, you might like to prettify your sandwiches with a few flowers. I have plenty of them in the garden, all organic and untreated by any chemicals, so they are safe to eat.

For a more substantial sandwich spread, go Scandi and prepare a platter of sandwiches with a herring butter. You will need some pickled herring either from the deli or get a variety in a jar. I like Elsinore Herrings in sweet & spicy marinade (found in Waitrose, but might be available in the other supermarkets or delis).

Rye bread & herring butter sandwiches

You will need rye bread for this simple Scandi-Russian fusion sandwiches. Both Russian and Scandinavian cuisine favour salted & pickled herring, and of course, a good rye bread is a must.
Finely chop the pickled herring and mix with soft butter spread and chopped fresh dill. Spread the herring butter over the sliced rye bread and decorate with more dill or lemon slices.
Tuck in at once!

In both recipes I used Lurpak spreadable Lighter slightly salted. It is a blend of Lurpak butter and vegetable oil. It is easily spreadable even straight from the fridge; contains no palm oil, hydrogenated fats, artificial colourings or preservatives.

What are your favourite open sandwiches?

Disclosure: I received a £5 supermarket voucher to cover the cost of products. All opinions are mine.

Cucumbers pickled with mustard seed and turmeric

When autumn arrives, I usually start craving pickles. I love pickles of all sorts, and each year make a batch of preserves, both sweet and savoury - jams, marmalades, chutneys and pickles. It must be my "homing instinct" thing, as when cooking preserves, I go back to my territory. Though I haven't visited my homeland for 10 years, canning takes me back home, at least in my mind. Canning is a national religion in Russia. Quite understandably. If you have snow for up to six months (as in my parts of the world), you need to be well prepared food-wise. Of course, with supermarkets open 24 hours a day nowadays, you don't actually need to save food this way, but it must be a genetic call: get ready for winter, save your harvest. Oh, and it's also great fun.
I have recently come across a lovely recipe for bread and butter pickles on Pinterest, and wanted to try it. The original recipe for bread and butter pickles appears on Savoury Simple blog. I have slightly adapted it, and also converted some of the cup measurements into something I can understand. I don't quite know why these pickles are called bread and butter pickles, as neither ingredient is used in the recipe. Does anyone know the origins of this name?

Anyway, I managed to buy some lovely small size cucumbers at the local farmers' market. I also used half a standard size cucumber to add to the total weight, so you can use either. It's just smaller size cucumbers look prettier and taste better, I think.

Cucumbers pickled with mustard seed and turmeric
Ingredients:
800g cucumbers, thinly sliced
5-6 small shallots, thinly sliced
75g coarse salt
375ml apple cider vinegar
150g granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 fennel flowerhead (or 1tsp dried fennel seed)

Slice the cucumbers thinly and slightly at an angle if you want oval-shaped slices rather than round (I did a mix of both).Slice the shallots thinly. Put both sliced cucumbers and shallots in a big pan, add the salt, pour the cold water over. Leave the pan to sit for 2 or 3 hours.

Now the original recipe suggested draining the cucumbers and doesn't mention if the salted water should be preserved. Save one mug of salted water. I thought that the pickling liquid might not be enough to cover the cucumbers, and I was right. I have saved a mug of salted water, which I later added to the pickling liquid. Rinse the sliced cucumbers in cold water.
In a medium size bowl or small pan mix the apple cider vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, turmeric , and add a fennel flowerhead (or fennel seeds). Pour this mix over the sliced cucumbers and shallots in a big pan. Add the saved mug of salted water.

Bring to boil and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring the cucumbers.
Remove from the heat and ladle into sterilised jars.

I often reuse jam and honey jars for my homemade jams, but for pickles prefer the wider jars, so I buy either Kilner or Tala jars whenever they are on offer (right now, for example, they are 4 for 3 at Robert Dyas). Once you have a good supply, you can reuse these jars for many years.

The pickles will keep well in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Though they won't last that long here. These are very tasty pickles, crispy, flavourful, sightly yellow from turmeric. Brilliant with plain boiled potatoes, or in a sandwich with rye bread and corned beef.

Roll up your sleeves: Kids Grow Wild challenge

Our garden at the moment is the kingdom of roses. You open the door in the garden, and almost drown in the perfume of the white cascading roses which managed to climb on top of the big plum tree and fall down like a luxurious waterfall of the white petals.

We also have the other varieties of roses, including some yellow, red and salmon pink.

But having a garden requires a great amount of dedication. You really need to work on it daily. Thankfully, my younger son loves our garden as much as I do, and is happily digging along, or running around, watering the plants (even those which don't need it), the path and his shoes.
Eddie was delighted to receive a new gardening starter kit (see the photo below). He already has one, but in his opinion, there's never enough of digging tools. He relishes his time in the garden, and is proud of his own tools collection.
We planted the sunflower seeds recently, and hopefully we'll have some beautiful flowers to admire.

Here is Eddie telling me what he plans to do with the new tools.

Happily digging in his designated area. I do not let him dig in the strawberry patch, as he is over-enthusiastic.

This year we are growing tomatoes, cucumbers and chili peppers in the greenhouse. The grafted cucumber in a pot is doing really well. We check on it daily to see how it grows. We even had a couple of cucumbers to eat. Here is my very proud mini gardener with the first cucumber of the season. And you bet it tasted delicious.

And as we recently discovered, it's not only berries, fruit and veg that are growing in our garden. A silly mummy bird has done a nest on top of the flower pot in the basket on the wall. It is well hidden, and you really need to know where to look. Now Eddie tells everyone who would listen that Mummy bird needs to keep the eggs warm so we should not scare her.

This post is an entry for BritMums' #KidsGrowWild Challenge which is sponsored by Moneysupermarket.
We received a children's gardening kit to take part in this challenge.

Best ever pickled baby cucumbers

We are not talking here the little vinegary monsters that you usually buy in the shops which taste of nothing but vinegar. Today I am inviting you to try a very easy recipe for the mildly pickled cucumbers.

I was delighted to discover that Waitrose started selling baby cucumbers recently, yes, they are pricier than the big sized comrades, but perfect for my recipe. In fact, I haven't tried it with the huge cucumbers. I don't know why with such a huge variety of tomatoes of all sizes in the shops you almost never see any variety in the cucumbers. They are all a standard size of a small weapon.
I tried growing my own a couple of years ago, but lost the crop, and switched to growing tomatoes.

This recipe is called Malosol'nye ogurtsy in Russian (lit. little-salted cucumbers) and they are ready to eat the next day. I've been consulting my Mum over the phone, as she often makes this dish for my nieces.

For 1 jar of pickled cucmbers I used

2 and a half packs of Waitrose baby cucumbers (150g each)
20g dill
peppercorns (about a dozen of different sizes)
1 clove of garlic
a couple of black currant leaves

For the salty solution you will need
for 1.5 litre of water
3 heaped tbsp of salt
1 tbsp of sugar
Please note that I did several jars of pickled cucumbers and tomatoes, so if you are making just one jar of pickles you will be left with lots of the salted water.

1. Bring the water to boil, add to a biggish container and disslove sugar and salt. Let it cool, it might be tepid, but not hot.
2. Prepare a big jar for pickles by putting it in the oven preheated to 180C for 10 minutes, take it out and let it cool.
3. Start the assembling process by adding a few leaves of the blackcurrants at the bottom, one clove of garlic and peppercorns. Chop off the "bums" of cucumbers to speed up the pickling process. Add several cucumbers, then a layer of dill, don't chop it, just tear in half. More cucumbers and more dill until the whole jar is filled in. Add the pickling liquid - it should cover the cucumbers, put the lid on top and place the jar in the fridge.
4. You can eat the cucumbers the next day.

They are deliciously crunchy and have a lovely mild pickled taste. They are best served with the boiled baby potatoes. They keep well for several days, but the longer they stay in the salted liquid, the saltier they become, so I suggest doing a small amount of pickles at a time.