Crab Salad with Apple

 

Oh, all those plans I had, to spend Christmas with our friends aka the childcare bubble, and have some semblance of normality. I have bought plenty of food to please all tastes and diets (gluten free, vegetarian, meat eaters). But as they say, man proposes, God disposes. On the last day of school our son got poorly, and a few days later we discovered he tested positive and we all needed to self-isolate.

We informed our friends, and I felt rather guilty that they had to change their plans accordingly, and would need to buy and prepare their own Christmas meal. 

I had to re-think what to do with some of the foods. The turkey crown went in the freezer. I did cook a small ham for our boys at Christmas and also a nut roast, plus lots of veggies for grown-ups, but didn't bother with the cranberry sauce or any side dishes like pigs in blankets or stuffing. 

On the original menu I was planning to do a big platter with blini as a starter - with smoked salmon and crab meat, as well as vegetarian "scampi" and pickled carrots. The crab meat tin has been sitting in the fridge for several weeks, and finally I decided to make a crab salad with it. It is similar to the Soviet crab salad, though in the days of my childhood we rarely had access to the crab meat (you had to live somewhere nearby the sea to get access to this product, or be a member of the apparatchik's family), and used the seafood sticks, which of course, are anything but crab meat. 

For this quick and easy recipe you will need:

100g crab meat (or seafood sticks)

1 small apple, grated or finely chopped

2 hard-boiled eggs, grated or finely chopped

60g hard cheese (like Emmental), grated or cubed

1 small carrot, cooked and chopped finely

1 medium potato, cooked and chopped

3tbsp aioli with garlic (or garlic mayo)

juice of 1/2 small lime

lettuce, to serve in

First, cook a potato and carrot in slightly salted water. Peel and chot finely. Hard-boil a couple of eggs. Once cold, grate them.

In a big mixing bowl, mix together grated eggs, potato, carrot, crab meat, grated cheese. Add the aioli and lime juice, and mix well. 

If you don't have aioli, mayonnaise (with/out garlic) will do, and lime could be substituted with lemon juice. 

Season with salt and a bit of pepper.

Spoon the crab salad into salad leaves to serve.

There are several variations on the theme. Some cooks prefer to use rice rather than potato. Many add several tablespoons of tinned sweetcorn.

It's a lovely, quite light old-fashioned salad.

I have googled what could be a vegetarian/vegan substitute for crab meat, and apparently, it is a shredded jackfruit, palm or artichoke hearts. I haven't tried them as a crab meat substitute, so cannot vouch for how much the flavour is altered. I love artichokes in oil, and often use them in salads, but the taste is very distinct, and nothing like seafood. I guess, you just need to re-think the whole concept.

In this recipe I used Leon Aioli, which was one of the products from the latest Degustabox. This garlic mayo has been the heart of LEON restaurant menus since 2004. This mayo is made with aquafaba (chickpea stock) instead of eggs, and happens to be vegan. To be honest, if I didn't know it is made without eggs, I wouldn't have guessed. So, if you're doing a Veganuary (which I don't), and are looking for great subs for family favourites, this mayo is very creamy and tasty.

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.

Potato salad with vegan mayo

This week (27 May- 2 June 2019) is a BBQ week. Many families will be having casual get-togethers and inviting neighbours and friends. Judging by the frequent smell of the burnt meat wafting indoors, our neighbours have already been firing up their BBQs regularly.
We don't have a BBQ that often, in fact we haven't had any this year so far. But as it's a midterm break, I hope we could have friends over for a casual meal at the weekend.
It will be a mix of meat-eaters, pescatarians and vegetarians.

One of my top favourite foods at any BBQ is a humble potato salad. This easy side dish is delicious, and goes well with most BBQed foods.
I don't need an excuse to make a potato salad. It's one of my favourite foods, and I'm happy to eat it, BBQ or not.

In this recipe I'm going to use two of the products which were delivered in the latest Degustabox - Kühne whiskey cornichons and a Hellmann's vegan mayo.
None of us are vegans, but I was very curious to try the vegan mayo.
I'm not a fan of vegan cheese (I tried many varieties and was mostly underwhelmed), but I enjoy some of the vegan milk alternatives.
One of the potato salad recipes that I tend to make has eggs, but since I'm making a vegan salad, they were left out.

Potato salad with vegan mayo
Ingredients:
6 + medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh dill
8+ mini cornichons
1 tbsp mustard
1/2 tsp caster sugar
2 tbsp pickle liquid (from cornichons)
4-5+ heaped tbsp mayo

The basic steps for making a potato salad are the same whether it's a vegan or non-vegan version.
Peel and quarter potatoes, and cook them in salted boiling water or steam until soft (but not mushy, don't overcook them). Let them cool down, before chopping into smaller chunks.
Chop the celery stalks and cornichons.
Make the dressing by mixing together mustard, caster sugar, pickle liquid and mayo. If you cooked the potatoes in the steamer, you might want to add salt to the dressing.
Mix the potatoes with celery, cornichons and dressing. Chop some fresh dill and scatter over the top.

What did we think of Hellmann's vegan mayo? I was pleasantly surprised at how creamy and tasty it is.
It's definitely a perfect alternative to a dairy-based mayo.

Kühne whiskey cornichons are crunchy and delicious. A lovely treat for all fans of pickles. I haven't tried them before, but I did buy a jar of Kühne gin cornichons recently in Ocado. Both flavours are great. Any dull cheese sandwich will benefit from this tasty addition.

Have you tried this vegan mayo? What did you think?

Top ten recipe posts of 2017

2017 was a difficult year for us as a family, with lots of ups and downs, actually more downs than ups. Blogging was less of a priority for me than before.

We're just back from a week of holidays in Italy. While it is wonderful to spend time with my in-laws, the holidays always turn out to be more work than rest, as for our elder son any break from the routine is bordering on a catastrophe. Every time we go abroad, I tell my husband that it was the last time we've travelled together, but somehow he managed to talk me into going to Italy again.

At the end of the year I usually look at the stats for my posts written through the year, to see which posts have been the most popular ones. Typically, my food and drink, book and toy reviews do quite well, with Mini Stretch Scooby toy review taking the laurels of the most popular non-food review post.
Writing a food-inspired blog, I'm curious to find out which of my recipe posts got the most interest.
And so here are my top ten most popular recipe posts of 2017:

No.10 Grilled courgette and Scamorza salad is a vegetarian recipe for cheese lovers. Since discovering the Italian smoked scamorza cheese earlier this year, I've been buying it quite regularly.

No.9 Oreo Cheesecake
I had to laugh, reading a thread on Mumsnet some time before Christmas, where many MN-ers were bashing the Oreo cookies, calling them the spawn of the devil. As you might know, we do love Oreos here. This Oreo cheesecake didn't last long.

No.8 - Strawberry Cake was the result of trying to do a spring clean in the kitchen, and getting rid of odds and ends, including half a box of cake mix and remains of a strawberry jam.
Strangely enough, it sneaked its way into top ten recipe posts.

No.7: Asparagus, kale & Dolcelatte pasta is a healthy vegetarian dinner. The recipe is very easy, and my mind boggles as to why it made it into top 10.

No.6 Boiled Fruit Cake which is made with fruit soaked in strong tea. It is a twist on a classic boiled fruit cake recipe.

No.5
Ferrero Rocher brownie bites which are a very satisfying chocolatey treat.

No.4 Banana oat cookies are quick and easy to make, and are lovely with tea of coffee.

Getting to top three:

No.3 I give you Oreo Brownies, and very lush they were too. Eat your heart our, Oreo haters! :)

No.2 Beef biltong stew for Mr Matekoni was inspired by the 17th book in the much loved series No.1 Ladies Detective Agency by A.McCall Smith. 

And no.1 - Italian Meatballs with Mozzarella. This recipe is a proper comfort food, perfect for cold winter dinners.

So, looking at the stats: the cakes win overall with 3 recipes, plus 2 brownie recipes reached the top ten. Clearly sweet recipes do not lose their popularity. From savoury: 2 vegetarian recipes and two recipes for meat eaters, now the latter was a big surprise for me.

Wishing you all a happy new year!

Thank you for reading my blog, hoping you will be back for more recipes and reviews in 2018!

Butternut squash and feta salad

Whenever these days I ask what he would like for dinner, my husband is requesting something meat-free. Fine with me, I am happy to oblige, though it does mean an advance planning. I find it easier to cook dinner with meat or fish, unless it's a soup or a salad.

I don't have many purely vegetarian cook books in my collection, as I prefer to buy books on either baking, or on national cuisines (and avidly avoid any celebrities from outside the culinary world like Pippa & co).

One of the books which caught my attention is "More from the accidental vegetarian" by Simon Rimmer. It was on offer from The Book People a while ago. I confess I didn't quite know who he was, until I bought the book. I've never watched Something for the Weekend.
It is an inspiring book, full of delicious recipes. I like Simon's attitude, he doesn't evangelise vegetarianism, he just offers a selection of tasty recipes which happen to be vegetarian.
Not sure why there is a chapter on desserts. Most desserts are vegetarian by nature (meat and fish-free) anyway. Not many of us cook puddings with lard or suet these days, so unless specified I would presume a dessert to be a vegetarian dish (even jellies these days are made with vegetarian gelatine).

One of the recipes I bookmarked was for a pumpkin salad with cheese. I didn't have any fresh pumpkin or Yorkshire fettle cheese, so had to improvise.
Butternut squash is a good substitute for pumpkin, and feta is another staple for salads which is easily available.

Butternut squash and feta salad
Ingredients:
a packet of butternut squash wedges (385g)
3tbsp olive oil for roasting + 2tbsp for dressing
125g feta cheese, cubed
about 3tbso pine nuts, toasted
a handful of rocket and spinach salad
a handful of olives (I used feta-stuffed olives)
3 radishes, thinly sliced
100g peas, cooked from frozen
Fennel and garlic crostini (optional)
dressing:
1tbsp maple syrup
2tbsp olive oil
1tbsp cider vinegar
1tbsp fresh lime juice
1tbsp fresh parsley, chopped


Cube the butternut squash wedges and place them on a big baking tray. Drizzle olive oil over them and season with sea salt. Shake the tray so that the cubes are coated with oil evenly. Bake at 180C for about 20+ minutes until the squash is soft, but still holds its shape.
Roast the pine nuts for 5 minutes on a separate tray.
Cook peas in boiling water for about 3-4 minutes, then drain.
Assemble the salad: first put the salad leaves, then add the squash cubes, feta cheese, olives, radishes, peas and scatter pine nuts over. Add crostini or croutons if you like.
Make the dressing and drizzle over the salad.

In this recipe I used Filippo Berio Fennel & Garlic Crostini, baked with extra virgin olive oil, which were delivered in the latest food box from Degustabox. The crostini are crunchy and flavourful, and will work well in a variety of salads or soups.
You can obviously swap them for any croutons you have, bought or homemade, or skip altogether, if you count calories or are on a gluten-free diet.

Last Christmas I won a huge hamper of Filippo Berio goodies, including several jars of olives. I just realised that I still had a jar of olives stuffed with feta at the back of the larder shelf, and it nearly expired.
For this reason - clearing the kitchen and using nearly expired olives + the end of the pine nuts' bag - I am adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews.

Bonfire Night: the full Moon, friends and marshmallows

My Mum started her journey back home very early this morning. As I write it now, she must have arrived to Moscow, if there was no delay. I am always very sad when she goes home. We see each other once a year, and this year her trip almost didn't happen. She was very poorly, and had to cancel her trip arrangements.
She usually stays earlier in the year, mostly in summer, and this was the first time when she spent October and early days of November with us.
I thought it might be a fun idea to do something for the Bonfire Night, while Mum was with us.

You have to be English-born to fully understand the reasoning behind the 5th of November festivities. What this celebration glorifies is in fact the gruesome persecution of Catholics in this country (hasten to add, I'm not a Catholic, so let's say, an impartial side). I don't find any cause for joy in killing Guy Fawkes, and it seems bizarre that this fact is being lauded for centuries.
Living in the UK for more than 21 years, I rarely acknowledge this day. In the past we have attended a couple of big bonfires and fireworks displays, but this year we decided to make a smaller scale bonfire in our garden and invite friends over.

I wanted to make my Mum happy. She loves bonfires, and I have been telling her off for lighting the fires in the garden since she arrived. Eddie was ecstatic when Baba (grandma) roasted frankfurters for him over the bonfire in the garden a couple of weeks ago. He wanted to invite his best friend Peter over and roast marshmallows.
We bought a pack of Mega marshmallows for the occasion.

It was a beautiful night, with the full Moon and a starry night, clearly visible in the darkness.

On Saturday I cooked a big pan of carrot, sweet potato and ginger soup.
Take 1kg of carrots, peel them, chop into smaller chunks and cook on low, simmering for an hour+. Add a chopped sweet potato, 1tbsp vegetable stock, 2 tbsp red lentils, grate ginger (as much as you like, I had quite a big piece), season with sea salt, and when the veg is all cooked, blitz it all.
Serve hot in smaller cups or mugs.

I have also baked a gluten free parkin and made a big batch of white chocolate Oreo fudge, on request from my men.

We had lots of sausages, with a simple potato salad, Russian-style (with soured cream and gherkins) and a big bowl of pickled onion among other things.
Prepare the pickled onion a day in advance: slice 2 onions in thin rings, using a mandolin slicer, then add 2tbsp of demerara sugar, 2-3tbsp cider vinegar, 1tbsp honey, 1-2 tsp paprika, mix well, and put a smaller heavier dish on top of onion + add some weight on top (like a soup tin) to slightly squash the onion mix. Place in the fridge overnight. It is great in sandwiches or with cold meats.
It might not look very pretty but it tastes really nice.

Eddie and his friend were very excited about roasting marshmallows. My Mum was in charge of the fire.

We looked up at the bright stars and the full Moon, and even howled at the Moon jokingly, like urban werewolves.

After stuffing ourselves with marshmallows, we had a go with sparklers (cheap ones, from Poundland). Two of our younger guests are disabled, and couldn't go in the garden, so we had lights off in the sitting room, with a mini-display of sparklers outside the windows.

It was a lovely evening, and having Mum with us made it extra special for me.

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.

Grilled tuna and courgette salad

It's been a very hot day today. I was sweltering in a jacket on a school run. Our run is literally a sprint, as I grab Eddie by hand and we hurry home in time for Sash to arrive on a school bus.
Saturday, on the other hand, was completely miserable, cold-ish and rainy. As we were walking into town to do some grocery shopping, we met a friend who asked us if we were heading to a food festival. Drat and double drat, I have totally forgotten about it, and didn't have my camera with me. My iphone is of a geriatric generation, with a very basic camera, so I didn't bother to take many pictures with it. We did go to the festival which was held in and around St Mary's Church, under a persistent rain.

The crowds seemed not that bothered by the rain, and there were long queues for any freebies, especially at the gin stall. That's called devotion - to queue in the rain to get a shot of free gin.
Eddie and I ran into the church, trying to escape the rain.
There was an impressive array of foods and drinks, especially the preserves and flavoured oils.
I didn't buy much, just a jar of local honey and strawberry jam - both from Holmes Made, a tin of Ariana natural spice blend from GoSpice, a small bottle of redcurrant syrup (non-alcoholic) and a chunk of pancetta from The Cotswold Curer.

I would have liked to spend more time, looking at the foods, but Eddie was quite bored and kept asking when we were going home.
The most magnificent displays of cakes were created by Aston Pottery. Alas, they didn't sell the cakes, only shared the printed leaflets about themselves. I wonder what they did with all those glorious goodies after the festival ended.

When it's a hot day, I prefer to have simple salad dinners. Tuna is a versatile ingredient for many kinds of salads.
To make a very simple grilled tuna and courgette salad you will need:

2 Tuna steaks
2tbsp mirin rice wine
2tbsp dark soy sauce
juice of 1/2 lime
2tbsp olive oil
1 courgette
a good drizzle of chilli-flavoured oil
mixed salad with pea shoots, a handful
green olives
for dressing:
1tbsp runny honey
juice of 1/2 lime
2tbsp toasted sunflower seeds

Slice each steak into four strips and marinade in a deep bowl in a mix of mirin, dark soy sauce, lime juice and sea salt for about an hour.
Drizzle the olive oil over the grill pan and heat it up. Cut the courgette into 3 pieces, then slice each one into "chips". Drizzle the courgette with a chilli-flavoured olive oil, and cook on grill for about 5 minutes, turning over once or twice.
Cook the tuna on grill for about 5 minutes, turning over.
Assemble the salad by layering the salad leaves, then courgette and tuna. Scatter the olives and sunflower seeds and drizzle a simple dressing of lime juice and honey.

Since I used a bit of chilli-flavoured olive oil (from a Filippo Berio olive oil hamper that I won before Christmas) and the remains of a bag of sunflower seeds, I'm adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky hosted by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews.

Grilled courgette and Scamorza salad

Browsing the cheese aisle in Waitrose a few days ago, I noticed a new Italian cheese added to the range - it was a smoked Scamorza. There was no price tag, and nobody to ask. Fast forward several days, the cheese was still there without a price, so I found a member of the staff and asked for help.

I tried Scamorza Affumicata many years ago in Italy, when my mother-in-law pan-fried it for a quick lunch.
This cheese definitely benefits from pan-frying or grilling, when it acquires a delicious crust. You can eat it uncooked as well, but the texture is a bit plasticky.

I love smoked cheese, and Granarolo Scamorza has a distinct smokey flavour. It's a delicious cheese, and I'm so pleased to see it in the local supermarket.

Since it's a National Vegetarian Week, I have been eating salads every day this week.
This is a recipe for one, but it can easily be doubled for two.

You will need (per person):
3tbsp olive oil
3 baby courgettes, sliced in half
2 slices of Scamorza cheese
3 baby tomatoes
a handful of mixed salad leaves
balsamic vinegar

Slice courgettes in half lengthways and put on the grill pan, drizzled with olive oil. Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Season with sea salt, while cooking. Add the sliced tomatoes to the grill for a couple of minutes. Scamorza takes no more than a couple of minutes on grill to turn golden-brown crusty, and chewy soft inside. Put the courgettes, tomatoes and cheese on a plate with salad leaves, and drizzle some good quality balsamic vinegar over the salad.
Eat with a well toasted bread. I had it with another Italian food product - lovely crusty Farina Pugliese bread.

It is such an easy recipe, yet immensely satisfying. I will be definitely buying this cheese again.