Stir Fried Vegetables with Cilantro and Ginger Dressing

 

Vegetables are the essential for a healthy meal. In additions the beautiful colors will make this delicious dish  irresistible and you will see how much more veggies will be devoured.

Listed below you will see the vegetables I used, but you can change this depending from what you have on hand.

You need

Vegetables

• 1-2 zucchini
• 1 big eggplant
• 1 leek
• 2 big or 4 medium carrots
• 2 bell peppers (1 red and 1 yellow)
• Olive oil

Dressing

• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 big garlic clove (or two small ones)
• 1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

Procedure

1. Prepare all vegetables: peel veggies if necessary and cut into 2-3 cm sticks.
2. Stir fry vegetables (I used two skillets): pour 1-2 tablespoon olive oil in the skillet in and stir fry the first kind of vegetable until just tender, cooking time depends on the vegetable. Set aside and keep warm in a big plate. Prepare the second kind and arrange on the plate.
3. In the meantime prepare the dressing: place all the ingredients in a blender and process until desired consistence is reached. Add more oil, lemon juice or salt as desired.
4. Serve vegetable with the dressing on side or sprinkle over veggies.

Fish with carrot-orange-mustard dressing and carrot-ginger purée

 

It taste as it looks like! This was the spontaneous comment as my family tried this dish.

When sauce and purée are ready (you can prepare sauce in pure in advance) you can start with the spinach and the fish will be ready in a few minutes.

To this dish I added a small quantity of potatoes purée and with an ice-cream scooper I formed a ball to place in the center of the carrot purée.

In this way you will have a complete beautiful meal to celebrate. Enjoy!

You need:

Sauce:

o    1 cup carrot juice

o    1/2 cup orange juice

o    1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard

o    1/2 tablespoon mustard, smooth kind

o    1/2 lemon, juice only

o    2 tablespoons water

o    1 teaspoon cornstarch

o    1 teaspoon honey, to taste

o    1-2 tablespoons butter

To prepare the sauce:

1. Pour the carrot and orange juice in a small pot.
2. Bring to a light boil, then simmer and cook until the juice is reduced by half.
3. Remove from the heat and add Dijon and standard mustard.
4. Dissolve cornstarch in lemon juice and water, add this mixture to the pot and bring to simmer slowly while stirring constantly.
5. Add the cold butter and honey mixing with a whip and add the lemon juice. Keep warm on the side.

Carrot purée:

o    2 tablespoons butter

o    1 tablespoon ginger, peeled finely chopped

o    1 tablespoon garlic, chopped

o    500-700 g carrots, peeled and sliced

o    1/2 cup cream (alternative milk)

o    Salt to taste

o    Sugar to taste

To prepare the carrot purée:

1. Heat butter at low temperature in pot with lid and add ginger and garlic.
2. After two minutes when it begins to smell add carrots, cream, salt and sugar.
3. Cover tightly and let simmer in it juice until very tender. Don’t burn and check from time to time if you have to add 2-3 spoons of water.
4. When it is soft use a blender or a food processor until smooth. Adjust salt.

Spinach:

o    2 tablespoon olive oil

o    3 garlic cloves, finely sliced

o    1 onion, chopped

o    500 g spinach, washed

o    salt, to taste

o    pepper, to taste

o    nutmeg, to taste

To prepare the spinach

1. Heat oil in a wide non sticky skillet
2. Add garlic and onion. Fry until onion fry until translucent.
3. Add spinach, salt pepper and nutmeg to the skillet and carefully combine with onion garlic mixture.
4. Cover and let simmer at low temperature until fish is ready. If necessary turn out the heat.

Fish:

o    4 tablespoons flour

o    Salt and pepper to taste

o    4 fish filet, to taste but should have firm consistency

o    4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

o    1 garlic clove, crushed or halved

o    4 fresh herbs springs, as savory or time

 

To prepare the fish:

1. In a dish combine flour, salt and pepper.
2. Pat dry the fish and coat it with the flour mixture. Remove excess flour.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a non-stick frying pan on medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and herbs. Fry herbs shortly and set aside, don’t burn them.
4. Place the fish gently in the skillet and cook lightly for about 2-3 minutes on one side until golden, then on the other, add remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Do not overcook the fish and don’t burn the herbs. If you are using salmon be careful as it should actually stay rosé, that means reduce the cooking time to 1-2 minutes per side depending on the heat.

 

Finishing:

1. To assemble your dish, take warm plates, spoon carrot purée and adjust spinach on one side of the dish. Now transfer the fish to the dish using a spatula and pour some orange sauce around.
2. Serve as it is or add some potatoes purée to the combination.

Bubbles (Elderflowers Fizz)

My Elderflowers fizz was a big success!

Here some pics of the fizz…

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Gingered Rhubarb Tart with Mint

This year we have plenty of rhubarb in the garden which is now ready to be prepared.

Searching for new recipes I’ve found this delicious one online in the blog “Lime and Barley” (a variation of the original recipe from LondonEat).

This is a really wonderful recipe, I’m glad I found it as I will prepare this many more times for sure.

I adapted the recipe according the ingredients I had on hand.

You need:

Rhubarb:

• 800 g fresh rhubarb
• 1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and grated
• 150 g sugar

Crust:

• 175 g flour
• 65 g sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 65 g margarine
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• cold water

Filling:

• 250 ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 90 g sugar
• 30 g cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:

• 1 tablespoon fresh mint, shredded
• 1 teaspoon gelatin, for tarts (or necessary amount according package instructions) (optional)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.
2. Wash and cut the rhubarb into 1-2cm pieces.
3. Combine rhubarb, sugar and ginger in an ovenproof dish big enough to form only one layer and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or the rhubarb is soft. Remove from the oven and set aside.
4. In a bowl combine flour, salt and sugar. Work the margarine into the flour with a fork. When crumbles are formed the egg and sufficient cold water (a teaspoon at a time) to make a soft dough.
5. Roll out the dough thinly and use to line a greased 10-inch mold. (I use a silicon map for this step!).
6. Transfer to the mold and for 2 cm high borders.
7. Bake blind for around 20 minutes, then bake for a further 10 minutes without the beans until golden. Set aside to cool down.
8. In the meantime prepare the custard. In a pot bring the milk to boil. In a bowl stir together eggs, sugar and cornstarch. Add boiling milk and vanilla. Heat until thickened. At this point work in the margarine.
9. Remove from heat, let cool down slightly (stirring occasionally) and pour over the crust.
10. Fill the tart with the rhubarb (I did this with the spatula piece after piece in order to arrange it pretty) and top with the mint.
11. If you like you can heat the rhubarb juice with the gelatin and pour it over the tart.
12. Let cool down completely before serving. Enjoy!

Meatstars or Meatballs with Asian Flavor

Today I prepared with great success these meatballs. The basic recipe is one of my standard, but the big change was the shape and the addition of the orange sauce. A real perfect combination!

You can serve this with rice or you can prepare mini stars and serve this as starter.

You need

For the meatstars/meatballs:

• 500 g ground meat (I used beef)
• 4 tablespoons fried onions, ready to use
• 2 tablespoons  fresh ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon coriander ground
• 3 tablespoons bread ( crumbs)
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 eggs
• 2 tablespoons soya sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon roasted sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
• 1 tablespoon fresh coriander chopped, optional
• 1/2   teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teapsoon salt, taste
• 1/3 cup wine, white or 1/3 cup milk

For the sauce:

• 1 tablespoon vegetal oil
• 1 very big sweet onion, sliced
• 2 orange zest, only orange part and thinly sliced
• 1/2 tablespoon flour
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoon soya sauce, or to taste
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry
• Chili flakes to taste

Directions

1. Combine well all the ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl.
2. With wet hands take a meat portion of the size of about one egg and form a ball.
3. I you like to make the stars, take a star shaped cookies cutter of about 2 inches diameter and press the meat-mix inside, taking care to fill the corners. Remove with caution and place on a parchment paper on a baking sheet. Repeat.
4. For the sauce slice the onion, peel the orange with the vegetable peeler and press the juice.
5. On maximum heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the onions for 2-3 minutes until borders begin to turn brown
6. Preheat the oven to 500°F /250°C.
7. Add orange zest and flour, reduce the heat to minimum heat.
8. Add water, juice, soya sauce and chili flakes.
9. Let simmer.
10. In the meantime place the meatballs in the oven. They will take about 10-15 minutes.
11.  Just before the meatballs are ready (the borders begin to turn brown) adjust sauce adding more soya sauce, add sherry and more water or orange juice if necessary.
12. Serve meatballs with sauce, top with some pepper flakes if you like and garnish with salads.

Hot Rose Hip Tea with Honey

Do you need a cold and flu home remedy? Try this delicious and completely different warming tea. Honey and chili have anti-microbial and stimulating properties, lemon and rose hips are rich of Vitamin C and ginger is known to have expectorant properties. What do you wait for? Perhaps you have all the ingredients in the kitchen!

For one cup you need:

• 1 rose hip tea bags (alternative 1 teaspoon dried rose hip)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 inch ginger, thinly sliced
• 1 pinch chili (to taste)
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1/2 lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons honey

Preparation

1. Bring water in a small saucepot with rose hip to boil and let simmer 10 minutes.
2. During this time slice the ginger.
3. Add chili ginger and chili to the rose hip tea. Cover and keep warm for about 10 minutes.
4. Finally add lemon juice and honey.
5. Remove the tea bag, pour into the cup and serve.

Note: if you have a small thermos put the ginger, chili, honey and lemon juice in the thermos, add rose hip tea and let soak. You can also grate the ginger and place it in a teabag to remove it easily.

Releted theme: Rose Hip Harvest

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