COOKBOOK » salad (38)

Caprese

A very Italian snack that repeats the colors of the national flag

In the photo, the most classic recipe: tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh green basil leaves and dressing of olive oil, balsamic, salt and freshly ground black pepper.

This dish has many variations: you can put all this on arugula, pour pesto instead of sauce, throw pine nuts, etc.only the basis of cheese and tomatoes is unchanged.

Important:

The taste of this dish directly depends on the taste of the main ingredients, so you should find the best!

Tomatoes and mozzarella should be cut in advance and let the juices drain a little, but if you make this salad with burrata or buffalo mozzarella, then you should not cut it in advance – the most delicious will flow out.

Greek salad («Horiatiki» salad)

This is a traditional recipe that I spied on traveling in Greece, but with two deviations from the rules, namely:

1. instead of green sweet pepper, I put yellow, because Green is bitter to me, and I love yellow, and I also love when the dish is so multicolored.

2. instead of feta, I put my favorite “Serbian cheese” just because she was at my house.

The rest is classic.

Important:

Cut all vegetables coarsely.

Cucumber is usually cleaned in Greece, because it is like zucchini there. But I also peel our cucumbers, the taste really changes from this.

The first step is to cut the onion and marinate it in wine vinegar. As long as you cut everything else, then it will just get to the condition.

If there are no really cool olives, it is better not to put. You can put capers, if you like.

Cheese / feta is cut into large pieces and spread on top, sprinkled with oregano and drizzled with olive oil, but there is really tastier if you mix it all;)

Salad with mango, shrimp and peanuts

Dedicated to all connoisseurs of Asian cuisine, lovers of shrimp and mango!

This is a dump of the head, and cook for 5-7 minutes:

1. shrimp (300g) cleaned from the Shell and tail, then make an incision on the back and remove the intestines, wash them, dry them on a paper towel. Then they need to fry in sesame oil with 1 chili pepper without seeds until cooked (I had it for 3 minutes), put everything in a bowl, add red onion half rings according to the amount to your taste and sprinkle with fish sauce and sesame oil, mix.

2. Mango 1-2 PCs. (better Green is not sweet) peel, cut the flesh on both sides of the bone and chop along the thinnest strips.

3. spread the mango on a plate, top with shrimp sauce and already pickled onion, sprinkle with roasted peanuts and Bon Appetit!

But it will be tastier if you mix everything and wait for 2 minutes, and then there is;)))

How to cook shrimp and delicious salad recipe with them

I decided today to hit the classics, because arugula+avocado+shrimp fried in garlic oil – this is it. And tomatoes, pine nuts and Parmesan are generally ideal companions for almost any salad. Season with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

For one serving you will need a handful of arugula, half an avocado, 6-8 cherry tomatoes, 7-10 fried shrimp, 1 tbsp grated Parmesan, 1 tbsp roasted pine nuts, 1 tbsp unrefined olive oil and balsamic cream to taste.

A bonus will be tips about cooking shrimp:

Any shrimp (fresh / cooked, shelled or not) if necessary I defrost in the fridge. Defrosting in the refrigerator is more gentle and less affects the structure and taste of meat. Then clean (if necessary), remove the intestines, rinse and dry on paper towels, and then cook. Drying is especially important for subsequent frying, so that they really fry, and not languish in the remaining water.

The cooking time of shrimp depends on the size and availability of the shell. The larger the shrimp, the longer it can be cooked without losing the taste of the meat. If the shrimp is with a shell, then it will also retain its softness a little longer than peeled. 

Ready-made shrimp (red) should be subjected to heat treatment for no more than 1 minute, so that they are juicy and melting in the mouth. If I need to add such shrimp to the soup, I do it in the nick of time. Fry too very quickly, just so they warmed up and acquired a small appetizing crust.

Fresh shrimp (Gray-greenish) and without Shell are cooked for 2-3 minutes or until the meat is white, the duration depends on the size of the shrimp.

The readiness of shrimp when frying is very easy to determine – this is when it is slightly curled, and the tail began to press against the head. In general, look at the color of the meat. From Transparent, it should turn into white. And then you can immediately remove from the stove.

I don’t salt the shrimp to keep it soft, unless the recipe calls for it. In any case, then sauces and dressings are all balanced. In addition, shrimp can be quite salty on their own.

Shrimp tails for some reason are usually left for beauty, but in fact I tear them off so that the dish is convenient to eat. Not in all dishes, but in a salad for sure;)

Salad with tomatoes, Parmesan and nuts

One of my favorites because it’s simple and delicious.

Recipe:

Required ingredients: lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes, pine nuts/sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds, grated Parmesan, dressing (olive oil / sun-dried tomato oil + balsamic cream).

Optional ingredients: sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, Parma ham. Mix vegetables and Parma with dressing, sprinkle cheese and nuts/seeds on top.Important:

See that the oil in which the dried tomatoes are located is olive and extra virgin, and not rapeseed or any other cheap.

Seeds and nuts I like to use fried, but I always buy raw, because they are still washed, and the washed ones are still dried again, so it’s better to do the whole process yourself.

Salad with roast beef

Roast beef salad:

1. cook roast beef (recipe here):

2. dressing: 3 parts olive oil, 1 part Dijon mustard, 1 part honey, 1 part balsamic vinegar (can be replaced with lemon juice or wine vinegar), a little salt and pepper. Shake everything to the state of emulsion and try. There should be a sweet-sour sauce with a distant mustard tinge. I love this salad enough dressing (70-100 ml. per serving).

3. Wash, Dry and spread salad leaves on a plate (I like the mixture of arugula with chard), then throw fresh tomatoes, cream cheese/feta, sprinkle with ½ part of the dressing, then a layer of dried tomatoes, then thinly sliced meat, the remaining dressing, a little truffle oil. Finish with balsamic cream and capers.

Nuances:

If there are no ingredients – it does not matter, they can be omitted. But know – without them it will not be quite so.

I did not consider the exact proportions of the ingredients in the dish, but for 1 person approximately: a handful of greens, 1 small fresh tomato or 5 PCs.cherry tomatoes, 50 grams of cheese, 5-6 dried tomatoes, 150-200 gr of meat and a pinch of capers.

For beauty, I always leave a few pieces of meat and throw over the meat, already poured with sauce, (before the stage with capers), because meat with dressing does not look as aesthetically pleasing as without it;)

I do not know how cumbersome and florid the recipe sounds, but it is very simple and fast in fact. All Bon Appetit!

Favorite salad with goat cheese in 5 minutes!

It’s not really a recipe, but the principle of how to make a brilliant salad.

1. Throw on a plate with any salad leaves that you love, then 7-8 cherry cut in half and top ½ avocado cut into slices. Season to taste, generously sprinkles with olive oil and balsamic cream.

Optionally, you can put fresh strawberries or figs here.

2. Now it is the turn of goat cheese. You can use cottage cheese or Chevre. Cottage cheese (30-50g) randomly throwing pieces on top of vegetables and Chevre (disk 1 large or 3-5 small ones) a bit of fry in a skillet.

How to fry goat cheese:
Goat cheese Chevre ideally fry coated in a thin layer of flour or bread crumbs, then it will retain its shape. You need to heat the pan, pour a drop of oil and fry the discs of cheese on both sides until the moment when it is already softened, but not spread on the pan. If there isn’t anything that could be breaded cheese – no problem. Fry is the same way, just visually, the dish will not be as nice as could be, but still tasty;)

3. Throw on top of nuts (pecans, walnuts or pine nuts), sunflower seeds and dried berries (cranberries or raisins). Serve immediately.

Salad with arugula, caramelized pear and gorgonzola

My favorite salad) Arugula, balsamic caramelized pear, roasted pine nuts and orgasmic Gorgonzola.

A recipe for one large serving or two small ones.

Ingredients:

1 generous handful of arugula

1 pear of the conference variety or other similar variety. It should be sweet and ripe enough, but not falling apart.

40-50 g of Gorgonzola cheese (can be replaced with another quality cheese with blue mold).

1 tbsp ghee oil (can be replaced with vegetable oil for frying, but with butter tastier).

2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar,

A pinch of salt,

1 tsp olive oil,

A handful of roasted pine nuts.

How to do:

1. Wash the pear, cut in half lengthwise, then each half into another 6 parts. Get 12 petals. Seeds and stalk must be carefully removed.

2. melt the butter in a frying pan, add the balsamic vinegar and put the pear in one layer, lightly salt. Fry first over medium heat to allow the pear to give juices, then make a high heat and caramelize the pear until brown. Then gently flip the petals and fry the second side. The pear should become soft inside, have an appetizing crust on the outside and at the same time keep its shape. I fry for about 7-10 minutes.

3. put the arugula on a plate, season with olive oil and a drop of balsamic vinegar, stir. From above, spread a hot pear straight with all the contents of the frying pan, immediately followed by crumbled Gorgonzola, so that it has the opportunity to melt a little, and finish the salad with a handful of nuts. How I fry nuts wrote here.

After a couple of minutes, enjoy this gorgeous warm salad with an amazing salty-sweet combination of flavors.