SMOKED SALMON TARTAR WITH AVOCADO AND CUCUMBER

SMOKED SALMON TARTAR WITH AVOCADO AND CUCUMBER

Yet another delicious recipe with smoked salmon and avocado. I love it! 

This recipe is from the Flemish TV channel; it also had fresh salmon but I did not have any at hand so I just made it with smoked salmon. I will explain as I made it. 

Ingredients  

1 thick slice of smoked salmon

2 fresh chives, chopped fine

Juice of half of a lime

Half a cucumber, peeled

Half a ripe avocado, peeled  

1 stick of fresh tarragon, chopped fine

Salt and pepper to your taste

1 chive for decoration

Method

1. I cubed the smoked salmon and put it in a bowl
2. After I peeled the cucumber, I cut it into 4 pieces lengthwise and cleaned the seeds. After this, I cubed the cucumber pieces.
3. Except for the avocado, I added all the ingredients in the bowl and mixed them carefully in order not to smash them.
4. I cubed the avocado as well and added it to the tartar mix in the bowl and mixed it gently and carefully with the rest. 
5. The tartar mix is ready. Now it is up to you to decorate and serve it :-)

Step 2 - cucumber

Step 1 & 4 - avocado and smoked salmon in cubes

Step 4 - tartar mix with smoked salmon, avocado and cucumber

Step 5 - shaping it baby

SMOKED SALMON TARTAR WITH AVOCADO AND CUCUMBER

SMOKED SALMON BONBONS WITH GOAT CHEESE, APPEL AND AVOCADO

SMOKED SALMON BONBONS WITH GOAT CHEESE, APPEL AND AVOCADO

I love smoked salmon, I love goat cheese and I love avocado. This starter is so easy to make yet so chic and impressive on the table! But most important of all, it is definitely delicious!

My recipe is based on a recipe I saw got on the Flemish TV channel. I explain it as I made it.

Ingredients (enough to fill 4 – 5 mini oven dishes as in the pic)

6 – 8 slices of smoked salmon

1 spoon of oil

Salt and pepper to your taste

For the filling

50 gr. Of goat cheese

Half of a ripe and soft avocado, peeled

Half of a green apple (like granny smith), peeled

1 spoon of lime juice

1 spoon of sour cream

2 fresh chives, chopped

2 leaves of dill, chopped

Extra kitchen material: mini oven dishes + stretch folio

Method

1. First I prepared the filling:  cut the avocado roughly in cubes, add the goat cheese and mix them well by smashing the avocado with the help of a fork
2. Cube the apple; add it into the avocado goat cheese mixture with the rest of the ingredients of the filling. Mix well and set aside.
3. Take the oven dishes and brush inside with the oil. Cut the stretch folio in squares which are big enough to come out of the oven dish. Lay the stretch folio in the oven dishes as in the picture.
4. Lay the slices of smoked salmon in the oven dish and make sure the inside part of the oven dish is covered with salmon. Make also sure that the salmon dangles out of the oven dish. For that, cut some pieces that are big enough to spill out of the oven dish in order to cover the inside walls of the oven dish (see the picture to understand where you have to get :))
5. Fill the salmon with the filling and cover the filling with the pieces of salmon that dangles out of the oven dish (see the pic)
6. Fold the edges of the cling film together, pull tight and fasten the plastic (see the pic)
7. Set it in the fridge for a few hours before serving so that the filling becomes firm. 

sliced smoked salmon

Cover the oven dish first with the stretch folio and then with the smoked salmon

chives, green apple and lime

fill the smoked salmon with the goat cheese, avocado filling

Cover the filling with the salmon dangling out of the oven dish

Fold the edges of the cling film together, pull tight and fasten the plastic

Set the bonbons in the fridge for a few hours

SMOKED SALMON BONBONS WITH GOAT CHEESE, APPEL AND AVOCADO

SMOKED SALMON BONBONS WITH GOAT CHEESE, APPEL AND AVOCADO

MARINATED MOZZARELLA BALLS

MARINATED MOZERELLA BALLS

Easy to make, delicious to eat :) 

I made those at the new years eve party that I held for the family. They all think it was delicious. 

I am not giving any measurements, you will have to experiment with the amounts in order to find the optimum taste according to your liking :-)

Ingredients

Mozzarella balls (see the pic for the approximate amount)

4 – 5 sun dried tomato

For the marinade

Extra virgin olive oil

Fresh rosemary

Fresh or dried thyme

Grain salt

Method

1. Except the sun dried tomatos I mixed all the ingredients and I let it rest in my refrigrator for a night, covered.
2. The next day, I boiled water and soaked the dried tomates in the water for about half an hour until the tomatos are really soft (I was busy with other stuff in the mean time so you can be done earlier if the tomatos are soft). I drained the tomatos and chopped them in small bits. I mixed the tomatos with the rest of the ingredients and marinated them for a few hours more until I served them. 

mozzarella balls marinated in fresh rosemary, dried thyme, extra virgin olive oil

MARINATED MOZERELLA BALLS

SWISS CHARD DOLMA

Swiss chard dolma

Ok, I know it has been a long time that I’ve last posted here. I am still writing my recipes but in a Turkish blog. Looking at the traffics of this English blog I thought it is not really interesting to put Turkish recipes on the internet. 

Anyway. But I know there are people out there who would and indeed do take interest with what I have to share. Big thanks to Sandra, the English lady in Italy, who genuinely gives me courage to continue with what I have to offer. 

I will start putting translations of recipes I’ve posted earlier on my Turkish blog. 

Here we go. Again. :)

Well, dolma stuff are really typical Turkish food. I know that in the neighbor countries like Romania, Greece, and Armenia and or even in the Middle East they make dolma. In Europe dolma is called dolmades after the Greek ones.

Normally the most common dolma we make is with the grape leaves. You can find freshly picked grape leaves or brined grape leaves. So all year long you can make them :) They also make dolma of any other leaves actually. Like swiss chard, like swiss chard or collard greens. It is the first time I try the swiss chard, but I can assure you that it is delicious. I found that the swiss chard is more difficult to work with than the grape leaves because they are more tender than the grape leaves. You have to be careful not to tear the leaf. But the result is great! I think it might be even more convenient for the palate of the European people because it is so tender. In Turkey we say “it is like eating Turkish delight” when we say that something is soft and tender in the mouth (like a piece of sofly baked meat) and I think swiss chard dolma was also like Turkish delight in that sense :)

Ingredients (see the notes below)

1 bundle of swiss chard, washed and drained

a bundle of swiss chard

a bundle of swiss chard

For the filling:

1 glass of rice, washed and drained

1 medium sized onion, chopped fine

1 handful of fresh mint, chopped fine

1 handful of parsley leaves, chopped fine

1 fresh onion, chopped fine

Salt to your liking

3 – 4 drops of sumac molasses (see the notes below)

Water

Olive oil

Method:

1. I started with preparing the filling: I heated the olive oil in a pan and I sautéed the onion for 3 – 4 minutes. Then I added the rice and sautéed it with the onion until the rice became transparent. When the rice was transparent I added half of a glass of water and closed the lid and cooked the rice until it soaked all the water on low fire.
2. When the rice soaked the water and was half-cooked, I turned off the fire; I added some salt and put the pot uncovered aside so that the filling could cool down a bit.  
3. While the rice was cooling down, I prepared the leaves of the swiss chard: I cut off the stalks of the swiss chard and put them aside. I used my pressure-cooker to steam-cook the leaves and I steam cooked the swiss chard leaves for 2 minutes. I let it aside a bit to let it cool down and squeezed the leaves to get rid of the excess water they had when they were a bit cooler. (see the notes section below)
4. When the rice filling cooled down, I added the fresh herbs and the sumac molasses and mixed.
5. Before rolling the dolma, I made sure that I placed the rice filling on the part of the leave where the windpipes are placed.  This will ensure a better looking dolma on the outside. Also, on the wider part of the leaf, if not the very middle. I closed the leave from left and right on the filling as if I am making a package. I rolled the pointy upper part on the filling and started rolling the whole leaf (see the pictures). I continued with this process until all the leaves were filled with the filling.
6. I placed the dolma’s in a pot and poured half a glass of water (or a bit less). On low fire, I cooked the dolmas until the rice is soft. For me it took 15 – 20 minutes. 

Step 1 - the filling of the swiss chard dolma

Step 5 - place the filling in the internal part of the leaf where you see the thick windpipe of the leaf

Step 5 - place the filling on the wider part of the leaf. 

Step 5 - close the left and right wider sides of the leaf on the filling

Step 5 - close the pointy upper part on the filling; by enclosing from the sides, start rolling 

Step 5 - swiss chard leaf rolled around the filling

Step 6 - cook the dolma for about 15 - 20 minutes in half a glass of water so that they don't burn or stick to the bottom

Delicious swiss chard dolma

Swiss chard dolma

Notes:

• This amount will only be enough for 2 people for a dinner or lunch.
• Alternative to the steam-cooking, you can blanche the leaves of the swiss card. Place them in boiling water and keep them there for 30 seconds to 1 minute; that is, until they are bright green and soft. Squeeze them out of the excess water without tearing the leaves.
• If you do not have any sumac molasses available; alternatively you can use pomegranate molasses or half a lemon juice.

HOW TO STOCK EDIBLE PLANTS IN THE DEEP-FREEZE

In İstanbul the edible plants are not available as long as they are in the Egean region of Turkey. It is usually from April to May only that we can find them on the stalls of the open air markets. However, loving to consume edible plants, I could stock them in my deep-freeze  the whole year long without loosing much taste to them. This way I could enjoy my favourite börek the entire winter (click here for the recipe) :)

 

Back in may, I bought so many edible plants, it was a bit of work to manage all that stocking process because you have to be quick otherwise the plants wilt and loose taste. But it was worth in the end of all that effort. 

I used more or less the same process for all the edible plants that I stocked:

mellow,

goosefoot,

wild mustard, 

lambs quarters (white goosefoot, pigweed) - see picture below

patience dock,

wild radish (see picture below),

dandelion,

golden thistle,

nettle. 

That’s what I did:

Depending on the edible plant, I steam-cooked the plant in my pressure cooker. As an alternative to steam-cooking in the pressure cooker, you can boil some water in a pot and soak the plants in the boiling water and take them out immediately with the help of a strainer. I find the steam-cooking method the most convenient as you don’t have to bother yourself with dripping water all around. 

As for the duration of steam-cooking, it depends on the plant: For something quite rhizomorphous like golden thistle it took longer. For all the other kinds of grean leaves like dock I steam-cooked them until they are bright green in colour (meaning 1 – 2 minutes). In the case of plants with harder stems such as mellow, I cut their stems apart and steam-cooked them seperately and for 3 – 4 minutes.  You have to see it for yourself because region per region, the same type of plant might have a harder stem or leaves. See the pictures below for a few examples of how the plants looked before and after steam-cooking in the pressure cooker. 

After steam-cooking the plants, I squeezed them to get rid of the excess water and put them in the deep-freeze bags in portions that I thought I could use.Time to vacuum-seal the bag: Holding the open part of the deep-freeze bags between my index finger and thumb, I put in a drinking straw in the bag and I sucked the air out of the bag. Without letting much air back in, I sealed the bag with a coated wire. When the plant cooled down a bit, I put the bag in the deep-freeze.

wild radish, jointed charlock, wild charlock

steam-cooked wild radish: bright green after 1 - 2 minutes of steam-cooking

Lambs quarters, white goosefoot, pigweed

 

steam-cooked lambs quarters: bright green after 1 - 2 minutes of steam-cooking