Fingers Crossed (herring salad)

I had quite a good weekend planned. There was going to be dinner with friend L., who lives on a barge with a cool waterside terrace. There was going to be a jaunt in the park with two other friends, H. and R., both of whom I haven’t seen for far too long. There was going to be the purchase of funky hiking boots, F.H.B..

Alas.

First, dinner got cancelled. L’s sister is pregnant and her waters broke, so L. took a trip back home to become an aunt. An AUNT. V. exciting, but the baby isn’t due for another five weeks, so they are hoping it will stick around in the womb for a bit longer. Good thing I have enough time to keep my fingers crossed, what with not having dinner plans and all.

Then H. sent a text message to say we cannot get together because she has to stay indoors for seven days. Someone she spent time with came down with the New Flu and even though she feels fine, she won’t get the all-clear until it has been seven days since their last contact. That means seeing as few people as possible and hoping she hasn’t caught it. More fingercrossing to do for me.

Perhaps I should have paid attention to the signs and leave the boot buying for another day. But no, into town I went. After careful deliberation and much fitting, these were the shoes I picked:

Yup, they’re Ugly. No amount of superstition is going to make these babies a treat to look at. Luckily, they are also Comfortable. So that’s U.C.B. (ugly comfy boots), rather than F.H.B. And that’s okay. I picked them, I am responsible for buying them and I won’t ask for a miraculous shoe make-over. I have one other tiny additional request to fate, though. Will you please allow the U.C.B. to keep me safe when hiking in the Pyrenees two weeks from now?

And that’s enough with the finger-crossing and magic thinking. Time to count my blessings. Sure, I’ve seen two dates disappear into thin air, but at least I am not the one in the hospital, hoping her nephew or niece will stay inside for a little longer. Nor am I cut off from the world, keeping my germs to myself. No, I got to put on my U.C.B. and buy the ingredients for the salad you see up there. It’s got herring, it’s got beets. It has apples, and shallot and eggs and gherkins. It has a creamy dressing and it made me very happy to be right where I was.
Yes, it was quite a good weekend after all.

Herring salad with beets

Serves 1

1 ½ herrings (salty, not sour)
1 beetroot, approximately 150 gr
½ apple, not too sweet
2 gherkins
2 small, hard boiled eggs, yolks removed
1 shallot
1 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp thick, creamy yogurt
½ tsp grated horseradish, optional

Chop the beetroot, the apple, the eggs and the gherkins into roughly evenly sized pieces. Finely mince the shallot and combine with the ingredients you just chopped. Mix the mayonnaise with the yogurt and add the horseradish, if using. Add the dressing to the beetroot mixture.

Cut the herring into small bite-sized pieces. Gently fold into the other ingredients. Serve with thick slices of toasted bread.

Traditionally, this kind of salad would have a few boiled potatoes. I don’t like them, so I left them out, but don’t let that stop you from adding them if you are so inclined.

Broccoli with Benefits (broccoli salad with bacon and raisins)

My man is hiding behind the curtains. More accurately, he is blocked from my view by the curtains because he is outside. Not just hiding behind the curtains, but sitting on the other side of double pane glass, shivering behind a stack of papers. He was working and “Samantha Who” on the television was bothering him. So he settled on the balcony in seven-degree cold.

I offered to switch off the TV, but he has bouts of chivalry over odd things. Christina Applegate with no memory turns out to be one of them. Good thing then, that I made us broccoli salad tonight. I am sure his immune system appreciated the help from the brassica goodness.

While it is a lovely bonus, being healthy is not enough for a salad to make it onto my dinner rotation. Especially not if it has broccoli. Luckily for my man’s immune system, I have a friend who knows how to make nearly anything palatable. And while her tricks usually include lashings of butter, big globs of mayonnaise or generous amounts of cheese, the one she uses for broccoli is more friendly on the arteries. It has a modest helping of bacon bits and some raisins and makes broccoli taste seriously good. Okay, so it also has lots of mayonnaise, but you can replace most of that with yogurt without comprising the taste.

Tonight, I combined my friend’s tricks with a SmittenKitchen idea of using tangy dressing with onions on raw broccoli. And the mix worked, if I do say so myself. You get salty, you get sweet, you get tangy and you get crunchy, all while munching through an impressive dose of vitamins and minerals.

Bring on the seven degrees. On my man, that is.

Broccoli Salad

Serves 2

500 gr broccoli, florets and stem
100 gr bacon bits
handful of plump raisins
1/3 cup mild yogurt
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp onion, finely chopped

Wash the broccoli and peel the stem. Slice the broccoli as finely as you can (using a knife, a mandoline or food processor).

Fry the bacon bits until they are mostly crispy, but with a soft bite.

Combine the yogurt with the mayonnaise and the onion. Season with salt and pepper to taste (keep in mind the saltiness of the bacon).

Put the broccoli in a bowl with the fried bacon bits, the raisins and the dressing. Toss gently until thoroughly combined.

Asparagus to remember (asparagus with soft onions)

Today is the fourth of May. A day to honor those we have lost in war. Today we realise we are lucky to be where we are and that it isn’t self-evident, that it has taken hard work and pain to get here. Hopefully, that message sinks in and we do something with it.

Big words, but I don’t know where to let them take me. I am not brave, I don’t fight and, well, I don’t have a clue. Heck, I couldn’t even think of something appropriate to cook for today. What do you eat when you are supposed to be still and thoughtful, sobered by what has gone before? I thought of eating dry bread accompanied by a glass of water, but then I laughed at myself. I tried to think of black foods to eat, but felt that pasta with squid in its own ink would be dramatic rather than sober. And then my current affection for asparagus stirred and I decided the tall white stems would be dinner.

Asparagus are not the obvious solemn food. They happily whisper of spring and new beginnings. They sing “enjoy me now, we’re precious”. Around for a short time only, you cannot afford to dither or they will be gone before you get around to them. And maybe that is what this day is about, for the moment. About being here, today, and realising just how precious that is.

Asparagus with Soft Onions

Serves one, easily multiplied

1 small bunch of white asparagus, about 300 gr
1 large onion, sliced into thick half moons
2 tbsp olive oil + 1 tbsp for serving
1 egg

Thoroughly peel the asparagus, taking care to remove the stringy outer skin from the whole length of the stem, starting from just below the bulbous tip. Cook until tender but still firm (in a pan of water, over steam or in the microwave, with just enough water to cover the stems; start checking for doneness after ten minutes whatever method you use).

In the mean time, boil the egg to your liking. I like the yolk to be just a little runny and the white to be cooked through, so I boil a medium egg for about six minutes after I drop it in rapidly boiling water. Also heat about 2 tbsp of olive oil in a heavy skillet and add the onions. Fry them until they are soft and light brown.

When the asparagus are done, put them in a shallow bowl or arrange them on a plate. Sprinkle with a tbsp of olive oil and toss them gently to give them a glossy sheen. Finely dice the egg. Spread over the top of the asparagus, and sprinkle with salt. Layer the fried onions on top. Enjoy hot or warm.

Testing the Waters (Quinoa with chicken and avocado)

Hi, I’m back. Did you miss me?

So it’s been a while, and I thought it might be a good idea to ease us both back in gently. Although I really cannot judge your state of mind, so I should be honest and tell you that I need a bit of kiddie-splash-pool time before diving in the deep end again.

Cooking has been slow in my kitchen recently. Meals have been easy and baking has been non-existent. However, there is good news because from sheer laziness this lovely salad-like dish was born. It is tasty, quick and even moderately healthy. Let me share with you, for when you’re in need of a bit of kiddie-splash-pool time.


Quinoa with chicken and avocado

Serves 1, easily multiplied

2 cups of quinoa, cooked (about 1 cup of uncooked quinoa)
1 avocado
1 small smoked chicken breast
1 handful of cherry tomatoes, halved (optional)
¼ cup yogurt (preferably Greek style or another thick kind)
handful of basil leaves, crushed finely (or use a squeeze of basil paste from a tube if you’re feeling extra lazy)
1 small clove of garlic, minced

Mix the yogurt with the basil and garlic. Cut the chicken into small pieces and the avocado into largish chunks. Mix the quinoa with the flavored yogurt and then gently fold in the chicken, the avocado and the tomatoes if you’re using them. Stick in a spoon and eat.

Spring Has Sprung (carrot salad)

I work at a university, so I expect to hear some stuff in the workplace that does not normally feature during an office day. I don’t bat an eyelash when I overhear a bragging session about copious amounts of alcohol consumed on a Tuesday night. Teary conversations about how, exactly, “that bastard dumped me” don’t register on my radar anymore. And complaints of “I haven’t been able to do laundry in three weeks” just make me giggle. But today, I was faced with a case of Too Much Information, Entirely.

The local student paper does a piece every week called Cute Couple. Two people are interviewed about their relationship and things they like about each other. You get useless, but entertaining, information like “I love her blue eyes” and “he makes great omelettes”. Apparently, someone thought this was boring and decided to spice things up. This week, they added the question “what’s your favourite sexual position?”.

They answered. For all their colleagues/ fellow students to read.

Seriously.

Much more pleasingly, spring was also announced by students today. When I stepped out of the building during lunch break, there they were. Spread all over the grass, soaking up the rays. Feeble rays, admittedly, but a sure sign of spring nonetheless. Finally. And what better way to celebrate the onset of spring than with a salad? So I give you: carrot salad.

Like all grated carrot salads, this is easy going. You grate a few carrots (just two large carrots gave me the bowl you see above) and mix them with a tablespoon or so of lemon juice. Toss in a good sprinkling of poppy seeds and a handful of raisins. Et voila: carrot salad. No exact directions necessary, but please don’t skip the poppy seeds. They give the mixture that festive crunch perfect for celebrating spring.

Obamenu (Everything Salad)

When I walked into the central hall at Utrecht Central Station today around 6 pm (noon in Washington DC) I thought “oh no”. Even more people than normal were standing around, focusedly staring at something. Usually, this can mean only one thing: there are major delays and everyone is waiting for news to appear on the large information screens.

But today isn’t a usual day. Today the United States have a new president. Everyone was watching the inauguration on a larger-than-life TV screen.

Finally, finally, finally the world might get a chance to recover from eight years of bad decisions, worse policies and plain crazy actions. It was about time. To celebrate, I had a US-inspired meal tonight. Wanna hear my Obamenu? Here, I’ll tell you:

• Burger King Chili-Cheese Nuggets
• Everything-salad with a side of corn chips and a glass of iced tea
• Chocolate

For me, the everything-bagel is the quintessential American food. Sure, you have burgers and hotdogs and popcorn and coke, and all of them bring associations with the USA. But none of them capture my idea of “America” as well as the everything-bagel. The belief that more is more, bigger is better, and conventions are meant to be flouted. Want a bagel with just sesame seeds? Pah. With poppy seeds or onion flakes or caraway seeds? Why stop there? Much better to have them all. And on a bread that was brought to the country by a religious minority. As a play on the theme, I created an everything-salad. There were walnuts, crispy bacon, chopped hard-boiled eggs, creamy yoghurt-mustard dressing and chives. Oh, and salad leaves, of course. Nice. Very nice.

The cheese nuggets, on the other hand, were a mistake. There was a cheese-like substance, there were green bits and there was a faint trace of heat. Other than that: nothing. No flavor, no crunch. Blah. Luckily, the chocolate was a winner. Originally meaning to bake chocolate chip cookies, I changed my mind when I realized I was going to be home alone tonight and might very well finish the entire batch. By myself. Even a new US-president isn’t worth that many calories, so I stuck with just a few pieces of Green and Blacks organic Maya Gold. Yum. Or, if you will: Oba-mmmmmmmmmm.

Blue Cheese Dressing

Today I don’t have a recipe, or a story. Today is a “neat trick’ kind of day. This is for the times when you crave cheese but can’t quite justify eating just cheese and bread. It is a way to get lots of cheese flavor, but also some vitamins and fiber.

Blue cheese and a sturdy kind of vegetable form the basis of this trick. Mash up a smallish chunk of blue cheese (fourme d’ambert and bleu d’auvergne work great, but any crumbly, intensely flavored blue will work; don’t try gorgonzola, though- it is too creamy) with a bit of olive oil until soft. Then add lemon juice (or a mild vinegar of your choice) to make it more liquid and to add some sour to the flavor balance.

Chop a sturdy vegetable of your choice into small bits. Belgian endive and white cabbage are great for this, but I am guessing any non-leafy vegetable will work. Now here comes the trick: Don’t add the cheese to the vegetables and try to get it evenly distributed that way. You will give yourself a tennis elbow and a strong desire to be done with it and stuff your face with the left-over cheese. Instead, mix a bit of the chopped vegetable into the cheese mash and mix until all pieces are coated. Mix in a bit more until coated. Maybe mix in one more handful and then toss the cheesy vegetables in with the non-dressed vegetable. Mix, mix, mix. Add some nuts if you are feeling fancy, and eat.

Not a great recipe, but a good trick to know.

Vietnamese Cabbage Salad

Let me introduce you to a salad that will keep you on your toes, in the best way possible. It has crisp shredded cabbage complemented by chilies, fish sauce, marinated onions and mint. Strong flavors, that could clash horribly, but don’t. Instead, you get a bowl from which every bite is a surprise. Will I get the heat from the chilies? The pungency of the onions? Or the cool relief of the mint? And always, there is the cool crunch of the cabbage to take the edge off.


This is Nigella Lawson’s Vietnamese Chicken Salad with Mint, and after yesterday’s failed attempt, today came the re-try for making it. Actually, it was my fourth time and I knew I would not be disappointed. I was right: this is one tasty salad.

Truth be told, I made a chicken-less version today, so I could trick my man into eating the left-over chicken nuggets instead. It was lovely all the same, complemented by just a few crackers (okay, and some cheese for dessert). I hope you didn’t think I partook in the nugget fest? No sirree, I like my chicken recognizable. Plus, when you have lovely salad, who needs greasy snacks?

Vietnamese Cabbage Salad With Mint

Adapted slightly from Vietnamese Chicken Salad in Nigella Bites, Nigella Lawson

Serves 2

1 chilipepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp of sugar
2 tsp of rice vinegar
1 tbsp of lime juice
1 ½ tbsp Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce
½ medium onion, sliced as thinly as possible
black pepper to taste
⅓ white cabbage, shaved finely
1 medium carrot, grated
handful of mint leaves, finely shredded right before adding to salad

Mix chilipepper, garlic, sugar, vinegar, the lime the fish sauce and onion, add a pinch of black pepper. Leave mixture for half an hour. Then add mixture to cabbage, carrot and mint and toss carefully, until all vegetables are coated with a film of dressing. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Leaves on my plate

Oh yeah, fall has started. I've had the heating on for the first time this year, leaving the house without an umbrella means grave danger for my Uggs and my potted fig looks like its leaves have been dipped in caramel. I'm okay with this. Anything that gives me an excuse to brew hot chocolate and wear my hooded sweater is good in my books. I am not, however, happy to say goodbye to summer.

Who is, when we have to say goodbye to tomatoes, melon and asparagus. And berries, gorgeous berries. So I bought a box of raspberries the other week, challenging summer to stick around for just a little longer. Yeah, bad idea. "Sour" does not do them justice. Yesterday's idea was better: marry fall and summer into a salad.

Summer brought young salad leaves to the altar, and a sprinkling of parsley. Fall came bearing mushrooms and a sturdy piece of beef. With a few extras (oil, vinegar, parmesan, pine nuts and butter) the match was sealed deliciously. A perfect bridge between two seasons. Now, if I could only find a way to shield my Uggs from the autumn rains as effectively.

Autumn salad

piece of steak
2 handfuls oyster mushrooms, torn into big pieces
1 bag of salad leaves
small handful of parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp butter
splash of olive oil, plus more for dressing
vinegar for dressing
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed under the blade of a heavy knife
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
3 tbsp parmesan, finely grated

Mix oil and vinegar to make a mellow dressing. Put in garlic and leave to marinate while you prepare salad.

Heat butter and oil in skillet, add steak when the mixture is hot. Fry quickly on both sides to give a dark crust, then lower heat to finish cooking to the degree of doneness you like. Take the steak out of the pan, cover to keep warm. Fry mushrooms in the same pan, mixing them throroughly with the lovely juices in the pan. Take the garlic from the dressing and add it to the pan; continue to fry until mushrooms are soft.

Dress salad leaves with dressing, sprinkle with parmesan and mix thoroughly. Scatter over pine nuts. Salt steak and slice into thick strips. Arrange mushrooms on salad leaves, top with steak slices and serve.