Radish, Apple and Almond Salad

I'm in the mood for salads. I've seen some interesting combinations, so beautiful dishes, in my old magazines that I get inspired. As summer is coming around, I decided to do some tests and prepare myself for the season.

This salad is very simple. The charm of it is up to the decoration of the dish.

Radish, Apple and Almond Salad

4 medium carrots, grated

200g almonds
2/3 cup sour grapes - Use seedless grapes or raisins, or if you prefer
8 large radishes, sliced very thin - I used a mandolin
4 chopped green apples

Sauce
1/2 cup vinegar
4 tsp. lime juice
4 tsp. mustard
4 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt

In a bowl, combine carrots, almonds and grapes. Arrange the salad around the radish and put the apple in the center.
Sauce: In a bowl, beat with a whisk all ingredients and serve separately.

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"Snowy" Beets

I love beets. But I never make anything different with them. I mean, they always end up being boiled in salted water, and going into a salad. These days I've found this recipe in a old magazine. I thought it could be very interesting.

Unfortunatelyi didn't pay attention at the time of the photo and almost nothing is left to shoot. As everyone here at home liked the dish, I'll repeat it sometime. Hence I  hope to take some better shots in the next.

Snowy Beetroot

1/3 cup corn starch

1/2 cup milk

3 medium beets, cooked, peeled and chopped

1 1/2 cup Ementhal cheese, grated
4 eggs (whites and yolks separated)

1 teaspoon salt

1 pinch black pepper

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to medium heat. In a saucepan, combine cornstarch and milk. Bring to high heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Reserve.

Mix the cooked beets, Ementhal cheese, egg yolks and cornstarch cream. Bring the mixture back to the fire and cook, stirring constantly, until cheese melts. Pour into a dish. Reserve.

In mixer, beat the egg whites and pour over the beet cream. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake to golden brown. Serve hot.

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Vegetables with Cheese Sauce

As promised in my previous post, here's the second recipe with fresh asparagus. If you ask me which one I liked most I'll answer that the two recipes are very good. This one has a stronger flavor sauce, which combined very well with the vegetables used, but the asparagus kind of disappeared in the middle of everything. It is perfectly possible to make this dish with other vegetables and keep your asparagus for other productions.

On the other hand the first recipe, Asparagus with Orange, presented more delicate flavors, and the sweet-acid flavour of the orange was a great match with the asparagus. So if what you want, like me, is to enjoy the full taste of asparagus, my vote goes to this first recipe.

Enough talk! Let me write down this recipe

Vegetables with Cheese Sauce

 2 cups fresh asparagus

1 cup zucchini, sliced

1 1 / 2 cups cauliflower bouquets

1 cup carrots cut into bat

Sauce

1 / 4 cup milk

1 / 4 cup cottage cheese

1 tsp lime juice

A pinch of mustard powder - I was really generous with the pinch, and even added one more. I assure you that made all the difference!

Remove the fiber from the stalks of asparagus. Be careful not to break their upper points. Cut the base of the stem (that white part which is harder, + / - 2cm). Tie the asparagus in a bundle and cook them in boiling salted water for 5 minutes. Put them in the pan with the tips up, almost out of water. Drain, refresh in cold water and arrange them on a dish where it will be served. Cook the remaining vegetables separately in salted water, but let them "al dente", or at least not too soft. Arrange them on serving platter.

Beat all the sauce ingredients in a blender until the mixture is smooth and serve over vegetables (I chose to mix everything by hand. I liked this more rustic appearance).

Bon Appetit!

Também em www.labgastro.blogspot.com

Asparagus with Orange

These days I intend to publish recipes I found in some old magazines and that I decided to try. Unfortunately not all the photos were good, but still ...

I love asparagus. I always liked them.Green ones, white ones, fresh ones, preserved ones. So you can already imagine my joy when I noticed that now we can find them more easily in our markets. Every time I go to the grocerries and they are there, you can be sure that I buy them.

This week, there they were. Twice. Therefore, it is already known, you gonna see two recipes with asparagus here. Both were very good. This is the first one

Asparagus with Orange

1 / 2 kg fresh asparagus

1 / 4 cup orange juice - in fact I ended up using almost a full cup

1 tablespoon margarine or butter

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 / 4 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 orange into wedges

Remove the fiber from the stalks of asparagus. Be careful not to break their upper points. Cut the base of the stem (that white part which is harder, + / - 2cm). Tie the asparagus in a bundle and cook them in boiling water with salt for 5 minutes. Put them in the pan with the tips up, almost out of water. Drain, refresh in cold water and arrange them on a dish where it will be served.

Place all other ingredients except the orange slices in a separate saucepan and cook over low heat until starting to thicken. Pour this sauce over the asparagus and garnish with slices of orange. Serve hot.

Delicious!

Também em www.labgastro.blogspot.com