Green (pasta) salad

Be honest, if you look at the picture of this green sauce, what do you think? I bet that “mm, it looks yum” is not your first thought, am I right? Still, I must say it is one of the best pasta sauces I have made. So, never judge a sauce by its colour.

Rocket leaves have this lovely buttery flavour and I love to use them in salads together with iceberg or lettuce. But try using them in this pasta sauce - even better. I got the idea from this site and though I did not have all the ingredients the recipe asked for, I made a nice sauce by improvising a bit.

60 g rocket leaves

half onion, chopped

3 tbsp grated Parmesan

3 tbsp water

1 tbsp pine nuts - I used cashews and I must say they did not contribute much to the flavour, so I definitely recommend not to substitute pine nuts with anything else

 2-3 tbsp whipping cream

basil, salt, pepper, parley

  

 

# Chop nuts and onion. Sautee both in a saucepan in oil or butter for about 7-10 min, until onion is tender.

# Add washed rocket leaves and simmer for another few minutes.

# Mix whipping cream with water, pour it over the rocket leaves, also add Parmesan. Continue simmering for 7 minutes and remove from heat.

# Season with basil, salt, pepper and parsley. Stir and puree the sauce until smooth.

You end up with this nice green sauce which you can successfully use in preparing different pasta dishes - e.g. mix warm sauce with boiled spaghetti and you have a lovely dish for dinner.

When covered, the sauce stays in the fridge for a couple of days.

It reheats well, but I also tried it cold in the following salad:

200 g fusilli

4 tbsp green rocket leaves sauce

125 g mozzarella cheese

4-5 cherry tomatoes

Some Parmesan

 

# Mix boiled and cooled pasta with the green sauce, chopped mozzarella and diced tomatoes. Top with Parmesan.

Very nice combination and tastes even better after a few hours. Im suggesting you prepare this in the morning and bring it with you to work. By lunchtime all the flavours will have been brought out for you - yummy!

Roast pork with creamed corn and apple-raisin chutney

Nice title, huh? I wanted to try something new and as this recipe had some raving comments, I decided to go for it. Its a bit labor-intensive, but the good thing about it is that you can prepare it ahead and spread the work over a few days. I had a day off, so I did everything in a row - a lot of work, but definitely worth it. I served it as the main course after the creamy broccoli soup.

I was not very sure about this creamed corn - Estonians are used to eat meat with potatoes - but I’m glad I tried it. I know now that mint flavoured pork and acidulous sauce can successfully be partnered with creamed corn - did not miss the potatoes at all!

I adjusted the recipe according to what I felt was necessary. Serves two.

Pork

a handful fresh mint leaves, chopped 
4-5 garlic cloves
3 fresh rosemary sprigs or 1.5 tsp dry rosemary
1 onion
1 tsp salt 

1 tsp ground black pepper
150 ml olive oil
300-400 g pork tenderloin slices or pork chops

 

# Combine first four ingredients in processor and chop finely. Season with salt and pepper and blend in oil.

# Transfer marinade to bowl and add pork tenderloins, turning to coat evenly.

# Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (can be prepared 1 day ahead - keep refrigerated). I marinated pork for about 6 hours, but I guess you’ll get the best result when marinating overnight.

   Creamed corn
   150 g corn kernels 
   2 tbsp olive oil
   half onion, chopped
   1 garlic clove, minced
   3 tablespoons all purpose flour
   100 ml low-salt chicken broth 
  100 ml whipping cream    

  salt and pepper  

 

# Cook 1 tbsp of oil in heavy medium pot, add onion and garlic and sauté until soft.

# Transfer flour into the pot, stir until even (about 2 minutes). Slowly whisk in chicken broth; whisk until mixture thickens and boils. Stir in cream and bring mixture to simmer.

# Transfer 100 g corn kernels into the mixture and simmer until it is thick, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Cool slightly.

# Use a stick blender or transfer the mixture to processor and puree. Stir in the rest 50 g corn kernels (can also be prepared 1 day ahead - chill).

In the meantime prepare apple-raisin chutney. When you are ready to serve, you obviously need to cook the meat:

# Heat 3 tablespoons oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.

# Remove pork from marinade. Add pork slices to skillet and sauté until brown on all sides, about 5 minutes.

# Transfer tenderloins into an ovenproof dish and roast  at 180-degrees C for about 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit covered with foil for 7 mins. The meat should then be ready.

# Bring corn to simmer. The orginal recipe suggests to spoon corn onto plates and place pork tenderloins atop corn. Everything should then be topped with apple-raisin chutney and dish is ready to serve.

The next time though I wouldn’t spoon hot corn cream under the tenderloins but would leave it next to it, because I figure it would look better. Or maybe I should reduce the amount of cream and broth in the corn mixture, to get more firm cream. Will try and let you know.

I love the combination of flavours and texture of this dish - the tastes of juicy and flavorful pork and smooth creamed corn balance each other very nicely. Apple-raisin chutney compliments the flavors perfectly, so I definitely suggest not to omit it.

Apple-raisin chutney

This is wonderful served with pork but would go well with chicken as well. Or any kind of meat I assume. I found the recipe from here, reduced the amounts and got about 250 ml of sauce.

100 ml apple cider vinegar

50 ml water

2 tbsp sugar
1  Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
a handful of  raisins
4 whole cloves
0.5 tsp salt 
1.5 tsp ground ginger

 

Stir vinegar and sugar in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Boil without stirring until syrupy, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add all remaining ingredients. Simmer until apples are tender, liquid is absorbed, and mixture thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. You might want to add 1 tbsp of cornstarch as well, to thicken it a bit.

The sauce can be prepared up to 2 weeks ahead (cool completely and refrigerate in airtight container).

Creamy broccoli soup

I love my food processor. It helps me to prepare all kinds of creamy soups and milkshakes which always come out delicious. The minute I saw this recipe (and the picture!) and I happened to have broccoli in the vegetables shelf of my fridge, then it was time to try how does this green soup taste.  You will need:

500 g broccoli
2 medium potatoes
about 200 ml chicken stock
100 g cream cheese
salt, white pepper, sugar

for serving:
basil pesto
olive oil
toasted cashews

 

# Cut off broccoli florets, chop broccoli stems and potatoes.

# Place the potatoes, stems and 1/2 of the florets into a saucepan, cover barely with chicken stock. Boil, covered with a lid, for 20 minutes.

# Puree the potful, add cream cheese and flavour with salt, white pepper and a dash of sugar.

# Pour the soup back into the pot, add the remaining florets and heat for 5 additional minutes. For serving, mix a bit of oil into the pesto and drizzle it on the soup, also sprinkle toasted cashews on top.

500 g broccoli gave me 3 big bowls of nice and creamy soup. You can play around with the consistency - reducing the amount of broth will give you a thicker soup, and the opposite. Make sure you’ll cut florets into small pieces, so that you’ll have enough for every mouthful. And another suggestion from Evelin - if you don’t want to overpower the delicate taste of the broccoli, use a light stock.

Recently I was celebrating an anniversary and for that I spent the whole day in the kitchen, preparing my first three-course meal. I served the same soup as the first course, but as the main dish contained apple and raisin chutney, I decided to add an apple to this soup as well. What I did was placing a peeled and chopped apple together with the broccoli and potatoes to the saucepan. Acidulous apple together with tender flavoured broccoli was a good match. This time I used 300 g broccoli, 1 potato and around 100 g cream cheese in addition to the apple. Just enough for two persons.

Beef and vegetables stir-fry

I have somehow lost the source where I got the idea for this stir-fry, it came either from Epicurious or Allrecipes, but as I changed the recipe quite a lot, I don’t find it anymore. Maybe it has been taken off. But in any case, below you’ll find a recipe for a tasty beef and broccoli stir-fry, which can be served either with rice or couscous.

200 g cubed beef sirloin, marinated in 2-3 tbsp soy sauce and 1/4 tsp sugar

1.5 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp soy sauce

200 ml chicken broth

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

2 garlic gloves, crushed

1/2 tbsp chili powder

100 g broccoli florets

2 carrots, julienned

1 green bell pepper, julienned

3 tbsp olive oil

# First of all prepare the beef - a few hours (or even a day) before making this dish, stir together soy sauce and sugar, add the beef, and let it marinate in the fridge.

# When beef is marinated, prepare the sauce. For that, dissolve cornstarch in the soy sauce and stir in broth and sugar.

# Heat a wok or large heavy skillet over high heat until it is hot, add 2 tablespoons oil and heat until it just begins to smoke. Stir-fry the beef cubes in the oil for 1 minute, or until no longer pink.

# Add remaining 1 tbsp oil to the wok, also add julienned bell pepper together with carrots and crushed garlic. Sprinkle the vegetables over with ginger and chili powder.

# Stir-fry the mix for a few minutes, pour it over with sauce and simmer for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how crispy vegetables you prefer).

# Add broccoli florets and simmer until florets are tender and sauce is thickened. Serve it on a heated plate over rice or couscous.

This is a great basic stir-fry recipe with a well-balanced sauce. You might want to try it with chicken or pork, or add more garlic, ginger and chili powder, if you are into spices. If you like your food swimming in sauce, double the sauce ingredients.