Broccoli Salad

As the weather gets warmer I always crave salads and lighter meals, especially after all the eating that gets done during the holiday season! I love the vibrant colours in this salad in particular, from the bright red of the tomatoes to the beautiful green colour of the broccoli and the dressing and bacon really add a wonderful flavour to the whole dish. It'll definitely be the perfect side dish to serve up at your BBQs this summer, because while it's easy to make it's just that little bit different and special and will definitely get lots of comments!

Ingredients:

• 2 large heads of broccoli
• 8 rashers of streaky bacon, the best quality you can afford, finely sliced
• olive oil
• 1 punnett cherry tomatoes
• small bunch of fresh chives, finely chopped

For the dressing:

• 1/2 clove garlic, peeled and finely grated
• 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:
Use a small knife to remove the broccoli florets and cut them up into smaller ones. Basically, this is your opportunity to make the broccoli really delicate and more salady-looking, so spend a bit of time doing this. You’ll be left with the stalk, so discard the thick dry base, then cut the remaining stalk in half lengthways and finely slice.

Blanch your broccoli florets and sliced stalks really quickly in boiling salted water for 60 seconds, just long enough to soften the broccoli but still leave it with a bit of a bite. Drain it in a colander, then spread it around a clean tea towel to steam dry (this is important because it will help the dressing cling to the broccoli). Once completely dry, transfer to a serving dish.

Fry the bacon on a medium heat with a small splash of olive oil until crisp and golden, then spoon most of the bacon bits over your broccoli. Any leftover fat in the pan can be used in your salad dressing. Pour it into a mixing bowl with all the other dressing ingredients and whisk.

Add the sliced tomatoes and chopped chives to your broccoli and bacon bits. Dress it all really well, and check the seasoning. If it needs pimping up, add a splash more vinegar. If you’ve got any chive flowers, sprinkle those over the top and serve straight away. It’s beautiful on its own or served next to any grilled or roasted meat or fish.

Recipe Source:

Jamie Oliver website - Broccoli Salad Recipe

or Jamie's America Cookbook

Salt and Pepper Calamari

I'm going a little bit healthy with todays post! I've actually been trying to eat healthier lately. I just got back to work a couple of weeks ago because school holidays are over and I felt like I'd been eating too much of the good stuff over my break. So here we are. I promise I'm not going to fill the blog with healthy food - I love my baking too much for that, it's just that every now and then I might add a healthy recipe that I try out. Although this Salt & Pepper Calamari recipe I found goes to show that eating healthy doesn't necessarily mean eating boring food.

This recipe was surprisingly easy. To be honest I've always been very nervous about cooking seafood for some reason. I've heard that it's very easy to overcook, but I'm also afraid that I'll under cook it in my trying not to overcook it! I've tried to cook calamari a couple of times before, but I've never known what to put on it. When I saw this recipe in the Nigella Lawson cookbook 'Nigella Bites' I knew I had to try it. 

I started off by cutting my calamari tubes in half so I could get to the inside. I cleaned out what I needed from the inside of the tubes, although luckily there wasn't much left there. Once I'd done that I sliced each half into rectangular shaped pieces.

Then in a zip lock bag I added the corn flour and ground up salt and pepper which I shook up to combine. I then added the calamari and shook the bag again until the calamari was coated in the flour mixture. 

I added the calamari, in a couple of batches, to a hot frying pan with plenty of oil in it to cook. I only needed to cook the calamari for about 2 minutes on each side before it was ready.

Before I served the calamari I added it to a plate with some paper towel on it to absorb some of the oil. The calamari had crisped up very nicely - it was golden brown, and crunchy because of the corn flour mixture. Then I added it to the plate with a little salad I'd made up. And voila! A very quick, easy, light and healthy meal. Perfect for a hot summers night dinner.

Recipe Source:

'Nigella Bites' by Nigella Lawson

Potato Salad

We celebrated my Mum's birthday recently with a BBQ here at home along with some surprise visitors! My cousin has recently returned home, after living in England for a few years, with her partner and they both (as well as her Dad) came out for the BBQ. My Mum had no idea what was happening and when they turned up at our house let out a shriek of surprise. LOL My family is big on surprises, we love doing things like this for each other.

So we each contributed a dish or two to the BBQ and one of my 'jobs' was to make a salad. I'm not big on making salads but in the end decided to make a Potato Salad. It's always a favourite, plus it's usually very easy to make which was a plus since I was also making her cake (you'll hear all about that soon!). I found this recipe for Potato Salad in my Woman's Weekly 'Cook' cookbook and was really happy with how it turned out. It had some extra flavours that I (and the others) really liked.

Ingredients:
7 large potatoes (2kg) diced into 2cm pieces
2 tbsp cider vinegar
6 green onions (spring onion), chopped finely
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh tarragon
5 hard boiled eggs, chopped coarsely
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup sour cream
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh chives

1. Boil, steam or microwave potato until just tender, drain. Place potato, in single layer on tray; sprinkle with vinegar. Cool 15 minutes.
2. Place potato in large bowl with onion, tarragon, egg and combined remaining ingredients; toss gently to combine.

Recipe Source: Cook: How to cook absolutely everything by The Australian Woman's Weekly