Gueststarring: Miss Smashing Zauberstab - Gazpacho

Ah, a hell of a spectacle and yet another new fascinating new salad technology. This girl knows no fear. I only heard the sounds coming from the kitchen, and saw what was coming out at the other end, but I am told it went something like this:

You want lots of nice ripe tomatoes to begin with.
A cucumber
green pepper
a half red onion - chop all these hard ingredients roughly before putting your Zauberstab into operation (to blend).

some lemon juice
fresh coriander leaves (missing in pictures)
olive oil, generous glug
salt, pepper, some tabasco
we also put a tiny bit of cinnamon when the chief smasher wasn't looking ;)

This will improve and unfold if you allow to have it sit in the fridge for a while. A true life saver for a hot day.

Tomato Egg Salad with Capers and Pesto

tomatoes
boiled eggs
large capers
maybe some olives

for dressing: a nice (ready-made) green pesto. I diluted this with a bit of water, olive oil, lemon juice and gave it some extra salt.

A Forest

It's berry season. And while I was pondering to escape the office for a stroll in the cool, shady woods, I came up with this. A forest replica sitting in a blue bowl will have to do:

Gather and hunt some:

celery
cucumber
fresh parsley
red currants
some mixed marinated mushrooms
sun flower seeds - or even some pine nuts and a rosemary twig if you want to play this even more foresty ...

lemon juice
olive oil
salt pepper
a little soy

If the red currants are super sour, the dressing can do with a little honey, sweetheart (we're in!).

:)

hmmm ...

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Aine Bonus:

And while we still have berries galore, Ina, your inviting us to participate to join your competition at Lughnasa has had a super yummy side effect, that, being a non-salad, will have to remain our little secret: A killer breakfast

Take half a bowl of red currants and rasberries, some almonds, sesame and sunflower seeds (or other nuts), oats, a generous spoonful of honey, a little salt, a little chili, some ricemilk and some edible flowers (I used flower sugar for topping) - mash with a blender.

Radi-Radiccio Salad with Snap Peas and Goat's Cream Cheese

[16:19] tante kerni: these are the chopping instructions for tomorrow: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Radi.jpg
[16:19] wundersalat: wow, it's beautiful.
[16:22] wundersalat: hm, how did they chop like that?
[16:23] tante kerni: there is a spiral thingy tool to put in the middle  it might be hard to copy, so i thought i'd  give you some prep time
[16:24] wundersalat: do we have that tool i.e. can you send me a picture?
[16:24] tante kerni: http://www.jop-shop.de/images/radischneider.jpg
[16:24] tante kerni: or even better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUo35rVW4qk
[16:25] wundersalat: ok thanks. I will check at EDEKA tonight.
[16:25] wundersalat: the name is RadiSchneider?
[16:26] tante kerni: don't worry, we'd only ever use it once in a lifetime, it is something very bavarian that no sane norddeutscher would ever dare to possess - i doubt it's even legal here
[16:26] wundersalat: I LIKE it! pure mechanics.
[16:26] wundersalat: ok, you will hold the knife and I will rotate.
[16:27] tante kerni: yes i am looking foward to seeing you rotate
[16:27] wundersalat: :))))
[16:29] tante kerni: lots of phantastic videos on spiral vegatable cutting, who would have thought. you might have to make contact with a few more youtubers soon ... look at the happy chap in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WFHqKTI9Lo

Another note on spirals ... We had to hide them in the above picture. But we still have enough radi left and I bet we will have the master of mechanics work on this a little more.

sugar peas, blanched (just bathe them in a bit of boiling water, that'll do)
radiccio
spring onion
radish

cream cheese from goats milk
orange, some juice
orange marmalade or honey, according to taste/dietary preference
salt
olive oil
a litte white balsamico

Bitter-yoghurty-salty-sweet

1 romaine
1 little radiccio
some spring onion


1 chopped shallot
a little garlic
yoghurt
olive oil
a little buttermilk
creamy dijonnaise
salt, pepper, some mixed garden herbs
lemon juice
honey
some mashed feta

pine nuts for topping

Nuclear Fall-Out Salad

Now who is this summer pressurizing everyone into the fresh and colourful vegetables thing, just because they happen to be in season? Why not be against it a little and use up some of the preserves that were stored in the cellar 30 years ago? When did canned vegetables become so unpopular?
You might appreciate this recipe when you  come home to your deserted fridge from your next trip.

1 jar of artichokes
1 tin of brown lentils
olive oil
mixture of chopped nuts: walnuts, almonds, cashews in this case
coarse black pepper
orange marmalade
salt (maybe with a bit of prophilactic iodine)
black olives, chopped

With the addition of 2 oranges, cubed, 1-2 chopped shallots (a tiny bit of garlic) and some lemon juice, this is actually really tasty.
To have it with some goats cheese was very nice.

*** get well, Ausländerin!

Re-enactment of yesterday's re-enactment ("sweet barbecue" dressing variation)

I know, I know ... You cannot be creative everyday, can you? We had a lot of veggies left over from yesterday, what can you do ...

So today we had some actual
cabbage along with the
coleslaw
carrots, notice the variation in shape
radishes
roma lettuce
tomatoes
some spring onion


sweet barbecue dressing:
some cream
some coconut milk
some mayonnaise
barbecue tomato sauce
lemon juice

Bavarian "Gemischter Salat" - re-enactment

Ah, Bavaria. You are a tough one to understand, but you do know how to enjoy life, don't you?

Fond memories of a special weekend. Let's make them last:

Now I didn't bribe the cook of the pretty Gartenlokal countryside inn into disclosing his secret dressing recipe, so I am trying to copy it by taste-memory ...

You want some grated carrots, some readymade coleslaw (or just grated cabbage, if no Krautsalat available), radicchio, green lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, arrange in a quaddro-staggione-like fashion (don't mix).

Tante Kerni's version of the super-tasty cream dressing goes something like this:

cream
creamy dijon mustard
lemon juice
sugar, honey, not too little
salt
some olive oil, but not much
pepper,  a little
and a tiny twist of white balsamico, though I woundn't insist on that.

Yum!

Yoghurty Carrot Salad

Cast:

almonds, roughly chopped
spring onion
carrots, grated
half an apple
yoghurt
olive oil
salt, sugar
a little lettuce
some raisins
lots of parsley, again
some instant noodles for crunch effect.

Feeling a little taciturn today. Just mix, eat, enjoy.

And I know I'll get told off for bad imaging.

Crunchy Sweetheart

Now isn't that delightful? I just found out that the English word for "Spitzkohl" is sweetheart cabbage, what an adorable term for a vegetable. Anyhow, any cabbage will do, really. Just cut it finely and give it a gentle squeeze with a little salt.

Then add the dressing made from lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil, sambal oelek.

Spring onion, sesame seeds, fresh coriander leaves and chopped red chili can go on top.

Last, and just before serving, destroy a package of crunchy flavoured instant noodles (yumyum, waiwai, or whateverwhatever) and stir. You don't want them to soak. You want them to crunch, sweetheart.

<3

Good Old Mediterranean Noodle Salad, instant asia style

Noodle week continues.
Did you know it was noodle week?

Ah, noodle salad. This is hard for us, maybe we should have thought about pre-boiling some decent pasta, but we do not want to cheat you guys. Not during noodle week, and not in this proud moment of just having passed the 100 milestone.

So we soaked some Asian instant noodle in boiling salt water again and drained them. They grow like crazy, watch it, we had to take half of them out.

Add sundried tomatoes, black olives, a chopped shallot, some pickled balsamic onions, capers if you like ...
a little garlic, some of the tomato marinated oil, lemon juice, balsamico, olive oil, salt, pepper, some seeded mustard, some sambal oelek and soy sauce.

Spinach Glass Noodle Salad - "Asian" Style

Noodle Week, day#1
Did you know this week was noodle week?

It starts with 
Bean thread noodles (you may consider to cut them a little before preparation for easier handling and less messy serving)
cover in boiling water and let sit for a while. Drain, but do keep some of the hot water, add some instant broth, soy sauce, lime juice, sesame oil.
Then add baby spinach leaves, only loosely covering them in some of the warm noodle mixture.
Add chopped red chilis, some pickled ginger (giri).
Cover with chopped cashew nuts and sesame seeds.

I was a little scared of them frog faces, turns out they have become salad professional and developed the advanced ability of liking luke-warm sour-hot asian soupy salads. You made old Tante Kerni very proud today.

Proudly Presenting: Salad #100: Love and Peace Hippie Summer Salad

Alas, we made it through the wasteland.

And hello, summer.

Here's crazy hotchpotch multitude of colourful ingredients gone out of control:

fresh herbs:
LOV(E)age, finally
thyme
dill

onion/shallot
2 kinds of mustard, any :)
HONEY
2 types of oil - olive and the was SUNflower taken from some marinade
lemon
some REMoulade
water
salt, pepper

tomato
sprouts
carrots
cucumber, worked into artistic half-moon shapes by the master of visuals
some romaine lettuce

I probably forgot something, but as long as you have the LOVE - never mind.

***Coming up: Noodle Week!

WE ARE 100 (SALADS)!!!

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*** Coming up: Salad recipe #100