Delicious and super easy potato salad

Grilled meat goes perfectly well with potatoes. But sometimes you get tired of the usual fries or wedges, so there is another amazing option – potato salad!

Buttered noodles – easiest meal for a lazy person

I never heard of them before until Binging with Babish posted a video about them. I thought it must have some twist, but there was no any and video ended with fancy buttered noodles… and nothing else. I as we say didn’t get it.

Perfect ranch for your next veggie plate

Now when it gets hotter and hotter (on the northern side of the globe), all we can think of are some vegetables and fruits for a snack, light suppers and brain freezing ice creams.

I always loved veggie plates. My favourite were carrots which go best with that creamy sauce. But let’s be honest, most of us usually just pour some powder in the sour cream and it was it.

I wasn’t common with this sauce before, but guy which I have mentioned already before, Joshua Weissman, posted a quick video recipe on his social media of the Ranch recipe and I saved it right away.

It was amazing. I received lots of good words from people I served it with the veggie plate, and they were happy when I could fill the empty sauce bowl again for the recipe could let me have approx 800ml of sauce. Amazing!

So here is the recipe!

Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup buttermilk
• Couple tbs sour cream
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 4 cloves of garlic (or less if you want it less spicy)
• Handful of parsley
• Half bunch of chives
• Few sprigs of dill (you can use frozen too)

Method 

1. Finely chop the herbs, put in a bowl.

2. Add mayonnaise, buttermilk, mustard, and sour cream.

3. Grate the garlic, add to the bowl.

Mix and serve.

Notes.

I added four cloves of garlic, but it turned out to be way too spicy for my personal taste. Others loved it. But if you don’t want a strong taste, just a note, then add less. I would say 1-2.

 Happy munching! 🙂

Coleslaw

I must admit, I was not a fan of it, when I first tried it. Nothing changed also after second and third time, and I assumed that this salad is just not my thing. Last year I went to Canada, and there I tried it with fish and chips. I was surprised how it, in my opinion, didn’t go well together, I mean flavour palette.

Dreamy rhubarb-strawberry crumble

I was never fond of these kind of deserts. They don’t look great on a plate, just a messy pile of sweetness. Now when it is a strawberry-rhubarb season (rhubarbs are about to end though), it is nice to make something very delicious of what you can find in your garden, or buy from local sources.

Seasonal eating is about getting the most of what fruits and veggies can give. In Latvia we use to say, the shorter is the food’s way to the plate, the better food is going to be, meaning that, if you pick carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce in your garden, and serve fresh like 5 minutes later, you are having all the vitamins and undamaged fibres (they haven’t dried out nor frozen or chilled in super low temperatures etc.) for your body.

Strawberry season is just starting here, and in my country side they are all green still while closer to the coast first ripe strawberries are already getting eaten. So for my crumble I picked fresh rhubarb stalks and took frozen berries from a freezer. And this crumble was one of the easiest deserts I’ve ever made, and served with rich vanilla ice-cream it satisfied my sweet tooth!

I will share the recipe I got from this site.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 pounds rhubarb (0.57kg) which is 6-7 15cm long stalks
• 1 pound strawberries (0.45kg)
• 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100g)
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar, divided (195g)
• 5 tbsp cornstarch (or potato flour (which is basically potato starch and works basically the same))
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (or paste)
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (153g)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (125g)
• 12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (170g)

Method.

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C)
2. In a large bowl put rhubarbs cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces, trim strawberries and cut into same thickness slices (you can use also frozen berries, then just leave them as they are, because they will break while combining everything together anyway), add finely grated lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon.
3. Add granulated sugar, half of the brown sugar, cornstarch, vanilla extract, and salt. Toss to combine or use spoon, or spatula, until there is no dry sugar left. Pour into a cast-iron skillet (or any baking tray really).
4. In another bowl pour rolled oats, flour, other half of the brown sugar, and cold butter cut into 1/2 inch-cubes. Work butter into the mixture until large, irregular clumps form. Pour the crumble evenly over the fruit mixture.
5. Bake until the juices are bubbling and the crumble is baked golden brown and firm (30-40min). Cool at least for 30min before serving.

Classical topping for this is vanilla ice-cream, and it really was amazing. For decoration I used peppermint leaves. As soon as I tasted crumble with ice-cream AND peppermint, I ran out to the garden for a lot more leaves. In my opinion it excellently compliments the dish, so I would suggest to scatter the leaves all over the plates whole or chopped in nice little pieces.

Happy munching! 🙂

Sourdough bagels

I never knew what is a bagel until I tried it at Berlin’s airport with cream cheese and salmon. That was one of the most delicious sandwiches with fish I had ever tried.

Weeknight dinner. Pasta with easy tomatoe sauce and chicken

I think everybody has been there when you make some pasta, maybe a couple of times, and then at the bottom of the pack there is like a handful of pasta left. Not even enough for one.

Which was to be continued. Lilac syrup at your home.

Couple days ago I told you that I finally decided to try using flowers in a kitchen, lilacs specifically. So I did.

Many chefs were posting recipe of the lilac syrup, sugar or sented honey, so I decided to give it a shot!

I needed this

So I’ve told this before. My nose is very sensitive. I can sense the slightest smell in the air, and I’ve accepted that my smell is playing quite a part in my food world.