Tag Archives: healthy

A touch of summer. Radish salad with goat cheese and black salt.

I know! It’s autumn out there.. and most of you would like to see hearty, meaty dishes with lots of roasted vegetables.. When I think “autumn and hearty” I always imagine stew and potatoes! Or that’s because I love potatoes! 😀 You know, in Russian potato is ‘kartoshka’, and we consume it a lot. But today’s hero is a fresh salad!

The temperature in Dubai slowly but steady going down.. I was pretending again that it’s kinda autumn while did my shopping, and was looking for pumpkin and beets, when stumble upon beautiful radishes! They literally told me – buy us, eat us! 😀 Certainly, I had to buy them!

I love simple salads, when you can cut cucumbers and radishes, dress it with sour cream or olive oil, season with sea salt, and that’s it! This salad is one of such variations, but with a small twist – pungent goat cheese, fancy black salt and crunchy sesame seeds! Oh, they work super here! The salad looks so bright and cheerful, that I bet you want it right now! 😉 I hope you can get fresh radishes and make it.. Otherwise, welcome to the UAE, the country of eternal sun!

Ingredients for one person

Radishes 5-6, or as many as you like

Cucumber 1

Cherry tomatoes 4-5

Goat cheese 1-2 Tbsp

Coriander or parsley 2-3 Tbsp, chopped

Chives 1 Tbsp, chopped

Sesame seeds 1-2 tsp, roasted

Walnuts 1 Tbsp, roasted and chopped

Black salt and pepper, to taste

Extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp

Balsamic vinegar or cream 1 tsp

Method

Thinly slice radishes and cucumbers. Cut tomatoes into haves. Put all vegetables in a serving bowl, add all remaining ingredients.

Enjoy!

Faskar (fish) with Aromatic Potato Wedges

I love fish. When I was a child I ate a lot of river fish, especially during summer. The city, where I grew up is located on a bank of big and great Russian river – Volga, moreover, there are also few small rivers and lots of lakes around it. My father is addicted to fishing, so quiet often during warm summer days we went to one of those lakes, where dad was fishing, while rest of the family (including myself) was swimming, sun-bathing and enjoying lovely summer. Even though most of the caught fishes were small with lots of bones, we liked to grill it mostly, or make some fish-soup. It was such a great time and delicious meal for the appetite you get on a fresh air!

To be honest, living on the Arabic coast, I don’t buy and eat lots of local fish… I wish they could promote it better; certainly you can buy it in hypermarkets, but in small markets I’ve seen local fish only once or twice. Another option is to go to the fish market and choose good and local fish there, but it’s not always convenient.

Surprisingly, there is only one fish market I know in Dubai, despite the city itself is quite large (generally speaking, there is one fish market per each emirate). And all UAE fish markets open early in the morning, and I do like sleep in the mornings, so it’s not quite convenient for me to visit fish markets at noon, when all fishes has been sold out already 🙂 Most of the fish or seafood available on the market is local and freshly caught straight from the sea, and some type of the fish can be found only on local fish markets, while supermarket fish stalls are selling mix of local and imported seafood. I will show you fish market in Dubai soon 😉

In that way, to support Emirates Wildlife, from time to time I’m buying sustainable species of local fish, like Faskar. You can substitute this fish with any local fish, what you can find at your market.

It is beautiful, isn’t it? 😀

Faskar Fish with Aromatic Potato Wedges

Servings: 2
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

2 fishes Faskar, cleaned

½ lemon or lime, sliced

½ lemon, juice

2 garlic cloves, sliced

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

fresh flat leaf parsley, small bunch, roughly chopped

sea salt, white pepper

Garnish

4-6 baby potatoes, washed, cut into 4 wedges

some broccoli, optional

1 sprig of fresh rosemary or 1 tsp dried

1 tsp turmeric

½ tsp paprika

1 tsp sea salt

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

Method

Place fish in a baking tray, squeeze the lemon juice over it. Season with salt and pepper. Stuff each fish with rosemary, parsley, lemon slices and garlic.
Parboil potatoes for 17-20 minutes. Put in a bowl along with broccoli, if using, toss it with rosemary, spices, salt and olive oil. Arrange vegetables around the fish.

Bake in preheated 190C/380F oven for 25 minutes.

Healthy option!

Let’s eat the fish!

Middle Eastern Salmon steaks

Salmon is a very popular fish in Russia. We pan-fry and roast it, make delicious cured salmon, pies, like worldwide famous Koulebyaka. Less fatty varieties, such as pink and hunchback are well-known and in high demand, they are less expensive, but still good and healthy choice. As you may know, such fish is an excellent sauce of Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins A and B. 🙂

My husband and I love salmon and are always trying to find new ways to prepare it. The below recipe requires about 30 minutes and is guaranteed to please family or friends. It is simply amazing recipe, rich salmon, coated in aromatic Middle Eastern spices.

Middle Eastern Salmon steaks

Servings: 2
Time: 30mins
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Ingredients

2 salmon steaks

2 round lemon slices

1 tsp whole white peppercorns, crushed

1-2 tsp coarse sea salt, crushed

2 tsp zaatar*

2 tsp sumac

2 tsp sesame seeds

2 tsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

*Make your own zaatar: 2Tbsp thyme+2Tbsp oregano+2Tbsp sesame seeds+1Tbsp sumac+1/2tsp ground cumin+1/2tsp salt

Preparation

Rub salmon steaks evenly with salt, white pepper and sumac. Place fish on a baking tray (you may line it with baking paper), drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil. Leave to marinate for 10-20 minutes.
Preheat the oven 180C/ F. Sprinkle zaatar and sesame seeds over steaks; top with lemon slices. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
For the side dish, you can roast some potatoes, turnips or carrots along with salmon. Cut veggies into thin slices, sprinkle with salt, pepper, sesame seeds and olive oil. Potatoes usually need more time to be cooked, so you may parboil them before.

Bon appetite!

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Top with zaatar and sesame

Aromatic carrot!

Healthy&Delish

Salad with sauteed vegetables

I want to thank all for your lovely comments on my previous post!

What’s the weather in your country? What do you do to stay chilled? Hiding at home, eating ice cream all days long or chilling near the swimming pool with a cocktail..;) In Dubai almost everybody is hiding inside houses, malls.. Moreover, it’s Ramadan, to drink or eat in public is prohibited until the sunset.

I’m trying to eat more balanced and healthful meal this month, like the below salad. It’s summery and..just eat the salad, man! 😀

Salad with sauteed vegetables

Servings: 2-3
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Aromatic herbs make it so good and appetizing! Eat as is or with grilled sausages.

Ingredients:

2 zucchini/6-7 baby/~600g

2 medium apples, juicy and sour

6 cherry-tomatoes or 1 large tomato

1 red onion

1 clove of garlic, smashed

zest and juice of half lemon

1 tsp fresh thyme or 1/2 dried

2-3 Tbsp parsley/coriander/mint, finely chopped

salt, white pepper to taste

1-3 Tbsp olive oil

Cut the onion and slice into half moons. Heat the olive oil in a pan and fry the onion until tender.
Chop the tomato and apples, add to the pan along with garlic and thyme, mix and sauté for 2-3 minutes more. Discard the garlic, put the vegetable mixture in a bowl, set aside and keep in a warm place.
Slice zucchini, add it to the frying pan along with lemon zest and sauté on a medium hit until tender. Add more oil if needed.
Add the veg mixture into zucchini, mix and heat for 1-2 minutes.
Put all the veggies in a big serving bowl, add mint and/or parsley, salt&pepper and squeeze lemon juice. Drizzle some extra olive oil over the salad, if desired.

Enjoy!

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Syrniki

Syrniki are fried pancakes, which are made from cottage cheese and traditionally garnished with a sour cream. They are very popular and widely-cooked not only in Russia, also in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. The word ‘syrniki’ is derived from Russian word ‘syr’ which means cheese.

The main ingredients are cottage cheese, flour, eggs, sugar, sometimes raisins and vanilla. Commonly syrniki are eaten for freakfast, but could be served as a dessert.

You can find a great variety of syrniki recipes, in one you should add one egg, in another three, in third just few spoons of flour or semolina flour, and etc. Finally, it doesn’t matter which recipe you’re using, just adjust it to suit your own taste.

TIPS:

Flour and sugar. One adds only few tablespoons of flour, in such option, might be difficult to shape syrniki and turn them over during frying, as they will be soft, but at the same time tender and creamy. Amount of sugar is totally depends on your preferences.

Filling. Raisins and vanilla are most popular ingredients for the syrniki filling, but you can go further – add cinnamon, dried apricots, plums or cherries, lemon or orange zest.

Dressing. Sour cream, jam and sweet condensed milk are the most favourite toppings for syrniki. If you neither like the one nor the other, make berry or chocolate sauce, or just dust it with icing sugar, or pour over some honey, add dulce de leche…

You can fry syrniki on a moderate heat in a frying pan for 5 minutes on each site or until golden-brown (using few tablespoons of sunflower oil). I propose you the recipe of an oven-baked syrniki, which is much better and healthier, as you don’t need to use oil.

Russian Syrniki

Servings: 3-4
Time: 30-40min
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

Cottage cheese, 500g

Eggs, 2

Sugar, 2-4 Tbsp

Flour, 50-80g

a pinch of salt

Semolina, 2 Tbsp

Vanilla sugar or extract, 1 tsp, optional

Raisins/sultanas, 50g

Preparation:

In a small bowl or mug, put raisins, cover with warm water and let it soak, meanwhile you do all below steps. Optionally, you can add a tablespoon of cognac, brandy or rum along with water for an extra flavor. Then pour the water out and wipe raisins.
In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar and vanilla together and beat well until pale color (use hand whisk or electric mixer).
Add flour, semolina, salt, raisins, and combine well.
Shape beautiful syrniki -about 5cm/2inch in diameter and 1cm/0.5inch wide.
Arrange syrniki on a greased baking tray and bake in preheated 200C/400F oven for 20-25 minutes or until nice golden color.
Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream.
You can keep all remaining syrniki in a fridge, and reheat them next morning.

Syrniki are so delicious that I could eat them every other morning. Cooking of syrniki is highly recommended as alternative to regular pancakes! 🙂

Enjoy! ❤