Tag Archives: My Life

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!

Midweek Raspberry Dessert

I made this dessert less than for 15 minutes! Needless to say, it’s a perfect treat for busy days. Don’t know about you, but I need something sweet after the main course! 😀 I really miss pies or danishes, if I don’t eat them at least once a week. Exactly the same situation was yesterday – the pantry was full of my fav dark chocolate, but I wanted a pie or cake!

I’m a huge fan of Jamie Oliver and even consider him as my virtual mentor! 🙂 Might you’ve seen food-videos with him and another young guy – Donal Skehan; they both provide inspirational ideas and recipes. I love raspberries! So, I chose this recipe, but adapted it, and made chocolate crust. And wow! Tartlets tasted soooo good! Reach chocolate crust along with tender berry filling gave the brilliant result! Yum!

Ingredients for two 11cm/4inch baking tins

85g plain flour

30g cocoa powder

30g fine sugar

60g butter, cold and cubed

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp ice cold water

120g raspberries

50-60g strawberries, cut

130-150ml creme fraiche

1 tsp icing sugar

Method

In a bowl or food processor combine the flour, cocoa and baking powder, sugar and butter until it forms a dough.
Press the dough with your fingertips into baking tins. Put in a fridge for 30 minutes.
Mix together berries, creme fraiche and icing sugar; then spread over the dough.
Bake in preheated 210C/410F oven for 15 minutes. Then lower the heat to 150C/300F and bake for 20 minutes more.

Enjoy!

Scallops. Impress your guests!

Hey guys! Excluding this awesome, simple and yet satisfying recipe, I have a question for you. Have you ever gone out from your comfort zone? Are you doing anything unusual or off-limits during the week or month, that people usually don’t expect from you?

Can you take a bicycle instead of car and go to work? Or can you stop eating desserts just for a week? Or may be say ‘yes’ to green tea, even if you never drink it, instead of your fav coffee? Can you stop drinking cola (I hope you don’t drink it at all)?

Or may be to call a person, who is really dear to you, and you’ve been shy to speak to, and invite him/her for a dinner? 😉

Start from simple things, try out new recipe! Prepare this amazing and delicious appetizer! Impress yourself and only then others! 🙂

Scallops with avocado puree and strawberries

Servings: 2
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You can serve tender scallops with strawberries or just with sauce. A glass of bubbly or chilled white wine would be perfect here!

Ingredients

6 scallops

1 avocado

60-80g cream cheese

2 tsp lemon juice

8 strawberries

2 Tbsp finely chopped coriander

1-2 Tbsp olive oil, for frying

sea salt, white pepper

Sauce:

60-80ml dry white wine

1 tsp garlic puree (roasted garlic is great here)

1 tsp finely chopped coriander

1 Tbsp butter

Chop and blend avocado, add cream cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Cut strawberries into small cubes, mix with fresh coriander.

Season scallops with salt and pepper, fry in the piping hot pan 2 minutes on each side.

In the middle of serving plate, arrange avocado puree, top with strawberries; then arrange scallops.

If you don’t like avocado, you can serve scallops simple as is with a sauce. In the same pan, where you fried scallops, add wine and deglaze the pan’s bottom. Add garlic, coriander, season to taste and bring to boil. Add butter, mix well and cook for few minutes more. Pour the sauce over the scallops.

Enjoy!

Dubai Eating Out

Last year I’d been invited to the pre-opening culinary evening of new Spanish restaurant in Dubai. Spanish waiters were greeting guests with aromatic red Sangria at the entrance and that promised a good evening ahead. The restaurant’s ambience was very welcoming and relaxed. I was very excited and anxious to try out Spanish dishes! We had tried few tapas (appetizers), cold tomato-cucumber soup-Gaspacho, Spanish pudding and another famous dessert – churros. And of course, an icon of Spanish national cuisine – Paella! The young Chef was preparing saffron seafood paella just in front of my table! Can you believe, they have bringing the rice for paella straight from Spain! And not only rice, among others stuff is sherry vinegar, sausages, wine… Thus, I’d tasted the real taste of Spain being outside the country! Besides the dinner, there was a drawing, and my husband was extremely lucky that day and won the main prize – the voucher for a dinner. So, we had a chance to dine there one more time.

One of the distinctive features of the restaurant is a large open kitchen and bar, counter seating and tables are laid around it. We sat near the kitchen, where the chef was preparing food in front of us. While waiting paella, we were served complimentary crusty bread on a wooden board. The waiter explained that we should rub bread with garlic, tomato and season to taste. A good and aromatic starter!

The main dish – paella was flavorful, but overly salty. I almost wanted to scream ‘stop!’ at chef, when I’d seen how much salt she added in a huge paella pan.

Spanish Paella

Aromatic and fresh Spanish food

Enjoyable dish was churros with Nutella dip. They remind me Russian khvorost.

To sum up, I’d like to say, that the food tasted really good (but too salty), the decoration is impressionable and fresh for Dubai, and staff is friendly, but.. The paella’s potion is a bit small for such pricy tag! Compare to other Dubai restaurants, where almost everywhere the potion is big enough to share. So, this Spanish restaurant could be visited once to try paella or churros, and don’t’ forget to ask about ‘paella of the day’, it’s two times cheaper.

I’m little bit late to Fiesta Friday this week, but I’m very chirpy to be part of it, and hope there is some food left.. 😀 Enjoy the weekend, bloggers!

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.