Portobello Mushroom Salad

I really liked Jason Epstein's casual handling of crustaceans in his book Eating. I really like condiments to sea food on a checkered table: ketchup, hot sauce, cracked pepper, lemon juice, Rettich, whatever. As if I were eating oysters, here is a Portobello Mushroom Salad. Courtesy of The Swiss Guy (see other posts under this Label), who says: rinse mushrooms, then eat them raw. The hot sauce is my idea. I'm no mushroom lover, but this is really great.


Portobello Mushroom Salad

Two Portobello Mushroom heads
1-2 spring onions, chopped
cracked pepper
lemon juice
hot chilli sauce
dash of olive oil
some chopped chervil or parsley for garnish

Everything has to be done quickly. I know one doesn't rinse mushrooms, but being no Italian from Piemonte I do. Rinse them quickly under running water. Cut the mushroom heads in long medium thick slices.

Sprinkle with lemon juice, olive oil, season, liberally coat with the hot chilli sauce, twist the pepper mill, be careful with salt, add the chervil. Serve and eat at once. Prep shouldn't take more than 5 minutes in all.

Now chase your mushroom bias.

Grilled Radicchio Salad with Feta

August is blue. Blue, because winds turned North-West and South-West from South, saying goodbye heat and bringing back more typical weather, some rain and fresh air. Blue, because blueberries are devoured in droves. Blue, because it's a long wait for some who left the country.

Magazine Puur had a fun recipe with grilled radicchio and feta. In my cupboard I rediscovered the balsamico that one of my friends gave to me last summer. August may well also be salad month. I have to make this one again soon - my camera put new data over this salad's picture.

Grilled Radicchio Salad with Feta

Serves 1-2

1 head of radicchio, quartered
1/2-1 red onion, thinly sliced
200 g feta, crumbled
parsley
olive oil
pepper and salt
3 tablespoons balsamico vinegar

Grill the salad, about 2 minutes on each side or until the leaves are browned.

Wash and chop parsley, slice onion, crumble parsley.

Get out a lovely bowl, place salad ingredients, season, drizzle with the oil and vinegar.

I added one tomato, peeled, deseeded, sliced.

Serve and cheer up!

Goat Cheese and Fresh Peas in Spring

Wholeheartedly Yes to impermanence! Thanks to impermanence I never have to experience this past week again. So full, days so long, that everything in my home reached the state of disuse. Fresh peas opened my tired eyes, and I could still muster this Spring salad.

Shell and cook fresh peas long enough.
Combine radishes with cucumber and chopped parsley.
Make a vinaigrette with finely chopped red onion.
Peel a tomato and dice or slice.
Put fresh goat cheese in the middle of a plate.

Combine.

Chew.

Slow down.

Enamor them with lunch

Preparing copious lunch salads is always a treat, and double portions come in handy when visitors surprize you unannounced. Although this Bean Salad from my favorite book Super Salads (Dutch ISBN 90-5920 164 7) by Michael van Straten can also serve as a small appetizer before a meal, as main dish it managed to captivate my guest on a sunny high noon in October.

Bean Salad with Eggs and Curry

4 hard boiled eggs
1 can (300 g) of green flageolet beans
1 can (300g) of white beans
2 tablespoons curry powder
6 tablespoons of mayonaise
1 red onion
2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro

Prepare and combine all ingredients.

Note: I used parsley instead of cilantro, and only white beans. Generous amounts of curry powder give this dish pizzazz. I used Budwig mayo instead of real one (with linseed oil and cottage cheese). The salad is said to stimulate blood circulation.

Radicchio salad for October

Believe me: lunch salads in restaurants are not always a picknick. Even though the menu may suggest prettily arranged mixed veggies, chances are great that green lettuce comes drowned in ready-made dressing and tomato slices are so thin and non-existent, that the concept of "mixed salad" is altogether questionable.

Save for a few tried places, there's no better value for money in the salad department than having a bit of improvization in your own kitchen to come up with the Real Deal.

Radicchio salad for October

Serves 2-4

1 head of radicchio lettuce, chopped
big handful of parsley, roughly chopped
300 g cooked chickpeas
1 tin of sardines
generous sprinkling of sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon tamari
3 tablespoons carthame oil

Combine all ingredients, step out, and have this salad in the October sun.