Surprising Summer Salad: Watermelon and Feta!

Trust me, this sounded weird to me too. Watermelon and feta?! Really?! I had never had watermelon in any kind of savory context. Having both ingredients in the fridge, I decided to experiment. Why the hell not?

An unexpected combination results in a refreshing and totally delicious salad!

The result was way beyond expectations -- absolutely delicious. Refreshing. New. Incredible. The salty and creamy crumbly feta brought out the sweetness of the watermelon in new ways. I added a few mint leaves from my little window garden and a drizzle of olive oil and voila -- added layers of complexity and flavor in what is definitely going to become one of my summer staples.

I came back from work feeling hot and tired the other day and just made a new batch in minutes, scooping chunks of watermelon with a spoon straight into the bowl, crumbling the feta over it with my hands and adding the mint leaves and olive oil. I also tried a bit of balsamic vinegar the second time and that tastes wonderful too -- I can't wait to try a bit of lemon juice... I had a quick, healthy and refreshing snack in no-time and it felt so sophisticated too! 

I hope to play around with this recipe some more this summer, as the possibilities seem endless...

Jamie Oliver's Lamb Racks (minus the racks...)

So I was excited to try a new tasty tray bake ala Jamie Oliver and I got together all the ingredients, except the main one -- the lamb racks! Turns out only one person in my local market sells lamb meat, and she was all out of ribs... So I just had to settle for some part of the upper leg that looked like it woud to well roasted...

It turned out pretty delicious, with the roasted veggies and fresh mint sauce drizzled on top! Better still, it made the house smell delicious as promised, while Jiahui and I watched a movie together :D

I doubled Jamie's recipe because I realized his portions are pretty small, and I intended to have leftovers to take to work...

Ingredients:
2 racks of lamb (just a big piece of meat in my case...)
1lb. baby white potatoes (these were one of the highlights of the dish!)
3 red bell peppers
2 zucchini
7oz. cherry tomatoes
8 cloves garlic
1/2 cup kalamata olives
1 medium sprig rosemary
1 small bunch mint
white sugar (Jamie said "superfine" but I just used regular and it was fine...)
red wine vinegar
white wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
pepper to taste

The Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 Celsius, boil the kettle
2. Wash and scrub the baby potatoes. Cut any large ones in half and place in a saucepan. Add a pinch of salt and cover with boiling water from the kettle.
3. Place the pan on high heat and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil for 5min. Meanwhile...
4. Halve, deseed and roughly chop the bell peppers. Crush unpeeled garlic cloves with the heel of your hand. Crush the olives and discard pits.
5. When the potatoes have had 5min, drain them and transfer to a roasting pan. Add the chopped pepper, crushed garlic and olives.
6. Drizzle everything with olive oil, add a pinch of salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Cook in the hot oven for 30min, or until the veggies are soft and tender and beginning to turn golden. Meanwhile...
7. Score the fat on the lamb in a criss-cross fashion. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper and add a small drizzle of olive oil. Rub the seasoning into the meat.
8. Top and tail the zucchini and cut into 1cm thick slices. Pick the rosemary leaves, discard the stalks.
9. When the vegetables have had 30min, remove the tray from the oven, add te zucchini, rosemary leaves and tomatoes. Add a splash more oil if needed, gently toss and return to the oven.
10. Place the pan back in the oven then put the lamb directly on the oven shelf above the pan -- the delicious juices from the roasting lamb fall onto the veggies, giving them a delicious flavor!
11. Jaime says to cook for 15-20min but my piece of lamb took almost 30min... Meanwhile...
12. Pick and finely chop the mint leaves, discard the stalks. Put the sugar in a bowl and add a tablespoon of hot water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
13. Add the mint leaves to the bowl along with the white wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Stir everything together and pop in the refrigerator until needed.
14. When the lamb is done, transfer it to a plate, cover with aluminum foil and leave to rest for 5min. 
15. Sprinkle the red wine vinegar over the roasted vegetables and return to the oven for a final 5min.
16. When the lamb is rested, divide into portions and serve with a good helping of roasted vegetables and a spoonful or two of the mint sauce.

The Verdict!

This dish was delicious, and the smell of it cooking was pure torture! It smelled so good, and the whole house smelled awesome. The lamb was pinkish on the inside and done well, but the cut I bought wasn't the best I don't think, and it was a little tough. The mint sauce was a great complement though, and it was definitely edible! The highlight though, was the veggies. They were so flavorful, and perfectly done. The little potatoes were amazing, soft and juicy. I think boiling them before putting them in the oven really helps them retain some moisture, and that's a trick I will be using in the future!

The leftovers were delicious reheated or cold, and I took them to the office in the form of a sandwich as  well -- delicious with some added cheese, and plenty of the veggie gravy/sauce added to it for moisture. Yum!

Will definitely try this again, preferably with the actual lamb racks next time!

Cool as a Cucumber Salad!

This salad is an adaptation of a recipe I saw on the NYTimes and it is a deliciously refreshing, easy and tasty dish that can be eaten alone or used as a side. It keeps for 3-5 days in the fridge, so I often make extra so I can keep munching on it for a few days. It makes for a wonderfully cooling lunch eaten on pita bread :)

Fresh freshness, radishes credit of Avocado Lady ;)

Ingredients:
Cucumber
Radish (turnip works too, if you can't find radishes!)
Plain yoghurt
Garlic
Salt to taste

Optional:
Red Pepper Flakes
Mint

I used 2 medium cucumbers and 3 radishes, but you can alter the proportions of the ingredients to suit you and make tons more of the recipe if you want to keep it for a few days.

I cut the cucumbers lengthwise twice, and then slice them up so it's as if each slice is quartered and the cucumbers are little cubes. The radishes I just slice.

Add one clove of garlic, crushed through the garlic press (or more, to taste, but I feel like one fat clove already gives this plenty of kick!) and salt to taste. This time I also chopped my recently harvested, fresh mint leaves and added them in, mixing in two big spoonfuls of my homemade plain yoghurt. I added a bit of red pepper flakes, for extra kick, and it offsets the refreshing flavors of cucumber, mint and yoghurt pretty well!

Once the salad is allowed to sit for a while, the cucumber releases some water and there is some separation of the yoghurt. This is normal, so just mix it up before you eat and you are good to go!

This salad rocks my summer!

Harvest Time for Mint & Basil!

Today was a day to harvest some mint and basil! My plants have been growing quickly in the summer sunshine, and they need to be trimmed often to stop them from getting too leggy and scraggly.

My outta control little basil plant!

Mint should be trimmed from the top and the cut should be made right above the node containing some new leaves. This can encourage the node to sprout new branches rather than growing straight up, so your plant will become bushier rather than really tall. This means more leaves!

Basil should also be trimmed often. It's important to stop the plant from flowering, since this makes it stop producing leaves and changes the flavor of the leaves that are left over. Unless you want the plant to flower so you can harvest seeds, you should trim the basil often to prevent buds from forming at all.

To trim basil, look for a node where several tiny leaves are starting to grow all close together and trim just above that. This usually causes the branch to split into two new branches, making for bushier plants, and also stimulates new leaf growth. Doing this often is also supposed to stop the stems from becoming woody!

Mint and Basil, likely to turn into something yummy sometime this week, so stay posted!

In My Kitchen Window

From left to right: Basil, Rosemary&Thyme, Spring Onion and Mint!

These are my kitchen herbs, Mint, Basil and hopefully the Rosemary and Thyme cuttings I got a hold of will sprout and join the party soon. The little Spring Onions are an experiment of sorts, since I have seen them grow outside even in the dead of winter and they seem like a cute, low maintenance addition to my collection :)

I don't think keeping kitchen herbs is necessary in most situations, as you can easily buy them pretty fresh at the grocery store. However in China, where these herbs are not used very often in the home, they can be really hard to come by at most grocery stores and vegetable markets!

I have cooked with dry herbs quite a bit here, especially since my first attempts at growing herbs was a bit of a disaster. But I have a bit more experience now and my herbs seem to be happy, at least for the time being.

My kitchen window faces East which means my herbs get plenty of light in the morning and then more indirect light in the afternoon. They seem happy with this arrangement, since they don't bake in the afternoon heat! Basil and Mint get watered every evening, until water drains from the bottom of the pot.

I also learned that the secret to keeping them healthy and growing lots of new leaves is to just use them as often as possible! I cut off here and there whenever I start seeing them getting a little tall and like magic, new little leaves start shooting off the stems just a couple of days later. If they don't get trimmed back, they end up growing really tall and scraggly, with fewer leaves and woodier stems, eww!

The Thyme and Rosemary I bought fresh at one of Shanghai's best-kept non-secrets, the Avocado Lady (I promise to post about her next!!)

Rosemary & Thyme looking happy and fresh!

I trimmed off the leaves at the bottom of the stems and put them in water to see whether or not they will grow roots. Opinion online seems to vary about whether or not this is likely to succeed, but I take it as a good sign that they do not look as though they are drying out!