Pomegranate and Papaya Salad--Fall Vitamin Fountain

Each year with a beginning of the fall I wait impatiently for pomegranates to show up. I know that some people do not appreciate them because of their "seedy", crunchy nature, facing a dilemma whether to swallow or spit their hard parts. But, to me, pomegranate is one of the most tasty fruits and, definitely, one of the healthiest.

Some people also give up on pomegranate because of the difficulty with seeding it. But, because there has been so much buzz in recent years about pomegranate's healthy aspects, some stores (e.g., Trader Joe's) carry the ready to use juicy seeds taken out of the hard pomegranate shells.

I have a new dinner recipe, involving pomegranates, waiting to be tested, but in the meantime I will share something light and supremely healthy--pomegranate and papaya salad. Both fruits are a great source of all kind of vitamins--pomegranate most of all antioxidants and papaya carotene, lycopene, vitamin A, K, potassium, and calcium.

Between the two of them I prefer pomegranate as more acidic and defined in taste and texture. But in this combination both fruits complement each other. And just a small bowl of that light fruit salad is not only a great dessert but provides a daily requirement of most vitamins.

Thanks to ginger and crushed pepper corns that salad has also a slightly spicy and warming up taste, perfect for a cold fall day.

Pomegranate and Papaya Salad
(Serves six)

Ingredients:
1 small papaya, about 1lb,
1 pomegranate,
2 tbsp running honey,
juice from 1 lime,
1 tsp freshly grated ginger (optional),
10 grains black pepper crushed into small pieces.
Preparation:
1. Cut papaya in half. Using a spoon, remove seeds. Peel off each half, then cut into half slices and into smaller cubes. Place them in a large bowl.
2. Cut the top of the pomegranate off and then cut the fruit in half. Using hands, break each half into quarters. Using fingers, scoop the seeds into a bowl, trying to leave the white membranes out. Another method is to do that part in the bowl of water--seeds will land at the bottom of the bowl and membranes will float on the surface. Place the seeds in the bowl with papaya cubes.

3. Add to the bowl 2 tbsp of honey, juice from one lime, and grated ginger, if used. Mix gently all the ingredients. Let the whole salad stand aside for about 30 minutes. It can be stored in a refrigerator overnight. Before serving, decorate the top of the salad with crushed pepper corns and fresh mint leaves.

Crunchy Potato Salad with Nuts

Just before I went on vacation, I hosted a few deck parties, at which I served mostly grilled meats and fish accompanied by salads and followed by chilled desserts--the only reasonable option on those hot July days.

I usually prepare at least a couple of cold salads to serve with the meats so everybody can find something to his taste. This season the biggest hit was my corn salad in mango dressing. The runner up was this potato salad and several friends have already asked me to the share a recipe for it.

Unlike in German tradition for example, in Polish cuisine there is no potato salad in the strict sense of the term. Potatoes are usually not the main but one of many ingredients. Nevertheless, my Polish guests particularly appreciated this simple salad, which is soft, thanks to the potatoes, and crunchy at the same time. The crunchiness comes from the celery sticks and nuts.

I made this salad with hazel nuts, which are very common in Poland. But I also make it sometimes with pecans. Either version is always very popular. This salad will taste great with grilled meats or served for lunch with bread and cold cuts.

Potato Salad with Nuts

Ingredients:
1 lb potatoes,
2 celery sticks,
2 small shallots,
1/4 cup roasted and chopped hazelnuts or pecans,
2 tbsp mayonnaise,
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Peel off potatoes and cut them in halves. Cook until soft and let them cool down completely, then cut into smaller cubes. Place them in a large bowl.
2. Peel of shallots and chop finely. Add to the potatoes.
3. Slice celery sticks into thin slices, add to the bowl.

4. Add chopped nuts, salt, pepper, mayonnaise. Mix gently all the ingredients and serve.

Classical Coleslaw--With a Twist

Last week I was doing my shopping at the local Harris Teeter. A nice and chatty young guy, by his own admission a college student already on vacation, was helping me at the cash register. While scanning my items he was going on and on about his life and his 48-hour long shifts at the store until he stumbled on a head of cabbage. He looked puzzled at me and asked "And that would be?..." I let him guess. "Iceberg?" he said. I corrected him. "Then I must have never tried it" he replied.

Coleslaw is one of the most popular American salads, sold at every salad bar and most often served at BBQ parties. It is said that coleslaw was brought to the US by Dutch migrants, although I am inclined to believe that, like many cabbage dishes, it rather comes from Polish tradition.

I posted many cabbage recipe already and they still belong among the most popular posts on my blog, but that conversation convinced me that it was time for another cabbage salad, especially that the grilling season has just officially started this weekend. Today, it will be then the most traditional coleslaw salad, but with the that I hope makes it more interesting.

Coleslaw with Nuts and Fruits
(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
1/2 head of medium cabbage, shredded,
2 medium carrots,cut julienne,
1/2 cup dried apricots,
1/2 cup raisins,
1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts,

3-4 stalks of spring onion, sliced,
1/2 cup mayonnaise,
1/2 cup low fat yogurt, preferably Greek,
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Place the shredded cabbage and carrots in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix together.

2. Cut dried apricots in slices. Add them to the cabbage together with raisins and roughly chopped hazelnuts.
3. In a medium bowl mix mayonnaise and yogurt. Pour over the cabbage and toss all the ingredients. Set aside in a refrigerator for 30 minutes to let all the ingredients marinate in a dressing.
4. Sprinkle with chopped spring onion shortly before serving.

Serve with grilled meats or cold cuts.

Frisée and Star Fruit Salad--Fusion of Two Salads

I like the look of the star fruits so much that I buy them sometimes just for their beauty. I use them to decorate some of my desserts or glasses with drinks but I must admit that often I am at a loss as to what to do with the rest of that unused fruit which unfortunately quickly turns brown and ends in trash. I have been looking for a recipe on how to use them better but I could not find anything else than a fruit salad with coconut milk.

Star fruit, also called carambola, is often used just to extract its juice. It is rich in antioxidants but one has to be careful drinking eat at any time because, similarly to a grapefruit juice, if consumed in large amount it may enter into interaction with some medications.

Last week, I could not resist buying a beautiful star fruit again. The fruit itself has a delicate, hard to describe taste, somewhat reminiscent of a pear. Following this association, I decided to make a salad with star fruits as I make it with pears. In the fall I often make a salad with Belgian endives, pears, blue cheese, and roasted walnuts and dress it with walnut oil. As I discovered recently this simple idea is still quite unknown outside France. In Switzerland I learned a recipe for a frisée lettuce salad with good quality blue cheese and honey dressing. Inspired by both of these salads, I made my frisée and star fruit salad for the first time. It is more seasonal than the one using endives; frisée is more summery, while Belgian endives taste better in fall or winter.

This salad not only had a new taste but it also looked very picturesque. Dressing should be poured over it at the last moment as it will soften the star fruit and make it lose its fresh perfect look.

Frisée and Star Fruit Salad

Ingredients:
1 star fruit,
1/2 lb (a medium-sized head) frisée salad,
1/3 cup roasted walnuts,
4 oz hard blue cheese, such as Stilton or Bleu d'Auvergne.

Dressing:
juice from half a lemon,
1/2 tbsp running honey,
2 tbsp rice bran oil,
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Cut frisée in smaller pieces and arrange on the plate.
2. Mix all the dressing ingredients and pour over the lettuce.
3. Cut a star fruit into very thin slices and arrange on top of the frisée.
4. Sprinkle with roasted walnuts and crumbled blue cheese.

Purple Radish Salad--To Try or to Behold

Last week for the first time ever I saw a purple radish. It looked a little bit like an UFO, or a mole that forgot to hide in his hole and stayed in the sun. I bought it for its looks, as a culinary curiosity, having no idea what to expect in terms of taste and how to cook it. And I am glad I did, as with a change of seasons I do not feel very creative in the kitchen.

Or rather, I am very creative but disorganized, so I cook as always, but just do not feel like measuring and recording everything. So of course I cannot make a post out of it, saying "a little bit of this" and "a little bit of that", even though the results are pretty nice.

But this radish came to my rescue and I would like to talk about it just because of its magnificent purple color, so typical of many fruits and vegetable with a blue pigment that are rich in antioxidants. It has a surprisingly mild, almost sweet taste with a kind of peppery aftertaste. Now that I tried it, I would suggest serving it raw, mostly in salads, as a source of iron and vitamins.

I made an Asian style salad, just to capture the aesthetic qualities of this beautiful tuber. I used also enoki mushrooms for contrast, which most of all, are recommended to be eaten raw. The whole salad was very delicate so I spiced it up with a dressing made of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and rice bran oil, and I topped it with a spoon of wasabi.

I am not sure I would be able to talk anyone one into that salad, but since purple radish is healthy and very inexpensive, it is worth to toss some of it into our regular salads, maybe add to a yogurt sauce or on top of cottage cheese, for color and crunchiness. Or maybe as I made it but differently arranged and mixed. And if you not feel like trying it just look how pretty it is. After adding some vinegar it changed color from a dark purple into more pink.

Purple Radish Salad

Ingredients:
One small purple radish, sliced or shredded,
a bunch of enoki mushrooms,
slices of English cucumber,
1/2 small onion, finely sliced,
1 tbsp rice vinegar,
1 tbsp soy sauce,
2 tbsp rice bran oil,
salt and freshly ground pepper,
a pinch of sugar,
chopped chives and a dollop of wasabi mayonnaise (optional).

Preparation:
1. Mix all the vegetables or layer them as I did.
2. Make a dressing and pour over the salad.
3. Decorate with chives, black sesame seeds, and wasabi mayonnaise.

Endive and Persimmon Salad--Inspired by a Super Model

A couple of days ago, I was checking what's new in the world, while drinking my first coffee of the day and wondering what recipe to post next, when I got an email from a friend who is a great fashionista. He was bragging about the posh parties he had recently attended. It read like a real high-life reportage, straight out of the pages of Vanity Fair, written be a fashion corespondent focusing on every detail of (mostly his own) attire.

His excitement was fueled by the sight of Inès de la Fressange, a great French super model from the eighties, whom he met at one of the recent parties. Inès became large than life when she posed for Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic. She has always been one of my favorite models, a rare natural brunette, with an inimitable personal elegance and style, transcending her professional image as a Chanel model.

At the party where a friend of mine spotted her, she was wearing a yellow dress, which I am sure beautifully complemented her dark eyes and hair. In contrast to her smashing looks, she drove away in a workmen's van. What a photo opportunity! Unfortunately, a friend of mine was so mesmerized by her appearance, that he forgot that he had a camera in his phone.

Yeah--I thought after reading his email--some live the high life and get to see the most beautiful women in the world, and some live an ordinary life, trying to capture a beauty of everyday food.

Still in that mood, later that day, I opened my refrigerator. I took out endive and decided to make a salad with just one objective--to make it look elegant. Endive has little nutritious value, but also almost zero calories and a lot of fiber--a great dish for those on diet.

Endive was one of very few vegetables that were thriving in my parents' yard, and every winter we enjoyed its bitter taste in salads. At that time, endive was completely unknown in Poland and eating it regularly for dinner was making me a culinary snob. Probably from that period I have a sentimental attachment to endives, and although I know that green lettuces are much richer in vitamins, I still buy a lot of endive. For this salad, I used persimmon leftovers from the dessert that I had made the day before, and started to experiment by adding different ingredients. Actually, it turned out to be a very delicious salad, with the sweetness of the persimmon complementing the neutral taste of the endive. I also tossed in a few roasted hazelnuts to strengthen its taste. And I do hope you enjoy my yellow and black composition.

Endive salad with persimmon
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
2 endives,
2 persimmons,
1/3 cup roasted hazelnuts,
4 tbsp champagne orange vinegar or a juice from half a lemon ,
hazelnut oil,
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Cut endive and divide it among four plates.
2. Peel off the persimmons, cut them in half and slice, arrange slices on the plate with endive.
3. Spread crushed hazelnuts.
4. Sprinkle each plate with champagne vinegar or lemon if you prefer more siuer taste,and oil.
5. Salt and pepper for taste and serve immediately.

Simplest Polish Beet Salad--Back to the Roots

I would not be Polish, if I did not talk about beetroots again. And I admit that they are one of my favorite Polish vegetables. Luckily, I have found them without any problems everywhere I lived. In Switzerland, where they also make beetroot salads, I could buy them already cooked, and here in America, I can buy them in more colors than red.

Going through food magazines I realized that beetroots are becoming increasingly popular. Many famous chefs and top restaurants include them into salads, while farmers clone them into unusual colors. But only in Polish and Russian cuisines beets have a truly prominent and well established position.

We prepare many national dishes with beetroots--the famous beetroot soup (barszcz aka borscht) and cold beet soup (chlodnik), and many varieties of salads. I love to eat them in the simplest way as accompaniment to meats and a dinner salad, but I also keep trying new recipes and look for new inspirations. The other day I have found a South American salad with beets that I will incorporate into my menu. It looked very original and I am sure the taste will not be disappointing. I was wondering today, if I should make something fancy and elegant to make you crave for beets, like the not-so-Polish beet salad that I make often, or rather make something really simple and familiar to show beets the way we eat them most often in Poland.

I think that if you are not afraid, or rather curious of beets, you should try them the way that we prepare them in their Polish kingdom. I would probably not post this easy recipe on any Polish blog, but since my native readers are a minority on my blog, I feel excused to do that. I hope to encourage some others to try beets, perhaps for the first time ever.

A good news is that beets (and especially their juice) are not only fashionable but also very healthy, as they are known to help fight cancer.

Since beet juice is so healthy I made just one modification in this traditional recipe and do not cook beets in water, as we do it in Poland for any kind of salads, but bake them in an oven. This way I preserve not only their beautiful color, but also some of the nutrients that would be otherwise thrown away with the water. I usually plan, and bake them when I use the oven to bake some other dish. Baked and peeled they preserve well in a refrigerator for up to 5 days.

I also add caraway seeds to that salad, as it has been done in my home, but if you do not like that specific taste you can easily skip that, without diminishing taste of the salad.

Beet Salad

4 medium beets,
1/2 sweet onion,
3 tbsp red balsamic vinegar,
1 tbsp sugar,
2 tbsp olive oil,
1 tsp caraway seeds,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 375-400F.
2. Wash beets and wrap each of them separately in the aluminum foil.
3. Place them in the oven and bake for around one hour, or a little bit more or less, depending on their size.
4. Peel off the foil, remove the skin (the best is to do that in gloves, as beets will color hands), and grate the beets on a grater with very large holes.
5. Peel off the onion and cut into very small cubes.
6. Mix beets with onion, add vinegar, sugar, oil, salt, and pepper. Taste if you need more vinegar or salt, depending on taste.
7. At the end, add caraway seeds if used.
8. Let them marinate for a couple of hours and serve cold, as salad.

This salad can be stored in a refrigerator up to 4 days. It tastes best with red meats or cold cuts.

Watercress and Roasted Tomatoes--The Elegant Salad

A friend of mine, who works in the music industry, often says that he has two big regrets in life--one, that he will never record The White Album and two, (he is a baldish type) that he will never have hair like Robert Plant. My biggest regret is that I will never write a romantic bestseller like Sense and Sensibility, and that I will never cater a dinner for John Kennedy Jr, in his Tribeca apartment, like a host of Zen Can Cook was lucky to do.

It is entirely understandable that he was granted such an opportunity, as his dishes, and especially the way they are presented, are culinary art. That is exactly what I was expecting to be treated to when I went to a three Michelin star restaurant and what I dream and try to achieve, cooking at home for my friends and guests.

The idea of this simple salad has been in my heart for almost two decades, ever since I read about it when I was living in London. All I remember is that it was created by one of the top Australian chefs for his Sydney restaurant. I am not even sure if I can remember correctly all the ingredients, but I did my best to make sure that my version remains in the same healthy yet elegant style.

All the ingredients are very simple and well known, and the presentation is key. It would be one of the dishes that I would put under a title "How to impress....", let's say, someone you meet for the first time. I made it a few times for my guests, since I often feel as hosting a culinary blog obliges me to do more than just tasty food, and also because I simply enjoy eating and creating attractive compositions on my plate.

What is nice about this salad is that everything can be prepared in advance (tomatoes and asparagus even a day earlier) and just assembled and served at the last moment.

Watercress and Roasted Tomatoes Salad
(for 6 people)

Ingredients:
1 bunch of watercress,
6 medium or 12 smaller (cocktail, but not cherry) tomatoes,
1 bunch of asparagus,
6 slices of Pancetta,
1/4 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese,
balsamic vinegar,
extra virgin olive oil,
salt and freshly ground pepper.

Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Remove skin from the tomatoes. In order to do that, put the tomatoes first in the boiling water for about 20-30 seconds and right after that put them in the cold water. Take them out and remove the skin.
3. Place the tomatoes on a baking pan, salt them, and drizzle with oil.
4. Bake for 20-30 minutes, depending how big the tomatoes are, or until soft, and cool them down.
5. Cut 1/3 off asparagus stalks and blanch in the hot water for about 3 minutes, or cook on a frying pan in a little bit of oil and water for about 5 minutes, until they become softer, but still firm (al dente, if you will).
6. Cut the pancetta into smaller pieces and fry on a dry pan until gold and crispy.
7. Arrange the watercress, asparagus, and tomatoes on a plate. Sprinkle with a coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

As I served this salad to my friends, I was wondering "Would John Jr. be smitten?"

Papaya Dressing--Healthy Hollywood Fashion

Papaya is a very nutritious fruit coming originally from Central America but it now can be bought in most supermarkets all over the world. I have been a great papaya aficionado for many years. Thai salads with green papaya are excellent but I mostly use ripe papayas to make fruit salads or something else.

Papaya has one third more Vitamin C and twice as much Potassium than you can find in orange juice and, on top of that, it is also a good source of Vitamins E, A, and K. No wonder papaya has many "believers" among Hollywood celebrities. It has been claimed that it irons out wrinkles and speeds up metabolism. It is considered to be so healthy that some stars stay just on a papaya only diet for days, or at least drink a papaya smoothie everyday as a first morning drink, mixed with tomatoes, strawberries, mango, or just water.

Until recently, I was eating papaya mostly for these healthy and rational reasons. I made some papaya-banana or papaya-mango smoothies with a squeeze of lime, and I tried to make various desserts including papaya, which I found tricky, because its delicate taste was not always easy to bring out.

Once, I ate at my friend's place a delicious dish made of baked papaya with grilled scallops and garlic. I will try to obtain his recipe and will post it in the future. But I think that this healthy fruit should be served fresh as much as possible, so all its nutrients remain intact and can benefit our body.

I have bought it today again not only for its nutritional values but also for its photogeneity. Looking at this interesting fruit, and its dark orange flesh, I was struck by an idea to make an exotic salad dressing from it. I thought that adding vinegar would make it taste stronger. I think it worked pretty well and I enjoyed how it made many simple dishes taste more interesting and mysterious.

I have made a big  jar of it and used for many purposes. Papaya stores pretty well in a refrigerator but a dressing made from it thickens next day and acquires a jelly-like consistence, so it is better to eat it the same day you make it. Here are some of my ideas.

Papaya dressing

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cup papaya cut into cubes,
1/2 cup of grape seed oil (which is more neutral in taste than olive oil),
1/4 cup of white balsamic vinegar or other good quality white vinegar,
1 shallot,
salt and pepper,
black cumin to decorate.

Preparation;
1. Peel off papaya and remove black seeds.
2. Cut the fruit in pieces and put about 1 and 1/2 cup of it in a blender.
3. Add chopped shallot, vinegar, and oil.
4. Season with salt and pepper,and blend into a smooth puree.
5. Use black cumin for decorating and to enhance the taste.

Spread this dressing on top of an avocado.

Serve on a delicate lettuce, such as Boston, Romaine hearts, or Iceberg.

Use as a dip for shrimps for a party snack (e.g., instead of the much heavier mayonnaise dressing or a spicy tomato dressing).

Dragon Fruit Salad for the Cucumber Season

A summer vacation in Poland is called the cucumber season, meaning that it is time to relax in a silly sort of way as press news are not worth reading (being mainly about cucumbers growing strong and other gardening events like that) and most big city cultural establishments are closed. And that is the reason for this post.

I have never dreamed to be a fruit salad queen, but it's a perfect seasonal topic given the heat we experience and the somewhat lazy August atmosphere.

I went to the Asian market last week and I could not resist buying these picturesque dragon fruits. I do not remember eating them ever before, so I thought it would be a good excuse to try them and share my impressions on the blog.

A dragon fruit is unbelievably pink on the outside and very interesting in shape, but its inside is even more surprising. It is white but looks a little bit like a kiwi fruit, or one Polish cake with poppy seeds, and it is very subtle in taste.

To be honest with you, I had bought it mainly to make a picture of it. But when I tried it, I immediately thought to combine it into a fruit salad with a pineapple that has already been sitting in a fruit bowl on my kitchen counter. Just another exotic combination: a dragon fruit and a pineapple, that's all it is. If you are disappointed, I hope that you will at least enjoy these pictures.

Melon Invasion--Very Sunny Fruit Salad

Melons are now everywhere. They are deliciously sweet but somewhat bland. However, they can be combined with any exotic fruits, especially the more fragrant ones, to make interesting and light fruit salads.



I like most to serve desserts that I make myself and which show my creativity. But sometimes on a sunny day and after a spicy dinner a chilled fruit salad is the best choice. Particularly, when my guests are the weight-watching and calorie-counting types. I love all the seasonal fruit salads with fruits at their peak, especially raspberries and blueberries, but this salad is perfect to complement a spicy Indian meal, or other exotic dishes. Easy and healthy.

Sunny Fruit Salad

Ingredients:
1 cantaloupe or any melon you happen to have,
2 kiwis, green or gold,
1 mango,
1 lime,
2 branches of fresh mint,
2 tbsp white port, optional.

Preparation:
1. Peel melon and remove seeds. Cut into regular cubes.
2. Peel kiwis, cut in four pieces and make also small cubes.
3. Remove peel from mango and cut out flesh from the front and back of fruit, avoiding a hard part around the seed. Cut the flesh in long stripes.
4. Squeeze juice from the lime.
5. Put all the fruits in a glass bowl,season with lime juice, porto, if used and decorate with mint leaves.
6. Mix gently.
7. Chill in a refrigerator for about 30 minutes and serve in individual glass bowls or on plates.



Useful tip:
This fruit salad can be made a couple of hours earlier and pulled out of a refrigerator at the last moment.