Salad Archives - Sugar et al

Pickled Radish And Grapefruit Salad

15|03|2016

Pickling is a great way of adding flavor to vegetables whilst increasing their shelf life. Among all the pickled vegetables I’ve tasted, pickled radish is my favorite. When pink baby radishes start appearing at the farmer’s markets, it’a sign that Spring is round the corner. And that is when salads at our place will inevitably start having them by the bunch. They are not the kind of vegetable children would love though due to the pungent and strong taste. Last spring I discovered that a better way of enjoying them was to store them in a quick pickling liquid. Not only do they take up the flavor of the sweet and sour pickling liquid but also turn into a pretty shade of pink. Whether it’s a starter or a salad that you are serving them with, they are sure to take the dish up by several notches.

This is a salad that will impress all. It has sweetness from the radishes, saltiness from the feta, a slightly bitter citrus punch from the grapefruit and loads of nutritious green leafy vegetables. Instead of making a dressing, I used the pickling liquid (that tastes amazing) to drizzle over the salad. I created this pickled radish salad for Styling Magazine last year when I was asked to put together a pretty salad with edible flowers in it. I served it later to my girlfriends and they were blown away. With Easter coming up I thought I’d share the recipe since it does make for a fancy dish on the table.

Pickled Radish And Grapefruit Salad
Serves 3-4

2 small ruby grapefruit, peeled segmented
300 g radishes, thinly sliced (follow this recipe for pickling)
50 g feta cheese, crumbled
green leafy vegetables (watercress/rocket/spinach) or micro greens
edible flowers, to garnish (optional)

Arrange the grapefruit, pickled radishes and greens on a platter. Sprinkle with feta cheese. Decorate with edible flowers. Drizzle the pickling liquid just before serving.

Easy Tandoori Chicken And Grilled Peach Salad

22|01|2016

Is it too late to say “Happy New Year’? I am just back from a long break and very excited to be talking to you once again. I wish each and every one of you a fabulous 2016 and hope that all your dreams come true this year. It’s been many many years since I’ve spent an entire month doing nothing, worrying about nothing, just taking in all the good and all the love around me, being spoilt and savoring each day to perfection. I am grateful for this beautiful start to the New year.

On the first day, it seemed like a big transition coming from winter (back in India) to very warm temperatures in Sydney. And a huge effort to settle down into routine. But there was this incentive to come back to. Summer! Bright summer and brighter summer produce. Tomorrow I’ll be going to the farmer’s market but I couldn’t hold myself back from checking out the summer bounty at the local store.

This is an easy, delicious salad that looks like a lot of work but is actually a breeze to make. It is filling, healthy and extremely flavorful. A slightly spicy chicken with sweet, juicy caramelized peaches, summery tomatoes, crunchy rocket and a tangy yogurt dressing. (If peaches are not available where you are at this time, pears will make a great substitute.) It is summer on a plate!

Easy Tandoori Chicken And Grilled Peach Salad
Serves 4-6

600 g chicken tenderloins (or chicken breast sliced into pieces)
11/4 cup Greek yogurt, divided (3/4 cup for marinade, 1/2 cup for dressing)
3 tbsp tandoori chicken marinade (store bought)
3 ripe, firm peaches
1 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cups baby rocket
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp lemon juice,
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp honey
salt, to season

Place the chicken in a medium bowl. Add the yogurt and tandoori chicken marinade. Mix and toss to coat well. Refrigerate for an hour or overnight. In a separate bowl, mix the peaches and olive oil.

Heat a chargrill to medium heat. Remove the chicken from the marinade and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Remove from heat and leave aside. Place the peaches on the grill and cook for 2 mins on each side. Don’t move around too much or they will turn mushy.

In a serving platter, place the baby rocket leaves, drizzle a bit of extra virgin olive oil. Arrange the chicken and peaches on the rocket. Top with tomatoes and red onion. Serve with yogurt dressing.

To make the dressing, mix the remaining yogurt, lemon juice, crushed garlic, honey, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Drizzle on the salad just before serving.

Roasted Garlic-Maple-Mustard Pumpkin

25|10|2015

When planning meals in the last few years, I realize that my attention to side dishes have gone from little to none. I am mostly trying to include my 5 serves of vegetables and fruits in my main dishes. Most of the times, that would be a salad. My mind is somewhat distracted in thinking of sweet combinations and hence between main course and dessert, there is very little room for appetizers and side dishes. Yes, in a past life (before kids), my meals were perfect, my planning was immaculate but today my imagination is restricted to kids lunchboxes and desserts. I am on a mission lately to look for side dishes that are big on flavour, nutritious and most importantly, require little or no effort. Roasted vegetables is one of them. I like the way pumpkin gets a golden and charred appearance on the outside while the inside is all soft and mushy.

The glaze is a quick and simple maple-mustard glaze. Garlic is always great on roasted vegetables. Onions pump in more flavour and taste great themselves when charred. Since, there is hardly any chopping/cubing required…I find that this is becoming a go-to dish for me on weekdays. I usually buy butternut pumpkin as it’s quite versatile to cook with but I am pretty sure that the recipe can be adapted to use other types of pumpkin as well. This dish is a great option for people on a gluten free diet.

Roasted Garlic-Maple-Mustard Pumpkin
Serves 3

1/2 butternut squash
1 red onion, peeled, quartered
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp oilve oil
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
salt and pepper, to season
Micro-parsley (or finely chopped parsley), to serve
Edible Nasturtium flowers (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees C for fan forced). Scoop out and discard the seeds from the butternut pumpkin. Slice them into 1 inch pieces (leave skin on).

In a large roasting pan, arrange the pumpkin slices and onions in a single layer. Sprinkle the chopped garlic over the pumpkin. Combine olive oil, maple syrup and mustard in a bowl and add to the pan. Season. Toss to coat evenly.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until pumpkin is tender. Plate and stir through micro-parsley (or finely chopped parsley) just before serving. Garnish with edible flowers, if using.

Styling Food With Flowers for Styling Magazine

20|10|2015

That’s easy, isn’t it?
Flowers are naturally beautiful, possibly in every shade under the sun to choose from. Shapes, sizes, textures, scents and flavours to choose from. That’s what I thought when I was briefed about the theme, ‘The Power of the Flower’ for the latest issue of Styling Magazine. I’ve used flowers in my posts earlier and I was totally excited. I am sure it’s not a surprise that Cake was the first thing that came to my mind. Cake and flowers… made for each other! The challenge was to use flowers in a variety of dishes. So starting out with a blank canvas and flowers as my inspiration I’ve created a combination of dishes for Styling Magazine. You already know my love for colours. I seriously had a blast doing this. I’ve included a few images here. You can see the rest in the issue. Please find the link here.
Meanwhile, I thought I’d share a few tips with you if you love decorating food with flowers, like I do.

Cakes typically use either sugar flowers, edible flowers or pesticide free fresh flowers or a mix. The first, sugar/gum paste/fondant flowers are actually not that difficult to make. These days the kits are mostly available in big supermarkets and definitely in local cake decorating stores. They are addictive once you get a hang of them but a little time consuming. Ready gum paste flowers are easily available online or in cake decorating stores. Let me know if you need more information.

Edible fresh flowers are pretty easy to use if you buy them at the farmer’s market. If they are sold as edible it means that they are not poisonous and are free of pesticides. So they are just ready to go on top of your dishes. A few commonly used are Viola, Nasturium, Pansy, Camelia, Snapdragon, Rose & lavender. Shelf life is an issue with these unless you are growing them yourself so it’s best to buy them close to the date of your event. These flowers also have their individual tastes so if you want to ensure that your guests eat the flowers, it will help to know how each one would complement a dish. You can read this if you are interested.
Culinary rose and lavender are always the safest to use and can be stored for months. They are available in specialty stores and even online.

Fresh flowers (unsure of the origin), unless I am sure of the variety or how they were grown, I wouldn’t want to risk putting them straightaway on the cake. Certainly not on other dishes. Your florist should be able to tell you that. When using on a cake, these definitely need to be removed before serving. Also, care should be taken to ensure that the flowers/stems are washed and dried before use. I generally put a baking paper on top of the cake before placing the flowers or insert the stems into thin straws and then inserting the straws into the cake or wrapping the stems in baking paper. This ensures that the flowers don’t move about and don’t touch the cake. However, you may have to consider the type of cake (sponge, mud cake, chiffon etc). You don’t want to mess up the cake.
You could place the flowers on a ball of gum paste (similar to the colour of the cake) as well and place the gum paste either on the side or top of the cake. It wont be seen when covered with flowers.

Do you have any more tips to share? I’d love to hear them!