Carrot Summer Salad

Carrot & egg salad is one of the most common salads where I come from, Argentina. You find it in every single restaurant and it is prepared in every household. There, it needs no introduction.

There is nothing fancy nor complicated about it. But where I live, in the Netherlands, it is a very rare combination. So that makes it 'special'.
Most of my friends look skeptical at first, when I put it on the table. But after tasting it, they all love it!


What you need
•food processor  or
•a grater with a pair of strong hands

Ingredients (makes a side dish for 6 persons)
•750 g of organic carrots; washed and then grated
•3 organic eggs, hard boiled
•5 tbs of virgin olive oil
•3 tbs of cider or white wine vinegar

What you do
•toss the grated carrot in a salad bowl
•now chop up the hard boiled eggs and add it to the carrots
•crush some Himalayan salt and pepper on it
•now add the oil and vinegar and toss

Presto!




Don Giovanni's Mediterranean Sauce

For years now, when we visit Southern Portugal, we make sure to do a pit stop at the Italian restaurant Don Giovanni in Almancil.
No, no. Not for the pizza and pasta -which I am sure are among the best. But for their guilt-head bream (dourade) with Mediterranean sauce. It is the best. I have not been able to top it yet but I am getting there!

Guilt-head bream is caught in the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. If you cannot find fresh guilt-head bream in your area, try this delicious sauce with a different white fish.
The clue is not just the sauce ... you need to grill the fillets! This is what will help achieve that distinctive Mediterranean taste. Preferably, cook the fish on a mesh on the barbecue but it will work just as well prepared in a super hot non-stick sauce pan, with a touch of virgin olive oil.

To make a good sauce is not that difficult but it does take a considerable amount of 'simmering' to maximize taste. Therefore, whenever I prepare a sauce, I like to make plenty and freeze some. So handy to have an extra healthy meal at your finger tips when you come home from work and are not in the mood to cook! I do the same with the other sauces that compliment fish that I have previously posted (check Salsa Verde, Taste Buds Kicking Tuna Relish & Complementing Wild Salmon).

What you need
Nothing out of the ordinary.

Ingredients for the sauce (serves 8)
•2 red bell peppers (washed, cleaned and finely chopped)
•1 green bell pepper (washed, cleaned and finely chopped)
•40 g of green olives (preferably filled with anchovy; cut in rings)
•1 medium onion (finely chopped)
•1 big garlic clove (finely chopped)
•4 medium tomatoes (washed, cubed)
•2 tbsp of capers
•200 ml water
•100 ml dry white wine or sherry
Himalayan salt & pepper to taste
•1 tbs virgin olive oil

What you do
•preheat your saucepan at medium heat and add a tbsp of virgin olive oil
•now add the onion and cook till it becomes transparent. Do not allow it to get brown!
•now add the garlic
•two minutes later add the peppers
•five minutes later add the capers, the olives and the tomatoes
•five minutes later add the water, the wine, a bit of Himalayan salt and some freshly grinded pepper
•now put the lid on your pan, lower the heat and let it simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring with a wooden spoon once in a while

The sauce is then ready to accompany a white grilled fish fillet. If it is freshly caught dourada from Portugal, even better!