Salmon and Bacon Salad with Egg Horseradish Sauce

I only decided to post about this one when I had finished making this salad.  So the presentation is a bit ordinary but the taste was good.

Ingredients:

For the salad:

Smoked salmon – a peppered piece

6-8 rashers of bacon

Radishes

Cherry Tomatoes (heirloom)

Small avocado

Cucumber

Dill

Salt and Pepper

Lemon juice

For the sauce:

1 lightly hard-boiled egg

Gherkin

Horseradish – grated

Salt and Pepper

Bacon fat

Cream

Lemon juice

Method:

Fry off the bacon.  When done cut it up into bite sized pieces.

Cut up the radishes, cherry tomatoes and cucumber and put them onto your salad plate.

Cut your avocado in half and take the stone out with a spoon – I try not to use a knife for this ever since I heard about the very large number of injuries caused!  A spoon works just find – I use a tablespoon measuring spoon.  I then cut the avocado into quarters leaving the skin on.  It exposes less flesh to the air and so you don't need to add as much lemon juice to stop it browning.  And when you eat the salad it is quite easy just to cut the flesh off the skin with your knife and then eat it.

Roughly chop your dill and scatter it on.

I then made the sauce (so that I could use the same knife for cutting the bacon and salmon later).  The sauce was mashed up egg, horseradish sauce, lemon juice, chopped gherkin, salt and pepper and lastly a little splash of cream to loosen it up.

Then onto cutting up the bacon – and then added the bacon fat from the pan into the sauce.

Finally flaking the smoked salmon.  Season the salad to your liking.

Next time I would be confident enough to drizzle the sauce over the salad but I just wasn't sure enough that it would work.  It did.

Tomato & Horseradish Salad

I haven't tried tomato and horseradish together before – it works beautifully.

Ingredients:

3 ripe tomatoes

Slice of red onion

Red chilli – ½ a thumb

Horseradish sauce

Chopped parsley and basil

Salt,  pepper and pinch of sugar

Blood Orange Balsamic Vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Chop your tomatoes up into bite sized pieces.  Chop the other veges as finely as you can.  Season.  Add a good spoonful of horseradish and finish with the oil and vinegar.  Leave it to steep for a while before eating.

Scalloped Vegetables (Potato, Kumara, Pumpkin)

So I wanted to do something both different and tasty for a side.  This is what I came up with. It was a success – although I confess that the amount of pumpkin made the dish a bit sweet for me.

Ingredients:

Oil – Olive oil mixed with garlic oil

2 potatoes

1 kumara (a purple sweet potato)

½ pumpkin

Salt & pepper

Horseradish sauce

Stock cube

Cheeses – I had grated Noble cheese & Parmesan

Method:

Oil your oven dish

Slice the vegetables as evenly as you can.

Layer the slices in the oven dish, seasoning each layer as you go.

Take a good dollop of horseradish sauce, add a stock cube (I think I used chicken) and dilute with hot water.

Pour over the veggies so just over half are covered.  Sprinkle the cheeses on top.

Bake until the vegetables are tender – about an hour in a moderate oven.

Fresh Horseradish Cream Sauce – Great with Beef!

This Horseradish Cream Sauce was simple to make – the only trick is finding a store that stocks fresh horseradish root.  There is no point making it if you can't get the fresh stuff.  I discovered that this sauce was not only great with beef but also with mushrooms and potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 cup of sour cream (or reduced cream + lemon juice)

¼ cup of grated fresh horseradish

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon if rice wine vinegar (any white vinegar would work)

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon of ground pepper

Method:

This one's easy just mix all the ingredients together and leave the mixture in the fridge for at least 4 hours before using.  The flavours meld together during that time.

Spice of the Month - Horseradish

Horseradish has been used since very olden times.

It was thought to have some healing qualities – for gout, swellings and rheumatism type diseases.  It is also thought to be good for treating colds.  Maybe this is because it is richer in Vitamin C than oranges and lemons.

Horseradish is very popular in Scandinavia –it is used as a sauce for fish and meat

Only relatively recently in historic terms adopted by England – and now is a traditional accompaniment to roast beef.

Horseradish is eaten at Jewish Passover ceremonies to symbolise their enslavement by the Egyptians.

If you can get fresh whole horseradish, fantastic!  The flavour when it is freshly grated is a revelation.  Just be careful not to inhale the fumes from too close a range – unless you want your sinuses completely cleared out!

Add grated horseradish to seafood cocktail sauces, mustards.  It is good in salad dressings, dips and relishes.  Just mix it with whipped cream for a luxurious sauce with corned beef or other meats.

My Recipes – horseradish cream, TAP salad, Zucchini Fish Cakes

BIBLIOGRAPHY - with thanks to Auckland Libraries

Cook's Encyclopaedia of Spices by Sallie Morris & Lesley Mackley

Discovering Vegetables, Herbs & Spices by Susanna Lyle

Spice Market by Jane Lawson

Spicery by Ian & Elizabeth Hemphill

Spices & Natural Flavourings by Jennifer Mulherin

Spices by Sophie Grigson

Spices Condiments and Seasonings by Kenneth T Farrell

Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen by Elizabeth David

The Cook's Companion by Stephanie Alexander