Fruity Monday: Strawberry Goat's Cheese Salad

Seeing the beautiful weather down here - sunny and 25 degrees C - my appetite has been on a very low simmer, strangely enough. This could also be because I had the Peanut Butter Banana Brownie for breakfast and a turkey 'scallopina' (which is special Italian way of preparing chicken, veal or turkey promise to post a nice recipe soon!) that filled me up big time...
Anyways, because of the lacking of my hunger, I seriously stood for 15 minutes in my supermarket thinking of what to cook and eat, going over all the blogs and recipes I have read in the past few weeks, in my head. I was feeling like having something fresh, healthy yet easy and exciting to post on here.
Then I thought of Jessica's Warm Strawberry Orzo Salad... But remembered I still had a few things in my fridge and cupboard such as aragula, peeled orzo and sunflower seeds and decided to make my version of the Strawberry Orzo salad. You gotta like fruit in your dinner, but trust me when I say that the flavours in this salad will make you want more... much more!!

Ingredients - two servings

• 6 fresh Strawberries cut in little cubes
• 2 handfuls of Aragula
• 3 tablespoons of Sunflower Seeds (or pinenutseeds)
• 50 gr of Goats cheese crumbles
• 100 gr peeled Orzo (barley)
• 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
• 2 tablespoons of Balsamic Glaze
• pinch of Salt
• 0.5 lemon juice

How to make it:

Bring a big pan of water with a fist of salt to a boil. Add the orzo and cook for circa 30 minutes. The orzo is ready when it is soft yet still with a firm bite to it - but this depends on your taste.

In the meanwhile roast the sunflower seeds in another pan without oil. Keep an eye on them because they are ready in a couple of minutes and burn easily.

Toss the seeds, strawberries, aragula, goats cheese, olive oil, balsamic glaze, salt and lemon juice in a salad bowl. 

Once the orzo is ready, rinse and add it immediately to the other ingredients in the salad bowl. The warm orzo will 'melt' the aragula and cheese making the salad really moist.

Strawberry Goats Cheese Salad

Outcome: Hmmm... it was.... setting my humbleness aside here... simply... AMAZING!!!!!!! 

Do you like recipes with fruit in it - suggestions? And have any light summery suggestions for an upcoming undecisive supermarket visit?

Buon Appetito

Chef Steph

Yummy Marinated Shrimp and Avocado Salad

One of my favorite dinners is salad. It is not only healthy and quick to make but there are a million different variations. This one is with marinate shrimp, avocado and mache lettuce (the type that looks like a little bunch of leaves pulled from the ground.

Ingredients:

• Salad of your choice (here; Mache)
• Fresh cherry tomatoes
• Sundried tomatoes
• 1 avocado
• Shrimps
• Marinad (see below)
• Balsamic Vinegar (I found that it is worth paying a little extra to get a really good one. The taste becomes much more sweet and round)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

How to make it:

I started with frozen, uncooked shrimps (if they are already cooked they do not take in as much flavor from the marinade); I unfroze them (if you have little time rinse them with luke-warm water for a minute) and cut the backs. Then I mixed the marinade (see ingredients below) and mixed it with the shrimps;

- Sweet & sour chili sauce

- Oyster sauce

- Fish sauce

- Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce)

- Soy sauce

- Fresh Chili

If you have it at home you can also add finely chopped garlic and ginger. This marinate is also delicious with chicken (the longer you let it marinade the better the taste). 

I let the shrimps stay in the marinade for about an hour, and right before mixing the salad I lightly fried them on high temperature. Be carful not to overcook the shrimps as they will become dried and chewy. Cut the avocado and tomatoes into pieces, and in a bowl mix all the ingredients together. This will be your end result :)

Outcome:

Bon Appetit!

Chef Cathinka