Watermelon radish, fennel and avocado salad with whipped feta dressing

Winter can be monochromatic, especially in northwestern Europe. There are days when it seems like a dark veil is covering the whole sky, allowing only a few rays of sun to pierce through; the continuous rain makes it even worse. It can be romantic—at least that’s how I viewed it when I first moved to Holland from Greece, and it still feels like that sometimes—but mostly, these gloomy winters can be quite tiring, affecting both body and soul.

Seeing bursts of color in the form of fruits and vegetables is invigorating. Citrus, beetroots (more on those later), radishes, cauliflowers, carrots and cabbages are the saving grace of winter.

With the glorious reds, greens, pinks, yellows, golden of the citrus, with the purple of the cauliflowers and cabbages and, of course, the unexpected and thrilling fuchsia-pink color of the watermelon radishes; that psychedelic color that only nature could have dreamed up.

With the green and off-white surrounding it, it looks like a tiny watermelon waiting to be savored. If only I had some black sesame seeds to artfully place on one slice, it would be magical, right?

Being an extremely visual person, I get turned on by color and hues and tones, and making this colorful salad was exciting. Even though pink is not my color by any stretch of the imagination, this one was rather cute and against the bright green of the avocado and the ivory of the fennel, it was really a color-fest if there ever was one.

The flavor of the salad was vibrant, refreshing and light with the crunchy, slightly peppery and bitter radish, the creamy, sweet avocado and crisp fennel, and the whipped feta dressing tying everything together, because this dressing, let me tell you, is key. It’s the secret of this salad and one of the most delicious dressings this feta-obsessed Greek has tasted. The salty tang of the feta is smoothed over by the (real) Greek yoghurt and Greek olive oil and the sprinkling of sumac is the proverbial cherry on top, adding a touch of acidity and a faint spiciness that balances the flavors of the salad.

Paired with a piece of grilled or oven-baked salmon and fresh bread, it is a perfect meal.

I leave you with this song. See you here again soon.

Watermelon radish, fennel and avocado salad with whipped feta dressing and sumac

The watermelon radish is an heirloom Asian Daikon radish. It is mildly peppery with a crisp texture and belongs to the same family as rocket, broccolo and turnips.
If you can’t find it, substitute with daikon or another type of mild-flavored radish.

Yield: 4 salad servings or 2 main-course servings / 400 ml feta dressing

Ingredients

for the whipped feta dressing
200 g feta (Greek of course!)
120 g (real) Greek yoghurt, full-fat
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp white balsamic vinegar (or white-wine vinegar)
Freshly ground white pepper, 4-5 grind of the pepper mill

for the salad
3 medium-sized watermelon radishes, peeled and sliced very thinly (preferably with a mandoline)
1-2 avocados, sliced thinly
½ large fennel bulb, sliced
Lemon juice
Olive oil

Fennel fronds (from the fennel bulb), for garnishing
Ground sumac, for sprinkling over the salad

Special equipment: food processor, mandoline (optional)


Preparation

for the whipped feta dressing
If your feta is too salty, soak it in cold water for 15 minutes (in one piece). Drain and use in the recipe.
Cut the feta in small cubes and place it along with the rest of the ingredients for the dressing in a food processor. Process until you have a smooth and creamy mixture.
Empty it in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge until ready to use. It will firm up a bit in the fridge.
You can make it 4 days ahead and keep it covered in the fridge.

to make the salad
Arrange the watermelon radishes on a large, shallow plate. Brush with a little olive oil.
Toss the sliced fennel with a little lemon juice (1 tsp) and olive oil in a bowl.
Brush the sliced avocado with a little lemon juice and olive oil to keep it from turning brown too quickly.

Top the radishes with the fennel and avocado and scatter the fennel fronds over the top.
Drizzle with a generous amount of the feta dressing and sprinkle with sumac. Keep extra dressing handy in a bowl at the table for extra helpings.
Enjoy!

Bananas, chocolate et al

Whereas everyone seems to be making apple pies and pear tarts, I am making frozen bananas dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles, desiccated coconut and ground pistachio.

I don’t care for the seriousness of autumn, I want to hold on to the playfulness of summer. It is still rather warm out so these were a brilliant idea to cool us off somehow in the most sweet and colorful of ways.

I considered making an ice cream, but, to be honest, I have had my share of ice creams this summer and I have somewhat retired my ice cream bowl. As we speak, it is not sitting in my freezer, but comfortably in its box.

I’m also kind of in a state of watching what type of sweets I make, meaning that I prefer them on the less-sugar side (even though as we speak, I’m dreaming of a cupcake recipe I want to make that’s full of sugar) so I decided to make something that I can call healthy-ish, or something like it.

These chocolate-covered bananas are so fun and easy to make, effortless really, and a joy to eat. Crispy, crackly chocolate, firm, cold, sweet banana; perfection!

For those of you who are not keen on autumn and share my need to keep summer close, make these and enjoy them under a glorious sun.

Frozen chocolate-dipped bananas with desiccated coconut, pistachios or sprinkles

I used extra-virgin coconut oil to thin out the melted chocolate in order to have a thin coating rather than a brick-like one and it gave the bananas a faint flavor of coconut that was beautiful. If you’d rather not have that flavor, use odorless and flavorless vegetable oil to mix with the chocolate.

Use bananas that are firm yet ripe. If they have a few brown spots like mine, that’s okay. You want them to be flavorful but not soft, otherwise they will break when you insert the stick.

Yield: 16 banana sticks

Ingredients
8 large, ripe yet firm bananas
200 g good quality dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped
1½ Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil (or sunflower oil)
Desiccated coconut
Sprinkles
Coarsely ground unsalted pistachios

Special equipment: popsicle sticks, large tray suitable for the freezer, baking paper


Preparation
Peel the bananas and cut them in half crosswise. Insert a popsicle stick slowly and carefully half way into the banana, being careful not to puncture through the fruit.
Place the banana halves onto a baking paper-lined tray suitable for the freezer and place them in your freezer for 20 minutes. Don’t cover them because we don’t want any moisture to form on top of them.

Place the chopped chocolate and coconut oil (or sunflower oil) in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (bain marie) and melt, stirring often (or you can use the microwave). The bottom of the bowl must not come in contact with the simmering water. Stir gently with a rubber spatula and once the mixture is smooth and melted, remove bowl from the top of the pan and empty into a jug or a tall container to make dipping the bananas easy.
Let it cool until it is warm but not hot.

Note: this chocolate mixture will not be the same as this chocolate shell as it contains less coconut oil so it doesn’t get hard in a few seconds. Instead, it takes a few minutes to set which gives you ample time to cover in sprinkles, coconut etc.

Remove the bananas from the freezer and one by one, dip them into the chocolate. You can either dip the whole banana into the chocolate or dip half of it. I prefer them half-dipped. Let the excess chocolate drip off for a few seconds and then either roll them in sprinkles/coconut/pistachios or sprinkle on top. If you roll them, they will be more covered than if you simply sprinkle them.
Place the bananas on a new piece of baking paper (and onto a tray) and return them to the freezer, uncovered. They need about 2 hours to be frozen.
Serve them either straight from the freezer, or if they’ve been in the freezer for more than 2 hours, transfer them to the fridge for half an hour or to your kitchen counter for 15 minutes to soften a bit.

If you plan to keep the bananas in the freezer for more than a day, cover each one well in plastic wrap or put them in a freezer bag or in an airtight container. You can keep them like that for 1 week.

Fig and mascarpone bruschetta

Some things don’t need introductions. They are as simple as they can be yet still incredibly beautiful and satisfying.

When figs are ripe and sweet, mascarpone is creamy and ham is salty, then what more do you need than a slice of good, crusty bread, some runny honey with floral notes, a few sprigs of earthy, fresh thyme, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil?

A quick recipe for bruschette that you can make as an appetizer or serve as a nibble with a chilled glass of wine or a cold beer on a warm, late-summer evening.

One of the tastiest bruschette there is.

Hope you enjoy!

Fig and mascarpone bruschetta with ham and honey

Use any kind of cured, boiled or smoked ham of which the taste you enjoy.
Instead of mascarpone you can also use cream cheese, or for a different flavor profile and if you like its tangy and sharp flavor, goat’s cheese.
For a vegetarian option, omit the ham and add a sprinkle of good flaky sea salt on top of the bruschetta.

Yield: as many as you like

Ingredients
Bread slices (from a loaf of good crusty bread)
Mascarpone
Ham slices
Fresh figs, cut in four or eight pieces
Fresh thyme leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
Light-flavored runny honey
Flaky sea salt (optional)

Preparation
Toast the bread either in the oven or in your toaster.
Spread enough mascarpone cheese to thickly cover them.
Lay either half a slice or a whole slice of ham on top.
Add the fig pieces (2-3 pieces for each bruschetta).
Sprinkle with some fresh thyme leaves.
Drizzle with a little olive oil and some honey.
Sprinkle some flaky sea salt if you wish over the top.
Eat at once.

The summer of ice cream

At the beginning of summer, I said this was going to be the summer of ice cream and it was. I made so many types of icy treats, I can’t even believe it.

Many of them were memorable, some were mediocre and a few of them were flops. You got to have some of those too, right? Just for good measure.

The list is big but let me give you an idea:
Cantaloupe sorbet
Ginger ice cream
Pineapple and coconut semifreddo
Balsamic roasted strawberry ice cream
Greek frappe coffee ice pops
Peach and blueberry sorbet
Stracciatella ice cream (I still dream about this one)
Blackberry ice cream

Alas, I didn’t have the time to photograph most of them, which is kind of sad because I’m dying to share the recipes, but I did get the chance to photograph the blackberry ice cream that I made just a few days ago.

Blackberries are perhaps my favorite berries even though blackberries are technically fruits. That dark blue, glistening color and the smooth texture of their plump little drupelets is irresistible to me. I love eating them just as they are, savoring their sweet and tart notes, but in ice creams, jams and tarts, they are even more delicious.

Blackberries are full of antioxidants, vitamin C and fibers but I wouldn’t want to sell you this ice cream as a healthy one. Well, it has cream, eggs and sugar so who would I be kidding. It has, however, an amazingly fresh and fruity as well as slightly mellow creamy flavor with a hint of vanilla and lemon, paired with a rich, velvety texture that is highly addictive. Not to mention that gorgeous purple color. I could eat scoop after scoop without ever wanting to stop, but I had to control myself. Will you be able to?

Reminder: the Yummy Supper cookbook giveaway is still running so go to this post for a chance to win a copy. Thank you to all who have already left their comments!

Blackberry ice cream
Adapted from Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones

Use fresh sweet blackberries but if the ones you find are on the tart side, add a bit more sugar to the blackberry pureé (about 20 g more).

Yield: about 1 kg

Ingredients

for the blackberry pureé
300 g fresh blackberries
80 g caster sugar
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

for the ice cream base
6 medium-sized egg yolks
120 g caster sugar
440 ml cream, full-fat (35%)
190 ml whole milk
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Special equipment: small food processor or blender, fine sieve, plastic wrap, ice cream machine (optional yet preferable)


Preparation

make the blackberry pureé
In a small saucepan, add blackberries and sugar and stir well. Place pan over medium heat and cook for about 10 minutes or until the blackberries soften and the liquid that they have released has somewhat reduced, stirring frequently.
Let cool slightly. Transfer the berries, their juices and the lemon juice to a small food processor or blender and pureé until smooth. Pass half of the mixture through a fine sieve and into a medium-sized bowl, pressing with a spatula to extract as much pureé as possible from the berries. Discard the solids and pour the rest of the pureé into the bowl with the strained pureé. Stir gently to combine, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge.

make the ice cream base
In a medium-sized bowl, add the egg yolks and half the sugar (60 g) and whisk well to combine. Set aside.

In a medium-sized, heavy bottomed saucepan, add the cream, milk, the rest of the sugar (60 g) and salt, place over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves and heat until the mixture is warm but not hot.
Very slowly, pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking quickly and continuously so the eggs don’t curdle. Pour mixture into the saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, making sure to keep scraping the bottom of the pan. Stir the mixture until it thickens and coats the spatula.

Pour the custard through a fine sieve and into a clean bowl. Add the vanilla extract and stir well.

Fill a large bowl with ice cubes and a little water, and place the bowl with the ice cream mixture on top. Stir the mixture with a spatula in order to cool it down. Once cool, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.

Whisk the blackberry pureé into the chilled ice cream base and pour it into your ice cream maker. Continue, following the manufacturer's instructions.

Alternatively, if you don't have an ice cream maker, empty the ice cream mixture into a container suitable for the freezer. Put mixture in the freezer, take it out after 40 minutes and whisk it very well. You can also beat it with a spatula vigorously (or you can use a blender, or even a stick blender).
Continue doing the same thing every half hour, until it's too thick and frozen to beat or whisk. The whole process will take about two and a half hours.

Cherries (and apricots): the dessert

The hardest thing when dealing with cherries is the pitting part. I admire how the French add them to their clafoutis with their pits still in, adding a sense of danger to the innocent act of savoring a pie.

I prefer to err on the side of caution and pit them first. Being accident-prone, it is guaranteed that I will bite hard into one of them and break a tooth. Besides, pitting cherries gives me the opportunity to get lost in my own thoughts for a while, perhaps daydream about the flavor of what’s about to be cooked. That makes the repetitive act a touch more bearable.

I also love how the British and Americans use not only their cherries but all their summer stone fruits; adding them to the bottom of a pie dish, mixing them with sugar and lemon, topping them with some sort of pastry, either flaky, crumbly or otherwise, in order to create their signature pies, crumbles, cobblers and crisps. All types of baked fruit desserts that were unknown to me for the largest part of my life.

Now, I find myself smitten by them and by the fact that even though they are uncomplicated and quick to make, they produce the most flavorful of results. Like this crisp, or crumble, I really cannot understand what the difference is between the two, so let’s call it a crumble. A sweet cherry and apricot almond crumble that while it was baking in my oven the other day, I was filled with anticipation to taste it as my home was overtaken by tantalizing aromas.

When I took it out of the oven, the bubbling red juices from the fruits at the bottom had made their way to the top, piercing through the crunchy topping, creating an irresistible sight.

It may not look as pretty on the plate as a nice triangular piece of glossy, chocolate ganache tart, a fresh-berry tart with crème pâtissière or a puff pastry fruit tart, but as with many desserts containing cooked down, juicy fruits, it is messy, beautiful and oh so delicious.

The cherry juices fill the bottom of the dish and marry with those from the honeyed apricots producing a sweet and sharp symphony of flavors that along with the incredible fruity smell, the plump texture of the cherries and the tender, fleshy apricots, the crunchy, buttery topping with the deep flavor of dark sugar and the hint of gingery spice in the background, as well as the nutty flavor from the almonds, it’s enough to make you want to eat all of it on the spot. It’s a simple yet genius dessert.

Cherry and apricot almond crumble
Slightly adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Even though this dessert requires that you turn your oven on, it is really worth it even if it’s really hot where you are right now. Besides, it doesn’t take more that 15 minutes to prepare. Well, without counting the cherry pitting, but then again you can be brave and add them as they are. Just make sure you inform those who are going to eat it.

The apricots I used were a little on the sour side. If yours are sweeter, you can add less sugar to the filling or a little more lemon juice.

I served the crumble with crème fraîche as I prefer the tanginess that balances the sweetness of the dessert, but you can also serve it with vanilla ice cream or unsweetened whipped cream.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

for the almond crumble
80 g all-purpose flour
80 g caster sugar
80 g soft light brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of salt
80 g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
80 g blanched almonds, coarsely chopped

for the filling
450 g fresh sweet cherries, pitted
450 g fresh apricots, pitted and quartered
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon, grated
70 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or the scraped seeds of a vanilla bean)

Special equipment: cherry pitter, round baking dish 22 cm in diameter and at least 5 cm deep, rimmed baking sheet


Preparation

make the almond crumble
In a medium-sized bowl, add the flour, caster and light brown sugar, ginger, salt and whisk briefly to combine. Add the cold cubes of butter and with your fingertips, rub it in until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the chopped almonds and cut them into the mixture using a knife. Don’t work the mixture too much.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes, so the topping chills.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 190°C.

make the filling
In a large bowl, add the pitted cherries, the pitted and quartered apricots, lemon juice and grated zest, sugar, and vanilla bean paste (or scraped vanilla seeds). Mix well with a spatula until well combined and empty into your baking dish.

Take the topping out of the fridge and scatter it evenly over the fruit, pressing some together between your fingers to create small chunks that will become even more crispy once baked.

Place the baking dish on a thin, rimmed baking sheet to catch any fruit juices that might bubble over and place it on the low-medium rack of the preheated oven. Bake the crumble for 40-45 minutes until the fruits are bubbling and the topping is crunchy and golden brown.

Serve warm with crème fraîche, vanilla ice cream or unsweetened whipped cream.

This type of baked fruit dessert is usually eaten warm but I rather enjoy it cold as well, even straight from the fridge.

You can keep it in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, for a couple of days.