SUMMER SALAD

Summer has arrived!
Here in Belgium, people are sitting on any possible surface to catch till the last second of sunshine and everybody's smiling. To you passing, to dogs passing, to planes passing, to anything really, just smiling. It must be the sun. Or drinking beers, in the sun. But hey, we've been waiting for it 345 days, so now we're gonna enjoy it!

We've had peaks of 29°(say whaaaaat?) so I give them a few days before they call it a "heat wave".
As an Italian I feel it's my duty to make fun of northern people and the whole drama of these 29° when, where I come from, you start saying "It's getting quite hot" when it goes over 38°.
On the other hand, they make fun of me and my furry ear-warmers the other above mentioned 345 days of winter, so I guess the joke is actually on me.

Anyway, the real news is we can finally eat salads!
We've been eating them all winter long, I know, but let's be honest, that was mainly out of lazyness (or desperation. See HERE for details.) And it's now, eating in the garden under the sun of 9pm (again, say whaaaaat? Only, for real this time) that we're really gonna enjoy the refreshing juicyness of fresh vegetables.

So, this evening we've had butterhead lettuce (honestly, how beautiful is it?), red paprika, cucumber, feta cheese and olive oil. Never missing: freshly ground black pepper. Extra plus point, all the vegetables had been grown in Belgium so, km0: check.

Directions:
- chop
- ground
- eat

What's your salad today?

IT'S ALL ABOUT CHOPPING

So, sometimes it happens that you get out of your office with a terrible headache because, thanks to your new frugal way of life, you're not used to heating anymore. So you're actually really happy at the thought of your 8 kilometers by bike, even though you arrived at that office that it was still night, and you're leaving and it's actually night again. Still, you're happy. You need some fresh air, so you're just happy.
You're happy because you still don't know that the fresh air you're aching for looks more like a tornado rather than a breeze. A crazy wind that blows at oh-so-many-freaking-km/hour that, going down a road with an inclination of the 20% you still have to pedal.
But then, at a certain point, you feel better 'cause yes, it's almost done, you're almost home.
And that's when you're almost run over by a men that didn't understand that the prolonged sticking out of your left arm did actually mean that you wanted to turn left. He probably thought it was some ballet exercise. Probably, though, he didn't find it gracious enough cause, first, he honks, and then he even insults you. He really didn't like it.
Have I already said that it's been raining cats and dogs all along? After you live in Belgium for more than a year you tend not to find it very remarkable anymore, but of course it was raining. A lot.
But still, you finally arrive home, really really hungry because, honestly, how can anyone have lunch in half an hour? so you just managed to drink (half of) your soup. But it was also your first day of work, and you're just so tired. So tired that, for a fraction of a second, you even whish you had powder magic soup. That tired.

And then you open the fridge and you see them: some savoy cabbage, an apple, and some nuts.
And then, thank god, it's all about chopping.

SURVIVAL TIMES AND WINTER SALAD

I don't know how it's going there, but here in Belgium it really feels like, after some two, whole weeks of autumn, winter has come. It's time for creamy soups, gratens, casseroles, pies, pures... All these warm, thik, consistent meals that make winter almost a joy, a good reason to cuddle up in your blanket with your mug of thick hot choccolate.

So, my recipe of today, is a salad.

Because, let's be honest, when you're spending your time reading buried in your blanket sipping hot tea, pies and casseroles are nice just if someone else is making them.
And you start to feel hungry, and you have the painful certainty that no one else is going to cook for you, and your estimate time of survival out of the pre-mentioned blanket is of about 5 minutes.

Which, luckily, is exactly the time you need to prepare this winter salad.
And a toast with melting cheese, of course.

So, what you need for this tasty version is:

- raisins + red wine vinegar
- endive
- apples
- walnuts
- gorgonzola dolce

The only real direction concerning this salad, is that the very first thing you might want to do is to put the raisins in a small cup and cover them with red wine vinegar. Just to give them the time to soak it up.

Then you just get lost in a crazy chop and mix dance, at last you add the raisins (i pour all the vinegar that might be left as well) and, done.

You might even roast the walnuts in a pan with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, but this really depends on how active you feel.

If you're indeed wondering "What about salt and pepper? Do we have to add olive oil?", here is where the wonder of this salad comes in: flavors are so well balanced that you don't even need to season it.

Now, try and say you don't love winter salads.

CHICKPEAS, ONION AND MINT SALAD, CHINESE CABBAGE AND OLIVES –YES, IT’S ANOTHER SALAD, WE JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH- AND SMOKED CHEESE SANDWICH.

To the discovery of the mysterious ingredient!

Days of anxious wait have preceded the arrival of our “panier bio” of the week. We got all excited reading about this chinese cabbage no one had ever heard about before and we started to make all kind of conjectures about it: would it be still green? Still crunchy? Still stinky when you boil it?

And then day came. It arrived. In all its funniness. Yes, because this is what it looks like.

Isn’t it adorable? Honestly, I have no idea why it’s called chinese, but I would have found lots of other more appropriate names for it: gnome cabbage. Or unicorn cabbage. Or raindrop cabbage. Just to mention a few.

So, many, more, approriate name.  more in line with it’s funniness.

Whatever, it’s still really funny.

And stimulating, I would add.

INGREDIENTS:

Ø  Salad 1: chickpeas, onion and mint salad

-          Chickpeas

-          Onion

-          Mint

-          Olive oil

-          Salt

(Please do not underestimate the importance of this ingredients list: to forget to add salt would be a catastrophy).

Ø  Salad 2: chinese cabbage and olives salad

-          Chinese cabbage

-          Olives

-          Olive oil

-          Salt

(Same as before PLUS, I’m also giving you a priceless tip, in case the exoticness of the chinese cababge was about to discourage you from trying this super nice salad: it can be replaced with savoy cabbage, that tastes exactly the same. –Though, wothout being as funny, I have to say).

Ø  Smoked cheese sandwich

-          Smoked cheese

-          Bread

-          Salt and pepper

Without indulging on directions (I trust you), I think it’s just important to remind that, if you’re using dried chickpeas, you should remember to leave them in a bowl full of water for 24 hours and boil them for half an hour before eating them.

I also recognize, though, that if you are in a dried-beans-excitement as I am, you already know this while, if you’re not sharing this whole excitement, you might not be that concerned, since the only thing you have to do with canned beans is to open the can.

Well, ok, I thin that's all.

INGREDIENTI:

Ø  Insalata 1: Insalata di ceci, cipolla e menta

-          Ceci

-          Cipolla

-          Menta

-          Olio d’oliva

-          Sale

(Vi prego di non sottovalutare l’importanza di questa lista degli ingredienti: dimenticare di aggiungere il sale sarebbe una catastrofe).

Ø  Insalata 2: Insalata di cavolo cinese e olive

-          Cavolo cinese

-          Olive

-          Olio d’oliva

-          Sale

(Vedi sopra. INOLTRE, vi do anche un impagabile consiglio, nel caso l’esoticità del cavolo cinese fosse sul punto di scoraggiarvi dal provare questa buonissima insalata: può essere sostituito con la verza, che ha esattamente lo stesso sapore. – Nonostante non sia altrettanto buffa, mi sento di aggiungere).

Ø  Toast con formaggio affumicato

-          Formaggio affumicato

-          Pane

-          Sale e pepe

Senza soffermarci sui preparativi (mi fido di voi), credo sia importante ricordare che, usando I ceci secchi, dovete ricordarvi di lasciarli in una ciotola piena d’acqua per 24 ore, e di bollirli per mezz’ora prima di mangiarli.

Certo è che se anche voi, come me, siete in questa “fase di esaltazione da legumi secchi”, questo lo sapete già e, se invece non doveste sentire tutta questa euforia, potrebbe non interessarvi più di tanto, considerato che l’unica cosa da fare prima di mangiare legumi in scatola è aprire la scatola.

Bè, ok, credo che sia tutto.