The Recipe Room

If you love salads that are consistent enough to eat as a main course and have many different ingredients, then this Wild Rice Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette is for you! I invented it myself one day when a friend came round for lunch and I didn’t feel like cooking.

The second time I made it, I couldn’t remember all the exact ingredients I had used the first time, but that’s the great thing about it! You can use whatever ingredients you have available at the time, so it doesn’t always have to be the same. You can use any kind of hard or crumbly cheese, and any kind of fish. If you don’t like fish, use ham. If you’re not keen on capers, just leave them out or add something else you like.

I know sun-dried tomatoes aren’t the kind of thing we always have at home, so just use fresh tomatoes! And if you are feeling particularly lazy and can’t be bothered to make the vinaigrette, then just add olive oil, vinegar and salt. But I strongly recommend the mustard vinaigrette – it makes for a much tastier salad.

Apart from being a fun idea for a main meal at home, this salad is wonderful for picnics. It makes for a very complete, balanced and healthy dish, as it contains protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats. You could also try my rice salad with spinach and avocado. Very tasty!

I never tire of roulades, and neither do my taste buds. My personal favourites are chicken and bacon roulades with cream cheese and rosemary. For me, there is something about mixing two distinct flavours into one that has a strange appeal. Besides being easy to prepare, roulades combine two or more different foods, and by doing so, often create a surprising culinary sensation.

Often roulades are considered a fantastic dessert option. This Chocolate Roulade is absolutely scrumptious.

I myself am a “meat and potatoes girl”. Veggies are delicious, but nothing beats the idea of mixing two kinds of meat into one dish and having potatoes as the carbohydrate base. And I know I’m not alone. My girlfriends are known to throw pot luck dinners, granting me the opportunity to show off my culinary skills as well as the possibility of tasting others’ dishes. I take lots of ideas away from those meals, but my friends always demand that I bring these roulades! And that is just fine with me.

For your next dinner function, I recommend this dish. Not only is it quick and easy, but your friends will vote you “Top Chef” of the night.

What we need:

• 3 big potatoes
• 4 thin chicken fillets
• 250g bacon
• 3 tablespoons of cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon of rosemary
• a pinch of salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

How to make it:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees celsius.
2. Put some oil in an oven-safe form.
3. Peel and slice the potatoes.
4. Place the potatoes in the form, pour the olive oil and sprinkle the rosemary and salt over them.
5. Take the chicken fillets and pat them as flat as possible.
6. Spread the cream cheese onto the chicken and sprinkle the pepper over them.
7. Roll the chicken fillets into tubes and wrap the bacon around them.
8. Place the chicken and bacon rolls on top of the potatoes.
9. Place in the middle of the oven for approximately 20 minutes.
10. Serve with an iceberg and tomato salad.

Serves: 8

Time needed: 20 minutes

Level: easy

Sometimes in the evening I just want a little something. I feel like a small snack to put me to bed without a rumbling stomach so that I get my daily beauty sleep and well-deserved rest. (If I do say so myself!)

On other occasions, I have a house full of dressed-up friends and want to keep them entertained while they wait for the main dish. Sometimes on those occasions, a single glass of white wine just doesn’t cut it because their stomachs are rumbling.

Mini pancakes with savoury toppings is a great way to keep my mingling guests happy while still hungry enough to tuck into the main dish once it arrives on the table.
Be it an evening snack or a formal appetizer, these mini pancakes are perfect and always welcome. Spinach and mozzarella blended with tomatoes and pine nuts are a heavenly combination and will do the trick on any occasion. They are delicious – and so easy to make.

Be prepared to receive recipe inquiries!

What we need:

• 2 eggs
• 75g of flour
• 5 decilitres of milk
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of pepper
• 125g of mozzarella cheese
• 150g of fresh spinach
• 2 chopped cloves of garlic
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 1/2 decilitres of pine nuts

How to make it:
1. Whip together the eggs, flour and milk.
2. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the mixture.
3. Pour the paste into a mini pancake cast-iron skillet (or one by one if you don’t have one) and fry on middle temperature.
4. Crumble the mozzarella cheese over the mini pancakes when they start to harden.
5. Let the cheese harden.
6. Fry the spinach and garlic in a saucepan using some butter or olive oil.
7. Chop the tomatoes.
8. Add the chopped tomatoes and pine nuts to the spinach and garlic.
9. Place a tablespoon of the mixture onto the pancakes and serve immediately on a large plate.

TIP: If you don’t have an iron skillet for mini pancakes, you can use ready-made blinis found in most supermarkets. Or you can try a similar basic pancake batter recipe.

Serves: 8
Time needed: 20 minutes
Level: easy

When I have friends over for drinks before going out on the weekend, I always try to serve them some nibbles of something nice like an appetizer or canapés. There are a wide variety of options, but adding a little bread for carbohydrates gives you energy and helps prepare your system for a fun time out with friends!

Here is a recipe for courgette canapés with crayfish and avocado which is quick and easy, and helps avoid the laborious effort of making a full dinner. Needless to say, as a student, I can’t really afford to treat my friends to dinner every time we meet, but these snacks fill us up surprisingly fast and help me look like a fantastic hostess in front of my guests.

However, small “tapas-style” finger foods are great because they don’t cost me a fortune. They are good in social environments since we have to pass the plates around and eat with our fingers while chatting, drinking, and on the really rowdy nights, singing.

Put these on the table together with some other hot and cold nibbles, and your friends will leave the house happy for sure!

What we need:

• 1 large courgette
• 340g of crayfish tails
• 1 avocado
• 200ml of grated cheddar cheese
• 100ml of crème fraîche
• 100ml of chopped dill
• the juice and some finely grated peel of one lemon
• 4 pinches of pepper

How we make it:

1. Wash and chop the courgette into slices around 1/2 centimetre thick, about 24.
2. Pour the crème fraîche in a bowl and add the crayfish tails (peel and wash if needed).
3. Peel and chop the avocado into small pieces. Add to the crème fraîche.
4. Grate the cheese and add to the mixture.
5. Grate some of the lemon peel and add to the mixture and the juice from the lemon.
6. Chop the dill and add to the mixture.
7. Add the pepper.
8. Mix everything carefully.
9. Place a tablespoon of the mixture on top of the corgette canapés and place them on a place.

Enjoy!

Serves: 4-6 (24 canapés)
Time needed: 20 minutes
Level: easy