Crab Avocado Orange Salad with Honey Citrus Champagne Vinaigrette

Last night I made a new salad with fresh dungeness crab, avocado and oranges. Oranges right now are very sweet. The dish came out pretty and delicious. The hardest part is assembling it. Here is the recipe, which served 4.

Ingredients:

2 oranges, segments only, cut into about 1/3 inch pieces (cubes don't easily come from the orange segments)
1 avocado, peeled and seeded, cut into about 1/3 inch cubes
1/2 lb of fresh crab meat
Fresh watercress for garnish

For dressing:
2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 tablespoon of Champagne Vinegar
1 teaspoon of honey
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of orange juice
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Prepare the dressing first by whisking together in a bowl all the ingredients. Taste. Salt and pepper if needed. I did not use any.


2. To assemble salad on each plate I used a round metal mold about 3 inches tall (the biscuit cutter). Use avocado to make the first layer to completely cover the bottom and some, drizzle with some dressing. Next add a layer of oranges and drizzle with dressing. The last layer is crab, save some nice pieces to put on top. Again, drizzle a little bit of dressing on top of the crab. Carefully remove the mold. Garnish with fresh watercress.

Punjab Eggplant from Tasty Bite - new discovery

My new food discovery this week is Punjab Eggplant from Tasty Bite. This is an Indian eggplant dish that comes already cooked and all you need is to heat it up. Today I had it for lunch with red quinoa, soy nuggets and peas. Tasty food that does not have meat in it.

Russian Olivier Salad

Russian Olivier salad is a traditional salad in Russia and former USSR to serve on a special occasion like a birthday party or New Year's celebration. This year I made it for my husband's birthday.

The ingredients list is very basic: potatoes, carrots, peas and others. Dressing is the Mayonnaise. As with many other Russian dishes this salad has a great taste but needs work in presentation. Making something smothered in mayonnaise look sexy is a challenge. I also use ham instead of usual bologna, which I believe changes the name to stolichniy. My approach is cutting ingredients into small enough pieces so that every bite has most of them and using a round dish to arrange the salad on an individual plate with fresh parsley (shown above).

Here is the recipe I use. But most Russians eyeball the proportions of the ingredients depending on their taste and what they have in the fridge.

Ingredients:

3 medium yukon gold potatoes, boiled and cooled
3 eggs, boiled and cooled
5-6 small carrots, boiled and cooled
1 can (15.25 oz) of sweet peas, drained
6 small pickles
1 medium apple
1/4 of ham
2/3 cup of mayonnaise
Salt and pepper
Fresh parsley for garnish

Preparation:

Peel all the vegetables and apple. Remove the egg shell. Chop potatoes, eggs, carrots, pickles, ham, apple into small cubes (about 1/3-1/2 of an inch). Pickles and apple can be cut into even smaller cubes. Combine cubed ingredients with peas in a large bowl and mix with mayonnaise. Salt and pepper to taste. Keep salad in a fridge and serve cold with some fresh parsley on top.