Cool Cucumber Salad

A few days ago I was inspired to make a salad that was light, refreshing, and would remind me of hot summer days. Winter in Canada always seems long and harsh. By the end of February I long for those hot summer days...

All this day dreaming took me back to the innocent days of my childhood. All the kids at our families cottage running around freely, our mom's calling us for dinner and at the table waiting for us was "Mizerja" salad. Yummy, creamy, refreshing and of course delicious. There never seemed to be enough, we engulfed it, literally. The word Mizerja translated to a cucumber salad that is made with fresh cucumbers cut into thin slices, seasoned with a dash of salt and freshly ground pepper plus a generous amount of sour cream or whipping cream and often garnished with dill.

I was craving Polish Cucumber Salad, but without all all that extra fat and calories from sour cream or whipping cream. Yoghurt? Why not! I love yoghurt, especially natural Balkan style yogurt, it has a little bit of fat, but it tastes delicious and typically it is a good quality product. Plus it has much less fat and than sour cream or 30% whipping cream. Changing a recipe with a lot of fat to a small amount of fat and still keeping all that creamy texture, in this recipe really worked out well, a moment of brilliance. On an aside, I'm sure this dish would be similarly tasty using 1% or 0% yoghurt.

The brilliance of this recipes is straining the whey through which we eliminate a lot of excess water and sourness. The final result is a more creamy flavoured and thick textured yoghurt. To the yoghurt add thinly sliced cucumber, salt and pepper, and for a modern twist instead of dill add sliced mint leaves. Voila!! Easy and delicious.

Yes, this salad was perfect, a perfect salad for a hot summer day... now those hot summer days need to arrive. However I can only do so much.

For a full recipe click here.

Dining Out in London, Ontario

A few days ago my husband and I went out for dinner. I was very excited because we were going to eat at a local restaurant called MINT. Several of our friends ate there before and everyone was delighted with the service and delicious food.

In the middle of the week at 6pm there weren't that many customers. All the better for us because we had impeccable service. We were greeted at the door, our jackets were hung at the nearby closet and with a smile we had a choice of seating. Of course we sat in a beautiful and cozy booth with candle light, our evening started delightfully. More so, our server did a good job helping us pick a nice red wine to accompany our dinner, and with a glass of nice wine in a beautiful place the evening started just right.

I ordered the miso glazed scallops with Thai bacon as an appetizer and medium-rare tuna steak for the main course. My husband had salmon terrain for an appetizer and salmon steak for dinner. All our dishes were delicious. The scallops lacked a true miso taste but nevertheless were perfectly done and tasted amazing. I will definitely try to create something like that at home. The salmon dishes were fabulous.

Although we didn't have time for dessert the evening was flawless. The staff were well versed in knowledge of food and wine and were very accommodating if you needed anything changed. Food wasn't overpriced for an upscale restaurant and more importantly the entire experience was delicious. The evening was wonderful. We'll definitely go there again and bring family and friends to share a similar experience.