Ilse's Kitchen - culinary adventures of a girl who loves to eat

Here we go again - the fourth cucumber, avocado and smoked salmon recipe in the sequence and definitely a great one to add to the list. Creamy, delicious and simple, the result you get is worth much more than the 7 or so minutes of time it takes to prepare this recipe.  Ingredients (serves 1): 3/4 cucumber 35g smoked salmon  2 tablespoons cream cheese 1/4 red onion, sliced 1 avocado 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 small clove garlic, minced 1 tablespoon olive oil  salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon capers optional as garnish: black sesame seeds  Instructions: 1. First, cut the cucumber into spaghetti noodles. You can do this using a spiralizer or a julienne grater. Set aside in a large bowl. 2. Using a hand blender, blend together the avocado, mustard, olive oil, and garlic until smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  3. Mix the blended avocado with the cucumber noodles. Place in a dinner bowl and top with the smoked salmon, cream cheese, c...

I’ve been doing a lot of smoked salmon dishes lately. They’re all slightly different, but one thing many of them have in common is the avocado-salmon pairing, which is just lovely. Here’s yet another take on it, in a simple fuss-free salad with this lovely recipe by Melanie of the Fuss Free Cooking blog. Ingredients (serves 2): 60g arugula (rocket) lettuce 100g smoked salmon, torn into pieces 1 avocado, sliced 1/2 large cucumber, sliced into half moons 2 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted 1 lime, juiced 4 tablespoons olive oil optional: drop of sesame seed oil Instructions: 1. In a small bowl, mix the lime juice, olive oil, sesame oil and 1/2 of the sesame seeds. 2. Toss the arugula, avocado and cucumber in a bowl and top with the smoked salmon. Drizzle over the dressing. 3. Top with the remaining half of the sesame seeds and serve.

It sounds strange, but Mexico has great sushi. Some of the best I’ve ever had, I think. Lots of fresh fish and best of all, they use cream cheese as an ingredient. Pretty fantastic. Salmon and cream cheese make a great pairing. Also, it turns out, when you exclude the ingredients that makes them ‘sushi’ - the rice and the nori (seaweed). Like this version, that fits right into the low-carb, high fat Keto diet. Ingredients (makes one good-size roll): 150g smoked salmon 120g cream cheese 1/2 avocado, sliced 1/4 red onion, halved and sliced 1-2 teaspoons white sesame seeds 1-2 teaspoons black sesame seeds few sprigs of fresh chives * This works really well with a combination of cucumber and carrot too. Or mango. Just make sure they’re cut into long thin strips and line them up along the centre with the avocado. Need: A sheet of plastic foil and a sushi rolling mat Instructions: 1. Spread a piece of plastic foil over a sushi rolling mat. Take the salmon and spread it, ...

Sunday is brunch day - and this Sunday I’m having eggs. I’ve been eating an insane amount these last days, so I opted for a low carb, bread-free version today. Ingredients (serves 1): 1 avocado 2 eggs few slivers of smoked salmon  fresh dill and chives salt and freshly ground black pepper dash of olive oil  Instructions: 1. In a bowl, beat the eggs with some salt and pepper.  2. Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan and add the eggs. When the outsides are starting to set, stir. Repeat this a few more times until the egg is nearly all cooked, then turn off heat.  3. Cut the avocado in half and remove the seed. Pour some scrambled egg on top of each half and the remaining egg on the plate beside them. Top with salmon and fresh chives and dill. 

I’m a big dairy fan, and almost always have yoghurt in the house. Usually Greek, as I like my yoghurt thick and creamy. So when I was looking for easy smoked salmon recipes and came across these salmon yoghurt bowls by That Clean Life, it looked like a pretty good idea. Why not savoury yoghurt bowls, instead of sweet? This is basically the yoghurt bowl version of a salmon-cucumber-avocado roll, minus the rice. Not bad, not bad at all :) Ingredients (serves 2:) 100g smoked salmon 1/2 cucumber, peeled and sliced 1 avocado, sliced 1 cup Greek yoghurt (I used cottage cheese) 1 tsp fresh dill, chopped some flakey sea salt or fleur-de-sel 2 tsp avocado oil (I used olive oil) 2 wedges lemon Instructions: 1. Divide the yoghurt over two bowls. Top with the cucumber, avocado and smoked salmon. 2. Sprinkle over some sea salt and oil. Garnish with fresh dill and a lemon wedge and serve.

The menu headings on this blog probably give it away - I eat a lot of salads. Especially when it’s hot. Or when I feel bloated. Or when I’m particularly lazy. It’s a kind of ‘cooking without cooking’ and as someone with quite a bit on my plate most days (in the figurative sense ;)), I can appreciate that. Ideas that leave me eating well but with time to spare are always quite welcome in this kitchen. Ingredients (serves 2): 1 can tuna in water, drained 1/3 cucumber, cut into cubes 1 avocado, seeded, peeled and diced 1/2 red onion, chopped 1 large scallion, copped 1 handful cilantro and parsley, chopped 1 tablespoon lime juice 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/4 teaspoon chili powder (I used cayenne pepper) a dash of cumin salt and pepper to taste Instructions: 1. Place the avocado, cucumber, red onion, scallion, tuna, cilantro and parsley in a bowl.  2. For the dressing, mix the olive oil, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper.  3...

Slow Sundays are for great brunch dishes - and since I recently learned how to poach an egg, I decided to go poached. Not a bad choice: this dish made my day before the clock even hit noon. The roast tomatoes are a lovely compliment to the avocado and egg. Ingredients: 2 very fresh eggs 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar handful cherry tomatoes 2 slices wholewheat bread 1 avocado juice of 1/2 lime a dash of tabasco sauce or sprinkling of chili flakes salt and freshly ground pepper to taste olive oil Instructions: Preheat your grill. 1. Place the tomatoes in an oven-proof dish and stick in the oven under the grill for about 15 minutes. 2. Brush some olive oil on the top and bottom of each slice of bread and place under the grill, removing when nice and crispy. 3. Mash together the avocado and lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Instead of tabasco, I stirred in some chili flakes. (Be careful not to add more lime juice or your avocado smash will get ...

This is a dish that came back over and over as I was growing up. And while it’s not particularly spectacular in any culinary sense, it’s wholesome and it’s gooood. As far as I’m concerned, that alone makes it a pretty good starter - although if you're serving this as part of an hours-long eating fest with lots of different dishes, I'd recommend scaling down the size by cutting each avocado into thirds or even quarters rather than halves. It makes a pretty good brunch dish too. The added bonus: this is so easy it barely qualifies as cooking. Ingredients (serves 4): 1 ripe avocado 1 can of tuna (145g) 1 small onion, finely chopped 3 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 tablespoon ketchup salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste Instructions: 1. Drain the tuna, put in a bowl together with the onion, mayonnaise and ketchup, and use a fork to mix well. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. 2. Cut the avocados in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, heap some avocado ...

My body craved protein this morning, my soul wanted greens. Why not both, my mind thought. So both it was. Ingredients: 2 eggs 1 tablespoon milk handful arugula (rocket salad) 1/3 avocado, diced 1 teaspoon lemon juice olive oil dash of yellow curry powder pinch of salt Instructions: 1. Whisk together the eggs, milk and a pinch of salt. 2. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a small frying pan and add a dash of yellow curry powder, mixing them together. Then add the eggs. 3. Heat over medium heat for a couple of minutes until the bottom is set but the middle is still slightly runny. Flip over and heat for another minute. 4. Mix the arugula and diced avocado and sprinkle with olive oil and lemon juice. 5. Place the omelette on a plate and heap the arugula and avocado on top, in a little heap.

Mexico - once it nestles in your heart, it’s a country you never forget. The colours, the vibrance, its tastes and its smells. After four years there even the hustle and bustle of Mexico City have somehow become part of me - no matter how long I stay away.  These times bring out nostalgia in me, so I’ve been doing a lot of nostalgic cooking - and that means posting nostalgic recipes. Here’s a lovely and incredibly easy recipe for quesadillas - kekas for short - with chorizo. I hope you enjoy it.  Ingredients: 60g chorizo, sliced and chopped (*you want a soft chorizo, not the hard dried type) 125g mozzarella, shredded 2 medium-size plum tomatoes, chopped 4 small flour tortillas 1/2 avocado, cut in slices salsa roja (click here for my  salsa roja recipe ) Instructions: 1. Mix the tomato, chorizo and mozzarella and divide into four - a quarter for each tortilla. 2. Spread over the tortillas so that it covers half of the surface and fold shut, as in the ...

Do you ever wake up with asparagus cravings? I did this weekend, but it was early, and I had an  equally strong need for it to involve very little effort. The perfect solution: asparagus on toast. Ingredients (makes 1): 1 large tbsp cream cheese 1/4 avocado handful alfalfa few drops lemon juice 2 slices serrano ham 2 asparagus spears dollop of butter 1 slice rustic bread Instructions: 1. Peel the asparagus and cut off the bottom cm (or two, depending on how long your 'tough bottoms' are). 2. Melt the butter in a skillet and add the asparagus spears. Sautée for about 5 minutes, turning them every now and then so they don't burn. 3. In the meantime, mash the avocado into the cream cheese and add a few drops of lemon juice. Toast the bread. 4. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the bread. Layer the serrano ham onto it, and cover with alfalfa. On top, place the asparagus spears. Serve immediately.

Tuna tartare, the story holds, was invented in Los Angeles in 1983. Chef Shigefume Tachibe is believed to be the first who came up with the recipe, putting it on the menu at Chaya Brasserie that year as a Japanese-French fusion dish. Chef Shigefume did a good thing that day. In a nutshell, tuna tartare (like its meaty cousin) is basically raw tuna steak, chopped up with a few spices tossed in. It's a wonderfully simplistic dish, and making or breaking it all boils down to the ingredients you use. If you've got good products there's very little that can go wrong here. I found this a lovely way to serve tuna as a starter without heading straight in the sushi direction (and much easier to combine with other courses). Ingredients (serves 4): (time: 15 minutes) Tuna Tartare 350g sushi-grade tuna 1 tsp dijon mustard* 6 capers, very finely chopped 1 tsp chives, finely chopped 1 shallot, finely chopped 2 avocados, diced 3 yellow tomatoes** zest of 1/2 lemon 1 ...