SPRING Cooking and . . . . .

Spring  Salads

Nasturtium buds

Using the best of the season, my favourite salad is leafy mixed greens with edible flowers and fresh fruits.  Simply drizzled with the juice of a lemon.  It does not need any oil, but it is served with fresh light natural yoghurt.

Fresh mixed leafy greens, nasturtium flowers and oranges make a beautiful spring salad.  Dress the salad with citrus dressing, serve as a garnish for grilled fish, meat and fried food.

Potato salad with orange saffron dressing, instead of using mayonnaise, it is another delightful salad.  It looks clean, clear, not creamy.

Cous salad, cooked couscous mixed with fruits and dressed in orange and olive oil dressing is substantial enough for lunch.  To dress the salad, merely adding with the seasoning, some fresh orange juice, olive oil over the mixture, and mix together.   These salads are among some samples, there are more than you can improvise yourself.
In my kitchen, the spring salads are dressed prior the serving.  I will write down the quantities of the salad dressing by approximation as I remember them.

Deep fried nasturtium buds

Citrus Dressing

Juice of a lime and a lemon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 teaspoon salt
(mix all together)

Orange Saffron Dressing
Soak a few strands of saffron in 1/2 cup hot water
1 juice of an orange
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil
(using a hand whisk, mix the ingredients together)
The colour of the dressing is beautiful yellow.


I picked the last lamb lettuce from my vegetable patch, and I composed it as a simple salad.  I added green beans and asparagus to the lettuce and dressed with olive oil, salt and some fresh lemon juice.

Lamb lettuce, bean and asparagus salad.

This salad, you can dress it on the table before serving, it is very fresh and served with cold pies or any meat dishes as you like.

A treat for Spring dishes is fried vegetables, vegetable rolls or spring rolls.  It is an indulgence, but we could shake it off by doing a long walk afterwards.

Fried nasturtium flowers and spring vegetable rolls

Nasturtium flowers

Fried nasturtium flowers in batter

Frying spring rolls

Freshly fried spring rolls

Spring Cooking 
Springtime is good for light and quick cooking,  It takes twenty minutes to cook for dinner. One pot cooking is easy to do:  pan-fried meat and vegetables (potato, pumpkin and onion). The vegetables need to be rubbed with oil before cooking.  The meat takes 9 minutes to cook for medium rare which allows enough time to rest, and followed by cooking the vegetables which take about 8 minutes to cook until golden brown.

In My Kitchen 

Pan frying lean and boned leg of lamb

Pan frying potato, pumpkin and onion

Green vegetable complements the dish, so I cooked asparagus which is in season right now, I kept them warm by placing them in the same pot while I was slicing the meat.

Keeping the greens warm together with
the pan fried vegetables

It was ideal cooking for four people.

Dinner was served within twenty minutes.  Herb's yoghurt was served for extra flavour.

Dinner is served

Often you have leftovers, in my case, the leftover meat was good to be served for the next day, like a cold or warm dish.  I decided to serve it as a warm dish with polenta and green beans. The lamb was sliced thinly and drizzled with the jus and chopped fresh herbs.

Polenta, pumpkin and green beans

Warmed sliced lean lamb for the garnish.

Add Nasturtium petals for extra colour, and it looks more attractive.

Millions of Spring cooking are good for us all, it is a matter of using the right ingredients which are in season.

Simple Menu

Steamed Rice and Garnishes (Vegetarian)
(Javanese Cooking)
- Steamed white rice
- Sayur Lodeh
- Fried Tempeh

(Recipes in the old posts, please look in on these posts)

Rice -Thursday, 29 September 2011
Sayur Lodeh - Friday, 20 May 2011
Tempeh - Saturday, 21 May 2011




Until Next Post
Thanks for Visiting
Susy