Tag: seafood

Smoked Salmon Tartare

tartare 2Today’s recipe is something I quickly made yesterday because I had no intention of hanging out in the kitchen for too long — it was HOT! The temps are passing the 30s here in the Netherlands, and as much as I love warm weather, I am not a fan of cooking elaborate meals in the heat (with the exception of a roast chicken once in a while, but how elaborate is that?).
It was late in the afternoon, and I had no idea what to serve for dinner, so I made a quick dash to my local supermarket. When I spotted two thick, beautifu smoked salmon fillets, I immediately knew what I would make — salmon tartare! A light, refreshing dish with tons of flavor! With a salad, some bread and a cold soup (I’ll be posting the recipe here tomorrow), it was the perfect dinner to end a steamy summer day! PS: I used ring molds to serve the tartare, but you can also serve it with toast or little boats made from Belgian endive. Enjoy!

Smoked Salmon Tartare
Serves 4

  • juice of 1 small lemon
  • 1 ½ tbsps good olive oil
  • ½ tsp Dijon mustard
  • 3 tbsps chopped chives
  • fleur de sel
  • freshly cracked pepper
  • ¼ cucumber, finely diced
  • 400g smoked salmon fillets, diced
  • crème fraîche, thinly sliced lemon & microgreens, to serve

In a medium bowl, whisk the lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to make a vinaigrette. Stir in the chopped chives, cucumber and salmon. Mix well and refrigerate for at least an hour. When ready to serve, use a ring mold to form the individual tartares. Top each one with a little crème fraîche and garnish with lemon, a scattering of microgreens and a good grinding of pepper.

Shrimp Croquettes

shrimp croquettes
A few years ago, we celebrated my birthday weekend in Brussels. One of the first places I wanted to eat at was La Mer du Nord. Those shrimp croquettes are the best!

Last year, I worked on a recipe production for tapas dishes for the Dutch women’s magazine, Vriendin. One of the recipes I developed was spanish croquettes with ham and peas. They were really delicious, and they got me thinking about making one of my favorite kind of croquettes — shrimp croquettes!
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Squid Ink Seafood Tagliatelle

Seafood tagilatelleThis past summer we visited Duras once again — that lovely village in the southwest of France that stole my heart years ago and which I plan to call ‘home’ one day. Over the years we fell in love with a few of the restaurants both in Duras and in the surrounding area. I have my favorite place to eat a good duck confit, a place that makes a consistently perfect omelet and a place that serves the best menu du jour ever. That place is called La Terrasse (4, Place Jean Bousquet), and that place was the inspiration for this wonderful dish.
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Lunch Date Saturday: Krab aan de Haven (Almere-Haven)


Krab aan de haven

It has been a while since I did a ‘Lunch Date Saturday’ review, so without further ado, let’s get on with my experience at Krab aan de Haven yesterday, a seafood restaurant located in Almere-Haven. It isn’t a new restaurant. It’s been there a while and has had it good moments (being chosen as best restaurant in the city by Robert Kranenborg in 2006) and its lesser moments (having to be helped by Herman den Blijker’s restaurant makeover program ‘Herrie Gezocht’ in 2011). I am a huge seafood fan and had yet to visit the restaurant. It’s hard to believe that yesterday was my first time. Perhaps the reason is because I’m quite biased when it comes to choosing places to eat out. I usually prefer restaurants outside of my own city. Not because the restaurants here are horrible (although we certainly have a few disasters), but because the atmosphere is quite different in other cities, in my opinion.
That was my first thought when I stepped into an empty Krab aan de Haven yesterday afternoon.
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