Appetising lettuce rolls with smoky red fish

All kinds of snack rolls are essentially cool. But as is the case with most dishes, there's something inside us screaming 'I WANT TO EAT SEASONAL'! And despite all the coolness factor in ham rolls with cheese filling, I don't quite feel like them now. Come on, it's not even raining. And the hold-your-skirt-or-you'll-go-home-without-it wind does not really count.

Even though I didn't know it before, I now know that lettuce can be rolled into a cool summery appetiser.

That's why they invented the phrase sex, drugs 'n' lettuce rolls, baby!


Lettuce rolls with smoky red fish

lettuce leaves
light grapes
raisins

about 200 g garlic flavoured cream cheese
1/2 dl diced tomatoes
1/2 dl pieces of smoked red fish
1 tbsp raisins

1. Mix cream cheese with diced tomatoes, smoked fish and raisins.
2. Spread the mixture onto lettuce leaves and make them into rolls. Place them into the fridge for a half an hour (I didn't do that, but it will make the filling stiffer).
3. Cut the rolls into bite-sized pieces and top with a grape and a raisin.

They actually have this fresh feeling to them, which is unusual for this kind of appetisers. There's just about enough smoky fish flavour that is complemented by the sweetness of the raisins. The grapes are good on the rolls, but I'm wondering if olives would do an even better job. Next time, right?

An almost traditional green summer salad

There's rhubarb season all over food blogosphere and I've been able to miss it. Well, not really as my fridge still is packed with rhubarb stalks all the time and every weekend comes with a new pile of them, fresh from my grandmother's garden. No way we could eat them all fresh by just dipping them into sugar. Although on a second thought... still, no. Rhubarb is a gifted fruit, managing well in both sweet and savoury dishes. This time however this fruit is just an addition to a lovely summer salad, something almost traditional.

To speak of traditions, our family's most traditional summer salad is simple chopped green leaf lettuce with sour cream and sugar, often with radish. This is what my grandmother makes. This is what my other grandmother makes. This is what my mother makes. This is what we all love.

Everything was just fine until I came with the idea of adding yoghurt instead of sour cream or adding pineapple or walnuts or whatever. And from time to time, instead of the old and safe we eat the new and improved. For me the old and safe is very often the base for lunch in summer, for who'd like to eat heavily with this weather. This my today's try. Which I ate. Alone. Double the recipe, for heaven's sake!


Green summer salad
(serves one as a light meal or two as a side dish)

3 dl chopped green lettuce (we prefer 'chopping' with scissors)
1/2 dl chopped green onions
1/2 dl chopped rhubarb
1/2 dl chopped radish
1/2 dl yoghurt
1/2 dl cottage cheese
1-2 tsp sugar
pinch of salt

1. For the salad sauce mix together yoghurt, cottage cheese, sugar and salt.
2. Mix all ingredients together or set them in layers

Although setting the ingredients in layers looks really nice and really really nice, I prefer mixing the salad, because, you know, eating is not only about aesthetics. The salad is quite sweet and that is what I'm used to, but I suggest using only 1 tsp of sugar if you're not a sweettooth when it comes to lettuce. But the freshness, the everything - summer wouldn't be here without this salad. For me it is time for some sun and workout now!