Green Onion Dip

Croatia is without a doubt one of the most beautiful countries on this planet. Like second home to me, had to dedicate a page for this wonderful country. I spent a year working in Vinkovci as EFL teacher at a private language school. Also had an opportunity to work at the beautiful Dalmatian coast in Zadar for three months. I taught yoga, aqua aerobics and Bollywood dance to 4 star guests from all over Europe. In my free time I swam around the peninsula where my hotel was and went for long walks. Unforgettable time!

Before moving to Zadar on a bitter cold, rainy evening a "friend" took me to his family friends' house in a village near Dakovo (Slavonija). I was sort of surprised to see how welcoming they all were. They even served us food. And one of the items there was this wonderful Green onion dip they served us. As I was strictly vegetarian back then I cherished it like a child on candy. It is a MUST try and here is the recipe...

Green Onion Dip

Ingredients:

Half cup water, half cup creme cheese and half cup yogurt, 1/4 cup Lemon juice, handful of cashews (optional), 2 teaspoons onion powder (if available), salt to taste, 6 to 8 finely chopped scallions (green onion shoots)

Once I tried it with unflavoured Greek yogurt and it was as good as creme cheese and yogurt. If you are using Greek yogurt just add some water.

Steps:

1) Place water, lemon juice, cashews, onion powder and salt in a high-speed blender and process until creamy. This step can be skipped if you are not using cashews.

2) Mix half cup creme cheese with half cup of yogurt and half cup water; stir into a runny paste. Add the scallions and the paste made in step one. If you are not using cashews add the dry ingredients to the creme mix and then add scallions. Gently mix all of them together. 

3) Cover and let sit in refrigerator to chill and fuse flavours for about an hour.

4) Serve chilled with toasted bread, chips, flax crackers or sliced vegetables.

Spicy potato curry: For lonely nights and more...

Mom's cooking is the best I try to cook as well as her but never succeed. Having missed home all day, I decided to cook something Indian. I went to the kitchen and saw some potatoes which resulted into spicy potato curry :)

Step 1: Cut 4 medium side potatoes into small pieces. Cubes if you like. Make sure you place your potatoes in water to avoid oxidation and to remove excess starch. 

Step 2: Grind one medium size onion, some pieces of ginger root, chilly pepper and a handful of mint leaves into a thick paste.

These are some of the dry spices you would need. Cumin seeds, bay leaves, coriander powder and turmeric powder. These can be easily found at any spice stores or your Indian grocers.

Step 3: Into a pan add some cooking oil of your choice (butter, ghee, mustard, sunflower or olive oil would be good). The half table spoon of cumin seeds and bay leaves, let them crackle and turn slightly darker brown.

Step 4: Add your paste (mint, onion, chilly pepper and ginger) into the oil. Let the paste cook on a low to medium heat and add salt to taste. 

Step 5: Add some tomato puree/paste if you like. Else just cook for about 5 minutes and add the potatoes.

Step 6: Traditionally peas are added as well so if you like add peas or any other vegetables of your choice.

Step 7: Add about 3 cups of water and let to cook for about 20 minutes. When done it should look like the picture above. Now mash the potatoes slightly to give your curry a thick consistency. Serve hot with rice or bread of your choice.