Vegetables

Salad with peanut butter dressing, toasted poppy & sesame seeds

February 22, 2013

Creamy dressing coating salad vegetables, if you like the taste of poppy seeds on bread crusts then you’ll love them here giving the salad that same delicious toasted flavour.

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Pumpkin (or squash) in syrup

January 28, 2013

The trouble with phone conversations with the canning queen Gloria is that we fill each other’s head with ideas, far more ideas than I have the time to carry through. We play this game where I say I want to poach some butternut squash in syrup but I’m not sure how I would use it […]

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Lentil & dried lime soup (Shorbat Adas)

January 21, 2013

I’ve been making this aromatic spicy-warm soup to fill the belly since December’s cold snap. Its particular flavour comes from the slightly fermented aroma the dried limes bestow on the lentils. Each time I make it I swap one of the spices for another giving me subtle variations on the theme. It’s based on the […]

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Aubergine (eggplant) glazed with miso – Nasu Dengaku

October 17, 2012

I’ve made aubergine glazed with white miso for this post about 8-9 times, each time with slight changes and those adjustments make a difference to the eating experience. I’ll go into the details in a moment but first I want to discuss the aubergine itself. None of the nasu dengaku recipes I came across out […]

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Roasted fennel hummus (humous) with fennel and coriander seed flavoured oil

September 26, 2012

It was Max who gave me the idea of making roasted fennel hummus, when I posted my roasted fennel mayonnaise he wondered if he could make it vegan by replacing the mayonnaise with tahini, lemon juice and water…which obviously made my brain immediately turn to the idea of hummus. I ate this portion of fennel hummus […]

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Globe Artichoke – How to preparing them

September 19, 2012

If the globes are baby size and young, in which case they would look much thinner and an elongated shape to these, their inner leaves around the heart can be eaten, when they get to this stage the leaves become hard and leathery. The easiest way to tackle the outside leaves if like these globes […]

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My version of Imam Bayildi – Aubergine (Eggplant) stuffed with tomatoes

September 17, 2012

I found 4 variations in 4 cookery books I have of this dish and I suspect if I looked in other books I would also find further variations. It seems everyone puts their twist on what is essentially a very simple dish of aubergines stuffed with onion and tomato sauce. Claudia Roden’s version in Arabesque […]

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Quick Fresh Tomato Sauce for Spaghetti

September 9, 2012

This recipe is to be filed under my category For My Kids, recipes I’m adding for when my girls leave home. Girls, this sauce as you know it’s a good one to have to hand and can be done pretty much the time it takes to put the pan of water on for the pasta…kind […]

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Pan-fried seabass with roasted fennel mayo and sea aster – How to get crispy skin

September 7, 2012

Frying fish fillets like this seabass here is important for me to end up with crispy skin, I love it. I go through all the trouble of creating crispy tasty skin to then see Bikerboy removing and discarding it to the side of the plate. The sea aster to me tastes of mild spinach, I […]

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Roasted Red Pepper and Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise

September 6, 2012

The problem with making food to photograph is that you eat it, and I had to slap my own hand here. Originally I had roasted the peppers with the intent to make my red pepper hummus but as I had some mayonnaise left over after making my roasted fennel mayonnaise, I decided to turn it into […]

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Roast Fennel Mayonnaise

September 5, 2012

This mayonnaise has become my new favourite thing. I’ve had it today spread thickly on toast. And that was after having it for lunch as you see with pan fried seabass, new potatoes and sea aster. I must tell you I’ve also tried it with cold chicken – delicious – there seems no end to […]

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Mooli Rolls – Crudités Rolls (gluten-free)

September 2, 2012

I have copied the idea for these rolls from Marks and Spencer. I ate their version a few weeks ago and thought it was a great pretty idea of eating vegetables than the normal crudité stick shapes. I’ve served them here with a fatless soy dip but you could serve them with any glorious rich […]

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Roast Tomato Soup

May 27, 2012

This recipe will be filed under For My Kids, recipes for when my girls leave home. Buying the Tomatoes OK my darlings, this is simple and straight forward but it all hangs on the ripeness of the tomatoes, choose the deepest red ones you can find. This is the perfect time to buy them at […]

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Vegetarian / Vegan Dashi – Japanese Stock

May 18, 2012

The commonly known Japanese stock, dashi uses kombu (seaweed) and bonito flakes (fish), to make either the delicate very clear stock ichiban dashi, or the stronger fuller body flavoured niban dashi. It’s seriously worth making dashi from scratch, so simple and the flavour is beautifully clean, you can not compare it to instant dashi sachets for sale. This […]

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Cold Oil French Fries (Chips) Absorb Less Oil

February 4, 2012

I saw this method of chip making (French fries if you’re American) this week on America’s Test Kitchen and couldn’t wait to try it because it just seemed so easy and anything that’s easy if you have kids is a done deal for me. The other reason and most convincing was the topsy-turvy notion that starting […]

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