This oven-baked chicken tikka is dead easy to make. The most time consuming bit is threading the pieces of chicken onto the skewers. It also works really well with chunks of paneer.
The recipe is an adaptation of Meera Sodha’s version in her Made in India cookbook.
Continue reading
The Thai street snack miang kum (or miang kham) is the inspiration for this smoked salmon salad.
Miang kum is intense bite of hot-sweet-sour-salty bits and pieces wrapped in a cha plu leaf. Apparently the name translates to “all things in one bite”.
I’ve reproduced the flavours of miang kum in this salad, adding the lettuce and noodles to transform it into a more substantial dish. I made it with prawns the first time, but prefer the smoky element the salmon introduces.
Saltimbocca means ‘jumps into the mouth’ in Italian, presumably because it’s so delicious. It is good! Traditionally made with veal, I came across this recipe for pork saltimbocca in an issue of Waitrose magazine.
Actually it was the asparagus and cannellini bean salad that first caught my eye. The meat and salad combine beautifully to make a quick, tasty summer meal.
I know we’re due for another trip to Canada when my precious stash of butterscotch chips has run out…;-)
On the few occasions I’ve seen butterscotch chips for sale in the UK, they were in the specialty imports section and crazy expensive. So I tuck a few bags into my suitcase whenever we make the trip home. And Canadian houseguests have been known to arrive bearing butterscotch chips for me (and Goldfish crackers for the girls).
When oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies aren’t an option, these cranberry and white chocolate numbers are a decent alternative.
Mattar paneer is one of my favourite curries to make at home. It’s just never as fresh when you order it in a restaurant. The peas will have gone a bit grey and sad looking, and the paneer will be rubbery.
More often than not, they will have added cream as well, which seems unnecessary in a curry that contains cheese.
Muamba de galina is a flavoursome chicken and vegetable stew from Angola, and another foray into the world of African cuisine.
This rich and spicy dish is traditionally served with corn funge – a stiff porridge similar to polenta. Deliberately unseasoned, funge provides a starchy foil for the rich, spicy stew. Continue reading
Celeriac is generally considered to be a winter vegetable. Velvety celeriac soup, sausages with celeriac mash, beef stew simmered with carrots, celeriac and shallots – comfort food at its best.
Celeriac remoulade has opened my eyes to its warm weather possibilities. A fresh, lighter alternative to potato salad, we’ve been eating it all summer long. Continue reading
This prawn and noodle salad is pretty much a reinterpretation of a Vietnamese salad roll. I often make it for lunch, using whatever vegetables and fresh herbs I have on hand. Continue reading
As delicious as this recipe for grilled salmon with quinoa tastes, it’s the combination of textures that make it such a winner. The silky richness of the salmon, pop of quinoa, and juicy crunch of red pepper play beautifully off one another.
Kachumber is a simple, delicious Indian chopped salad that takes just minutes to make. It provides a welcome freshness to any Indian meal, and works particularly well with kebabs and grilled meat.
Kachumber is so straightforward to make that a recipe isn’t really necessary. But for the record, here’s the way I make it. Continue reading
Now that I’ve overcome a lifelong pressure cooker phobia resulting from the applesauce incident, I prefer cooking dried beans to buying tinned.
It’s more work, but with recipes like tonno e fagioli, the difference in texture and taste is worth the extra effort. Continue reading
Peaches and basil both say “summer” to me – and in this peach-basil sorbet they can say it together…
I made this sorbet with those little flat white peaches that have been appearing in the shops the last few years. The lovely rosy colour was a pleasant surprise – the result of leaving the skins on the peaches when I puréed them. Continue reading
Once exotic, hummus is now a grocery store staple. It is also now considered children’s fare (at least in the UK), along with fish fingers, chipolatas, and those mini Babybel cheeses. Both my girls adore sandwiches filled with hummus and sliced black olives.
Other vegetables are getting in on the hummus act. Butternut squash, red pepper, spinach and beet hummus are all a thing. Call me old fashioned, but if it doesn’t contain chickpeas and tahini, it’s not hummus – it’s a dip. Continue reading
Strawberry shortcake is America’s take on the quintessentially British scones with cream and jam. Fresher, looser, less “proper”, and somehow more bountiful – for me, strawberry shortcake wins hands down. Continue reading
A dish of lemon risotto with a heap of steamed asparagus is one of my favourite spring/summer meals. It also makes a great starter – in which case this recipe will feed four. Continue reading
In Canada a flapjack is another name for a pancake. Here in the UK, it’s a sort of baked oat square. Similar to a granola bar, a good flapjack is chewy and dense and sweet with golden syrup.
The first flapjack I tasted was not good – in fact, it was a huge disappointment. While it looked tempting enough in the sandwich shop with its generous coating of chocolate, it tasted of nothing but cheap oil and sugar, compacted itself into my molars and left a coating of grease on the roof of my mouth. I didn’t finish it – or buy another flapjack for a good ten years. Continue reading
Bruschetta al pomodoro is simplicity itself – so why write a post about it?
Two reasons:
“I told you once, I told you twice, all seasons of the year are nice for eating chicken soup with rice!” Maurice Sendak
From the moment I first read Maurice Sendak’s Chicken Soup With Rice to Nova, she was after me to make it for her supper.
More often than not, I opted for this Asian-inspired version, that uses the cooking liquid left after making crystal chicken. Continue reading
I’ve been making this classic Chinese dish for years – sometimes using prawns instead of chicken, or a veggie version with just tofu and mushrooms – and it’s always delicious. Continue reading
There are a lot of strong opinions about what makes a great martini. Personally, I’m pretty flexible. I’ve enjoyed them with gin and vodka – dry, wet or dirty. I’m happy with olives, lemon peel or a cocktail onion (though actually I think that’s a Gibson).
Two essentials for me: A great martini must be icy cold. And it must achieve a satisfying balance between its elements. Otherwise, it’s just a cold glass of gin…
I’m in the happy position of having two good friends who make great martinis. As Scott is visiting from Canada this week, I’m featuring his version here (with permission). Continue reading
Healthy without being worthy, quick to throw together, spinach salad makes a great supper on a warm evening.
For a veggie version, omit the bacon or replace it with thinly sliced cauliflower florets. Continue reading
Move over lemon ice cream… there’s a new kid in town.
I made this chocolate-raspberry ice cream for the first time other day. It certainly won’t be the last – all four of us were completely wowed by it.
The recipe couldn’t have been easier. Four basic ingredients – cream, chocolate, sugar, raspberries. And being a Philadelphia-style ice cream, there was no messing about with egg yolks and custard. Continue reading
Salsa verde (or “green sauce”) is the most wonderful Italian concoction. It goes particularly well with fish, and with some new potatoes and steamed green beans alongside makes a great weekday supper. Continue reading
At some point in my childhood, the responsibility for cooking the family meals shifted from my mum to my dad. I don’t remember what brought on this change – I’m not sure that I ever knew.
Before that point, I can recall him making only two things – the occasional roast dinner and his delicious sourdough bread. Once he became the main cook, Dad brought a typically structured approach to feeding the family. Continue reading
The distinctive taste of Angostura bitters sets this Antiguan pineapple bread apart from the other quick breads and loaf cakes I make.
I’m sure it would work nicely with vanilla as well, but given the last bottle of Angostura bitters I finished was “by appointment to his majesty King George VI” I’m very happy to stick to the original recipe. Continue reading
Champ – mashed potatoes with spring onions – is the most comforting of comfort foods. Apparently, it’s still sometimes served as a main dish in Northern Ireland, which would work for me…
We were introduced to pasta alle zucchini by our lovely Roman friend Mariella. She was a bit dismissive when she served it for dinner one evening, describing it as simple family fare, but we found zucchini and egg to be a winning combination. Continue reading
This is one of the simplest, tastiest and useful ways to cook chicken that I know. Crystal chicken is a meal in its own right, or perfect for adding to salads, sandwiches, stirfries and other dishes. I also make an Asian-flavoured chicken rice soup from the cooking liquid. Continue reading
Where have you been all my life, aloo achaar? Waiting quietly on page 50 of my well-worn copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s World of the East Vegetarian Cooking, that’s where. I must have flipped past you a hundred times on my way to the very spicy delicious chickpeas or diced potatoes with spinach recipe. Continue reading
Rhubarb crumble ice cream is an inspired idea – tart rhubarb, silky sweet cream, nuggets of cakey crumble. It’s not the most visually seductive of ice creams, at least when made with the chunky green stalks of rhubarb from my garden patch. None of that delicate pink forced rhubarb for us.
Lentils and smoked salmon make this a most satisfying main course salad. Easy to pull together on a weeknight, especially if you happen to have cooked lentils hanging about, as we often do. Continue reading
Pondering how to use up the remains of a jar of mint sauce that had been hanging about the fridge for too long, I hit upon the idea of making a batch of lamb and pea samosas.
Although I’ve made them for years, I still haven’t settled on a method for making samosas. Sometimes I buy frozen samosa wrappers from the Indian grocers. I’ve also had a go at making my own pastry (not a notable success).
Piyaz is a traditional Turkish bean and onion salad, typically garnished with slices of tomato and hardboiled egg. The recipe varies from region to region – in Antalya they add tahini to the dressing, which gives it a pleasing mellowness. Continue reading
Frangipane is such a beautiful word, conjuring up images of sugar and spice, flowers and French patisserie. These tasty little numbers with their moreish almond filling, tart slick of raspberry jam and flaky crisp pastry are as delicious to eat as the name suggests.
Cari ga, or Vietnamese chicken curry, is almost a chicken stew. With its familiar vegetable trio of carrot, potato and onion, it’s hearty enough to serve on its own, with maybe a hunk of baguette to soak up the sauce. Continue reading
Orecchiete means “little ears” in Italian, which gave Lyra a bit of a scare. “Are they really made from ears?” she asked – knowing it’s just about possible I would serve her a bowl of ears in the interest of reproducing some authentic regional dish.
I could see her trying to work out which poor animal’s ears they could possibly be before I set her mind at ease. Continue reading
Last November in Hong Kong we ate the most delicious stir-fried green beans one evening. Finding ourselves without dinner reservations on Saturday night, we were turned away from several places before finally landing a table in one of the many restaurants in the iSquare building on Nathan Road.
The love affair with zahatar continues around here. Is there nothing that isn’t improved by a generous sprinkling of this marvellous stuff?
This salad combines toothsome pearl barley with roasted vegetables and a creamy yogurt dressing. Essentially a cooked salad, it is freshened with peashoots and parsley. Continue reading
May is the start of strawberry season in the UK, and strawberries are going to feature large around here in the weeks ahead: strawberries on our cereal and in our smoothies, strawberry tops in our water, strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream, and Eton mess. Continue reading
While I’ve always found tabbouleh ever so slightly worthy, with kisir it was love at first bite. This Turkish bulghur wheat salad is a much more exciting number – from its vibrant orange colour to its fiery chilli kick. Continue reading
Ten More Bites 