Fake soufflé was one of mum’s dinner party staples in the 1970s, but I remember she found the name embarrassing.
As if she was cheating her guests by not providing a “real” soufflé instead of this light, fluffy, delicious concoction.
I think fake soufflé could do with a rebrand. Continue reading
Despite doing a science degree at university (or maybe because of it), I find regular moments of magic in cooking.
Egg whites stiffening into peaks, eggs and oil transforming themselves into mayonnaise, sugar melting into caramel – these things bring me genuine, uncomplicated pleasure.
Watching pita breads blowing themselves up like little balloons through the glass door of the oven is another one.
Spinach and water chestnut dip was all the rage in the 1970s, and I adored it.
An unlikely cast of ingredients – spinach, water chestnuts, powdered soup mix and mayonnaise – come together in the most silky, savoury, crunchy way imaginable.
As I remember, it was usually served in a hollowed out bread loaf, surrounded by chunks of bread for dipping. Continue reading
Years ago, my cousin part-owned a funky café-gallery called The Whip, in what was then a pretty scruffy part of east Vancouver.
The first time I ate there, I ordered the intriguingly named lotus salad – baby spinach tossed with blue cheese, dried cranberries and sunflower seeds, drizzled in a blackberry vinaigrette.
It was love at first bite, and I’ve been making my own version ever since. Continue reading
Plum butter – or pflaumenmus – is a German plum spread. Unlike the other jams I make, pflaumenmus is baked slowly in a low oven, which seems to intensify the flavour.
I made pflaumenmus for the first time last autumn. We hoovered up the first batch so fast, I had time to make a second one before the plum season ended.
This thick porridge of mung beans and rice might look like something Oliver Twist would have declined, but for me, a warm bowl of khitchri is pure comfort food. Continue reading
This is Ten More Bites first-ever guest post, brought to you by my daughter Lyra:
Hello! This is Lyra, writing this blog post today about how to make waffles.
We love to make waffles for breakfast and so long as you have a waffle iron it takes no more then fifteen minutes.
P.S. this recipe makes six large waffles…
When the girls were small, I’d usually have a bag of oven chips in the freezer to serve alongside fish fingers and peas when they had friends round for tea.
Now that our fish finger days are behind us, I almost never make chips (oven or otherwise), but I’ll occasionally rustle up a tray of sweet potato fries. Continue reading
Whenever I eat in a Turkish restaurant, I resolve not to stuff myself with Turkish bread and dips leaving no room for my main course. And invariably fail…
The bread is fresh, warm and pillowy soft, the dips so creamy, garlicky, and moreish, it’s almost impossible to resist.
Asparagus with wasabi mayonnaise is a really nice, simple summer appetiser.
It contains so few ingredients – and is so straightforward to make – that it’s more of an idea than an actual recipe. Continue reading
Portugal’s salame de chocolate is a little bit of kitchen fun.
A rich chocolately mixture studded with biscuits and nuts, shaped into a sausage and rolled in powdered sugar to resemble one of those dry-cured salamis. Continue reading
Fainá is a thick pancake (or flatbread) made of chickpea flour – and not much else.
It’s baked in a pizza pan in a hot oven, emerging crispy on the outside with an eggy-creamy interior.
Apparently, Uruguayans like to top their pizza slices with a wedge of fainá.
Continue reading
There’s something gingerbready about basler leckerli – despite the absence of ginger. And something Christmassy too, with the cloves, nutmeg and mixed peel.
So they weren’t my first choice for our World Cup cook-off, but the thought of eating cheese fondue in the sweltering heat tipped it in their favour.
Mashed fava beans for breakfast… and why not?
It’s only a small step from the baked beans slopped onto every full English served in the UK.
And Egypt’s ful medames are all the nicer for not being in a sickly sweet tomato sauce. Continue reading
Churros and chocolate sauce and another day of sun… It’s enough to make you feel like you’re on holiday… Continue reading
Swedish kanelbullar are more wholesome than the Canadian cinnamon buns I grew up with – smaller, more bready, less sticky and sickly-sweet.
I was surprised at how well the citrusy cardamom stood its ground against the cinnamon sugar. All in all, a very satisfying thing to eat.
I first discovered the marvellous tarte tropézienne on a family holiday in Provence.
Queueing in the local bakery, I noticed several of the customers ahead of me were choosing what looked like a large, cream-filled hamburger bun.
Jollof rice is an excellent dish to bring to a buffet or barbeque.
Moderately spiced, with layers of flavour from the pepper-tomato paste and mix of spices, it’s definitely a crowd pleaser.
I usually keep it vegetarian so that everyone can eat it, but any leftovers reheat very well. Continue reading
I’m always on the lookout for easy, healthy-ish snacks to make for the kids, and I thought these Mexican alegrías sounded promising.
Amaranth is a great source of protein and nutrients, but there’s too much sugar involved for me to consider alegrías healthy.
A zapiekanka is Poland’s answer to cheese on toast. Sautéed mushrooms are heaped onto a split baguette, covered with grated cheese and browned under a grill.
Zapiekanka is an excellent contender to represent Poland in our 2018 World Cup cook-off. Tasty (points all round), cheesy (ditto) and easy (extra points from me).
I even tracked down some Polish ketchup for authenticity. Its spicy sharpness was well received, and definitely worked in Poland’s favour.
The only thing dividing the judges was my younger daughter’s dislike of mushrooms.
With its sweet and sour dressing, krompir salata is a departure from our go-to potato salads – French potato salad and mum’s potato salad.
I made it to accompany these outsized Serbian hamburgers in our World Cup 2018 cook-off.
In this Peruvian salad, thick slices of potato are blanketed in a delicious spicy cheese sauce and teamed with hard-boiled eggs and olives.
It all plays very nicely together, and unlike the Peruvian team it is in with a chance in our World Cup 2018 cook-off.
The huancaina sauce is definitely the star of the show. It tastes like you hope that nasty yellow nacho cheese sauce is going to taste (and never does). Continue reading
I love this classic Moroccan salad. Sweet orange slices and salty olives are a winning combination in my book.
Also in its favour, it takes minutes to make and looks beautiful arranged on a contrasting platter. Continue reading
Bright, colourful, spicy, fresh… Senegal’s salatu niebe is something I’ll definitely make again after our World Cup 2018 cook-off is over.
This recipe makes a lot, so it’s fortunate salatu niebe keeps well in the fridge.
I served it on a bed of shredded lettuce one day, and heaped it into avocado halves the next. It would also work well stuffed into a pitta or wrap. Continue reading
Iceland brings these delicious, crepe-style pancakes to our World Cup cook-off table.
They couldn’t contrast more with the Japanese fluffy pancakes, but once again the judges awarded them a perfect score.
Thin, light-yet-crisp, Icelandic pancakes have a welcome lack of sweetness. There is no sugar at all in the batter, just a little sprinkle of caster sugar after they are cooked. Continue reading
Australia looks a strong contender in this year’s World Cup cook-off with their offer of lamingtons.
A delicate chocolate-coconut exterior conceals a substantial cake centre. Kind of like Giggs and Beckham on either side of Roy Keane, back in the day…:-)
The first time I made lamingtons was for an Australia Day celebration. I didn’t notice the advice about baking the cake a day in advance, and had a torrid time of the dipping and rolling.
There was much language and attrition, but the lamingtons I managed to produce met with our Aussie friends’ approval. Continue reading
Japan’s inventiveness and attention to detail might take them all the way in this year’s World Cup cook-off.
According to my older daughter, these fluffy Japanese pancakes “are practically perfect in every way”.
They certainly look impressive, and have a lovely, soft (and fluffy) texture. Apparently, the mayonnaise is what makes these pancakes so moist.
I did find them a bit fiddly to flip, but I’m sure it’s a matter of practice. (Which I’m certain to get, as everyone loved them so much.)
I’ve yet to visit Croatia, but I’ve heard wonderful things about the food. So I feared my version of soparnik had done the Croatians a disservice in our World Cup 2018 cook-off.
In this Dalmatian classic, a simple filling of chopped greens, onions and garlic is pressed between two thin layers of pastry and baked until golden and crisp.
It sounded lovely, but the first bite was a little underwhelming. But as it sat a little longer, pastry and filling merged into a more cohesive whole, the pastry softened and the flavour emerged. Continue reading
This garlicky aubergine and tomato dip is the most moreish dish I’ve eaten in a long while.
Rich, deeply flavoured and velvety soft, it is delicious spooned onto warm bread.
I had visions of taking the leftovers for my work lunch. However the rest of the family fell upon this dip like a pack of starved hyenas.
I’ll be doubling the recipe next time. Continue reading
From Russia with… green borscht. Actually, calling this soup green is generous. An unappealing khaki is closer to the mark.
But what green borscht (or shchaveloviy borscht to use its Russian name) lacks in looks, it makes up for in taste. Fresh and bright with lemony sorrel, herbs and gently cooked vegetables, it’s both light and satisfying. Continue reading
This tomato salad with pomegranate molasses is a recent happy discovery.
Someone brought it to a friend’s barbeque buffet, and only good manners stopped me from eating an unseemly amount.
It turns out freshly sliced tomatoes and pomegranate molasses do very good things to one another.
I tried this chilled cucumber salad at a Japanese pop-up kitchen the other day, and was intrigued both by the texture and the depth of flavour.
Turns out giving the cucumbers a few whacks with a rolling pin before dressing them is the secret. Continue reading
This cream of cauliflower soup has the silkiest texture. I sometimes omit the cream– replacing it with more milk – and it still comes out rich and smooth.
Horseradish combines beautifully with cauliflower. Along with the lemon juice, it adds a bit of heat and brightness to the mix. Continue reading
I wasn’t sure what to call this broccoli concoction…
It started out as broccoli confit, but I’ve cut so much on the oil that the name no longer fits. I thought of broccamole, but decided the lack of avocados ruled that one out.
Patés are too smooth, dips are for dipping. Which led me to “spread” – so broccoli spread it is.
Whatever the name, it’s very moreish stuff. I serve it as an appetiser on toasted sourdough or crackers. I also eat it with a spoon straight out of the fridge. Continue reading
Cauliflower and white bean stew is a one of those no-fuss, mid-week meals I’ve been making for years.
There’s something vaguely Mediterranean about it – Spanish or maybe Greek – which can be played up by adding smoked paprika, or a scattering of crumbled feta. But generally I just make it as below.
It took awhile for the girls to warm to it (courgette has always been a hard sell for some reason), but they eat it happily now. Continue reading
Israeli couscous, butternut squash and preserved lemon are an excellent combination of tastes and textures. This salad is a recent happy addition to the family dinner rotation. Continue reading
This recipe for seedy bites is actually more of a template. I pulse some rolled oats for a base, then add whatever I’ve got in the fruit and seed department.
When the mixture resembles damp sand, I pack it into the mini-muffin cups and bake for ten minutes.
They are a bit soft when they first come out, but as long as I let them cool completely in the tin, they firm up nicely.
On Sundays, we generally have a cooked breakfast (though it’s often noon by the time we sit down to eat it).
It’s often a full-on fry-up, heuvos rancheros, eggs benedict, or a homestyle egg McMuffin. But over the last year, these breakfast burritos have shouldered their way into the rotation.
Having experimented with different fillings and methods, I’ve pretty much settled on the version below: spicy hash brown potatoes topped with a fried egg all wrapped snugly in a warmed flour tortilla. Continue reading
I love green beans, and have some great ways of preparing them – flash fried with garlic and chilli, steam-fried with mustard seeds and ginger, or tossed in an Indian-inspired dressing – but these green beans with toasted almonds and lime stands up to any of them.
The idea comes from my friend Debbie, who remembers being served delicious green beans dressed with lime when she was a student in Paris. Continue reading
I haven’t bought a tin of soup in years, but if I were to buy one it would definitely be Campbell’s tomato soup.
Their cream of mushroom soup always had disturbing starchy lumps, the veggies in their minestrone were weirdly tough, but everything about their tomato soup was just right. Continue reading
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