I almost always make muffins for breakfast on Saturday morning.
For years, my go-to recipe has been these blueberry bran muffins, but in last few months lemon poppyseed muffins have been giving them a run for their money. Continue reading
Tag Archives: yogurt
Lamb-feta burgers with yogurt sauce
4 Oct
These lamb-feta burgers are my first foray into the world of Armenian cooking.
While I’ve met a few Armenians over the years, and seen an unlikely number of Armenian films, thanks to Armenian-Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, I’m pretty sure I’ve never eaten an Armenian meal.
These lamb-feta burgers were such a hit, we’ll definitely be eating them again.
Fattoush
2 Oct
Fattoush – that tasty Middle-Eastern salad of chopped vegetables and bread – is worth eating just for the opportunity to say it. “What’s for dinner, mum?” “Fattoush – we’re having fattoush tonight.”
I’ve made several versions of fattoush over the years, all of which call for the bread to be toasted or fried. The fattoush recipe in Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook is a bit different.
The bread is not cooked, for one thing. And instead of the usual olive oil and lemon juice, the salad is tossed with a yogurt-based dressing.
I love the way the dressing soaks into the bread, softening it and leaving it to the vegetables to deliver the crunch. Continue reading
Grapefruit drizzle cake with yogurt icing
31 Aug
The Great British Bake-off is back! Returning from a week in Girona a couple of days ago, we didn’t even unpack our suitcases before sitting down to watch the first episode. We have our priorities straight around here…;-)
“You are going to bake along with them again, aren’t you mum? You could do the technical challenges this time…” (While the thought of attempting my own Jaffa cakes is tempting, I plan to stick with signature bakes for another season.)
So, first up, drizzle cake…
Lemon drizzle is the undisputed champion of the drizzle cake world – a sweet-tart, sticky-soft, tea-time treat you’d have to go some way to improve upon. But having already written about my mum’s lemon bread, I decided to make a grapefruit drizzle cake instead.
Tarator (Cold cucumber and yogurt soup)
19 Jun
Tarator is a chilled yogurt and cucumber soup that is eaten throughout the Balkans. Apparently, it’s considered to be hangover cure, though I’ve yet to test that claim.
It’s very refreshing, and dead easy to make. I’d happily have a jug of tarator in the fridge for quick lunches on hot summer days.
Not that we’re overburdened with those in the UK… It’s probably best to make your tarator on the day and hope the thermometer hasn’t plunged by the time you were planning to serve it…;-) Continue reading
Salad olivieh
18 May
I’ve made salad olivieh before, but this version is a knock-out. The roasted fennel and mustard seeds add lovely warmth to the dressing, and the Greek yogurt makes it less cloying than dressings made with mayonnaise. Continue reading
Sourdough starter
4 May
Sourdough bread baking is on the rise (pardon the pun). To get in on the action, the first thing you need to do is acquire some sourdough starter.
There are three ways to go about this. The easiest way is to get some from a “culture-d” friend (like me). You can order dried starter culture through the mail, which should arrive with instructions on how to activate it. Or you can make your own. Continue reading
Beet borani (borani chogondar)
20 Apr
Borani are Persian dips or side dishes of thick yogurt combined with vegetables and herbs. I’ve come across aubergine, spinach, and courgette before, but beet borani was a new one.
Beets are so often paired with sharp flavours like vinegar or lemon, which masks their flavour, but that’s not happening here. Just the mild tang of the yogurt, and woodsy dried mint to play against the earthiness of the beets.
Beet borani is most startlingly gorgeous fuschia colour – the girls adored it on sight. Having made it with both raw and cooked beetroot, I’m surprised at how little difference cooking makes to the taste or texture of the finished dish. Continue reading
Smoked mackerel and beet salad
12 Jan
Smoked mackerel and beetroot salad is the kind of food I crave after December’s indulgences. Healthy without being “too healthy”, this winning combination of colours, textures and tastes feeds the eye before it feeds the rest of you.
The sharpness of the pickled beetroot contrasts beautifully with the mackerel’s oily richness, set off by the fiery horseradish dressing. I heaped forkfuls of it onto Ryvita crackers, and crunched away happily – feeling all Nordic – while catching up on the latest series of The Bridge. Continue reading
Light Caesar salad
5 Jan
This is the light version of the Caesar salad I grew up eating. I’ve swapped Greek yogurt for the raw egg and much of the olive oil.
The better the ingredients, the better the salad. Good oil, good Parmesan, and good bread to make the croutons rather than buying a packet.
Cacik
21 Oct
I’m not going to wax authoritative on the difference between cacik and tzatziki. One is Turkish, the other Greek – reason enough to stay out of it right there.
The similarities are more apparent: both are made with yogurt, cucumber and garlic, both are typically served as a dip or with grilled meat. Given that cacik is pronounced “ja-jik”, they even sound pretty similar.
Chicken tikka with coriander raita
3 Sep
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
Lamb and pea samosas with mint yogurt
26 May
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).
Carrot raita
19 Feb
This carrot raita is a real favourite of mine. I love the way that gently cooking the carrot gives the yogurt a golden colour, and the earthy taste of the asafetida. It pairs really nicely with diced potatoes and spinach. Continue reading
Tandoori chicken
29 Jan
I’ll often order tandoori chicken in Indian restaurants, but had never made it at home until recently. I wasn’t confident that my oven was up to the task, but it turned out beautifully. You do need to plan ahead, as the chicken should marinate for a day or so.
While you can easily buy tandoori masala (spice mix) at the supermarket, I made my own using the inspiring bag of spices my good friend Mary recently brought me from the Manama souks. I based my masala on this recipe from The Tiffin Box website. Continue reading
Yogurt with spinach, parsley and onion
27 Jan
We had this spinach and onion yogurt dip as part of a Middle East inspired meal I pulled together the other night from bits and bobs in the fridge.
Considering it’s essentially a bowl of yogurt mixed with spinach and onion, this dip tastes surprisingly rich. The original recipe is from my trusty Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking. Continue reading
Tavë kosi (Albanian baked lamb and rice with yogurt)
16 Dec
Tavë kosi – Albania’s national dish of lamb and rice baked beneath a layer of yogurt custard – reminded me a lot of moussaka. And the Albanian tomato cucumber salad I served with it was essentially a Greek salad. The vegetables were cut differently, and the recipe didn’t call for lemon juice or oregano, but those are details. Continue reading
Barbados cream
6 Oct
Much as I’d love to add another country to my country list, there is no evidence whatsoever that the delicious concoction known as Barbados cream originates from Barbados. I’ve now learned that Barbados sugar is another name for muscavado sugar – the lovely, molasses-rich, dark brown sugar used in this recipe. However, the name applies only to muscavado sugar that originates from Barbados, while mine is from Mauritius.
The recipe comes from Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat. I doubt she’d approve of my use of fat-free Greek yogurt, but the end result is plenty rich and delicious enough for me. Its tangy, creamy sweetness goes beautifully with cooked fruit and crumbles – I use it anywhere I would dollop a spoonful of creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream. Continue reading
Tzatziki
28 Jul
Tzatziki is something I’ve made ever since I left home for university – and something I’ve never tired of eating. My tzatziki is pretty stripped back – just Greek yogurt, cucumber, garlic, olive oil and salt, with maybe a squeeze of lemon juice if it needs brightening up. I have no interest in adding dill, mint, parsley, vinegar, sour cream, mayonnaise… or anything else I’ve seen in other tzatziki recipes.
Now that our cucumber vines are bearing fruit, I expect we’ll be eating a lot more tzatziki in the weeks ahead… Continue reading
Blueberry bran muffins
27 Jul
We’ve been making these muffins pretty much every weekend since I included them in Fern’s Food more than ten years ago.These are known as Margo muffins around here – after the family friend who provided the original recipe.
The fruit varies with what’s in the house. Banana walnut with a slug of maple syrup is good, as is grated apple and cinnamon, chopped pear and ground ginger, or even a couple of handfuls of raisins.
We make a serious dent in them the morning they’re baked, then add any that are left over to packed lunches over the week. Continue reading
Bircher meusli
15 Jun
Easier to eat than regular meusli, and a cold alternative to porridge in the summer months.
Apparently it was “invented” by the Swiss doctor Maximilian Bircher-Benner, a pioneer of holistic health, who served it to patients in his sanitorium. Continue reading
Ten More Bites 