Mango and Avocado Salad with Carob Miso Vinaigrette
Sunday, January 19, 2025This fruity avocado salad with mango tastes simply delicious. Chilli rounds off the whole thing with a spicy note and the rice crackers provide the crunchy effect. If you want to use some homemade croutons, then cut the 2-3 slices of wholegrain bread into 1 cm cubes and dry toast them in a skillet until golden and crunchy. Remove and toss with a tablespoon of olive oil.
Chocolate Cherry Rye Bread
Monday, January 13, 2025Whether for breakfast or as an afternoon snack, this rye bread, enriched with dark chocolate and dried cherries, will make all sweet tooth happy. It is chocolatey and fruity at the same time and also has a proportion of rye flour, which makes it more wholesome and less guilty. If you don’t have dried cherries, dried cranberries would work too. This is a high hydration dough, so a sticky dough is expected. If you add more flour, you'll end up with a really tough, dry loaf, so don't add more flour! Bread is best baked with conventional top and bottom heat, as it would dry out too quickly with circulating air. This makes it nice and crispy on the outside and keeps it soft and fluffy on the inside.
Arugula Cheese Salad
Thursday, January 09, 2025You love cheese? Great, so do I! Simply use your favourite cheese, add a few grapes, nuts and a light vinaigrette and you have the tastiest salad for the lunch: a grape and cheese salad. It brightens up the mundane of cold season with its freshness and variety and also provides a portion of vitamins. The salad tastes great with classic cheeses such as Edam, Cheddar, Emmentaler or Gouda. If you like it more intense, try it with blue cheese or goat cheese.
Miso Banana Cake
Tuesday, January 07, 2025This tender, moist miso banana cake with walnuts (pecans are great too) is so easy and fun with an Asian twist. The miso works surprisingly well, giving the classic banana cake a deeper, robust umami flavour that really elevates the cake. The mascarpone cream and caramel walnuts are completely optional, but I thought it's a cake, so a little icing won't hurt.
Burrata Arugula Salad with Raspberries and Truffle
Monday, December 30, 2024May the New Year bless you all with health, wealth, and happiness!
A festive and refreshing arugla salad loaded with raspberries, pomegranate arils, creamy burrata cheese, shaved black truffle, and drizzled with a truffle balsamic glaze and argan oil!
Burrata is a special form of mozzarella that is characterised by its creaminess. Alternatively, you can also use mozarrella di bufalo or just regular mozzarella. As the name suggests, the mozarrella di bufalo is made from buffalo milk instead of cow's milk. It also tastes creamy, slightly salty and tangy.
Badridschani Georgian Aubergine Rolls
Monday, December 23, 2024Embark on a culinary journey and make these simple Georgian badridshani - aubergine rolls filled with walnut paste and garnished with pomegranate seeds. They are nutty, flavoursome and simply delicious. Treat the aubergine slices first with some salt, which helps draw the water out of the aubergine, so they won't become mushy after grilling. You can take Badridzhanis to your next gathering as finger food or serve them as an appetiser at a dinner party. In Georgia, these walnut stuffed aubergine rolls are traditionally enjoyed with bread and white wine, or served as a hearty side dish with grilled meat.
Lemon Juniper Cookies
Sunday, December 22, 2024Juniper berries have been used as medicine for centuries and in the kitchen. Delicious and healthy juniper berries are usually added to sauces for game dishes, fish stock, sauerkraut, or pickled vegetables, but they are rarely used in baking. I have used juniper berries in a very unusual way: as a spice together with some pink peppercorns for these delicious lemon cookies. The ground juniper berries give these cookies a sweet, aromatic and completely surprising flavour - be sure to try them! They are particularly tasty for the holidays, but of course also all year round, and go wonderfully with coffee, tea or hot chocolate.
Belgian Endive Salad with Apple and Chicken Cracklings
Thursday, December 19, 2024Endives and thinly sliced apple are tossed with fresh herbs and toasted pine nuts in a simple vinaigrette for a light, crunchy and refreshing winter salad. The bitter flavour and crisp texture of Belgian endive pairs particularly well with sweet tart apple and nutty pinenuts. I have also added some chicken skin cracklings, a delicious by-product of making schmaltz, for extra flavour and crunch. You can use croutons or bacon instead.
Kohlrabi Salad with Pomegranate
Wednesday, December 18, 2024Quality leafy salads are often not available in winter. So how about a vitamin-rich and flavourful kohlrabi salad? Kohlrabi is boring? Not with this simple recipe for a crunchy and delicious kohlrabi salad. Supplemented with juicy tangy pomegranate seeds, fresh parsley and toasted almonds, it makes for a welcome change and raw food tastes really good this way.
Poppy Seed Cake with Pistachios
Tuesday, December 17, 2024Roast Meatballs with Creamy Shiitake Sauce
Wednesday, December 11, 2024Juicy tender meatballs in a delicious creamy shiitake mushroom sauce served with a simple leafy salad. Easy, comforting and incredibly delicious! You can serve them with mashed potatoes, polenta, noodles or bread if you ain't on low carb diet.
Had to remove bouquet garni before roasting because my baking pans are too small. If you used one large baking pan, then pour the sauce over meatballs with herbs.
Marzipanstollen
Sunday, November 24, 2024You should bake this moist Christmas stollen just in time for Advent (Sun, Dec 1, 2024 – Tue, Dec 24, 2024) to sweeten the festive season for you and your family. Marzipan, raisins, roasted almonds and candied orange peel make it a delicious and festive treat. If you are not a fan of raisins, you can either leave them out or you can replace them with other dried fruit such as cranberries, chopped dates, apricots or sour cherries. To soak the raisins you can also use water or apple juice instead of rum, so the children and pregnant women will also be able to enjoy it. Both candied orange peel and bitter almond extract are classics in a traditional stollen, but they are not so popular with some people. You can omit both and your marzipanstollen will still be great. Enjoy it with a glass of mulled wine or a cup of coffee.
Roasted Fennel Agrodolce
Wednesday, November 20, 2024This Roasted Fennel makes a great side dish because it’s incredibly easy to make, and so delicious. Raw fennel is sharp and tastes like aniseed, but it transforms when roasted, losing all of its anise flavour and crunchy texture to become buttery and caramelized.
Agrodolce is an Italian sweet and sour sauce with a sticky consistency. Its name is Italian for “sour” (agro) and “sweet” (dolce). A classic agrodolce recipe contains reduced honey (or sugar), vinegar, pine nuts, red onion/shallot and a mixture of dried fruits, such as raisins, cranberries or dried apricots. The sauce is fantastic with Brussel's sprouts, cauliflowers or broccoli too.