Featured Recipe
Chermoula Chicken with Butternut Squash
Friday, March 28, 2025 |
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An easy one-tray dish, perfect for any weekday meal. Crispy, succulent chicken legs and butternut squash are smothered together in one pan with a punchy, aromatic chermoula marinade, allowing the flavours to seep into each other. Chermoula is a North African marinade or a relish made using coriander or a mix of herbs, garlic, lemon, smoked paprika and cumin. Although each country has its version of chermoula, the taste is always very similar. It traditionally was used to flavour seafood, esp. fish, but it can be used to marinate vegetables and various meats.
Pollo en Pepitoria - Spanish Chicken with Saffron and Almond Sauce
Sunday, March 23, 2025 |
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Pollo en pepitoria, or chicken in almond sauce, is a Spanish-inspired feast of chicken braised in saffron, almonds, bay leaves, nutmeg, broth and sherry. The unique sauce is enriched and thickened with almonds and 4 hard-boiled yolks. It’s nutty, creamy and so delectable that you don’t want to miss out.
Pepitoria refers to the meat, usually poultry and game birds, cut in piece, or only offal and enriched with hard-boiled egg yolks. Though almonds are a very common addition, but are not really a necessity.
Air-Fryer Keto Kohlrabi Schnitzel with Herb Quark
Friday, March 21, 2025Asparagus Salad with Jamón Serrano and Mini Buffalo Mozzarella
Sunday, March 16, 2025 |
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The earthiness of asparagus, creaminess of buffalo Mozzarella and the saltiness of Jamón Serrano work wonders together. This salad can be served either hot or cold, so it’s a good one to have up your sleeve for the asparagus season. The heat destroy the purple pigment, so purple asparagus will eventually lose its colour and turn into deep green. So no worries, if you can't find purple asparagus, simply use the green one. Jamón Serrano can be a bit pricey, iuse normal ham if you want to.
Bresaola Rolls with Ricotta and Walnuts
Friday, March 14, 2025 |
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These bresaola rolls with ricotta cheese and citrus are very delicate and easy to prepare, making them a fantastic finger food for your cocktail parties. The iconic sweet aromatic flavour of the bresaola combines with creamy ricotta, earthy walnuts and fragrant sundried tomatoes to seriously rock your taste buds.
Bresaola is an air-cured beef ham originated in the northern region of Lombardy, Italy. It carries a deep ruby red shading and has very thin lines of marbled fat scattered through it. You can safely say that Bresaola is essentially Beef Prosciutto. However, prosciutto is distinctly smooth and rich with its fat content, while Bresaola prioritizes a sweet, aromatic flavour that emphasize the lean cut of beef and spices. It’s great to pair them with cheeses, either with fresh and spreadable cheeses like ricotta/goat cheese, or aged cheese like Parmesan/pecorino, and peppery arugula.
Eggplant Stacks with Gorgonzola and Sun-dried Tomato Pistou
Wednesday, March 12, 2025 |
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This recipe is extremely easy and you can substitute the French pistou with Italian pesto sauce if you like. Serves well on it’s own as a sort of starter, or eat as a side with some crusty bread.
Pistou, from the Provençal dialect of Occitan, meaning pounded, is a Provençal sauce similar to pesto alla Genovese, but doesn’t include nuts (sometimes contains cheese though), made only with basil, garlic and olive oil. Here we use sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, and garlic blended in olive oil until combined and still a bit chunky.
Sweating eggplants before cooking makes the vegetable drier, which helps it absorb less fat while it cooks. Plus, extracting moisture meant drawing out some of the bitterness.
Chicken Marengo
Monday, March 10, 2025 |
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A classic one pot chicken dish with juicy chicken legs, tomatoes, porcini mushrooms and optional Brussels sprouts from French cuisine. Traditionally it's garnished with a fried egg and crawfish. I happened to have some hard-boiled eggs left, so I just used it as the garnish. Leave out the Brussels sprouts or use more mushrooms instead if you prefer. Perfect for a warming, moreish family meal.
Chicken Marengo was one of Napoleon's favorites and is named after the Battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800, in which Napoleon turned a near defeat into a victory and thus secured his control of Italy.
Balsamic Asparagus with Poached Egg
Sunday, March 09, 2025 |
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German asparagus meets Italian balsamic vinegar, then covered with a poached egg on a bed of baby spinach and served with a simply green sauce. If classic Hollandaise is becoming a little too monotonous for you, you should definitely try this seasonal explosion of flavour. It’s simple and fresh and goes great with steak or chicken or to enjoy as a light meal. Shave some Parmesan over if desired.
Keto Chicken Fricassée
Tuesday, March 04, 2025 |
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Chicken Fricassée is a classic French stew that is rich, creamy, and loaded with flavour. Fricassée comes from the French words frire (to fry) and casser (to break into pieces). It is usually prepared with chicken drumsticks or thighs or both, but feel free to use any other protein you like. Bone in skin on chicken legs are first browned and then gently cooked in a delicious wine sauce with mushrooms and herbs (thyme, estragon or flat parsley), then cream and egg yolks are added to finish off. Traditionally it’s served with rice, bread or potatoes, but you can pair this with cauliflower rice, zoodles or just a simple salad if you are on keto way of eating. A small amount of xanthan gum, instead of flour, was used to thicken the sauce.
I find xanthan gum isn’t necessary as the sauce is pretty thick because I used crème fraîche and yolks. If you ain’t on keto, sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of plain flour into the softened onions to make a roux, which helps to thicken the sauce.
Speedy Stifado – Greek Beef Stew
Friday, February 28, 2025 |
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Stifado is a hearty Greek stew, usually made with braising beef, slow-cooked in a rich red wine tomato sauce with aromatic herbs, spices and loads of pearl onions or shallots. This cheat version, slightly adapted from Sainsbury Magazine, uses the homemade Greek meatballs instead of chunks of braising beef to deliver the layers of rich flavour in less than an hour.
Pull Apart Aubergine
Saturday, February 22, 2025 |
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If you love cheesy pull apart bread, but don’t want to indulge yourself on carbs, this pull-apart aubergine is the answer. You can easily serve it as a main course or as an appetizer for any family gathering. I used a mix of fresh mozzarella and vintage Cheddar for the recipe, but if you are fancy that “cheese pull” effect, then replace vintage Cheddar for the shredded Mozzarella. You may not need all the pesto sauce, use the leftover for the noodles or double the recipe.
Mexican Chicken Adobo
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 |
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You can make adobo with meat, seafood, tofu or even vegetables and there are countless twists on adobo. I found this easy and interesting recipe on Olive Magazine and it didn’t disappoint. The sauce is deeply fragrant, complex, wonderfully smoky, with a gentle spicy kick from chipotle chilli. I served the chicken with a smacked cucumber salad, but you can serve any salad you prefer.