Featured Recipe
Oxtail Ragout with Celery
Wednesday, December 10, 2025| |
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Richly caramelized oxtails are simmered low and slow with vegetables in a wine sauce until the meat comes off the bones. It can be eaten on its own or served mashed potatoes (cauliflower puree if you are on keto), bread dumplings and pasta.
A ragoût is essentially the same as a stew, except that most recipes for ragout are originally French, and often chunks of meat and vegetables cooked together at a low heat for a few hours until tender. But it also can be made with fish or just vegetables. A ragù is an Italian pasta sauce that is usually made with minced meat and/or vegetables.
Jerk Chicken Wings
Sunday, November 16, 2025| |
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These jerk chicken wings have the perfect balance of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. The subtle sweetness of the molasses, the heat of the scotch bonnet peppers and the wonderfully fragrant thyme and spring onions combined together to create a perfect flavour combination. The allspice, cloves, ginger and nutmeg add a pleasant depth and the lime juice provides a refreshing kick! Serve them with a fresh crispy salad or/and rice.
Scotch bonnet peppers are traditional in Jamaican cuisine. If you're unable to find them, substitute them with habanero peppers. Use 1 to 3 peppers with seeds depending on how spicy you like the wings. I used two with one without seeds. I didn’t separate the wings, but use split wings if that’s what you like.
Poulet Basquaise - Basque-style Chicken
Saturday, November 08, 2025| |
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Poulet Basque/ Basquaise or Basque chicken is a classic chicken stew from the Basque region in Southern France and a small area of northern Spain. This recipe from Anthony Bourdain (via Food and Wine) is more French. There are many different regional versions of this dish, but they all have one thing in common: they start with a sauce made with red and green peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes and piment d’Espelètte, simmered slowly and the white (chicken) and red and green (peppers) represent the Basque flag. The most common side to serve with Basque chicken stew is rice, but you could also serve it with a salad, sauteed potatoes or a loaf of crusty bread.
Piment d'Espelètte is a mild, fruity chilli powder with intense aroma from the Basque region of France, specifically from the area around the village of Espelètte. I ordered it from Amazon, and it’s a little bit pricey, but you can easily replace 1 teaspoon of piment d'Espelètte with ¾ teaspoon of Aleppo pepper or ¾ teaspoon of paprika with a large pinch of cayenne pepper. However, they won’t be exactly the same, but should do the trick.
Peri Peri Chicken Livers
Thursday, November 06, 2025| |
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With Portuguese roots, a popular staple served throughout South Africa, these chicken livers are spicy, juicy and flavour-packed with a creamy tangy peri peri sauce. You can add 125 ml of chicken stock for more gravy if you prefer. The dish makes an excellent entrée or lunch served with rye bread or steamed rice and vegetables. It’s budget friendly and super nutritious.
For peri peri sauce, use the red chillies that are available to you. I have used a mixture of dried kashmiri chillies and bird eye chillies. If you want a really spicy sauce, then use more bird eye chillies. Skip the soaking step if you use fresh chillie.
Roasted Chicken with Clementines and Arak
Sunday, November 02, 2025| |
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A hearty and satisfying chicken dish with an enormous punch of fantastic flavour that’s brightened with citrus and bolstered with anise liqueur. The oven does the work in this mostly hands-off main with minimal prep - a delicious family meal that’s ready in less an hour.
Arak is an anise-flavoured, grape-based liqueur produced in Levant region and the best substitute is Turkish Raki. Other alternatives are French Pernod, Italian Sambuca, which has added sugar though, or Greek Ouzo. They ain’t exactly the same, but share some similarities, and work just as fine. If you don’t want to cook with alcohol, then use 1-2 tablespoons of anis oil combined with chicken stock.
Hokkaido Pumpkin with Ricotta Cheese and Parsley Oil
Thursday, October 23, 2025| |
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Hokkaido pumpkin prepared in the very best and easiest way: a mixture of caramelised onion sweetness, creamy ricotta, toasty pine nuts and vibrant grassy parsley oil encased in the pumpkin halves. When roasted in the oven, it becomes tender without being too watery, with a sweet and intense pumpkin flavour. It’s perfect when you are craving something comforting, warming, and nutritious to get you through those chilly nights.
Grapefruit Carpaccio with Fennel Tartare and Pistachios
Sunday, October 19, 2025| |
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Want to try a starter that's different from the usual salad? How about this fruity and fresh grapefruit carpaccio with fennel tartare and roasted pistachios on top? Bring it on! This recipe practically made itself in around fifteen minutes before you could dig right in. It’s vibrante, refreshing and delicious. I used pink grapefruit, but blood orange would be another great substitute.
Chicken Normandy
Wednesday, October 15, 2025| |
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A hearty French casserole that is perfect for a late-summer or fall weeknight meal. Normandy is a region in Northern France noted for its dairy, pastires and signature fruit – apple. So, rather than cooking chicken in chicken broth like many typical one-pot chicken meals, we used Calvados and apple cider for the recipe. If you don’t have Calvados at hand, just use regular brandy. For Chicken Normandy, firm, tart apples that can hold their shape during cooking are the best. I used Boskoop, but Braeburn, Granny Smith or Pink Lady are equally great.
Crispy Tea-brined Chicken
Saturday, October 04, 2025| |
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Skin-on, boneless chicken legs marinated in a brine of freshly brewed tea seasoned with rosemary and pan seared to perfection. Serve with a nutritious gluten-free buckwheat salad.
You need to brine the chicken for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight, for the flavor to come through, or up to 24 hours. The aromatic salty-sweet brine pulls its flavors into the meat and tenderizes it before you begin cooking, you'll never eat dry chicken again with this method. This recipe used Darjeeling tea, but other black tea, like Early Grey, Lapsang souchong or Celyon black tea are great too.
Pumpkin Mousse Terrine
Sunday, September 28, 2025| |
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The savoury pumpkin mousse terrine is the perfect combination of fluffy, creamy texture and piquant flavours. This dish cleverly balances the sweetness of pumpkin with savoury ingredients. It is ideal as a starter, with a salad, or for sandwiches and goes wonderfully with an autumn menu.
If you don’t have French Noilly Prat vermouth, use Italian Cinzano or even a white wine instead. Admittedly, this is somewhat time-consuming to make, but it never ceases to amaze. Try it, you'll be blown away! Use a pretty triangular terrine mould if you happen to have one, otherwise, a cake pan lined with plastic film works just as fine.
Frango Pinga – Cachaça Grilled Chicken
Thursday, September 25, 2025| |
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Frango is Portuguese for chicken while Pinga refers to cachaça. Boneless chicken legs, marinated in cachaça, olive oil, parsley and garlic overnight in the fridge, then grilled to perfection--easy to prepare and a crowd pleaser for sure. Serve it with a fresh herb salad, fries, or some rice and black beans. Cachaça, aka pinga or caninha, the most popular spirit in Brazil, is made from sugar cane and apart from being crucial to cocktails such as the caipirinha, it makes a great marinade for meat or fish. Cachaça is available at large liquor outlets, supermarkets or online. If not, use white rum instead.
Mint and Coconut-stuffed Chicken with Grilled Peach Salad
Wednesday, July 23, 2025| |
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A nutty, herby mix of coconut flakes, mint, parsley, chives, green chilli, garlic and olive oil is perfect for stuffing juicy and flavourful chicken thighs, which are roasted until golden crispy on the outside and succulent inside. Served with a grilled peach salad for a tasty budget summer meal. It’s naturally gluten free and suitable for a low carb diet.


