Roasted Hazelnuts with Cacao Nibs
Roasted hazelnuts with a hint of cinnamon and mixed with cacao nibs makes a great healthful edible gift – a sort of deconstructed Nutella ™ Last weekend fellow SE Londoner Jessica and I ran a Christmas inspired stall at Brockley Christmas Market. We had mince...
Orange Scented Duck Liver Pâté
A duck liver pate which pairs superbly with Christmas cranberry sauce I recently had the opportunity to re-shoot and improve an old favourite duck liver pâté recipe for a Guest Post for Gressingham Duck, I was so pleased with the photos, as well as the recipe itself,...
Crispy Duck Legs with Gluten Free Hoisin Sauce
In this recipe cashew butter, molasses and tamari are simple swaps from Peking tradition to create gluten free hoisin sauce. Delicious smothered over duck. Sigh. The trouble with having friends round for dinner when you’ve trained as a chef is that dinner can’t be a...
Figs Stuffed with {Vegan} Cashew Cream Cheese
An elegant autumnal starter making use of beautiful figs and cashew cream cheese – a clever dairy-free cheese homemade from soaked and blended cashew nuts. These days I’m not so much the dairy dodger. I’ve found good quality organic dairy, cheese, butter,...
Simple Shredded Chicken tossed with a Rocket, Apple, Fennel & Walnut Salad
In this simple autumn seasonal salad, poached chicken is shredded and is tossed with rocket, apple, fennel and toasted walnuts One of my favourite things about September in the UK is the warm blast of an Indian Summer day that has me wanting lighter foods like this...
Open Cauliflower Sushi Salad with Smoked Salmon
Don’t like rolling sushi? Then this open cauliflower sushi salad is for you. Simply open up the Nori, add your toppings and enjoy the flavours. Rolling sushi is a bit of an art. Rolling rice-substitution cauliflower sushi without the sticky starch of rice to...
Sicilian Sardine Courgetti with Sultanas & Pine Nuts
A deliciously simple tinned sardine recipe. A ten minute Sicilian inspired dish, with sardines, sultanas and pine nuts, but using courgetti in stead of spaghetti. In last week’s post I showed you a simple, no-cook 5 minute paté recipe made with a humble tin of...
Purple Sprouting Broccoli & Sprout Gratin
Purple sprouting broccoli is in season now, so do buy it quickly – it tends to go out of season around the end of April. My pledge to cook seasonally. So how am I getting along, since returning to London? My first 2 big shopping trips were pretty good. The...
Matcha Green Tea Almond Latte
A recipe for the perfect matcha green tea almond latte, and tips on where to buy matcha in London & San Francisco. Photo by Annicken on Unsplash Matcha green tea has been on the circuit for a while now. First touted as the new green tea, and later as the new...
Raw Chocolate Mousse, with Orange & Ginger
This raw chocolate mousse, with added ginger and orange takes minutes to prepare, and is a healthful way to enjoy chocolate. This is a twist on the standard avocado, banana, chocolate (ABC) mousse, but with added spices and flavour. Ginger is a great...
Sweet Potato, Rocket & Pomegranate Salad
This sweet potato, rocket and pomegrante salad is vibrant and the pops of sour pomegrante pair well with the peppery rocket and sweet potato. “Bring a potluck dish to the party, a food that really feels like the cuisine of the Bay Area to you” Instructs...
Dukkah Devilled Eggs
These, bite-sized dukkah filled devilled eggs, make excellent canapés, snacks or are a delicious breakfast option. Walk like an Egyptian I do love it when I can find a way of sticking a song lyric (c/o The Bangles 1986) into my ever increasing ridiculous sub headings...
Turmeric Tea with Coconut Milk
Turmeric added to warm milk to make a turmeric tea, makes a comforting drink for a cold day. I make mine with coconut milk. I had heard about a version of this drink some years ago, but dismissed it with a pinch of salt believing a bright yellow curry drink would...
Mince Pies
A classic Christmas British dessert, using grain & gluten free pastry. Even better if you make your own mincemeat. It’s OK I have mince pies in the house. Christmas can finally begin. Earlier this week I shared my mincemeat recipe, and now I bring you the...
Homemade Mincemeat
My homemade mincemeat is a lower in sugar take on classic British mincemeat for mince pies, sparing none of the taste. There are no mince pies in America. I repeat there are no mince pies in America. This shouldn’t bother me, because luckily I know how to make...
Lamb Keema with Parsnips & Peas
A one-pot, simple, yet flavorful traditional North Indian curry dish made with minced lamb. In this version the keema – which directly translates as mince – is prepared with the addition of parsnips instead of white potatoes for a lower calorie yet higher...
Blackberry & Fig Jam with Cashew Grain-Free Waffles
Let’s go Blackberry Picking. Blackberries and Jam combine in this simple jam to go along cashew based waffles. Blackberries provoke such vivid family memories for me. Picking blackberries with my Grandad (whom we affectionally called Dadcu, the Welsh word for...
Autumn Vegetable & Red Quinoa Salad with Zahtar Dressing
This plant based salad, can be prepared well in advance of eating and tastes even better the next day. The roasting of the cauliflower and squash in this recipe enhances and sweetens their flavour, whilst the Zahtar based topping lends a Middle Eastern slant. I choose...
Sage topped Eggs & Yoghurt, with Shiitake Bacon
A glut of sage led me to this recipe. Crispy sage is served with shiitake bacon, eggs and yoghurt. A take on Turkish eggs. A friend handed me a huge pile of homegrown sage this week. Knowing that it goes well with pork, I made use of a great deal of it in some tasty...
Beluga Lentil, Kale and Orange Veg Salad with Olive Tapenade Dressing
Beluga Lentil, Kale and Orange Veg Salad with Olive Tapenade Dressing, combines autumnal colours, something to serve at Halloween? I realise I am slightly premature with my Halloween post, but since American shops have been preparing for Halloween since July this...
Lavender, Rosehip & Coconut Face Oil
Lavender, Rosehip & Coconut Face Oil; Homemade Beauty A while back I wrote a post about my natural beauty regime. Since then I’ve been keen to have a go at making up my own products – in particular a moisturiser or face oil – so have been doing...
Rolled Lamb Breast Stuffed with Apricots and Pistachios
Lamb breast is a cheaper cut of meat. Rolled, and stuffed transforms this cheaper cut into a far more extravagant looking meal. Dressing Lamb Primark up as Lamb Prada? This was my first time cooking lamb breast, an exercise I would most definitely repeat in future....
Jerk Chicken with Plantain Chip Sticks
My version of Jerk Chicken, inspired by all the Caribbean shops in South East London, but where’s me rice and peas? It’s the Notting Hill Carnival this Bank Holiday weekend. Which basically means that the whole of West London is going to go a bit nuts,...
Courgette & Preserved Lemon Dip, Topped with Crispy Spiced Lamb
For the hummus obsessed, this dip isn’t actually a hummus. There are no chickpeas and instead roasted courgettes and preserved lemon, all topped with crispy spiced lamb. Who doesn’t love hummus? In fact we are officially a nation obsessed with hummus. I...
Muhamara & Double Pepper Squid
Pomegranates and pepper flakes are added to roasted peppers and walnuts in this vibrant Middle Eastern dip called Muhamara. I first tried Muhamara last week in a restaurant called Caravan. It was served underneath some grilled quails legs. Before then I’d been...
Fermented Dill Cucumbers
Or to the uninitiated, gherkins. An easy recipe to make probiotic rich fermented dill cucumbers. Hands up, who used to ask their friends if they could eat the discarded gherkins from their [insert famous burger chain] burgers? That was me, I love gherkins! A while...
Kale & Almond Pesto
A lovely dairy free pesto using superhero kale. This version of pesto is great with pasta as well as chicken. The first week at university the vast majority of the people in my halls of residence were given nicknames by my flat. Oddly enough most were food related, no...
Tuna Steak with Rocket & Cucumber salad and Wasabi Herbed Mayonnaise
Wasabi gives a hot horseradish edge to mayonnaise which pairs well with a seared tuna steak. Horseradish is pungent, sulphurous and therefore goes well with flavours that can stand up to it – enter oily fish. Have you you ever tried oven baking a salmon filler...