Roasted Chestnuts

Roasted Chestnuts

The weather was foul. Steel grey clouds were threatening to send us even more pesky snow, and icy winds cut through us like sharp blades. You guessed it. We were in London. It was December 1997, my first trip to Europe. Outside the British Museum my father dragged my mother and me to a street vendor. In a few seconds I was holding a piping hot, brown paper bag in my hands. My father took one foreign looking object out of the bag and showed me how to peel it, revealing a pale caramel flesh. It was my turn to try one. The chestnut was soft, crumbly and sweet. I was hooked.

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Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Recently I’ve checked my website statistics (the traffic has skyrocketed by the way) and saw a new site linking to me. Curious as always I went to investigate. Nicole from For the Love of Food decided to make my Chicken Calvados and it was a great success which really delighted me. After reading her site for a while I noticed she has a monthly contest, called Taste & Create. The idea is to cook another blogger’s recipe and give feedback. Nicole will then do a monthly roundup of the results.

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Ruby Grapefruit Fizz

Ruby Grapefruit Fizz

When Neil and I got to know each other, I told him when celebrating I like to drink champagne mixed with orange juice. “Oh, you mean Buck’s Fizz,” he said. At that moment I gave him a blank look, which quickly turned into a worried expression, wondering if he’s from planet Cuckoo. A few years down the line I now know what it is and found out Neil is saner than me. Worrying, isn’t it?

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Baked Pumpkin with Mushroom & Leek Stuffing

Baked Pumpkin with Mushroom & Leek Stuffing

Dark green, pale green, gray, orange, yellow, white, red, knobbly, smooth, ridged, small, enormous, round, oblong or ovoid. Ah yes, you know it is autumn when pumpkins start appearing at your local supermarket in all shapes and sizes. They are so versatile in cooking and yet I know few Britons who have even tasted it.

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Baked Apples stuffed with Almonds, Honey and Cinnamon

Baked Apples stuffed with Almonds, Honey and Cinnamon

A meal is never complete without a dessert. Never. When the last crumb and dollop of sauce has been scraped from plate my tongue yells out “What’s next?!?”. Craving something sweet I’ll scour the pantry, looking for some bright-coloured wrapped candy. But alas, it is never there.

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Simmered Fresh Tomato Sauce

Simmered Fresh Tomato Sauce

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how easily tomatoes grow here in the UK. For four years in a row we’ve had bumper crops of tomatoes. With Gabriel’s arrival this year our vegetable plot got grossly neglected and our poor tomatoes missed out on the tender loving care they needed. Yet we harvested kilos of them ever week. There was a slight problem though, I didn’t know what to do with them! I needed a solution quick. It would have been an awful shame to let premium quality organic tomatoes go to waste.
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Avocado, Grapefruit & Spinach Salad

Avocado, Grapefruit & Spinach Salad

Avocado and grapefruit is just one of those classic combinations in a salad. The seriously rich and green taste of the avo is extremely well complemented by the sweet and fruitiness of the grapefruit. There is no need for salad dressing either, because more than enough grapefruit juice would have accumulated while you were in the process of peeling and segmenting the citrus fruit. Since grapefruit possesses the same qualities as lemon, it will keep the avo from turning brown. To prepare the spinach leaves you use the technique the French call “en chiffonnade”, “chiffon” meaning rags. (In Michelle language that would mean “to raggify”.) Take a few leaves at a time and roll them into a tight cigar before finely cutting. The leaves unroll into tiny, delicate “rags”. The lightness of the salad is unreal and would make an excellent starter.

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Sweet Potato, Spinach & Mushroom Stew

Sweet Potato, Spinach & Mushroom Stew

Yams, cassava, rice, peanuts, spinach, plantains and peppers are just a few ingredients that are regularly used in the rich West African cuisine. What surprised me most was the peanut butter in this dish. Curry and peanut butter sure sounds like a strange combination, but in reality it works beautifully. The peanut butter adds depth and nuttiness to the vegetables, but also tempers the cayenne pepper and curry. Who needs meat if a meal can be so filling?
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Broccoli, Pea & Leek Soup

Broccoli, Pea & Leek Soup

A very green soup indeed. Sometimes it is difficult to get your 5-a-day, but this soup really helps in this regard, not to mention all the fibre it contains. It seems like an unlikely combination but once you try it you’ll appreciate the verdant and robust taste of the broccoli, the sweetness of the peas and the “leeky” flavour. The potato helps to give the soup a bit more “weight”, in other words more substance so that it can easily be served as a main meal. What’s more this soup can be enjoyed year round.
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