red or yellow peppers
tomato
prosciutto
anchovies
mozarella
garlic

Halve the peppers, keeping the stem but discarding the seeds.
Drape a prosciutto slice inside cavity
Scatter herbs (majoram or oregano), sliced garlic
Halve or quarter tomatoes and sit inside pepper
Sprinkle with chopped anchovies
Drizzle with olive oil, season and roast at 200°C for about 35 minutes until pepper is soft
Arrange mozarella in pepper, return to oven to melt the cheese
Serve with baby spinach, sprinkle over parmesan (if available), olive oil and seasoning.

Note: don’t use proscuitto and anchovies for a vegetarian version. Substitute with mushroom or add some feta cheese.

Marinate a salmon steak for about 2 hours with 3 cloves of crushed garlic, half a lime, seasoning and olive oil. Grill carefully, don’t move it until it’s cooked on one side.

Roasted butternut squash recipe adapted from a Jamie Oliver.

Halve a butternut squash lengthwise
Halve and halve again, meaning one squash is divided to 8 long wedges
In a bowl or preferably pestle & mortar mix together — olive oil, salt, pepper, chopped garlic, oregano
Rub surface of squash with seasoning
Roast at 180°C for 30 mins until caramelised

Serve the salmon and squash with some chopped spinach and a lime wedge.

Hard boil 12 eggs and peel
Drain off juices of canned beets or a jar of whole baby beets
Heat the juice up with 250ml cider vinegar and half the volume of sugar as the vinegar. Simmer for 15 mins
Arrange eggs and beets in an airtight jar and pour hot liquid over them
Leave in fridge at least overnight

Serve with salad or by itself.

Make the seasoning: mix garlic, shallots, lemon zest, italian seasoning, salt & pepper with olive oil.

Butterfly the chicken by cutting off the backbone. Carefully ease the skin off the breast and fill the pocket with seasoning. Don’t take the skin off, just make sure the seasoning is between the skin and meat. Rub rest of seasoning on thighs and drumstick.

Place over lemon slices and roast at 200°C/400°F for 20-30mins, then turn the heat down to 180°C/350°F. Strain off the cooking juices and baste often.

Parboil some sweet potatoes and carrots then add to the roasting tray about halfway through. The whole dish is ready in about 1-1.5hrs. Let stand for 15-20mins before carving.

Made gravy from the cooking juices — added some chicken stock I had in the freezer. And here’s the finished product:

Something K introduced me to.

For one portion I mashed up half an avocado and seasoned with lots of salt and pepper. Then it was just a matter of adding the pasta. For decoration (and a little taste) I sprinkled on some Italian seasoning. I should have also dribbled on some olive oil but forgot.

Marinate some lamb chops overnight in olive oil, pepper, mint and Worcestershire sauce. Do not add salt, Nigel Slater wrote that if you salted a chop before grilling the juices flow out and you end up with a dry chop; salting it after grilling means the salt stays outside the meat and does nothing. And he’s right, not much juice came out even though I rested them for about 5 minutes.

Serve the lamb with potato chunks and roasted red peppers. I semi-peeled and diced 2 potatoes, par-boiled then roasted with olive oil. The par-boiling fluffs the pieces so they get really crunchy. The red pepper I sliced into 8 long strips then put them over the gas hob (care: naked flame) skin side down until the skin is blackened. Peeled the charred bits off and they tasted smoked and very fine.

4 large carrots
3 tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
3 finely chopped shallots
Italian seasoning

Brown all ingredients with a little olive oil in a medium oven for 45 minutes. Then transfer the whole lot into a pan, deglaze the roasting tin with water, add stock from and simmer for an hour. Let the soup stand overnight. Blitz, add milk, season and keep warm.

This is based on Nigella’s recipe. For an Americanized version, and photo of how they should look like go to the Food Network.

375g chocolate
375g butter
4 large eggs
350g sugar
225g plain flour
200g chocolate bits — she used white chocolate buttons which I didn’t have, so I used regular choc chips

Melt chocolate and butter in a large bowl over boiling water. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and sugar. Add vanilla extract if using it.

Cool the melted chocolate and butter slightly, then whisk in the egg and sugar mixture. Fold in the flour and chocolate bits. Bake in square tin at 180°C for about 25 mins until the top is dry.

Sprinkle over cocoa powder or icing sugar before serving. I’m thinking a dollop of clotted cream or a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream will turn this into a dessert. For true decadence, top with chocolate ganache, garnish with mixed berries macerated with brandy and drizzle a raspberry coulis.

I made this after watching Charlie Trotter’s Kitchen Sessions.

mango & avocado salsa Finely dice a small mango, mix with half an avocado, half a red pepper, 1 tomato and a small chunk of cucumber. Squeeze the juice of a lime, season and add a splash of EVOO.

potato tuiles Mash 1 potato, then add 1 egg white whisked to soft peaks, about 40g plain flour and a large knob of melted butter. Spoon half a spoonful of the dough thinly over a baking tray, spread using a knife and bake at 200°C for about 15 minutes.These tuiles taste fantastic out of the oven, I couldn’t stop eating them. Once cooled they start getting soft though.

assembly Bottom layer is the salsa, then some smoked salmon that had been marinading in lime juice for about 5 minutes. One tuile, then more salsa, another layer of salmon and topped with a couple of tuiles. Spoon more of the salsa around the plate for decoration.

A variation (and less visually appealing) of Clotilde’s Carottes Rapées à l’Avocat. What I like about this recipe is that it can change according to taste and what’s available.

All I did was grated a few carrots, chopped up a couple of tomato and one each of yellow and red pepper. Then I scooped out the flesh of a ripe avocado and that’s it. A little olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper.

Gram taught me this. It’s more of a cabbage lasagna than the typical stuffed cabbage.

Half a head cabbage, or a small cabbage
Brown rice
Minced beef
1 can chopped tomato
1 can tomato soup

Blanch half a head of cabbage until soft, then line the bottom of a baking dish.
Cook rice — I used brown rice. Let to cool, then combine with minced beef. Season and spoon half onto cabbage leaves.
Combine chopped tomato with tomato soup, diluted with water. Add to filling.
Line more cabbage on filling.
Spoon over rest of filling and sauce, leaving some sauce for topping.
Add top layer of cabbage, then rest of sauce.
Bake in oven for about 1 hour at 180°C, first cover with foil then remove the foil for the last 15 minutes of cooking.

I’m watching Nigella right now and she just made the most lovely looking pancakes. Okay, American pancakes.

3 eggs separated
2 tbsp sugar
250g cottage cheese
50g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
strawberries macerated in balsamic sugar and 1/2 tsp sugar

Mix sugar, cottage cheese, flour, vanilla extract into the egg yolks. Lightly whip egg whites and fold into mixture. Fry on griddle for 1 minute each side. Serve with strawberries and syrup.

Recipe is from Delia.

4 oz (110 g) self-raising flour
½ oz (10 g) cocoa
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 oz (50 g) butter
1½ oz (40 g) light brown sugar
2 oz (50 g) dark chocolate chunks
2 oz (50 g) golden syrup (about 2 tablespoons)

Sift the flour, bicarb, cocoa and ginger into a mixing bowl. Rub butter in till breadcrumb stage. Add sugar and chocolate, then the golden syrup. Mix with a spatula, then with hands till doughy. Divide into chunks of 16 and roll into balls with hands. Flatten slightly and bake in batches of 8 at 180°C for 12-14 minutes. Leave on tray for a few minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

3 potatoes
4 carrots
1 small cauliflower
handful of cherry tomatoes (cos I had some leftover)
1 can coconut milk
garlic, shallot
a packet of green curry paste
frozen vegetable stock I made a few weeks ago

It looks a little watery, like a porridge actually. The cauliflower disintegrated overnight and the paste probably got overwhelmed by the creaminess of the coconut milk. But by gosh it’s HOT!! I sprinkled a little mint on top — I suppose I should be using Thai basil or parsley (no coriander, I don’t like coriander) but I didn’t have any of those. Besides, it’s my own mint, from my window box. Accompanied by roti prata that I fried from frozen.

rocket, tomato, red pepper, olives, avocado, warmed mushroom (button and dried) topped with 2 steamed prawns.

Roast sliced pumpkin or butternut squash until caramalised. Cook pasta (penne or similar) Toss pumpkin in pasta with cherry tomatoes, goat’s cheese and pine nuts.