Recently in Recipes Category

The last couple of years we have managed to escape the Melbourne winter by flitting over to Malta to bask in the warm Mediterranean sun and enjoy time with family and friends. Unfortunately, due to family commitments here we were unable to go to Malta this year and so we've had to endure the cold and wet. Needless to say it has been a long and gloomy winter and we're all well and truly over it!

Our little girl Lucia despises winter and many a cold and miserable morning she has raised a tiny fist at the storm clouds and cried 'when will it stop mama, when will the sun shine'? Hence the other day when she asked the same old question, yet again I quickly replied 'when you see blossoms on the trees sabiħa, that is when you will know that spring is around the corner'.

And so the other day while I was in the car doing the mad dash to get the kids to school in time Lucia screamed at the top of her voice 'LOOK MAMA BLOSSOMS'! Her older brother Dante calmly responded with 'I guess that means it's time to start making ice cream again mama'.

And so the chocolate and mint gelato recipe below is an adaptation of Marcella Hazan's famous gelato di cioccolato del Cipriani. Hence, if you have yet to try 'the world's best chocolate ice cream' then you haven't really lived!

Firstly, I'd like to apologise for the lack of food around here. It's not like I've stopped cooking or eating, but rather I just haven't had the time or the inclination to collect my thoughts and pen down a recipe.

And secondly I just wanted to thank you all for being so terribly patient with me. I am still around and we're all OK (thanks for noticing and for asking), it's just that I've got a fair bit on the go at the moment, all good and all very, very exciting.

So, as things continue to fall into place and I begin to find my groove again I promise to pick up both camera and pen a little more frequently and share with you some of the things that I have been making in my kitchen.

I'll leave you with this perfect nutmeg and maple cream tart. Hence, I stress the word 'perfect' because this tart is just right as is. Don't be tempted to tweak or tinker with this one. Just show some restraint and follow the recipe to the letter and do add the nutmeg and the tiny touch of sea salt.

Trust me on this one and you won't be disappointed!

Baharat is an exotic North African spice blend that is also used in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Jordan. This popular spice blend is added to recipes in much the same way, as Indians would use garam masala. Getting the balance of spice is important in baharat as no single flavour should stand out and dominate, but rather each spice should make it's own distinct contribution. Hence, the end result should be aromatic and sweet, yet at the same time warm and pungent.

Typically you would use baharat as a dry rub to season lamb prior to grilling or roasting. It is also used to enhance the flavour of fish and chicken or you could add it to lentil dishes, pilafs, soups, tagines or vegetable casseroles.

In this instance I added it to some mushrooms that I had softened gently in olive oil, before tossing through some fresh spinach. I could have eaten these sweet smelling, aromatic mushrooms on some lightly toasted sough dough bread, but instead I chose to make a coiled filo pie similar to this one. Alternatively, you could also make individual filo cigars as opposed to one big pie.

How about I leave it for you to decide.

To say that I have been eagerly awaiting Silvena Rowe's latest book would be a complete and utter understatement as I have been an admirer of her cooking style for some time now. Hence, her latest book Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume is an appreciation of Silvena's rich culinary heritage as she takes the reader on a wonderfully rich, culinary journey through Eastern Mediterranean history.

Accordingly, Silvena manages to capture beautifully in both word and picture the food of this region that speaks so clearly of the celebration and festivity of everyday life, whilst also giving her own personal twist to the classic recipes of the Ottoman tradition.

If you enjoy the subtle interplay between sweet and sour and the fresh and the dried, and if you draw immense pleasure from the flavours of cinnamon, saffron, sumac, honey, scented rose and orange blossom water, then this book is definitely for you.

When I was growing up our soup options were fairly limited, as mum would alternate between brodu, which is a thin, watery, clear broth and aljotta, which is a rich garlicky fish soup with tomato and fresh herbs. Understand that I'm not complaining about my mothers cooking, because had she been a fabulous cook I would probably have never taken an interest in cooking myself.

Both brodu and aljotta are traditional Maltese soups and they have their place in the Maltese kitchen, as they are wonderfully comforting and have an almost medicinal effect in the colder months. Yet when that's all there is on offer year in, year out over the long wintery months (as was the case for us when we were children) you can then begin to appreciate the need to gird myself with a long list of soup recipes to see us through the winter.

So those of you in the northern hemisphere currently enjoying all of summer's bounty, please excuse my current soup preoccupation. I make no apologies for my love of soup, especially in the colder months, but unlike my mother I do prefer to mix things up a bit so to keep things interesting for the little people in my world.

Hence, the latest addition to my soup repertoire is this spicy Moroccan carrot soup with vermicelli noodles. This soup is suitable as an evening meal because of the inclusion of vermicelli noodles, which gives it a little more oomph and substance.

Needless to say, this soup was a complete hit with child #2 and an utter failure with child #1. Here's hoping my continued antics in the kitchen will have a positive influence on both Hoover and Fussy in the years to come.

One of the simple luxuries I have enjoyed these school holidays is making pancakes for the kids for breakfast. Well if truth were told I also enjoy sleeping in, slow mornings and hanging out in my pyjamas all day.

School mornings for us are a harried affair as we attempt to get out the door and in the car by 8.30am sharp. A monumental effort to say the least and one that we fail dismally at more days than I care to admit. Hence, breakfast on a school day is often boring and rushed and consists of either cereal or eggs and toast.

So as we began to hedge closer towards the end of term break we all started to concoct and share our various elaborate breakfast scenarios. High on my wish list was the outrageously fabulous bacon, fetta and dukkah number and the ever so sweet orange blossom and cinnamon semolina dumplings - a far cry from the mundane weekday cereal and toast options.

Hence, the current favourite for these school holidays has been beghrir, which are semolina pancakes that we devour with lashings of butter and honey. These pancakes closely resemble English crumpets as the yeast in the batter causes hundreds of tiny bubbles to form. I tend to break with tradition slightly as I prefer to make the batter a little thicker and cook the pancakes on both sides. Hence the proper way to cook beghrir would be to cook the pancake until the top of it is dry and jam-packed with little holes that have formed from the bubbles.

A perfect way to kick start anyone's morning, even if the morning is to be spent sitting on the couch with the little people in my world watching mindless television in our flannelette pyjamas.

I'm the type of personality that becomes easily fixated with places and things, but more so with things. In the past I have played the same, favourite CD for eight months straight, without interruption, consequently driving the rest of the household to the brink of crazy. I have also been known to wear the same pair of favourite shoes day in, day out until the soles wear thin and have loyally worn the same fragrance, without falter or pause for three years.

As one would expect, I also tend to demonstrate this same kind of obsessive, repetitive tendency with food. Hence, whenever I stumble across something that I like I tend to make it over and over again, despite the loud protests from the little people in my world.

And so the following recipe is yet again another example of me becoming fixated with something utterly simple and delicious. Hence, I have now made Antonio Carluccio's famed rigatoni with spinach balls and courgette sauce at least seven times and that is saying something as I have only been in possession of his latest book for just a little over a month.

But consistent with Antonio's cooking style and true of the theme of his latest book, this recipe is simple, honest cooking at its best and unbelievably moreish!

Go on, I dare you to stop at just once!

What's the one indispensable ingredient you simply can't do without in your kitchen? For me it's quite simply lemons as they have always played an integral role in my kitchen. Hence, I find that lemons are absolutely necessary and I just don't feel complete unless I have a bowl of fresh lemons sitting on the bakers stand.

In summer I'm constantly using lemons in salads, dips and dressings. Alternatively I'm using lemons in sweet tarts, crostata and syrupy cake, sorbet and not to forget my all time favourite - lemon ricotta cream.

Another way I love to use lemons is in savoury Moroccan dishes such as tagines. In these instances I tend to use preserved lemons. Hence, you can either go and buy yourself a fancy, overpriced jar of preserved lemons from a boutique gourmet food store or you could have a go at making some for yourself. All you need is several thin skinned, unwaxed lemons, some coarse rock salt and a sterilized glass jar.

The first batch of ice cream I made was none other than Marcella Hazan's world famous Gelato di Cioccolato del Cipriani. After months of experimenting with all sorts of ice cream, gelato and sorbet recipes I can firmly say that Marcella's chocolate gelato recipe is by far my favourite. Hence, it's deeply rich, terribly decadent and luxuriously sublime - everything good quality ice cream should be.

Although Hoover loved Marcella's chocolate gelato, Fussy on the other hand found it 'way too rich'. If you are new to this blog I will spare you the frustratingly mundane details about my eldest child's incredibly pedantic palate. Needless to say I have been experimenting behind the scenes trying to come up with a more 'child friendly' chocolate ice cream that even the fussiest of palates will enjoy.

Well I'm thrilled to announce that I've finally done it, with a little help from Tessa and Jacqueline!

Hence, the recipe below is from my dear friend Jacqueline who has cleverly reworked Tessa Kiros charming vanilla ice cream recipe. I must admit I was a little dubious about making ice cream with sweetened condensed milk, but the end result was a wonderfully dense, rich, country-style, chocolate ice cream that the most discerning child critic finally devoured!

As a food blogger I often find myself vacillating between two extremes - finding the time to take photos of food and regrettably forgetting to take photos of food. Hence, you can either find me scolding a family member or wrapping them over the knuckles for attempting to pry a piece of sweet crust from a tart or dipping a spoon or two into some home made ice-cream that I have yet to photograph. Or alternatively, you can find me kicking myself after a wonderful meal that I failed to photograph because I either thought it too pedestrian to blog about or I was far too hungry and harried and failed to go fetch my camera.

Either way I can't win!

Consequently, the other day I made a pot of one of my all time favourite soups - soupe à l'oignon gratinée - French onion soup with cheese. Yet, it wasn't until we were all sitting down at the table with a bowl of warm soup between our hands that I realized that I should have taken photos of it as this soup is far from ordinary, rather it's downright ceremonial!

Well my dear readers, you're in luck today because yesterday while I was making yet another batch of soupe à l'oignon gratinée I just so happened to remember to grab my camera from the bakers stand.

One of the most challenging things I find, as a mother is that when you're feeling lousy and unwell - life still goes on. Even though you may feel like you've been run over by a truck the dishwasher still needs to be stacked, floors need to be vacuumed, the washing machine needs to be loaded, kids need to be cared for and meals still need to be prepared. Thus when you realise that you've run out of milk and bread at 9.30pm, you need to stop crying, suck it up, brave the cold and go to the supermarket and restock despite your sore throat, runny nose and thumping head.

Hence, the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur as we have all been struggling with and trying to get over our various colds, coughs and flu. To make matters worse (and just when we were almost out of the woods) Hoover and I got struck down with that horrible forty-eight hour gastro bug that has been going around. Needless to say cooking and eating has been the furthest thing from my mind.

In all honesty, I can't tell you what I was thinking the day I concocted this börek as I was probably sleep deprived and or delirious with a temperature. Clearly I must have started with spaghetti bolognese and then got slightly distracted midway and took a turn at timpana and consequently ended up at bolognese börek of all places.
 
I guess the moral of the story is that in some instances it pays to go with the flow and not think too hard about the process.