Focaccia
I know I live in France but sometimes it is nice to have some bread other than a baguette. I found this recipe for Foccacia the other day and it is great. It is by one of my favourite cooks and food writers, Nigel Slater, who has written some fabulous recipes for the Guardian. It is super easy to make and completely delicious. I even got my children and some of their friends to get involved and they loved slapping and prodding a piece of dough… great way of getting some dough kneaded.
The great thing about Foccacia is that you can garnish it with whatever you have handy in your kitchen: cherry tomatoes cut in half, cheese, olives, any kind of herb or just plain salt and olive oil. I do love this kind of recipe — it’s super simple and whatever you do with it, it always turns out great.
- Emilie
Blackberry Cobbler
We’re currently staying at my family’s beach house on Bainbridge Island (Washington State), enjoying the rocky beaches and cold, cold water of the Puget Sound. We’re also enjoying the delicious blackberries that grow wild everywhere around here — blackberries for breakfast, blackberry smoothies, blackberry jam, blackberries on ice cream… and blackberry cobbler! Yummmmm. I send my kids out every afternoon with a big bowl and they come back with purple hands and faces and mounds of fresh berries. Doesn’t get better than that!
Anyway, here’s the recipe we’ve always used. It’s taken from one of my very favourite cookbooks, Alice Bay, and it’s delicious! (more…)
Whole Wheat Bread
My husband and I are big into bread baking. On the weekends when we have the time, we usually make a few loafs of the No-Knead Bread, a recipe made famous by the New York Times. We also make home-made pizza at least once a week (I would eat it every day of the week if I could — it’s that good!), and we play around with new bread recipes all the time. My sister sent me this recipe for whole wheat bread which comes from the food blog Orangette. The fun thing about this recipe is you can play around with different flours to create different textures. This bread (pictured) was made with flaxseeds, flaxmeal, and garbanzo bean flour — an even healthier version.
-Courtney
Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
For those of you who are not familiar with Ellie Krieger, I would highly recommend any of her cookbooks — specifically The Food You Crave
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Beetroot
I think I only discovered the beauty of beetroot in my thirties. If I am not mistaken, when I was a kid, beetroot used to come out of a tin and had the texture of a wet piece of Styrofoam. Now that I have started buying fresh beetroot and have learned to roast or steam it, I have developed a new appreciation for this vegetable. Plus, my kids love it… though that might have more to do with the fact that I told them that their pee would turn pink if they ate loads. (This is very exciting if you happen to be four years old). So here are a couple of things that I have started making with beetroot…
1. I roasted them for an hour in olive oil and a bit of lemon juice and balsamic vinegar in the oven with a garlic clove or two and I then served them as a side dish garnished just with a bit of parsley. (more…)
Summer Sweetness: Upside Down Fig Cake
Living in Los Angeles, we’re so fortunate to have an abundance of fresh, organic and local produce year round. You can find farmer’s markets every day of the week in a multitude of L.A. neighborhoods with readily available, inspiring ingredients. One of the ingredients that I get particularly excited about each year is the fig. When figs are in season, I can’t get enough of this beautiful, sweet, fleshy fruit. I could eat them served just about any way – whole and fresh, mixed with yogurt and honey, in savory Moroccan dishes, and in this delectable, moist fig cake courtesy of my good friend Jules who frequents the markets every week, searches for the best of the best produce and creates dishes for her family and her blog, Renaissance Mamas that positively make my mouth water. Her cake is similar to the pineapple upside down, with the added sophistication of the succulent fig. I think it would be even more delicious with a big dollop of lightly sweetened crème fraiche. Yummmmm… Here’s the recipe: (more…)
Stuffed Zucchini Flowers
I am just back from the French country side where we have spent a lovely few days of just playing or, alternatively, doing strictly nothing. It is so nice to get out of the city sometimes… One of the big bonuses of our summer house is that our neighbour lets us pick vegetables out of his vegetable garden, which is quite a change from picking vegetables from the supermarket shelves. It actually takes a lot of thinking out of the equation as we organise the menu around what is available in the garden, and start coming up with new ideas for recipes depending on the pick of the day. Last week was all about Zucchini — my good friend Russell who was visiting, had eaten stuffed Zucchini flowers in a tapas bar in London, so he tried to recreate the tapas dish and it was amazingly good! Here is the recipe:
Oeuf au Lait
Oeuf au lait is one of my childhood favourites when it comes to desserts. It is the simple man’s version of a crème brulée — except that there is no cream and no burning involved… It is also one of the easiest things to make: you only need milk, eggs, sugar and an oven.
Here is the recipe I got from my grandmother, who fed this to my mom and her siblings as a great way of getting kids to eat diary… Clearly, this was before yogurts had become readily available all over the world… (more…)
Anzac Biscuits
OK, our Australian and NZ readers can totally skip this post. I mean, anzac biscuits have been around since World War I, when they were sent to the ANZAC soldiers (Australian New Zealand Army Corps) in the trenches by their beloved wives and mothers. The ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during the long journey to Europe. I love historical facts like these!
Here’s an Anzac Biscuit recipe from my (New Zealand) friend Stephanie (the source of the delicious Honey Oat Biscuits). I thought dissolving the baking soda in boiling water was odd, but it worked fine and the recipe is really easy and the result yummy!!
(more…)
Grilled Baby Romaine Lettuce
I have a new addiction — see title. Now that we’re officially and finally in full spring here in Europe, we went to the garden centre last weekend, got heaps of plants and herbs, and we also got a new grill (or gas BBQ). And I haven”t stopped grilling since. On the look-out for new and inspiring recipes, I came across grilled lettuce. Who would have thought of it? But it’s wonderful!
For 4 people, all you need is:
- 4 baby romaine lettuce (or ‘little gem’, as they are strangely called in the Netherlands)
- olive oil and fresh ground pepper
- ceasar dressing (home made or shop bought)
- freshly grated curls of grana padano, or parmasan (more…)
Roooooooooobarb!
I made this today and feel so wholesomely brilliant that I just had to write and tell you about it. It is a rhubarb compote and it is my new favourite thing for these reasons:
1. So easy to make!
2. Makes delicious dessert when served with yogurt, ice-cream or whipped cream.
3. Stores in the fridge for ages (well at least a week/10 days) so is a great fall-back for unexpected visitors.
4. It’s fabulously pink (and looks great in one of those old-fashioned jars!)
5. Soooo in season (that is Rhubarb but I hear pink is too).
The recipe is based on Nigella Lawson’s Rhubarb Fool from her book ‘Forever Summer’, which I have been making for years now. But it wasn’t until I left it in the oven for too long that I came across my own version of it… (more…)
Rhubarb coffee cake
Rhubarb is just coming into season and my grocery store was recently offering two-for-one deals on it, so I bought a load of it this weekend and made my very favourite rhubarb dish — rhubarb coffee cake. I love coffee cake (I mean, who doesn’t?!), and the rhubarb adds a tangy dimension to it that is seriously so good. I love to make it when we have guests staying with us because it fills the house with that sweet cinnamon smell. Plus, it is dead easy to make — it’s another one of those ‘throw all ingredients into a bowl and stir’ type of recipes.
This recipe comes from one of my very favourite cookbooks, Alice Bay
Easy Biscuits
Sometimes there is just nothing better than a nice cup of tea and a good biscuits to accompany it (how Anglo-Saxon do I sound?).
I like these biscuits because they are really easy to make and I always make enough dough so that I can freeze half of it. That way when I, or any other member of my family, suddenly gets a craving for biscuits I can just grab the dough out of the freezer, let it defrost for 10 min while the oven is heating up and an additional 10 minutes later we have freshly baked biscuits.
The other thing I like about this recipe is that it is really versatile. You can cut thin slices off the sausage and sandwich them together with some good jam when they come out of the oven. You can paint the sausage with a beaten egg and then roll it in broken nuts or even just in brown sugar. You can add lemon or even orange zest to the egg/sugar/butter cream before you add in the flour. In short, the sky is the limit with this one and I love this kind of recipe as I can make it according to what I happen to have flying around at home. Here is the recipe: (more…)
Honey Oat Biscuits
My friend Stephanie made me these cookies a while ago (like last year), and even though they were AMAZING and I asked her for the recipe immediately, I only today made them for the first time. And they were AMAZING (ask my kids and husband!), and very easy to make!
Here’s the recipe:
-125g butter
-1/2 cup/125g sugar
-2 tablespoons honey
-1 cup/125g flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
Cream butter, sugar and honey together until pale. Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon together. Add sifted ingredients and rolled oats to creamed mixture, stirring well. Roll tablespoon of mixture into balls. Place on greased oven tray. Flatten with the use of a floured fork and bake at 180 C (360 F) for 15 minutes or until golden. YUM!
xxx Esther
P.S. To print this recipe, click here.
Chicken Pie
England is not known for its cooking, but sometimes that reputation is uncalled for. Sure, jellied eels, deep-fried pizzas and french fry sandwiches (aka chip butties) are not to everyone’s taste, but in a cold, wintery climate a warming dish cannot be beaten. There is one thing I miss in particular from my London days: a good savoury pie.
Every country seems to have its own variation on a baked crust with a savoury filling, but it is hard to beat a good English pie… ask my children, I think they would agree.
This is my version of a pie, but any suggestions or spins on the subject are more than welcome. (more…)
Felafel
I was sitting beside a Lebanese guy at a wedding this weekend and he could not help raving about the wonderful food from his country and the Mediterranean area in general. Since then I have not stopped thinking about great Mediterranean dishes. Don’t forget: eating a Meditarrenean diet apparently makes you live longer…
So this afternoon my daughter and I got busy and made up a dinner’s worth of felafel, which we had not eaten for the longest time.
Felafel are perfect for kids, easy to eat and perfect to accompany lots of different salads. They are very simple and a huge amount of fun to make. (I told my daughter that we were going to be making little round balls out of a sticky play dough-type substance and she was completely enthused by this.)
Above all, felafel tastes absolutely delicious and gets devoured at high speed here at our place…
Here’s the recipe: (more…)
A quick Valentine’s treat
Seriously — so so so quick. Done in 15 minutes before dashing out of the house to kindergarten. The classic chocolate-crispy-cake but Valentined-up with mini marshmallows and the most adorable heart sprinkles from Etsy-shop Hey Yo-Yo (which I love for all things cake & kitsch). We dolloped our mixture into pretty pink paisley cases for our playdate in the afternoon, and then into mini-cases to fit inside this very pink heart tin from Paperchase (pictured) as a Valentine’s present for my son’s beau. Yes, my son is in love! His name is Elias and he has aptly fallen in in love with a girl called Grace — anyone who knows the store in Primrose Hill will appreciate his brand loyalty.
To make you need: 100g milk chocolate and 60g golden syrup (or 3 Mars bars work nicely), 75g unsalted butter, between 75 to 100g rice-crispies cereal, a handful or so of mini-marshmallows and some heart decorations. If you can’t get sprinkles then any heart sweets could work, or even love-hearts (I love their messages).
Melt the chocolate, syrup and butter over boiling water. When melted stir until smooth and remove from the heat. Add rice-crispies and stir, then add the marshmallows and stir again. Spoon into cases and decorate with hearts. Leave for a couple of hours to cool and set or put into the fridge to speed up the setting process. Yum!
-Mo. x
Delicious pasta — even when camping!
Cooking nutritious meals in a campervan in no easy feat. First, the kitchen is tiny, the utensils are very basic, and there is no oven. Secondly, it’s already hot and sticky in the van, so you don’t feel like cooking anything. So, for the sake of our sanity we’ve learned to keep it simple. We’ve made this pasta twice in the past two weeks, and it is so easy to make and yet really good. The only sign of it being a camp meal is the plastic dishware we’re eating it on! It is delicious, and the kids love it.
Another bonus of this pasta is that you can pretty much rely on your pantry cupboards (canned tomatoes, canned tuna, pasta, olive oil, etc.) You’ll only need a handful of fresh basil and parsley.
Here is the recipe: (more…)
The Toadstool Tea
I can’t believe my daughter has just turned one — time has flown. Now I know a one-year-old might not appreciate a proper birthday party, but I can’t resist one. And in the spirit of being ‘girly’ there was nothing for it but a fairy tea-party, to be more specific The Toadstool Tea (for those of you unfamiliar with fairy-lore, The Toadstool Tea is a secret party for all the fairies, elves and imps to celebrate the Fairy Queen’s birthday. It takes place under the thicket deep in the middle of the forest (according to Mo)).
Toadstools, it turns out, are not only a really great theme for a party but also rather fashionable. In my month or so of preparation I saw them everywhere (I couldn’t resist adding a cute Toadstool money box from Cath Kidston (stores only) and this adorable Shinzi Katoh print to her presents). Toadstools also make for a fun theme because they are easy to draw and craft. Here are some other toadstool ideas… (more…)
Raisin Scone Bread
In our recent bread-baking adventures, my husband and I have stumbled across a recipe for the most yummy, scone-like raisin bread, and it is now a weekend morning favourite! Plus, it is dead easy to make, only needs a minute or two of kneading, and it bakes in 30 minutes (seriously easy in the world of bread making)!
The trick for creating moist and flavourful raisins is to soak them in whiskey beforehand. I’m sure the alcohol burns off while baking, but if you’re against the idea you can soak the raisins in hot water instead.
Here is the recipe: (more…)
