Mezze, a delicious first course of several little dishes, is the best part of an Middle Eastern meal.
There's nothing worse than coming home after a wearisome day at work to be met with the prospect of more hours of toil in the kitchen.
To satisfy the mid-week need for culinary speed, Epicure has come up with five tasty recipes, one for each day, that require minimum fuss for maximum mouthwatering appeal.
The only trick with these 10-minute dinners is that you need to be prepared.
Slow roasting encourages all of the fabulous flavours and spices to infuse together to create something bigger than all the individual parts. And it's not just meat and poultry that respond well to slow cooking. Many vegetables release their true flavours and sweetness when slowly braised, and long-cooked sauces can be the beginning of many a welcoming, hearty stew.
One of the benefits of slow cooking is that you can use cheaper, more unusual cuts of meat as well as whole chickens, which allow for nothing to be wasted.
A sunny windowsill is all you need to grow your own herbs. The secret is to treat them mean - and then spoil yourself. Nigel Slater hooks a fragrant supper
There's nothing like a chicken soup to warm you up on a cold winter's day.
Superstar chefs are betting that Melbourne's casino precinct will be the next big thing in dining ... Crown's move to turn its Yarra-side promenade into a "world-class dining precinct" has attracted an impressive group of names to Melbourne. The combined pulling power of Neil Perry, Nobu Matsuhisa, Maurice Terzini and Guillaume Brahimi will serve Crown well in two ways: by satisfying the current dining criterion that a casino needs to be noticed internationally; and, after 10 years of relative indifference towards the casino's restaurants by Melbourne diners and critics, making Crown virtually impossible to ignore. A whole new crowd might start to look casino-ward.
This is a very simple, highly flavorful salmon dish, using a classic Japanese yakitori marinade with the addition of some finely grated fresh ginger. The dish benefits from sitting in the marinade for a long time, overnight is best, but at least 2 hours minimum.
In a world where you can find anything on the Internet, the newest way to learn cooking is from a genre called vlogs ... Local cooks Nina Simonds of Salem, Kathy Maister of Boston's Back Bay, and two preteens near Chicago are getting into the act. Pull out your chopping boards, start peeling an onion, and left click.
Think super-green, herby, thick omelette/frittata/tortilla, perfect eaten warm or cold. This is one versatile dish, and contains the prize-winning triumvirate for all the best recipes: quick, cheap and easy.
Sage is an herb many people associate with stuffing, turkey and Thanksgiving, but I can't wait that long to use it. In my family's herb garden, the abundant patch of sage is thriving, and I'm wondering what to do with it all. If you've dug yourself into the same hole, here are seven ways to use or preserve sage ...
Food on sticks is a "craze" many throughout the world have embraced, so what's holding you back?
Don't forget to soak bamboo skewers in water to prevent them burning when cooking.
I did this for the first time and made two mistakes which I will NOT repeat. First, I chose not to use gloves when picking the seeds out and handling the peppers. PAIN. Next, I did not let the chili mixture cool completely when I put the slop in the blender. The heat and steam forced the top off and my curtains are still splattered with red. I got very lucky that the stuff didn't fly towards me. Shudder. It's a very labor intensive dish, but even with all of that, it was still densely flavored and luscious. I chose to serve it in some Chile Colorado.
For years now I've enjoyed finding recipe cards and cookbooks (among other things) at second hand stores. In 2000, I found Katie's Kitchen in a used record shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market (accompanied by Listener Jim) and after reading that there was a recipe for a Crab Meat Nut Sandwich that I could serve with Lime-V8s it was easy to plop down the five bucks. Never did put the record to use in the kitchen, but I plan to someday soon.
And now there's a grilled cheese sandwich that gives children a reason to want to visit me.
To make classic Thai dipping sauce: Place chopped chilli into mortar with a pinch of salt and sugar and, using a pestle, pound to a paste. Add lemon juice, palm sugar and fish sauce and combine well. The taste should be a balance of salty, sour, sweet and hot.
To prepare squid, grasp the body in one hand and pull out the tentacles firmly with the other. Pull any greyish membrane off the outside of the body, and take out the "quill", a clear plastic-like bone inside.
In scandinavian cooking kohlrabi is quite common. It is used in stews and soups, but my personal favourite is mashed kohlrabi. It has a more distinct taste than mashed potatoes, so it's a very good company to salty, smoked mutton and richly flavoured sausages. You make it much the same way as you would make mashed potatoes. Peel and slice it, cook it until its soft and mash it with an unhealthy amount of butter, cream/milk, salt and pepper. Some like a bit of nutmeg in and the more adventorous use vanilla. Good luck!
SPRATS BROILED
Sprats
Flour
Salt
Melted butter
If you have not a sprat gridiron, get a piece of pointed iron wire as thick as a packthread, and as long as your gridiron is broad; run this through the heads of your sprats, sprinkle a little flour and salt over them, put your gridiron over a clear, quick fire, turn them in about a couple of minutes; when the other side is brown, draw out the wire, and send up the fish with melted butter in a cup.
Peaches
125g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
Vanilla essence
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Raspberry jam
100ml whipping cream
1 x 85g packet jelly crystals (your choice of flavour)
There's a lovely piece of gammon on the stove, sitting in a deep pan surrounded by onions, bay leaves and sweet young vegetables. It's not boiling, more progressing at a slovenly simmer, an occasional blip-blop and a low sigh every now and again as it reaches tenderness.
Crepes can be eaten as a savory entree, filled with anything delicious, or as a sweet dessert. They're easy to make, and they freeze beautifully, so you can have a few now and freeze the rest for later.
While the penne is cooking, rub the inside of a large serving bowl with the mashed garlic. Discard the garlic.
The woman who taught Australia how to cook in the 1960s is giving us a little reminder. In her latest book - her 25th - Margaret Fulton has chosen her most cherished recipes ...
NOTE: Do not eat flowers from florists, nurseries or garden centers. In many cases these flowers have been treated with pesticides not labeled for food crops.
Ingredients (serves 6)
* 200g couscous
* 200ml chicken stock
* 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
* 1 Lebanese cucumber, seeds removed, diced
* 1/2 red onion, finely sliced
* 1 yellow capsicum, seeds removed, diced
* 2 vine-ripened tomatoes, seeds removed, diced
* 2 tbs chopped flat-leaf parsley
* 2 tbs lemon juice
* 1 tbs hummus (optional)
