Wheat Berry Salad / Butternut Pumpkin & Sage Dinner Rolls / Fajita Spiced Roasted Chickpeas

Blog Post & Recipe: Light and Fresh Wheat Berry Salad

This salad is rad because it has so much texture and crunch. So if you’re a salad hater like me, you should try this.

Blog Post & Recipe: Butternut Squash & Sage Dinner Rolls

The flavor of the squash comes through subtly, and I certainly can’t imagine a situation where sage and goat cheese make something worse, can you?

Blog Post & Recipe: Fajita Spiced Roasted Chickpeas [via]

Combine the spice mixture and sprinkle over the chickpeas. Toss to combine well. Pour the chickpeas onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes, turning every 5-10 minutes until they are roasted and crunchy.

M., this is our one thousandth post.

Chicken, White Bean, and Poblano Stew / Peppermint Ice Blended Mocha / Vinegar-Glazed Chicken

Blog Post & Recipe: Chicken, White Bean, and Poblano Stew

There’s nothing fancy to this stew but it’s pretty easy to throw together, is really filling, and a big hit in our family.

Blog Post & Recipe: Peppermint Ice Blended Mocha

I think I had about half a gallon of hot chocolate leftover, so for an extremely nutritious (and diabetic friendly) breakfast, I infused it with some candy canes and then blended it with ice cream, coffee powder and garnished it with an unhealthy dollop of whipped cream.

Blog Post & Recipe: Vinegar-Glazed Chicken

Unlike white rice vinegar, Chinese black vinegar from northern China is an aged vinegar made from black glutinous rice, wheat, millet, or sorghum.. (The Gold Plum version from the city of Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province, made with glutinous rice, is considered the premier brand.) The flavor resembles that of balsamic vinegar. It’s slightly sweet with a barely detectable smokiness [...] I frequently recommend in my recipes a good-quality balsamic vinegar as a substitute if you can’t find Chinese black vinegar. But the same could be said opposite, that if you run out of balsamic vinegar you can use Chinese black vinegar.

Triple Celery Soup / Thai Chicken Stew / Rosemary Squash Bisque

Article & Recipe: A celery-soup celebration

It’s a soup based on both the familiar green stalk celery (high on the list of underappreciated vegetables, in my view) and the knobbly white celeriac, or celery root.

Triple Celery Soup

Blog Post & Recipe: Thai Chicken Stew

Combine the carrots, onions, chiles, ginger, and vegetable oil in a medium bowl and microwave for approximately 10 minutes until the vegetables soften. Transfer the vegetable mixture to your slow cooker.

Blog Post & Recipe: The World is Not Ready for Bacon Squash Caviar

Now, I do precisely one thing with winter squash. Well, technically two things. I cube it, salt it, oil it, roast it. At this point, I either turn it into a soup, or I don’t. If I chose the former, it becomes Rosemary Squash Bisque, with a supporting cast of pork products, vegetable broth, rosemary, cream, and the tender ministrations of my Cuisinart.

Rosemary Squash Bisque

Roasted Cauliflower Risotto / Roasted Cauliflower with Cumin, Coriander & Almonds / Adobong Puti (White Adobo)

Blog Post & Recipe: Roasted Cauliflower Risotto

I saw this version of a risotto recipe from Pink Parsley a while back and was intrigued by the simple ingredients.

Blog Post & Recipe: Roasted Cauliflower with Cumin, Coriander and Almonds

This is something that is so simple once you make it a couple times, it's easy to whip together as a side dish for lunch or dinner or even just to snack on. Don't get me wrong - it's great when it's hot. But I kinda like it cold too

Blog Post & Recipe: 9 mornings: Adobong Puti/White Adobo

An adobo variation I really like is Adobong Puti/ White Adobo. It’s called that because it doesn’t use soy sauce. Instead you may opt to add fish sauce to give it that saltiness. I also like my adobo without the liquid/sauce, so I reduce the liquid until the meat is practically being fried in the rendered fat.

Super-eggy Scrambled Eggs / Banana Bread / Christmas Dinner with Roast Goose

Blog Post & Recipe: Super-eggy Scrambled Eggs

I came across it while paging through the new Serious Eats book - the idea is to use whole eggs plus egg yolks to make your eggs extra rich, creamy, and flavorful.

Blog Post & Recipe: Sunday Brunch: Banana Bread

This recipe for banana bread is about as simple as it gets, but one of the beauties of banana bread is how well it incorporates odds and ends from the cupboard and fridge. A handful of chocolate chips, some dried cranberries, or even a grated apple can happily be folded into this batter

Article & Recipes: Give goose a gander

Turkey is traditional, but goose makes a fine centrepiece for a Christmas feast [...] If in doubt, buy a meat thermometer, and in general, don’t stuff birds – cook stuffing separately as it can really slow down the whole cooking process.

Mushroom, onion and chestnut soup ... Cranberry sorbet ... Roast goose ... Roast loin of bacon with dried cherries and plums ... Jerusalem artichoke and potato gratin ... Roasted red pepper and macadamia nut stuffing ... Roast Brussels sprouts

Eggnog / Poached Pears with Warm Chocolate Sauce / Brussels Sprouts & Grapes

Blog Post & Recipe: Homemade Eggnog

Every season I try to find an excuse to make a version of my grandmother’s simple eggnog recipe. This weekend, we had a small gathering to let kids run amuck and I treated myself and the other parents to the following variation

Blog Post & Recipe: To poach a pear

As poached pear recipes go, this one could be called plain: just pears, water, brown sugar (or golden caster sugar, if you have it), a vanilla bean, and lemon juice. But what I like about it is that you wind up with a poached pear that tastes intensely of pear. The end.

Blog Post & Recipe: Brussels Sprouts and Grapes: A Counterintuitive Holiday Recipe

Brussels sprouts and grapes? the host repeated, incredulous.

Yes, I said. It’s sweet and savory; the grapes release their delicious sugars as they cook, which in turn caramelize the sprouts. You can eat it hot, cold, or at room temperature. You can add anything to it, within reason: toasted walnuts, pine nuts, spicy pepitas, lardons, whole garlic cloves, fresh thyme or rosemary, sea salt. Or nothing at all, which is generally how I like it.

Mulligatawny / Butternut Pumpkin & Black Bean Enchiladas / Curried Eggplant Soup

Blog Post & Recipe: Mulligatawny Reboot

Meet my favorite chicken soup in the entire world.

Blog Post & Recipe: Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas

I can’t begin to explain how delicious they are. I mean, sweet butternut squash with spicy enchilada sauce? That doesn’t even sound good! But they are amazing!

Blog Post & Recipe: Recipe: Curried Eggplant Soup...Eat.Live.Be

It's sweet and spicy and has a lot of staying power due to the white beans that are pureed into it and all the fiber from the eggplant and apple that are mixed in there as well. (Yes, there's an apple in it. Trust me. It's a good move.)

Fasoulia Nashfe: Lamb & White Bean Stew / Cool Rhubarb Glögg / Duck in Port

Blog Post & Recipe: Fasoulia Nashfe: Lamb and White Bean Stew

This fasoulia nashfe is one of my favorite family recipes, and one that has traveled with me to four continents: tender lamb, soft cannellini beans and a rich tomato sauce seasoned in the signature Arab way, with plenty of cinnamon, garlic and baharat.

Blog Post & Recipe: Finnish Christmas with a Twist: Cool rhubarb glögg

I adore rhubarb, I'm sure you've realised that by now, and this drink is for all you die-hard rhubarb lovers out there. It's completely sugar-free, so prepare yourself for some real rhubarb flavour pared with warming spices and a drizzle of lemon juice to freshen it all up.

Blog Post & Recipe: Duck in Port

I also recommend using all the parts that come with. The liver can be chopped up and sautéd with shallots, coriander and cumin. Seasoned with lime and cilantro and you have a perfect appetizer. The neck (head and feet) and rest of the giblets make a great base for a stock (see below).

Braised Red Cabbage with Malaga Raisins & Apple / Turkey Tips + Recipes for Stuffing, Glazes, Etc / Pong Tauhu -- Tofu with Meatball Soup

Recipe: Christmas lunch: braised red cabbage with Malaga raisins and apple

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Put all the ingredients in a casserole and mix well. Place in the oven and bake for 1½ hours until the cabbage is tender.

Article & Recipes: Getting the best from your bird

1. Read your turkey labels ... 2. Brine your turkey ... 3. Consider adding a "stuffing" that will add moisture to the bird ... 4. Invest in a meat thermometer ... 5. Let the cooked turkey rest for 30 minutes before carving ... 6. Great gravy

Recipes: Turkey Brine ... Seasoned Oil Mixture for Turkey ... Maple Mustard Turkey Glaze ... Turkey Gravy ... Turkey Stuffing

Blog Post & Recipe: Pong Tauhu--Tofu with Meatball Soup

BTW, this soup, pong tauhu, should not be confused with the Indonesian tahu pong. Although they are probably derived from the same root, tahu pong are fried tofu puffs. Those in this recipe are denser dumplings of tofu that are not fried.

Apple Pork Ribs Soup / Mulled Cider / Nabeyaki Udon + Three Mushroom Vegetarian Nabeyaki Udon

Blog Post & Recipe: Apple Pork Ribs Soup 苹果猪骨汤

The flavour of this soup really depends on what type or how big the apples are. The original recipe calls for 4 apples but I used 3 instead as the apples I used were quite large and I was afraid that the soup would be too sweet. So remember to adjust accordingly to your taste.

Blog Post & Recipe: How to make mulled cider

The basic idea of making any mulled drink is to warm the liquor gently with spices. Which spices to use is up to you – nutmeg, star anise and vanilla can be used, though we're going to stick with tradition and use just cloves and cinnamon. Sugar or honey can be added to taste but because of the unusual addition of the very sweet sloe gin in this recipe, you probably won't need it.

Blog Post & Recipe: Nabeyaki Udon and Three Mushroom Vegetarian Nabeyaki Udon

So find some loved ones and get yourself into the kitchen to make some nabeyaki udon. This udon has the thick chewy udon noodles and vegetables of the regular nabeyaki udon, but is made with a mushroom stock base. Plus it sports three varieties of mushrooms—shiitake, king trumpet, and enoki mushrooms and cubes of sauteed tofu. If you can’t find some of the mushrooms, substitute your favorites!

Laksa With Ground Bison / Sauerkraut Rye Sandwich Bread / Baking Bread with Different Flours

Blog Post & Recipe: Laksa With Ground Bison

It was one of those day that I wanted to cook a meal that won't required a long time to cook it. You could use regular beef chuck or beef shoulder for this laksa, or you can also use poultry such as chicken, or duck.

Blog Post & Recipe: Sauerkraut Rye Sandwich Bread

If you think about it, what ever you put in a sandwich you can put into a loaf of bread. Well … Ok, maybe not meatloaf. That would not make a good bread. But, Sauerkraut is perfect. It gives the bread a sourdough flavor, without a strong sauerkraut flavor.

Blog Post & Recipe: All Flours Are Not Equal

What would happen if you ran out of bread flour but still wanted to make bread? Or the store had an awesome sale on cake flour which you were tempted to use instead? Flour is basically just flour, after all, no? There’s not much difference between Pastry and All Purpose, besides a bit more protein, right?

Salmon Dill Crepes / Steaming Large Clams with Dashi & Sake / Chickpea Casserole with Lemon, Herbs & Shallots

Blog Post & Recipe: Salmon Dill Crepe Recipe Paired with Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand

You can make the crepes ahead of time and store them layered between wax paper in the refrigerator for up to 2 days (or freeze). As well, you can make the salmon mixture ahead of time and just heat before assembling the crepes.

Blog Post & Recipe: Steaming Large Clams with Dashi & Sake

Then Nobuko, my M-I-L, prepared 2 cups of kombu dashi, adding a pinch of salt to the liquid, and setting aside. She arranged the clams in a dry cast iron skillet, covered the skillet and placed it over high heat. After about 7 or so minutes, the clams opened up.

Blog Post & Recipe: Chickpea Casserole with Lemon, Herbs & Shallots

This is a meatless vegetarian dish, bright with lemon zest and herbs. It gets finished off with a crunchy, olive oil-drizzled crust of Parmesan and breadcrumbs. It's creamy inside, crisp on top. But it leaves out old-fashioned canned soups and all those heaps of cheese and cream. Instead I use some low-fat yogurt (so tasty and tangy!) and some cottage cheese to bind the casserole together.

Pork Chop with White Wine Sauce / Tostone Tostada with Stewed Chicken & Parsnip Hot Sauce / Norwegian Fish Pudding

Blog Post & Recipe: Pork Chop with White Wine Sauce

A creamy, white wine sauce is perfect with either chicken or pork – the white meats are delicate enough to let the nuances of white wine shine through.

Blog Post & Recipe: Tostone Tostada with Stewed Chicken and Parsnip Hot Sauce

This one is almost like a crostini or toastada but it uses a fried plantain as the vessel for the delicious stewed chicken and hot sauce. Oh and the secret ingredient in the hot sauce? Parsnip.

Blog Post & Recipe: Fish Pudding for Fearless Flyers

Exhausted from a day’s snowy recreation, Norwegians no doubt repaired to their homes for a hearty helping of fish pudding. Should you wish to make this signature Nordic dish part of your après-ski, this recipe, which appears in The Ann Arbor Cookbook
(1899), should leave you feeling stuffed to the gills.

Norwegian Fish Pudding

Cheese & Bacon Scones with Homemade Piccalilli / Thai Soba Noodle Bowl / Fresh Mint Hot Chocolate

Blog Post & Recipe: Cheese & Bacon Scones with Homemade Piccalilli

Of course the piccalilli was made several weeks in advance to allow the flavours to mature but the scones were enjoyed fresh from the oven.

Blog Post & Recipe: THAI SOBA NOODLE BOWL

I know heat is subjective, so I am giving amounts for a medium spicy soup. I would start there and add accordingly. It’s tougher to neutralize the spice in a soup like this, so start moderate.

Blog Post & Recipe: Fresh Mint Hot Chocolate

What I love about this version is the mint is from fresh mint. It tastes clean and unlike the candy mint – which I also love – fresh mint gives a clean earthy punch that really suits the chocolate well.

Jugged Hare / Fennel & Pear Soup / Black Pudding Profiteroles

Blog Post & Recipe: Jugged Hare

The recipe kicks off asking for a mixture of flour, mace, cloves and allspice to roll the chunks of rabbit in before frying.

Blog Post & Recipe: Good warm, even better cold - Fennel and Pear Soup

I was standing with a fennel bulb in my hand when I saw a very ripe pear on the table and somehow my mind connected with the two and there was one - the vision of a fennel and pear soup.

Blog Post & Recipe: Black Pudding Profiteroles

Remember the Chorizo Choux Puffs? When I published the recipe on my Estonian site, then one of the readers, Ilse, suggested using our Christmas favourite, finely chopped black pudding instead of chorizo. I liked the sound of that, so nicked the idea, adding a spoonful of roasted onion flakes for an extra depth of flavour.

10 Reasons I Love My Freezer / Stuffed Cabbage Casserole / Phyllo Kourou

Blog Post: Cold comfort - 10 reasons I love my freezer

1. Going nuts ... 2. Flavour bombs ... 3. Scrooge satisfaction ... 4. Stocking up ... 5. Anything with a pulse ... 6. Rice on ice ... 7. The Florence factor ... 8. Pesto power ... 9. Take-away at home ... 10. Craving curb

Blog Post & Recipe: Recipe for Deconstructed Stuffed Cabbage Casserole

Being forced to plan ahead for meals meant I always made diet-friendly casseroles or soups on the weekend to make sure my freezer was well-stocked to get me through the week. That's a habit I'm going to work on cultivating again, so over the weekend I made this amazing Deconstructed Stuffed Cabbage Casserole and I have six servings of it in the freezer waiting for me at home

Blog Post & Recipe: Rolo me Phyllo Kourou and my e-book has finally been published

The classic recipe, Rolo me Patates is made with ground meat in which we add hard boiled eggs. In Cyprus we wrap the roulade in caul fat, which melts as it is being baked in the oven and gives a wonderful flavour to the ground meat. Instead of caulfat I wrapped it in kourou phyllo and added ham and halloumi. A very simple recipe but yet so delicious. Instead of Kourou phyllo you can just wrap it in parchment paper or in puff pastry.

Braised Venison Tongue with Mixed Greens / Carrots and Cabbage with Eggs (Orak Arik Wortel) / Homemade Cavatelli

Blog Post & Recipe: A Little Tongue

While the tongues are still warm, transfer them to a cutting surface and peel it with your fingers or a paring knife. The skin is really the only icky thing about tongue: underneath it is pure meat.

braised venison tongue with mixed greens

Blog Post & Recipe: Orak Arik Wortel--Carrots and Cabbage with Eggs

Orak arik are simple scrambles of vegetables and eggs. While a lot of Indonesian food is generously spiced, orak arik dishes tend to be rather tame. The ingredients and the spicing indicate a Dutch influence.

Blog Post & Recipe: Pleasures of Pasta Dough

Homemade cavatelli, by the way, is the current favorite pasta around here. I adore it because it's so much fun to make and each individual piece of pasta scoops up just the right amount of sauce. My husband prefers it for its resilient, satisfying chew.

Spicy Shoyu Ramen / Sausage Rolls with Apricots & Whisky-Caramelised Onions / Moroccan Slow-Roasted Shoulder of Lamb + Bramley & Mincemeat Pasties

Blog Post & Recipe: Spicy Shoyu Ramen

If you prefer no spicy taste at all for yourself or young children, you can use regular chili bean paste (doubanjiang) and not spicy chili bean paste (la doubanjiang).

Blog Post & Recipe: Sausage rolls with apricots and whisky-caramelised onions

Anyway, [whisky-caramelised onions are] incredible in these sausage rolls too, together with re-plumped dried apricots and a good pinch of chipotle chilli flakes to play off that smoky thing going on with the whisky. At first I was worried the rolls might be a little on the sweet side with the onions and fruit but god damn if they weren’t just plain sexy.

Blog Post & Recipe: Nigel Slater's mincemeat pasties and lamb recipes

Chunks of meat are all well and good, but few things beat a whole joint, slowly roasted on the bone until the meat slides away at the slightest prod. Lamb shoulder is arguably the king of such joints. It's tough as old boots, but so perfectly fatty that when sympathetically cooked the fat melts through the meat

Moroccan slow-roasted shoulder of lamb ... Bramley and mincemeat pasties

Basic Turkey Gravy / Butter and Soy Sauce / Sweet Potato Risotto

Blog Post & Recipe: How to: Make Turkey Gravy…Revisited

I figured it was worth publishing my recipe and troubleshooting tips again this year. This recipe does not involve adding wine or herbs, though those things can provide very satisfying results, too. Rather, this version is as basic as turkey gravy recipe can get.

Blog Post & Recipe: The Dynamic Duo: Butter and Soy Sauce

It's a one-two punch that works fantastically with so many ingredients: all manner of mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, shrimp, scallops, flounder fillets and more. First sauté the ingredient in butter, and when it's just cooked through, drizzle in soy sauce. Cook a little more and it's done.

Blog Post & Recipe: Meatless Monday: Sweet Potato Risotto

Most risottos take a fair amount of time and quite of bit of babysitting while you slowly add stock to the rice, gently coaxing it into creaminess. Not this one. Instead, you boil the rice for about 15 minutes, add it to the skillet with the sweet potatoes, onion and ginger, and use the wine and the mascarpone to instantly give you that signature, melt-in-your-mouth, creamy consistency that everyone expects from a risotto.

Concept: cook with butter and soy sauce.

Hot Buttered Rum / Chai Concentrate / Suki Dry Noodles (สุกี้ยากี้แห้ง) /

Blog Post & Recipe: The Wednesday Tipple – Hot Buttered Rum

Mix the butter, sugar and cinnamon together and drop into the bottom of a mug. Add the rum, then top up with hot water

Blog Post & Recipe: Chai Concentrate

I’ve always boiled the spices directly in my milk, however I decided to try making a concentrated version with water. A concentrate is much more flexible, as you can mix it with milk or soy/nut milk.

Blog Post & Recipe: Suki Dry Noodles | สุกี้ยากี้แห้ง

Suki dry is composed of the same ingredients as Thai-style sukiyaki. You have bean thread noodles, which are now the base of the dish instead of being a supplement to the broth. You have thinly-sliced beef, pork, or whatever other protein you wish. You have an egg or two. And you have tons of vegetables.

Baked Sweet Potato with Black Beans / Spinach Egg Drop Soup / Halal Cart-Style Chicken & Rice with White Sauce

Blog Post & Recipe: Baked Sweet Potato with Black Beans

You can also bake the potatoes in the oven for a crispier skin (don’t forget to eat the skin – it’s full of nutrients!)

Blog Post & Recipe: Sickies

Swim in a bowl of chicken broth accentuated with ribbons of velvety, beaten egg and shreds of spinach. Let the bright green onions make your taste buds sing.

Spinach Egg Drop Soup

Blog Post & Recipe: Serious Eats' Halal Cart-Style Chicken and Rice with White Sauce

Manhattan is home to many smells, but perhaps the most delicious is the chicken-y, savory scent that emanates from from the city's countless halal carts. Serving lunch to late-night, these carts dish up a container full of chicken rice that tastes like nothing else, crave-worthy and totally singular ... Marinated in oregano, lemon, and coriander, chicken thighs are browned, chopped into chunks and served over a pile turmeric-yellow rice.

Seaweed Salad (Miyuk Muchim) / Chai / Boiled Bone Stock

Recipe: Seaweed Salad (Miyuk Muchim)

This seaweed salad is a great little appetizer or side dish for when you want to eat light.

Blog Post & Recipe: Perfect Chai

When I’m brewing from scratch, this here is my ideal recipe. It’s got plenty of cardamom, which (I think) is the only ingredient other than tea in traditional chai. But it’s also got cloves, which add an undercurrent of spice to the drink.

Blog Post & Recipe: The Nasty Bits: Boiled Bones

If you do not want your stock to look cloudy and taste fatty, then simmer your bones. If you have a lot of good meat that's still on the bone, and you want to eat the meat, then simmer your bones ... If, on the other hand, you happen to have a pile of bones leftover from a roast, and there is nothing palatable about them, then boil the heck out of your bones.

Boiled Stock

Cook Perfect Beef Wellington / Albóndigas Soup / 8 Braises

Blog Post & Recipe: How to cook perfect beef wellington

Simon and Lindsey observe in the preface to their beef wellington recipe that "the whole point of cooking meat in pastry is to keep in the juices ... but if the pastry is good and thin, buttery and rich, nothing is nicer than a meat-soaked crust".

Blog Post & Recipe: i just flipped that

Loaded with vegetables and a good amount of spice, I couldn’t wait for it to finish cooking. The meatballs are made with beef and pork, but the book says there are some variations depending on region. You could use chicken instead of beef, and some meatballs are wrapped around a pitted green olive.

Recipe: albóndigas soup

Blog Post & Recipes: Fork-Tender Dinners: 8 Braises to Fill Your Belly

Give it some low heat and an afternoon to baste in its own juices, and food takes on never before seen levels of flavor and tenderness.

Star Anise and Ginger Braised Chicken ... Dijon-Braised Brussels Sprouts ... Braised Lebanese Eggplant with Chickpeas ... Spice-Braised Lamb Shanks with Lentils ... Short Ribs Braised in Coffee Ancho Chile Sauce ... Braised Celery with Crunchy Bread Crumb Topping ... Apple Cider Braised Brisket ... Lamb Tagine with Chickpeas and Apricots .

Related: Food Science: Why Tougher Meats Make Good Braises

Trimming Globe Artichokes / Fennel Gratin / Pad Thai

Blog Post: Turning (Trimming) Globe Artichokes

Judy Rogers said it before me: choose artichokes as you would flowers- make sure they look freshly picked and young, still about to blossom rather than spent and loosely formed. Hold the petal head in your hand and squeeze. It should sound crunchy. And feel heavy for its size.

Blog Post & Recipe: Fennel Gratin

Fennel is the most wonderfully versatile vegetable. You can slice raw fennel thin and serve it with a little shaved Parmesan for a crisp salad. Or you can plop it in the oven with a little balsamic and roast it until it gets sweetly caramelized. Fennel has a special affinity for Parmesan, and in this simple gratin fennel wedges are tossed with breadcrumbs, Mozzarella and Parm, and baked until golden brown.

Blog Posts & Recipe: Pad Thai Recipe (ผัดไทย) - Part Five: Making Pad Thai (This is the final part of the series. The other four parts are linked in the post.)

The immediate goal of this series is to facilitate you in creating the version of Pad Thai which I like, using the ingredients and method commonly employed by street vendors in Bangkok, my hometown. But that's just to get you started; it's not the ultimate goal. Eventually, you will want to get to a place where you can move the noodles around in the pan with the spatulas and know just how much longer it will take for them to cook, how often to stir them, whether the heat is too low or the evaporation rate is too high, how to season it, etc.

In other words, the ultimate goal is for you to know how to make Pad Thai which is different from how to follow a Pad Thai recipe.

Cochinita Pibil Tacos / Slow-Cooked Goose in Brandy, Aromatics & Tomato / Five Spice Pork Belly with Pickled Vegetable Salad

Blog Post & Recipe: Cochinita Pibil (Puerco Pibil) and then Cochinita Pibil Tacos

A tasty slow roasted pork marinated in sour oranges and red annatto seeds.

Recipe: Slow-cooked goose in brandy, aromatics and tomato recipe

This goose has a wonderful, assertive taste from the brandy, which cuts through the fatty meat. It is cooked long enough for the legs to get wonderfully soft.

Article & Recipes: Five Spice Pork Belly with Pickled Vegetable Salad

Belly Pork is fatty and I think best served with something to cut through, I love these spicy pickled salads, they wake you up, if don’t fancy the thai taste, cabbage , carrot and apple works well too dressed with lemon juice and black pepper.

Fried Carrots / Celeriac Gratin with Caramelised Onions / Oven-Braised Apple Cider Brisket

Blog Post & Recipe: Fried Carrots; the update

It caramelizes the sugars and turns them golden and sweet!

Fried Carrots

Blog Post & Recipe: Celeriac Gratin with Caramelised Onions

Peel and thinly slice the celeriac and potatoes ... and pop them straight into a bowl of cold water. Pat dry on a clean tea towel and then layer into a deep casserole dish, seasoning with salt and pepper and adding the garlic as you go.

Blog Post & Recipe: Recipe for oven-braised apple cider brisket

A few weeks ago, while driving home from the local apple orchard, I had a brisket epiphany. Why not, I thought, combine wine and cider in the braise? When I got home, the (wine) cupboard was bare, so I moved on to Plan B, a cider-and-herb combination with onion and garlic.

Split Pea Soup with Vegetables / How to Use Chinese Vegetables / Grilling Tips + Flattened Chicken with Parsley Sauce

Blog Post & Recipe: Split Pea Soup Loaded With Vegetables - Perfect for Brrrrr Weather

With weather this cold decided to make split pea soup with vegetables from farmers market.

Article & Recipe: How to use Chinese vegetables

Victoria's Chinatown does indeed offer a diverse selection of vegetables for sale. I can't write about them all, but here are some useful facts and suggestions for using six intriguing looking veggies.

Gai Lan ... Bitter Melon ... King Oyster Mushrooms ... Long Beans ... Taro Root ... Lotus Root

RECIPE: Hot and Sour Soup with Gai Lan and King Oyster Mushrooms

Blog Post & Recipes: 7 fires: lessons from the argentine grill master

The good news is you don’t need to have a BBQ to create any of these. An old frying pan in the kitchen will work just as well.

7 lessons from the Argentine grill master himself: 1. The power of the taste of burnt ... 2. You must respect the first contact between food and the cooking surface ... 3. The ‘chapa’ is best for quick cooking ... 4. ‘Rescoldo’ is a great way to cook veg ... 5. Flame should never directly touch your food ... 6. Cast iron is the best cooking material ... 7. The secret to a perfect steak

flattened chicken with parsley sauce

Fish Cake Soup (Odeng Tang) / Cock Ale / Chinese Ginger Duck

Blog Post & Recipe: Fish Cake Soup (Odeng Tang)

If you have the ingredients it won't take you more than 15 minutes to make this.

Blog Post & Recipe: And now for something a little more löwenbräu

So that’s cock ale. The name sounds so dirty. As does another beer brewed with meat: oyster porter. Another relic of the 19th century. Yes, this is English porter brewed with oyster meat, or sometimes ground up oyster shells.

Cock Ale

Blog Post & Recipe: Chinese Ginger Duck Recipe - 姜麻鴨

Anyway, this recipe is so simple in line with his simplistic attitude to food and life in general - the duck is simply cooked with copious amounts of ginger and some soy sauces for seasoning, add a dash of Chinese Shaoxing wine for added fragrance and that's about it. If you like ginger, I'm quite sure you will love this but if not, then this dish may not be your cup of tea to be honest.

Thai-Style Brussels Sprouts / Fried Butternut Pumpkin with Mint / Pork Chops Normandy

Blog Post & Recipe: Recipe: Thai-Style Brussels Sprouts

The sprouts were roasted in a bath of fish sauce, peanuts and palm sugar. So simple. There were seared to a crisp, both salty and sweet, and utterly satisfying.

Blog Post & Recipe: Fried butternut with mint (OMF)

Fry the butternut until it's golden and the sugar is beginning to caramelise. Transfer to paper towel and drizzle with fresh lemon juice (to taste) and sprinkle with chopped mint.

Blog Post & Recipe: Unexpected places: Pork Chops Normandy

Fat, delicious pork chops perfectly cooked with apples, onions, thyme and brandy ... It takes one pan and about 45 minutes to make this happen, from the caramelization of the onions to the braising of the chops; it’s simple and straightforward, but tastes like it took you three days.

Stir Fry Collard Greens / Vegan Parmesan / Poached & Roasted Pig Hocks

Blog Post & Recipe: Stir Fry Collard Greens

Add black pepper and lemon juice over greens and stir. The collard greens are ready to serve.

Blog Post & Recipe: Vegan parmesan

It's a very simple recipe that takes all of 90 seconds to throw together. You don't end up with a particularly parmesan-y flavour, but a half a cup stirred through our pasta added a garlicky cheesiness that was not at all out of place.

Blog Post & Recipe: Let Them Eat Pork! Poached and Roasted Pig Hocks

As with all such parts of the beast, slow cooking is necessary to get the best out of it, and in the case of the hock, poaching tenderizes it perfectly, but ignores the magic of the skin and underlying fat, comparable with the cheeks in terms of porky flavor. To solve this problem, and improve upon the jarret of Compiegne, we roasted it in a hot oven that performed three special functions: 1) it rendered out some of the fat, 2) crisped the skin into some amazing crackling, and 3) transformed the connective tissue into sticky, almost sweet, gelatin.

Soy & Star Anise Oxtail / Horchata / Beetroot Salad with Crispy Leeks & Bacon

Blog Post & Recipe: Soy & Star Anise Oxtail

The oxtail needs cooking slow and low to ensure the is meat that can be sucked off the bone perfect with the spicy sticky sauce but definitely have some napkins handy .

Blog Post & Recipe: Bringing Mexico Home: Horchata

Variations include almonds, lime zest, or even pecans and popcorn. Momofuku Milk Bar serves a Horchata Soft Serve Ice Cream with Cinnamon. And adding a dash of Tequila can improve its already soothing qualities.

Blog Post & Recipe: Beet Salad with Crispy Leeks and Bacon

I decided to take a different route when recreating this dish at home. Instead of chicken skin, I used bacon, and instead of frying it stovetop, I used it to help make the leeks extra crispy in the oven. After a few minutes roasting together, the leeks begin to caramelize in the bacon fat, and the result is a rather rich smoky dressing for your beets.