3 Margaritas / Cocoa Powder FAQ / Mee Rebus

Recipes: It's National Margarita Day: 3 recipes to try

The links are under the photographs.

Guava margarita ... Blood orange margarita ... Grapefruit margarita

Blog Post & Recipe: Cocoa Powder FAQ: Dutch-process & natural cocoa powder

Here's some of the frequently asked questions people have about cocoa powder, and its use in recipes ...

Blog Post & Recipe: Mee Rebus

Mee rebus is one of the many noodles dishes popular in Malaysia. It is yellow noodles served with a thick spicy potato-based gravy and garnished with a hard-boiled egg, spring onions, bean sprouts, fried shallots, tau kwa (dried/ fried beancurd) and lime juice.

How to Cook Oysters / Whole Grain Mix / Chickpeas, Kidney Beans & Lentils with a Spicy Tomato Sauce

Article & Recipe: How to cook oysters

How to buy, store and shuck oysters

Baked Oysters With Pesto Cream

Blog Post & Recipe: Whole Grain Mix

The Chef decided to cook a bunch of grains we had on hand, mixed them together once cooked and cooled, and stored them in the refrigerator ... Below are some ways we've been using up the Whole Grain Mix

Blog Post & Recipe: Chickpeas, Kidney Beans and Lentils with a Spicy Tomato Sauce

I once again made this rich and spicy Indian curry made up of four types of legumes and lots of warming spices. If you don't have black chickpeas on hand, you can substitute yellow chickpeas, but I will note the black chickpeas add a nice texture to the dish as they are a bit chewier than their yellow cousins.

Peanut Butter Sandwiches / Perfect Chips / Crumbed Sardines

Blog Post: Simple Snack: Peanut Butter Sandwich

I'm a big fan of peanut butter with slices of ripe banana ... What do you like on your peanut butter sandwich?

Article & Recipes: How to make the perfect chip

Heston Blumenthal: Posh chips ... Pascal Aussignac Pommes frites ... Tony Turnbull Pragmatic chips ... Amanda Ursell Healthy chips

Blog Post & Recipe: Sardines

If you cut these fillets in half, these little sardines are the perfect size to make faux fish fingers and coated with Japanese breadcrumbs for that extra crunch, they are sure to give Birdseye a run for their money.

Crumbed Sardines

Cauliflower with Tomatoes / Raspberry Lenten Buns / Nigel Slater Roasts Chicken

Blog Post & Recipe: Gobi Tamatar/Cauliflower with Tomatoes

As ill famed as this flower might be, I don’t think it stinks; I think it is one fantastic thing that absorbs a lot of flavors.

Blog Post & Recipe: Decadent Lenten Buns

It's Shrove Tuesday here in Estonia today, which means that people eat copious amounts of vastlakuklid aka Lenten buns aka semlor today ... this year I decided to be a bit more adventurous, so I flirted with chocolate Lenten buns and marzipan-raspberry buns.

Article & Recipe: Nigel Slater's roast chicken recipes

Sometimes I roast a chicken without the usual anointment of butter or olive oil. Just a generous scattering of sea salt and black pepper over its skin and a handful of aromatics up its bum. [he gives instructions]

A warm chicken and orange salad for winter ... Apple and rhubarb purée with almond brittle

Kabocha French Lentil Soup / Cabbage Stir Fry / Tomato & Garlic Soup

Blog Post & Recipe: Kabocha French Lentil Soup Recipe

The soup? It is anise and ginger-spiked, with a broth thickened by lots of roasted winter squash.

Blog Post & Recipe: Bandhakopir Tarkari -- a cabbage stir fry

After you have added all the cabbage add salt and Red Chili Powder to taste, mix and cover. Intermittently take off the cover and saute. Covering and sauteing helps in cooking the cabbage faster and also requires less oil I think.

Article & Recipe: Hearty tomato soup is a crowd-pleaser

The recipe is down and to the right of the article.

... whole heads of unpeeled garlic are [covered] with olive oil and roasted until tender and soft. Then the heads are halved and the sweet, yielding garlic scooped out and added to a simmering mixture of tomatoes, leeks and herbs.

When pureed, this potage is thick and hearty with only a subtle hint of garlic flavor.

Cooked Fermented Shark / Roasted Beet Salad with Oranges & Beet Greens / Making Mashed Potatoes a Meal

Blog Post & Recipe: Cooked, fermented shark – Hákarlsstappa

I have no idea whether people still use this recipe, but I am publishing it here as a historical curiosity.

Blog Post & Recipe: roasted beet salad with oranges and beet greens

Note: the original recipe calls for wine vinegar. I made 2 batches. One following the recipe to a tee, and one skipping the vinegar as I felt it took away from the amazing sweetness of the beets.

Blog Post: Weeknight Comfort: Making Mashed Potatoes a Meal

Can mashed potatoes really qualify as a meal by themselves? If you mix in enough other ingredients, we think they certainly can! Mashed potatoes ... make the perfect foil for just about anything we have in the fridge. Here are a few of our favorites extras!

Peel Roasted Peppers / Indian-Style Scrambled Eggs / Fish Pie

Blog Post: How To Peel Roasted Peppers

This method can be used with any peppers; bell or chiles.

Blog Post & Recipe: Indian-style Scrambled Eggs

I’ve had this for breakfast so many times that I’ve stared pre-mixing the spices. I mix equal quantities of turmeric, chilli powder, cumin and garam masala in a jar. I then use about half a teaspoon of this spice mix in the eggs

Article & Recipes: Nigel Slater's fish pie recipe

When making the sauce it is worth trapping every ounce of flavour. The milk used to cook the fish should be incorporated, in all its herby, peppercorn-scented fishiness, into the filling and not tipped down the sink.

CRUMBLE-CRUST FISH PIE ... WHOLEMEAL APPLE AND ORANGE CAKE

Frikadellen / Pork Chops with Tarragon Sauce & Cornichons / Fish Head Soup

Blog Post & Recipe: Frikadellen: German meat

This is how I discovered frikadellen, which are basically giant flat German meatballs that go perfectly with sauerkraut and potatoes.

Blog Post & Recipe: Pork Chops with Tarragon Sauce and Cornichons [gherkins].

This provincial dish is typical fare served after a hard day of grape harvesting. Essentially the dish is pork chops in mustard-cornichon sauce. Added are some stock and Italian parsley.

Blog Post & Recipe: The Nasty Bits: Fish Head Soup

Fish heads are good eating and the eyeballs, the crowning glory. There's a lot to be enjoyed from excavating the head of a fish. Besides the eyeballs, most heads contain a sizeable section of flesh as well as some of the most delicious cartilage in existence in the greater animal kingdom.

Roast Chicken & Dinner Rolls in a Dutch Oven / Kinoko Nabe / Shakshuka

Blog Post & Recipe: Sunday's Roast Chicken & Dinner Rolls - Camp Dutch Oven Style

Chicken halves easily fit in the big honking Lodge #16 Camp Oven.

Blog Post & Recipe: Kinoko Nabe - Japanese Mushroom Hot Pot

Japanese Hot Pot, wherein the ingredients are artfully arranged in a delicious broth. This being my first hot pot, I went for a mixed mushroom style.

Blog Post & Recipe: Nosh and Tel Aviv - Shakshuka

The dish is of North African origin and contains two staple ingredients- eggs, hot sauce/spices tomatoes, as well as the optional onions, red peppers, potatoes, leeks and even sausages. Like you can see in the pictures below, Shakshuka is always served in the pan that it is cooked in along with copious amounts of pita, or thickly sliced bread to mop up all those delicious juices.

Potato Skins / Polenta al Forno / Polenta with Parmesan & Sausage

Blog Post & Recipe: Grilling: Potato Skins

The heat of the grill cooks the whole potatoes quickly, which then gets scooped out, leaving just a layer of flesh and the skin that crisps when put back on the grill.

Blog Post & Recipe: Polenta al Forno

In a shallow oven proof dish, add a layer of polenta followed by the spinach then the tomato sauce and the mozzarella. Add one more layer of polenta and top with the parmesan and a sprinkling of pepper.

Article & Recipe & Video: Taking the Fear Out of Polenta

The recipe link is to the left of the article.

The key to making the process easy is starting out with a slurry, a slush-like mixture of cornmeal and water that you whisk together before cooking. You then put the slurry over not-too-high heat, bring it to a boil, reduce it to a simmer and gradually add more water as needed to keep the mixture smooth and loose.

Recipe: Creamy Polenta with Parmesan and Sausage

Corn Bread / Salt Aubergines? Cross Sprouts? / Roasted Rice Cakes

Recipe: Recipe: Hotel Condon corn bread

Dear Bea: This corn bread is packed with flavor. It is made with cheese and chopped chiles and is finished with a drizzle of honey.

Blog Post: Salting aubergines and crossing sprouts

Two persistent food myths are put under the spotlight: is it necessary to salt aubergines to remove bitterness, and should you cut crosses in sprouts?

Blog Post: Cook the Book: Momofuku – Roasted Rice Cakes (via Roots and Grubs).

I remember ordering the roasted rice cakes as an appetizer without having any idea what it was. When they arrived at the table, I marveled at the bright red sauce that coated the crunchy-yet-chewy rice cakes. My friend Soo Jin told me that this dish was called dok boki (dok means rice cake)

Potatoes with Thyme & Crispy Shallots / A Muffin Tin for a Baking Stone / Chocolate Gravy & Biscuits

Blog Post & Recipe: Peruvian Potatoes with Thyme and Crispy Shallots

This dish includes a secret ingredient. Is it the purple potatoes? Nope. It's the shallots, which after an hour in the stove become crispy and delicious.

Blog Post: Use A Muffin Tin For Better Bread Crusts

A [baking] stone in combination with a steamy oven creates the ultimate texture for your bread. The two are like peas and carrots or any other paired food analogy. To get around our lack of stone, we've been using a muffin tin instead.

Blog Post & Recipe: Chocolate Gravy and Biscuits

The biggest schism I found in the chocolate-gravy community was whether to use milk or water as your liquid. I was surprised that no one had thrown some chipotle or bacon into their gravy, but actually this pleased me as it proved that chocolate gravy was indeed a classic that didn’t need any tinkering.

Creamed Parsnips with Roasted Winter Vegetables & Walnuts / Mashed Potato Pizza Dough / Nian Gao

Recipe: Jane Baxter's creamed parsnips with roasted winter vegetables and walnuts recipe

The parsnip also works well as a dip, while the dressing is fab on ­summer veg – try fennel or green beans.

Blog Post & Recipe: Pizza for the Working Woman

The recipe for pizza dough came from Maybelle’s Mom. It had wholemeal flour, wheat germ and mashed potato.

Wholemeal Mashed Potato Pizza Dough

Blog Post & Recipe: Nian Gao (tikoy), a Chinese New Year tradition

Nian gao is made with glutinous rice flour, sometimes steamed and, at other times, cooked in a pan and stirred until thick. It may be savory or sweetened. How it is served varies from region to region. It may simply be pan fried, stir fried with meat and vegetables, dropped into soups or made into a pudding.

Cabbage & Bitter Leaves on Garlic Toast / Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Pine Nuts / Three Puddings

Recipe: Thomasina Miers’s cabbage and bitter leaves on garlic toast (recommended by Limes & Lycopene)

It may not sound exciting, but the combination of greens cooked slowly in red wine, all piled on garlicky toast, is warming

Blog Post & Recipes: Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Pine Nuts

One brussels sprouts dish that I always enjoy is roasted brussels sprouts with balsamic vinegar and toasted pine nuts and I knew that it was time for a new and improved version that uses a more flavourful balsamic vinaigrette rather that just the balsamic vinegar.

Article & Recipes: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's steamed pudding recipes

Also, we imagine they're difficult to make, when in fact they're really very easy indeed – they just need a generous couple of hours over a bubbling pot of water; and in the case of today's steak and kidney pudding, time for the meat to cook and cool before ­being encased in its pillowy crust.

Leek pudding ... Steak and kidney pudding ... Lemon sponge pudding

Roast Chicken Risotto / Clean Burnt Stains off Stainless Steel Cookware / Blood Orange Tart

Blog Post & Recipes: Chicken Out

The risotto that results from the roast chicken is deeply satisfying and brings new meaning to leftovers.

Chicken Stock ... Roast Chicken Risotto with Sweet Corn

Blog Post: How To Clean Tough Burnt Stains Off Stainless Cookware

Materials

Stainless steel cookware blackened with burned on food from months and months of heavy use
Vinegar
Water
Baking soda
Mesh dish cloth

Blog Post: Blood Orange Tart

The flaky pastry crust is just the right base for the slightly bitter blood oranges which manage to taste remarkably fresh and vibrant despite spending over an hour in a hot oven. This is due, in part, to the fact that you freeze the assembled tart until it is solid which buys you some extra baking time for the crust.

Sesame-Maple-Ginger Tofu / Spinach Vadai / Garlic Three Ways

Blog Post & Recipe: Sesame-Maple-Ginger Tofu

Tofu can be flavored with pretty much anything you like - something as simple as the soy sauce and sesame oil that Erin suggests, or you can get a little more fancy if you like.

Blog Post & Recipe: Not Just Vadai, but Spinach Vadai ...

Vadai is a favourite savoury snack with its origins from South India. In Malaysia, many South Indian shops sell Vadai mostly at tea time but some sell them throughout the day as well.

Blog Post & Recipe: Roasted Garlic, Three Ways

So, this post will show you how to make:

1. Roasted garlic
2. Garlic-infused oil
3. Roasted garlic compound butter

Three Slow Cooking Recipes / Grilled Cheese & Apple Sandwich / Vegetarian Phở

Article & Recipes: Yotam Ottolenghi's slow cooking recipes

Ingredients that can withstand an age in the oven transform into the most moist, ­aromatic food imaginable.

Pear tatin ... Oxtail with everything ... Pork shoulder with citrus, maple and pomegranate sauce

Blog Post & Recipe: grilled cheese + apple sandwich

There’s nothing to it, simply slice some good, sharp cheddar cheese, a nice juicy, apple (I like Fuji), butter some tasty wheat bread and you’re on your way to old-fashioned goodness.

Blog Post & Recipe: Vegetarian Phở (Vietnamese Noodle Soup)

In the interest of making vegetarian phở at home, I consulted my mother, who recalled her experience living in a Vietnamese Buddhist community that made meat-free phở broth with a medley of spices, ginger, and lots of carrots. This recipe is my interpretation.