Sweet Potato Parcels / Yoghurt Brulee / Blueberry & Basil Habanero Salsa + 2 Recipes Using It

Blog Post & Recipe: Sweet Potato Parcels

Cut the sweet potatoes in to 1.5cm chunks. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Blog Post & Recipe: Nigel’s Yogurt Brulee

Tangy and thick Greek yogurt is given the brulee treatment with a light dusting of sugar.

Blog Posts & Recipes: Blueberry and Basil Habanero Salsa followed by Salmon Bulgogi Tacos with Blueberry Habanero Salsa followed by Salmon Bulgogi Quesadillas with Blueberry Salsa

This summer I have had a lot of success in experimenting with fruit and berry salsas like the chipotle cherry salsa and there was one more that I wanted to try, a blueberry salsa with habanero peppers.

Carrot-Beetroot Salad / Garlic Scape Pesto / 13 Sauces (Pesto, Dressing, Salsa, Etc)

Blog Post & Recipe: carrot-beet salad

One of my favourite ways to change up boredom from green salads is to make a salad of grated vegetables. Coleslaw is all fine and good, but why leave it at that?

Blog Post & Recipe: The great garlic (e)scape

When I said "garlic scape", a friend thought I meant a painting depicting a crop of the infamously stinking rose. I would have assumed the same thing had I not been formally introduced to this tasty garlic flower stem (scape) that, according to Wikipedia, comes from the hardneck and elephant types of garlic.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Blog Post & Recipes: Some of my Favorite Sauces

So, here are some of my favorite sauces. All pretty easy.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa ... Roasted Tomato Salsa ... Red Chile Sauce ... Sweet and soy dressing ... Honey-Lime dressing ... Orange-Shallot ... Thai Peanut Sauce ... Traditional Pesto ... Chimichurri ... Balsamic Strawberry Fruit Butter with Chiles ... Stone Fruit and Fig Chutney ... Cranberry Sauce with Tart Oregon Cherries and Red Onions ... Honeyed cinnamon applesauce ... Salted Caramel Sauce.

Crispy Chicken Skin Tacos with Habanero Salsa / Pasta con le Sarde / Eggs Drumkilbo

Blog Post & Recipe: Crispy Chicken Skin Tacos with Habanero Salsa

I ask you, do you like bacon? Because if you do, think of fried chicken skin as "chicken bacon". They're just tasty fried, fatty, salty bits.

Blog Post & Recipe: Pasta con le Sarde: Sicily on a plate

A strikingly simple plate of spaghetti, fennel, onions, and sardines garnished with golden raisins (sultanas) and pine nuts, but its layers of flavor and texture speak of Sicily’s multifarious heritage.

Blog Post & Recipe: Eggs Drumkilbo

Eggs Drumkilbo was a favourite of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (Gawd bless 'er), and has recently been described by the food critic, Giles Coren, as "so awful it's almost good". It's a splendid old thing, with Lord knows how many flavours going on in there; completely over-the-top and utterly unfashionable. It was served at previous royal weddings. Here's how you make it

Sopa de Carne / Roasted Mango & Habanero Salsa / 7 Chinese & Filipino Recipes

Blog Post & Recipe: Sopa de Carne

While the beef and olives impart rich and bold flavors, the soup is broth-y and unexpectedly light. It doesn’t look or feel greasy.

Blog Post & Recipe: Roasted Mango and Habanero Salsa

Of course, there was a little thinking required about what to actually do with this salsa. (As if eating this intensely sweet concoction balanced with just the right amount of fire with a spoon out of the food processor wasn’t good enough.)

Blog Post & Recipes: Chinese New Year Menu (2011)

Sichuan "Crossed Hands" Wonton Dumplings, Two Ways ... Mao's Hunan Red-Braised Pork (毛氏紅燒肉) ... Pancit Canton (Philippine Braised Egg Noodles) ... Whole Chicken ... Baked Tahong (Mussels) ... Braised Napa Cabbage with Abalone ... Whole Fish

Corned Beef, Cabbage & Kimchi Burrito / Chicken in a Bread Crust / 3 Braising Recipes

Blog Post & Recipe: Corned Beef, Cabbage and Kimchi Burrito

In addition to the corned beef, this burrito includes cabbage sauteed with bacon, kimchi, which is a spicy fermented cabbage, onion and cilantro relish, melted cheese and some avocado salsa verde (because it's green and it's St. Patrick's Day).

Blog Post & Recipe: Chicken in a Bread Crust

I was going to cook a bread-crusted chicken of my own, using a sourdough crust ... The skin of the chicken was less golden than with the salt crust, which I suspect is more porous, but plenty of juices had collected inside, and the chicken was just as moist and flavorful.

Article & Recipes: Slowly does it: delicious braise recipes

So what are the key things to watch? For most braises the meat is browned before the liquid is added. The caramelisation and 'toasting' produced by frying in fat are essential to the end flavour. But meat won't brown if it is wet or if you crowd the pan, so dry your meat then cook it in batches. Don't use too much fat or you'll end up with an oily dish. If anything burns – garlic or onion or the fat itself – throw it out before adding liquid.

Soy-braised chicken thighs with star anise recipe ... Braised pork with apricots, ginger and lemon thyme recipe ... Braised lamb with squash, lemon and mint recipe

Creamy Roasted Jalapeño Salsa / Bravas Potatoes & Romesco Sauce / 3 Iranian Recipes

Blog Post & Recipe: Creamy Roasted Jalapeño Salsa

Chiles, garlic, lime and oil. Apply heat and then a blender. They are transformed into one of the best salsas I have ever eaten. The garlic allows this to emulsify into a surprisingly creamy sauce.

Blog Post & Recipe: Brava

I did a spin on patatas bravas, a popular Spanish tapas item that often calls for frying the potatoes and serving them with a romesco-like sauce ... Easily the best roasted potatoes I have ever made

Speedy Romesco Sauce

Article & Recipes: Middle Eastern food: Persian pleasures on a plate

In its fragrant yet robust cuisine, Iran could almost be a Mediterranean country. Dishes use handfuls of fresh herbs, as well as more exotic ingredients such as nuts, flower waters and dried limes.

Persian rice pudding recipe ... Duck fesunjun recipe ... Ash-e sak spinach soup with spicy beef koofteh recipe

Crispy Capsicum Rings / Avocado & Roasted Tomatillo Salsa / Tori No Mizutaki — Chicken & Vegetable Hot Pot

Recipe: Crispy Capsicum(Bell pepper) Rings

This spicy snack is great on a rainy day.

Blog Post & Recipe: Avocado and Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Tip: Tomatillos freeze well so freeze some in the summer when they are in season.

Blog Post & Recipe: Tori No Mizutaki—Chicken & Vegetable Hot Pot

Nabe is really more a style of cooking, so the variations are virtually endless. Nabes are made by poaching a variety of ingredients in broth in one big pot. Not only are you only using one pot (less cleanup!), but nabes cook very quickly (usually in less than 30 minutes)!

Radish Salsa / Considering Scotch Eggs / Mushroom Soup

Recipe: Radishes make tasty salsa

This is one salsa that's going to be my summer staple, no matter what's on fire.

Radish salsa

Blog Post: Consider the scotch egg [blog post contains links to recipes -- see the comments below the post for more]

Extraordinary things. In the past, they went from rich man's caprice to Victorian savoury. Now they inhabit a strange hinterland between pubby ubiquity and zhooshed-up gastro cliche.

Blog Post & Recipe: Mushroom Soup

I am into roux these days. It creates beautifully silky, shiny and flavourful soups and gravy. My guides are Bittman’s gumbo video and Alton Brown’s Gravy Confidential. I know… roux is basically flour suspended in fat but I’m not the kind who cares.

UK Mexican Food / Three Salsa Recipes

Article & Recipes: Someone named Thomasina Miers in the UK has put together a book of Tex-Mex recipes and both the Guardian and the Times have agreed to promote it: Thomasina Miers' simple Mexican recipes and How to cook like a Mexican.

The first link:

Steak Burritos ... Black beans ... Coconut ceviche ... How to eat a taco ... Torta (the Mexican club sandwich) ... The great Mexican breakfast ... Tlayudas (Oaxacan pizzas)

The second link (you'll need to click around to find the recipes -- look in the box below the article):

The perfect guacamole ... Churros and chocolate ... Ham and cheese empanadas ... Chorizo, potato and thyme quesadillas ... Fresh tomato salsa

Meanwhile, at the New York Times ...

Article & Recipes: Rediscovering Salsa, the Soul of Mexico in a Bowl

Salsa is a cornerstone of the Mexican kitchen, a contrast for a repetitive diet of corn, squash and beans. Just as French cooks understand that béarnaise sauce suits some dishes, hollandaise others, Mexican cooks know salsas have different qualities and functions.

Related
Recipe: Salsa Ranchera
Recipe: Salsa Verde
Recipe: Salsa Roja

Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Quesadillas w. Cranberry-Pecan Salsa / Chickpea Flour Pizza / Empanada Gallega de Atun

Blog Post & Recipe: Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Quesadillas with Cranberry-Pecan Salsa

Cranberry salsa! It’s a tiny revelation, like tasting strawberries with balsamic vinegar for the first time.

Blog Post & Recipe: Chickpea Flour Pizza – South Beach Diet Friendly

I am not sure whether to call this a pizza or a flat bread or a pancake with toppings. But I am going to go with pizza as that sounds the best. Feel free to call it whatever you like.

Blog Post & Recipe: Empanada Gallega de Atun

Basically, it's a yeast pastry (tinged slightly red with the help of the very special and wonderful smoked Spanish paprika powder, Pimentón de la Vera) that's encasing a moist and flavoursome tuna, egg and tomato filling.

Old Cheese. Pea Risotto. Mexican sauces.

Blog Post: How Old is Too Old?: The Cheesemonger

It's natural for a cheese to change in flavor over time, but if it tastes like an entirely different or untasty version of what you first bought, it may have gone bad.

Blog Post & Recipe: Easy peasy

... we enjoyed the last of our pea harvest in one of our favorite recipes, a risotto

Risi e Bisi (Venetian Style Pea Risotto) - adapted from Molto Italiano

Blog Post & Recipes: Fiesta Forever

I had been reading over one of my favorite cookbooks, The Mexican Mama's Kitchen, by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton ...

Salsa Cruda ... Salsa Verde ... Guacamole ... Carne Asada ... Grilled Peppers and Scallions ... Stacia's Citrus Salad with Honey & Mint ... Maguie's Lime Ice Cream

Pineapple Tomato Salsa

Recipe: Pineapple Tomato Salsa.

We had loads of extra pineapple, and all the other ingredients for a great salsa, so naturally we put them all together, and voilá! A great combination. Use the tomato pineapple salsa with fish tacos, or over grilled steak or pork, or even wrapped up in a heated flour tortilla with a few slices of avocado.