Spiced Salmon Tacos with Avocado Cream

For my Mexican Bistro Night at the end of June, I wanted a second main course that would be light, tasty, fresh and would appeal to non-meat eaters (who eat fish though). This fits the bill perfectly and I suspect there may be many who wish they’d chosen this option rather than the beef (even…

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Slow-Cooker Smoky Chilli Beef

This was my second attempt at a slow-cooked chilli beef to add to my Mexican Bistro Night menu. The first one worked well and you can find in on here, but this is a smokier version, made with brisket that just pulls apart and shreds into sumptious, softly spiced, melt in the mouth meat and…

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Slow-Cooker ‘Real’ Beef Chilli

If you have a slow-cooker, it’s perfect for this chilli beef dish made with steak pieces rather than mince. The slow cooking means you can get the most out of an inexpensive cut of meat and enjoy chunks of smokey beef with beans and a chilli-infused rich sauce. If your slow cooker has a delay…

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Rustic Hummus

What makes this hummus special is the spicy, toasted topping that adds both texture and another layer of flavour. Plus it looks great! Purists will tell you the chickpeas need to be dried rather than tinned and ideally, I’d agree, but on this occasion, I didn’t have the time to soak them overnight, so a…

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Chicken, chorizo and black bean enchiladas

Serves 3-4  |  50 mins including cooking I found a pack of tortillas in the cupboard that needed used up, youngest son wanted enchiladas for his birthday eve dinner and this is what I pulled together with the ingredients in my fridge and storecupboard to keep him happy. We served this with some soured cream,…

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Citrus and Za’atar Roast Chicken

From ‘Sirocco’ – Sabrina Ghayour’s second book of mouthwatering middle-eastern recipes. This makes a nice change from the standard herb and lemon chicken I do most Sundays. Serves 6+ depending on appetites and size of bird ǀ approx 2hrs cooking Ingredients One free-range chicken, about 2.5kg or so (calculate cooking time at about 45mins per…

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And now for something completely…. Eastern

I’ve been channelling my ‘eastern’ bunny (geddit?!) these last few weeks, dipping into various recipe concoctions a la Ottolenghi, Sabrina Ghayour and my favourite Masterchef champion of them all, Dhruv Baker. In fact, I went on quite a cookery book spree over the holidays following a trip to the library and also a few swapsies…

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Getting my zest back

It’s been a while. In fact it’s been almost half a year! Shocking and inexcusable I know. For the first three months at least I did have a crazy work life as a robust reason for simply not having the time to post. However, that reason really turned into an excuse from about the start…

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Apples – Saucy, Tarty or just Plain Crumbly?

Autumn. My favourite season. Season of woolly jumpers, cosy nights by the fire, golden leaves, crisp weekend walks and apples. All of these things I love and most especially the trees in our garden, picture perfect for a few weeks with delicious red and green apples. I have no idea what variety the red apples…

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Something old, something new, something borrowed….

So, in the many weeks since I last posted, I’ve held my second supper club and it went really well. The feedback was great and afterwards I had a lot of requests for future nights and plenty of pre-bookings for my next event. Unfortunately, the new manager of the cafe I’d been using isn’t interested…

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Italian Night Trial Run

On Saturday night, I invited a few friends over to help me do a trial run of the menu for my Italian Night. These are good friends who I can trust to be constructively critical and who will give me a reality check regarding portion size, as my gauge is completely skewed thanks to giant…

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Not ‘Mincing’ My Words This Week…..

This was my ‘back to work after the holidays’ week. They’re always difficult those weeks, as the memories fade so quickly once you’re back in your usual routine that any attempt to hold on to them is like trying to catch smoke. Cooking foods you had while on holiday is always a good way to…

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