recipe

Banana chiffon cake

Banana chiffon cake

Chiffon cakes are the best cakes.

They are, seriously.

They’re light, they’re fluffy, they’re not too sweet, and (unlike sponge cakes) I can actually bake them. They’re so lovely and have the nicest texture.

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Lamb pilaf with green almonds

lamb pilaf with green almonds

What’s green, furry and grows on trees?

I know that this sounds like the beginning to a terrible joke, but I do have a serious answer for you: almonds.

I’m going to be completely honest and tell you – I had no idea that immature almonds came in a fuzzy green pod. It’s not something that had ever crossed my mind. So when I saw some, I had to buy them.

Green almonds appear very briefly in early spring, and consist of a fuzzy outer shell and a soft white seed surrounded by a jelly-ish inner. After they are harvested, they eventually shrivel and harden and lose their furry coats.

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Chocolate date biscuits *

Chocolate date biscuits

Everyone, stop everything.

Whatever you’re doing – stop.

Because I may have baked the most delicious chocolate biscuits in the world.

And you need to stop everything so you too can experience the wonder and delight of these biscuits.

Okay, I am prone to exaggeration – they may not the the most delicious ever in the entire universe, but they are pretty damn amazing.

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Master stock soy sauce beef ribs

Soy sauce beef ribs

Yes, yes, beef ribs again. I’m telling you – it’s going to be a thing if it isn’t already.

I cooked this dish on two separate occasions. The first time, I wasn’t intending to blog it. But as soon as I ate it, my head went, “This is so yum!” so I had to cook it again to take photos. 🙂

And it was an easy process because I just poached the ribs in a soy sauce master stock. Do you have a master stock? They are the best. If you’re thinking, “What’s a master stock?” it’s a flavoured liquid that’s used to repeatedly poach/braise food. Instead of discarding it after cooking, it’s used again and again, picking up more flavour each time.

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Beetroot brownies

Beetroot brownies

I had bought beetroot with the intention of shredding them and eating them raw in a salad. And then… they sat in the pantry for a while. After a certain amount of time had passed (and I’m too ashamed to tell you exactly how long) the thought of eating them raw was, well, not good.

What to do, what to do.

And then I had a brilliant thought – brownies! Because that’s a logical next step isn’t it? Salad ——> brownies.

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Banana butterscotch syrup cake

Banana butterscotch syrup cake

I bake a lot of banana cake.

They’re such a dumb fruit. They go ripe so quickly. Even though I’ve gradually trained myself to eat them riper and riper, I still really only like bananas when they’re just ripe. I push through by eating them with something else (peanut butter, yessss) to reduce that ripe cloying flavour. Even so, I still end up with more bananas than I can eat so I’m always on the look out for interesting recipes.

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