Recipes (my own and from reviewed recipe books), reviews of cookery books and cookery classes, food and kitchen equipment product reviews – if it’s about cooking or eating at home, it’s here!

Amok Peanut Vegetable Curry 

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Amok Peanut Vegetable Curry

This is the Van Life Cookbook’s adaptation of a classic Cambodian dish, called Amok. Although it’s commonly made with fish, the richly spiced peanut butter sauce lends itself well to a vegetarian version. Although the ingredients list looks long, many go straight into the curry paste, which can be made in a mini food processor ... Read more »

Budget Supermarket Pasta

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Budget Supermarket Pasta

In Van Life Cookbook authors Danny Jack and Hailee Kukura share a collection of recipes designed to be cooked and enjoyed in the small kitchen spaces of campervans and caravans, or in the great outdoors. They are also budget conscious, and eat a predominantly vegetarian diet. This Budget Supermarket Pasta recipe includes anchovies and cheese, ... Read more »

Menemen: Turkish One-Pan Eggs

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Menemen Turkish One-Pan Eggs

Although it’s commonly served for breakfast, Menemen – aka Turkish Eggs – is also excellent as a quick lunch or light evening meal. This one-pan recipe comes from the ‘Van Life Cookbook: Resourceful recipes for life on the road: from small spaces to the great outdoors’ by Danny Jack and Hailee Kukura. This recipe is ... Read more »

Helim, Sausages, Pickled Shallots and Honey

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Helim Sausages Pickled Shallots and Honey

This delicious dish from Hasan Semay’s Big Has Home cookbook makes a wonderful, summery lunch on its own but also works well as part of a more lavish spread. As suggested, we switched out the pastirma for chorizo (as that’s easier to find in our neck of the woods). The combination of flavours and textures ... Read more »

Turkish Ezme

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Ezme Salad

For many years, ezme has been one of my favourite side dishes when visiting the many Turkish restaurants of North London. A simple cold dish of chopped tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and red peppers with lots of parsley and mint, ezme is the perfect foil to kebabs such as adana kofte, chicken and lamb cis, and ... Read more »

Firinda Makarna (Cypriot Beef and Bechamel Pasta Bake)

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Firinda Makarna

Firinda Makarna is not a dish I’d heard of until reading Hasan Semay’s Big Has Home cookbook, but his description of it as being somewhat like an Italian lasagne was helpful, in that it features minced beef, pasta and a cheesy bechamel sauce. However, in this dish, the minced beef is fried with onions, parsley ... Read more »

Big Has Home by Hasan Semay

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Cover Image of Big Has Home by Hasan Semay

Diversity in the world of cookery books is a good thing, a very good thing indeed. For decades, the UK food publishing world has been dominated by white authors. Writers of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds have struggled to get a seat at the table, and when they do, they’re often pigeonholed into titles tied ... Read more »

Kokur Yakhni | Chicken in Yoghurt and Saffron Gravy

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Kokur Yakhni - Chicken in Yoghurt and Saffron Gravy

This delicious chicken curry dish is from Romy Gill’s ‘On The Himalayan Trail’ cookbook. Yoghurt, saffron and a heady mix of spices meld beautifully into the yoghurt gravy, creating a fragrant and warming dish. Instead of a whole chicken, we made this using chicken thighs, which worked really well. Read our full review of On ... Read more »