While waging the eternal fight over one’s BMI, it’s always good to have a stock of ‘forbidden fruit’ squirrelled away for those weak moments. While these delights won’t help with the weight loss they will make you feel great when your resolve crumbles, you find you’re
As I write this post it is snowing here in Jerusalem… Jerusalem, Israel. Photo credit The BFD. Jerusalem is a wondrous sight on a regular day. When blanketed white she takes on a mantle of regality, serenity, for a moment snuffing out the ever-present tension; but only for a moment.
Guacamole and Tomato Salsa. Photo credit The BFD. The peoples of Mexico can find their origins in the long-extinct Mayans. Mayan mini-empires extending over millennia reached their cultural and economic zenith a very long time ago. These city-state empires began their decline in the 7th-8th centuries AD, weakened through endless
Vas is das? Kugel is another one of those long-cooking Sabbath dishes from the Jewish kitchen, combined with eggs and in some cases caramel, and overcooked. Kugel is more often dark brown in colour, compressed and squished in texture. At first glance kugel is wholly unappetising, to say the least,
Canapés seldom travel alone. An event that is worth one’s salt will have three to five different competing canapés offering a cornucopia of tastes, colours and textures. This week’s addition is a small phyllo pastry basket filled with a mushroom and tomato mix topped off with shaved parmigiano
You never know when the next cocktail party will appear on the calendar or when your better half without warning invites home a baker’s dozen of business colleagues or clients for drinks with a need for something a little more classy than salty chips and peanuts from the supermarket.
Having spent the last couple of years unable to travel overseas due to both Covid and work, I was gifted a small window of opportunity of a few days as one dear employer departed and another prepared to arrive. Scanning the Continental map of where we have and haven’t
Pancakes are one of the oldest known foodstuffs, made from cereals in prehistoric societies. Pancakes were being flipped and consumed circa 4000 BC when ‘writing’ was in its embryonic stage and the Bronze Age was just kicking off. The pancake is a very diverse food made since forever all over
Hanukkah is the Jewish eight day winter time “Festival of Lights”. It is celebrated by a nightly lighting of candles, special prayers and the rather unhealthy tradition of eating fried foods. The festival celebrates the “miracle” that the oil in the lamp in the Jerusalem Temple lasted for eight days
Open Sesame Sesame has been cultivated by man for thousands of years, used as an oil, eaten as a sweet (halva), enjoyed as a dip (tehina), preferred as a crust on a tasty slice of pan-fried Atlantic bluefin tuna and appearing often at #12 as Crispy Sesame Chicken on your
It would seem that all things good and rewarding come packaged as a tort/torte. Tort law is there to redress a wrong done to a person and provide relief, something beneficial… while the German torte is there not only to provide relief and make a person feel great but
Little good news comes out of Iran these days. It was once the seat of the Peacock Throne and the home of a glorious long line of shahs. A fascinating tourist destination that any of us would have given our right hand to spend time travelling in; it features unbelievable
I ploughed through my work this Friday and left myself enough time to try my hand at macarons, something I hadn’t made since 2015. Macarons are a simple delicacy made from the finely ground flour of almonds, confectioners sugar and egg whites, then combined with the required quantity of
“Home cooked” denotes healthy, tasty and honest food, the kind of food that Mum or Granny used to make. No tricks, no risky flavours, no verve or culinary pirouettes. Simple meat and three veg kind of food, and when you are busy with other things an easy option to fall
Pâte à Choux /Choux Pastry I find myself delving into more traditional recipes, many from my memories of the 1970s. While a lot of these foods never really went out of fashion in the patisseries and eateries of Europe, the fusion and molecular cooking that have swept the world more
Aside from sauerkraut, sausages, things made from minced up meat and beer, the Germanic people while conquering most of continental Europe in their day in the guise of Goths, Vandals and Franks have left quite a faint culinary footprint, or perhaps one that isn’t that discernible to us today.
