Cherry Clafoutis

(Serves 4-6) The perfect dessert for August, to make the most of the cherries before they disappear for another year. Use apricots, peaches or blueberries if you’d prefer, all work well. Feel free to leave the stones in the cherries, some say this adds to the flavour. Heat oven to 180C, stone 500g cherries and…

Super-Spicy Daal with Eggs and Spinach

I really love this recipe. It is packed with loads of nutritious ingredients, it’s filling, it’s protein, it’s cheap and it makes enough to feed a small army (freezes well so don’t worry).  Great to whip out if you come down with a sore throat and versatile too…. Serve as breakfast, brunch, as a side…

Delicate yet Decadent Kedjeree

I’ve always seen kedjeree as a jumble of ingredients, like the food equivalent of a jamboree….a jazzy festival of flavours, a fabulous brunch, hearty and ‘Sunday snooze inducing’. Kedgeree is the kind of dish that lends itself to lazy weekend, lazy late breakfasts. Not much effort is required to deliver such delicious results. I like…

Madeleines

What I especially love about these light little sponges is the elegance in their simplicity. These particular bites bare a hint of honey and lemon but adorn your own as you fancy. With your rindless lemons, it could be nice to try making a sugar glaze with the juice. The batter is best left over night…

A Punchy Little Sandwich for Spring

Even though I am partial to the odd BLT or BELTAC, (Bacon, Egg, Lettuce, Tomato, Avocado and Cheese) I tend to stray away from the DIY version at home…..maybe not giving credit enough to the old two slices which serve as a container for other food.  In Australia it was unusual for me to see…

Herby Salmon Fish Cakes

These tasty little morsels are great as a special/weekend breakfast, healthy lunch or wholesome starter. I make breadcrumbs out of any leftover white bread from the weekend and process with lemon zest, seasoning and whatever herbs I have at the time – these are perfect for this type of dish. As you’ll need to buy…

Breakfast Pizza & Topping Ideas

This post is really just for me to keep track of the pizza toppings that we have enjoyed the most. Since trying out Jim Lahey’s recipe – it’s fair to say that we’ve all become a bit infatuated with the simplicity of the no-knead dough recipe and enjoyed experimenting with a myriad of toppings. I…

Sweet Tomato and Basil Fritters with Tzatziki

A photo inspired this dish, actually an old man holding a plate of these with a beautiful backdrop, in Santorini. These would of course traditionally be made with the finest sun filled tomatoes so unless you live in the med, try and find the best quality you can as it will make such a difference!…

Beet Tartare and Avocado Spread

The only reason I stumbled across this recipe was the fact it mentioned ‘tartare’ which appealed in it’s resemblance to the common steak tartare – which I LOVE. I thought it was time to feature something a bit ‘healthy’ and bright on here and with such a low risk of bacterial infection, how could I…

Bagel Power – Kablam

We’ve all experienced the wonder of bagels, whether it be plain as butter or completely complexioned – as far as bagel fillings go. There were my younger days, when I would peruse the vast, white impersonal shopping centres with friends…..clinging onto an onion bagel for comfort. We’d eat them just as they came, no jazz,…

Date, Apricot and Walnut Loaf…or is it cake?

You don’t need to ‘use your loaf’ to make this one, it’s very simple, very nutritious, a great breakfast and quite tasty too. We ran out of bread and milk yesterday and had nothing to ‘rustle up’ quickly, apart from beans (which you don’t always fancy at 7am). In order to make up for this…

Country Eggs and Slow Roast Tomatoes

We booked a weekend away in Daylesford, staying in a house with beautiful olive groves and a kitchen with the charm of an old farmhouse, all wood and utensils galore (which is what inspired the cooking on this trip). I brought Bolognese with us, straight out the freezer which was as usual devoured in 3…

Welsh Cakes

I don’t know what first prompted to make these, but my boyfriends from Wales (even though he has lived here in Melbourne since he was 8 and has an Aussie accent) funny, thinking he was fluent in Welsh as a little boy…..but I wanted to see if he’d had these. Maybe the taste would spark…

Baked Eggs in Tomato Sauce

I enjoyed this breakfast over the weekend but also felt slightly annoyed I hadn’t thought of this before, as it was so good. Perfect quick, simple breakfast but hearty enough to obliterate the worst of hangovers, great to feed a crowd, nurse a cold or flu and made from pantry staples too! – just add…

Waffling About

Everyone needs a bit of waffle now and then….so here’s to waffling on…and on………and on…………… I have a stove top waffle iron, which is good but I would still favour the old electric waffle irons purely for the fact it’s easier to get the timing right and the edges are less susceptible to burning. Anyway,…

Haloumi with Honey, Lemon and Thyme

A salty, mild cheese originating from Cyprus with a high melting point, which makes this perfect to fry. It would normally be pronounced (huh-loo-mee) but my Turkish friend Leyla would always tell me off, saying (hell-im), so pronunciation varies. I have seen this become more and more popular in the UK, having felt very new…

Zucchini Fritters with Sour Cream and Smoked Salmon

I had always fancied making breakfast fritters of some kind as I’m always partial to ordering them if on breakfast menus. Potato rosti are also a massive temptation, I remember one of the best meals I have ever eaten in Palma was lobster tortellini served on potato rosti – I’ll have to try and recreate…

Avocado on Toast – with Friends…

This post is really just to inspire ideas as we don’t want anyone’s breakfast getting mundane. I’m sure those of us that like avocado have had it on toast before, it’s a breakfast/lunch that I find myself snapping up again and again so it’s constantly evolving. Just simple additions can make it so much more…

English Breakfast Muffins

English because they are savoury muffins, rather than the sweet American variety. Well worth the little effort taken to rise 2 hours before you plan to eat – here’s how it could go for you….. 7am – Up to make the simple batter (15-20 minutes, including kneading) then back to bed for 1 hour whilst…

Lovely Crumpets

A weekend breakfast maybe, but not difficult by any measure. Whether you go for bacon and maple syrup or poached eggs and dukkah – they are almost as revered as pancakes in my house (which is really saying something). I hope you give this recipe a go and you enjoy them as much as we…

Boston Beans, Two Ways

I’m pretty excited about this one. Baked beans have been one of my pantry staples since first leaving home and I have always wondered if it’s a bit of a ‘cop out’ to buy them in the tin. This was a little experimentation involving two recipes – a quick one and a long one (the…

Raspberry Buttermilk Pancakes

I tell no lie when I say this could be the easiest pancake recipe of all time. Buttermilk has a heavier consistency than American pancakes, and I can’t say I have a favourite. I would sway towards buttermilk, if adding fruit and wanted to whip something up quick but if not I’d probably go American….

Easy Yoghurt Flat-breads

These have never let me down, and I am by no means a bread maker – so that’s really saying something! I first made these to go with dips and then to accompany slow cooked lamb and coleslaw, and now I make these with most salads and pretty much anything. The only thing I ever…

Thyme Roast Tomatoes with Feta and Basil

This is one of the most simple breakfasts but so fresh and so punchy – it was tough taking the photos before devouring this tasty morsel. It’s probably wrong for me to call this a recipe, it’s more like a good flavour combination. Plates all too often get busy or confused but good ingredients can…

Baby Beet this for Breakfast Baby!

This combination was inspired by Top Paddocks… I have to say, this is probably the best breakfast I have had in Melbourne and I can’t bring myself to try anything else when I come here. I am not a beetroot person by any stretch of the imagination, but this ingredient has now transposed into one…

Lemon Trickle Cake *Good zing factor

I thought I’d start with this cracker of a cake that never lets you down. It may look simple (and it is) but the taste makes up for any of that. I once thought it impossible to make this cake too lemony….but I think I have found a happy medium with this amount of drizzle,…