A Cupboard of Spices – A Quiet Kitchen – A Taste of India
Think outside the box for Breakfast, especially in Summer.
Prepare your breakfast dishes, make a large pot of coffee, set the table on the verandah, deck, or under the grapevines, take the newspaper or a book, and enjoy a leisurely Summer breakfast.
Continue reading “Easy Summery Weekend Breakfast and Brunch Dishes”
There is nothing better than balmy weather, and pineapples are in the markets! So we bring a slightly tropical feel to the table today with a special salad of cucumbers and pineapple.
Similar recipes include Apple and Yoghurt Salad with Grapes, Kachumber, and Chickpeas and Ginger Kachumber.
Browse all of our Kachumbers, and our Indian Salads. All of our Indian recipes are here, and our Indian Essentials are here. Or explore our Late Spring recipes.
Here we are with another Okra dish, this time from the Parsi cuisine. It is a Patia, or Patio, dish, which cooks the okra in a thick tomato and spice base. In this recipe, we saute the okra before adding to the tomato base towards the end of cooking. You can also saute the okra quickly and add earlier in the cooking for a more traditional approach.
We took the outline of the Patia recipe from My Bombay Kitchen, and adjusted the recipe, substituting okra for the non-vegetarian items. You could also use eggplant with this recipe.
Parsi dishes are always delicious. Try Parsi Kitchari, and Vermicelli Payasam.
Are you looking for similar recipes? Try Greek Okra in Tomatoes and Olive Oil, and Okra Curry.
You can browse all Okra recipes, and all Parsi dishes. All of our Indian dishes are here. Or explore our Early Winter collection of recipes.
Today’s recipe is an Indian eggplant dish where eggplants are simmered in a tomato base until tender. It is quite simple to make yet yields a delicious result. Serve it with rice for lunch or with other dishes for an Indian feast.
It is an easy recipe – with few spices. A great recipe for people beginning to cook Indian dishes. Because it is easy, it is an perfect dish to cook for lunch, or even to cook early in the day to use with the evening meal.
Similar dishes include Brinjal Kootu, Eggplant Asadu, Smoky Eggplant and Tomatoes, and Begun Pora.
Browse all of our Eggplant dishes. All of our Indian recipes are here, and our Indian Essentials are here. Or explore our Mid Spring recipes.
Baked Feta is a perfect mezza dish, served with crackers or flatbread. Flavoursome, soft, mouth watering, the baked feta is aromatic and elicits sounds of approval from your friends at your shared table. It is the sort of dish that you can make at the last minute – your friends arrive unexpectedly at meal time, as they do.
Or it is a great snack, mid afternoon, with a pot of mint tea. And it goes really well on Summery days when the BBQ is lit and people are milling around, nibbling, while the salads are made and the vegetable kebabs are cooking. We have also had it on a Winter’s day as we sit around the fire, reading, writing and chatting. Best of all, it is a perfect Summer Holidays dish, when no-one wants to cook much at all.
This recipe is a mish-mash of Italian and Greek. Definitely Mediterranean.
Similar recipes include Parsley and Barley Salad with Feta, Du Puy Lentils with Feta, and Baked Eggplant with Feta.
Browse all of our other Feta dishes, our Italian recipes and our Greek dishes. Or explore our Late Winter recipes.
Continue reading “Baked Feta with Tomatoes and Red Capsicum”
Lemons, the ubiquitous and essential ingredient in kitchens the world over. We squeeze the juice into this and that, preserve them, grate their rind, and candy them. I have dehydrated lemon slices – not pretty but oh goodness, the flavour they added to dishes! Rarely do we think of roasting them.
But that must change. Something magical happens to citrus when it hangs out in a hot oven. It takes on a sweeter, slightly-burnt complexity. They add flavour to any dish, but are also good on their own!
This recipe is from Plenty More from Ottolenghi, and is part of our project to cook through this book. You might like to see our thoughts on the different chapters of this book. We feel free to substitute ingredients that are not readily available in our local area.
Seek out the sweetest tomatoes you can get for this dish, to balance the tartness of the lemon: baby or cherry yellow and red tomatoes are your best bet.
It is Ottolenghi Cooking the Books Day on the blog – one day per month where we publish the latest recipes we have tried in our project of cooking from Ottolenghi’s books – those we have cooked directly and those we have been inspired by. Currently we are cooking from Plenty More, but not ignoring his other books completely. Note that I often massage the recipes to suit what is available from our garden and pantry. For the original recipes, check his books and his Guardian column.
Similar recipes include Broad Bean and Tomato Salad, Tomato Salad with Green Olives, and Tomato and Pomegranate Salad.
Browse all of our Tomato Salads. Our Ottolenghi dishes from Plenty More are here. We have written about our experiences cooking through this book. Or explore our Late Summer dishes.
Winter brings that longing for hot, oven baked dishes that are filling and so comforting on a chilly night as the wind whistles around the house. The oven warms the kitchen and living room, and the aromas make everyone hungry (even the neighbours). How I love baked dishes in the cold cold days. I am warm and so is the kitchen, and I potter around doing this and that in my favourite room. The results are always delicious.
This is another baked eggplant dish, and it is layered with cheese and a tomato sauce. It’s great! Wintery and lovely – another quick and simple cold weather dish.
This recipe first makes a tomato sauce, and then layers golden eggplant slices with the sauce and cheese, before baking it until bubbling and browned. What more do you need in cold Winter weather? Serve with a salad for lunch, or as part of a larger meal for dinner.
Because it is Winter, tinned tomatoes might be your best option for making the sauce, but this year we’ve had really good quality tomatoes available all through Winter. Another option is to use those tomatoes that you threw into the freezer last Autumn. Also, if you made your own Tomato Pastes or Purees to keep in the freezer for Winter, now is the time to use them in place of the Tomato Puree. You can even make it with one that includes a little chilli! As little as 0.25 cup and up to 1 cup of puree is needed.
Similar dishes include Cheesy Bake of Carrots and Parsnips, Potatoes and Cheddar Gratin, Baked Eggplant Steaks, Pasta Bake with Cabbage and Cheese, and Gratin of Potatoes and Zucchini.
Are you looking for Eggplant recipes? Try Creamy Bake of Carrots and Parsnips, Eggplant and Zucchini Baked with Chickpeas and Harissa Sauce, Baked Eggplant Stuffed with Cheese and Tomatoes, and Cheesey Eggplant Torte.
You might also like to browse all of our Eggplant recipes. And browse Baked recipes. Or take some time to check out our easy Mid-Winter recipes.
Continue reading “Cheesy Baked Aubergines with Saucy Tomatoes”
This is such a simple recipe but a great one to keep in your stock of go to items when you need something for pasta, to top hummus, another dip or spread, to float on top of soup, to ladle onto polenta or quinoa, or to toss into salads. Actually, it is a great recipe for left over tomatoes – use cherry tomatoes or cut others into halves or quarters.
The tomatoes can also be whizzed into dressings or marinades, added to rice as it is cooking, or stirred through any grain during or after cooking. It’s perfect spooned on top of Pudla, Socca or Farinata.
Similar dishes include Oven Baked Tomatoes, Baked Tomato Pasta Sauce, and Farinata with Tomatoes, Onion and Cheese.
Browse all of our Tomato dishes or explore all of our Mid Spring recipes.
Throughout Italy and Greece, dried bread is common – bread that has been baked, sliced, then baked again until very very dry. The most loved use of this bread, called Dakos or Paximadia in Greece and Friselle in Italy, is in salads where the juice of the tomatoes and oil and vinegar dressing soak into the bread, softening it and adding the flavours of Summer. They can also be used like a bruschetta as a base for a variety of Mediterranean toppings.
We have made a couple of other Dakos dishes, a salad that also confusingly called Dakos, and a baked Dakos dish – both are delicious. This is a variation on the salad, with a few different spices.
Similar dishes include Tomato and Roasted Lemon Salad, Braised Tomatoes with Herbs, Fattoush, Simple Tomato Bread Salad, Dakos and Baked Dakos.
Browse all of our Dakos dishes, our Italian food and Greek recipes. Or explore our Late Summer dishes.
With some itsy bitsy tomatoes in hand, looking more like jelly beans than tomatoes, we made a Tomato and Walnut Salad with Pomegranate Molasses Dressing. A perfect choice, as we had made our own Pomegranate Molasses, and had whole walnuts sitting on the kitchen bench. You can of course, purchase pomegranate molasses – I find the Middle Eastern shops have the best ones.
It was Lucy’s recipe, from Nourish Me, that we went to for inspiration. It’s a pretty easy salad – take some juicy tomatoes, and make an interesting dressing with garlic, cinnamon and pomegranate molasses. Pretty good, as all of Lucy’s recipes are.
Similar recipes include Quick Tomato Salad with Mustardy Mayo, Tomato Salad with Balsamic and Marjoram, and Tomato and Pomegranate Salad.
Why not browse all of our Tomato Salad recipes? Or, if you have the courage, all of our many many Salad dishes. Or take some time to explore our Mid Autumn collection of recipes.
Continue reading “Tomato and Walnut Salad with Pomegranate Molasses Dressing”
