In pre-Covid times, it always amazed me that having eaten breakfast in England we can be enjoying a late lunch in Italy looking up to the sun and taking in the aromas of the streets: jasmine blossoms and linden trees fighting for our olfactory attention against smokey Vespas, buttery patisserie, melting chocolate, over-ripe peaches, the…
Category: Herbs
Revithada, Greek Slow-roasted Chickpeas with Rosemary and Bay
Paros is calling me. It seems as if every magazine I open lands upon an image of the out-of-this-world beautiful Greek island sat within the glittering Aegean Sea, a radio presenter name checked it late last week and, this weekend, a postcard fell out of an old Greek cookery book upon which I had written…
Santorini Tomato Keftedes with Feta and Wild Oregano
At the beginning of my adult life, I spent a lot of time exploring the Greek Islands. I did pretty much all of them from Paxos and Corfu to the North to Santorini and Rhodes in the South. I was drawn to the azure sea, the oregano-covered mountains, the tiny beaches, the glamorously bearded Greek academics…
Jaffa Orange, Feta and Almond Filo Pie with Wild Oregano
The classic Jaffa orange – shamouti – was originally developed by Palestinian farmers in the mid-19th century and takes its name from the city of Jaffa – Yafo – where it was first produced for export. These are the oranges that I was given as the occasional treat when I was a child so the intoxicating aroma of…
Spanish Paprika-baked White Beans with a Sourdough and Manchego Cheese Crust
A few years ago I stumbled upon an crumbling bar nestling amongst the sprawling tobacco fields that surround that architectural wonder of Granada in the south of Spain. The heat that day was suffocating and the aroma of tobacco leaves and the spicy earth was heady, almost too much to bear. Lured by the prospect…
Harissa-braised Hispi Cabbage with Cannellini Beans and Smoked Chilli
This is one of those recipes that came to me during the night – I’m not even joking. It’s not that I dream about food – unless it’s one of THOSE dreams where I have agreed to cater for a great number of people only to forget to buy the ingredients (that’s a recurring one),…
Shuk Ha’Carmel Green Herb Falafel
“Wait. You’re telling me that you have never – NEVER! – eaten falafel?” he exclaimed, narrowly missing the turning onto Boulevard Rothchild as we made our way to dinner one impossibly hot and humid evening in downtown Tel Aviv. “No!” I replied, “I have never – NEVER! – eaten falafel!“. He looked at me with that…
Orecchiette with Pistachios, Hazelnuts, Parmesan and Mint
Sometimes I yearn for a pesto sauce that packs a bit more of a punch that the regular basil and pine nut version especially when the quality of shop bought basil can be patchy – who else has splashed out on a packet recently only to find that the leaves are all pretty much too…
Pera Garlicky Spinach with Yoghurt and Biber Salçası
After a bone-chilling day we literally fell through the doorway of Asmalı Cavit, a treasured wooden-fronted traditional meyhane in the centre of Pera in Istanbul. Here, the walls are lined with photographic portraits of people from a more glamorous age alongside vintage posters promoting wine, long forgotten theatre productions and the seaside resorts that were…
Greek Feta, Romano Pepper and Tomato Saganaki
In Greece the term saganaki is a term used to describe a variety of small dishes made in a traditional two-handled frying pan. The name comes from the Turkish word sahan meaning a copper dish. Very often, the term is used to describe cheese cooked this way – namely kasseri, kefalotyri, kefalograviera or another firm Greek…
