Labneh is a beautiful soft cheese simply made from strained yoghurt that can be eaten with pretty much everything but which is an especially good friend to rich and spicy mezzes. The first time I tasted it I was sat at a little linen-covered table on the edge of a vegetable garden in Amirim, an entirely vegetarian organic…
Category: Spices
Ras-el-Hanout Spiced Cranberry, Orange and Pomegranate Sauce
Although it’s true that we can enjoy cranberry sauce all year long, I love to make it myself the minute those jewel bright tart berries hit the market. Here’s a quick recipe for a sauce with a distinctly exotic edge which you can make ahead and jar up ahead of the festive season. It’s perfect with…
Levantine Labneh with Green Harissa, Roast Cherry Tomatoes and Dukkah
The nearer to Christmas it gets, the further East I travel for recipe inspiration. I suspect that this is greatly influenced by the boxes of dates we used to be given as a child. You may know the ones I mean, the box had a lacy paper lining and a bright label depicting the three…
Spanish Roast Potatoes with a Golden Lemon Aioli
This is an absolutely lovely side dish for an autumnal Sunday lunch and is my decidedly Mediterranean take on the standard roast potato. Here, the potatoes are new and coated in a sumptuous mix of olive oil, tomato paste and fiery smoked paprika. It is inspired by a dish I first came across in La…
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…
Shuk Hummus with Zhoug and Chopped Pistachios
Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem was the first full blown Middle Eastern market I ever visited and, for me, it was an absolutely mind-blowing experience with over 250 vendors and stall holders inviting me to sample their beautiful chaos of fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, pastries and halva, cheeses, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices all piled…
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…
Caldo Gallego, a Spanish White Bean Soup with Sherry Vinegar
A beautiful dish for early autumn evenings, this beautiful aniseedy broth with lightly braised haricot beans, tomatoes, courgette and fennel is seasoned with a really good Spanish sherry vinegar, chilli and fennel seeds but it’s the punchy mojo verde – a garlicky green herb and garlic sauce originating from the Canary Islands – that makes…
