Parsnip Cake – a take on Lo Bak Go

No, not a sponge cake. This is a delicious, savoury cake of subtly flavoured and spiced steamed parsnip. Those of you familiar with dim sum restaurants may know it as Turnip Cake, but Chinese Turnip is hard to get where I live unless I make a special trip. What I did have, however, was a …

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Not Yuzu Cha

When I worked with a wonderful Korean lady, she spoke of drinking lemon tea when she had a cold. I looked this up to see if I could get some to surprise her, and it turned out to be more of a jam! You add boiling water to 2 spoonfuls of the preserved sweetened fruit, …

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The Journey of a Meal

Generally I try to get the most out of my ingredients, which means making hefty use of leftovers. Leftovers just sounds like such a sad word. Boring, left behind, ignored but in truth, left over parts of a meal are often even better. Reimagine them, don't just heat them up in the microwave (though of …

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Korean Braised Aubergine

Watching YouTube videos of Korean and Japanese cooking does make one want to have ALL OF THE THINGS. 1 large aubergine1 green pepper*2 tbs vegetable oil1/2 tablespoon gochujang (Korean red chili pepper paste) 1 tablespoon soy sauce1 tablespoon rice wine or mirin or sherry1 teaspoon minced garlic1 teaspoon sugar1 tablespoon sesame oil as a seasoning1/2 …

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A Small Quiche

After watching Choki on YouTube, I had quiche on the brain. It's not often something I think about, but when I saw what she made, it wouldn't go away. (See her video here, quiche at 11:06) I had a large chunk of pecorino dolce to use up before it took over the fridge, so that …

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TikTok Custard Toast

I'd never heard of this until earlier this week. I got a random email from Charlotte at the BBC, asking me to comment on this custard toast nonsense. Turns out Charlotte had asked on Twitter for someone to talk, so my boss from way back at Capita had told them to talk to me. What …

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Tarte Tatain’t

It's not made with pastry, and there's no syrupy glaze but what there is, is cheese. And it was cooked upside down so there we go. 1 large potato, peeled if you like, cut into rough dice, about 1" x 1"4 medium parsnips, peeled and diced the sameOlive oilSalt1 tsp rose harissa paste or to …

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Sri Lankan Tomato Curry

I'm not sure how I ended up with quite so many Oddbox tomatoes, but I did. Some were on the cusp of becoming a non tomato, so it was time to do something. I'd already done a fresh tomato and aubergine bake, but wanted something non Mediterranean. This curry is best made and then left …

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White Chicken Chilli

Ok, so technically it's not white, but it has no tomatoes, or a sauce made with dried chiles, so it's a lot lighter in colour, and this one has white beans. I suggest using chicken thigh meat because if, like me, you make a big pot of this, it stands up far better to slow …

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Stuffed Potatoes with Cypriot flavours

I've long been an admirer of potatoes. I never used to eat them much, at the height of low carbing, and then I realised that they were much maligned, along with the larger sized among us. I still feel a pang of naughty when I eat them, but it's a mere wisp of a pang, …

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