From: Chow
Kokkinisto, which means “reddened” in Greek, is also the name of this dish: meat braised in tomatoes or a tomato sauce. Lamb cooked in this classic style creates a rich, hearty sauce for serving with Greek pasta coated in olive oil and myzithra cheese…more
from: Dinner Diary
Slow roast lamb is one of our absolute favourite dishes, guaranteed to make us both go “mmmmm” every time it’s mentioned. It requires very little effort, is incredibly reliable, always excpetionally tasty, cheap and versatile. We spent the weekend with my mum and we know she’s a big fan too so quickly agreed that it would be the perfect offering for Easter lunch.
Not wanting to play it too safe, we took a bit of a gamble and used a different recipe. A Nigella recipe. I know she’s very popular but I don’t like her. I don’t like her recipes either so quite why I thought this was a good idea I’m not sure. In fairness to the finger-licking one, this actually turned out pretty well but a few small tweaks and it could have been brilliant. The general consensus was that, while it was rich and earthy and very savoury, it definitely needed something light and zingy at the end to freshen the whole thing: mint, capers and redcurrant jelly were all mentioned…more
From: The perfect pantry
Popular in West African cuisine and indigenous to that part of the
world, grains of paradise (also called Melegueta or alligator pepper)
got its name in a medieval marketing ploy: spice traders looking for a
way to inflate the price claimed that the seeds grew only in Eden, and
had to be collected as they floated down the rivers out of paradise.
Spices were popular in those days, but true pepper was expensive;
grains of paradise was a cheaper substitute (ironically, today pepper
is inexpensive, while grains of paradise is not cheap at all). The
spice was widely used in England until King George III, fearing it was
being used in beer and wine production, banned it…more
From: Boston Zest
Sometimes the best little luxury is taking time to do the things we love to do for the people we love to share time with.
On
Christmas Day I did that. I took the time to cook a great meal and and
enjoy it with the best eaters any cook could wish to have.
This time I served the spicy lamb with a cheesy polenta. Here’s the recipe for the polenta as a
bonus for waiting for the lamb photo…more
Recently I have come across several Moroccan dishes that have sounded pretty interesting. They are interesting because they tend to include a lot of spices and flavour combinations that I would not normally think of using. The Moroccan dishes also used dried fruit and harissa for some sweetness and some heat….more