I think I saw this on TV. Or I read about. Or someone told me. Don't remember. Turned out nicely though.

• Mix a half cup of warm water with a packet of dry active yeast, let dissolve
• Lightly beat in two eggs, season with salt and pepper
• Stir in about three cups of white flour until a sticky dry dough forms, knead, cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1-2 hours
• Knead dough again and flatten. Place a fistful of cubes of salami/pepperoni and romano/parmesan in the center and start folding and kneading until they are evenly spread throughout loaf
• Form a ring of the dough on a baking sheet covered in a bit of flour. Baste the ring with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs (rosemary, oregano, basil, thyme as desired) and bake at 180C for 30-45 minutes until crusty

This came out lovely. Nice side dish or appetizer.

Just a neat little improvisation with some basic ingredients. Goes to show that it's good to have a couple of quality ingredients around (e.g. saffron) that make an incredibly simple dish that much more enjoyable.

• Season two chicken breasts, rub in paprika, fry quickly in hot olive oil until seared but do not cook, remove and keep warm.
• Do not remove pan from heat, instead add thick rings of one medium white onion, and a clove of crushed garlic, season and fry until onions are glassy, then add two to three tablespoons of blanched and sharded almonds.
• Continue frying for a few minutes until fragrant, add a few pinches of saffron and deglace with white wine, reduce.
• Mix half a cup of sour cream with half a cup of warm water, add to pan with the chicken breasts and continue cooking a few minutes until sauce is reduced and the chicken is cooked.

A common Brazilian seafood dish. Always thought it was interresting how some typical Thai and Brazilian foods share some key ingredients (coconut, cilantro). Forgot to buy Dende (palm oil), so this is a bit of an inaccurate recipe. I think a "Thanks to Beto" for introducing me to Brazilian food is also in order.

• Make thickish onion rings of one large onion, mash one clove of garlic, fry in olive oil, season.
• Meanwhile, make rings of one red pepper and finely chop a medium hot chili pepper, add to pan and continue frying until peppers are starting to soften.
• Add one can of coconut milk. Continue to simmer until peppers and onions are starting to cook through (roughly 10 minutes).
• Add three boneless fillets of some white and flaky fish, continue cooking another 10 minutes, then add a bunch of chopped cilantro (coriander leaves) and finish cooking another 5 minutes.
• Serve on a bed of basmati rice. Rice will work best if fried til brown with a finely chopped onion before cooking. Add two cups of water for every cup of rice. Cook witout stirring until all the water is gone.

A last step should've been adding dende towards the end (dende is Brazilian palm oil - if you use the West African variety, use less as it's much richer).

A Greek favourite. Usually made with chunks of beef roast, but I used lamb for trials. Also supposed to finish cooking in oven to make meat softer, but I did it all on the stovetop which seemed to work fine.

• Marinade about 1kg of diced lamb in lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary, thyme.
• Dry lamb, coat evenly in flour.
• In a pot, briefly cook a dozen or so small peeled onions or shallots in water with a dash of vinegar.
• In a pot, heat olive oil and fry lamb in it for a few minutes. Add one clove of mashed garlic, four diced tomatos. Allow to simmer, then add a glass of dry red wine.
• Add the following herbs and spices: A stick of cinammon, a bay leaf, one table spoon of cumin seeds, rosemary and thyme
• Add the cooked onions or shallots, continue to cook at very low temperatures (if you use the oven use 95C for about 3 hours) until the meat is so soft that you can mash it with a fork.
• Towards the end, add a fistful of crumbled feta and allow to melt slightly. Serve with white bread, potatoes or rice.

Using lamb instead of beef works nicely. This dish can come out a bit sour (tomatos, lemon marinade, onions cooked in vinegar, red wine) which is hard to control for. Err on the lower side when using these ingredients.

This is a mode of preparation I recently read about in the L.A. Times food section. Cold poaching involves pouring boiling liquid over fish and letting it cool to room temperature. It works best with lean, white, flaky fish. I used Flathead, which worked quite nicely. For liquid, fish stock was recommended, but I used a quick home-made broth of fennel and chili. I served it with home-made tartar sauce and fennel-mashed-potatoes.

• Place fish fillets in a ceramic or porcelain dish. Remove stalks, dill twigs from one large bulb of fennel. Set aside twigs and bulb. Bring one cup of water to boil per fish fillet. Add fennel stalks, a few dashes of chili flakes, herb to taste (thyme, mint, rosemary), some lemon zest. Add a bag of green tea for 2-3 minutes but remove. Strain liquid and pour over fish, cover and let stand until at room temperature.
• Chop rest of fennel, coat well in olive oil, place in oven dish, sprinkle with a few pinches of rock salt, cover and bake at 180C for about 45 minutes. Remove cover for about 10 minutes or until crisp and caramelized.
• Boil a handful of quartered potatoes for the mash. When soft, drain water, mix in a spoonful of butter, a half cup of milk, one extremely finely-chopped small onion, a clove of minced garlic, rosemary and thyme. Mix in the roasted fennel and stirr to desired consistency.
• For the tartar sauce, mince one clove of garlic, finely chop one small onion, cut 2-3 inches of zest from a fresh and clean lemon, finely chop the twigs from the bulb of fennel. Mix all together, season, and stir into 4-5 tablespoons of mayonaise.
• Serve everything when fish has reached room temperature.

Fish prepared in this fashion has an extremely soft and slightly flaky texture. The low temperature also brings out very different flavours than found in fish served hot. You do not need to smother it in tartar sauce, but the lemon and dill made for nice addition to the flavours developped in cold poaching. The broth can probably be kept frozen and used in cooking later on.

This is a slightly modified Middle-Eastern dish.

• Begin by preparing the glaze by mixing together three to four tablespoons of honey, two teaspoons of ground cardamon, a tablespoon of sherry/port and a few pieces of grated orange zest.
• Season bird and stuff with onions, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, rosemary and a quartered lemon. Truss bird and place in a covered oven-proof dish. Heat oven to 200C. Cook bird for 20 minutes, then reduce to 180C.
• After cooking and basting for about 30-40 minutes (or when juices run clear), remove, smother with glaze and broil an addional 5-10 minutes, basting a few times with fresh glaze mixture until bird is crisp and brown. Let rest for about 10-15 minutes before serving.

I served with slow-cooked red-cabbage and apples that was cooked for almost as long as the duck itself. Worked quiet nicely (a nice touch of combining German and Middle-Eastern foods.)

This is a version of mulled wine that hails from Sweden. It differs from other mulled wines, especially German 'Gluehwein', in that other alcohols are added to it and a greater range of spices and aromatics are used. Some versions employ a technique used in German 'Feuerzangenbowle' or in wormwood absinthes, where sugarcubes soaked in high-content alcohol such as brandy, are melted over the glass using a slotted metal spoon before serving. My version doesn't do this.

The quality of wine isn't so important when you make mulled wine, but something too sweet or dry (or too expensive) should be avoided.

• In a large pot, brew about 1l of strong black tea. Add 3 bottles of semi-sweet red wine (750ml each).
• Add the following spices: 8-10 pods of cardamon, 3 sticks of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, 10 sticks of cloves, 1 bud of star anise
• Heat gently. While heating, add the following: 150g of sugar (make sure to dissolve), 150g of raisins, one coarsely chopped small ginger root, the zest and juice of one orange.
• Also add 250ml of dry vermouth and 250ml of port.
• Continue to heat gently without boiling for about 2 hours. Boiling will kill flavour and cause the alcohol to evaporate.
• Serve very hot in cups or glasses with raisins and almond sticks at the bottom.

You can add a touch by melting a cube or spoonfull of sugar melted over the glass on a slotted metal spoon made for that purpose, soaked in brandy and lit. Another variation is adding a bit of punch by adding a shot of rum, Amaretto, Grand Marnier or port wine to the glass.

Reheats well and keeps overnight, in fact letting the mulled wine rest for a day (or night) will help infusion of flavours. Simply reheat without boiling before serving.

I love all sorts of mushrooms, even the normal white ones. And mushrooms and bacon are just one of those combinations. This is an extremely simple mushroom recipe.

• Brush 8-10 large white mushrooms. Quarter.
• Put about 100g of chopped, smoked bacon in a pan and heat. When hot add mushrooms salt and pepper.
• When mushrooms are starting to brown and let water, add a handful of baby spinach, torn to shreds to pan.
• Cook another 5 minutes at medium heat. Serve hot with rye or onion bread.

Made this as a side for spicy italian sausage. Worked well, but the mushrooms were almost a dish on their own.