Roast almonds
Leave a CommentThese are incredibly more-ish. Serve with a chilled aperitif, such as sherry. The ingredients and quantities here are a guide. Feel free to mix it up…
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Malt cookies
Leave a CommentCrispy cookies with a beautiful dark color and a great malty, almost coffee or chocolate-like flavour. For Christmas you could add flavorings such as 1 tsp cinnamon or mixed spices and ½ tsp grated orange zest – not New Nordic, but very tasty!
For a dessert, try layering crumbled cookies with toasted chopped nuts, whipped cream or yoghurt and fruit compote to make a trifle. Malt cookies go well with cherries, hazelnuts and a small sprinkling of licorice powder.
Recipe from Mia Kristensen of CPH Good Food. www.cphgoodfood.dk -
Beetroot crispbreads
Leave a CommentAdd dried spices to the dough for more flavours. To stay within the flavours of Nordic cuisine, try caraway seeds, dried dill, dried lemon balm or even small pieces of roasted bacon. Serve these crispbreads with an assortment of cheeses, a fresh herb pesto or with pickled herring, like they do in Sweden.
Recipe from Mia Kristensen of CPH Good Food. -
Elderflower Delight
Leave a CommentThis recipe is adapted from John Wright, the River Cottage forager. It seems like it must be difficult and prone to problems, and half-way through you won’t believe it’ll ever work, but have faith – the final product will come good and taste remarkably elderflowery.
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Tortilla
Leave a CommentThis recipe is adapted from one by David Tanis, chef at Chez Panisse and author of ‘A Platter of Figs’, among other good things. You can make it a few hours before serving, but do not refrigerate or it may go rubbery.
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Andalucian pinchitos morunos
2 CommentsThese spicy kebabs are popular in Andalucia and originate from the era when the Moors occupied Spain. It works superbly with pork, chicken or lamb. Marinate the meat as far in advance as possible. This recipe is adapted from one in the fantastic Moro restaurant cookbook.
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Andalucian pinchitos morunos
1 CommentThese spicy kebabs are popular in Andalucia and originate from the era when the Moors occupied Spain. It works superbly with pork, chicken or lamb. Marinate the meat as far in advance as possible. This recipe is adapted from one in the fantastic Moro restaurant cookbook.
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Cardamom cookies
5 CommentsWhen I made these little biscuits for my third Secret Kitchen they were gobbled up greedily, despite the preceding four course dinner. I based the recipe on one from Tartine, our favourite café in San Francisco. (And everyone else’s, judging by the ‘line’ running down the sidewalk every Saturday morning.) You can create your own recipe by substituting different nuts and spices, as you like.
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Pistachio stuffed dates
Leave a CommentThis is a Moroccan recipe, and the perfect accompaniment to mint tea to round off a lavish Moroccan feast. Dates are one of Morocco’s finest exports. While travelling around Morocco we drove all the way to Erfoud on the edge of the Sahara for its October date festival, only to find that the unusually wet weather had flooded most of the date palm groves and raging torrents had destroyed several key roads and bridges. Not what we expected to find in the desert!
Further West, in the foothills of the High Atlas mountains, we caught up with the date harvest (see pic). And just beyond we found the beautiful Valley of the Roses. In spring this valley is carpeted with roses, whose petals are harvested to make fragrant rose water, used as both a culinary and cosmetic ingredient. Rose water is also used in Iranian and Indian cuisine, and throughout the Arabic world. It was much more popular, along with orange flower water, in European cuisine in the past than it is today. Try it in cakes instead of vanilla.
But pistachios will always make me think of Turkey, and in particular Gaziantep (formerly Antep), renowned throughout Turkey and beyond for the fine pistachios which thrive in the surrounding dry, low hills. Here we ate our fill of baklava stuffed with naturally bright green pistachio paste, and marvelled at the women who sort the nuts one-by-one by hand, to ensure only the best are used. As in Morocco, Turkish cuisine combines nuts and sugar to great effect.In London I buy my ‘Antep fıstığı’ (Antep nuts) from a brilliant little shop called Hot Nuts on Green Lanes, a few minutes walk from Manor House tube station. Green Lanes and nearby Blackstock Road are also a sure bet for good dates and rose water.
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Amlou
1 CommentAmlou is served in Morocco with good fresh bread to dip in. It’s eaten as a snack or appetizer, for example to welcome a guest into your house. It is delicious, especially with a glass of mint tea. The three key ingredients are all Moroccan specialities: almonds, honey and argan oil. Real argan oil, extracted from the kernels of the nuts of the argan tree, is expensive and hard to find outside Morocco, but is worth the effort. Try to find one with a delicate nutty flavour, and check it has not gone rancid.
