A taste of summer on a rainy day… Today is particularly miserable, rainy day in Brussels. This is only November, I trust there are more of these to come so, I am hoping to keep my mood elevated via food… Never fails. For the family lunch I decided to prepare a pizza inspired by my…
The “Philosopher”
miam miam… This dish has two names “The Philosophe” in Belgium or “Hachis Parmentier” in France… As Belgium is my adopted country, and the recipe is a Belgian classic, I am going to go with Philosophe. I have enjoyed for many years now, thanks to my mother-in-law. She makes this for us once in a…
Roasted Chicken & Veg
I love a good roasted chicken. At our house Wednesday night is roast chicken night. I look forward to it but, my family, who have had their fair share of roasted chicken, need a bit of variation so, I have come up with this simple recipe. Rice, pilav or wild rice is a nice side…
Grilled Courgette & Feta “pie”
I am desperate to introduce more vegetarian dishes to my weekly food planning. I am new at this so, I find the pastry (pie/tart/log) option a safe and delicious option. So far I have only used store bought pastry but I am hoping to summon the courage to make my own one of these days…
My Kitchen Basics
Potatoes – Peeling potatoes can be a real drag. But don’t despair, I have a nice trick. Place the potatoes into boiling water for 30 seconds. Then put them into a bowl of cold water. After 30 seconds, you can peel the potatoes with bare hands. No effort needed due to the temperature difference. Another way is to keep the potatoes in salted water…
Plum Jam for Breakfast
It has been a nice summer break with loads of family activity. My foodie dreams have been on hold for a few weeks but lets kick it off for autumn with something sweet. Plum Jam. Recently my neighbour gave us some plums from her garden and I decided to make same jam. With many fruits…
Chilli Avocado & Feta on Toast
There are many things I love about avocado’s. The look, the texture, the taste, the stone in the centre of it, perfectly round. But most of all, I love the fact that, I can get my kids to eat anything by telling them if they don’t eat what I serve them next time it will…
Turkey Burgers
I have recently received a mincer attachment for my beloved KitchenAid (www.kitchenaid.com) and I have been very enthusiastically mincing meat away on it. It is great to make your own mince mixes or just mincing that chicken breast to make pasta sauce instead of yet another chicken fillet (not that there is anything wrong with…
Roasted Pumpkin Hummus
Hummus (Houmous in British English) is an Arabic word meaning “chickpeas” and essentially it is made from chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and garlic. We are very lucky in Brussels with the choice of Lebanese restaurants we have, the quality of their hummus is so good that we never have to resort to the supermarket kind. I…
Aubergine/Eggplant & Halloumi Tart
“Meat free Monday” is something I look forward to, because I find it is more challenging to find filling, delicious recipes that are meat, poultry and fish free. This probably sounds absurd to vegetarians, but it takes a certain kind of thinking to put veg together to get that same kind of “I’m fed” satisfaction…
Cigdem Sidney Ozdemircelik 