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20May

German liver patê and butter apples on rosemary crackers

So bloody excited to share this ridiculously easy recipe, inspired by our ingredient exchange part II. I needed some excitement in my life. It has consisted pretty much of watching Brazilian soap operas online and eating leftovers. This has been mainly triggered by the fact that my other-half has been away at sea for the last 6 weeks. Sounds romantic? In reality it is not so much. The house has been a tip and when you’re just cooking for one I feel very little motivation to whip up exciting meals so my diet has mainly consisted of shop bought sushi and quick omelettes. This made me realise that what drives me to cook and try out new recipes is having other people to cook for. Why did I have no motivation when it comes to cooking for myself? Talk about self-love, eh? This handmade German patê that Karla sent me jolted my memory, it reminded of the happiness that comes with indulgent food for one. And it wasn’t even that hard to make the accompaniments: a simple cracker recipe based on one by Jamie Oliver and warm buttered apples.  The crackers also come with good news for our dairy-free friends as it is
3 mins read
1073 Views
07May

Upside down rhubarb and Earl Grey cake {dairy free, sugar free, gluten free – paleo}

A few weeks ago I got a package from Mariana, inside was the latest ingredient to feature in our Anglo-German food exchange. It was Earl Grey tea, is there anything more British than that? The package also contained a note from Mariana saying that she chose said ingredient to make my life easier. I did get a bit nervous because although Mariana wanted to make my culinary journey a little easier all I could think about after I got the tea was cake, which is a hard task for me at the moment as I am following the Paleo diet consequently any cake I eat needs to contain no flour, milk or sugar. So it was now beyond a simple culinary exchange, it was a full on challenge to whip up a paleo cake. Milk is not actually an issue, I haven’t used milk for years in my kitchen and I can now find so many great substitutions. But what about flour and sugar? This challenge entailed a lot of scientific research on Pinterest. I studied and tested a few recipes made by others at first in order to get used to ingredients, before trying one that was 100% mine.
3 mins read
814 Views
26Apr

Cherry bakewell smoothie [Dairy free]

The first heat wave of the year is here so the pub gardens are overflowing and everyone is having their lunches in public parks. My idea of enjoying sunshine is not sitting outside at a pub but sitting outside at my favourite coffee house enjoying an affogato and having a sweet tart. It is not cherry season yet, I learnt the hard way after having a huge craving for them and not finding them in the fresh fruit section in the supermarket. Thank goodness for frozen fruit and veg, am I right?!  Excited with the prospect of cherry tarts, cherry cakes and cherry jam I almost forgot I have to lose 6lbs before my wedding in August. So I made cherry bakewell tart transform into a dairy-free smoothie and I am hooked! The cherry bakewell tart is a British institution, it is a lovely combination of frangipane and cherries ladden with icing sugar. So have all the taste with a fraction of the calories in 2 easy steps! Cherry bakewell smoothie  150g pitted cherries 80g sugar 300ml almond milk 3 heaped tbsp of ground almonds Honey to taste 1. Put cherries, sugar and 100ml of water over low heat and
2 mins read
722 Views
14Apr

Fresh pasta dough

We had friends over for dinner a few weeks ago and we thought long and hard about what to cook for them. That’s when we remembered we have a pasta machine gathering dust in one of our cupboards. It’s been so long since we last used it you would not believe how much I love making fresh pasta dough. It tastes like no other, it even makes whatever accompanying sauce taste better. Plus I adore to be able to cut it in whatever shape I want. For those who don’t have a pasta machine at home I am not going to lie, it is a lot more work, you need strong arms to make get the dough to be the right thickness with just a rolling pin. I bought my machine on sale and paid 20€, a bargain. So if you are a pasta lover my advice is to invest in one. It makes pasta a ridiculously easy exercise and you only need 2 ingredients. The important thing is to cover the dough with cling film and chill in the fridge otherwise it becomes very dry very quickly. But you can always leave the cut-out dough out to dry, that
3 mins read
675 Views
30Mar

Spiced chocolate Easter bread

Easter is a pretty big deal in my family, it’s like second Christmas both for religious reasons but also because most of us get quite a good amount of annual leave from work so we land at my parents’ for a few days. People take Easter food seriously over here with their legs of lamb, cream eggs, simnel cake or anything with marzipan. I am not exactly a fan of either lamb or marzipan though. What I look forward to are the hot cross buns, warmed up sweet cinnamon buns spread with butter.  It is just simple enriched bread with spices and raisins with a flour cross on top, but for the British these little buns have a huge meaning and date back to the 12th century Britain, they are traditionally eaten on Easter weekend and they were traditionally hung on kitchens on Good Friday and people believed they would never go mouldy. Queen Elizabeth I decreed that hot cross buns could no longer be sold on any day except for Good Friday, Christmas or for burials. They were simply too special to be eaten any other day, so people started to bake them in secret in their kitchens. I love
5 mins read
1069 Views
23Mar

Apple pancakes

As a chid I was very fussy when it came to eating. My grandmother used to live with us when I was growing up and this meant me and my siblings were spoiled rotten in regards to food. She was a willing chef who always gave us options at meal times such as “would you like fish or pasta with plain tomato sauce?” I am not even goin to tell you what our response was… It may sound absurd but my food habits only started to change when I moved to Germany, yes at 21! I am ashamed to say that the first time I ate prawns of my own accord was when I was living with my now husband. During my first few months over here I worked as an AuPair and had to eat whatever the family I worked for put on the table. I was quite surprised at the time by how the 3 children enjoyed all sorts of food incuding curry. And the youngest one was only 1! So it was time for me to change. One day the family called me down for lunch and I had my first cultural shock. It was sweet lunch.
3 mins read
873 Views