Tag: recipe

18Aug

Chicken and lentil stew with cumin pitta

I feel that in the recents months I have become more adventurous in the kitchen. I think it might have to do with the fact that together with my boyfriend I have just bought a flat so after many years of renting and sharing kitchens it is nice to have one to call my own. So I get very excited about this, which is overtly expressed in kitchen gadget purchases and new, exotic ingredients. Enter Harissa. I have heard so much about it and at first did not know how to use it exactly and this was my first experiment with it. This stew recipe was created based on leftovers and a few cupboard items, including a last moment addition of cranberry sauce. I did not tell my boyfriend about this addition because he turns his nose up to sweet and sour combinations, but he enjoyed it, it was just the right amount to get rid of the acidity of the tomato. I am a true believer unplanned recipes often turn out the best for me. Maybe because your expectations are not as high and any success however little tastes so good. And rather than making a pot of potatoes to
5 mins read
660 Views
11Aug

Coconut and tapioca ice-lollies

Many recipes are brought to life due to nostalgia. Who here has never felt the urge to cook something that took you back in time? Whether it was a food from your childhood or even a dish that you tried in a restaurant a couple of weeks ago I am sure many of us have tried to see if the result will match up to the memory. When summer arrives my husband and I can’t get enough ice cream and recently I have found quite a few ice cream shops that have dairy free flavours, but two years ago that was not an easy thing to find. It was either lemon or strawberry and that was that. I almost stopped going to ice cream shops it was getting so boring. And then we got an ice cream machine as a wedding present and our lives were revolutionised. Ok maybe I am being a bit dramatic. I started to make our own dairy free ice creams, experimenting with new flavours and it turned into a serious addiction. Problem is the machine has to live in the fridge for 12 hours before being used and our freezer is teeny tiny, so this
3 mins read
742 Views
20Jul

Lavender and Cypress foot soak

I never thought I would say this but I cannot stand how hot it is in England at the moment. I actually heard an Australian girl complaining about the heat over here in the UK. If the Aussies are complaining then s**t just got real. It is one of the most amazing summers I have had in England since I arrived almost 12 years ago (yikes!) and the Brits go nuts when the weather is like this, mainly because it always seems too good to be true and you need to barbecue everything you have in your fridge and eat all the Magnums you can before the rain comes back. It is Carpe Diem as Keating envisioned it. I am myself planning a last minute beach holiday in the West coast, consequently all my sandals and dresses come out but I always face the same problem: my feet. A massively overlooked area in my body especially after months of hiding it under socks and boots they don’t always look their best in the first few months of sunshine. So I did a little research on the basics of homemade feet treatments as I was sick of my maintenance work which basically
3 mins read
729 Views
04Jul

Pastel Caprese

I love London and I hate London. I popped to the capital to meet some friends yesterday, it was the first back there after not visiting for about six months. London always makes me try really hard to fit in, this entails not looking bright eyed at all the sites, at how busy everybody seems to be or how cool and organic their style is. Deep down I want to be one of them but can’t quite pull it off. Londoners are a different breed of people, they move faster and they don’t make apologies for who they are, and the city embraces that. All that hustle makes my blood pump faster. On the other hand I do not enjoy the pressure I feel when I am there, that if you are an underachiever the city will swallow you. I sat next to a lady with a Gucci handbag while she ate her sushi and I tucked into a bar of Tunnocks. I felt so out of place…but why really? A bar of chocolate caramel makes me so much happier than a Gucci bag. And a lot happier than sushi! I think that city would swallow me, I am not
4 mins read
585 Views
27Jun

Batida de coco

I feel that not a lot beats watching football with a great little snack by your side. However a special drink makes all the difference, it helps the most tense of hearts to relax which is no easy feat during the World Cup, these matches are tense! So this week our World Cup recipe is one that is very popular in Brazil, but not as well known abroad: Batida de coco, or coconut smoothie. Don’t know if smoothie is the right word as it contains a little booze, batida would be translated as beat or blitzed. I am pretty sure you’ve all heard that Brazil has some spectacular natural treasures, and when it comes to fruit there are just too many to name it, good news is I start to see them more and more in exotic fruit markets, and that is the case with the main ingredient today: fresh coconut. In the last few years fresh coconut, together with its water, has become the new super food for celebrities, but before that many only ever heard of shredded coconut and coconut milk. So if you ever walk by a market with exotic fruits try drinking the water from the
3 mins read
609 Views
20Jun

Mango Caipiroska

It has been a busy week, I have worked 40 hours on top of going to University (I am currently studying to become a nurse) and it was hard to juggle both, let alone think of a social life.  My long hours have meant I have missed a few of the world cup matches, thankfully I have caught glimpses of a few matches while some of my patients were watching it. I rushed home yesterday to catch the second half of the England match (they have a special place in my heart) and was so nervous watching it, almost as nervous when Brazil plays, but they disappointed me when they lost yesterday. But on a brighter note our Seleção has kept their momentum and I can’t wait for our game on Monday. This Caipiroska is the perfect drink for this coming week, not only because of its glorious colours (!) and I am so excited to tell you guys about it! Caipiroska is a vodka version of Caipirinha. For those who don’t know what Caipirinha is, it is one of Brazil’s biggest exports and my favourite drink. It is kinda like a Mojito but better (sorry, Cuba). It is made with Cachaça, a liquor made
3 mins read
791 Views