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My grandma likes her green beans cooked until they’re very, very soft. For years, I thought this was due to her suboptimal dental situation, but a few weeks ago I realised it was actually all about taste. My u-turn came one summer’s night on London’s Edgware Road while inhaling a bowl of loubieh bi zeit: […]
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In gaming, you can ‘double win’, where you play once, but win twice. A similar sort of thrill can exist in the kitchen (hear me out, please) when you cook one ingredient and it forms two edible delights – such as in today’s recipe. The tomatoes are roasted with chipotle and plenty of oil, and […]
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In India, the name for avocado is ‘butter fruit’, and for good reason: it whips up to a cream so luxurious that today’s recipe nearly wrote itself. I say nearly, because you can’t just replace the eggs like for like with avocado and end up with a creamy, soft scoop. ‘Vegan ice-cream needs more protein,’ […]
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Adding a sprinkling of herbs to a finished dish may seem merely decorative, but some also pack a whopping great flavour that belies their delicate appearance. One such herb is Thai holy basil: in just one leaf, it has notes of pepper, clove and anise, all of which make today’s stir-fry (an adulterated Thai pad […]
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In April, I was lucky enough to learn how to make the classic Thai som tam salad at the century-old Mandarin Oriental cookery school in Bangkok. From the first bite, it hit me from all angles. It was cold and crunchy, but also hot, sour, salty and sweet, which was exactly perfect for the 38-degree […]
Continue ReadingMy relationship with mangoes can be split into two halves: before I first ate Thai mango sticky rice at a roadside shop called Maewaree in Bangkok, and after. Before, I thought of myself as a mango purist (I am Indian, after all) and that nothing could beat an alphonso fresh out of the box. But […]
Continue ReadingIn the kitchen of Saorsa 1875, Luca Sordi is decorating a scoop of zesty almond butter with a sprinkling of fermented spruce tips. “With butter, there are so many more interesting alternatives,” says the Italian-born, London-trained chef as he perfects his menus for the opening weekend of the UK’s first 100% vegan hotel. Dishes include […]
Continue ReadingPeople say, ‘You can’t have it all’, but they probably don’t know about banh mi a Vietnamese-colonial French champion of a sandwich. Crusty bread, yes, but also pickles, herbs, mayo, chillies and a spiced delicious filling – and, in this case, tofu fried in five spice, too. It’s got texture, flavour, heat, cool, crunch and […]
Continue ReadingAs much as I adore cooking, it is also often for work, or a means by which to get food on to the table. But to my toddler daughter, it is always fun. Smashing potatoes? Joy! Mixing and squidging a mixture into patties with our hands? What a hoot! Trying to get peas, which are […]
Continue ReadingBeyond friendship, love and good health, often what I really want is a delicious salad. One that’s not too difficult to put together and entertains the tastebuds. Not too much to ask, you’d think, but actually, it can be difficult to achieve. So I have decided to dedicate my life to searching for the perfect […]
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