Are you stuck in a pasta routine? Spaghetti, fettuccine, penne? And not much variation outside of these? Then I recommend that you locate a great Italian grocer and experiment with other pasta types. Here are some smaller, shaped pastas to begin with.
Ingredients: What is Cocozella Zucchini?
Cocozelle is a type of Zucchini that is closer to a squash. It’s skin is medium-green with wide, light green or white stripes. The flesh is tender and its flavour is considered more pronounced than many other zucchini. Choose ones that are less than 35cm (14 inches), ideally around 18 to 30 cm long. Before…
Ingredients: Pandanus | Pandan Leaf | Screwpine Leaf | Kewa
The stiff, bright green pandanus leaf is used for its colour and flavour in curries and rice dishes in India, Sri Lanka and the S.E. Asian countries. There is no real substitute for the unusual nutty, grassy but sweet flavour of the leaf, which is cut into pieces or tied in a knot and added to…
Ingredients: How to Preserve Grape Vine Leaves
If you are a fan of the Greek dish dolmada (dolma) – stuffed grape leaves – or of baked vine leaves with cheese, you will be glad to know that you can easily preserve the young and tender vine leaves for cooking with throughout spring and summer. They won’t be salty, like the store-bought tins…
Cooking: How to Make a Light, Infused Vegetable Stock/Broth, Indian Style
A perfect base for light soups.
Ingredients: How to Make a Deeply Flavoured Coconut-Curry Stock
Stocks are so important to the success of many dishes, but if you cook constantly with herbs and spices, it is easy to throw one together as needed. In the past I would always have a freezer full of vegetable stock, but these days I prefer the stocks made with the ingredients on my kitchen…
Ingredients: How to Make Malay Curry Powder
While India does not have a “curry powder”, it does have a range of masalas and podis that are used in specific ways or with specific dishes. For example, chole masala, chaat masala and garam masala. Not so in the Indian community of Malaysia. Influenced by Malaysian cuisine, curry powder is a common staple in…
Indian Essentials : What is the Difference Between Vathal, Vadagam and Vadam?
South India, especially Tamil Nadu, has a culture of drying vegetables, mixtures of lentils and spices, and pastes made from rice, sago and similar. This is sensible of course – it preserves summer produce for use throughout the year, and thus in leaner seasons they extend freshly available ingredients and provide additional taste and texture….
Ingredients: How to Use Leftover Green Coriander (Cilantro)
Have you ever bought a few bunches of coriander with thoughts of herby salads and Indian dishes topped with coriander, and then found yourself with most of it left at the end of the week? We have your back – here are some ways to deal with that fragrant bunch of greenery. We have hints…
Ingredients: How to Extract Pomegranate Juice
Pomegranate juice is wonderful, but hard to extract.
Indian Essentials: What is Avial, the Signature Dish of Kerala?
Gentle and divine, this dish is characterised by its simpliciy.
How to Sprout Mung Beans
Browse all of our Hints and How To’s here and here.
Cooking: How to make Crispy Garlic, Crispy Sage and Crispy Curry Leaves
Use crispy garlic to top vegetables, soups and mashes. It adds texture, flavour and another dimension to dishes. Sage likewise.
Cooking: How to Char Tomatoes for Salads
Charring tomatoes gives a flavour boost and adds a slight smokiness to the tomatoes without having them collapse. They can be made on the stovetop or in the oven. Simple to do, charred tomatoes are a great addition to salads, hot roasted vegetable salads, soups and on their own as a side dish. Why don’t…
Cooking: How to Char Grill Sweet Corn
The secret to pulling a meal together really quickly is to have prepared lots of bibs and bobs beforehand, so that there is always inspiration in the fridge. Toppings for soups, ingredients for salads, pastes and sauces, for stirfries, things to be mixed into batters and doughs, chopped herbs, frozen and dehydrated bits, stocks, juices,…
Ingredients: How to Make Flavoured Oils
Oils ain’t oils, so the old saying goes. It means that you should watch the quality of the oils that you buy. That saying was once often applied to oils for automobiles, but the same applys in the kitchen, right? On the kitchen bench there are 5 oils — ghee of course, and some organic…
Indian Essentials: What is Kadhi, Indian Yoghurt Curry
Kadhi is a slow cooked Indian yogurt or buttermilk dish, thickened with besan (chana flour, chickpea flour) and tempered with spices. See the difference between Indian curd, buttermilk and yoghurt which are used almost interchangeably. Use Western buttermilk for an Indian Yoghurt curry especially if you are after that little sour tang that buttermilk provides….
Indian Essentials: What is Tulasi? | Indian Holy Basil | An Essential Ingredient in Every Kitchen and Medicine Chest
Tulsi is an amazing herb, indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. The word “tulsi” means “the incomparable plant“. It is a bushy shrub that grows up to 2 metres in height. The plant has hairy stems with leaves that are oval and serrated of about 5cm in length – the colors ranging from light green to…
Ingredients: How to Make Pomarola | Italian Tomato Sauce
Pomarola is one of the corner stones of Italian cooking is tomato sauce. This is a simple recipe that can be used as it is or can be added to when needed. It is important to use fresh and ripe tomatoes. Make a lot and freeze it for Winter. This recipe was given to me…
Cooking: How to Make Italian Pizza Dough
This recipe was given to me by Ilyse, who used to have the most amazing Italian food blog, Lucullian Delights. It works every time. We have other Pizza dough recipes here. Or explore all of our Pizza recipes here. Our Italian recipes are here and here. Browse all of our Tomato recipes here and here….
Ingredients: How to Make Nut Butters
It is good to minimise the use of margarine type spreads because none of them are very healthy. Still use them, of course, but aim for moderation. It is easy to replace margarine at times with pureed avocado or hummus or other bean-based spreads (home made). Nut butters are another alternative. Cashew butter, almond butter…
