Recipes

I’ve had a special place in my heart for a cheesecake ever since I had enough brain cells to reach my pudgy little child hands into the fridge and ferret out illicit treats that made my heart pitter patter and my taste buds feel alive.  I’m completely serious. As a kid, I hated chocolate, hated …

Any time calls for cocktail measures. Isn’t that how the popular saying goes? Maybe not, but it really should.  It’s no secret that we’re a big fan of a cocktail in the Barnabelliott household (it’s a portmanteau, no, our surnames are not that ridiculous) – BUT, and this is a big but – not any …

Crispy on the outside, steamy, fragrant and light – if a plate full of Nem Ran or Vietnamese deep fried spring rolls aren’t enough to get you salivating, then I don’t know what is.  On my first trip to Vietnam, I was lucky enough to spend a day on a private food discovery with one …

Baked feta is the pimped up, flavour-bomb, OMG can I have some more dish that you didn’t know you needed in your life.  Look, I’m a huge fan of feta, crumbled onto a salad, tucked into a veggie burger – it’s an oft under-championed workhorse of the cheese world, steadily jazzing up our mealtimes like …

Sambal is the backbone of Indonesian cuisine – accompanying pretty much every meal in one guise or another. Some forms of sambal, like sambal oelek are becoming better known internationally, but that’s just the beginning.  I came across Sambal Matah during my last stint in Bali and once I tasted it, you better believe that …

Mojitos need no introduction – the minty, refreshing cocktails that go hand in hand with lazy summer days – equal parts refreshing and tantalizingly boozy. I’ve always been a big fan of a mojito – never more so than on my trip to Cuba when I drank a near endless stream of them, trying to …

The sun is finally out here in the UK and brings the promise of warmer days, the touch of sunshine on your skin and a chance to live your best soakin’ up the sun life.  Even if this year all of that has to be put on hold and the reality is more like us …

You know you’ve joined the big boys when you start knocking up your own ravioli.  Any person with a kitchen and some motor function can fry an egg, but not nearly as many will even try to make their own ravioli at home. Don’t be afraid – making ravioli isn’t actually that difficult. With a …

Nasty women have been doing great things since time began.  Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks – history is filled with problematic women who left great legacies behind.  Now I don’t want to be too tongue in cheek, but the same could be said of the prostitutes who blessed us with …

Banana muffin recipes are ten a penny – in a sea of recipes, it takes a real corker to stand out. Well my friends, that’s exactly what you have here: a failsafe recipe for making amazing banana muffins that you can munch for breakfast, elevenses and pretty much every other moment of the day it …