Home food is comfort food. There is no other place I would rather be, and no other place I would rather eat in. I didn’t cook as a child growing up in Ukraine, but I ate very well because my mother, Olga, my father, Petro, and my extended family were so excellent at it. It was only when I left my family and ended up a student in the UK that I was suddenly drawn to cooking. When phone...
This gloriously aromatic stir-fry is the Thai equivalent “of a sandwich or a burger”, says chef and YouTube star Pailin Chongchitnant. “Something quick, easy and ubiquitous that lots of people have for lunch.” The Thai restaurant chain Rosa’s describes it as “something of a national dish … we sometimes call it ‘no idea’, because if you have no idea what to order, you often just order this – it’s...
It’s evident that Hsan Myint Aung builds his life around food. He has run Sun’s Burmese Kitchen with his wife, Erlinda, in Blacktown for close to 10 years, but even on his days off, he is out visiting markets and grocers, “always looking at all the ingredients”. “Even when I’m not working … That’s why I know all the shops,” he says, rattling off a list of suburbs whose grocery geography he’s...
This Japanese vegetable fritter’s name literally translates as “cooked as you like it”, which is perhaps the most important thing you should know about okonomiyaki. Though sold in restaurants, stalls and convenience stores, it’s also easy to make at home: chef Ivan Orkin dubs it “a clean-out-the-fridge-franken-pancake”, which, “as you might guess”, is “usually something you scarf down during a...
Though I’ll defend the nut roast (or, somewhat big-headedly, my nut roast, at least) to the death, I’ll generously concede a vegetarian’s right to celebrate Christmas with something else occasionally. And a wellington is a stand-alone dish that has the wow factor to cut it for the most special of occasions. Of course, just about anything can be wrapped in rich, flaky pastry and baked until golden...
At first glance, the Basque cheesecake has the look of a terrible mistake. The first time I made it, in the somewhat unlikely setting of a south London shelter for those experiencing homelessness over Christmas, diners were rightly suspicious of its singed (some might even say burnt) appearance. We’d had a large donation of cream cheese nearing its use-by date, and the chef in charge had recently...
The Moroccan tagine is a stew named after the conical earthenware vessel in which it’s traditionally prepared, but it’s more of a concept than a dish, really, embracing everything from courgettes to camel hump. As devoted Archers fans will recall, the tagine itself, as much a portable oven as a pot, is not the easiest thing to store, so Jennifer Aldridge may be relieved to hear that, according to...
Ilove ice-cream more than almost anything else in the world – but I’ll be honest, I don’t love making it. All that faffing about with egg custards, the swearing and bashed elbows as you dig around for the dusty ice-cream maker at the back of the shed, if you even own such a thing in the first place – all things considered, it’s a lot easier to pop to the shops and shell out for some professional...
The restauranteur and Instagram influencer, Nusret Gökçe Erzurum is in fact serving his customers, but just how much will a meal at Nusr-Et London set you back? What is on Nusr-Et’s menu? Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe Erzurum opened his London steakhouse on September 23, 2021, after first being announced in 2017. Nestled in Knightsbridge, it is the UK’s only offering of the global chain, which has...
Vanilla pods can be more expensive but there are other ways to source this delicious flavour to add to your food. Where does vanilla flavouring come from?There is a brown, sticky goo called castoreum which smells a lot like vanilla and used to be used in food or perfumes. However, castoreum is almost never used in food today except in special (and expensive) circumstances. Instead, vanilla...