This lemon poppy seed cake falls in the category of simple cakes, of the “mix everything together and bake in the oven” kind, which are my favorites. The lemon scent is however intense and the poppy seeds give texture and look beautiful, small bluish spots dotted on the pale batter.
This carob and walnut bread has a dense crumb, crunchy crust and is virtually hands-free. Carob is a typical Mediterranean ingredient, which lends this bread its dark color and a slight cocoa aroma.
The traditional marble cake is one of my daughters’ favorites and this one, despite not being a common marble cake, was equally devoured in a short time. Adding the ground toasted hazelnuts makes the cake moistier and the aroma of the coffee blends perfectly with the dark chocolate.
I don’t know why I do not use filo pastry more often. I love puff pastry: light, crispy and really golden. But filo pastry has these same characteristics and looks beautiful and golden in half the time. It’s a bit more delicate though and I advise you to read the…
Christmas is over. We made Christmas doughnuts and sweet rice pudding, confit salted codfish to eat with potatoes and collard greens, set up a large dinner table, toasted with sour cherry liqueur to the joy and fortune of having the family reunited once more and warmed our hands around a…
Quinces are a fruit that can rarely be eaten raw because it is hard and rough. But boiled or baked they completely transform and become sweet and soft. Baked in a Port wine and spices syrup it’s a dessert that celebrates the delights of autumn.
Today’s suggestion is a little bit different and is a recipe that I particularly enjoyed making. This black bean burger has a soft texture and a very characteristic taste given by the cumin, garlic and purple onion that are used in the mixture.
There is not a meal that evokes so much the beginning of autumn to me as a chicken roasted in the oven. This roasted guinea fowl is a less-than-usual alternative that you can use to surprise your guests. However, if you have dificulties in finding a guinea fowl feel free…
To welcome the season that starts today, I suggest you turn on the oven and make some apple muffins, sprinkled with almond streusel. Apples slightly cooked in a syrup of sugar and spices leave the interior moist, while the almond streusel gives a crunchy texture on the outside. Cinnamon, cardamom…
For some time now, whenever I make a salad I usually add a spoonful of fried onion, which I buy at a certain well-known Swedish store (hehehe). I do not know if it’s because of the saltier taste or the crispy texture, but this little extra makes salads much more…
It’s so simple to make your own vanilla extract and it requires only two ingredients: vanilla beans and vodka. After you taste the flavor of the homemade version you’ll never want to use the industrial one again.
Another simple cake, a banana cake with raw chocolate, a useful recipe for using those bananas that remain in the fruit bowl and that nobody wants because they’re too ripe. And it’s really important to use those poor forgotten bananas because they are sweeter and that is why this banana…
From the trip to São Tomé and Príncipe I brought so many good memories of the places, people and, of course, the food. This recipe, chicken in coconut and peanut sauce, was one of the souvenirs I brought back home.
Homemade bread always reminds me of my paternal grandparents. Especially the aroma of bread baked in a wood-fired oven which remembers me of the heavy corn broas (a Portuguese type of artisan corn bread), which were the only kind of bread that was eaten at their home, a farm lost…
If I had to choose an ingredient that would transport me immediately to the winter, that ingredient would be the beet. Its purple color, intense, deep and dark, its earthy taste that leaves the palate and nose the same aroma that the earth releases after the visit of the rain…
I bought Swiss chard for making soup, but it came so perfect in its colors, between green and purple, and the leaves so young, bright and tender that I chose to make chard rolls stuffed with minced beef and rice for lunch. Have you noticed how everything looks and tastes…
The United Nations declared 2016, the year that has just ended, the International Year of Pulses. Legumes are an excellent food from the nutritional point of view and I have been trying to introduce them more frequently in our diet at home, looking for them to be present in at…
In addition to enjoy cooking and eating, I also like to read about food. Therefore, one article in a Portuguese magazine, Visão, caught my attention: The best octopus in the world is from the Algarve! Says who knows that the octopus from Algarve, that lives a clean and rich in…
Today I leave you a recipe, poached pears with spices and hot chocolate sauce, and also a couple of thoughts on the passage of time. I love my birthday, in this matter I’m like a child. Not because of the gifts, although I take them with pleasure and gratitude, but…
If I used adjectives in the name of my recipes, this would definitely be a glowing red lentils, sweet potato, coconut milk and spinach soup. It has everything you want from a soup on a cold autumn night, is warm, creamy and fragrant. But what immediately catches the eye, just…
If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed that I’ve been in Turkey for a few days, almost a whole week, divided between work and tourism, with a great weather and some amazing food. As soon as possible, I promise to share with you some of the photographs…
The first risotto I ate, in a restaurant in Lisbon, didn’t left a big impression, seemed a sticky plaster with a shrimp garnishing the top. I started to avoid the dish, without guessing that I had an appointment with a mushroom risotto, in a restaurant at the end of the…
When I was little pastry cakes were the exception. Chocolate, yogurt or marble cake were lovingly made at home and, on special days, decorated with egg white frosting and sprinkled with little colored confettis. And, for me, these continue to be the best cakes in the world.
Recently I discovered two new things. One is a beautiful store in Lisbon and its name is Maria Granel (note that this isn’t a sponsored post). It has a modern and airy feel, but it takes us to the time of the old neighborhood grocery stores. Maria Granel sells mainly…
Today I will write about simple things. Three mills recovered on the Ovil river. The silence is only interrupted by the crackling of the wood on the fireplace or by the sound of the river that runs under the porch, magnified by the rain that continues to fall after some…
There is much said about the comfort that food provides. We don’t eat only because we have to, because we need to stay healthy and energetic, but also because we like to eat and we withdraw comfort from food and by sharing it. This is also why we don’t like…
If food are the body, the texture, of a meal, spices are its soul. Salt, of course, fresh herbs, citrus fruit and spices can completely change our perception of a dish. Their taste and aroma may evoke freshness and lightness, or, conversely, convey heat and complexity. I find it difficult…
Who said in the colder seasons we can not eat a salad or that vegetables have to all end in the soup pot? This warm pumpkin salad with goat cheese has everything it takes to make us happy in a fall day. The goat cheese salty softness and the fresh…
This dessert is a good way to brighten your afternoon on a rainy day like today. It’s easy to do, combines the season apples and nuts and it tastes intensely like chocolate, not being, overall, a very sweet dessert. You can serve it after cooling, if you manage to wait,…
