Shared Kitchen - Real food from scratch

This will bring them running! Chicken Thighs with Tamarind & Orange

Chicken Thighs with Tamarind Dressing

Although this recipe may look difficult because there’s a fairly long list of ingredients some of which you will need to shop for specifically, it’s easily put together. Once you start cooking the spices will fill your kitchen with tantalising aromas and everyone will want to know what you are making and when it is going to be served – it is well worth it!

Tamarind

It may look like something scraped off the forest floor, but tamarind is a stunning ingredient to give food a sour zing

Shallots – what you need to know

There’s nothing more annoying than a recipe that calls for 1 shallot (or 2, 3, 4…).

How much is that?

Oranges in season now!

Oranges, fresh or squeezed? Learn which does what best!

Tomato & Orange Salad

This is so simple it hardly calls for a recipe. Peel and slice juicy oranges, top with sliced vine tomatoes, sprinkle with small mint leaves and finely sliced green chilli, sprinkle with flaky sea salt, grind over black pepper and drizzle with a fruity extra virgin olive oil. Done! A striking, sweet and zingy salad […]

Stuffed Baked Pasta

This dish looks harder than it is ... just allow time so you don't get flustered.

Why pay more for pasta

Update on dried pasta On my radio slot with Jesse Mulligan on Radio NZ last week I took in three samples of pasta to try and explain why it is worth buying Italian pasta rather than the cheapest brand on offer, which will most definitely not be Italian. I took in a locally made brand, […]

Puttanesca Sauce

A stalwart of the Italian kitchen.

How salty should the water be to cook pasta?

The Italians say it needs to be as salty as the Mediterranean. How do you know how salty that is if you’ve never swum in it?

Labneh Cheesecake with Roasted Apricots, Honey & Cardamom

Cheesecake is not, traditionally, a dessert eaten in Palestine, but all the ingredients are: the labneh and filo, for example, the nuts and floral orange blossom. Recipe from Falastin by Sami Tamimi & Tara Wigley.

The base was Noor’s idea: blitzing up the sheets of filo to make crumbs. Mixing this with the nuts calls baklava to mind. The result, we think, is distinct and special.

Aubergine, Chickpea & Tomato Bake Falastin

Aubergine, Chickpea & Tomato Bake – Musaqa’a

Echoes of the Greek dish moussaka are correctly heard here, both in the name and the feel of the dish. It’s a vegetarian take on the hearty, humble, healthy and completely delicious traybake. Recipe from Falastin by Sami Tamimi & Tara Wigley.

It works well either as a veggie main or as a side with all sorts of things: piled into a jacket potato, for example, or served alongside some grilled meat, fish or tofu. It’s just the sort of dish you want to have in the fridge ready to greet you after a day out at work. It’s also lovely at room temperature, so it’s great to pile into the Tupperware for an on-the-go lunch.

Falastin: A Cookbook

Looking for new ideas to titillate your taste buds? Try Falastin: A Cookbook.