Remember, cooking is love made visible. Share your Pakbet creations with us!
#LoveToCook #FoodPassion #food #recipes
https://soyummysoeasy.com/easy-pakbet-tagalog-recipe/

Home alone today, so I conjured up a quick vegetarian lunch: fluffy rice, moon-green bok choy, a golden fried egg and a humble beetroot patty rescued from the freezer 🪄
Extra garlic (for protection, obviously) and a reckless sprinkle of chilli flakes for a little fire magic 🌶️🔮
Exactly the kind of cosy, quiet nourishment my witchy heart needed.
PS. The tulip is safe... for now. 🥀

#vegetarian #lunch #ricedish #beetroot #nomnom #cooking #lovetocook #foodie #food #lunchtime #eatyourveggies

No fancy magic here -
Just chicken breast with Haitian epis (made way too much when I cooked that Haitian dish 😂, so hello freezer treasure),
a crunchy celeriac salad,
and some simple bulgur — the chicken and salad are bringing enough bold flavours already 😅

Simple, honest, and very satisfying ✨
#homecooking #cooking #food
#lovetocook #chicken #celeriac #dinnerideas #whatsfordinner

As many versions as there are of French ratatouille, Italian caponata, or Greek tourlou, that many there are of Georgian ajapsandali.

Georgians cook vegetables together with roots, and add enormous amount of herbs usually in two stages: when cooking and once finished.

The dish is equally good hot, warm, or cold. It can stand on its own or make a fantastic side.

This version based on the recipe from Tasting Georgia by Carla Capalbo included approximately:
— 1 lb potatoes
— 1/2 lb carrots
— 1,5 lb eggplant
— 1 lb tomatoes
— 1/2 lb cubanelle peppers
— 1 lb onions
— 1 head of garlic
— summer savory
— thyme
— basil
— cilantro
— parsley
— dill
— fresh green chili to taste
— salt and pepper to taste
— neutral oil and butter

The vegetables are cut in large chunks, only garlic is very roughly chopped, and added to the pan in stages. First — the roots. In about 15 minutes — the eggplant. In about 10 more — the rest.

The herbs Georgians throw in as they live — by handfuls, with a swing. “Keep the change,”— if you remember the movie. 🐄🚁🇬🇪

#food #vegetables #georgianfood #adjapsandali #homemade #cookingathome #lovetocook #inmykitchen

Wee budget recipe from the BBC Food website: Chana Masala. I added a roasted chicken breast and rice and some yoghurt to calm the heat. Lovely!

#chanamasala #roastchicken #budgetrecipes #homecookedmealsarethebest❤️ #lovetocook❤️ #chickpeasrecipe

Cabbage was one of a few vegetables somewhat available when I was growing up in Moscow. There were also potatoes, carrots, and onions. Well, on good days, there were beets.

Taking about food with my compatriots who, like me, relocated to distant lands, it is strange to hear how they look down on this vegetable to the point of considering it unhealthy:

— You live now in the country where there is so much available and you still eat cabbage? Can’t you find something better for yourself? — was one of the comments I got the other day.

Guilty. I still eat cabbage. And love it.


After seeing so many variations with this vegetable Asians could come up with, I love it even more. And it’s so great how you can make a lot of it and have it popcorn style watching a movie.

This hand-torn stir-fry from The Woks of Life is downright amazing. Instead of using pork shoulder and adding meat, I cooked just cabbage in pork lard, my new discovery and addiction after out trip to Taiwan.

Garlic, ginger, chilies, soy and oyster sauces, Shaoxing wine, black vinegar. And white pepper, people, white pepper — very important. It’s a game changer when it comes to flavor.

#food #cooking #chinesefood #simple #homemade #cookingathome #cookingtherapy #lovetocook #cabbage #stirfry

The best part of a hot pot meal? The dipping sauce of course!

There’s no recipe: each makes their own. Soup cups are best to mix and hold all that goodness without spilling.

A station with selection of ingredients away from the main table accommodates the intimacy of the mixing ritual.

It is personal. I wouldn’t want anyone to know that I pour fish sauce by the ladle or scoop hot peppers by a tablespoon, or to see the mess I create loading up my garlic, cilantro, and scallions. No one should judge me spilling sesame seeds or peanuts all over because they don’t fit but I like a lot of them. I bring my bowl to the table neat and mixed — no one knows that sesame paste and chili oil are gone because it was me who used them all up.

These are mixing stations from my kitchen and those we saw in Beijing and Flushing restaurants.

Advantages of hot pot meal:
— no skill required — only planning and chopping;
— the meal is prepared in advance;
— it can accommodate any allergy or diet fad;
— interactivity fuels conversation;
— children entertain themselves.

Here’s what you need:
— electric pot or induction or gas burner for the table plus a wide shallow soup pot;
— chopsticks, tweezer tongs, or forks;
— a small strainer;
— a small ladle;
— a table cover if you must.

The meal has three parts: broth, food to cook, and sauce.

The broth. You can make up your own, Chinese books have them scattered throughout. Sky is the limit for those with imagination, so is the internet for the rest of us.

Things to cook: meat, offal, chicken, fish, seafood, quail eggs, tofu, bean curd, meatballs, fishballs, dumplings, noodles, mushrooms, root vegetables, leafy greens, cabbages, chunks of corn. Just cut it all up like for a stir fry.

And the dipping sauce!

Details didn’t fit — they are on the blog👆

#hotpot #food #cooking #chinesefood #cookingathome #cookingtherapy #foodie #lovetocook #delicious

Hamud, Jewish Syrian soup from Shuk book, is packed with vegetables — chard, carrots, potatoes, celery. All in a hearty broth of seared and charred beef chuck. The most stand out flavors though are lemon and mint.

The soup is winter warming and snow day filling. But that citrusy zing makes it fresh and light so you can easily go shovel instead of collapsing on the couch in food coma.

#food #cooking #homemadefood #soup #cookingathome #fooddiary #cookingtherapy #hamud #lovetocook #myhappyplace

Today all day it felt like something Georgian. Shkmeruli to be exact. So I peeled and smashed a nice pile of garlic — a head and a half about.

As I was reaching for that garlic, I noticed a few potatoes asking to be used and thought of Odjakhuri. Peeled those. Added carrots for the illusion of plenty.

When everything was coming together nicely in the oven, my daughter’s cat knocked over a bouquet of parsley, cilantro, and dill on the counter spilling water all over. Chakhokhbili came to mind and I chopped them all. Besides the cat (swipe).

Some khmeli-suneli, paprika, cayenne, and here’s the final result. Not bad. Not bad.

#food #cooking #homemadefood #lovetocook #georgianfood #missinggeorgia #roastedchicken #cookingtherapy