Summery Gnocchi with Feta and Spinach

 We originally made this recipe from a meal kit many years ago and our recipe has evolved a lot since then so time to add it to the blog. Especially with summer coming, this is a perfect recipe for hot summer nights when we don't want to eat meat but still want something cooked. 

The gnocchi really is the star of the show here and its easy to make but also easy to get wrong. Over many repetitions, I've found that the soaking step and the frying steps are critical to perfectly soft and pillowly gnocchi. 

Ingredients

• 2 packs of fresh potato gnocchi
• Olive oil 
• 2 Red onions, cut in wedges 
• 1 Zucchini chopped
• 1 Red paprika/Bell pepper chopped
• 1 pack of crushed tomatoes 
• 1 bag of baby spinach, washed well and drained
•  5-6 garlic cloves
• Dried Rosemary
• Sugar
• Chicken stock cube
• 2 blocks of Feta cheese, roughly chopped

Method

1. Cover the gnocchi with cold water and soak for 20 minutes. Rinse once after about 10 minutes and drain thorughly right before you fry off, below.
2. Heat olive oil in a pan and fry the onions and red pepper and mince the garlic in after a few minutes. After a few minutes add the Zucchini.
3. After about 5 minutes when the onions and peppers have turned glassy, add in the crushed tomato, rosemary, sugar, salt and stock cube and cook till it comes together, probably another 10 minutes or so, on medium to low heat. Turn off the heat once done.
4. In a separate pan, add olive oil and fry off the gnocchi. This will take more oil than you think and you can fry the gnocchi until they have a nice golden crust. You can add the fried gnocchi diretly into the sauce above.
5. Mix in the spinach leaves and crumble the feta into the mix and serve warm.  

Instant Pot Carnitas (Juicy, Crispy & Family-Friendly)

If you’re looking for the best Instant Pot carnitas recipe, this one is a total game changer. These pressure cooker pork carnitas are incredibly juicy, rich in flavor, and finished with perfectly crispy edges—just like authentic Mexican carnitas, but made faster and easier at home.

I’ve made these carnitas three times in a row (yes, they’re that good) to really dial in the technique. The key to perfect carnitas in the Instant Pot is getting the right balance of fatty and lean pork. Too much fat and the dish becomes heavy; too little and the meat turns dry and stringy. Using a mix—especially cuts that include connective tissue or even ribs adds collagen, which creates that tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture carnitas are known for.

The flavor is deeply savory, slightly sweet, and irresistibly meaty, making this a huge hit with both adults and kids. It’s one of those recipes that disappears fast from the table.

How to Serve Instant Pot Carnitas

We love serving these carnitas in tacos (especially “boat tacos” or lettuce wraps for a lighter option), topped with fresh, vibrant sides. Our go-to combination includes:

• Creamy guacamole
• Fresh pico de gallo with onion, tomato, cilantro, lime juice, and cucumber
• A squeeze of lime for brightness

The contrast of rich, tender pork with fresh, zesty toppings creates an amazing balance of flavors and textures.

 Ingredients

• 1.5kg pork ribs
• 1.5kg pork shoulder or similar cut
• Two oranges, washed
• Garlic cloves from a full head of garlic
• 2-3 large onions cut roughly
• 1 bottle full sugar coke (preferably mexican coke if you can get it) 
• Oregano
•  Cumin
• Bay leaves
• Paprika

Method

1.  Cut the pork into 2" pieces and the ribs into pairs or singles (depending on the size)
2.  Fry off the pork in batches in the instapot and get a bit of browning for flavour. 
3. Remove the pork and then briefly fry off the garlic and onions and then add in the pork, spices, coke and oranges. For the oranges, slice in half, squeeze out the juice and then toss in the peels as well.
4. Pressure cook on high for 1 hour then let the pressure release naturally
5. Leaving the liquid behind in the pork, move the meat into a baking tray. Remove the bones and, bay leaves and orange peels. Leave the orange fruit pulp in, its delicious in the end.
6. Turn the oven on at 230 C and bake the meat for about 20-30 minutes. You will need to keep an eye on the meat. Mix the meat around at least once during this time and add liquid as needed
7. Boil down the liquid, removing fat from the top if there is too much and then add some if not all the liquid to the meat. The objective is to have a nice moist texture with some crisp parts but not too much liquid.  
8. Serve in tacos with limes and cilantro on top at least and we add in guacamole, pico and other things if we have time to make them. 

 

Roasted paprika and almond medley

 This is originally from Linas matkasse but we've made it our own since we originally got the recipe back in 2015 and its become a staple. It punches way above its weight in terms of flavours! This goes excellently inside liba bread with a meat+hummus or tzatsiki etc.

 Ingredients

•  Olive Oil
• Vinegar
• Red pepper flakes
• Parsley (fresh or frozen)
  
• Sliced almonds (50g per 2-4 capsicum)
  
• Red Capsicum/Paprika (multiples of 2)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees C
2. Slice the capsica in half and arrange in an oven dish, sprinkle olive oil, salt and red pepper flakes over the top
3. Roast in the upper part of the oven for 20 minutes
4. Toast sliced almonds until light brown and crunchy
5. Chop the roasted capsica into small cubes and add to a bowl
6. Add the toasted almonds, a drizzle of vinegar, more red pepper flakes, parsley and salt and mix together
7. Eat!
    

Tau Yu Chicken

 This is a malay/chinese/singaporean dish usually made with pork (Tau yu bak) but I didn't have pork, I had chicken. It was really tasty-- sweet, salty and really complex. I paired it with the congee but I think it would work great as a part of a chinese dinner or just over steamed white rice. Recipe adapted from a few different recipes I found on the net. The garlic in the skin were good, but if I have time I'm going to just peel and finely dice the garlic instead.

Ingredients

Marinate the chicken as below

• 600-750g chicken thighs (5-6 thighs) cut into chunks against the grain
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1-2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2-4 tablespoons oyster sauce
• chicken stock concentrate
  

Other ingredients

• 5-10 cloves garlic, either in the skin or diced
• 1-2 tablespoons of diced ginger
• 2 star anise
• 1" cinnamon stick
• 3-4 green cardamom
• 300ml water
• 4 tablespoons dark soy
• Mushrooms (I used shimeji this time)

Method

1. Marinate the chicken (the recipes I read said overnight is best, I think I managed maybe 30 minutes in total and it was still delicious)
2. Add a splash of oil to a pan and when it gets hot, add in the spices and after they bloom, then the ginger and then the garlic. 
3. Once the onion and garlic have fried off for a few minutes (edges brown and reduced but not burnt) add in the marinated chicken and cook for 3-4 minutes
4. Add in the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil and the reduce the heat to medium, cover and let it cook for 20 minutes
5. Take the cover off and let it reduce until it is the consistency you want. This was taking too long for us, so we ended up spooning out the chicken and then reducing the sauce over high heat and then adding the meat back in when we were ready.
   

 

Congee

 This was supposed to be a chicken congee but then ended up being just a mushroom congee. Heavy on the ginger, it was excellent! The texture was not as loose as I want, so next time a bit more water perhaps, the measure below is adjusted to reflect this. I didn't add chicken to this but some of the recipes recommend a diced chicken thigh, added at the start, which sounds yum. For seafood, the recipes I read recommended throwing the raw seafood in the last 5 minutes or for 5-10 minutes during the keep warm mode.

 Ingredients

• 1 measure rice (for the measures below, 3/4 cup), washed 4 times
  
• 7 measures water or use guide in rice cooker
• Lots of Shimeji mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons ginger, minced/finely diced
  
• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced/finely diced
  
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons light soy 
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• Chicken stock
  

 Method

1. Wash the rice and add to the rice cooker
2. Add water and everything else
3. Cook on porridge setting

 

 

Nigella's Chicken and Peas Pan bake

 

I love this recipe because you get both veggies and protein in one absolutely unctuous plate. It takes longer to make than you think though, mostly time in the oven.

Ingredients

• 1, 1kg pack frozen peas or 2, 600g packs
  
• 2 leeks chopped into 1-2 inch long peices
• 6-8 garlic cloves minced
  
• 2-3 big splashes of dry white vermouth or sherry
• Olive oil
  
• Fresh dill (we've used frozen in a pinch, fresh is obs better)
  
• 1-2 kg chicken thighs, Bone-in, skin-on
  

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 C, we use 180 C since we have a forced air oven
2. Line a deep baking tray with foil/silicone then empty the frozen peas into it
3. Add in the chopped leeks, minced garlic, dill, vermouth, and salt and stir around a bit so it is all mixed. Then put the chicken thighs on top, skin-side up, and drizzle olive oil and a bit of salt over the tops.
4. Bake in the middle or lower part of the oven for 45 minutes, then remove and stir the peas around a bit so they don't dry out.
5. Bake again for 30 minutes.
6. Serve with boiled potatoes or just by themselves!
   

Char Siu - 叉烧

This is from the Made with Lau channel on Youtube. The video is here. It is delicious, in buns, with noodles, however you want it. Cold on sandwich. Yum.

Ingredients

Meat and basting

• 2 kg pork butte (fläskkarré).
• 4 tbsp honey
• 4 tsp water

Marinade

• 2 tbsp garlic salt
• 8 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tbsp oyster sauce
• 4 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 4 tbsp red wine
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 2 cubes red fermented bean curd (optional)
  
• 2 tsp five spice powder
• 0.5 tsp red food coloring (if you want to)

Method

Meat

Cut it with the grain into one inch thick strips, or slabs. You should end up with three or four strips. Stab the slabs vigorously with a fork.

Rub a dub dub

Mix all of the marinade until it is even. Put it with the meat in a big zip lock and let it marinate over night, not more than 24 hours.

Oven business

Set the oven to 220 °C (i.e. 425 °F). Line a baking pan with foil and place the baking rack on top of the foil. Lay out the pork on the rack. Add a few tbsp of water to the bottom of the pan to add some steam and make cleaning easier. Place in oven. Baste regularly with either left over marinade or honey water mix.

• Cook for 15 minutes. Take out to baste with marinade.
• Cook for 15 minutes. Take out to baste with marinade.
• Cook for 10 minutes. Take out to baste with honey water.
• Crank up the heat to 240 °C (i.e. 450 °F) and cook another five minutes, lather with honey and take out.
  

Let it cool a little before cutting it.

Brazilian Collard Greens

Brazilian collard greens are really good with feijoada. We got this recipe from here.

 Ingredients

• 1 large bunch fresh collard greens
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt, to taste

Method

1. Rinse the collard greens under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Remove the center stem of each leaf and stack the leaves together, one on top of the other.
2. Fold the leaves in half, then roll them tightly, into a cigar-shaped cylinder. Use a sharp chef’s knife to cut very thin ribbons. Reserve.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Add the collard greens and sauté, tossing with the garlicky oil. Cover and cook until they are wilted and crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt to taste.
5. Serve immediately.

Mom's Sweet corn Chicken soup

 This stuff is like crack. I love to eat it with garlic bread and I can eat bowls and bowls of it.

Ingredients

• 1 kg whole chicken, skin-on, bone-in 
• Enough water to cover chicken
• Salt
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• soy sauce
• vinegar
• 1 can sweet corn

Method

1. Wash the chicken and then put it in a pressure cooker and cover with water. Add about 3 tsp of salt. I have a 5 L cooker and I add as much water as allowed.
2. Heat on high and cook for 3-4 whistles and then take off the heat and let the pressure drop naturally.
3. Once the pressure has released, remove the chicken and keep aside to remove the meat. Bring the stock back to a boil and add the two cans of sweet corn to it.
4. In a bowl, mix the flour and two cups of water until smooth and then add it to the stock.
5. Add in about 2 Tbsp of soy sauce and a few dashes of vinegar, but careful with the vinegar. 
6. The soup should be at a roiling boil. Break and beat two eggs in a bowl and then stir the soup and dribble a thin line into the boiling soup while continuing to stir and then let boil for a few minutes. 
7. Taste salt and pepper and serve hot over shredded chicken.

Moms daal and carrot soup

 Ingredients

• 3 large or 4 medium/small carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup of pink masoor daal
• 12 flakes of garlic, peeled
• 4 cups of water
• salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• Italian herbs

Method

1. Add the lentils, carrots, garlic, water and salt to a pressure cooker and cook for 2 whistles (about 5 minutes after it reaches pressure)
2. Blend using an immersion blender adding in the milk and italian herb seasoning
3. Add salt to taste and serve

Khow suey

 I've grown up being told that this was a burmese dish that somehow got wildly popular in India in the 70s/80s. I'm not sure there is anyone in Burma that would recognize this dish but I love it. I recently came across another recipe called Khow soi that purports to being a coconut curry/noodle soup from Burma by way of Thailand, so the truth, as they say, is out there.

Ingredients

Soup: 

• 1 kg chicken (I used chicken thighs, bone-in or boneless, cut into smaller pieces)
• 2 chopped onions
• 2 Tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste
• 6 Tbsp Chickpea flour/ besan
• 5 bowls water
• 1/2 - 1 cup desiccated or fresh/ frozen shredded coconut

Toppings:

• 6 eggs
• Limes
• Fried onions
• Fried Garlic
• Cashewnuts
• Salli/ Laccha

Carbs:

• Egg noodles
• Rice Noodles
• Rice

Method

1. Boil Eggs to hard, cool peel. Slice and fry onions and garlic separately to brown. Drain on paper towels. Quarter limes. 
2. Heat a table spoon of oil until shimmering hot, then add the onions and fry for about 5 minutes
3. Lower the heat to medium-low, add ginger-garlic paste and fry until fragrant.
4. Throw in salt, red chilli powder and saute for maybe 10 seconds, then add in the chicken and fry until the chicken has a bit of surface.
5. Add in the besan and then fry until fragrant (the smell changes, thats what you're looking for)
6. Add in the water and then boil until the chicken is cooked
7. Add in the coconut and boil for another 5 minutes. At this point, when we've used frozen fresh coconut before, we noticed the shreds were really long and would have been hard to eat, so we pulled out the chicken and used an immersion blender to make the soup smooth.
8. Boil the noodles/cook rice etc as needed
9. Assemble bowls: put noodles/rice in the bottom of a bowl and ladle on lots and lots of soup. Add on toppings, halved boiled egg and lots of lime (this is v. important, v. v. It really needs lime)

Notes

1. This recipe scales really well. Mum's rule of thumb is that you add a Tbsp of besan for every bowl of khow suey you want and about a bowl of water. At this volume as written, since the chicken and other ingredients increase the volume by around a bowl, I only used 5 bowls of water.

Koottu

I've made this with raw papaya, chow chow (choyote squash) and a couple of other veggies and it turns out amazing. The first two are my absolute favourites, but I'll happily take any koottu I can get. This recipe is adapted from a bunch of different recipes. This one uses toor dal, since it is my current fave, but I've also made it with chana dal and simple pink masoor.

Ingredients

• Tur daal 1 cup
• Choyote squash 2 medium to big
• Water 2.5 cups
• Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp

For the coconut paste

• Dessicated coconut or fresh/frozen grated coconut 1/2 cup
• Green chillies 2
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp

For the tadka / tempering

• Oil 2 -4 Tbsp  
• Mustard seeds, black 1 tsp
• White urad dal 1tsp
• curry leaves 10-15 
• Dried red chillies (optional)

Method

1. Wash and soak the daal for either 30 minutes at room temp or 15 minutes with hot water
2. Add water, chopped veggies and turmeric powder to a pressure cooker and cook for about 5 whistles
3. Grind the ingredients for the paste into a smooth paste.
4. After the pressure releases, add the paste to the cooked daal+veggie
5. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and the urad daal. When the daal turns light golden and the mustard begins to sputter, add the curry leaves and then turn off the heat and add the red chillies. 
6. Add to the daal+ veggies while still hot. Let the daal boil for a few minutes for the flavours to incorporate.
7. Eat with hot rice or chapati if you're a weirdo like martin. 

Coconut curry (with chicken, pork or fish)

This recipe is adapted from here. I originally made it with chicken but have tried it with pork shoulder and it tastes like it would be amazing with fish as well. I've kept the heat to a minimum by deseeding the dried kashmiri chillis and the result has been a mild and very flavourful curry.

Ingredients

• Chicken 2 kg (or pork, about 1.3-1.5 kg)
• Dried Kashmiri chillies 4-5 
• Peppercorns 16-20 
• Coriander seeds 4 Tbsp
• Fenugreek seeds 1/2 tsp
• Tamarind, (if dried soak in hot water) 2 Tbsp
• Dessiccated coconut 1 cup
• Oil 3 tbsp
• Red onions chopped 4-5 
• Ginger garlic paste 1 tb
• Turmeric
• Green chilly 2 (totally optional)
• Curry leaves (if dried, add 3 times as much) 20 leaves
• Salt
• Coconut milk 1/2 cup

Method

1. Dry roast the red chillies, peppercorns, coriander seeds and fenugreek seeds in a pan. Add them to a grinder jar with the dessicated coconut and add the tamarind water to make a smooth paste. If you don't have ginger-garlic paste, add fresh ginger and garlic at this step.
2. If you are using pork as your protein, cut the pork into 2" pieces and then add to a pressure cooker with salt, pepper, a dash of vinegar and turmeric. Add 2-3 table spoons of water and pressure cook the pork until half done. I used fläskkarré and pressure cooked for 15 minutes after the first whistle. Skip this step if you're using chicken. 
3. Heat oil in a pan and add the curry leaves (And green chillies, if you're using them) and then the chopped onions. Once the onions are well cooked, add turmeric and then the masala paste. 
4. Cook the paste until oil separates and then add the protein on medium heat. Add salt (I add a tsp for every kg, to begin and then adjust to taste at the end).
5.  Leave the dish alone for about 10 minutes and then stir occasionally about every 5 minutes, for a total of 20-25 minutes.
6. Adjust the final consistency with coconut milk, adding more if you want it runnier and less if you want it more dry. Cook with coconut milk for about 5 minutes on low. 
7. Very good with rice and with roti. 

Pulled pork

A simple pressure cooker pulled pork that turned out amazing!

Ingredients

Pork

• Boston butt (fläskkarré) 3lbs
• Salt
• Sugar
• Fennel seeds
• Cumin seeds

BBQ sauce

• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1 cup (250 ml) ketchup
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) beer
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) honey
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon (25 g) brown sugar
• A good dash of soy or coconut aminos

Method

1. Cut the pork in one inch cubes. Add lots of salt and sugar and let it brine for a few hours.
2. Wash off the excess salt and sugar. The pork should now have a beautiful deep red color. Add lots of oil to the cooker and pour in the fennel and cumin seeds. Let them sit until fragrant.
3. Fry off some of the meat to get it nicely maillarded. Don't crowd the pan, you need to get it nice and brown. If you don't feel like frying all of the meat, don't - as long as some of itis browned and blackened you're good.
4. Pour in half of the BBQ sauce and deglaze the pan. The pour in the rest.
5. Dump in the meat, put the lid on and let the pressure build.
6. Let it sit at high pressure for around 40 minutes. Then take it off the heat and let it cool.
7. When the pressure equalizes, take out the meat and shred it. Reduce the sauce down to half.
8. Add sauce to the shredded meat until it tastes amazing. Maybe half of the sauce. Don't overdo it!

EAT IT!!!!!

Milk-free, Egg-free, Soy-free vanilla cake with vanilla frosting

Since we have Milk, Egg and Soy allergies in the family, we've been making a lot of vegan recipes. These taste delicious and work really well. The lack of egg seems to make a difference to the texture, with vegan waffles and pancakes in particular being more brittle than their egg-y counterparts. I've never baked a vegan cake before, and I must confess, based on my experience with eating vegan cakes at cafes, I was expecting either something slightly dry or too wet, viz, I was expecting the result to also have a different texture than regular cake. This cake was NOT at all what I was expecting. I am absolutely amazed by how ridiculously delicious it was. I got the recipe from here and made some modifications.

Cake Ingredients

• 1 + 3/4 cups Flour
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 cup Oatley ikaffe
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/3 cup Vegetable oil
• 1 Tbsp Vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)

Frosting

• 450g Powdered Sugar (I used Florsocker)
• 3 Tbsp Vegan Butter (room temp)
• 4 Tbsp Oatley ikaffe
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Steps

1. Turn on the oven at 180 C.
2. For the cake, sift the flour into a bowl and then add the rest of the dry ingredients-- Sugar, baking soda and salt into the flour
3. Add in all the liquid ingredients at the same time and used the whisk on my standing mixer to blend them all together
4. Grease two round foil pans with coconut oil and then split the batter between them.
5. I baked the cakes for 30 minutes. I tested them to make sure they were cooked through but both times I've made this cake, 30 minutes has been plenty.
6. For the frosting, I just threw all the ingredients into a bowl and then used the whisk on my standing mixer to blend them together. First use the lowest speed and then and then crank it up. 
7. Make sure the butter is completely blended.
8. Once the cake layers have cooled, frost them 
9. Serve with berries! We've tried this with strawberries and it is delicious!

Greek style feta kebabs with Mediterranean salad, tzatziki sauce and oven roasted root vegetables

This is a dinner that needs a lot of chopping but yields lots of food and lots of leftovers. The Greek style meatballs/kebabs recipe is adapted from here, called Grekiska fetafärsbiffar, but we changed the recipe. The original LCHF version turns out very dense and the kebabs get harder and harder in the fridge. The roots recipe is inspired from all over, it's called Rotsaker i ugn and is a swedish classic. The "Mediterranean salad" is also inspired from the LCHF recipe above.

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

• 1kg blandfärs (50-50 pork and beef mince mix)
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 3/4 cup breadcrumbs soaked in enough milk so it has the consistency of porrige
• 4 tsp ginger-garlic paste
• 250g feta cheese
• 3 tsp sumac
• 3-4 tsp thyme
• 3-4 tsp oregano
• 3 tsp salt
• 3 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• Peel of one lemon, juice of one lemon (optional, essential if you're skipping the sumac)

Mediterranean salad:

• 1 cucumber, large dice
• 1 box cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2-1 red onion finely sliced (not too much onion or it overwhelms the salad)
• Olives, seedless (we used a half bottle, we like olives!)

Tzatziki sauce:

• 1 cup thick yogurt/ greek yogurt
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 2 tsp honey
• pinch of salt

Roots:

• All the root vegetables are cut into approximately the same size, like homefries or thick-cut fries
• 5-6 small potatoes
• 2-3 parsnips
• 2-3 beets
• 1/4 celeriac root
• 2-3 carrots
• 1 Rutabaga
• 10 garlic cloves, peeled
• Fat of choice (cooking oil/ olive oil/ coconut oil)
• Honey
• Dried thyme
• Salt
• Pepper

Recipe:

For the roots: 

1. Set the oven at 200C and chop all the vegetables
2. Chop the rutabaga, beets and celeriac root first and toss them in a bowl with honey, thyme, salt and pepper. These go in the oven 10-15 minutes before the rest of the vegetables.
3. Spread them on an oven tray and put them in the middle of the oven.
4. After 10-15 minutes add the rest of the vegetables adding more honey/ fat/ thyme/ salt/ pepper as needed.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes (or until done).

For the Kebabs:

1. Soak the breadcrumbs in milk
2. In a large bowl, combine the meat, breadcrumbs, chopped onion, thyme, sumac, oregano, salt pepper, smoked paprika, ginger-garlic paste and crumble in the feta. 
3. Mix well.
4. Shape into flat patties about 3-4" diameter
5. Cook on a greased medium-hot pan. Cook on one side for 2-3 minutes, then flip and cook on the other side for another minute and then cover and cook for 4 minutes to cook through. 

For the Mediterranean Salad

1. Chop and mix all the ingredients together

For the Tzatziki sauce:

1. In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients and let sit for at least 20-30 minutes before eating

Sriracha fish tacos

We based these off a shrimp taco recipe at Delish, but took as many shortcuts as we dared to. Also, breaded rödspetta instead of shrimps.

Ingredients

Coleslaw

• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. honey
• 2 limes
• kosher salt
• 2 c. shredded purple cabbage
• 1/4 c. fresh chopped cilantro

 The fish

• Frozen rödspetta
• Panko, potato chips, egg, flour
• Sriracha mayo

Method

1. Zest the lime, and add the zest and lime juice to the sesame oil and honey. Season with half a teaspoon of salt. Mix with the shredded cabbage and cilantro. Set aside.
2. Batter fry the fish. Tasty Japan normally does egg, flour, panko, egg, panko.
3. Slice the fish and eat with sriracha mayo, corn tortillas, and coleslaw.

Kerala pork curry

This is more of a Kerala inspired pork curry recipe than an actual one. We had a bunch of left over dosa batter and a piece of karré that needed using and et voila. I googled around and matched recipes with the ingredients that I had. Since I was basically making up the recipe I chose not to grind the spices but the pressure cooker was unavoidable else this would have been a 3-4 hour long cook time as opposed to the one hour in toto that this was.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg karré (or boston butt or picnicbog or pork shoulder etc)
• 3.5 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 250g shallots sliced, not too finely
• 2 large onions sliced, not too finely
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 2 large or 4 small potatoes, chopped
• 1.5 tsp mustard seeds
• 0.5 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 0.5 tsp coriander seeds
• 0.5-1 tsp fennel seeds
• 0.5-1 tsp peppercorns
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• 3-4 green chillis, chopped
• 3.5 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 Tbps coriander powder
• 2-3 Tbsps meat masala powder (I used goan mutton masala)
• Salt

Method

1. Cut the pork into 1" ish chunks and marinate with about two teaspoons of salt, one teaspoon of turmeric, 1.5 tsp of ginger garlic paste and the vinegar and the soy sauce. Mix well and leave at room temperature for a bit or in the fridge if longer than an hour.
2. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pressure cooker and add the marinated pork. No need to fry the pieces. Add two cups of water and pressure cook the meat. (For this amount and this type of meat I pressure cooked for 20 minutes after the first whistle on medium heat)
3. In a pan heat up oil and add a teaspoon and a half of mustard seeds followed by half a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds, half a teaspoon of coriander seeds, 3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds and about 20 peppercorns. 
4. Now add a handful of curry leaves. Since I was using frozen curry leaves, this is a total guesstimate. 
5. Now add the onions and a dash of salt and fry until golden brown.
6. Add the chopped green chillis and ginger garlic paste when the onions are light brown and cook until the raw smell disappears and the onions and golden brown.
7. Next, add the masala powders and cook for a few minutes, then the potatoes and then the tomatoes and the tomato paste, stirring and cooking for a few minutes after each addition.
8. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes on a medium-low heat until the tomatoes and squishy and the masala is beginning to look cohesive
9. Add the pork along with the water and cook for 15 minutes on medium heat to thicken and reduce the liquid if need be. If the meat doesn't feel tender enough, cook covered for longer or pressure cook the meat again for a few more whistles
10. Mash a few pieces of the potato to thicken the gravy and cook a few more minutes
11. Serve with dosa or idli or appams or rice or roti. It's all good. 

Slow cooker Dal Makhani

This recipe satisfied two wishes for me. One was to make more desi food in the slow cooker and the second was to make more vegetarian food in the slow cooker. Since dal makhani is slow cooked to begin with, the transition to the slow cooker seems like the natural evolution. For this recipe I looked at this, this and this for inspiration. I'm not sure if the kashmiri red chillis actually do anything, but I have them and I like using them. The one criticism I had of my finished daal was that it didn't have a smokey flavour. If I do this again I will add a dash of smoked paprika to add this. This is reflected in the recipe below.

Ingredients

First Step:

• 1.5 cups whole black urad daal
• 3 tbsp channa dal
• 3 tbsp ghee 
• 2.5 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 tsp salt
• 6 cups water
• 2 whole Kashmiri red chillis

Second Step:

• 2 cans red kidney beans
• 1 can pureed tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
• 3/4 tsp garam masala
• 1.5 tsp roasted cumin powder
• 2.5 tbsp kasuri methi 
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp amchoor powder 
• 3-4 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp black salt 
• 1.5 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Before serving:

• 1 cup cream
• cilantro- fresh or frozen

Instructions

1. Wash the daals and add them to the slow cooker with all the ingredients in step 1. 
2. Cook on low overnight. For me this amounted to about 9 hours.
3. Mash the daal a bit with the back of the spoon and then add all the ingredients in step 2.
4. Cook on low for a further 4-6 hours.
5. The dal is now ready. I usually add the cream right before I serve.

Japanese Chinese-style fried chicken

This recipe is from Buzzfeed Japan's video, on youtube here. It is fantastically good and unlike a lot of their other yummy recipes does not involve deep frying. I've written it down so that I don't have to go to their video and play and pause it repeatedly every single time I want to make this! I only have access to bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs so I learned how to debone them from here.

Ingredients

Chicken Marinade:

• 8 Skin-on, boneless chicken thighs
• 4 tsp Minced ginger
• 4 tsp Minced Garlic
• 3 tsp salt
• 8 tbsp rice wine vinegar or Sake

Sauce:

• 8 tbsp light soy sauce
• 8 tbsp vinegar (I've used everything from rice wine to apple cider)
• 4 tbsp sesame oil
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 4-5 scallions, finely diced
• 2-3 red peppers finely sliced

Potato flour
Frying oil

Method

1. Debone the chicken and cut off excess skin and fat. Cut small gashes through the skin and meat.
2. Marinate the chicken with the other ingredients under marinade for ~30 minutes. I marinate covered in the fridge if its going to be longer
3. Mix the ingredients under sauce together to make the sauce
4. Coat the chicken thighs in potato flour. 
5. Add a couple of table spoons oil to a frying pan and heat.
6.  Fry the thighs on medium heat, first skin side down for 5-7 minutes and then flip for 5-7 minutes.
7. Cut into slices and serve on rice with the sauce on the side or on top.