Recipes

Smokey Banana Bread – Goes Well With Coffee – 8th Edition

I wasn’t supposed to be in Brussels this weekend. I had booked flights to Rome to see Alessandro who just moved back there after taking his final exams in Turin. Alas, thanks to the fire in Rome’s airport, that weekend in 32 degrees Celsius temperatures was not meant to be. Instead I spent all of Saturday at work (thankfully this doesn’t happen too often and being in Brussels definitely made it easier having to work) and what was left of my weekend was mainly spent on the sofa, drinking my first batch of this year’s cold brew coffee and eating one too many slices of this Smokey Banana Bread. The inspiration for this recipe goes back several years. Back to before I moved to Brussels, back to before I had even moved to Rome, when my sister Helena was still living in Brussels and I was living in London. Helena came to see me often – to spend time together, to

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Rhubarb Tartlets with Sake Poached Rhubarb, Miso Pastry Cream and Buckwheat Meringue

I did not have any particular reason to make these tartlets other than the fact that this past weekend was a bank holiday weekend and after a few busy weeks at work and weekends away I suddenly found myself not only with 1kg of rhubarb that needed taking care of but also with ample time on my hands. Time clearly best spent making pate sucree, poaching rhubarb, stirring pastry cream and whipping meringue (the laundry always takes care of itself, doesn’t it?). Also, there is hardly anything better than starting your Sunday with a large cup of coffee and a pastry. I don’t follow many rules when it comes to the recipes I share here. But one of my rules is that the recipes should have at least a hint of some inherent logic. So rhubarb is paired with buckwheat, as, botanically speaking, the two form part of the same family (together with sorrel and knotweed). In turn, buckwheat is

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Torrone with Almonds, Hazelnuts and Pistachios

I don’t normally pay much attention to the search terms people use to stumble upon my blog. Most are pretty self-explanatory. But a few weeks ago, I started noticing that more and more people found their way into this space looking for ‘chickpea meringue’. Colour me intrigued. At the same time, and purely by coincidence, I came across pictures of chickpea water foam on instagram. Soon enough, I also became one of those typing ‘chickpea meringue’ into google, curious to see what results would come back. As it turns out, the water left over from cooking chickpea and other legumes like beans or lentils, usually a slimy and slightly opaque affair, something I have been pouring down the drain for years without giving it much thought, can be whipped into a foam firm enough to rival beaten egg whites. Moreover, unlike flax seed meringue (which, although a wonderful alternative to eggs for certain applications, does not like heat much), chickpea foam

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