Pineapple Tarts

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We are almost at the tail end of the Chinese New Year celebrations, where we say goodbye to the the year of the Wooden Goat and welcome in the year of the Fire Monkey! Doesn’t life already sounds so much more exciting ;)

On Saturday night we were invited to a Singaporean friend’s housewarming and Chinese New Year celebration here in Brasilia. It was potluck, and I immediately knew what I wanted to bring. Nothing says ‘Chinese New Year’ more to me than Pineapple tarts, and as this is such a popular biscuit in Singapore, I thought they would also bring a little bit of home comfort during this very important celebration to my new friend. Keep Reading

Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake

Well – I seem to be on a bit of a baking roll at the moment as I have yet another superb baking recipe for you today! A very rich and decadent chocolate cake – and what is even more surprising to me, is that there is absolutely no flour in it.

Please don’t judge it by this terrible photo – as the photo really does not do this cake justice! I was rushing to serve it to my guests that I only took this miserable shot!

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The Ultimate Brownie Recipe!

photo 1 (22)Thanks to a good friend of mine here in Brasilia – I have come across the BEST and the EASIEST brownie recipe that does not include adding oil & water and ‘just stir’ (aka Betty Crocker). These bad boys are everything that a brownie should be, fudgy and dense in the middle and slightly crispy and flakey on top. Keep Reading

Savoury Mediterranean Muffins!

Life has been pretty hectic over here for the last few months! When I haven’t been accompanying C on his business travels, I have been focusing on trying to set up a meaningful life for myself in Brasilia! Getting involved in different activities, trying to make new friends, looking for work, studying Portuguese – the list seems to be ever growing, along with my guilt – as The Travelling Chopsticks has fallen slightly by the wayside!

However to kick-start my blogging escapades again, I thought I would start May with this incredibly easy and delicious Mediterranean muffin recipe! I just love the fact that they are savoury and I wonder why there is not more of a demand for savoury muffins in the world!

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Pavlova with Summer Berries

When I was living in Europe – May was one of my favourite months of the year. Spring was here and it meant that summer was just around the corner, and there is nothing in the world more beautiful than a Swedish summer (as long as it’s not raining!)

So today, sitting in Mexico I decided to make this Pavlova with summer berries. This is honestly one of the easiest, yet most eye pleasing deserts that I know – especially if you are entertaining. It looks as though you have been slaving away in the kitchen all afternoon putting this master piece together – but in reality, it is quite the opposite. What is really good about this recipe is that you can use whatever fruit or berries that you have at hand or in season, but raspberries and blueberries are my favourite.

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Roasted Salmon Fillets with a Crusted Pecorino and Pesto Topping

 

I actually wrote a really good long post about this dish last night – but for some reason just as I was about to publish it, I lost the whole thing!! I was furious – that has to be the most frustrating felling in the world, and the worst of it all is…this is not the first time it has happened to me on WordPress. From now on, I’m going to write everything on Word and then transfer it!

Anyway…back to the Salmon. In all honesty salmon is not my favourite fish – I think it is highly over rated! Maybe that is because I have just had far too much bad salmon in my life. For me it has become synonymous with banquet food – how many business lunches or weddings have you been to where you have been served a poached salmon, a few overcooked sprigs of asparagus a miserable looking potato with some non-descript viscous white sauce?! Far too many!

However, being part Swedish and spending a lot of time in Sweden you can’t avoid salmon – salmon is a staple in most Swedish households, there is the gravlax and smoked salmon, we even have salmon paste that is in a tube which you can squeeze onto your toast (may not sound appetising but I can assuar you it is!). This, coupled with the fact that ‘C’ and are making  determined effort to have one veggie day and one fish day in our diet – it couldn’t have been long until Salmon popped up on to the menu. Keep Reading

Best Brownies Ever – not convinced!

I got this recipie from the February addition of Bon Appetit. I’m not very good at baking, but these brownies caught my attention for 3 reasons.

  1. It looked really easy
  2. It was C’s birthday – and as I just mentioned I am not very good at baking – so the idea of baking a cake was pretty scary
  3. The magazine proclaimed that they were the best brownies they have ever had Keep Reading