Recipes

Pavlova with Summer Berries

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 2 Comments

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.

Keep Reading

Spaghetti with Cherry Tomato, Spinach and Garlic Sauce

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 8 Comments

Happy Easter Monday!

Yesterday, ‘C’ and I came back from a lovely weekend at our friend’s country house about a 2 hours drive from Mexico City, situated in a little quaint Mexican village called Malinalco. Although it was meant to be a relaxed weekend by the pool – there was far more drinking and eating than I had anticipated! This combined with an incredibly hectic 2 weeks in Peru (which I promise to write about soon) has left me broken.

I woke up this morning flu ridden and absolutely drained – and in desperate need of both vegetables and some comfort food. So for lunch I rustled up this tomato and spinach spaghetti, and it was exactly what the Dr. ordered.  Keep Reading

Thai Chicken Sausage Rolls

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 3 Comments

These are my all time favourite sausage rolls – I got the recipe from my parent’s amah in Singapore who is an absolutely lovely woman and an exceptional cook! We have made these sausage rolls plenty of times together for parties, and they have always been a roaring success. Keep Reading

Thai Green Chicken Curry- in a Claypot!

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 2 Comments

One thing that you HAVE to love about flying within Latin America and with Latin American Airlines is their baggage allowance. If you are flying economy you are allowed to check in TWO bags of up to 23kg – that is 46kg per person and not including your hand luggage!! Why can this not be a universal airline law? I can’t begin to explain how many times I have flirted, fought and cried with the check-in clerks in Europe because I was 2kg overweight. Keep Reading

Baked Salmon Fish Cakes

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ Leave a comment

What do you do with left over fish? Make fish cakes of course!

As I discovered a couple of weeks ago when I made the Thai inspired fish cakes, this is not only one of the most easiest and delicious ways of using up left over fish – but its incredibly healthy too! In most of the recipes I have read, they all call for mashed potatoes but I think that is an unnecessary carb, and for them to be fried – which is unnecessary fat! The fish cakes come together quite nicely with breadcrumbs, eggs and baked in the oven – serve them with a salad or what ever you heart desires, and voila another healthy dinner sorted without too much hassle! Keep Reading

Roasted Salmon Fillets with a Crusted Pecorino and Pesto Topping

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 1 Comment
 

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

Sauteed Potatoes with Rosemary

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 2 Comments

This is an incredibly easy, yet delicious potato dish to make – in fact we made it as a side dish with the Cornish Hens in Garlic and Rosemary the other day and it worked beautifully. It was almost like that elusive ‘perfect roast potato’  that I can never seem to grasp – crispy on the outside and lovely and soft on the inside. Keep Reading

Cornish Hens with Garlic and Rosemary

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 3 Comments

‘C’ and I found a pair of frozen Cornish hens the other day in Superama (our local supermarket). I got quite excited for two reasons…firstly, finding anything slightly exotic in Superama is rare, and secondly I actually got Cornish hens confused with guinea fowl and imagined cooking a nice gamey meal over the weekend. Keep Reading

Best Brownies Ever – not convinced!

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ Leave a comment

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

Fish Cakes – Thai inspired

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 5 Comments

Its been a while since I last posted a blog – sometimes life just seems to speed up and I have a hard time keeping up with it! However, I still manage to find time to cook!

On Sunday ‘C’ and I had a BBQ with some good friends. We brought with us a beautiful red snapper which we stuffed with parsley, lime, tomatoes and onions – sealed it in foil and then threw it on the grill – it was beautiful (I’m gutted I have no pictures!). However, like most BBQ there was just an abundance of food and we only managed to eat half of the snapper.

So on Monday, with the rest of the red snapper I made these incredibly lovely fish cakes – which turned out to be a huge successes with ‘C’, he even brought in the left overs for lunch today :). If you ever have left over fish (no matter what type), don’t throw it away – this is the perfect meal. Keep Reading