Arugula and pomegranate

[ arugula, shaved fennel, pomegranate seeds, orange juice, olive oil, salt ]

Feasting in Greenport

Breakfast tacos

Cod baked in a sauce of roasted red peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic, cumin, chili, lemon zest, cilantro


Couscous with raisins, apricots, pine nuts, almonds, curry, vegetable stock, cumin, cinnamon



New potatoes, basil, butter


Roasted monkfish, onions, tomatoes, soy, orange juice, cilantro

Brussels sprouts sauteed with onion, blood orange juice, and dried apricot.
Thanks to Rachel and Dave for a great weekend, and to Alice's fish market for the best fresh fish ever.

Tower of Rings

Like I said...

Linguini Bolognese

With pork, carrots, onion, garlic,tomato, herbs, red wine.

Monday Supper

Moroccan Kefta Tagine. Kefta Mkaouara.
Turkey kefta [ turkey, parsley, cilantro, cumin, onion, cayenne, salt ] simmered in a sauce of onion, parsley, tomatoes, cumin, black pepper, garlic, cinnamon, cayenne and finished with eggs poached on top.



Pea shoots Moroccan style [ steamed and then sauteed with cilantro, parsley, garlic, paprika, cayenne, lemon juice, preserved lemons, cured black olives, salt ]

Feeding Peanut

Our lovely neighbours are expecting their first child any minute now, so we made them up some one pot meals to have in the freezer. Pea soup, Moroccan vegetable soup with preserved lemons, a lentil stew with lamb and sweet potato, and a chorizo garbanzo stew. We're looking forward to meeting the new addition to Sharon street.

Watercress Salad

[ watercress, pomegranate seeds, feta, tahini, lemon juice, salt ]

Bhagvati Khalsa

Our friend Bug made brought us chick pea curry with black mustard seeds. We served it on top of roasted potatoes.

A Sunday lunch. Korea, Austria, San Juan.

It's a tradition, the big Sunday lunch. As a kid in Dublin, and in any town or house I've lived in since... the family coming together over a feast on a day off. Since the early days, the meals have expanded.. today we have as a starter Quoc's ridiculously tasty Korean fried chicken wings. The wings are fried twice. Once to get them cooked and crispy. Twice to reinforce all that.



And then doused in a spicy vinegary sesame seed and peanut loaded sugary sauce.


Crispy, sticky fowl nuggets.




Chicken shrapnel.


With a Puerto Rican style Pernil for the main event. It's a pork shoulder, dry rubbed with ground chili and oregano and salt, then roasted slow and low for hours til it falls aparton a bed of chili, onions, garlic, carrots. Whatever you like really. And stock and wine. Up to about 1/4 of the way up the shoulder.


It's pernil.. you just have to fork the meat off in stacks and eat it.



On the side. A roasted mix of acorn squash. sweet pepper, guajillo peppers, garlic, thyme, Asian pears. I was amazed actually at how robust the Asian pears were.. they really hold up to a roasting, staying very firm and crisp. Worth considering for future food plans.


and the classic roasted potatoes. These ones were par-boiled, and then roasted in olive oil, salt, and smoked paprika.


Red cabbage - a big shout out to my recent adventures in Bavaria. What was interesting here was the start off: begin with caramelising sugar in the pot, then add onions with the fat (duck fat, or canola oil maybe), then red wine.. reduced for an hour, then the red cabbage, and then a stack of redcurrant jam, grated apple, lemon juice, champagne vinegar, honey. A great balance with the spicy, rich pork.


Again, we had planed a big dessert, but couldn't quite get there.. so we ended up with just some Schwartzwald chocolate and a pear or two...

Calamari Ripieni

Squid stuffed with a mix of chopped fennel, sweet Italian peppers, parsley, garlic, black olives, lemon zest, chili, breadcrumbs and simmered for an hour in a little white wine with the lid on.

Mystery snapper

It amazes me how cheap the fish is in Chinatown. This week I got two mystery snappers and two big squid hoods for $7.50. Some of the shops are fresher than others, so you have to practice your freshness tests to find a reliable one, looking at the eyes, the scales and so on to make sure that the fish is in good shape. The easiest way I think to know which shops are good is to follow the old Chinese ladies. They've been buying fish here for decades, and don't settle for anything less than the best. So I go to the same shops as they do. They seem to avoid the clutter there on Canal street and stick to the shops on Mott, north of Canal. There are a couple on Grand and Chrystie that I like a lot too - bit brighter and easier to poke around than the Mott street bunch.

So I got the mystery snappers home and made up a stuffing for them. I cooked up a little onion til it was soft, threw in some breadcrumbs and then mixed in chopped black olives, pine nuts, lemon zest, raisins, chopped parsley and rosemary and capers. Whatever didn't fit just went on top. The fish was doused in a bit of salt and lemon juice, and roasted for about 20 minutes at 350F.


If you're looking to identify a fish, of any kind, you can give this site a try. It's very comprehensive, to the point of being seriously overwhelming. Here's where I found what I think the mystery fish was: a yellow lined snapper. I think somewhere there must be a great 'How to identify fish in Chinatown' site somewhere. I must have a rummage.

Coconut Crêpes

Breakfast in the style of Mr. Lieu. Crêpes with coconut and butter sauce.

German Chocolates

A selection of fancy chocolates from an fantastic chocolate shop my cousin took me to in Frankfurt.


Strawberry and green pepper.


Balck forest cherry.


Orange and cinnamon sugar.


Bitter chocolate with tea.


Crystallised violet petals.


A golden circle of chocolate with Crunchie-like crunch. Great packaging.


Here's the subdivisions of the Mitzi-Blue.


Dark chocolate with Earl Grey tea.

In the style of porchetta

Butternut squash soup with New Mexico chilis, chipotle, roasted poblanos, smoked bacon, cilantro and cream


Pork loin stuffed with fennel, onion, smoked bacon, garlic, rosemary, eggs, breadcrumbs



Spuds roasted with garlic, olive oil, thyme and rosemary


Red cabbage cooked with caraway, red wine vinegar, and sugar


Cardoons baked in bechamel with nutmeg and parmesan


Chocolates from Germany [ cinnamon/orange, violets ]

A Middle Eastern supper

Ground turkey kofte [ turkey, pistachios, pine nuts, golden raisins, Moroccan spices, harissa ]


Chipotle hummus [ garbanzos, lemon juice, olive oil, tahini, chipotle ]


Carrot salad [ carrots, lemon juice, cumin, coriander seeds, cilantro, salt, olive oil ]


Spiced vegetable soup. [ sauteed onions, a bag of frozen vegetables, cumin, cilantro, mushroom broth ]

Pasta with chicken, lemon and zucchini

[ linguine, onion, lemon zest and juice, garlic, chicken, zucchini, parmesan ]

Sandwiches on the grill

[ fried egg, muhammara sauce, parmesan ]

[ chicken, chopped pickles, mayonaise, salt ]