I love using freshly prepared spice pastes and this is one which I can seriously recommend you try. Pounding a paste using a pestle and mortar is such a gratifying experience and I have become addicted to the process. If you don’t regularly use one or use one at all, I suggest...
I have been browsing through this delectable book and given that the honey here on Kangaroo Island is vey special and specific to our Island, I thought I would share the words of Isabel Allende about …honey!! Enjoy. “The nectar of Aphrodite, golden treasure of the earth drawn from...
I have just re-watched the extraordinary 2007 movie El Greco, the story of the Greek painter of the Spanish Renaissance, Domenicos Theotokopolous. What a sumptuous feast for the eyes! El Greco, as he became known was born in Fodele, Crete, a beautiful valley full of olive and orange trees....
Well, it has been a busy few days entertaining and therefore cooking so haven’t been busy on the blog. The garden has required some attention too as we have had quite a bit of rain so everything is growing at a great rate and has certainly done us proud...
This might sound an unusual combination, but I was browsing through my cookbooks a couple of days ago looking for a recipe to use up some excess roma tomatoes. I must admit I wasn’t looking to create a sweet dish but this dish caught my eye and it is quite frankly...
Vertumnus Guiseppe Arcimboldo (1527-93) was a Milanese artist who was employed as a portrait painter at the court of the Hapsburg emperors in Prague. He was noted for painting a type of ‘capriccio’ – a form of painting which looks like heads or figures when seen from a distance but, upon...
Here is a little, probably obscure side note in the world of Mediterranean food. In 1691, Giuseppe Maria Mitelli was Baroque Bologna’s great designer of board games. A failed artist, he became an engraver, and in all engraved some 33 board games, including the fascinating Game of Cocknaige. This...
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a prolific French author who both indulged and abstained from food in equal measures. Indeed, his love of food at mealtimes was described by his friend Léon Gozlan: “is lips quivered, his eyes lit up with delight, his hands shook with pleasure on seeing a pyramid of...
Spearmint (Mentha spicata or Mentha viridis) is the traditional and most favoured mint of Mediterranean cooking in both fresh and dried form. It is widely used in Middle Eastern Cooking to flavour meat and vegetable dishes, fried with butter or ghee and is used as a final touch to...
The Mediterranean Sea, sometimes referred to as ‘the Great Sea’ or the Middle Sea’ is bordered by 22 countries, historically bound together by trade, religion, invasion, conquest, patronage, and food. The beauty and romance of the Mediterranean has drawn people for centuries, epitomised by the Grand Tour, Brideshead Revisited...
Welcome to my love affair with the food, wine, history and culture of the Mediterranean, past and present. Here you will find not only recipes, drinks and fabulous products, but the history of the food and culture of the Mediterranean.
My purpose is to get you to explore and experience new tastes and along the way to immerse yourself in the wonderful history of this diverse and wonderful region – from Venice to Istanbul, Rome to Dubrovnik, Athens to Crete and all places in between and in the surrounds. Be prepared to be surprised, delighted and enthralled as you take this trip with me.
