Let me start off by saying that this marvellously flavourful recipe is Ottolenghi´s, not mine. I honestly make so many of his recipes (like this rice puttanesca) that I should add a tag on the blog for them. I’ve been meaning to cook with orzo (or risen, as Italians would call this pasta type) ever since I’ve seen it used over and over again in Mihai Gateste´s recipes, but I failed to find it in supermarkets. Until now…
I’ve given you a restaurant guide to Sibiu with Food I Loved in Sibiu, but on this trip a realisation actually hit me – Sibiu´s brunch scene is blooming. And so, off I went to try them all (some again, some for the first time), and figure out which of these spots you should visit next time you’re in the city where houses have eyes. So without further ado, here’s where you should brunch in Sibiu next time you’re around.
Fajitas – or André´s signature dish during his uni years. I know what you’re thinking – regular people´s uni years meals were canned ramen noodles at best, but it seems I am marrying a rare specimen of a man who learned how to do this tex-mex dish for his fellow students, while the rest of us were eating scraps. Fast forward many years – André and I are dating and he’s making me fajitas. I remember the first time very well because we had a silly fight. As we did the second time he made me fajitas. I was afraid they were cursed at this stage, but soon learned how to enjoy spiciness on the fajitas and not in snarky comments that would make us argue. Almost eight years later it is a dish I love. We make it when we have big dinners and we make it for the two of us and proceed to eating it for days. It’s a hard dish to photograph so I never tried until today, but I thought it was high time you also got this recipe.
In the heart of Transylvania lies the town of Sibiu – the place where I was born and spent the first 18 years of my life. It’s a fairly mid-sized town for Eastern European standards, but to me and everyone visiting it (especially for the Christmas market or its many festivals) it’s like a piece from a fairytale. Eventually I´ll do a guide to Sibiu, but for now I´ll leave you with a collection of my favourite restaurants and bars in this magical city where houses have eyes.
If you, like me, are not the biggest carrot fan but desperately want to introduce this vitamin packed veggie into your diet, this salad might just do it. You can make the dressing is bland or overpowering as you like, and play around with the ratio of the other ingredients, depending on your preferences. You can also incorporate the carrots in any way you like – I personally like to “shave” instead of shred them, because for whatever reason I feel they absorb the dressing better this way (and look cooler in pictures). Having said that, let’s get to the salad recipe.
My first trip of 2023 (if we neglect that I started the year abroad already), was Barcelona with my family. It was my third time there within six months, so by the time I was back to Lisbon, I felt I had plenty of material to put together this article on #foodIlovedinBarcelona. As always, I´ll start with breakfast and brunch places (including a great coffee spot and an artisanal ice cream joint), then head over to lunch and dinner restaurants, finally ending with some cool cocktail and dancing bars. I´ll be back to Barcelona in June, and might add some new spots after that trip, so stay tuned with this work in progress article. But until then, let this list inspire you.
With Valentine´s Day just around the door, I thought of sharing this festive cheesecake with pecan nuts and caramel topping that my beautiful and extremely talented sister baked for me and some guests for our last New Year’s Eve party. You can find the Romanian recipe on her and her friends Sabina´s Instagram page at @povestiaromate, or keep reading for the English version. Whether you’re baking it for or with someone you love, or just doing it for yourself, I am sure you’ll love it as much as I did. And with that the #guestchefseries kicks off another season.
I´ve been meaning to promote this latest salad recipe I came up with as a winter salad, but who am I kidding? This one will work as well in summer and any season, really. It’s the oranges that give me a winter feeling, along with the fact that due to the cooked salmon it’s a warm-ish salad. But the oranges can just as well take your mind to a summer in Tuscany, and give you all the sunny vibes we so direly miss this gloomy winter. Whenever you decide to make it though, I assure you that you’ll love it, as it is such a perfect blend of flavours – the buttery flavoured salmon (Ras el Hanout is my absolute favourite spice blend for salmon), the sweet and slightly sour orange, the mild yet buttery textured avocado, the nutty, kokumi parmesan, the fresh mint, and finally the complex sweet balsamic vinegar. It’s taken me quite a few iterations to get to this level of perfection, and now I am ready to share it with you.
Paris, mon amour, and her finger licking food. Upon my last visit to Paris, in July, I decided it was high time for a city and a food guide of this tremendously incredible city. It took me long enough to finally get to writing it, but alas, here we are. As always, I divided my restaurant recommendations into breakfast, lunch and dinner categories, this time adding wine and snack spots, because well,´ were in Paris after all. Bookmark this for your next trip to the city of love and enjoy one of the ´worlds best cuisines.
Spending three weeks on the Spanish coast meant : 1. I finally got a bit of a tan and 2. I absolutely abused on their delicious food. And since we last spoke about Costa Brava, let´s speak about the Spaniards´ delicious dish of “patatas bravas”. Essentially meaning “spicy potatoes”, this dish is as simple as it gets and I won´t insult you by showing you how to make the potatoes (just cut them in cubes and fry them). Buuuuut I will give you a super easy recipe for the sauce that is sometimes also used over seafood, and that to be frank you can just put on top of anything. So here goes…