West Coast kitchen garden

Summer is prime time for perfect, fresh vegetables whether from your own garden or the farmer’s market. In our house we are mostly eating them raw and plain as fast as we can pluck them off the vines or from the ground but sometimes we want that little extra. With a plethora of perfect beans, I decided to briefly blanch them and serve them with a piquant aioli flavored with a bunch of gorgeous basil, some parsley and chives and up the umami with some anchovies.

A simple and easy dessert with a cake that takes under 30 minutes to make and bake. The strawberries and rhubarb are gently cooked with a little sugar and thickener to create an incredibly luscious filling. Topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream flavoured with lavender syrup or vanilla, this is a crowd pleaser.

My brother and I who spent a few seasons deckhanding together would ceremoniously eat the first prawns of the season raw before then cooking up a feast. Often we ate them steamed or pan fried with garlic butter (cook gently just until opaque and immediately remove from heat so they don’t over cook) but after we’d had our fill, it was time to get creative. I can’t count the number of recipes we tried over the years but it was a lot! Today I’m sharing two recipes, Spot Prawns In Fennel Tomato Broth and simple Grilled Prawns.

A roundup of fast, fresh and easy Mexican style recipes to help you celebrate Cinco De Mayo. Salud my friends!

Do your kids love broccoli? No? Then this week’s recipe is for you because this will convert most kids especially if you omit the word broccoli and call it “Cheesy Vegetable Soup”. Today’s recipe is not particularly pretty but it’s a weeknight favourite in our […]

This fruit salsa recipe is made for using up overripe fruit or whatever fruit you have an excess of. The fruit is easily interchangeable-use oranges, melons, peaches or even strawberries, kiwis or grapes, whatever needs using up.

In my humble opinion, the main requirement for fried oysters besides being very fresh, is that the oysters are crispy on the outside, like REALLY crispy! I have experimented with various techniques and recipes and believe the method below achieves the crispiest crust without having to deep fry. These are simple and easy and the whole recipe including sauce and frying time takes under 40 minutes.

Inspired by classic chocolate covered almonds, these are somewhere between a cake and a chocolate bar. To make this even better, you can make these with just one bowl, 2 measuring cups and a very short amount of time. So come on, “Treat yo’ self!”

It’s the dead of winter and there’s not much growing which is tough since my blog centers around my little kitchen garden. I recently joined a photography challenge to try and get my creative juices flowing and for our first challenge we were given onions […]

With the weather cold, I’m gravitating to warm spices and comforting soups. This recipe starts with a versatile and easy homemade curry paste and is finished with coconut milk, stock and fish sauce for authentic south Asian flavour. The snapper is added minutes before serving and poured over a bowl of rice noodles and vegetable garnishes. Thick and rich, full of bright spice and herbal aromas, this soup is a comforting and satisfying meal in a bowl.