Miso and eggplant is a gorgeous combination of flavours, and by caramelising the glaze it really takes this to another level. Miso Glazed Japanese Eggplant It always amazes me how the simplest of recipes can have such an incredible depth of flavour. This is one such dish. This recipe is based on a traditional Japanese eggplant dish called Dengaku Miso Eggplant. The traditional way of making this in Japan is to drape the eggplant in the miso sauce, which is a thinner version of the Miso Glaze in this recipe (I’ve included directions to turn the recipe into a sauce)....

Southern Baked Beans Southern Baked Beans are like the bolder, brasher big sister of our Aussie baked beans. Whereas our beans are known as a breakfast staple, with its translucent, shiny tomato sauce, the Southern version is a a side dish that’s packed with big, bold southern flavours. The sauce is glossy, it’s sweet, it’s savoury, and even though it’s “just” a side dish, no one could overlook it on a table laden with food!...

Made the old fashioned way by boiling a whole chicken, you can toss in any vegetables, noodles or pasta and it’s going to be amazing. And everybody knowns Chicken Soup is the best soup for a cold! Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup – from scratch! Simmering a whole chicken with root vegetables and herbs creates a delicious homemade stock for the soup, into which the chicken meat is shredded alongside chopped and sauteed vegetables....

Kandi is the Telugu word for pigeon peas. Pachadi means chutney in telugu. Kandi pachadi refers to a chutney made with pigeon peas. Toor dal or pigeon peas were one of the most commonly cultivated lentils in the region. Apart from making pappu or dal dishes for their everyday meal even this chutney was made to go with hot rice and ghee. Kandi pachadi is also served with breakfast foods like idli, dosa, punugulu & garelu....

Confession: I love KFC. I have it maybe three times a year. I don’t crave it regularly (thankfully) but I’d say every few months, I have the urge to splurge. And my bottom hates me for it. I do the drive through because I’m too ashamed to risk being seen inside KFC. And though I savour every bite while I’m consuming it, I always regret it afterwards. Always. It’s heavy and excessively greasy and I don’t feel great....

So simple and easy to make, you can make this tonight! Sometimes, the simplest of ideas turn out to be annoyingly difficult to achieve. All I wanted was to make a homemade Lemon Pepper Chicken i.e. without using a packet of Lemon Pepper seasoning. Making a homemade Lemon Pepper seasoning to sprinkle onto chicken requires slow baking lemon zest to dry it out before mixing with salt and pepper. So essentially making a flavoured salt....

Lo Mein Noodles The actual noodles pictured above were my dinner last night, albeit I was a little heavy handed with a big dollop of chilli sauce that had me gasping and sweating (and swearing) through every bite. Don’t fear, it was self inflicted torture. Those red strips you see are capsicum / bell peppers, not chilli. There is no sign of chilli in this recipe – Lo Mein is not spicy!...

These crispy crepes are quite addictive and delicious. No one wants to stop with one and this says how delicious they taste! Masala Dosa Masala dosa is a popular South Indian breakfast where a crispy crepe made of fermented rice and lentil batter is served with flavorful spiced potato curry. It is a wholesome meal in itself as it is served with potato masala, Coconut chutney and Sambar. It is believed that Masala dosa originated in the Tuluva Mangalorean cuisine, from Karnataka (source: Wiki)....

I’m sitting in a dark corner of Los Angeles International airport (squatting by a powerpoint!), writing this post for a recipe I cooked and photographed before I left for month long trip to Mexico and Los Angeles. It’s Monday night LA time and I won’t arrive home until Wednesday morning Sydney time because of the time difference. The flight actually isn’t that long – “only” 15 hours, far faster than the 24 hours it takes to get to London!...

Topping possibilities are endless, I’ve made it here with diced tomato and avocado, but you can load it up with sour cream, cheese and even crispy tortilla chips. It would go fabulously with some Pork Carnitas tossed through it. This is definitely a midweek staple recipe you should keep!

I know there are a gazillion Mexican chicken recipes out there in this big-wide-cyber-world. I’m throwing my hat into the ring because I think this is a little different to most. The thing that {I think!} distinguishes this chicken recipe from many others is the sauce. The smoky, mildly spicy red sauce that is the end result of a handful of ingredients that are thrown into the slow cooker. See?...

How to assemble 12 Mini Pavs in 5 minutes flat I love a traditional Pav, in all it’s rustic summer beauty. But let’s face it – they are not the easiest to transport. And they are not the best of friends with hot, humid Aussie weather (think – sweaty surface, excessively chewy, weeping sugar, cracking 😭). And when it comes to messy desserts to serve, pretty sure they take the top spot....

Coconut chutney, tomato chutney, coconut pudina chutney, tomato pickle, mango pickle are some of our favorite choices to serve with these. Moong Dal Dosa These instant version of Moong Dal Dosa are inspired from the traditional Andhra Pesarattu that uses whole green gram aka mung beans and spices. But this instant version is made with skinned and split lentils so they really don’t require a long soak. Every time the laziness kicks in I resort to these as I don’t need to plan or prepare ahead....

Manchurian is a type of Indian Chinese dish invented by Nelson Wang, an Indian restaurateur of Chinese origin. Though the dish bears very little resemblance to the Manchu cuisine, he just made something toothsome and called it Manchurian. The first dish was made with Chicken and as time passed by this became one of the most popular Indo-Chinese dishes in India. A lot of variations are seen today made with mutton, fish, eggs and even vegetarian versions exist....

I used to work in corporate finance. Suits and heels and 15 hour days, jetting around the world on the job. I took a huge risk, throwing it all away to pursue my passion for food. The irony is, I work harder now than I did “in corporate”. But I’ve never been happier. Sharing food I love and helping people cook fabulous food for their family and friends is what I was meant to do....

This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”! Chicken and rice – elevated! What makes this lemon rice so special, you might ask? Well, it’s like cooking the rice in triple strength chicken stock because the chicken is cooked ON TOP of the rice. So it gets the full benefit of all the juices from the chicken seeping into it while it cooks. Add the fresh flavours of lemon and boom!...

“OMG, it actually has layers in it!”, my friend exclaimed when I served up this lasagna for lunch today. YES, this does! Have you seen one-pot lasagnas floating around on the internet? I think Martha Stewart started the craze. Here’s the thing though. I am yet to see a “one pot” lasagna that actually looks like a lasagna. None of the ones I have seen actually have layers. They are more like a pasta bake with a delicious mess of broken up lasagna sheets mixed up with the filling and sauce....

Decadent? Yes. Have salad tomorrow! Orecchiette Sausage Pasta Don’t you hate it when you twirl an enormous mound of spaghetti on your fork, only to find that you’ve just got pasta and no toppings?? Even more annoying is when you bring it up to your mouth and loose strands slap around your mouth, causing pasta sauce to splatter all over your face – and your white top. Such are the challenges of our pasta lovin’ life....

Roasted Eggplant The quickest way to elevate (almost) any vegetable is to roast it. And eggplant is no exception! It’s nothing interesting when raw – pretty tasteless actually. But when you give it a good blast in a hot oven, it completely transforms. That moment when you bite through the gorgeous caramelised edges and the juicy flesh inside bursts in your mouth… UGH! So good! Todays recipe is for roasting eggplant cubes....

Pasta alla norma: Eggplant pasta When it comes to vegetables-as-the-main, eggplant rates very highly in my books because it’s meaty and easy to prepare. It’s a sponge for flavour, silky and delicious in texture, good value most of the year round and extremely versatile. This pasta is Sicilian, and as with many traditional Italian eggplant dishes, the slices are traditionally fried in a hefty amount of oil. I prefer roasting the eggplant – it’s healthier, plus the eggplant cubes hold their shape better rather than turning into unidentifiable mush when tossed in the pasta sauce!...