Chaat is a word used in many parts of India, Pakistan and South Asia to refer to street food snacks, the literal translation of the word is 'lick' or 'taste', I suppose because that is what you do. This chicken chaat would usually be served in a chapati and I have had it before as a starter in Indian restaurants. Unfortunately, I have not yet been to India! It is a very quick meal to make and

It is now officially the start of British summer time. We have had a week of glorious, scorching sunshine, enough to make the papers write such creative headlines as "Scorcher!". But for me the real sign of the start of summer is the smell of barbecues in the air. I think it is a uniquely British thing that once summer begins, there will be a barbecue just about every week, rain or shine. I

This recipe comes from my good friend R, and it is very tasty! The chicken can only really be eaten with your fingers, no knives and forks for these, just make sure you have some paper towels to hand to wipe up after, as they are very sticky and juicy! The smoked paprika is the key here, it (surprisingly enough) adds a really smokey flavour to the chicken. You can really smell this as they

Does anyone have any ideas what this is!? It is a meal that we had in Japan a few years ago, being prepared. It is all cooked by the chef on the hot plate in front of him, a very skilled and quick chap as he is preparing at least 10 of them in the bottom picture! Have a guess what you think it is, I will reveal more later!

Cottage pie, not to be confused with shepherds pie (which is made with lamb - hence the shepherd) is a Great British Classic, always good as comfort food and to warm you up on a dull grey day. It is fairly simple to make, but can take a while. The trick is to get the potatoes on and boiling and then make the meaty sauce filling, so making the best use of your time. There are many variations of

I do not normally eat mushrooms or prawns as my girlfriend hates them, she says mushrooms are slimy and prawns have a horrible texture, and I can't persuade her otherwise. As she is away tonight, I decided to cook a recipe with both of them in, and found this one for a prawn and mushroom bhuna, the blog it is taken from is an interesting collection of food recipes, and musings on the journey on

This is a recipe of my own invention, and it worked out pretty well. I have had orange and beetroot in a salad before, and the addition of trout with it added a further fishy dimension. Ingredients2 trout fillets500 g new potatoes1 pack fresh beetroot1 orange2 tomatoes1/2 cucumber1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar1 Handful flaked almondsSalt and pepperCut the

This curry is my version of a traditional Pakistani curry known as a keema. It is often made with minced lamb, but I have used beef in this one. It is a great meal as it is all made in one pan, no need for cooking rice or vegetables on the side. I was going to put peas in it today, but instead used green runner beans as they were on Buy One Get One Free in the supermarket. Any green

I saw this recipe for American pancakes with flambeed cherries and chocolate sauce in Good Food magazine this month, as cooked by James Tanner on Ready Steady Cook (weekdays 4.30 pm on BBC 2). I am stuck at home today waiting for a parcel to be delivered some time before 6pm, so I couldn't go out to buy the cherries or chocolate, but had the ingredients for the pancakes. So I gave them a go!

I posted a while ago about my lucky find of a bargain £5 pasta making machine in a local charity shop, and how the pasta making turned into something of a disaster. I have been a bit busy since then what with finding a new job, going away at the weekend for a stag party and just generally being too hectic to find time to do some cooking. Today, however, I snuck off work early and had another

This is a very quick snack that I made over the weekend, perfect with a Saturday morning (hangover!) coffee. It reminds me of that cinnamon toast crunch cereal as well, but has a decidedly high class almost French pastry taste and feel about it. The best type of bread to use I think is quite thin, soft, white bread, something like Tesco value type or similar. Thin bread works best as the sugary

Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments has tagged me for a meme. I am not usually into these email forward style of things where you pass it on to x number of friends and what not, but I will give it a go. Actually, I asked my girlfriend what she thought of me for the 6 words, as I would just say something nice about myself! So here it is..... Rules: 1. Write your own six-word memoir. 2. Post it on

I have been looking for a way to use up my last aubergine, so I tried making this rice. It worked out quite well, and would be good as a side dish. Ingredients 1 aubergine1 courgette1 clove garlic100 g riceOlive oilOregano15 cherry tomatoesSalt and pepperChop the aubergine into about 1 cm cubes, and place in a colander. Now sprinkle liberally with salt. This is because aubergines are quite

Today at lunch time I had to go out to the bank. On the way back, I walked past a charity shop and spotted in the window this Imperia pasta machine, unused and in the box, sparkling like brand new. I had to go in and have a look and when I saw the price, only £5, I just had to buy it. I knew they were expensive, and checked on the internet later to find the Imperia Italian Double Cutter

Some people cannot stand the thought of fruit in savoury dishes, saying that ham and pineapple pizza is just wrong, along with sweet and sour and apple sauce with pork. I disagree! I love having fruit in my meals. This is a nice tropical tasting and fruity curry! This curry is not too hot, and the fruity pineapple and coconut liven it up a bit. I added most of the vegetables right near the

After reading about a rhubarb strudel we decided to get some rhubarb and plant it out in the garden. I dug a bit of a hole, mixed in some compost and then planted the rhubarb crown into the ground.

This smoothie was inspired by the Innocent smoothies one of a similar flavour combination! Initially I did not really like their coconut, pineapple and banana one as I thought it tasted of sun tan lotion, but I have now come round to the idea. It is a much needed taste of sunshine, summer, and beaches (especially with snow in April, what's that all about!). I can imagine sitting on a beach

So this is not a recipe as such! Or at all, in fact it's some pictures of a holiday taken in 2006... any idea where? As well as enjoying food, cooking and eating, I love travelling and especially the food experiences you get in foreign places. I have a photo shuffle screensaver set up, and when I came to my PC just now this picture was on display... a box of live frogs! As seen in a market

I picked up some aubergines and peppers at a market today, not locally as we only have Tesco near us, but made a trip further afield to the next town (what an adventure)! It was one of those special offers where they sell any bowl of fruit or veg for £1, and I can't resist a bargain. So I then had to find something to do with them! I was inspired by Helen at Food Stories with her recipe for

I have recently been set up as a Featured Publisher over at Foodbuzz. Its a unique website which brings together food blogs, recipes, foodie pictures, and restaurant reviews. Readers can vote on items to give them more Buzz and so make them more popular. Its a cool concept, so have a look at my profile using the link at the top of this post.

This is a pretty cheap recipe to make, just using up some things that we had in the cupboards. I have been working a lot this weekend on the computer, so have not had time to go out and get any shopping, but managed to rustle up this nice fish cake meal out of not very much! They are actually less complicated than I thought they would be to make. The addition of the cheese means that they are

This dropped into my email inbox today, I think because in the past we went to an Italian food festival in London so we are on the mailing list. It sounds very exciting .... Imagine tasting paprika lime squid with garlic aioli, stir fried beef fillet in black pepper or classic lobster creamed soup flavoured with brandy prepared by world renowned chefs including Tom Aiken, Joel Robuchon and

Mama Mia! That's a spicy meatball! As they say in the old Alka Seltzer advert! It's hard to cook meatballs without saying that, or without saying 'Bada-bing, bada-boom' in a Noo York Italian accent. Or maybe that is just me. Have a look at the video clip and then do some mock American Italian accents and tell me you don't fancy meat balls! Anyway, today's dinner was spicy meatballs with a

We are on a detox in our house after a weekend of stuffing faces with oversized chocolate eggs and All-You-Can-Eat Chinese meals. So the meal for today is spicy and sour cabbage soup. It is loosely based on the flavours of some Thai or Chinese style soups, for example Tom Yam but really its just a home made combination of flavours from Asia. The resulting soup was very spicy and warming,

Yesterday I cooked a roast chicken (in a bag). I hate seeing any food go to waste, so I obviously took the carcass and, after stripping all the meat off for sandwiches and salads, made it into some stock. Normally, I make up a lot, divide it up into portions and freeze it so that it can be defrosted and used in recipes as needed. This home-made stock is far superior to any stock cubes or even