poached eggs on avocado toast

It's been a busy couple of months; here's a snippet of a very simple meal which is one of my favourites.

brunch at home

Thought I would break up the Iceland posts a tad with a few snippets from a homemade brunch; sorbet champagne cocktail, mussels in garlic white wine, Gorgonzola tortellini, chicken sausage Parmesan fettuine, salmon avocado salad with caviar, tomato bruschetta, bread, and more cheese. We all ate so much food we basically rolled around afterwards.

 

quiet afternoon

Just a few snippets during a quiet afternoon when there was some fabulous lighting going on at home.

italian meatballs

I recently photographed an Italian Meatball recipe for the NYU division of Spoon University. Here are a few snippets but check out the full recipe here! I ended up sauteeing some rocket in the pan to add a bit of greenery and then boiled some pasta which turn it into a pasta bake, hence the last image.

cod & brussel sprouts

This dish sort of happened quite randomly yesterday as I was throwing a bunch of things into a pan fairly haphazardly, but it actually turned out quite well and hence why I decided to share this very, very short recipe.

Ingredients...

- cod fillet

- brussel sprouts

- olive oil

- balsamic vinegar

- thyme

- salt

- pepper

- brown sugar

How to...

- Heat up a dash of olive oil in a non stick frying pan.

- Once the oil is hot, throw the cod in.

- Onto the fish and around the sides of the pan, add as much salt, pepper, thyme as you wish, a dash of balsamic vinegar and a sprinkling of brown sugar.

- When the fillet is browned on one side, flip it and add the brussel sprouts into the pan around the fish.

- Swirl everything around to make sure the spices and flavourings are evenly distributed, pour in a bit of water to help keep everything moist, and add more salt and spices to the sprouts if desired.

- Once the fish is cooked and the balsamic vinegar has left a brown glaze, the sprouts should also look lightly glazed but still be a vibrant green, plate up and enjoy!

If my instructions seem vague and nondescript, it's because there is no wrong way to cook; recipes should serve as an inspiration to get your hands dirty in the kitchen and can always be tweaked to suit your preferences. As I've said before, you can always use different ingredients depending on what you have access to or leave stuff out if it doesn't tickle your fancy. Also, after I'd already plated up, I actually realised it would have been quite nice to add some sliced onions in and maybe some garlic too, but feel free to ignore my musings. 

Baies

This candle came into my posession quite randomly -- it was a free gift from a shopping mall. I'd heard about Diptyque being awesome but to be honest, when I first peeled the plastic off the packaging, my nose felt like it was on fire from the overwhelmingingly strong berry fruity slightly nauseating scent. So I put it away in a drawer where I forgot about it for most of the summer.

One day, I decided on a whim, why not whip this out, give it a go and if it stinks I'll put it somewhere far, far away from my room. But I was very pleasantly surprised when this started burning that my room was filled with a sort of amazing warm and wholesome fruity summer smell and I couldn't get enough of it. I'm sad to say I burnt the whole thing up through the last month of my summer but I've happily reused the jar as a holder-of-things and if anyone can't think of what to get me for my birthday or Christmas -- this is it.

simple fettuccine

After two years of cooking for myself at university, I thought I would share one of my favourite "I just got back from the world's longest class, I am starving and I just want to throw something quick together" pasta recipes as well as one of my personal favourite dishes in general. It's one of the simplest things you can throw together, hence simple fettuccine, because it's only a few ingredients thrown together and sautéed off in a pan and honestly takes about 15 minutes. This time, I used fettuccine as it's what was present at home, though I also think it's an easy way to make pasta dishes seem extra snazzy compared to the typical spaghetti or penne.

Ingredients...

- fettuccine

- chicken sausage

- rocket

- fresh basil

- salt and pepper

- butter

- olive oil

- milk

- garlic

- onion

How to...

- In a pot, boil the fettuccine in salted water, the water should be as salty as seawater to stop the pasta from being too bland.

- Once the pasta has been cooked, strain the pasta out but remember to keep some of that starchy cooking water for later.

- Heat up a knob of butter in a flat pan and throw in the chopped garlic and onion to soften and brown, if the butter starts to burn, add a bit of olive oil.

- Add the chicken sausage and sauté until it gets browned and heated through (if it has already been precooked, otherwise boiling it prior to sautéing it would be helpful).

- Add the fettuccine, salt and pepper to taste, and I like to add a dash of milk to give the pasta some dimension.

- Add in the rocket, basil, and a splash of the starchy cooking water if your pan is looking a bit dry. (But feel free to add more milk in if you want to give it a bit more weight.)

- Give it a final stir and plate up!

As with all recipes, this is simply a guideline or inspiration depending on how creative you are in the kitchen. You can by all means swap the fettucine for spaghetti or fusilli - whatever floats your boat or is in your pantry, and you can use chicken breast in place of chicken sausage, shallots instead of onions, spinach instead of rocket, etc., it really doesn't matter. Because the person eating it is going to be you so don't go about making a recipe with ingredients that you only half-like. Anyway, I hope this post has been somewhat inspiring, so enjoy!

venice 2011

As I've recently been backing up all my photos (yet again), I thought I would share some from one of my favourite and most visually enthralling trips. During the summer of 2011, I went on a Mediterranean cruise from Venice to Athens so here are some of my favourite images from the first stop; the rest of the photos from other cities shall follow soon.