Quinoa, spinach and almond salad with orange and cinnamon dressing

I spent my pregnancy cooking and eating Polish food: practicing my dumpling making; stuffing my face with caramel and cream and cookie dough; making many, many doughnuts (three times in the space of 2 months) and generally re-working my favourite recipes. The book is coming out in July, now there's a stubborn stone sitting on my hips and penance. But penance doesn't have to be unpleasant. I won't lie, the beginning is hard, but it becomes more enjoyable with time. Both the exercise and the food. Tracey Anderson is getting (marginally) easier to handle and I'm remembering my favourite healthy recipes. This crunchy salad has a Middle-Eastern flavour and doesn't make you feel like you are doing penance at all. Ok, so it's not cardamon-custard seductively wrapped in choux pastry (it's in the book, you'll love it), but it is flavour packed none-the-less.

Ingredients

300g cooked quinoa

Handful fresh spinach, chopped

50g almond flakes, toasted

1 carrot, grated

Dressing

Juice of 1 small orange
2 tablespoons olive oil

Large pinch of cinnamon

Salt and pepper to taste

Red amaranth, enoki mushrooms, cashewnuts and black quinoa on a hot hotday

London is sizzling. No, I don't mean 23 degrees C going down to 10 at night, I mean a proper heatwave. Though they do say we'll be going back down to our usual, civilized 23-with-showers in the coming week. Thank god. That's not an ironic "thank god" either - the pregnancy means I'm really sensitive to everything and massively overheating. It took three tries to get into my lido. I'd trundle up there like a man in a desert only to find my cool oasis swarming with hipsters, forming an unmanageable queue. I finally managed to get in yesterday after getting up early, but it was still much busier than usual, even at 9.15am, a lot of idiots, a lot of road rage. Not your usual, calming "isn't this nice?" atmosphere at all. Luckily, in this weather I am not craving sausage sandwiches but things like this...

This was a particularly attractive and successful version of the kind of dish I usually throw together; a combination of whatever I have lying about my kitchen cupboards and whatever I pick on my way home. I stopped off at my favourite Vietnamese supermarket on this occasion and bought fresh red amaranth and enoki mushrooms. I cooked the black quinoa separately and used a wok to toast the cashewnuts slightly before adding the amaranth, enoki mushrooms, light soya sauce, a little bit of oyster sauce and Ghanian shito paste (basically a chilli oil).

After all my moaning about the heat, I leave you with what I love about London in the summertime. The luscious, wild nature all around. Now, if I could just get wild flowers to grow in my garden...

Black quinoa with kale, walnuts, marinated peppers and sweetcorn

Today's post was going to be all about patience. About how life is always asking me to be patient and how nothing goes more against my very nature. But then everything happened all at once. Now I'm finding it hard to keep up and I've just managed to squeeze in a quick post about this salad I made when I still had time to do such things. It was delicious and I wish I had some now, working through lunch in my edit suite whilst keeping up with various emails and contracts. Yes contracts. Some of you may already know my exciting news, but for those that don't, I will reveal all when I have time to linger and enjoy each word.

I cooked the corn on the cob and quinoa the night before I made this salad. I also baked the kale with olive oil and sea salt, eating some kale chips as a snack and adding the rest to the quinoa. Then the next day all I had to do was take the corn off the cob, chop the marinated peppers, chilli and walnuts, soft boil the egg, make the vinaigrette and mix it all up.

Ingredients

150g Black quinoa, cooked
50g Curly Kale, roasted
Handful walnuts, chopped
2 marinated red peppers, chopped
1 green chilli, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper

Pearl barley, wild mushrooms, blue cheese, gherkins

There is nothing more thrilling than the feeling of cultural progress. This was my elated thought as I picked up a packet of fresh wild mushrooms in my local Tesco's. Yes, the UK is now officially eating wild mushrooms, like the rest of our European neighbours. This is progress indeed. If we are moving towards a more advanced state in the tastebud department then I believe other areas will follow. We will surely soon be more understanding, compassionate and tolerant in all areas of our lives, n'est pas?

I fried these mushrooms up on some butter with a fresh shallot and dried oregano. I cooked the pearl barley in vegetable stock, adding the chilli sauce and crème fraîche near the end of the cooking time. I seasoned both. When serving, I piled the browned mushrooms on to the creamy pearl barley, topped off with blue cheese cubes and decorated with gherkin slices. Easy and delicious.

Ingredients

Pearl barley
Stock cube
Crème fraîche
West Indian chilli sauce
Wild mushrooms
Shallot
Dried oregano
Blue cheese, cubes
Gherkins, sliced
Knob of butter
Salt and pepper

Roasted buckwheat with wild mushrooms and feta for busy days

As you may or may not have noticed my routine has gone out of the window recently. Flown away to another time and place, one where I didn't have a full time (if freelance) job and wasn't working nights and weekends on another creative project (which I am very excited about). I am still cooking and eating of course, and when the light is right, I still may take a picture or two, it's just that I haven't found the time to calmly sit down and write about it. It's not easy maintaining good habits when life suddenly switches gear from one to five. And it's even harder to find the motivation to start again, when you know that your failure to do so has already lost you half your readership. It's a catch 22. As are so many things in life I find... Yet here I am again. And here's the kind of food that helps me keep my energy levels up and constant at times like these...

It's tempting to stuff your face with the biscuits and cakes that are always readily available is offices. Especially when you're rushed, tired and the weather changes... All I can say is: don't. I've been there and it's another one of those pointless loops. We all need treats, but I suggest we should think carefully about what we believe is a genuine treat and what's going to end up harming us in some way. Buckwheat is delicious and wholesome in its simplicity. The roasted stuff you will find in a polish shop or the East European food section of your supermarket. We cook it like rice, only steam it for longer at the end of the cooking time. I used dried wild mushroom, rehydrating them before and using the water to cook the buckwheat too. You can use fresh mushrooms. Fry them with some onion and thyme, using a mild olive oil, while cooking buckwheat separately. Combine the two on the frying pan, and add feta chunks. Eat hot or cold as a salad for lunch, like you see up there, with a million radishes to stave off any colds and other infectious diseases that may be going round. 

Sweet potato quinoa salad

One of things I love about cooking is that paradox of nostalgia and newness. For example, I write this blog whilst munching on a warm, slightly crispy tortilla with Marmite. The reason I eat Marmite on tortillas rather than on toast like normal people, is because when I was in the Himalays aged 17, we ate ate marmite and chapattis every morning of our trek over Pin Parvati Pass. By the end of the 14 days I couldn't stand the sight of them, but now... It's the nostagia, clearly. At the other end of the scale we have this salad I made last week, which I've never made before but, from experience, knew was going to work

It's a blend of 3 different types of quinoa - red, black and pearl. You can get a ready mix in (some) Waitrose, with home grown cherry tomatoes and chillies (luckily I have a man who grows these, because I still haven't quite got my head round that part), toasted almond flakes, coriander and cinnamon sweet potato (roast the chunks of unpeeled sweet potato in the oven with olive oil, honey and cinnamon). The dressing consists of lime juice, mild olive oil and fish sauce. We ate it with southern fried chicken a bit like this one, but with more spices in the marinade. Yas says the trick is to add a little a bit of cornflour to the flour and breadcrumbs and the oil you fry them in should be hot but "not too hot". Having made this chicken about 5 times in a row now, he's the expert

Amaranth porridge with berries

There's something that happens when I'm about to get on a plane. I always manage to either miss my flight or create some kind of unnecessary drama. Even when in other areas of my life I feel calm and content, the time comes to catch a flight and something inevitably goes wrong. I should be in Athens right now, but I'm not. I wouldn't say I'm London either. I'm occupying a space in between two worlds, neither solidly in one nor the other. Like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, I'm just not all there. Or here. Some would argue that this is a natural state of affairs for me and they'd have a point, yet at this moment in time this quality is so pronounced that I feel like parts of me could easily just disappear like they do to that cat. Yet like him, I'm quite enjoying it. I'm using this strange space to look at my life  objectively and make some small yet important changes, to experiment with how I normally do things. In my everyday life I'm often too busy in the action of doing to take a step back and reflect on how I could improve the process. There are infinite ways of doing things, why do we get stuck in one mode like machines I wonder... Some things just work so there is no need to change them, yes, but other things don't work, yet we get stuck in a habit - those are things I'm targeting right now. One habit that I have no intention of changing for the time being however, is porridge for breakfast. That's working out very well. There are so many variations that I can't see myself getting bored. I made this one with amaranth grains and berries the other day. It's a grain I've never used before and was a bit puzzled by, yet it turns out that it makes a brilliant porridge, less stodgy and sticky than oats

I cooked it first in lots of cold water. I'll be honest with you, I wanted to use it for a salad, yet I quickly noticed that it was turning into a porridge-like consistency and went out and bought some quinoa for the salad instead. I think the grains are actually too small for a salad and also I cooked them in too much water to allow them to separate. But for a porridge they were perfect. So the next morning I took a spoonful of the cooked amaranth and diluted it with plenty of almond milk. I allowed it to simmer, along with a handful of raspberries and blueberries, a pinch of salt and some honey for around 10min, until the raspberries disintegrated completely. Then I  added a bit more almond milk to reach a consistency I was happy with. Amaranth is completely new to me in this form (I've tried the leaves before), it has an unusual taste, neither sweet nor savoury, it's lost somewhere between the worlds just like me, so it needs strong, decided flavours that push it in either one direction or the other... I think I've just managed to empathize with a grain

A rowdy springtime salad

The sun is shining and London is in a good mood. This is the positive side of living somewhere where the weather in unpredictable - when the sun does come out, the whole city is on a natural high. My friend, Ash, tells me that in Australia, where she comes from, good weather is expected and because of this it makes no difference at all to peoples' mood... here, everyone is just so damn grateful for any bit of sunshine they can snatch, that when it does come out, and especially on a day when it is needed, during a picnic or barbeque, London acquires a festive atmosphere. Luckily, our sun dances worked last weekend and our star came to the annual cherry blossom picnic. This is the fourth year we congregate under the cherry blossoms in Victoria Park and do our version of Hanami

This year I made a spicy and colourful salad, which was dubbed "rowdy salad" by Ashley. It's the most fitting name for it considering the pink radish, purple carrots and fresh chillies. Did you know that all carrots used to be purple? This is something new that I learnt last weekend. I thought the carrots I bought were a hip novelty, in fact, they were a return to the old ways. The world works in spirals, everything is a continuation or a development, nothing is really lost - I like that

Ingredients

Quinoa, cooked

Alfafa and broccoli sprouts

Radishes, chopped finely

Fresh red chilli, chopped finely

Purple carrots (or normal carrots), grated

Avocado

Virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon of mayonnaise

Garlic salt

Black pepper

"Dobra Kasza Nasza" in Zakopane

Kasha ("kasza" in Polish), or grains, are such a common food stuff here that actually we have sayings about them. For example, a person may be described as someone who "doesn't let anyone blow on their kasha", meaning that they don't let anyone boss them around, or "take the piss" as we would charmingly say in the UK. There are many varieties of kasha and all are available in this restaurant in Zakopane, recommended to me by my old childhood friend, Iza, who writes this blog

Zakopane is the Winter capital of Poland, somewhere we have spent the past couple of Christmases, and a place that's popular all year round with tourists: full of cosy, wooden restaurants and hearty "mountain" food. If you are a keen skier or snowboarder, used to the likes of the Alps, you may not feel completely satisfied with the conditions here - the Tatra mountains, being a national park, have but one slope you can ski down (this was closed due to wind this year), so the main ski area is Białka Tatrzańska, a 30min drive away, in the direction of Kraków; apart from this it's just an odd slope here and there. However, it is well worth a visit, any time of the year, if only for the atmosphere. If you do find yourself in this magical little town, you may get tired of all the "mountain" food after a couple of days and this is why I would recommend "Dobra Kasza Nasza" - it's different to all the other restaurants in Zakopane, in food and ambiance alike

I would also strongly recommend the "kwaśnica" for starters, the Polish sauerkraut soup that in other parts of Poland goes by the name of "kapuśniak". The ribs are a tasty main if you're hungry, otherwise go for one of the baked kashas. I ordered the millet and pumpkin one you see up there, which was nice (not a very descriptive word, I know - it would be inaccurate to use anything stronger, yet it was "quite nice"). I would however go for something else next time, probably buckwheat based, as this is the kasha that I most associate with Poland and that I miss when I am out of the country. They also have a couple of delicious unpasteurized beers on tap

Polish sauerkraut and wild mushroom stew with pearl barley

Perhaps it's my grandma's recent departing or perhaps it's that I'm working on a book on this very subject, but Polish food is playing the leading role in my life right now. This is a reworking of a classic vegetarian sauerkraut stew, which we would traditionally eat on Christmas Eve (as part of the 13 non-meat dishes). Today, I experimented with adding pearl barley and the result was stunning! This is an innovation I will be propagating henceforth. I think it may catch on, because it makes this dish into something quite special, more balanced, giving it a risotto-like consistency and the strong flavours something to sink into

Those up there are the mushrooms picked this Autumn by my uncle Kazik, which were soaked in cold water, washed under running water and then  re-hydrated in hot, boiled water overnight. Make sure you reserve the water, as it's one of our essential components. Brown the onion on a medium heat in the oil, then add the sauerkraut, the mushroom water and the prunes. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for approximately an hour. After about 20min add the wild mushrooms. Meanwhile, fry the other mushrooms on a separate pan in the butter. After about 5 min, add the marjoram. Once they are nicely browned, toss them into the main pan and continue cooking along with the rest of the stew. In another pan, cook the pearl barley in some vegetable stock. We use the beer to add moisture while your stew is cooking. Near the end of the cooking time, add the beans and pearl barley, season to taste with soya sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. That down there makes enough for 5-6 portions, yet all the measurements are approximations so feel feel to add and subtract to your own taste. Remember to make more than you need, as it tastes even better the next day

Ingredients

1 jar sauerkraut

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tin butter beans, drained

250g pearl barley

Handful dried wild mushrooms, rehydrated and chopped

Handful closed cup mushrooms, chopped

Prunes, pitted and chopped

Beer – half a pint

2 tablespoons mild oil

1 teaspoon marjoram, or more

2 teaspoons ground flaxseed (optional)

100g butter

Soya sauce

Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

Quinoa salad with gorgonzola and burnt-garlic vinaigrette

I've had the strangest few weeks in ways that I can't even begin to explain. I haven't been cooking much, as attention has been focused inwards. I think in time I will appreciate that this was an important period for me, my personal development, yet I have no idea why yet. I have the oddest sensation that something is shifting inside me, yet I have no clue as to what end. I've been given this book to help with the process and it's unputdownable (I think I just made that word up), both frustrating and mind-blowing. In the midst of all this inner turmoil, I managed to make this lovely quinoa salad with blue cheese, broccoli and burnt garlic vinaigrette. The garlic isn't actually burnt, it's just browned to turn it crispy and give it that smokey flavour you sometimes find in Asian food, and I feel compliments the quinoa. Basically, heat the oil in a frying pan and when it's hot, throw in the chopped garlic. Fry for 1 min, stirring, then turn the heat off and allow it to carry on browning for a minute longer, then place it on some paper, to remove excess oil, and add it to the vinaigrette (I always use a jar). The salad turned out surprisingly well, which I've decided to take as a good omen, a sign that I'm heading in the right direction...

Ingredients

Quinoa, cooked

Tin of mixed beans, drained

Broccoli, steamed

Gorgonzola, cubed

Red pepper, chopped

Vinaigrette

Juice of 1 lemon

Garlic, browned as described

Olive oil

Garlic salt 

Black pepper

1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard

Spicy springtime buckwheat with crunchy vegetables

Can you miss yourself? Because that's how I've felt recently. Tonight was the first proper,  whole evening I've had just chilling by myself for what feels like forever. In the past few months there's been a lot of work, city-travel, late nights, early mornings of coffee and writing,  evening fun with friends and family... but not much quality me-time. Probably also something to do with the fact that my friend Petey was staying on my couch for over two months. So this was the night. I wanted to cook the sort of meal that I enjoy cooking the most; wholesome, spicy, light. Followed by an evening of doing whatever the hell I felt like

There was hardly anything in the fridge and cupboards to cook with and I didn't want to waste my precious me-time in a supermarket, so it was always going to have to be simple. What came out was a dish I've made various versions of in the past, with various grains, vegetables and sauces... but never quite like this. It became a perfected, polished, cookbook-worthy version of itself. Hence, I share it with you. This is not something you'd cook for a dinner with friends, unless they're close enough friends to just chill with. That down there will make about 4 portions. All the vegetables need to be roughly chopped, the buckwheat needs to be cooked according to packet instructions, and we're off

Ingredients

300g (untoasted) buckwheat, cooked 
Small red onion, finely chopped
1 carrot
1 packet cauliflower/broccoli florets or a bit of each, chopped up (could also replace one or the other with a bit of cabbage)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of red kidney beans
3 tablespoons of peri-peri sauce, or another chilli sauce
1 tin of mackerel fillets (in tomato sauce)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon mild curry spices
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Heat the oil on the biggest frying pan you can find and add the red onion. Fry while stirring. After a few minutes, chuck in the carrot, broccoli and cauliflower bits, then cover and allow to fry on a medium heat for about 6-8min, stirring occasionally. Add the mackerel and the spices. Stir together for a couple of minutes, before adding the tin of tomatoes. Now bring it all to the boil, then turn the heat right now. Cover and allow to simmer for 6-8min. Add the salt, pepper, honey, peri-peri sauce and buckwheat. Mix it all in very well, then cover and cook for a further 5min before serving

Quinoa blackberry porridge for the Spring/Summer breakfast in bed

During my long search for the perfect breakfast, I realized that my reasoning was inherently flawed. What is obvious to me now is that the perfect breakfast depends on the time of year, on where you are on the planet, and where you are in your mind. Whereas in the heat of Thailand the perfect breakfast might be a banana, some watermelon and pineapple with yoghurt and honey, in London in the midst of a long, damp Winter, nothing quite hits the spot for me on a day-to-day basis like congee. However, if you add a party night to mix, then my perfect breakfast suddenly turns into a BLT on ciabatta with mayo and a fresh OJ. As it gets warmer and the berries starting popping out, I start to crave red fruit with porridge or oats with yoghurt. In this in-between period that we have now, warm quinoa with berries is just perfect

The quinoa gives this a lightness that you don't get with oats, and the blackberries give it tang and that specific British flavour. You could just as easily replace them with another soft berry though. I cooked the quinoa in water, then when it was ready, added some goat's milk (I can't drink normal milk anymore), a pinch of salt, lots of honey and the blackberries. I cooked it all until the blackberries fell apart and the milk turned pink and frothy

Spicy mutton with pearl barley

It's cold outside, I'm broke, I miss my ex and I'm worried that my cat wants to leave me for the insane woman down the road. Yet I also know that this sad time is the perfect moment to reflect on the past year and to focus on everything I want (and don't want) in the coming one. The good news is that I have no regrets, so nothing is going to hold me back. I know that I did my best in my career, my relationship (even though it didn't work out) and my dreamwork, as I like to call all the stuff I'm working on in my own time. I'm still a little tired, a little jaded, but soon, soon...

First I need soul food, in every sense. I'm going to fill myself up on nourishing stuff like this spicy mutton with pearl barley, meditate every day to attain acceptance and sleep as much as I want to. Right now this is anything from 9.5 to 11 hours a night. The mutton needs lots of time too, so I would suggest cooking it over the weekend. First, season the meat with salt and pepper and set aside for half an hour. Dry-fry the meat for about 5 minutes, and remove from the pan. In the same pan, fry the onion, garlic and the scotch bonnet in some oil until translucent and golden - probably about 3-4 minutes - stir in the Jamaican curry spices and return the meat to the pan. Stir all the spices over the meat, then add the stock. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat right down, cover the pan and allow to stew for 3 hours. Check it now and again to make sure it has moisture, and add water if it's looking dry. Add the coconut milk and the tomatoes. Cook for 45min and add the pearl barley. Cook until the pearl barley is soft - another 45min or so

Ingredients (serves 4)

400g mutton

2 onions, chopped finely

4 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

1 scotch bonnet pepper

1 tin of coconut milk

3 tomatoes

600g pearl barley

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 tablespoon Jamaican curry spices

2 litres vegetable stock

Salt and pepper

Superfoods salad aka The Best Salad in the World possibly

I have been on my detox for less than a week and I haven't been entirely faithful. I've had a swig of coke, a glass of Pinot Grigio, a couple of oaty biscuits that looked healthy but actually had many ungodly things in them like "inverted sugar" (whatever that it), a bite of sausage, some delicious white bread and a pill of codeine. Many would have given up by now, concluding that their detox hasn't worked out this time, yet I persevere. Why? Because it would be easy to give up, to go out and have fun and forget all about it, but if I do that I will destroy my own trust in myself. If I continue, then despite the setbacks, by the month's end I will feel amazing and the odd glasses of wine and naughty bites of sausage will be forgotten, because they meant nothing anyway. Today has been a fantastic detox day, because I have invented "The Best Salad in the World possibly"

 Ingredients

Watercress

Pearl barley

Turkey (free-range)

Pomegranate (Half per portion)

Linseeds (or pumpkin seeds perhaps)

Sunflower seeds

Spring onion

Honey

Soya sauce

Vegetable stock

Balsamic

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

It all started when I went out for lunch yesterday with some friends and I ordered the "Superfoods Salad" (along with the wine and the bread), in order to "be good". This contained pumpkin, lentils, goat's cheese, salad leaves and some kind of seeds from what I can remember. It sounds like nothing special, but I guess my body needed the nutrients because I wolfed it down with minimal food envy. I always have a minimal level of food envy, so this is normal. I am very greedy and always want some of what everyone else is having. The salad was so delicious that it inspired me to make my own version today. And, my goodness, that up there was the best salad I have ever eaten! I marinated the turkey in a bit of honey, soya sauce and pepper, while the pearl barley cooked in my home-made vegetable stock. Obviously, you can always use a stock cube for this. I toasted the seeds lightly on a dry frying pan. The one thing I would change about this salad in the future are the linseeds - I'd replace them with something less small and annoying. After taking the seeds out of the frying pan, I added some olive oil and fried the turkey strips, turning half way, for about 10min. While the sauce was caramelizing, I chopped the spring onions and took the seeds out of the pomegranate - my least favourite job. Finally, I added the pearl barley to the frying pan and removed it from heat. Mix it all in well so you don't waste any of the delicious honey and soya flavours. Add the pomegranate. Prep the watercress, and add the contents of the frying pan to the plate. Sprinkle with toasted seeds, chopped spring onions and an artistic flair. Now, I challenge you to make a better salad that this. Without blowing my own trumpet (that's a lie, but here in the UK it's unseemly to be seen blowing it, so we pretend not to), I'm not sure it can be done

Homemade vegetable stock and pearl barley with kale for dinner

Overbearing sadness, that's what I keep coming back to. I'm glad that I've finally pinned down this emotion and defined it. I have moments of weird giddiness, of both rational and irrational anger, but underneath it all I know that it's this feeling I am trying to get away from. The main cause is my grandma's suffering, the waiting for her departure, knowing that there's a huge amount of pain still to come... but there are other things too. Right now, I see everything with sharpened vision and the world feels harsh

There's nothing much I can do about what is happening around me, only to learn to accept it so I can get through to the other side. However, I can do something about how I feel physically, so I've decided that it's the right moment for a detox. It's the right time of year and it will force me to spend some time on my own, feeling what I am supposed to feel rather than distracting myself. So to kick it all off I made my own vegetable stock today. I had no idea about all the crap they put in vegetable stock cubes. But since I am seeing everything clearly now, I have also taken to reading the ingredients of every single item that I buy. And the conclusion I reached today was: what's the point of buying vegetable stock? It's easy to make, and that's healthier, cheaper and tastier. I boiled half a peeled onion, a few celery sticks and a carrot in plenty of water for about 2 hours. I used some of it for my pearl barley and kale dish up there, and have lots left over. For the pearl barley and kale, I fried some garlic in olive oil, then added the grains, kale and stock, and cooked until soft. Half way through, I added cinnamon. I finished it off with plenty of soya sauce, tabasco and lemon juice. I feel healthier already. By the way, have you heard about this place? I hope that this is the future of food shopping...

Crispy Quinoa Cakes

Quinoa cakes - what an amazing idea! I got it from this guy, who got it from this lady, who I imagine got it from... the Peruvians? Or perhaps the chain was even longer that that, no matter. These are different, as I adapted them to whatever I had on hand. I used no parmesan, yet added plenty of seeds, which I guess makes mine a bit healthier. But who cares about that anyway. I'd say just take the basic premise, then use whatever you've got. Just so you know, I didn't bother about poached eggs or pesto and ate them as they came - well, sprinkled with sea salt that's all  - for a light lunch, and they were delicious, although I imagine they would work well with other stuff too, like chutneys and pickles for instance. An incredibly versatile little recipe we've got here... just the way I like 'em

Ingredients

2 cups cooked quinoa

Handful shallots, chopped into small cubes

Handful of seeds (pumpkin and sunflower I used)

2 eggs, beaten lightly

Salt and pepper

2 tsp paprika

1/4 cup flour

Olive oil for frying

You may find it strange that I use the American measuring system of "cups", but the truth is I don't actually measure anything at all, and cups are easier to estimate by eye. I blame my gran who taught me this way: "a little bit of this, a bit more of that", and now I don't own a set of scales. But lets say that 1 cup is approximately 150g. So you allow the quinoa to cool a bit while prepping the rest of the ingredients. Heat the oil, while mixing everything together by hand, then when it's hot form little patties and place them straight on to the frying pan. Quickly, so that you don't burn yourself. If you're feeling nervous and/or hesitant, then don't do this. Use a spoon instead, then pat it down. Fry for about 3 minutes each side on a medium heat, or until golden, and place on a newspaper or kitchen towel when done. I prefer newspaper because it makes me feel connected to the world and to history. It makes me think of the days when fish and chips were rolled up in newspaper, and that makes it taste better 

Pomegranate porridge

This is possibly the messiest breakfast I have ever made

It's also one of the most delicious. I cook the oats with either goat's milk or soya milk, a pinch of salt, a large teaspoon of honey and pomegranate seeds. If you get the seeds from a fresh pomegranate, you may want to make sure your pjs are covered up, because it's a bloodbath

And this is porridge with banana, honey and almonds. Also tasty (though I prefer the pomegranate), but nowhere near as messy. Not messy at all in fact, unless you drop and spill things because you're still half asleep

Warming wild rabbit stew/soup

Vegetarians look away now - it's shooting season in the UK and the butcher shops are full of pheasant, partridge, grouse and wild rabbit. I am typing this while eating a delicious rabbit and spinach stew/soup (depending on how you look at it), the recipe for which I would like to share with you, even though it was a by-product of another dish I was making - a "huntsman bake", for which I needed strips of rabbit. So, I was left with the bones with plenty of meat still attached, that I didn't have the will to scrape off with my not-so-great knife. I covered these in cold water, added a couple of bay leaves, a cinnamon stick and some garlic cloves and allowed to boil for 2-3 hours, adding water as it evaporated. I then allowed it to cool, and the next day, I took the carcass out, pulling any meat off it. I brought the stock back to the boil, this time adding lots of pearl barley. When the grains were soft, I added spinach leaves, salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon and finished it off with tabasco

Ingredients

Rabbit carcass (preferably in bits and with some meat still on it)

Pearl barley

Spinach

Cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

3 garlic cloves

Squeeze of lemon

Salt and pepper

Tabasco

In doing research for my cookbook, I've been learning about hunting in Eastern Europe. A fact that made me particularly proud of my countrymen was that, throughout Polish history, women were just as keen hunters as men. One piece of poetry that I read, from the 16th Century, suggested that many men found women more attractive in this sort of pursuit than dolled up in tight dresses! This makes me happy because it feels like the ultimate liberation from stereotypes. It's men loving women for what they are, and women being free to be what they are - natural, strong and fierce - rather than feeling forced to create a permanent ladylike illusion. There's hope yet...

Peruvian quinoa stew with salsa

I have recently joined Hackney Library, which has a surprisingly wide and varied selection of cookbooks. As I am embarking on the massive project of writing a cookbook myself, I'm really interested in reading other peoples' work, seeing all the many different ways you can approach this subject, learning what I like and what I don't. Although I have read three cookbooks in the past fortnight, cover to cover, there is only one which has actually inspired me to cook something - The Food and Cooking of Peru, by Flor Arcaya de Deliot

Perhaps it's the fact that Peruvian cooking is completely new to me. They approach ingredients in a completely different way to what I'm used to, which fascinates me. I mean, have you ever thought using quinoa as a base for a stew? I know that this is something that would never have even occurred to me had I not read about it here, but I'm really, really glad that I did. The recipe down there serves four

Ingredients

250g quinoa

1 litre water

250ml goat's milk

60ml olive oil

2 eggs, beaten

250g feta cheese

chilli powder

salt and pepper

tomatoes

spring onions

chilli 

lime juice

Combine the tomatoes, chilli, spring onion (all chopped) with the lime juice and some salt, to make salsa. Rinse the quinoa, then cover it with boiling water and allow to simmer, until the water has been absorbed. Slowly add the milk, stirring gently, then the oil and then the eggs. Finally, add half a teaspoon of chilli powder and sliced feta cheese. Cook for another 2 minutes stirring all the time, then serve with the tomato salsa. I substituted the normal milk for goat's milk, as (yawn) I seem to have developed a lactose intolerance after a bout of gastric flu. I won't bore you with the details, but, apparently it happens like that sometimes. Luckily, I can still eat cheese. I don't know what I'd do without cheese