Pinolate (Ligurian Pine Nut Cookies) Pinolate are simple Ligurian pine nut cookies with a wonderfully chewy soft centre, a crisp outer and delicious nutty flavour. Also called pignoli or amaretti con pignoli, they’re traditionally made with a mix of bitter and sweet almonds. As bitter almonds can be hard to find, I use marzipan mixed […]
Benne Wafers (Sesame Cookies) Benne (pronounced benny) is the heirloom ancestor to modern day sesame seeds. Morgan McGlone, who worked with renowned Southern chef Sean Brock at Husk in Charleston (South Carolina), tells me that even raw they have the rich, nutty flavour of toasted sesame seeds. Slaves brought benne seeds with them from Africa, […]
Fruit Leather Walnut Rolls Fruit leather, pestil in Turkish, is popular all over the Middle East and Eastern Europe. It’s fruit juice or pulp that’s been dried into chewy strips, originally to preserve excess summer fruit for winter. It’s pastel in Armenian, pastilos in Greek and is also known as bastik in some parts of […]
Miso & Sesame Cookies Japanese sweets often have an intriguing blend of sweet and savoury, and if you like the black sesame cookies in our Month of Japanese, you’ll love these miso-spiked ones too. I like white miso for its mild taste, but you can experiment with different ones if you like a more savoury […]
Beetroot Pickled Turnips Pickled vegetables are always present on a Middle Eastern table. Olives, green chillies and turnips are most common but small eggplants, cucumbers and cauliflower are also popular. Beetroot pickled turnips, traditionally stained bright pink with beetroot juice, are the most distinctive – though commercial ones are usually artificially coloured these days. The […]
Hong Kong Walnut Biscuits While lard is traditional in these deliciously crumbly Hong Kong walnut biscuits, I’m more likely to have butter on hand so that’s what I use, I also like the flavour Pepe Saya’s gorgeous butter adds. Substitute extra castor sugar for the brown sugar if need be. Makes 12 pieces Ingredients ¾ […]
Masala Nuts Spicy salty masala nuts are a popular treat in India, especially during Diwali. Use any nuts you like, just one kind or a mixture, and mix up the spicing to suit your taste. Use rice flour instead of potato starch if that’s what you have on hand. Serve these nuts with drinks – […]
Preserved Lemons Preserved lemons, a Moroccan specialty, are super easy to make, a great pantry staple to spice up many dishes and a wonderful homemade gift. It’s a great way to use excess fruit from a backyard lemon tree; or wait until lemons are in season (and inexpensive) then make a big jar to keep […]
Butterscotch Cookies I love having something homemade to serve when friends drop by for a cuppa – but sometimes I just get caught short. That’s when I whip up a batch of these butterscotch cookies in less time than it takes to dash out to the shop for a packet of biscuits! You could save […]
Anzac Biscuits A number of foreign friends living in Australia have said that Anzac Day feels more like our national day than Australia Day does. And the legend of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and their battle at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, is certainly etched deep in the Australian psyche. It’s so […]
