Ricotta Pancakes

I recently had the best pancakes of my life. They were served with passion fruit curd and they were EVERYTHING. I have eaten them twice in a week, no lie.

And, interestingly, they were ricotta pancakes, something I’ve never had before. I immediately had to try to recreate them. Ricotta pancakes aren't light and fluffy exactly, but they also aren't wet and crepe-y. They are also small and bitesize and pretty easy to make.

Now, I didn't have any passion fruit curd on hand (shame!) so I improvised with my boyfriend's favourite waffle toppings - whipped cream and strawberry jam!

But feel free to throw whatever toppings you want, nutella could be awesome, honey also would be super nice with chopped bananas on top.

Makes about 18 small pancakes, no judgement of how many that will serve – you do you

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate (plus a little coffee) Cheesecake

Its a miserable cold week in Feb. This the the antidote. It is chocolate on every layer, exactly what you need. It’s amazing – crunchy chocolate base, smooth chocolate middle, and runny chocolate topping. I added some coffee to the topping to cut through the chocolate just a little bit. 

Let's get this cake a cookin'

Now, I don’t know if I was just being stupid, but I originally tried to add melted chocolate to the cheesecake mixture to make it all chocolatey, but the mixture was so cold that the chocolate clumped and wouldn’t mix evenly at all. So, this is a second try with cocoa powder which works beautifully.

This does take a little bit of time to assemble in full but it is really worth it, and you can prepare it the night before and allow to chill in the fridge, so it’s a good party dessert!

The key to the amazing texture of this cake is cooking it in a water bath, which isn’t hard, just takes a little bit of preparation.

Yemista - Stuffed Greek Peppers

Countdown to the weekend is on! Well, not for me, because I'm working this weekend. Feel for me.

But don't feel too bad, because I made these for dinner and they're amazing. You gotta try these. I have been trying to branch out on my side dishes, and I often get inspiration from food I try in restaurants.

After I had eaten them, I just knew I had to recreate these amazing stuffed peppers that I had in my favourite Greek restaurant. I have made some changes to the traditional recipe as I am wont to do.. Traditionally, as far as I can tell, you tend to include sultanas and mint, but I don’t like sultanas and I think mint can be overwhelming in savoury dishes. I also pre-cooked the rice a little because I only had brown rice and my boyfriend is very fussy with the way his rice is cooked.

Delicious filling!

These are great as a side, or on as part of a  little snack-y tapas feast!

Pan Fried Garlic Prawns

Whenever I go out to eat, I will often order fish or some kind of seafood. But I can count on one hand the number of times I have cooked that kind of food at home in the last year.

Last Friday evening I had a hankering for prawns after having had tapas recently. I decided to just go ahead and wing it, without much of a recipe but just an idea of what flavours I was fancying.

I'm always surprised at how fast seafood cooks! I had to read the cooking instructions on the packet a few times to be certain. This is a great midweek meal - it's not cheap (prawns are surprisingly pricey!) but it's super quick and tasty. I decided to serve my prawns with some aromatic fried veggies and some bruchetta-style bread, but a hunk of warm buttered sourdough would also serve just as well!