Ilse's Kitchen - culinary adventures of a girl who loves to eat

Radishes are a vegetable I’d always filed directly in the ‘resistance corner’ of my brain. I think, maybe, because I associated it with bitterness. When I read that cooking - sautéing, roasting or stir frying - softens the taste, I thought it worth a try. And what do you know, it’s true - stir fried radish tastes nothing like fresh radish and is actually quite refreshing. This dish makes a lovely side dish - not just surprising, but also and easy. Serves 2-4: 2 bunches radish both ends cut off, then halved 2 shallots, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon ginger, grated 1 tablespoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon honey handful fresh cilantro, chopped Instructions: 1. Pour the sesame oil in a wok pan and add the radish, shallots, ginger and garlic. Stir fry over high heat for 3 minutes. 2. Add the soy sauce and honey and stir fry for another minute. 3. Serve warm topped with fresh cilantro.

After my lentil stew leftovers for lunch today (yum), dinner time called for something lighter. Something that was lighter, and made use of the celery stalks I still had sitting in my fridge. And preferably something for which I had everything in the house, as the fridge is still plenty full and I’m trying to limit the number of visits I make to the supermarket. Willow Arlen’s recipe was the answer. This is a slightly adjusted version. Ooo, and also - one of the first vegan recipes on this blog. Yay ;) Ingredients (serves 2 as a starter or side, or 1 as a main): 4 stalks celery, chopped 1 cup cilantro, chopped 1 cup lamb lettuce 20 or so mint leaves, chopped 2 spring onions, chopped (use the bulbs and part of the green stalks) 1 red chili pepper, deseeded and chopped juice of 1/2 lime 1 tablespoon sesame seeds 1 tablespoon rice vinegar 1 tablespoon runny honey (if your honey isn’t runny, heat it to make it run) 1 teaspoon sesame oil Instructions: 1....

After I moved to Bilbao in September 2008, this was one of the first Spain-inspired recipes I ever made. Bilbao is green and hilly and lies in the Basque north of Spain, a part of the country that is wilder, wetter and colder than the rest. Eating out was cheap, so I ate out a lot. And at just about every local restaurant I came across, they served a variation on this dish. It’s perfect for cold rainy days - and for today, the coldest day in the past two weeks. It fills your belly and warms you right up. Ingredients (serves 2): 1.5 L vegetable stock 100g potatoes (of a waxy variety, that retain their shape when boiled), peeled 120g carrots, chopped 1 large onion, chopped 100g chorizo, sliced 2 cups dried pardina lentils (or 1 can of pre-cooked lentils). 3 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into slices optional: 100g pre-cooked chick peas 1 tbsp flour dash of Worcestershire sauce dash of Maggi seasoning dash of Tabasco sauce 2 bay leaves spices: 1/4 tsp each of cumi...

We hardly realised it, but Izzy & I walked a whopping 18km yesterday. When I got home, I was starved but too tired to stand on my feet. So I opted for a no-cook salad. All you have to do is a tiny bit of chopping, shaving, and you’re done. Oh yeah, and you toast the almonds - but that hardly qualifies as cooking. It’s the perfect under fifteen minute meal, and my body was ever grateful for the veggies. Ingredients (serves 2): 2 zucchini 2 long sweet marconi peppers 100g goat cheese 150g almonds, skinned and unsalted 1 handful of fresh cilantro leaves 1 handful of fresh mint leaves Cilantro Mint Vinaigrette:  10g cilantro, finely chopped 10g mint, finely chopped 1 red chili pepper, deseeded and finely chopped juice of 1/2 orange juice of 1 lemon  100mL olive oil pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper Instructions: 1. Using a vegetable peeler or, if you have one, a mandoline, shave the zucchini in thin strips. Avoid the centr...

Sitting next to the fireplace in a country cottage in Franschhoek, South Africa and leafing through an old local edition of "Woman and Home” left behind by some previous passer-by, I came across a fabulous recipe for pork in little gem lettuce. I loved it so much I just had to share. This is more or less it, in a slightly altered version. Ingredients (serves 2-3): 1 little gem lettuce 150g minced meat (50% pork 50% beef) 1/2 red pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped 2 tsp fish sauce 2 tsp fresh lemon juice 1 tsp soy sauce 2 tsp fresh mint leaves 2 tsp fresh koriander (cilantro) leaves dash of vegetable oil 1 tsp sesame oil 1 tsp sesame seeds (white, black, or mixed) + an extra dash Instructions: 1. Pour a dash of vegetable oil into a skillet and fry the minced meat until it is no longer pink. Remove from pan and set aside, leaving as much of the oil as possible in the pan. 2. In the remaining oil, lightly sautée the red pepper (2-3 minutes) on medium heat,...