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

It sounds strange, but Mexico has great sushi. Some of the best I’ve ever had, I think. Lots of fresh fish and best of all, they use cream cheese as an ingredient. Pretty fantastic. Salmon and cream cheese make a great pairing. Also, it turns out, when you exclude the ingredients that makes them ‘sushi’ - the rice and the nori (seaweed). Like this version, that fits right into the low-carb, high fat Keto diet. Ingredients (makes one good-size roll): 150g smoked salmon 120g cream cheese 1/2 avocado, sliced 1/4 red onion, halved and sliced 1-2 teaspoons white sesame seeds 1-2 teaspoons black sesame seeds few sprigs of fresh chives * This works really well with a combination of cucumber and carrot too. Or mango. Just make sure they’re cut into long thin strips and line them up along the centre with the avocado. Need: A sheet of plastic foil and a sushi rolling mat Instructions: 1. Spread a piece of plastic foil over a sushi rolling mat. Take the salmon and spread it, ...

Cherries!!! The season is beginning and fruit and vegetable shops are starting to fill up with them - red, shiny and irresistible. For those days when you - like me - cannot resist and are looking for something different to do with them than eat them raw (which pretty awesome in itself), try this recipe for a feel-good brunch. Or dessert. Or whatever :) This photo was taken a while back at a vegetable market in Timisoara, Romania. Look at me being happy about all those heaping piles of cherries... 🍒 Ingredients (serves 4): cherry compote 500g sweet ripe cherries 4 tbsp lemon juice 100ml orange juice 2 tbsp red wine 1 vanilla bean 70g sugar 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon crepe batter 125g flour 2 eggs 300ml milk 20g melted butter 1 tsp rum (optional) pinch of salt cream cheese filling 200g cream cheese 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 30g (1/4 cup) powdered sugar Instructions: 1. Start with the compôte. Stone (de-seed) the cherries and remove the stems. If you lik...

Not long ago, I made goat cheese and peach puff pastry tarts . With a big tin of fresh strawberries in the fridge, I thought I’d try something with strawberries this time. Ingredients (makes 4): 4 squares puff pastry (the ones I used were roughly 14 x 14cm), thawed 200g cream cheese 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest 1 teaspoon lemon juice 3/4 cup strawberries 1 small egg cane sugar few leaves fresh mint, shredded Instructions: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius 1. Place the puff pastry sheets on a floured surface. Cut a small strip about 1cm from the outer rim all around, but leave a small piece at two diagonally opposing edges uncut. Then grab the corner that is not left uncut, lift it, and fold it, placing it on top of the rim opposite it. Take the bit you cut off from that side and flip it the same way, making a little raised ledge all around the puff pastry. You can use a bit of water to make it stick better. The corners you left attached ...

This morning I sat and read behind the window, sun rays warming my skin behind the glass. Like yesterday, the warmth gave me a tinge of nostalgia for Bilbao. Specifically in Bilbao, leaving Uribarri behind you and turning left opposite the Ribera, for a little restaurant around the corner called La Citronella. La Citronella no longer exists but I as I’ve said before, I loved it. It had pattern-papered walls, others painted bright red, with tiny tables, a small kitchen, fabulous espresso machine, no-nonsense waiter and a different four course brunch menu every day, five days a week. One course always involved eggs - it was, after all, brunch - and the eggs were prepared a different way each day. And there was always a dessert, for what good is a menu without something sweet to send you home happy? Basking in the spring sun and thinking of La Citronella, I decided to make some comfort food. And with comfort food goes a comfort dessert - light enough for sunny days, but full of ri...

I've been holding out on posting this recipe for a while because whenever I make them, I forget to write down the quantities - it's more of an "a little of this, a little of that" approach to cooking. I got back into stuffed bell peppers while visiting my parents in Mexico City over Christmas last year - we've had them often over the years, mostly because they're good but also because they're a very easy (and, cutting excepted, relatively fuss-free) starter to large dinner parties. Because they really are that convenient - this is pretty effortless as far as cooking goes - I made about ten of them for the goodbye lunch I threw when I left Mexico last January. It was my first attempt at cooking for fourteen people, and I'm proud to say it didn't go too badly. Planning was a big factor, and the great thing about these (like many other recipes I like to include on my list for dinner parties) is that you can make them ahead. And you probably should, ...