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

I’m a big dairy fan, and almost always have yoghurt in the house. Usually Greek, as I like my yoghurt thick and creamy. So when I was looking for easy smoked salmon recipes and came across these salmon yoghurt bowls by That Clean Life, it looked like a pretty good idea. Why not savoury yoghurt bowls, instead of sweet? This is basically the yoghurt bowl version of a salmon-cucumber-avocado roll, minus the rice. Not bad, not bad at all :) Ingredients (serves 2:) 100g smoked salmon 1/2 cucumber, peeled and sliced 1 avocado, sliced 1 cup Greek yoghurt (I used cottage cheese) 1 tsp fresh dill, chopped some flakey sea salt or fleur-de-sel 2 tsp avocado oil (I used olive oil) 2 wedges lemon Instructions: 1. Divide the yoghurt over two bowls. Top with the cucumber, avocado and smoked salmon. 2. Sprinkle over some sea salt and oil. Garnish with fresh dill and a lemon wedge and serve.

One-pot meals are a great way to save time and stress. The happiness of taking them out of the oven, knowing you have nothing left to do... aaahhh. And obviously, the better the dish, the greater the pleasure. Grateful to Martha Stewart for this one :) Ingredients (serves 2): 2 whole trout, scaled, gutted and cleaned 300g waxy potatoes 320g cherry tomatoes 1 tablespoon fresh oregano 1 clove garlic, smashed 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus 1 extra teaspoon 1 teaspoon course salt 1 lemon Instructions: Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. 1. Toss together the potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, oregano, olive oil, and half a teaspoon salt. Season with black pepper. Arrange in a 20x30cm baking dish - first layer the potatoes, overlapping them slightly if needed, then toss the tomatoes on top (you don’t see the layering on my picture because I cooked for one and made half the recipe. The baking dish was large enough not to have to layer). 2. Roast about 20 minutes until the po...

I used to make home made pesto all the time - the kind we all know so well, with pine nuts and basil. But sometimes it’s nice to try something different. Substitute rocket lettuce (arugula) for the basil, for instance. Or substitute walnuts for pine nuts. Or do both, and then you get this recipe - inspired by (and an almost exact copy of) Gavin’s recipe at AnotherFoodBlogger. Ingredients: 75g rocket lettuce (arugula) 30g walnuts 30g grated parmesan 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tbsp lemon juice 100mL olive oil Instructions: 1. Lightly toast the walnuts in a skillet. Watch out that they don’t burn - it always tends to happen right at that moment when you stop watching the pan, and then fast. So keep an eye on the pan. 2. Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend, until you get the consistency you like. (In theory you could add salt and black pepper, but it doesn’t really need it.)

Fresh, tangy and easily made at home. Until I tried it, I never would have guessed - but once I did I’ll think twice about about buying prefab lemon curd. Willing to bet you will, too... Ingredients: 3 large eggs 150g granulated white sugar 80mL fresh lemon juice 60g unsalted butter, at room temperature 1.5 tablespoon finely shredded lemon zest Instructions: 1. Start by grating the zest from your lemons. This is MUCH easier to do if you do it before, rather than after squeezing them.  2. Set the zest aside and juice the lemons. 3. Combine eggs, sugar and lemon juice in a heatproof, stainless steel bowl that is big enough to stand on top of a pan of boiling water. 4. Bring the water to a simmer and leave the heat on low. Place the stainless steel bowl on top (so that the bottom of the bowl only just touches the water) and stir to combine the ingredients properly. Keep stirring constantly while the mixture ‘cooks’ to prevent it from curdling. ...