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

The day I made this soup is the day I learned to recognise the flavour of star anise in food. I’d known it in licorice, but had never realised what it did to hearty dishes. Star anise, I learned, is one of the five ingredients in Chinese five spice powder - (along with cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns and fennel) - the Chinese have been using it for ages. And I never would have guessed it, but it does something quite amazing.  Ingredients (serves 2): 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 large shallots, minced 1 bunch scallions, chopped. Set the green aside for the topping.  4 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced 2 whole star anise 1300 ml chicken broth 2 tablespoon soy sauce 240g mushrooms, sliced 1/2 head of large bok choy, roughly chopped 120g rice noodles 4-6 quail eggs (or 2 regular eggs), medium-soft boiled garnish: red pepper flakes or sesame seeds Instructions: 1. Take the olive oil and heat in a medium sized soup pan, then add the shallots and cook for 3-4...

After a long spiel of Italian and Western dishes, I’ve been drawn to Asian lately - from stir fries to curries. Two of the ingredients I’d bought to play around with were bok choy and pork. After testing them recently in a Chinese-inspired stir fry, today I decided to go Thai and try them in a curry recipe that originally called for mini corn. The result was simple but intensely flavourful - and although I’ve been eating something different almost every day, this is definitely going down on my repeat-list.  Ingredients (serves 1): 120g pork, sliced along the grain 65g mushrooms, sliced 1 large leaf bok choy, roughly chopped 2 scalllops, diagonally sliced 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste 2 teaspoons smooth peanut butter 100ml coconut milk 100ml water 1/2 tablespoon Thai fish sauce 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 teaspoon soft brown sugar stalks and leaves of 1/4 bush cilantro, stalks finely chopped and leaves picked Juice of 1/2 lime Serve with white rice or T...

Some days, like today, bread for lunch just won’t do. My body’s been working overtime and was craving some comfort food. Comfort like pizza, but no time to make it, and no wish to order and go into food coma when I still had mountains of work ahead. Instead of loading up on carbs, I took an aubergine and turned it into mini pizzas. Yum. :) Ingredients (serves 1 as substitute for a regular pizza, or 2 as a snack or starter: 1 aubergine (eggplant) 1/2 cup tomato sauce 1 clove garlic, minced 6-7 leaves basil, plus some small leaves to top. 1 cup shredded cheese (mozzarella or another mild cheese) 3 mushrooms, sliced Instructions: 1. Take the aubergine and slice it into 6-8 slices, about 1.5 cm thick. Sprinkle both sides with salt and place on a plate covered with paper towels to allow the water to leak out of the aubergine. Leave for about 15 minutes, then refresh the paper towel and turn the slices over. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. 2. In a small saucepan, heat the oil and ad...

I had a box of shiitake sitting in the fridge. I like shiitake - they hold less water than other mushroom types and have a meatier texture and lovely, smokey flavour. So when I was brainstorming what to do with them and came across a mixed mushroom gnocchi recipe from Sydney Markets, I decided to swap the mixed mushrooms for shiitake and to make shiitake gnocchi instead. What a lovely dish it turned out to be.  Ingredients (serves 2): 300g gnocchi 300g shiitake mushrooms, halved 1 medium size onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped Sprinkle of chili flakes 20 sage leaves 100mL white wine (*substitute chicken stock if you don’t use alcohol) grated parmesan 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp butter 1 tsp lemon juice freshly ground black pepper Instructions: 1. Prepare the gnocchi according to the instructions on the package and set aside. 2. Heat one tablespoon olive oil and one tablespoon butter in a large skillet and add the sage leaves. Fry until crispy...

For a while, I ordered vegetable delivery crates filled with seasonal veggies. By way of the crate I discovered cavolo nero... if it hadn't been chosen for me, I might never have given it a second look. And that would have been too bad, because then I would never have learned about all the wonderful things you can do with it. Cavolo nero (black kale, Tuscan cabbage, or palmkool in Dutch) is an Italian cabbage with dark soft leaves. Instead of growing in heads like some other cabbage types, its leaves grow straight up like fronds... and it is, it turns out, a beloved ingredient in minestrone soups, Tuscan risotto, pasta, and even lentil dishes. I put it to the test with the first best thing I had in the pantry: some carnaroli rice. The cavolo nero passed the test with flying colours.