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Here you will find a large range of recipes which do not fit into the 'ancient' theme of the remainder of the recipes on this site. In essence these recipes represent a sampling of the several thousand recipes that I've gathered, adapted and personally cooked over the years. Many of these recipes originate with University friends who helped engender my interest in world cuisine. Others come from exchanging recipes on the internet or going through recipe books to search for things that work (and things that don't) and are the results of my own experiments and modifications on these recipes. Yet others are things that I've tried and which turned out so well that I decided to write them up.
I have a passion for food and cookery that is (hopefully) bolstered by a formal scientific training that lets me know what's happening when food cooks. This is one reason why Roman cookery with it's balancing of salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami flavours is so fascinating (the same balancing is also present in Thai cuisine) and I want to bring this approach to the balancing of flavours to traditional Western and to fusion foods. Spice blends are fascinating as they show both how foods and flavourings have developed locally across the world and how the spice trade (especially the introduction of Black Pepper and Chillis) have affected the major cuisines of the world.
As well as the list of recipes presented below you can also fetch Modern and Traditional Bread, Cake and Pasty recipes by meal type via these links:
| Starters | Fish Courses | Meat Courses |
| Vegetarian | Accompaniments to Main Courses | Desserts |
| Breads, Cakes and Pastries | Sauces and Jams | Snacks |
| Drinks | Spice Blends |
Alphabetical list of Starters recipes follow (limited to 100 recipes per page). There are 1861 recipes in total:
Not found what you're looking for? Search the web:
Pork and Aubergine in Hot Sauce is a classic Chinese dish, heavily influenced by the cuisine of Sichuan, China, with its use of hot chilli sauce and mouth-tingling Sichuan pepper (actually a citrus fruit rather than a true pepper!). Learn the secrets of this simple but delicious dish today.
I know that the combination of chilli and chocolate sounds odd to modern ears. Yet this is an ancient mix used by the Aztecs and later adopted in Sicilian cuisine. What's presented here is a rich and piquant gravy that goes excellently well with game dishes.
This article gives an introduction to the history of that classic breakfast food, the waffle, starting form the Medieval European origins to the invention of the classic American waffle. Recipes for traditional and chiffon waffles are also given as well as some ideas of how to adapt and very these classic recipes.
Pastry is one of the most basic components of cooking, needed for pies, tarts and cake bases of many types. It originates in the ancient method of applying a paste of flour and water to baked meats to protect them in the fire. But, in the Middle Ages fats were added and modern pastry was born. Learn a little about the different pastry types and see a recipe for a traditional classic flaky pastry.
When thinking of cakes, everyone automatically imagines a recipe for baking. Yet, for hundreds of years before ovens became ubiquitous cakes were being steamed rather than baked. Here you will find a recipe for a classic steamed cake that you can prepare anywhere, even on the barbecue or whilst camping. Wow your friends by giving them a freshly-steamed cake the next time you go camping.
Learn a little about the origins of British biscuits and American cookies and how these classic baked goods differ from one another. Also presented is a recipe for a classic American chocolate chip cookie and a traditional British tea-time biscuit.
The recipe here for moy-moy with pepper soup gives a vegetarian version of the classic West African 'pepper soup' (chilli-based stew). The moy-moy (or steamed black-eyed bean cakes) represent a Nigerian classic that's typically steamed in banana or plantain leaves. I've adapted the recipe to make them more muffin-like (which is better in terms of providing a substantial vegetarian meal).
Ghana is one of the most fertile and productive of West African countries. It is also the inheritor nation of the Ga and Ashanti poeples, ancient rulers of West Africa. The cuisines of Ghana are diverse and characterized by he use of chillies, native spices and boiled eggs in the cooking. Here you will find two typical Ghanaian recipes.
The egg is one of nature's finest storage foods, packed with protein and fats. Chickens have been domesticated several times throughout human history and they are mankind's commonest domesticated animal, raised for meat and eggs. Here you will learn a little about eggs, why they are important in cookery and how they have been used throughout the ages.
When you examine the history of drinks, what you see is the attempt by human civilizations to render drinking water safe. This article gives an introduction to the ways various civilizations have chosen to make water safe to drink as well as providing two recipes for a fruit juice drink and a spice infusion of lemongrass.
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