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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.
In many ways, accompaniments to main courses are the 'Cinderella' elements of meals and recipes. After all, roast potatoes are not nearly as sexy as a good crown roast of lamb. Yet, a meal is not truly a meal without its accompanying carbohydrate and vegetable elements. Indeed, it's often because these elements are not considered sexy and are not often published that many have problems cooking and creating these elements of a meal.
As well as the list of recipes presented below you can also fetch Modern and Traditional dessert 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 790 recipes in total:
Not found what you're looking for? Search the web:
Chillies are a South American fruit, unknown to the rest of the world before 1492. Learn about this amazing spice and find two rather unusual chilli-based recipes for a jam and a sorbet
Hazelnuts are an important part of the Autumn's bounty and humans have been collecting and harvesting them for many thousands of years. Today, however, we tend to use them only as nuts and do not cook with them. To re-dress the balance, here is an introduction to hazelnuts along with some hazelnut-based recipes for you to try at home.
Rather than being a British or English invention, Chutneys originated in India and were re-worked during the 18th century as a means of preserving autumn fruit and vegetables. Here you get a recipe for a classic Indian chatni and a British chutney so you can see how one evolved into the other.
Prue Leiths' 'Leiths Cookery Bible' is one of those books that you never new you couldn't do without. It is the one cookery book that you need on your bookshelf (not that it will stay there very long). To find out why this book is so indispensible why not read the review now?
An ice cream is a cold dessert made, at the most basic level, with cream and flavourings and which is whipped to incorporate air into the mix both before and during the freezing process. However, Italian ice creams (gelati) have more flavour and are whipped less so they contain less air and are creamier. French ice creams (glaces) are based on an egg custard and taste rich and creamy. Find out more about these frozen desserts and how to prepare them.
Fish is the staple protein source for much of the human population. Fish is an important high-quality protein source that much of the Western diet is deficient in. In this article you will learn a little about fish as well as gaining two classic fish recipes.
Barbecuing, or cooking meat directly above a flame, is a very traditional cooking method and probably represents humanity's oldest cooking technique. There is nothing like a summer outdoor barbecue and here you will find recipes for a classic kebab and sticky ribs both designed to make the most out of barbecuing.
West African cuisine is all based around making the most of all the ingredients available. This is a hearty, cheap and quite spicy stew that makes use those parts of the animal that we in the West tend to ignore - hearts and livers. The dish is very tasty and makes a wonderful accompaniment to rice. It's very cheap to prepare and extremely healthy for you.
Those obsessive about wild foods will source a whole meal from the wild. But this is not the way that it's best to start with or even to keep going with wild foods. It's far better to gather a few fruit, wild greens or mushrooms and to add these to your everyday cookery. This way you get an introduction to the range of wild foods available and you begin to extend your cookery by adding wild ingredients.
Chillies (chili, chilé, ají) is an amazing spice that originates in Central and Northern South America. It was unknown in the Old World until the early 1500 but by 1549 had made its way across the world from Europe through Africa, the Near East and had reached China and Japan. Learn about the history of the spread of chillies and why this is such an amazing spice.
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