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Last year I decided to start making my own mayo. I had heard both that it was terrifying and awful and impossible to get right, and that it was really easy, so I wasn't sure what to expect. My first attempt was awful. It never came together, no matter how long I beat the eggs and oil for. My next came out ok, but I used olive oil and it had a distinctively oily flavour. And then from there, it took off. I can now whip up a bowl of mayo in under 10 minutes to go with whatever we are having and we rarely use store bought mayo any more. I have been playing with different combinations of flavours and ingredients (beyond the basic egg yolk and oil). I always start with the basic ratio of 1 egg yolk to 3/4 c oil from Samin Nosrat's Salt Fat Acid Heat cookbook (it is to her that I owe my figuring out of the art of mayo mixing). After that, I play. Here are a few recent ones. Ingredients: Lemon and Sage Mayo -> Made specially for turkey sandwiches: 1 egg yolk 3/4 c sunflower seed oil Juice of 1 lemon 1 tsp crushed sage salt and pepper to taste Lime and Chilli Cacao Mayo: -> Made for a sweet potato fries and grilled cheese sandwich lunch 1 egg yolk 3/4 c sunflower seed oil Juice of 1 lime 1 (generous) tsp Aloha Chilli Spiced Cacao Salt to taste Herby Vinegar Mayo: -> Made for the Chicken and Waffles 1 egg yolk 3/4 c sunflower seed oil 1/8 - 1/4 c herb infused white wine vinegar (according to consistency and taste) Season-all salt mix (or a similar homemade spiced and herby salt mix like I used) to taste Red Wine Mayo: -> Made for roasted artichokes (failed) then successfully for falafel salads 1 egg yolk 3/4 c rapeseed oil 1 - 2 tbsp red cooking wine 1-2 tbsp white vinegar 1 tsp thyme 1/2 tsp sumac Salt to taste ( I used herby Alpine salt) Apple Cider Vinegar Mayo: -> made for roasted veg with traditional Swiss sausage 1 egg yolk 3/4 c sunflower oil 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 tsp tarragon salt and pepper to taste I've really enjoyed trying out different flavour combinations for mayo, but also experimenting with different forms of acid. Mayo needs some acid, I find, in order not to taste like simply food lube and nothing more, but the choice of acid has an impact no only on the flavour but also the perception of creaminess, and on the texture. Red wine, for example, only mildly acidic, created a mayo that was smooth and creamy but still had a rich, layered flavour. I have had a couple of failed mayos. The first time I tried the red wine mayo, I think the problem was that I added the wine to the yolk too early. Whatever it was though, the egg foamed with the addition of the oil rather than coming together. I tried fixing it, but it refused to stop foaming. It was a tasty, but rather strange sauce. I found uses for it in other things, adding a richness to dishes, but qua mayo, it didn't really work. The second failed mayo of recent times was the apple cider vinegar one. That one I think, as with my very first mayo, I added the oil too quickly at the start (although less quickly this time than the first) and so the yolk stayed a dark orangey yellow and didn't thicken. I used Samin's method for fixing broken mayo from Salt Fat Acid Heat and it came together right away. The end result was a slightly liquidier mayo than I would otherwise have gone for, but it tasted fantastic and the goopier quality didn't end up being a problem. Other acids I would like to try for my mayo include white wine, red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar, and orange juice, but when I try them will depend on them matching up with something I am making so we'll see.

And then sometimes things fail. In all fairness, I knew that these weren't going to come out like true crumpets, but went with it anyway, and came out with a very interesting snack food that worked relatively well. I set out with the plan of making actual crumpets, using the recipe from Tim Hayward's Food DIY. It is absolutely ages since I have had a crumpet, and as I developed a taste for them when living in Scotland (especially hot, with butter and honey dripping through them), I was excited when I stumbled on his recipe. I started mixing up the ingredients and then discovered that the yeast really should have been used before we went away for Easter, rather than on our return. It was looking rather like some alien slime from a sci-fi movie might, as the unknown creature lurks around the corner leaving only hints of its passage. It did not look like something which should be going in my food. Having already mixed some of the ingredients, I riffed from there to see what would come out. To compensate for the yeast, I added a little whey and some baking soda in addition to the baking powder. The flavour was slightly impacted by the extra bicarb, so in future I will skip that. Not unexpectedly, the batter didn't rise as I would have had I included yeast, and it didn't cook the same either. Having tried the standard method of cooking crumpets, in a skillet using a metal ring, and burnt my fingers without getting satisfactory crumpety things, I decided to experiment from there with the cooking method. I tried cooking them like regular pancakes, but they came out flat and uninteresting. I baked a couple in muffin cups, which came out sticky and doughy and a little odd. And then I cooked some like Yorkshire puddings, heating oil in the oven before adding the batter and then baking them. They didn't cook nearly the same way as Yorkshire puds, but they did come out very well and were agreed to be the tastiest method of eating my Franken-crumpets. They had a crispy, golden exterior and a soft light inside. Here is the "recipe" for these Franken-crumpets, an interesting new bready thing good with jam. Ingredients: 2 3/4 c flour a pinch of salt 1 2/3 c warm milk 1 1/4 c warm water 1/2 c whey 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda Olive oil for the ramequins 1) Mix together the dry ingredients. Create a well in the middle and add the milk, gradually mixing it into the flour mixture. Gradually add the water and whey. 2) Pour about 1 tsp of oil into several ramequin tins and place them on a baking try in the oven at 220°C until the oil shimmers. 3) Drop 2 tablespoons of batter into each ramequin and return to the oven, baking about 15minutes, until the tops are golden and crispy. Spread with jam and enjoy! Despite this coming out rather differently to what I had hoped, I may well return to these. I can see them working well as a side to a savoury meal too. I have however also picked up more yeast and do intend on another assault on the mysterious world of crumpets. Book Pairing: While making these, I was listening to Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. I enjoyed it, but I find him very dark and somewhat depressing. I hadn't read any Dostoyevsky since reading Crime and Punishment as part of my University Russian lit course, and had steered clear since because I found him so then. He writes well (while being no Tolstoy!) but I was a little disappointed with the turn of the plot, and am a little confused at the psychology of some of the characters. EDIT: I have since remade crumpets, this time using yeast that was fresh and looked as it should. No horror film props in my kitchen this time and they worked beautifully! They looked and tasted like crumpets and were perfect with butter, double crème de Gruyère, honey or jam! I still am having the same issue with using cookie cutters instead of rings (they are ordered but not here yet!) so I did trial using folded foil instead of rings, but had mixed results, and finally got tired of doing little ones and made on giant one. I worked just as well, so we had slices of it instead of individual rounds. I am delighted to have found a recipe for these that works though! As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases

I love Borani and have ever since discovering it a few years ago in my Taste of Persia cookbook by Naomi Duguid. The idea of a savoury, creamy yogurt dish with vegetable toppings was naturally a hit for me, and I've been playing around with it ever since. I am not sure a Persian would recognise it much, but that's not the point. I am making tasty food, not necessarily culturally authentic food. Since trying Ottolenghi's Sweet Potatoes in a Tomato and Tamarind Sauce last week from his Flavour cookbook, it occurred to me that the spiced and roasted sweet potatoes could potentially go very nicely on a borani, so we tried it, with some additions and modifications, and it worked beautifully! I added some spinach, but hoped that adding it to the sweet potatoes under a cover in the oven it would wilt. It didn't. Instead it dehydrated, and added a bit of texture to the dish and was delightful. The joy of mistakes in the kitchen! Ingredients: 1 kg yogurt 1 tsp thyme 4 sweet potatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces 1 tbsp maple syrup 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp cardamom 1 1/2 tsp cumin Juice of 1 lime 3 tsp pul biber 2 handfuls of spinach 1 spring onion, chopped Salt and pepper to taste 1) Drain the yogurt at least an hour through a cheese cloth (or clean dish towel) over a bowl (and keep the whey! It's great as an ingredient in other things! I drained mine into the bowl I used for step 2 and have flavoured whey now) You can drain it up to overnight depending on how thick you want it and how liquidy it is to start with. 2) Place the sweet potatoes in a large mixing bowl and add the maple syrup, olive oil, cardamom, cumin, salt and pepper, lime juice, and pul biber. Mix well then spread out on a baking sheet (grease proof paper or a silicon sheet can be helpful here!) and bake at 240°C for 25 minutes, covered with foil. The uncover and bake for a further 10 minutes until the bottoms of the potatoes start to caramelise. 3) Place the spinach in with the sweet potatoes and mix well. Cover with the foil again and bake a further 5 minutes or so until the spinach is cooked (dehydrated and crispy if it comes out like mine). Allow the sweet potatoes and spinach to cool a little. 4) Place the yogurt in the same mixing bowl that you used in step 2 and add thyme, sumac and some salt and pepper. (I used a salt flavoured with Alpine herbs and flowers). Mix well. 5) To serve spoon yogurt into bowls and top with the sweet potato and spinach mix. Sprinkle spring onions over the top. Enjoy! I loved this! I found the interplay of flavours witty and stimulating. Or maybe that was the conversation at dinner... But the acidity of the yogurt played against the sweetness of the potatoes and the deeper flavours of the spices, and off against the sharper note of the lime and the freshness of the spring onion. Another Borani variant for the books! Little Bit is a bit of a yogurt aficionado and lost no time in stuffing it by the handful into his mouth. He can use a spoon, quite well even, but was in too much of a hurry. Not the most sophisticated or well-mannered dinner companion, but certainly flattering to the cook.

After going up to my parents' chalet for Easter, we discovered on our return that there was a forgotten loaf of bread in the bread box which had gone very stale. I had been planning on making either French toast or bread pudding with it, and then I got a request for a sweet bread pudding recipe after my Eiderdown of a week or so ago. So it was decided, sweet bread pudding it was. There are many different ways of making this, and I don't think I make it quite the same way any two times I make it. I've made it with all sorts of different breads, including croissants, tresse and panettone which have gone stale. Sometimes I butter the slices, sometimes not. Often I add a layer of jam. Sometimes I sweeten the egg and milk mix, but not always. Occasionally I spice it, sometimes it has fruit or dried fruit. It all depends on my pantry and on my whims at the time of making it. The key is to give the bread enough liquid to soak up and enough time to absorb it in. And then have fun with it! Here's the one I made this time. Ingredients: 1 tbsp butter 1 loaf stale bread, sliced (mine was so stale that it shattered rather than slicing) 2-3 cups of milk or whey (I used a mix of each. Exactly how much liquid you need will depend on exactly how dry your bread is and exactly how much there is of it. Play it by ear.) 3 eggs, beaten 2-3 tbsp jam (in this case I used the last of a jar of mango syrup) Dried fruit - I added raisins (1/4c approx), a handful of chopped apricots and some dried ginger 1 banana, sliced 2 tbsp cinnamon sugar 1 c yogurt or sour cream Maple syrup to serve 1) Butter a shallow baking dish. Lay a first layer of bread slices. Spread the jam evenly over the layer (or drizzle the syrup as the case may be). Scatter some of the dried fruit over this first layer and tuck between pieces of bread. Layer the rest of the bread on top, and tuck the rest of the dried fruit between the pieces. 2) Beat together the eggs and about 2 cups of the milk or the whey. Pour evenly over the bread. Leave to soak over night. 3) Place the sliced banana over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake uncovered at 180°C for about 45 minutes, until firm but moist with a golden crust on top. 4) Serve hot with a dollop of yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup. I am so grateful to have gotten a request for this as it is a while since I've made it. It made a very tasty breakfast, and cold later in the day was not bad for picking at! Don't be fooled by the way the bananas look when they come out of the oven either. They are pure caramel goodness! Enjoy it, and don't forget to have fun with it and play around with flavours a little!

I have not had a Scotch egg in the longest time! Living in Scotland, they were readily available from a range of sources, some better than others. Hubby virtually lived off the cheap supermarket ones for a while for his breakfast on his way to work. I always preferred the nice ones from the butcher's counter, or the artisanal ones from this little shop in the Stockbridge part of Edinburgh. Since leaving the UK five years ago, I think I got one once when we went back to visit friends, but otherwise, it's been a Scotch eggless life for me ever since. It simply never occurred to me to make them. And then when we were up in the mountains at my parent's house over Easter, their neighbour, who raises quails, gave us two dozen quail eggs. Little Bit positively devours them, but we still went home with a bunch. I've never cooked with quails eggs, but find them creamier than hen's eggs without being too rich. They have a very pleasant, mild taste. Rather than doing fried eggs for Little Bit every day though, it occurred to me to use them in Scotch eggs, and I wasn't disappointed. I went looking for spicing inspiration in Food DIY by Tim Hayward, which I discovered was a good choice. I adapted the recipe to my own kitchen and quail's egg needs (and a couple of inattention mistakes), and served them up on a bed of salad with home made mayo dressing. It was beautiful! I also experimented with using baking soda on meat again as I did for the Cottage Pie. Based on what I have read, the chemical reaction causes the muscle fibres to jellify , trapping moisture without loosing integrity. This makes (supposedly, I am still testing this for myself) for juicier meat that browns nicely. From the description, it sounds like a similar chemical reaction to that which occurs after salting, but without adding the extra salt to your diet. Ingredients: 9 Quail eggs 300 g (ish) ground pork 1/2 tsp (ish) allspice 1 tsp thyme 1/2 tsp baking soda 3 eggs 1 c breadcrumbs Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 c rapeseed oil for frying 1) Boil the quail's eggs for 2 and a half minutes then drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking process. Leave to cool thoroughly then peel them very carefully. 2) Mix the pork with the baking soda and set aside for about 20 minutes (longer might be better but that is the time I had), while you peel your eggs. 3) Mix allspice, thyme, salt and pepper into the pork. Add 1 egg and mix well. Divide into 9 evenly sized-balls. 4) Beat the other 2 eggs and place in a bowl. Place breadcrumbs in a shallow bowl beside it. Taking a ball of pork mixture, flatten it into a circle with a diameter of about 10cm. Place a quail egg in the centre and fold the meat around the egg and pinch it shut. 5) Roll the ball in egg and then in breadcrumbs, ensuring an even coverage and set aside. Repeat 8 more times. Chill the balls in the fridge about 30 min. 6) Bring oil up to heat in a frying pan until it is shimmering actively. Shallow fry each of the balls for about 3 minutes and then transfer to a baking try and bake at 180°C for about 10 minutes. (the goal is for the outside to be lovely and golden brown and crispy, the pork to be thoroughly cooked, and the egg yolk to still be soft.) Serve these up however you like. I opted for a salad of spinach, Chinese cabbage, radish, carrot, cucumber. I then mixed some home made mayo with some extra lemon juice to thin it and drizzled it over the Scotch eggs. It was delightful and I will certainly be making these again soon, and maybe playing around with spicing a little. I am also tempted to try them with some cheese mixed into the pork, or maybe as an inside layer surrounding the egg... The baking soda trick seems to have worked as the meat was juicy yet cooked and firm, so more trials with that to follow. Or maybe next time I salt the meat first instead to compare. If you want to make these keto friendly or gluten free, simply replace the breadcrumbs with ground almond!

This is rather traditional, but it is always worth having a good recipe. I hadn't made it in a very long time, but then didn't want to go empty handed to the neighbour who was going to talk me through beekeeping (as I have potential plans that way), so I made one recently. I set aside a little of the batter in muffin cups for us, and it was so tasty that I decided to make another one last week. We had it for breakfast and all really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 1/3 c oats 2 1/4 tsp baking powder 1/3 c butter 2/3 c sugar Zest of 1 orange 2 eggs 1 c banana, mashed (the riper the better) 1/2 - 1 c apple sauce 1/2 c nuts, chopped 1/4 - 1/3 c dried apricots, chopped (or other dried fruit) (optional 1/4 c chocolate chips - I used dark) 1) Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs and zest. Add banana and apple sauce. 2) Stir together dry ingredients. Add them gradually to the butter mixture, mixing well after each addition. 3) Fold in nuts, apricots and chocolate if using. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 180°C for 50 min-1 hour or until knife comes out clean. Serve warm, with or without butter. It was also very tasty with a soft boiled egg. I'm not sure why I haven't made it in so long. It is really easy to make (although the second time took me rather longer as Little Bit wanted to be involved in every step and wanted to do it all himself. This was a very... efficient solution). Apple sauce makes the whole loaf that much moister. The more the better as far as I am concerned. The chocolate works well, but I like it just as well without it too. Different dried fruit additions will alter the flavour a little. Prunes for example deepen the tone of the loaf a bit, in a delightful way. If I don't add chocolate or swap out dried fruit, I sometimes add a dash of cinnamon or cloves too, which works very nicely. How do you like yours? Book Pairing: The second time I made this in the last few weeks (pictured above), as I say I was wrangling a Little Bit who wanted to be helpful, so no book. The first time around though, he was napping when I made the loaf, and I was listening to My Man Jeeves by PG Wodehouse. I know all the short stories in that volume that are about Jeeves and Wooster, but there were also a few that I didn't know about Reggie Pepper. I was listening to one of these, about capers on a yacht off the Riviera involving an inheritance, an unknown twin, mistaken identity, a near murder, amnesia and broken engagements (yes, plural), but ending with all being well, a rich butler who is able to retire from butling and marry his girl, and the identity issues being resolved. In all delightfully silly and light-hearted. I Still prefer Jeeves and Wooster as characters, although that is perhaps merely long acquaintance, but did enjoy getting a glimpse of Pepper too. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

I was really excited to find a paneer recipe in the Artisan Cheese Making at Home book as Paneer is not one of the cheeses which I can find easily here. However the recipe was for a low fat version and required either making or buying buttermilk (which I can't find here either). So instead, having decided that I was going to make paneer, I went online to find a recipe. The one I settled on was from a food blog called Swasthi's Recipes, and it called for either vinegar, lemon juice or yogurt to make the cheese. Overall the beginning of the recipe looked very similar to the Queso Blanco, except that the curds then get rinsed and then pressed at the end of the process. Making the cheese went quite well. Working from Swasthi's blog was different from working either from the cheese making kit or from the book as her method is much looser. The other two use precise temperatures to which you heat the milk and precise amounts of ingredients to add at a specific time. Swasthi did not (her recipes ressembled my own!). I was at once at a bit of a loss and quite liberated. Of the three possible curdling agents she suggested I picked yogurt. My problem started though in that she had indicated about 1/4c of yogurt for 1.5l of milk. After adding 1/4 c the milk did curdle but not nearly enough. So I added some yogurt. And a bit more. And a bit more after that. Eventually, I think I used about 1 1/4 or 1 1/2c of yogurt. That aside though, once I had added enough, the milk curdled and it came together really well. For paneer made with yogurt, apparently rinsing the curds wasn't necessary, so I skipped straight to pressing. Due to Little Bit wrangling issues, I started the cheese making later in the day than intended and so had less time to press it than planned. I was worried that this would mean that the curds would crumble or be too moist, but neither was the case. It was maybe a little softer than it would have been, but otherwise it came out quite well. The recipe that I decided to make with the paneer - and that I had planned for dinner which was why the short pressing time could have been problematic - was a red pepper curry with fried paneer over the top from Meera Sodha's Made in India. Last time I made this I was living in Greece and attempted it with a non-paneer cheese that went a little too melty in the pan. I was excited to try it with my own paneer this time (which is as close to real paneer as I am likely to get, living in Gruyère). The curry was tasty, and the paneer held together really well in the pan and fried up beautifully. Little Bit decided not to try any, so that was his loss, and I ate his portion instead. I'd like to try this paneer recipe again, with a different yogurt or maybe using a different type of acid to see how it comes out differently, I am not sure if the problem was that my yogurt was not acidic enough, or that it wasn't thick enough so the acidity was not concentrated enough. A little trial and experimentation should reveal the best method for the ingredients I have available to me though!

I absolutely love baked eggs! We've been making them for a few years now after first stumbling on the idea in Michel Roux's cookbook Eggs (awesome cookbook by the way. I hesitated over getting it initially because I figured "how interesting can a cookbook about eggs be?" Answer: really.) Since that initial revelation, we've played around with different configurations, different layers, different pairings. We've done sweet and savoury, some with veggie bases, others with some meat, or others again with both. Some are layered, some are dropped into a mixture, like curry. They are the perfect dish for using up micro amounts of leftovers. The only trick is to play flavours and textures off of each other successfully. We use vegetables (left over or raw), meat, cheese, cream, fruits, bread, spreads, chocolate, nuts... And the list goes on. Almost anything works. We've also cooked the eggs, instead of in ramequins, in a baking tray with corn bread batter or pancake batter as a base, nested in roast veggies before. It is endlessly adaptable. Omit meat and it's veggie. Use keto friendly veg and it's keto. Skip the toast and it's gluten free. Play around with it! This one came out beautifully. I used the last of my home made whey ricotta, some leftover (slightly spiced) stir fried veggies, the last of a pack of bacon and some fresh thyme, served with day old bread toasted up to perfection. The trick is to bake them until the yolk is still runny but the white is set, so keep your eyes on it. I usually place the eggs in a bain-marie in the oven, but not always. It allows them to come out moister, but depending on what you've used and what you're planning, you don't have to. Ingredients: 6 tbsp left over veggies 6-9 tbsp ricotta 3 eggs 6 rashers of bacon 3 thyme sprigs salt and pepper 1 tbsp butter Toast to serve 1) Butter 3 ramequins thoroughly. Spoon 2 tbsp of veggies into the bottom of each ramequin. Next, spoon in the ricotta around the edges of the dishes, leaving a well in the centre. Place a ring of bacon around the tops of the ramequins using 2 rashers each then crack an egg into the well created in each dish. 2) Place the ramequins in a baking dish and pour boiling water into the baking dish deep enough to come mid way up the sides of the ramequin. 3) Place in the oven at 180°C. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the eggs are set to your liking. Serve with toast. These were rich and decadent. The slightly spiced veg played well off the creamy whey ricotta, and egg and bacon is of course a classic combo. The crunchy veggies and the toast added a textural contrast. It was beautiful and creamy and tasty. This is a must try!

After our last batch of mascarpone, we tried out mascarpone with meringue, banana and Aloha Spiced Cacao, which was decadent and scrumptious in the extreme. That was my starting point for this. We then picked up fresh dates, and somehow the image of them paired with mascarpone and meringue, or meringue and mascarpone - I am not sure which elements I put together first - and I had to try it. With fresh dates, I naturally had to add in an orange drizzle, and then when making it for a sister who doesn't eat dates, the walnuts joined the party. A drizzle of Cointreau over the top was my dad's idea. Like most things therefore, it was a multi-step process, and I am very grateful for the family helping to bounce ideas around. I made mascarpone specially for this using lemon juice again instead of citric acid and leaving it to curdle for several hours and then to drain overnight. The mascarpone came out really well, and I am glad of the speed and ease with which I was able to make it. I feel at this point that mascarpone has been fully assimilated into my repertoire. I have not been sweetening mine at all and I've been enjoying it like that, with a slight acidic note to it. After Easter and the requisite feasting which follow (including the post-Lent binge), we didn't need another dessert, but in the interests of science - and a need to find out how this would taste- everyone threw themselves on the sword of this dessert, for which I am most grateful. We're still trying to come up with a name for this, so suggestions are welcome! Ingredients: 4 meringues 300 - 400 g mascarpone (roughly 2-3 tbsp per person) Juice and zest of 1 orange 1 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp cloves 8 fresh dates, pitted and quartered a handful of walnuts a drizzle of Cointreau per bowl 1) In a small saucepan, heat the orange juice and zest, sugar, and half the cloves. Stir and allow it to come to a gentle simmer. Taste test and add the rest of the cloves if desired. Once this has thickened to a thin syrup, remove from the heat. 2) Place a meringue in each of four bowls, then over the top a dollop of mascarpone (for the fun of it I decided to form mine into ro-shays - ahem, rochers for those who speak French- , but feel free to just dollop). 3) Place some of the date quarters and a few walnuts in each bowl then spoon some orange syrup and drizzle Cointreau over the rest. Ta-Da! It' is that simple, but simply delightful! Next time I might roughly chop the walnuts to get a more even coverage, but otherwise I would change nothing about this. Except maybe to try it with a drizzle of rum? Hmmm. There's an idea! I also wonder how everything would react to being lightly flambéed.... Oh so tasty though!

This next Pantry post is a spice, or two spices really, that I have been cooking with for as long as I can remember because my dad has used it for even longer than that. Pul biber, also known as Aleppo pepper, I have known for longer and always took for granted. It is a form of dried, crushed chilli (Pul biber is literally "flake pepper" in Turkish) without seeds. It has a mild, warm heat but a beautiful depth of flavour with almost sweet overtones and a small kick of bright acidity. Urfa biber, from the Urfa region of Turkey, is also a dried, crushed red pepper but in the drying process it retains some moisture and the colour ripens to a purplish black. It is also mild in its heat but has an even deeper, fruitier flavour than pul biber and tastes almost like smoked chilli. I use them either for a small kick of heat or to round out flavours, picking one depending on the depth and fruitiness of flavour I am looking for. Where sumac elevates, these bring round, background notes to a dish. I add them usually during the cooking process while a dish is simmering, or just before putting it in the oven. It can be sprinkled on at the last minute, but in doing that you miss out on some of the flavour notes. I use it in all sorts of savoury dishes, including fried eggs, soups and roasts, curries (I know, I know, not ethnically correct, but if it tastes good, I don't really care...) and everything in between. Here are a few of the dishes I've used them in on the blog : Shrimp and Veggie Stir Fry Sicilian Spaghetti Green Tomato Chutney Pumpkin and Chanterelles Risotto Chestnut Soup Vegetable Tagine Pumpkin Chili Pumpkin Ginger Soup Here is a link to Pul Biber, and here is a link to Urfa Biber to find them on Amazon and try them out for yourself! (This is an affiliate link, meaning that I get a small commission if you order from there, but that does not in any way affect how much you are charged).