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As mentioned in Day 47 of The Challenge I love stir fires! They are simple, adaptable to whatever is in the fridge, tasty, with endless different flavours to jazz them up. I like the range of colours and textures, the ability to make it vegetarian or meaty, or in this case shrimpy. (It was time to introduce shellfish to Mini Me, so it was shrimp week. Although initially suspicious of them he loves shrimp now!) Ingredients: 2 onions, chopped 1 head of garlic chopped 1 red and 1 yellow pepper, chopped Half a head of broccoli, cut into florets (floretted?) 10 shrimp 1 tbsp peanut oil 1 tbsp soy sauce 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar 2 tsp sesame oil 1 tbsp black sesame seeds 2 tbsp chili flakes (or pul biber*, as my chili of choice often is) 1) Heat oil in a wok. Add the onions and garlic and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the rest of the veg and stir fry at high heat for about 5 minutes. 2) Add the chili flakes, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar and tuck the shrimp in with the veg and cook for about 4-5 more minutes until the shrimp is just cooked. 3) Sprinkle sesame seeds over the top just before the shrimp are done cooking. Serve hot over rice. A touch of sweet and sour or sweet chili sauce is not necessary but does not go amiss... I hope you enjoy this as much as we did! Mini Me even decided he preferred the leftovers for breakfast instead of porridge (better than porridge?!) * This is an affiliate link to help you find what you need to make the recipe. You will not be charged any more by using this link but you will be helping support more delicious recipes!

After delving into making my own versions of mayo and ketchup, I figured it was time to start making my own mustard too. After reading a few different methods and about mustard making generally, I decided to give it a shot. At its root, making mustard requires mixing ground mustard seeds with water. The colder the water, the sharper the mustard will be. Allowing the mixture to chill in the fridge overnight is supposed to do away with the bitterness from the mustard seeds. That's it. Anything else is extra, and all down to personal choice and flavouring. Here's what I did. I opted for warmish water as Little Bit really likes mustard but not if it's too strong. I made two different flavours: mix spice and orange tarragon. Ingredients. 2 c yellow mustard seeds 3/4 c warmish water 1/2 c apple cider vinegar 2 tsp olive oil salt to taste For the mix spice variant: 1 tsp mix spice a pinch of brown or maple sugar For the orange tarragon variant: 1 tsp dried orange peel 1 1/2 tsp dried tarragon 1) Coaresly crack about 3/4 c mustard seeds. Set aside. More finely grind the remaining mustard seeds. How finely ground these are and how many are left coarser will affect the final texture of your mustard. Combine all the mustard in a bowl. Add salt and water. Stir. Add vinegar and olive oil, then refrigerate overnight. 2) Check the texture of the mustard and taste test. Add a little more water or vinegar as necessary. Then divide the mixture in half and add the remaining ingredients for each variant to one-half of the mustard. Allow to sit overnight again for flavours to develop. 3) Taste test and serve. To test these out, I made Clair Saffitz's brioche pigs in a blanket, along with a fresh batch of Beetroot Ketchup and some rosehip vinegar mayo. I was thoroughly pleased with these two mustards, and delighted to have finally gotten around to making my own. I can't believe how easy it was! I even got help grinding up my seeds in the mortar and pestle from Little Bit, who was very proud to have helped. The whole time I was making these, I was thinking of my grandmother who passed three years ago. Ahe loved mustard and took great delight in finding and trying new flavours and varieties. This is something we had talked about doing together but never got to. To try making your own, order mustard seeds for yourself here, and if you need a mortar and pestle for it, click here.

As with the Honey and Cinnamon Scones, these were for an Afternoon Tea collaboration I was invited to take part in on Instagram for International Tea day on the 21st of May. Devilled eggs are simple and tasty, but a lot of people seem daunted by the idea of making them, so I thought it worth including a recipe here. I used my dad's Scotch bonnet hot sauce to devil the eggs, but beyond a bit of a kick, left them pretty mild so Little Bit could have some too. Along with fruit, he is an egg fiend. Ingredients: 6 eggs 1 - 1 1/2 tbsp mayo 2 tsp mustard 1 -2 tsp hot sauce (or more to suit your taste) Salt and pepper to taste Tandoori powder for sprinkling 1) Boil the eggs for 9-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and run under cold water then let them sit in it until cool. 2) Peel the eggs carefully, halve them and pop out the yolks. In a bowl, mash all the yolks together with the other ingredients except tandoori powder. Taste test. 3) Spoon or pipe the yolks back into their wells in the whites. Sprinkle them with tandoori powder. I hadn't had devilled eggs in ages, and was delighted to have some again! I really should entertain more often (pandemics allowing) in order to make these more! Or maybe just have tea time at home with my boys and make these for us...

These are essentially just salted egg yolks. The salt sucks all the moisture out by osmosis, and leaves the yolk hard and preserved. You then air dry it and then use it grated over food in much the same way as parmesan. It is supposed to be rich and add a depth of flavour to food, not to mention a little salt! At least, that's what I have heard. I thought I might as well try it, so a couple of weeks ago I put some yolks in salt, two in plain salt and two in spiced salt (garlic and onion powder, some thyme and Kashmiri chilli powder). I covered the dish with a cloth and left it. The intention had been to leave it for only 3-4 days, but we went away for the weekend and were gone longer than planned so they were in for 6 days in the end. When I took them out of the salt they still felt a little squidgy in the centre, but solid. I brushed the salt off and put them in the dehydrator for another couple of days. Coming out they were now hard and a little reduced. We tried them grated on a micro-plane over eggplant parmesan the other day, and although a little crumblier than I had expected, they were rich and salty and eggy and delicious. I will keep you posted on how further experiments with them go!

As mentioned in Day 91 of The Challenge We first discovered this in out Taste of Persia cookbook by Naomi Duguid a few years ago, but it has since made it into our repertoire. I make it with all sorts of different ingredients, switching up both the toppings and the herbs which are mixed into the yogurt. In this iteration we used thyme, but I like it with mint too, or a mix or herbs. It is also topped nicely by some sumac in addition to the herbs. The topping used here was beets, but carrots, spinach or other vegetables work too. Sometimes I crispy fry the onions instead of sautéing them, thus adding another layer of texturing. Really, this is one you can play around with and make your own. As with many of the recipes I've adopted over the years, it started out Persian, but I don't know how recgonisable it would still be to a Persian. That doesn't stop it being good though! Ingredients: 1 large beet, chopped 1 kg Greek Yogurt 2 tsp thyme A pinch of salt pepper to taste 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil 1 onion, chopped A handful of almonds 1) Drain the yogurt through a cheese cloth for at least an hour. Mix with thyme, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper. 2) Roast the beets at 180°C for 20-30 minutes until tender. Dry toast almonds in a pan until lightly browned. Sauté onion in remaining olive oil until translucent. 3) Spoon thickened, seasoned yogurt into two bowls and top each with the beets, onions and almonds. Serve. It is as simple as that. It is a beautifully simple lunch, very satisfying, light and yet filling. I love this and only don't have it more often because I am too lazy to think ahead and drain the yogurt sometimes...

I love this soup! We originally came across a recipe in Gordon's Great Escape - Southeast Asia, but it has since made it into our regular rotation and become our own. It is dead simple to assemble, tasty and warming with a hint of heat. It is a satisfying chicken soup with a twist. A lot of recipes recommend straining the broth once you have simmered it, but we like it with the bits and so never strain it. Feel free to do so though if you'd rather. Ingredients: 1 litres of chicken stock - the richer the better, and even better with bits in 0.5 - 1 litre of coconut milk ( or you can do half coconut milk and half coconut cream if you want it richer. If the stock is weak, I do recommend this, but it also depends on the chicken to coconut balance you want. I like it just fine with simply coconut milk. A big chunk of ginger, peeled and julienned 1 head of garlic, minced 6 chilis chopped 6 kafir lime leaves, crumbled 2 lemon grass stalks, chopped (these can be woody if left in. Like I said, I do anyway - I enjoy the crunch - but remove them if that's not your thing) 3/4 c shitake or oyster mushrooms (rehydrate these in advance if using dried ones) - chopped 2 shallots, chopped 1 tbsp soy sauce 2 tsp rice wine vinegar 1 tbsp lime juice salt to taste 1) Bring chicken stock and coconut milk to a simmer. Add all ingredients up to shallots and cook 30-45 minutes, allowing flavour to develop. 2) Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and lime juice. Serve. We had this alongside our (first attempt at) Spring Rolls. The two paired wonderfully together, complementing flavours and rounding out the soup into a meal. Very tasty even with nothing to pair with it though. Simple, light but nutritious, I do love this soup (even if I am not quite sure to what extent it still resembles anything Thai).

Since leaving the UK five years ago, I think I got one once when we went back to visit friends, but otherwise If you want to make these keto friendly or gluten free, simply replace the breadcrumbs with ground almond

Use keto friendly veg and it's keto. Skip the toast and it's gluten free. Play around with it!

Note: Toying with how to make this recipe keto, it occurred to me that it might be possible either to

This year, I accidentally planted lemon mint on my balcony instead of a variety I might be more familiar with and like more, like, say, peppermint or spearmint. Ironically, the lemon mint is one of the few of my plants to have flourished this year. I planted more things too early, then we had late snow and frost which wiped a lot of my plants out. I replanted and hoped for the best. Then the spring was very rainy and drowned a number of them. Then we had hail. Twice. A lot of plants were flattened. In and amongst weather catastrophes, was Little Bit, who delights in tearing up my plants by the roots, or picking the leaves off of them to make mud soup in his paddling pool. Through all this, the mint survived. I was delighted until I made tea with it and discovered that the flavour was not quite what I was expecting. I wondered if there had been black tea left in the bottom of the pot? No. I tried again. It still tasted odd: at once muddier than regular mint and more acidic, but without mint's typical freshness. I left the plant alone for a bit and wondered what to do with it. And then I hit on the idea of a pesto. It took a little tweaking, but it worked out well in the end. I had to add a little water to get the blender to work properly, and then it was too wet as well as needing a grounding note, so I added some stale bread to the blender. If your consistency is ok without it though, skip the bread. I also gradually increased the amount of garlic. As the pesto is raw, I was worried that too much garlic would be overpowering, but the pesto really did need it. Here it is. Ingredients: 3-4 c fresh lemon mint leaves 3-4 tbsp olive oil 1/4 c pine nuts 1/2 head garlic 1/4 c water 1/4 c bread crumbs Juice of 1/2 lemon 1/2 c grated parmesan Salt and pepper to taste 1) Blend all ingredients until smooth. Taste test. I am happy with how this came out. It doesn't taste overpoweringly minty (but then, neither does the parent plant) but has a nice balance to it. We had this first with sandwiches. The minty pesto worked very well on wholegrain seedy bread with cheese and sausage for lunch. We have also tried it with spinach and ricotta tortellini, and it was delicious. Little Bit refused to try it, but then he doesn't like any sauce on his tortellini.