My life is pretty crazy right now, I’m having a hard time finding moments to post
But don’t worry, I keep cooking and shooting so I’ll have a lot of dishes to share with you once I can escape more often from by business!

This lamb and pistachio skewers recipe was inspired by the French « Saveurs » magazine although it ended up a lot different from the original. These kebabs are a variation of the Mediterranean kofta. Like the original, they’re served with a mint and yogurt sauce and can be eaten with some salad in a flatbread.

Preparation time: 30 minutes – Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

Lamb and pistachio skewers

1.3 lbs (600 g) of  ground lamb meat
1 oz (30 g) of shelled pistachio nuts
6 sprigs of fresh parsley
1 egg
1 onion
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground cilantro
1 squeeze of lemon juice
Salt & pepper

Yogurt sauce

2 Greek yogurts
30 mint leaves
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Prepare mint yogurt sauce: Peel and chop garlic finely. Rinse, dry and chop mint leaves. Combine yogurt, garlic, mint, olive oil, salt and pepper. Keep in the fridge.

2/ Prepare skewers: Rinse, dry and chop parsley. Peel and chop onion. Chop pistachio nuts.

3/ Break egg in a small bowl and whisk it with a fork.

4/ Keep some chopped pistachios aside for sprinkling. In a large salad bowl, combine lamb meat, onion, pistachios, parsley, olive oil, breadcrumbs and whisked eggs.

5/ Add one squeeze of lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and scrunch all together with your hands.

6/ Preheat oven over grill position. Line a baking sheet on a baking tray. Wash your hands with cold water. Don’t get them totally dry, meat will stick less on your hands.

7/ Mold lamb mixture around each skewer into a kind of flat sausage. Place kebabs on the baking tray as they’re made.

8/ Bake in oven for 10 minutes, turning them after 5 minutes.

9/ Sprinkle with chopped pistachios and serve with mint yogurt sauce.

Tons of recipes combine spinach and coconut; that’s because they perfectly match together . If you never tried the combination, this soup is a perfect occasion for doing it. It’s slightly spiced thanks to half a red scotch bonnet chili pepper, a variety of hot chili from the Caribbean.  You can adapt this soup recipe’s spiciness to your own tastes: skip the pepper, use half for a slightly spiced soup or use a whole one (or two) if you like it really hot.

Preparation time: 10 minutes  – Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

1.1 lbs (500g) of fresh spinach
2 1/4 cups (56 cl) of vegetable stock
2 1/4 cups (56 cl) of coconut milk
2 garlic cloves
1 onion
1/2 lemon
1/2 red scotch bonnet chili pepper (optional)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon of grated ginger
4 tablespoons of grated coconut for decoration
Salt

Instructions

1/ Carefully clean spinach leaves and pinch off the stems if they’re thick and tough. Chop spinach leaves roughly.

2/ Peel onion and garlic cloves. Chop onions and crush garlic cloves with a spoon.

3/ Take seeds off chili pepper and finely chop it.

4/ Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and chili pepper, take temperature down to low heat and leave them for 5 minutes.

5/ Add cumin, turmeric and grated ginger. Add vegetable stock and coconut milk and take to a boil. Reduce heat and leave covered for 10 minutes.

6/ Preheat oven on broiler setting.

7/ Add spinach and leave them for 3 minutes or until they wither.

8/ Liquidize 3/4 of the soup and put it back in the pan with the remaining quarter.

9/ Squeeze lemon, add to soup and season with salt.

10/ Grill grated coconut for 2 minutes in the oven.

11/ Serve in individual bowls and decorate with grilled coconut.

Great news for all Iphone users, French Cooking for Dummies has an application style theme that allows you to  read it easily when surfing with a mobile device. Fellow wordpress bloggers, here is the plugin . Now let’s go back to the real thing… Have you ever heard of  Spanish pork skewers called Pinchos Morunos? Pork fillet dices marinated in spices. They’re really worth the try…

Preparation time: 20 mn (+ overnight marinade) – Cooking time: 30 mn

Ingredients (for about 10 skewers)

1.1 lbs (500 g) of pork fillets
1 onion
4 tablespoons of olive oil (click here to buy online)
2 teaspoons of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of pimentón (smoked paprika)
1/4 teaspoon of grinded black pepper
1 pinch of saffron
Salt

Instructions

1/ Dice pork fillet. (Smaller pieces will get tastier with the marinade)

2/ Pour cumin, pimentón, black pepper and saffron in a bowl and mix them together.

3/ In a salad bowl, combine meat and spices.

4/ Add olive oil, a pinch of salt and stir again. Cover and leave it marinate in the fridge overnight.

5/ Thread 6 pieces of pork in each skewer.

6/ Heat grill on high heat. Grill skewers until inside meat is no longer pink or about 5 minutes. If you’re lucky enough to be making them on BBQ, they’ll take a little longer (around 15 minutes) but they’ll taste delicious

Here is an original and very tasty winter soup recipe. I’m sure you’ll love the slight cumin flavor and the lime marinated mushrooms… I use dried chickpeas because they taste better (in my humble opinion) and are more nutritional than canned ones but they definitely ask for more organization You’ll need to soak them overnight before cooking your soup. So if you don’t have time, go for canned chickpeas and reduce considerably cooking time.

Preparation time : 30 mn (+1 night soaking of dried chickpeas) – Cooking time : 2 h

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

2/3 lbs (310 g) of chickpeas
1 large onion
1 bay leaf
10 to 12 cups (2, 5 to 3 l) of water
1 cup (25cl) of sour cream (crème fraiche)
1 pinch of cumin powder

Marinated mushrooms

1/2 lbs (310 g) of portobello mushrooms
3/8 of cup (10 cl) of olive oil
1 lime
1 tablespoon of fresh chopped cilantro
1/2 pinch of red chilli powder

Toasted bread

4 bread slices
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1/ Rinse chickpeas until water comes out clear, then soak them in about 12 cups of water overnight. (Add cooking salt and a tablespoon of baking soda to it: it helps soften the cheakpeas).

2/ Peel and slice mushrooms. (When cleaning mushrooms you should try to avoid using water, they would get soaked and loose taste). Combine olive oil, cilantro and chilli pepper.

3/ Clean lime, grate zest and squeeze it. Add zest and juice to marinade. Add salt and pepper. Pour mushrooms in marinade and set aside.

4/ Get water to a boil. Peel and slice onion. Pour onion slices, bay leaf and chickpeas into boiling water. Cover (leaving some air coming out so it doesn’t boil over) and leave until chickpeas are tender.

5/ Mix it in a food mixer; add creme fraiche and season with cumin, salt and pepper. (Try it and add seasoning if needed).

6/ Peel garlic clove. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add the whole garlic clove. Get the garlic all around the pan so the oil gets garlic flavour. Add bread slices cut in half. Leave 1 or 2 minutes on each side.

7/ Serve chickpea soup adding marinated mushrooms on top with bread on side.

Enjoy!