I know that fermented food is good for you. It is all the rage from kombucha to kimchi, sauerkraut to sourdough, kefir to kashk. People have got the fermentation bug. I absolutely hate sauerkraut, but adore kimchi. Go figure; both are variations on fermented cabbage. I guess I need that chilli hit...

Whenever we have a good length of time in a foreign country, we hire a rental car and just go where the moment takes us. We're notoriously lax at planning in advance so, using local maps, a Tom-Tom or our phones, we often head out without bookings or a plan and just trust in following our noses (or...

If you read all the food travel sites, then you would could be forgiven for believing that Singapore is all about Hawkers markets or Singapore Chilli Mud crab. And as a tourist there, it is relatively easy to get advice on where to go to get these things. Of course, in doing so, you run the risk of...

I make my own cheese, which produces a lot of whey. But rather than tip it out, there is so much that can be done with this “by-product”. When you make cheese, enzymes added to the milk causing it to separate into solids and liquid. The solids, or curds, are strained and become the cheese. The rem...

Ground's next set of global dinner cooking classes have been confirmed. Sunday June 28th: 3pm start. The Food of Portugal. The food of Portugal is fresh, tasty and has some unique characteristics. Influenced by the sea, fresh produce, and with introduced spices this old colonial power has some...

Are you looking for something a little different, but traditional that you can do with eggs for Easter with the kids I have been cooking Sephardic eggs (sometimes known as Brown Eggs), since finding this recipe in the mid 1980’s, and being fascinated by the colour and flavour of the eggs. The...

I started feeding my Border-Collie/Labrador cross  home-made food a year ago. The lab in her wins out too often and she gets too fat on commercial food. I wanted food that wasn’t full of fillers and additives, or suspect ingredients. She is not allergic to any foods that I know of, but I wanted to...

I have a recipe asking for Black Cardamom. Is that the same as Green? Can I use them interchangeably? In a word; NO! Most recipes calling for cardamom mean the fragrant green cardamom. Black cardamom is much stronger and smokier. Although they are related, they have completely different appearan...

This year's dinner classes include some beauties! The first 3 month's dates have been set. Sunday February 15th: 3pm start Vietnam & Malaysia. A look at these two South East Asian countries with very different cuisines. Different ingredients, cooking techniques and tastes. Try your hand at makin...

A shorter version of the following appeared in The Press and the Dominion Post on October 22nd. The name Za’atar is used to describe both the blend of spices and also its key ingredient; Middle Eastern wild thyme. The wild thyme is usually sourced from places like Jordan and Syria, but it is not...

A shorter version of this article was published in The Christchurch press and the Wellington Dominion Post on October 15th. Nori is incredibly healthy. It contains vitamin A and C which help to keep our skin and immune system healthy and it is high in fibre. It has 10 times more calcium and iron b...

  A shorter version of this article appeared in The Press and The Dominion Post on October 1st What is the best way to cook Salmon and how do I know when it is done, so it doesn’t dry out? Salmon can be expensive and it is easy to overcook, so you want to get it right. A French chef once told...