Stolen from http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000146perfect_popcorn.php

Mom has the perfect method of making popcorn. She took it off of some Jiffy Popcorn box, she thinks. Here's how it goes.

3 Tbsp peanut or grapeseed oil
1/3 cup of high quality popcorn kernels
1 3-quart covered saucepan

Heat the oil in the saucepan on medium hight heat. Put a few popcorn kernels into the oil and cover the pan. When the kernels pop, add the rest of the 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels. Cover, remove from heat and count 30 seconds. Return the pan to the heat. The popcorn should begin popping soon, and all at once. Once the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, remove the lid, and dump the popcorn immediately into a wide bowl.

With this technique, all of the kernels pop, and nothing burns.

Add melted butter and salt to taste.

I'm not sure whether these should be called pakoras or bhajias but they're good and simple to make. They're a good late evening snack for a change from ordering pizza. I've only listed onions here but you can try almost any mixture of vegetables.

Sift the gram flour, chilli powder, turmeric, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Add the seeds, onion, green chillies, and coriander and toss it well. Using the end of a wooden spoon, or a chop-stick, gradually mix in enough cold water to produce a thick batter that surrounds all the ingredients. Lumps are not a bad thing.

Heat enough oil in a dutch oven or large work for deep-frying. It goes without saying to be very, very careful here since a wok of hot oil can do some life-long damage. If you like them, keep the kids and pets out of the kitchen. I prefer to use my wok for this but generally opt for the more stable dutch oven. Heat the oil, use a thermometer if you're smart enough to own one, I'm not.

Once the oil's hot, drop in the batter in spoonfuls. Try varying sizes of spoonfuls, I usually fall somewhere between a large walnut and a tennis ball. Fry them until they're golden brown, you'll have to turn them at least once since they float. Drain them well and serve em up.

Skillet roasted sunflower seeds with a spicy aftertaste. These are dirt easy to make, they don't take much more time than a batch of popcorn, not the microwave or jiffy-whatever kind of course.

Use a heavy bottomed, large non-stick skillet for these. Well that's what I used, you're welcome to use an old boot if that happens to work for you. Heat the skillet over medium heat until it's warm. Melt the butter in the pan. I didn't pay enough attention to the amount of butter I used, next time I'll take better note but 3 tbsp sounds about right. Add everything else except for the sunflower seeds to the pan and mix continually for about a minute.

Add the seeds and mix well. Cook the mixture for about 10 minutes over the medium heat. You need to keep stirring them often. You're aiming to roast them well but not have the most well-done seeds turn out black and nasty tasting. These will give off a fair bit of smoke so make sure you cook them at someone else's house who doesn't have a decent rangehood.

This curry paste is a base ingredient in a lot of thai recipes, for example...mussels thai style.

In The Kitchen

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat. Dry fry the coriander seeds until they darken a shade, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove them to your pestle and mortar and then do the same for the cumin seeds. The cumin seeds will only need 1 to 2 minutes.

Grind the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and the black peppercorns in the pestle and mortar. Combine all of the ingredients in the food processor and blend to a paste.

This is a versatile paste that I've used for making thai curries, soups, and even just smearing it all over salmon fillets before baking.

In The Kitchen

Dry fry the chilies in a wok or heavy pan, I use a small teflon frypan for this, over medium heat. Fry them until they start to darken, this takes about 3 to 5 minutes. Shake them around in the pan while they're frying. Remove from the heat when done. Once they've cooled enough to handle, stem the chilies and shake out as much of the seeds as you can.

Turn up the heat a little and repeat the dry-frying with the shallots and garlic. Shake and stir them often and fry until they soften and start to wilt. This should take 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat when done. Once you can handle them, trim the shallots and garlic, removing the peel and roots.

If you have a good sized pestle and mortar(p&m) then coarsely chop the chilies, garlic, and shallots and place them in the p&m. Grind them to a coarse mush and add a little oil as you're doing so until you've pounded and mushed it into a smooth paste. If you don't have and p&m, go buy one but for now you can just use a food processor to mush up this paste.

Pour the remaining oil into your pan and heat over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add your ground paste to it and cook, stirring often, until the paste gets darker and starts to make your kitchen smell tasty. This takes 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the heat when done.

Combine the sugar, tamarind, soy sauce, and salt in a bowl and mix them up well. Add this mixture to your cooked paste and mix well and you're done. This keeps well in the fridge for a few weeks.

This is a tasty little hot sauce. Make it, refrigerate it, freeze it, and use it as a condiment to add heat to whatever you're eating. It does have it's own taste and will therefore impact the flavour of what it's added to but some would argue that it's a good flavour.

Feeds: 3 to 4 cups.
Preparation Time: 15 minutes.
Cooking Time: 20 minutes.
Unique Equipment: Blender or food processor, pestle and mortar.

Shopping List

• Habanero peppers, fresh, 6.
  
• Onions, 3 medium.
  
• Garlic, 6 cloves.

• Oil, vegetable, 2 tbsp.
  
• Malt vinegar, 3 tbsp.
  
• Tomato paste, 1 tbsp.

• Turmeric, 1/2 tsp.
  
• Salt, 2 tbsp.
  
• Allspice, 6 berries.
  
• Brown sugar, 1 tsp.
  
• Black Pepper, to taste.

• Rum, 1 to 5 tbsp.
  
• Red wine,2 to 3 tbsp.

Meez

• Oil.

• Onions - Chop.

• Habanero peppers - Chop, remove seeds for milder heat.
  
• Garlic - Finely chop.

• Malt vinegar.
  
• Tomato paste.
  
• Turmeric.
  
• Salt.
  
• Allspice - Grind.
  
• Brown sugar.
  
• Black Pepper - Grind.
  
• Rum.
  
• Red wine.

In The Kitchen

If you're in a rush here, just pile all the ingredients into a saucepan and heat them. Simmer them for 5 to 10 minutes and puree them in the food processor.

If you've got an extra 5 minutes then heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until they begin to brown. Deglaze several times with the red wine by pouring in a bit of wine, scraping off the brown stuff of the pan bottom using the wine. Let it evaporate and start to brown again and repeat. I deglazed the onions 3 or 4 times.

Add in the peppers and garlic and saute for another minute. Add in the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Puree it all up and let it cool.

This is a base iced tea recipe. It comes out strong tasting which I like, however, some people find it a little too strong. If that's the case you can easily water it down with tap water.

Try it out with the ingredients and measures here and then just play with it if you like. I've tried adding cherries, vanilla beans, peaches, and more. If what you try tastes crappy, add some sugar and then try something different next time around.

Feeds: 8 cups.
Preparation Time: 15 minutes.
Cooking Time: 20 minutes.
Unique Equipment: none.

Shopping List

• Mint, fresh, handful.
  
• Ginger, 2 to 4 inch piece.
  
• Lemons, 1 to 2.
  
  
• Water, 12 cups.

• Star anise, 3 to 6 (optional).
  
• Sugar, 1/2 to 1 cup, or other sweetener.
  
• Tea, 8 teaspoons loose green or black, or 8 tea bags.

Meez

• Water.
  
• Mint.
  
• Ginger - Slice into 1/4" thick discs.
  
• Star anise.

• Sugar.
  
  
• Lemons - Juice.
  
  
• Tea.

In The Kitchen

Place the water, mint, ginger, star anise, sugar, and any additional ingredients into a dutch oven or stock pot and bring to a boil. Don't adhere to the 12 cup measurement for the water. Just like a soup stock, the only requirement is that everything is immersed in water so add enough to cover it all and get it floating. Reduce to a strong simmer, cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When it's finished simmering, remove from the heat and add the juice from the lemons. Let it sit and mingle for at least an hour.

Strain out all the solids as you would with a stock which is pretty much what you've got. At this point taste the stock to see if it's strong enough. If it's too strong for your taste then add more water, if it's too weak then return it to the stove, bring it to a boil uncovered and maintain the boil it for 10 minutes to reduce. Repeat until you're happy with it.

Once you have the taste you like remove it from the heat and add in the tea. The quantity of tea added is relative to the final amount of liquid you have, 1 teaspoon tea per cup of stock. Steep it according to the directions of the particular tea you're using, generally 3 minutes for green, 5 minutes for black. Once steeped, strain off the loose tea or remove the teabags.

Set it aside to cool to room temperature and then put it into a pitcher and stick in the fridge to chill. Once cold enough, drink up.

This is a hot, sweet, salty mixture was built to mingle with farinata or to have as a side dish.

Feeds: 4 to 6
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Unique Equipment: None.

Shopping List

• Asparagus, 1 to 2 lbs.
• Black olives, large handful.
• Cherry tomatoes, or grape tomatoes, 1 cup.
• Garlic, 1 to 2 buds.
• Basil, fresh, handful.
• Jalapeno peppers, 3 to 4.

• Butter, 3 tbsp.
  
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup.

Meez

• Garlic - Break the loose peel off the outside of the buds but don't break it up into cloves or peel the cloves. Slice the bottom tips, that's the pointy end of the cloves, off of the bud taking as little garlic as possible. All you're doing here is popping the 'lid' on the individual cloves so you can squeeze out the roasted garlic later on after they're out of the oven.

• Butter.

• Asparagus - Snap into 2" pieces.
  
• Basil - Tear or chop.
  
• Jalapeno peppers - Slice into 1/4" discs.
  
• Black olives.
  
• Cherry tomatoes.
  
• Extra virgin olive oil.

In The Kitchen

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the garlic buds in a medium casserole dish but end up. Put 1 tbsp of butter on top of each bud and and place in the oven. Baste the buds once or twice with the melted butter.

Toss the remaining together in a mixing bowl. After the garlics baked for 30 minutes, pour the remaining ingredients over top the garlic, turn the oven up to 425 degrees and return it to the oven for another 15 minutes.

I tried out a new shake this morning, peaches, almonds, and protein.

Feeds: 2
Preparation Time: 5 minutes.
Cooking Time: None.
Unique Equipment: Blender or hand-mixer.

Shopping List

• Banana.
  
• Peaches, 2.
  
• Almond butter, 1 tbsp.
  
• Milk (soya), 500 to 750 ml.
  
• Honey or sugar, to taste.

In The Kitchen

Place it all in a blender and give er. Add the honey or sugar in small amounts if you're not sure how much you'd like. It's hard to pick out if you add too much.

You can get a thicker, drier version of this in France called socca. This makes a nice appetizer or late night snack, it's based on a River Cafe Cookbook Green recipe.

This makes a nice companion to some roasted stuff.

Feeds: 6
Preparation Time: 5 minutes, plus 2 hours to age the batter.
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Unique Equipment: None.

Shopping List

• Gram flour (ground chickpea flour), 300 grams.
  
• Extra virgin olive oil.
  
• Water, 1 litre, warm.
  
• Black pepper, 1/2 tbsp.
  
• Salt, 1 tbsp.
  
• Rosemary, fresh, few sprigs.

Meez

• Water.

• Gram flour.

• Salt.
  
• Black pepper - Roughly grind.

• olive oil.
  
  
• Rosemary - Break into sprigs.

In The Kitchen

Place the water into a medium size mixing bowl. Whisk the gram flour into the water. Don't add all the flour at once or it will form lumps. Mix in the salt and pepper and put the bowl aside for at least 2 hours. Preferably, place the bowl in a warm location for the 2 hours, such as an oven with the light on for warmth.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, obviously remove the batter from the oven if that's where you were keeping it. A foam will form on top of the batter, skim it off. Stir about 1 cup of olive oil into the batter. Pour some more oil, a few tbsp, on a large cookie sheet and place it in the preheated oven. Once the oil is just starting to smoke a little, remove the pan from the oven and pour your batter onto the hot pan. Sprinkle the rosemary over the top and place the pan back into the oven. The pan should be large enough so that the result is a pancake about a centimeter thick.

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until it starts to brown on top. You want it to be slightly brown on top but hot and soft inside.

This salad is easy to prepare, can be put together a little before hand, and looks cool with the red beets contrasting against the stark white goat cheese. Locating fresh, good quality goat cheese helps.

Feeds: 6
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 60 minutes
Unique Equipment: Food processor.

Shopping List

• Shallots, 2 or 3.
  
• Lemon, 1/2.
  
• Pine nuts, 1/4 cup.
  
• Beets, 4 small, or 2 medium.
  
• Lettuce, green leaf, 2 to 4 cups.
  
  
• Red wine vinegar, 4 tsp.
  
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup.
  
  
• Goat cheese, 1/4 cup.

Meez

• Beets - Wash and trim off the tops but don't peel.

• Shallots - Peel and finely chop.
  
• Red wine vinegar.
  
• Extra virgin olive oil.
  
• Lemon - Juice.
  
• Pine nuts - Roast in the oven, or dry fry in a heavy skillet, until lightly browned.
  
  
• Lettuce - Clean, dry, and tear or chop to desired size.
  
  
• Goat cheese - Crumble or chop into small chunks.

In The Kitchen

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wrap the beets individually in aluminum foil and bake them in the oven until tender, about an hour. You can check to see if the beets as you would potatoes by piercing them with a fork in them.

Meanwhile, make the dressing by adding the shallots, red wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, and the roasted pine nuts to the food processor and blend until smooth. Toss half of this dressing with the greens and arrange them on a large serving plate.

When the beets are done take them out of the oven and allow them to cool. Once they're cool enough to handle, peel them. The skin should pull off easily without having to use a peeler. Cut the roasted beets into wedges and toss with the remaining dressing. Arrange the beets over top of the greens on the serving plate and then crumble the goat cheese over top. Try not to get the beet juice on the cheese until serving time as the white cheese looks good against the dark beets.