Post Type ArchivesRecipes

Thai Melon Skewers

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Melon skewers with mozza balls and parma ham, and a side thai sauce

It was another one of those heatwave afternoons where all I could think about was mozzarella. Cold, milky, endlessly satisfying — the kind of craving that hits out of nowhere when it’s thirty-five degrees outside and turning on a stove feels borderline hostile.

Melon and mozzarella felt like the obvious answer: fresh, hydrating, zero cooking involved. Add a few torn pieces of prosciutto for that salty, savoury contrast, and you land on the classic melon-prosciutto-mozzarella trio — simple, familiar, always good, but let’s be honest, a little predictable.

Except I’ve been deep in a Thai phase lately — tom yum noodles one night, Thai rice bowls the next — so I figured it was time to bring out the secret weapon: fish sauce. A bright, citrusy dipping sauce built around nuoc mam turned three humble ingredients into something else entirely. Fresh on the surface, deep and savoury underneath. Ridiculously simple, genuinely excellent.

Thai Melon Skewers – About the dish

Melon and prosciutto — melone e prosciutto — is one of the oldest tricks in the Italian antipasti book, built on the classic pairing of ripe, sweet fruit with salty, dry-cured ham. Add mozzarella and you get something close to a one-bite caprese: sweet, salty, milky, all in a single mouthful, no plate or cutlery required.

The dipping sauce takes the dish somewhere else entirely, borrowing from the nuoc cham style sauces of Vietnam and Thailand’s own nam pla-based dressings. The formula is always the same: fish sauce for savoury depth, lime juice for brightness, a touch of honey for balance, and chili and herbs for heat and freshness. It’s normally poured over grilled meats or fresh spring rolls, but it turns out to be just as brilliant with fruit and cheese — the acidity cuts right through the richness of the mozzarella and prosciutto.

Thai Melon Skewers – Recipe

Ingredients – Advice & key points

  • Melon: Pick a ripe, fragrant cantaloupe or charentais melon — it should smell sweet at the stem end. One medium melon is enough for around 30 mini skewers.
  • Prosciutto: About 150g of dry-cured ham (Parma, San Daniele…), torn by hand into small pieces rather than cut — it drapes more naturally around the melon and mozzarella and gives a nicer bite.
  • Mini mozzarella balls: 300g of the smallest mozzarella balls (bocconcini) you can find. The whole point is a one-bite skewer, so the smaller, the better.
  • Mini skewer picks: You’ll need enough small cocktail skewers for about 30 bites — look for the short ones sold for appetisers.
  • Fish sauce: 2 tablespoons of nuoc mam. This is the backbone of the dip — salty, deeply savoury, and what makes the whole sauce taste unmistakably Southeast Asian.
  • Lime juice: 2 tablespoons, about half a lime. Freshly squeezed only — it’s what gives the sauce its lift.
  • Chili oil: 2 teaspoons for heat. Adjust up or down depending on how spicy you like it.
  • Olive oil: 1 tablespoon, to round out the sauce and soften the acidity.
  • Honey: 1 teaspoon, just enough to balance the salt and acid.
  • Mint and basil: 8 leaves each, finely sliced. Use both — mint keeps things cool, basil adds a slightly peppery depth.

Assembly & Sauce – Advice & key points

  • Cut the melon into cubes: Remove the seeds and rind, then cut the flesh into cubes roughly the same size as the mozzarella balls, so every skewer is balanced.
  • Build the skewers: Thread one cube of melon, one mini mozzarella ball, and one small piece of torn prosciutto onto each pick. There’s no fixed order — just make sure all three end up in the same bite.
  • Whisk the dip: Combine the fish sauce, lime juice, chili oil, olive oil, honey, mint, and basil in a small bowl or ramekin. Taste and adjust the lime and honey until it’s balanced — fresh, salty, and a little sweet all at once.
  • Keep everything cold: Melon and mozzarella are best served properly chilled, so assemble the skewers ahead of time and keep them in the fridge until serving.
  • Serve the sauce on the side: Pour the dip into a small ramekin for dipping rather than drizzling it over the skewers — it keeps them looking clean and lets everyone control how much sauce they want.

Set the ramekin of sauce right in the middle of the platter and let everyone dip as they go. It genuinely doesn’t get much simpler than this — and it’s, frankly, excellent.

Mango Iced Tea

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Mango iced tea

This mango iced tea happened because of an Instagram scroll and a heatwave. I saw it pop up on Loulou Kitchen’s account one afternoon when it was far too hot to think about turning on a stove, and I knew immediately it was going to be one of a kind.

I followed her version almost to the letter, because sometimes a recipe is already perfect and all it needs is someone willing to actually make it instead of just saving it for later.

The result was exactly what I needed: refreshing, fruity, barely sweet, and ready in the time it takes the tea to cool down.

Mango Iced Tea – About the dish

Fruit-steeped iced teas sit at the crossroads of two traditions: the ritual of brewing tea, and the tropical habit of blending fresh fruit into cold, sweet drinks. Mango and passion fruit are a classic pairing across many tropical kitchens, showing up in juices, coulis and desserts long before anyone thought to drop them into a pitcher of tea.

Vanilla ties it all together. Infused into the tea itself and reinforced with a whole bean in the blender, it rounds out the tartness of the passion fruit and gives the drink a softer, almost dessert-like edge, without adding much extra sugar.

Mango Iced Tea – Recipe

Ingredients – Advice & key points

  • Mango: use one large, very ripe mango, the fragrance and softness are the best clue it is ready
  • Passion fruit: choose fruits with wrinkled, dimpled skin, that is when they are at their sweetest
  • Vanilla bean: split and scrape the pod for the blender, its seeds bring a warm background note
  • Vanilla tea: brew one bag in 1L of water and let it cool completely before using
  • Sugar: two tablespoons is enough here, taste your fruit first and adjust if needed
  • Ice: don’t skimp, this drink is meant to be poured over plenty of it

Recipe – Advice & key points

  • Blend first: puree the mango, passion fruit, vanilla and sugar with a splash of tea before adding the rest
  • Cool the tea fully: warm tea poured over ice will only water the drink down
  • Assemble in a pitcher: add the ice, then the fruit puree, then the cooled tea, and stir well
  • Taste before serving: adjust the sugar at this stage, the ripeness of the fruit will change how sweet it needs to be
  • Keep it simple: this drink comes together in minutes, there’s no need to overthink it

This is the kind of drink I keep in the fridge all summer, it takes barely any effort and disappears just as fast. Enjoy!

Lazy Pan con Tomate

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Lazy pan con tomate -blended tomatoes on toasts

It was the middle of a heatwave, and on top of that, my hand was stuck in a splint. Cooking anything remotely complicated was out of the question, but I still wanted something good.

Pan con tomate was the obvious answer. The simpler the recipe, the better it usually turns out – and this one barely counts as cooking at all.

Normally I grate the tomato by hand, but with one hand out of commission that wasn’t happening, so everything went straight into the blender instead – garlic, basil, olive oil, salt, tomato, all at once. The result was ridiculously good: deep, savoury, almost meaty umami, with barely any effort.

Lazy Pan con Tomate – About the dish

Pan con tomate, or pa amb tomàquet in Catalan, is one of Spain’s most beloved simple pleasures: toasted bread rubbed or topped with ripe tomato, good olive oil, and a bit of salt. It’s a breakfast staple, a tapas classic, and the base of countless bocadillos across the country.

The traditional method calls for rubbing bread with a halved tomato and a garlic clove, then finishing with oil and salt. This version cheats a little by blending everything together instead, including a handful of basil, which isn’t traditional but adds a fresh, herby lift that works surprisingly well.

Lazy Pan con Tomate – Recipe

Ingredients – Advice & key points

  • Tomatoes: Use the ripest, most flavourful tomatoes you can find – they’re really the whole dish here. Room temperature tomatoes taste sweeter and more fragrant than cold ones.
  • Olive oil: Go for a good quality extra virgin olive oil. It gets blended right into the mix, so its flavour really shows.
  • Garlic: One raw clove is enough to season the whole batch once blended. Use less if you’re sensitive to raw garlic, or add a second clove if you love a stronger punch.
  • Basil: Not traditional, but a nice twist – it adds a fresh, slightly peppery note. Feel free to leave it out for a purist version.
  • Salt: Add it in pinches and taste as you go – tomatoes vary a lot in natural sweetness and acidity.
  • Bread: Any type would do, but ideally go for a sturdy country loaf or sourdough. It needs to hold up to a juicy topping without turning to mush.

Recipe – Advice & key points

  • Blend instead of grate: Traditionally the tomato is grated by hand, but blending everything together works just as well and is much faster – especially handy one-handed.
  • Toast your bread properly: A light toast won’t cut it – go for a deep, sturdy golden-brown so the bread doesn’t turn soggy once topped.
  • Assemble just before eating: The tomato mixture is juicy, so top your toast right before serving rather than letting it sit.
  • Taste before serving: Adjust salt and oil at the end – a good pinch of salt really brings out the tomato’s natural sweetness.
  • Keep it simple: This is not a recipe to overthink. The less you fuss over it, the better it turns out.

Even with one hand out of action, this came together in about five minutes flat, proof that some of the best things really are the simplest.

Enjoy !

Cold Thai Noodles

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Shrimp noodle salad with a Thai-inspired green sauce and green onions

Noodle salads are the best salads ! The Western classics, with an olive oil/vinegar or a simple mayo base, are great, but sometimes you might crave something more exotic.

I will say this much ; I had a strong Mob inspiration for this one, as I stumbled across a video of Thai-inspired green shrimp noodles. I couldn’t access the recipe, but tried to recreate it my own way.

I found it very clever to make a quick coconut-based dressing, throwing all the ingredients in the blender. It gives mixed green curry / ceviche vibes, with an end salad coming across as zingy, filling, and anything but boring.

This Green shrimp noodles salad is absolutely great for lunch, as it comes together within 15 minutes : 

  • First, soak your noodles
  • Gather all your sauce ingredients, and blend !
  • Quickly cook your noodles along with your snap peas  
  • Assemble, throw a few green onions and chilies if you wish, and enjoy ! 

Cold Thai Noodles – Recipe

Ingredients – Advice & where to find them

  • Shrimps : I recommend using frozen, peeled shrimps here, to make it even easier. Simply thaw it a few hours in the fridge, or the night before. ww
  • Sugar snap peas :
    • You can replace them with any veggie you want, ideally a bit crispy such as thinly sliced cabbage / mushrooms / bell pepper, depending on the season. 
    • You can either blanch them or eat them raw. Raw sugar snap peas have a crisp, juicy bite and a fresh, grassy sweetness—kind of like a cross between a garden pea and a green bean, but with more crunch. Blanched sugar snap peas (after about 2 minutes in boiling water) become tender-crisp—still snappy, but just slightly softened. The blanching brings out their natural sweetness even more, mellowing the raw grassy notes and giving them a more buttery, smooth flavor.
  • Rice noodles : 
    • Follow package instructions here, and be careful not to overcook them ! Oftentime, you will need to soak them if using dry ones, then to cook them quickly in boiling water.
    • I personally like to use fresh ones when I can, as the texture is nicer -find them easily at your usual Asian store. 
    • Replace them with any noodles you have on hand –spaghetti or udon would be great, too. 
  • Thai chili paste (Nam Prik Pao) is Thailand’s smoky, sweet, spicy, umami-packed chili jam. It is definitely a great addition here, but skip it if you don’t have it, or replace it with a mix of chili oil/chili crisp and shrimp paste. 

Let’s dig into it !

Beef & Broccoli Tray Bake

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Crunchy rice, beef, sweet potato and broccoli with a dollop of yogurt, turkish chili butter and honey

I saw a version of this floating around online — one of those American fitgirl bowls with sweet potato, cottage cheese, avocado ; prots, fibers, the whole deal. Looked healthy. Looked fine. Looked like something that would leave me yearning for a tad more flavour and texture.

So I kept the bones — the rice, the sweet potato, the white sauce — and gave it a hearty Turkish makeover. Yogurt sauce with raw garlic, instead of cottage cheese. Turkish chili butter (tereyağı with Aleppo pepper) bubbling slowly in a pan, instead of avocado on top. A drizzle of honey to finish, because of course. The kind of thing I love from a proper Turkish breakfast, reimagined as a tray bake dinner.

IT IS HEALTHY YET SO TASTY. I loved it. The crispy rice adds texture like nothing else, the beef is well-spiced and juicy, and that butter situation — melt, add Aleppo pepper, let it sizzle for 15 seconds and turn the heat off — is one of those ridiculously simple finishing moves that changes everything. Loved every single bite.

Crispy Rice, Sweet Potato, Beef & Broccoli Tray Bake – About the dish

The tray bake is one of the great formats of weeknight cooking: everything on one pan, into the oven, barely any washing up. But what makes this one different is the crispy rice — a technique borrowed from Persian and Middle Eastern cooking traditions, where leftover cooked rice is pressed and fried until it forms a crackling golden crust (the famous tahdig). Here, it goes into the oven with a drizzle of oil and salt until it turns slightly golden and shatters on contact.

The Turkish chili butter — called acılı tereyağı — is a staple finishing move in Turkish cuisine. You see it over menemen, over eggs, ladled onto pide. It’s nothing more than butter, Aleppo pepper (pul biber — milder and fruitier than regular chili flakes, with a subtle oiliness), and salt. The heat of the butter blooms the pepper for about 15 seconds, then you kill the heat and let it infuse. It smells incredible and looks stunning drizzled over pretty much anything. Paired with the cold yogurt sauce and a hit of honey, it creates a sweet-salty-spicy-rich combination that is very much the Turkish way.

Aleppo pepper (pul biber) is a semi-dried chili from Syria and Turkey — coarse, dark red, with moderate heat and a distinctive sun-dried, slightly smoky, almost raisin-like depth. If you can’t find it, use a pinch of smoked paprika mixed with a small pinch of regular chili flakes. It won’t be exactly the same, but it’ll work.

Crispy Rice, Sweet Potato, Beef & Broccoli Tray Bake – Recipe

Ingredients – Advice & key points

  • Jasmine/Basmati rice: 300g, cooked then fully cooled. Cook it normally, then spread it on a large plate or tray and let it cool. Warm rice steams in the oven rather than crisping. This step can be done the night before, or at least 30mn before you put it in the oven.
  • Sweet potato: Uniform size is important — if some cubes are too big they’ll be undercooked while the smaller ones burn. The sweet potato goes on the tray first with a little olive oil and salt, as it needs a head start before the beef and broccoli go in.
  • Broccoli: florets only. Don’t cut them too small — they’ll shrink & burn in the oven. Medium-sized florets roast beautifully: crispy at the edges, tender in the middle. Toss with olive oil and a pinch of salt before roasting.
  • Minced beef: Use a mince with at least 10% fat ideally— lean mince might dry out in the oven and lose all its flavour. Season the beef with paprika, cumin, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper, then spread it in rough chunks on the tray rather than pressing it flat — you want texture, not a flat sheet of mince.
  • Aleppo pepper (pul biber): The key ingredient in the Turkish butter. Don’t substitute regular chili flakes as a first choice — the depth and fruitiness of Aleppo pepper is what makes the sauce distinctive. Find it at Turkish or Middle Eastern grocery stores, or online. If truly unavailable, use half smoked paprika, half mild chili flakes.
  • Greek yogurt: for the sauce. Use full-fat — it’s thicker, creamier, and doesn’t split or turn watery when you add the garlic. Grate the garlic directly into the yogurt and mix well. A pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon brightens it up. Make it while the tray bakes — it only takes 2 minutes.
  • Honey: A generous drizzle to finish. It cuts through the richness of the butter and the acidity of the yogurt and ties the whole plate together. Runny honey works best — just drizzle it straight from the jar at the table.

Recipe – Advice & key points

  • Start the sweet potato and rice first: Spread the sweet potato cubes and the cooled rice (tossed with 1.5 tbsp oil and 1/2 tsp salt) on one half of the tray each. Into the oven at 220°C for 15 minutes before anything else goes in. The sweet potato needs that head start to cook through, and the rice needs the full time to get properly golden and crispy.
  • Keep the tray half-and-half: After 15 minutes, add the broccoli and beef to the empty half of the tray. This way everything finishes at roughly the same time — another 15 minutes until everything is cooked through and golden. Total oven time: 30 minutes.
  • Don’t press the beef flat: Spread it in rough, irregular chunks rather than a smooth sheet. You get more surface area for browning, more textural contrast, and it looks better on the plate. Season generously with the spices — don’t be timid.
  • Make the sauces while the tray bakes: The yogurt sauce takes two minutes to put together — just mix everything and refrigerate until serving. The Turkish butter is made in the last 5 minutes: melt the butter on low heat, add the Aleppo pepper, let it sizzle very gently for 15 seconds, then immediately turn off the heat. Don’t walk away from it. The butter burns fast and the pepper will go bitter if you overheat it. Leave it to infuse while you plate up.
  • Finish under the grill if needed: After the full 30 minutes, if the beef or broccoli needs a bit more colour, flick the grill/broiler on for 2–3 minutes. The rice and broccoli edges will get extra crispy. Completely optional but worth it if your oven runs cool.
  • Serve & eat immediately — the chili butter solidifies as it cools and the crispy rice loses its crunch over time.

A genuinely easy weeknight tray bake that feels way more interesting than it has any right to be. One tray, four components, two quick sauces, total chaos on the plate in the best possible way.

Enjoy !

Dry Tom Yum Noodles

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Shiny rice noodles with fishballs and green onion, coated in a luscious reddish sauce

I got lost somewhere in Bangkok.

In a nearby stall, a woman was tossing noodles in a bowl with something deeply fragrant — no broth in sight. I pointed at what the person next to me was having, paid a handful of baht, and stood on the kerb eating one of the most aggressively flavourful bowl of noodles I’ve ever had in my life. Tangy, spicy, slightly sweet, a little funky from the fish sauce — and that lime-forward punch that just woke everything up. I scraped the bowl clean in four minutes. I considered crying. I considered living in Bangkok forever.

I didn’t. But I’ve been chasing that bowl ever since. This is my version.

Dry Tom Yum Noodles – About the dish

Tom yum (ต้มยำ) is one of Thailand’s most iconic dishes — a spicy, sour soup built on lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, chili, lime juice, and fish sauce. The name literally translates to “boiling” (tom) and “mixed” or “spiced” (yum), and it’s been a cornerstone of Thai cooking for centuries. Traditionally a soup, it’s associated with central and northern Thai street food culture and is one of the dishes most strongly tied to Thai culinary identity internationally.

What makes this version different — and arguably even better for a weeknight — is that it’s dry. No broth. Instead of being a soup base, the tom yum flavour profile becomes a punchy, glossy sauce that coats every noodle and clings to the fishballs and vegetables. The technique of building a sauce directly in the bowl and tossing hot noodles through it is common across Southeast Asian street food — you see it in Singaporean dry laksa, Malaysian dry char kway teow, and Thai dry noodle variations like this one.

The real star here is the nam prik pao (น้ำพริกเผา) — a roasted chili paste made from dry-roasted shallots, garlic, dried chilies, and sometimes tamarind and shrimp paste, caramelised into a dark, smoky, deeply aromatic paste. It’s the ingredient that makes this dish taste like Thailand. Worth tracking down at a well-stocked Asian grocery — it lives in a jar and lasts forever.

Dry Tom Yum Noodles – Recipe

Ingredients – Advice & key points

  • Nam prik pao (Thai roasted chili paste): 1 tbsp. This is the soul of the dish — don’t skip it or substitute it. Nam prik pao is made from dry-roasted shallots, garlic, and dried chilies, blended into a thick, smoky, slightly sweet paste. It brings a depth and complexity that no other ingredient can replicate. Look for it in Asian grocery stores (usually in a glass jar, in the Thai condiments aisle). The version with shrimp paste is the most flavourful; if you’re avoiding seafood, look for a vegetarian version. Brands like Maesri or Mae Ploy are widely available and excellent.
  • Lime: The acid is what makes the whole bowl sing and keeps it from feeling heavy. Roll the lime on the counter before cutting to get maximum juice out of it.
  • Fish sauce: The umami backbone of the sauce. Use a good quality Thai fish sauce — Tiparos or Megachef are solid options. Fish sauce is salty, so taste before adding any extra salt.
  • Honey or corn syrup: This is your sweetness and balance. Honey works beautifully and adds a subtle floral note. Corn syrup is more neutral and gives a slightly shinier gloss to the sauce. Either works — it’s personal preference.
  • Warm water: Loosens the sauce so it coats the noodles evenly without being gluey. Add it to the bowl when mixing the sauce base.
  • Frozen fishballs (or any protein): Fishballs are the classic pairing here — they’re slightly bouncy, subtly savoury, and absorb the sauce beautifully. Find them in the freezer section of any Asian grocery store. That said, this dish is extremely forgiving: sliced chicken breast, shrimp, tofu, or even a soft-boiled egg all work brilliantly. Use what you have.
  • Rice noodles: Fresh rice noodles are silkier and take less than 2mn to cook — they’re ideal here. Dry rice noodles usually need soaking ; follow the packet instructions carefully to avoid mushiness. Either works, but fresh is nice.
  • Chinese broccoli (gai lan), chopped: Slightly bitter, sturdy, and holds up to the heat without going limp. If you can’t find it, regular broccoli florets, pak choi, or even spinach work as substitutes — just adjust the blanching time accordingly.
  • Bean sprouts: Add crunch and freshness. Blanch them for just 10 seconds — you want them still snappy, not wilted.
  • Green onions, green part only: The fresh, mild onion flavour cuts through the richness of the sauce. Green part only here — the white part would be too sharp.
  • Coriander: Adds freshness and a herbal lift. If you’re in the camp that finds coriander tastes like soap, swap for Thai basil or just leave it out.
  • Crushed roasted peanuts: Texture, richness, and a subtle nuttiness that rounds everything out. Dry-roasted unsalted peanuts are ideal. Crush them roughly — you want some texture, not peanut dust.
  • Red pepper flakes: 1 tsp, or less/skip for less heat. The dish already has some spice from the nam prik pao — add flakes on top if you want it properly fiery.

Recipe – Advice & key points

  • Build the sauce in the bowl first: It makes this dish of so easy to prep. Combine the nam prik pao, lime juice, fish sauce, honey, and warm water directly in your serving bowl and mix until the paste is fully dissolved into a glossy, pourable sauce. Taste it — it should hit sour, salty, sweet, and slightly smoky all at once. Adjust lime or fish sauce as needed before you add anything else.
  • Cook the fishballs properly: Simmer or boil frozen fishballs for about 5 minutes until cooked through and slightly puffed. Don’t overcook or they’ll go rubbery. Drain and set aside — they’ll absorb the sauce when you toss everything together.
  • Blanch the vegetables fast: Chinese broccoli and bean sprouts need just 10 seconds in boiling water — seriously, no more. You want them cooked but still with bite and colour. Drain immediately and set aside.
  • Cook noodles according to the packet: Fresh rice noodles need about 1 to 2mn in boiling water. Dry rice noodles need longer — follow the packet instructions exactly. The key is draining them well so they don’t water down your sauce.
  • Assemble straight into the sauce, immediately: The moment the noodles are drained, tip them directly into the bowl with the sauce. Add the fishballs, vegetables, and all the toppings. Toss everything together quickly and thoroughly — you want every noodle coated and the sauce evenly distributed. Serve immediately. The noodles should be beautifully shiny, but not too oily — if the sauce seems too thick, add a tiny splash of warm water.
  • Serve right away — no waiting: This dish does not hold well. The noodles absorb the sauce rapidly and the vegetables lose their crunch. Make it, eat it instantly. It’s a two-minute assembly job, so everything else should be ready before the noodles go in.

I’ve made this dozens of times since that Bangkok layover. It takes about 20 minutes start to finish, it costs almost nothing, and every single time it gets demolished in minutes. Street food logic: simple ingredients, aggressive flavour, eat immediately.

Enjoy !

Crispy Raw Tuna Salad

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Crispy raw tuna salad with crunchy rice cucumber avocado

There’s a whole genre of crispy rice salads on the internet, and for months I scrolled past them. Every single one used fried chicken or some kind of heavy protein that felt like it defeated the point. I wanted the crunch. I wanted the freshness. I wanted something that actually felt light while still hitting hard on flavour.

So I went back to basics: raw fish. Sushi-grade tuna, barely dressed, with cold cucumber and avocado and spring onions. Then a deeply savoury, slightly spicy gochujang mayo sauce with ginger and garlic that ties everything together. And the rice — baked in chili oil until deeply golden and shatteringly crispy — plays the starring textural role.

The result was genuinely a masterpiece of varied textures and bold tastes. It sounds dramatic but I stand by it. Raw tuna + gochu mayo = always a banger, and here it’s been brightened up with lime juice, rice vinegar, and ginger so it sings. I like it better after 1 hour in the fridge, but honestly it doesn’t last that long.

Crispy Raw Tuna Salad – About the dish

This salad sits somewhere at the intersection of Japanese poke culture, Korean gochujang cooking, and the crispy rice trend that took over social media recently. Crispy rice as a vehicle for toppings is a format borrowed from onigiri and sushi culture — rice pressed, seasoned, and crisped until it holds its shape and delivers crunch in every bite.

Gochujang (고추장) is a Korean fermented red chili paste — thick, deeply umami, moderately spicy, with a subtle sweetness that comes from the fermentation process. It’s one of those ingredients that elevates anything it touches. Combined with Kewpie mayo (the Japanese mayo made with egg yolks and rice vinegar, creamier and richer than Western mayo), it creates a sauce that’s both addictive and remarkably balanced.

The inspiration came from all those crispy rice salads using fried chicken, but raw fish is simpler, fresher, and — if you ask me — infinitely better. This is the version I wanted to exist. And if you’re nervous about raw fish, just make sure you’re using properly labelled sushi-grade tuna from a trusted fishmonger or quality supermarket.

Crispy Raw Tuna Salad – Recipe

Ingredients – Advice & key points

  • Japanese rice: 300g, for 3 servings. Short-grain Japanese rice is ideal here — it’s sticky enough to hold together and crisp up properly in the oven. Wash it well before cooking to remove excess starch.
  • Chili oil (without the flakes): 1.5 tbsp. You want smooth, pure chili oil here — no crunchy bits, which would burn and turn bitter in the oven. Lao Gan Ma smooth chili oil or plain chili-infused oil both work. If heat is a concern, sub half of it with neutral oil.
  • Sushi-grade tuna: 300g, diced. Make sure it’s labelled sushi-grade or sashimi-grade — meaning it has been handled and frozen safely for raw consumption. Dice into large cubes so it holds up in the toss.
  • Avocado: 1, diced. Use a ripe but firm avocado — soft enough to eat but not so soft it turns to mush when you toss the salad. Cut it at the last moment to avoid browning.
  • Cucumber: 1/2 large, sliced (not too thin). You want half or quarter-moons about 5mm thick. Too thin and they’ll go soggy. The cucumber provides crunch and freshness to contrast the richness of the sauce and avocado.
  • Kewpie mayo: 3 tbsp. Made with only egg yolks and rice vinegar — creamier, richer, slightly tangier than regular mayo. Regular mayo works too, but Kewpie is worth tracking down. Find it at Asian grocery stores.
  • Gochujang: 1 tbsp. Korean fermented chili paste. It brings heat, depth, and umami in one ingredient. If you’re very heat-sensitive, start with 1/2 tbsp and taste.
  • Furikake: 1 tbsp (optional but recommended). Japanese seasoning blend — dried fish, sesame, nori, and salt — that adds a final layer of umami and crunch. Find it at Asian grocery stores. If unavailable, toasted nori and sesame seeds work.
  • Crispy onions/shallots: 2 tbsp (optional but recommended). Store-bought fried shallots from an Asian grocery work perfectly. They add the final textural hit and a subtle sweetness.

Recipe – Advice & key points

  • Cook, cool, and split the rice: Cook the rice as usual, then spread it out and let it cool completely — warm rice will steam rather than crisp in the oven. Once cool, set exactly half aside for the salad. Toss the other half with chili oil, soy sauce, and sesame oil, spread on a baking tray, and bake at 220°C for about 30 minutes until deeply golden and crispy.
  • Keep the crispy rice dry: The key to great crispy rice is no moisture. Make sure the rice is fully cooled before baking. Spread it in a single, even layer — don’t pile it up. Parchment paper underneath helps prevent sticking.
  • Mix all sauce ingredients first: Combine Kewpie mayo, gochujang, soy sauce, lime juice, rice vinegar, honey, sesame oil, grated garlic, grated ginger, and sesame seeds in one bowl. Taste and adjust.
  • Toss gently, don’t smash: When assembling, add all salad ingredients and toss carefully — especially the avocado and tuna. You want everything coated in sauce without crushing the avocado or breaking up the tuna. Add the crispy rice and toppings last.
  • Serve immediately or rest in the fridge: Good right away, but genuinely better after 1 hour in the fridge. The flavours meld and the tuna absorbs the sauce. The crispy rice softens slightly but develops an almost chewy-crispy texture that’s arguably even better. Serve cold.
  • Heat control: Use less chili oil and more neutral oil for the rice if you can’t handle much heat. The gochujang sauce is flavourful but not aggressively spicy — more warming than burning.

This is the kind of dish that looks like a lot of components but actually comes together fast once the rice is done. The rice can be baked ahead and kept at room temperature. The sauce keeps in the fridge for days. The actual assembly takes five minutes. A fantastic make-ahead lunch or a slightly impressive dinner that takes almost no effort to pull off.

Enjoy !

Cold Tomato Noodles

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cold grated tomato soup with somen and basil and cherry tomatoes on top

I never had this dish at a restaurant. I never stumbled upon it on a trip. It came to me the way a lot of my best recipes do these days — scrolling through a screen at some ungodly hour, and suddenly stopping dead.

I saw it on cabagges.world and I was immediately obsessed. Grated fresh tomatoes as a cold soup base, somen noodles chilled in ice water, a Japanese-inspired sauce with soy, mirin, dashi. It looked insane. It looked refreshing. It looked like exactly what a 35-degree afternoon demands.

I made it almost exactly as written — just a couple of tiny tweaks — and it delivered. Completely. Cold noodles are already my thing, but these are vegetarian and they somehow still hit every note I want: umami, acidity, freshness, that satisfying slurp. We are glowing and hydrated.

Cold Tomato Noodles – About the dish

Somen (素麺) are ultra-thin Japanese wheat noodles, typically eaten cold in summer — often served in ice water and dipped into a chilled tsuyu broth. They cook in about two minutes, which makes them the perfect hot-weather noodle. The tradition of eating cold somen in Japan is centuries old, and it’s one of those things that just makes complete sense the moment you try it on a sweltering day.

What makes this dish clever is using grated raw tomatoes as the soup base. When you grate a tomato on a box grater, the skin stays behind and the flesh collapses into a bright, watery, intensely flavoured pulp. It’s a technique used across the Mediterranean — hello Catalan pan con tomate — but here it gets a Japanese treatment: soy sauce, mirin, dashi powder, and lime. The result is something that feels both familiar and completely new.

No somen? Don’t stress — thin spaghetti, regular spaghetti, or soba all work well here. The point is cold noodles in a cold, punchy broth. The format is flexible, the flavour is not.

Cold Tomato Noodles – Recipe

Ingredients – Advice & key points

  • Somen noodles: 100g per person. These thin, delicate wheat noodles are the star — they cook in 2 minutes and become silky when chilled. Find them at any Asian grocery store. No somen? Thin spaghetti (spaghettini), regular spaghetti, or soba noodles all make solid substitutes. Same technique applies: cook, drain, rinse with cold water, chill in ice.
  • Ice: Non-negotiable. You need a bowl of ice water to shock the noodles after cooking and keep them cold until serving. This firms up the texture, and makes the dish what it is. Lots of ice.
  • Tomatoes: 2 medium, ripe ones. The riper the better — you want maximum juice and sweetness when you grate them. Watery, flavourless tomatoes will make a watery, flavourless broth. Use the good ones.
  • Cold water: Just 1/4 cup — it loosens the grated tomato into a pourable soup consistency. Add it after grating.
  • Soy sauce: 2.5 tbsp. The umami backbone of the broth. Use a good quality regular soy sauce — light or all-purpose, not sweet kecap manis.
  • Mirin: 2 tbsp. This sweet Japanese rice wine rounds out the saltiness and adds depth. It’s what makes the broth taste Japanese rather than just tomato-water-with-soy. Find it at any Asian grocery or well-stocked supermarket.
  • Dashi powder: 1/2 tsp. This is your instant umami booster. Just a small amount adds that deep, savoury quality that makes the broth complex. Available at Asian grocery stores. If you can’t find it, a tiny pinch of MSG or a small splash of fish sauce will work, too.
  • Lime juice: 1 tbsp, adjust to taste. The acidity that ties everything together and makes the broth bright. Start with 1 tbsp and add more after tasting.
  • Basil: 6 leaves, chiffonade. A chiffonade means stacking the leaves, rolling them tightly into a cigar shape, then slicing crosswise into thin ribbons. It’s the right cut here — it distributes the basil evenly and looks elegant. Fresh only, please.
  • Cherry tomatoes (optional topping): A few halved on top. Just for texture, colour, and extra freshness. Completely optional but highly recommended.

Recipe – Advice & key points

  • Grate the tomatoes directly: Cut the tomatoes in half and grate them cut-side down on a box grater over a bowl. The flesh pulps into juice, the skin stays in your hand — just discard it. This is faster and less wasteful than peeling.
  • Build the broth in the same bowl: Once the tomatoes are grated, add the soy sauce, mirin, dashi powder, cold water, and lime juice right into the same bowl and stir. Taste it — it should be savoury, slightly sweet, acidic, cold. Adjust lime if needed.
  • Cook the noodles al dente: Somen cook fast — usually 3 minutes in boiling water. Don’t overcook or they’ll become mushy and fall apart in the broth. Follow the package timing and pull them at the right moment.
  • Rinse aggressively with cold water: After draining, run cold water over the noodles until they are completely cool, then transfer to a bowl of ice water. This removes excess starch (which would make them clump and gluey), stops cooking, and chills them down.
  • Keep everything cold: The broth should be cold, the noodles should be cold. This dish only works when it’s properly chilled — don’t serve it at room temperature.
  • Serve in the right order: Ladle the tomato broth into the bowl first, then add the drained noodles. Top with basil chiffonade and cherry tomatoes. This way the noodles don’t absorb all the broth before it reaches the table.

That’s it. No heat, no stress, pure summer. Credit to cabagges.world for the original — this one’s basically theirs with a couple of small tweaks, and it’s one of the best things I’ve eaten this season.

Enjoy !

Sardine Toasts

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toasts with a sardine and tomatoes mixture

It’s the kind of recipe that happens when summer says “no.” No big dinners, no elaborate prep, no standing over a hot stove. Just you, a couple of cans from the pantry, and a toaster.

I made these sardine toasts during the worst heatwave of last summer. The fridge was embarrassingly empty. I had sardines — two tins of them, the good kind with the fillets in olive oil — a handful of cherry tomatoes threatening to go soft, and a lemon sitting on the counter like it had been waiting for this moment. Fifteen minutes later I was on the balcony eating the best thing I’d had all week. Honestly a little embarrassed by how good it was.

It’s a sandwich. But elevated. And I would serve this to guests with zero shame.

Sardine Toasts – About the dish

Sardines on toast is one of those old-school staples that never really went out of style — it just got forgotten for a while. In the UK, tinned sardines on buttered toast was comfort food for generations. In Portugal and Spain, sardines are practically a national obsession: grilled fresh in summer, but also preserved in tins with excellent olive oil, eaten on bread with nothing but a squeeze of lemon. Simple, ancient, and very good.

This version takes that base and gives it a North African nudge — harissa for heat, preserved lemon for that salty floral depth, fresh herbs, and cherry tomatoes that bring both acidity and freshness. The result is something that tastes way more complex than the effort involved. No cooking beyond toasting bread. The sardines come ready; you’re just building something worthwhile around them.

And yes — sardines have a strong smell and a bold flavour. That’s the whole point. They’re also insanely good for you: omega-3s, protein, calcium, the whole package. Glowing skin, happy gut. We’re eating well here.

Sardine Toasts – Recipe

Ingredients – Advice & key points

  • Sardines: Use fillets in olive oil — 2 tins of 115g. The quality of your tin matters here. Go for the best you can find; the good ones are meatier, less fishy-tasting, and the oil is actually worth using. Don’t throw that oil away.
  • Sardine tin oil: A drizzle of the oil from the tin goes right into the mix. It carries all the flavour and keeps everything moist and cohesive. This is not optional — it’s the secret weapon.
  • Olive oil: A small extra drizzle on top for richness and to smooth out the texture.
  • Cherry tomatoes: 12, cut into small pieces. They bring acidity and freshness that cut through the sardines’ richness perfectly. Go small — you want them mixed in, not dominating.
  • Onion: 1/4 finely minced. Skip it if you’re not a big fan or for less sharpness, or use red onion.
  • Harissa: 2 teaspoons. This is your heat and depth. Every brand is different in intensity, so taste as you go. If yours is very strong, start with 1 tsp. If you’re heat-sensitive, skip it or replace with a pinch of smoked paprika.
  • Garlic: 1 clove, minced or grated. It disappears into the mix and just makes everything taste more alive.
  • Preserved beldi lemon: 1 teaspoon, finely chopped. This makes the whole thing special — that salty, floral, intense citrus hit. If you can’t find beldi (Moroccan-style), use any preserved lemon. Rinse it first and use only the skin.
  • Lemon juice: 1 tablespoon, optional. Brightens everything up if you want extra acidity. Taste first — if the preserved lemon is doing its job, you might not need it.
  • Fresh herbs: 1 tablespoon of your choice — basil, coriander, or mint all work beautifully. Each brings a different vibe: basil is Mediterranean, coriander goes more Moroccan, mint adds freshness and lift.
  • Bread: Sourdough is ideal — its slight acidity and chewy crust hold up to the sardine mix without getting soggy. Cornbread or country bread are great options too. Toast it properly: it should have crunch.

Recipe – Advice & key points

  • Mash gently: You’re not making pâté. Crush the sardines with a fork until they break down into a rough, textured mix — not a paste. You want some chunks to remain so each bite has personality.
  • Add the tomatoes last: Mix everything else first, then fold in the cherry tomatoes carefully. This keeps them intact and prevents the whole thing from getting watery.
  • Taste before assembling: Once everything is mixed, taste and adjust. More harissa? More lemon? More salt? The preserved lemon is salty, so don’t add salt until you’ve tasted the full mix.
  • Toast the bread properly: Don’t under-toast. A good golden crunch on the surface is what holds the sardine mix without turning to mush. If you have a cast iron pan, toast it in butter for next-level results.
  • Serve immediately: This is not a make-ahead situation. The tomatoes release liquid over time and the toast softens. Build it, eat it right away.
  • Strong smell warning: Sardines have a bold, distinctive smell — that’s part of their charm, but you need to love it. If you or your guests are not sardine fans, this is not the recipe to convert them. Consider yourself warned.

Open tins, mash, mix, toast, eat. Peak heatwave cooking. We’re glowing — and not just from the sweat.

Enjoy !