Jump straight to the leftover Dal Pancake recipe

I was looking after my friends cat last week in Dublin. The sweetest little cat. I kept her well fed, but it won’t surprise you to hear that I love to feed people even more. When my friend was on her way back from the airport I asked her if she would like some dal pancakes. She replied: I have never had them, sounds good! My reply: well you won’t have, I am just making them from leftover dal, but they are very good! Dal pancakes are sheer joy. Fluffy like an American pancake, and shaped just so too. But made of leftover dal and tasting gently of it, with coconut milk, an egg, self raising flour and salt, and just that. 

Cooking for comfort

After weeks of travelling and lots of eating out, I craved simplicity once I had a kitchen again. Not my kitchen, but my friends kitchen in Dublin, and so I kept it simpler again. I wanted dal, dumplings, I wanted an excellent steak. Pasta loomed large on my culinary horizon. I went overboard on my first day in the local shop. The second day too. Then as I wandered, as I do, I discovered a Chinese shop and an Indian shop. I stocked up on spices and dumpling wrappers and sauces. I went too far, I always do and I arrived at my sisters house after Dublin with a collection of herb plants and half a pantry.  Continue reading

Jump straight to Lemon and Coconut Tadka Dal recipe

Dal is a favourite of mine, I have blogged about it more than once. Sometimes as a whole meal with egg (you know I love them), often with tadka (a perky mixture of spice and aromatics), always a cheerful sunshine yellow (although I am partial to a black spiced dal makhani too swirled with a little cream and I will share more on that soon). 

This dal is cheerful and elegant with lemon and coconut. It is one to make in a big pot for friends for a summer weekend lunch, or one to make and store in the fridge for comfort, or in the freezer for a later date. I must have had four bowls of this. I don’t bother soaking the dal, which means it takes longer to cook it, but it will still be done in 40 minutes. And it just cooks away, right? It needs little attention.  Continue reading

Dal, that gorgeous spiced lentil soup, is one of those dishes that I revert to on a cold day outside. When I want something full flavoured that requires little attention, something that I can make a big batch of, and eat for the next couple of days, treasuring every bowl. It is also one of the most frugal bowls of food that you can eat. Just pulses, water and spice and some garlic. In season, I add chopped tomato too. If I have it in the fridge, I will add some fresh coriander. Curry leaves are wonderful with dal too, fried a little with the spices. Dal is one of the dishes that I make when I don’t have the time or the inclination to get to the shop, so I work with what I have. To make a meal of it, I add a boiled egg on top, better still gorgeous perky quails eggs, boiled until just set with the yolks still soft.

I use moong dal for this, occasionally chana dal. I prefer moong dal as it is mushier when cooked, whereas chana dal tends to hold its shape. A combination of the two works well too. This time I added some pumpkin, well a kabocha squash to be precise. I love the rich deeply flavoured orange flesh, and the gentle creamy texture it acquires when cooked through. Some coconut milk gives it a layer of richness and mellows it out.

Recipe: Pumpkin & Coconut Tadka Dal

Ingredients

makes enough for 3-4 bowls

200g moong dal
200g chopped peeled pumpkin
1 tsp turmeric
200ml coconut milk
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp brown mustard seed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 chilli, finely chopped (and extra milder ones for decoration if you like, as I did)
light flavourless oil like groundnut or sunflower, coconut oil works too

Method

Cover the dal and pumpkin with water in a sauce pan, ensuring that the water covers the dal to an inch higher than it. Add the turmeric and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and allow the dal to simmer gently. It will take about 20 – 25 minutes to cook. Top up with water if you need to, a little at a time.

About 10 minutes in, toast the cumin seeds in a dry hot pan for about a minute. Grind in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in the frying pan and add the garlic and chilli for a minute. Then add the ground cumin and mustard seeds and fry for a couple of minutes. Turn the heat off.

When the dal is almost tender, add the coconut milk and stir through. Allow to cook further. When the dal is tender it is ready. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. The black pepper is important as it enhances the absorption of curcumin in turmeric, which is a natural powerful anti-inflammatory agent and anti-oxidant. It tastes good too.

Serve the dal with a teaspoon of the spices and garlic (and some extra chilli too if you like, fry it first). Garnish with whatever else you fancy as per the blurb at the top.

Enjoy!

I adore a spiced breakfast. I indulged as much as I could in Malaysia recently, from curries to laksa to curry mee to nasi lemak to roti canai with dal. When I am in Asia, breakfast is my favourite meal. It has so much flavour, so much variety and is always an adventure.

I love a good dal, an Indian spiced lentil soup, cooked until tender but still with texture, just so. Mostly lentils, sometimes beans, my favourite is made with the small moong dal. A bowl of sunshine, dal is bright and cheerful with turmeric, a culinary equivalent of the best duvet on a cold night. On top, spice dancing on tip toes, some herbs, whatever I have got. This is called the tarka (or tadka), the spice mixture that gives dal character and zing. And in my experience, while it is great to be authentic, variety is very interesting here, the dal can take any flavour.

I sometimes add ginger and garlic to my spices for an extra flavour punch, I sometimes add an egg for more body and sustenance (usually boiled until soft, halved and served on top). Today I kept it very simple, some nice dried chillies with just enough heat and rehydrated a touch, some brown mustard seeds, some small tomatoes, fried quickly, just enough to absorb the spice flavour and soften a bit and curry leaves, cooked until just starting to crisp and so fragrant.

There is lots of mixed advice as to when you salt a dal and as to whether you should soak it first. Soaking isn’t essential but it does save on cooking time and results in a speedy soft dal. I salt a little at the start, and add turmeric then too, but I season to taste properly at the end. Some say that salt can toughen the pulses, but this hasn’t been my experience, and I like the dal to take up a little seasoning as it cooks.

Notes on the recipe: Moong dal is widely available in supermarkets, Indian food shops and online too. Curry leaves are widely available in London, I can get them in my local supermarket. If you can’t get them, you could try dried online, which still have great flavour. Or substitute and entirely different but suitable flavour, fresh coriander. This is incredibly good value and a great comfort eat. Enjoy!

Recipe: Dal with Curry Leaves, Mustard, Chilli & Tomato

Serves 2 generous portions or 1 person on repeat for a day (yup – that was me!)

Ingredients

Dal

200g moong dal (small yellow lentils, larger chana dal will work fine too)
1 heaped tsp turmeric powder
sea salt to taste

Tarka

2 tbsp brown mustard seeds
12 good small tomatoes halved or quartered depending on how small they are
a handful of curry leaves, removed from the stem
chilli of your choice, finely chopped (seeds in or our, up to you, depending on how hot you like it)
ghee or butter or coconut oil (coconut oil is a great substitute for lactose intolerants and vegans, I quite like the flavour)

Method

If you have time, soak the moong dal with the turmeric and a little salt in about twice their volume of water. If you don’t, don’t worry, it will just take a little longer to cook.

Bring the dal to a boil over a medium heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook until tender and soft. Season to taste.

Melt your fat of choice for the tarka and add the mustard seeds, chilli and curry leaves and cook over a medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes for a final couple of minutes and serve on top of the dal, which should still be nice and hot.

Enjoy!

I lived quite a sheltered life in terms of spice in my early years. Rural Ireland just didn’t have any then (things are different now). I discovered Bombay Mix and the wonderful fried lentils within when I went to university, and those fried lentils remain some of my favourite things to eat, and to make in batches to eat all by themselves. Continue reading

I hate confusing spellings and names. Why the world can’t agree to spell and name everything the way I do, I just don’t know. University was a high point of this, not only can’t the US and UK agree on spellings, they give the same thing different words at times: adrenaline meet epinephrine. Oh! We look the same? Well, you are the same. The very same, but people like to call you different things.  Gah!

It haunts me still in my world of cookery. Sichuan or Szechuan? I’ve seen both in print from reputable sources. What’s haunting me today is the most perplexing of all: Dal, Daal, Dhal, or Dahl? Again, all are online and in print. These last two we can only blame ourselves for. We can’t seem to agree how these words should appear in English. I want someone to tell me! Do you know?

For now, I am sticking with dal, I’ve been told that the correct pronunciation is with a long a. So daaaal could be our new spelling. However you spell it, it’s a great dish. Pulses are so very underrated, and when you add spices and other accoutrements, they absolutely come to life and sing. It’s a fantastic budget dish too and a great illustration of what can be produced with a little time, effort and a lot of love.

There are many versions, and most cooks have their own. I traditionally make a Tarka (also called Tadka) Dal where the pulses are cooked with turmeric with some tempered spices added at the end (these are the tarka). This is a delicious way to do it, the spice flavours are really bold and fresh and the dish is really zingy. Sometimes, when I prefer something a bit more gentle, I add the spices at the start and cook the lentils with them, adding other items like tomatoes and fresh coriander with some lemon at the end. I also like to put a few eggs in for the last ten minutes and serve the dal hot over halved peeled boiled eggs.

Gorgeous blossoms in the garden

A vegetarian friend was visiting in advance of her move to India. We were going to eat in the sunny back garden and I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate to cook. Golden yellow dal with sunny egg yolks peeping out from behind chunks of red tomato and flecks of green coriander, begging to be eaten, as we basked in the sun under the lovely blossoms.

Recipe notes: The chana dal can also be bought as yellow split peas. They’re my favourite for dal as they have a lovely texture and retain their shape. Some people soak them, but there’s no need, unlike other pulses they won’t poison you, they will just take longer to cook (about 35/40 minutes, depending on their freshness). I added the tomatoes before the end as I had spashed out on some delicious English heritage tomatoes that were big, juicy and meaty, and I wanted to retain that flavour & texture in the dal, and not have them become mushy with longer cooking. If you can’t get tomatoes like this, I would recommend getting some small juicy tomatoes, if you can only get water bombs, add them earlier but try not to use them – they’re awful.

A note on the spices. You get much superior flavour from fresh whole spices that you toast and then grind. It seems like a lot of effort, but it’s not really and the return for that little bit of time and effort in flavour makes it a great trade. Try it – I am sure that you will agree.

Gorgeous blossoms in the garden

Dal Recipe – makes enough for 4

Ingredients

500g Chana Dal
2 red chillis, finely chopped (enough for a bit of a kick – use one if you want mild)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 inch ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seed
I tbsp turmeric
2 big tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped or a handful of small ones, diced
1 tbsp red pepper flakes (optional)
a handful of coriander leaves, chopped (best to chop jyst before you serve for colour and freshness)
a fresh lemon
one egg per person – the best you can afford, I like Old Cotswold Legbar which have a gorgeous big yolk. Burford Browns are good too.
sea salt

Method:

Dry roast the coriander and cumin seeds for 30 seconds or so over a high heat in a dry frying pan to release the oils and therefore the flavours. Once you can smell the spices, they’re ready to grind, take care not to burn them. Grind them to a powder using a pestle and mortar (my preference) otr electric spice grinder.

Fry the garlic, chilli and ginger in some light oil (groundnut or sunflower work) for a minute or so, taking care not to burn the garlic as it will become bitter. Add the ground spices and fry for a further minute.

Add the chana dal, turmeric, red pepper if you’re using it and enough water to cover the chana dal with an inch to spare. Bring to the boil and cook for 25 minutes at a lower heat ensuring that it cooks at that tenperature but doesn’t explode all over your hob! Add water if it looks like it’s getting dry.

Add the tomatoes and your eggs and cook for a further ten minutes. If the dal is cooked it will be tender, it may need another few minutes if it’s a little old.

Add the coriander and a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Season with salt to taste. Serve the dal over the boiled eggs, shelled and halved.

Enjoy!

Almost everything I share on Eat Like a Girl has been cooked for one. I cook mainly for myself, and I do every day, at least once. I am a social being, but my flat is very small with no dining table (some day!) and so I rarely entertain at home. I so look forward to the day that I can though.

I know that many people are self isolating at home alone right now and I wanted to provide some recipe inspiration for you, or a starting point at least. While I almost always cook for one, I usually cook a little extra so that I can have leftovers to have with an egg the next day, or convert into something tasty for another meal. If you are cooking for two these will double up well and easily. 

Most recipes here require no kitchen kit as such. Everything is accessible and easy to recreate. All you need is a chopping board, a good knife, a wooden spoon and a pan to cook in. Everything else is a bonus and you can add that as you go. I did. Continue reading

LAST UPDATED: May 14th, 2020

Getting groceries delivered has become a little difficult with supermarkets doing their best but stretched to their limits. This is the perfect time to support smaller producers who have lots available to send to you. 

Many of these are farms that sell direct to the consumer or online shops. Some supplied the restaurant trade but with social distancing and most of us staying at home (and please please do social distance and stay at home if you can at all), they are now selling direct to the consumer. 

If you are an independent producer or retailer who should be on this list (in the UK and Ireland) please do let me know! Please email me a short snappy description on hello@eatlikeagirl.com – who you are / what you sell / how to buy – no marketing, just bare bones please. Please ask around your local community for producers that you can buy direct from too. Many don’t have a route to market and are really worried. We can all help each other.

Note –  I have not tried everything on this list and these are not endorsements. Where I am familiar with the product or company and would personally recommend, I will say. 

For cooking inspiration don’t forget there are hundreds of easy and very tasty recipes for home cooks on Eat Like a Girl. I have collated a few lists for you to get started with.

9 Recipes for Homemade Bread, Flatbreads and Pizza

Easy Recipes for Handmade Pasta and Dried Pasta

39 Recipes for Lockdown Solo Cooking

Don’t forget that you can sign up for email notifications of new recipes in the top right of the page. 

Back to the producers and retailers! Each of these links will take you to the associated section:

PRODUCE

FARMS
BUTCHERS AND SMOKEHOUSES
FISH
VEGETABLES — see farms and online retailers list also
CHEESE
FLOUR

PREPARED FOODS

FRESH PREPARED FOOD & DELI ITEMS
CHARCUTERIE AND JERKY
CHOCOLATE AND BROWNIES
BAKERS, CAKES AND PIES

PANTRY, SPICES AND ONLINE RETAILERS

GLUTEN-FREE
ONLINE RETAILERS
PANTRY ITEMS
SPICES

DRINKS

WINE
SPIRITS
BEER & CIDER
TEA & COFFEE

FARMS

Continue reading

I am a regular visitor to Canada. I love the vast expanse of it. The people, the calm, the lakes and forests, the cities with the quickly expanding and inspiring culinary scene. Excellent cocktails, terrific Canadian wines, a booming craft booze scene and lovely restaurants and bars to sample them. Canada is an excellent place for a road trip, especially a culinary one.

A Culinary Road Trip of New Brunswick Starting in Saint John

New Brunswick was the scene of my most recent Culinary Road Trip, packed with snow crab and lobster, lush produce from the farmlands and foraged seaweeds and sea greens from the seashore. It is one of four of Canada’s Atlantic provinces on the east coast. 83% of New Brunswick is under forest, and the cities are small by international standards. It is a perfect relaxed spot for a break and to unwind. I flew into Saint John via Halifax, Nova Scotia. A short flight in a small plane with excellent views of the landscape below brought me to Canada’s oldest incorporated city. I started my culinary road trip here. 

New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada with English and French being commonly spoken. The indigenous population has been established there since 7000BC (at the time of European contact these included the Mi’kmaq, the Maliseet, and the Passamaquoddy). Populations arrived from Europe from the 1600s included French, British and Irish. The city of Miramichi claims to be the Irish capital of Canada and was one of the points of arrival for many of Ireland’s coffin ships during the famine. It is home to a large Irish Festival now every year. New Brunswick was almost called New Ireland at one point until it was vetoed by King George III. Which, of course it was. 

Where to Eat and Drink in Saint John and What to Do

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Today is Pancake Tuesday / Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras. What a happy eating day! Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, the day to clear your cupboards before 40 days of Lenten fast. Every day can be pancake day but Pancake Tuesday is the one. I have gathered my favourite pancake recipes for you. Get stuck in.

A Brunch Classic: American Style Pancakes with Bacon & Maple Syrup

Let’s start with the classic fluffy pancake stack done American style. Always with bacon and maple syrup for me.

A Brunch Classic: American Style Pancakes with Bacon & Maple Syrup

Dal Pancakes with Curry Leaves, Coconut Milk and Chilli Oil

These dal pancakes were originally made with leftover dal but you should absolutely cook up a batch to make them. They are a cracker and enlivened with the gorgeous aromas from the crisped curry leaves and the punch of bright chilli oil.

Dal Pancakes with Curry Leaves, Coconut Milk and Chilli Oil

Socca (Chickpea Pancake) with Tomato & Aubergine

Continue reading

Those of you who know and love Turkish food will find this flatbread familiar. You might have even thought that it is lahmucun. It does look very like it and for good reason, it was directly inspired by it. In fact I started making lahmucun and then diverted to this. That is generally how it goes in my kitchen. 

I love lahmucun, a wonderful very thin Turkish flatbread covered with spiced meat, usually lamb, and baked until crisp. I used to live near Green Lanes in London for a few years, a 7 mile strip of street that is packed with Turkish restaurants. If you want to explore proper Turkish food culture, and you want Londons best kebabs, this is the part of London you should head to (Dalston also). Are you still here?

When I would head out to do my groceries, I would often indulge in a lahmucun. £1.30 was the princely sum for a takeaway one from one of my favourites there, Antepliler. I would stand at the till and watch while they would fill it with salad and roll it, wrapped in paper. They were divine. Manti also in a little Turkish cafe neary, those gorgeous tiny Turkish filled pasta served with yogurt. Before fermentation was a thing – what I mean is before Hackney discovered it – I found wild garlic kefir there, fermented vegetable drinks, and all sorts of other things. Treat yourself if you are in London and go explore. Make sure you pop into Yasar Halim when you do, a terrific local Turkish grocers and bakery, as well as Antepliler.  Continue reading

So much has happened since we last spoke. I have been to Canada and not just that, I was in sub arctic Canada walking with polar bears. Before I left, I managed to acquire a black eye in a stumble (I am very clumsy, always have been, it takes a toll). The first I have had since I was about 6 years old and walloped my eye against the corner of a chair. Attempts at cover up rendered me looking more like Beetlejuice on a bad day. It makes life interesting. Everyone can see it but no one wants to ask. Silver lining? It is a conversation starter and a terrific excuse to wear your favourite sunglasses on a dark day. 

On this trip I went to a province that was new to me, Manitoba, for a bucket list trip. I was not seeking out a particular dish, cook or ingredient, this time I was going to see polar bears on a spectacular stretch of Hudson Bay in northern Canada. I am a little wildlife obsessed being a biologist originally (majoring in physiology but I studied zoology too). I have been to Borneo to see orangutans and proboscis monkeys, and more of my bucket list trips involve seeing grizzly bears, spirit bears, pandas, awesome Japanese monkeys, gorillas, bonobos, chimps, and where ever possible, in the wild.  Continue reading

This is the second post in a series of dispatches from my recent trip to Quebec City and surrounds. The first was my two day trip to Charlevoix, specifically Baie St Paul. Today, I am focussing on my best eats and drinks in Quebec City itself. Enjoy! 

Quebec is a city that is dear to my heart, there is something a little magical about it. The architecture is beautiful, a walk around Quebec City feels part fairytale, especially as you ascend the ancient funicular to the old town below. Steep pitched zinc roofs top chateau like houses, painted red, blue or proud in silver, sometimes copper turned green with age and the rain. It is just the right size, big enough to have lots of options and small enough to walk around. Quebec City has music, art and a vibrant Bohemian culture. There is also an excellent food and wine culture here.

Quebec City has a proud francophone heritage, and the food is certainly influenced by this but not defined solely by it. Quebec is the largest producer of maple syrup in the world, and even though summers are short and it can get very cold, there is a new culture of wine making there with respected winemakers setting up. I have heard excellent things about natural wine maker Pinard et Filles which I suggest you seek out (and let me know how it is!). Continue reading

Socca is a wonderful thing. So easy to make, and very delicious. Using chickpea flour it is also gluten free. This recipe whisks me back to Nice, to a summer there when I was 19. It was only my second summer away from Ireland, my first trip abroad ever I had spent on a farm outside an idyllic looking English village outside Canterbury picking apples. I say summer, it was 3 weeks and a brief trip to London after, but it allowed me to peek at the possibilities available to me and dream of a travel filled future. The following year, after 1 year in university, I headed to Nice for the summer. 

Nice was a whole different thing. I lived in a small studio apartment not far off the Promenade des Anglais (a boulevard bridging the city and the bright blue sea). I worked in a market in the evening, wandering during the days, loitering in bookshops and anywhere I found interesting. I read biology texts in French to try and develop my language skills (I was studying for my degree in Biology at the time). I read and I walked and I swam in the salty Mediterranean Sea. I burned my feet on the stones on the beach and I jumped from one stone to another to reach the sea before discovering that I would be spectacularly out of my depth after a couple of feet. I worked from 5 until midnight every day, every week, and then I went for pizza most days with friends that I had made there after we finished. I discovered jugs of rosé, pizza with thin gorgeous ham and bottles of chilli oil hiding sprigs of rosemary and dried chillies.   Continue reading

I won’t apologise for waxing lyrical here. Asma Khan has been cooking some of my favourite food in London for some time now, and her gem of a restaurant Darjeeling Express finally has a permanent home in Kingly Court in Soho. 

Opening night at Darjeeling Express in Soho! Asma on her food, and the food we ate on the evening (it was impromptu so forgive the sound quality, I will do this again with my microphone).

As with her many pop ups before this, at Darjeeling Express Asma and her terrific all woman team of cooks are cooking authentic food from her Bengali childhood as well as the food of her father’s region Uttar Pradesh, and the food of her Royal Mughlai ancestry. The result is an exciting menu where the food of royal kitchens meets the street food of Calcutta. Continue reading

As an Irish food writer in London I have a responsibility to guide you to the best and most authentic Irish eating experiences in the capital. There will be Irish menus everywhere but where are the best contemporary ones that accurately reflect that emerald isle of ours? Don’t worry, I’ve got your back! 

Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill 

One of my favourite London spots, Richard Corrigan’s Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill is a perfect place to go on Paddy’s Day.  There is their annual Feast of St Patrick’s lunch, which is held tomorrow with live music, proper Irish stew and the unofficial Irish national dish, bacon and cabbage. But it is sold out, so if you don’t have tickets for that make a note to get them early next year, and head to Bentley’s anyway to the bar or restaurant for their menu packed with Irish produce including oysters from Carlingford and Galway and terrific grilled sirloin of Irish heritage beef. 

11 – 15 Swallow St, London W1B 4DG
bentleys.org

Picture 

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 Foraging in general is a joy. Free food, incredibly fresh, often difficult to source otherwise. I was at home last week and used it as an opportunity to stock up on gorgeous wild garlic.

My trip home was last minute. I was invited to speak at Facebook in Dublin for International Women’s Day and I jumped at the chance to immerse myself in company and to spend a little time at home. I was quite curious about facebook, too. I wanted to plug in and opt out, just for a little bit. It was a wonderful day in the end, I left inspired and hopeful, and reminded that community is so important, and that this is difficult for someone who spends lots of time working at home alone. 

Speaking at Facebook on International Women’s Day

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I travelled to Barcelona with Jet2CityBreaks who offer great hotel and flight city break packages. Jet2 fly to El Prat Airport in Barcelona which is a short hop from town and very handy for a city break. I wanted to explore Barcelona from all edible angles, traditional to modern and budget to blowout. Every recommendation is researched in advance and tried and tested by my demanding palate. I went on a food tour too. You will love Barcelona, and all of the wonderful things that you can eat there. 

Everyone loves Barcelona, even contrarians like me. It seems like everyone has been, and if they haven’t, they want to go. An individual city, so much sets it apart from quirky Gaudi architecture to the beautiful engraved pavement tiles, the most famous of which is the Flor de Barcelona pictured below. Barcelona is a city that loves beauty and attracts artists, a bohemian place that is relaxed and fun and also very stylish. Barcelona has the calm of the sea and beaches as well as a busy city centre lined with restaurants and bars. Continue reading

This post is a carefully selected sponsored post sponsored by Craved London, who asked me if I would explore their offering and share the results with you. I loved it. Craft have gathered the best craft food and drink produce from the UK and will deliver it to your door. Would you like 20% off with which to try it? Just use the code LOVENIAMH on the Craved website – http://cravedlondon.com/ – and enjoy! 

I love craft. From cooking to pom poms, my life has been steeped in it since I was a small girl. It is that passion for craft that led me to start this blog. Craft cooking and shining a light on the most interesting people, places and producers that I find. Continue reading

Some towns capture the heart and the imagination. Ciutadella is one. Previously the capital of Menorca (but not since 1722), it is the same size as current capital Mahon, both small cities with 30,000 people living in each. The remaining 30,000 Menorquins live in other small towns and rural Menorca. Ciutadella is a small city, cosy and friendly, but its architecture and large square lend it a feeling of a much larger place, and one that you want to get lost in. 

The streets of Ciutadella are gorgeous, winding and narrow. Many shoot off the large impressive main square, the Placa d’es Born, which overlooks the harbour below. The narrow streets are lined with Moorish, Gothic and Medieval architecture. Window balconies jut out above, reminding me of sleepy Andalucia. It is all very lovely, and glorious on a sunny day. 

Coffee in Bar Imperi, Ciutadella

We started our day in a lovely little cafe in the corner, Bar Imperi. I was meeting Antonio, secretary of the Fra Roger Gastronomy & Cultural Society (Fra Roger Gastronomia y Cultura) and a Ciutadella native. Fra Roger wrote the first Menorcan cookbook and is a very important figure in Menorcan gastronomy. He was a Francisan friar and likely learned to cook in the friary. He wrote down all he learned in his book Art de la Cuina (The Art of Cooking) which was published in the 18th century. 

Bar Imperi is a local institution and it is clear from the first few minutes that Antonio knows everyone there. Here you can have local pastries and snacks, coffees and alcoholic drinks. There is an open courtyard to the back as is common in buildings like this in this area. Over coffee and sobrassada sandwiches we spoke of Fra Roger and his recipes. He wrote 200 including dishes like lobster meatballs and there are many references to the original mayonnaise, alioli. Menorquins claim mayonnaise as a Menorcan dish, discovered by the French during their occupation of Menorca (and called after its place of origin, Mahon). 

Seafood lunch at S’Amarador overlooking Ciutadella harbour

Lunch had to be seafood, and we headed to one of the best restaurants in Ciutadella, S’Amarador. It was packed on a Monday lunchtime, on the terrace overlooking the harbour, in the courtyard where we sat, and throughout. We had a seafood platter to start with john dory (sublime!), grouper, cuttlefish red prawns and scorpion fish.

To follow we ordered the local speciality Caldereta (invented since Fra Roger’s time and in Menorcan cuisine for 100 years or so). A local spiny lobster soup, this version was rich and had a beautiful deep rust red lobster broth with lots of lobster in, and crisp thin toast to dip in and soak it all up. As good as last years was this was divine and I was full, but the magnetic broth kept pulling me back. For dessert I had to have the local ensaimada, a glorious snail shaped lard pastry dusted with icing sugar, and served with cinnamon ice cream this time. 

Finish the day with a Pomada, Menorca’s favourite gin drink

My third recommendation is the same as my first, but you will thank me for it. Start your day at Bar Imperi with a coffee, and finish it there with a pomada. A pomada is the local drink, a gin cocktail made with Menorcan Xoriguer gin and lemonade (or lemon fanta). Sometimes, lemon, or homemade lemonade.

Here I learned a neat trick, maybe two. First, you can order small cocktails, just to start your evening, a perfect primer, and not so much that it will make you sleep. Second, as I witnessed the barman repeatedly smash a bottle of fanta off the side of the counter, I realised that they had frozen the whole thing, and then gave it a good beating to create crushed ice. My pomada was like a pomada slushie, and it was so good in the heat.

I will return to Ciutadella, I have a list of restaurants to check out and I loved the relaxed friendly vibe there. I think it will be a perfect place to chill out once my book is done (and it nearly is!).

What You Need to Know

Bar Imperi, Placa des Born 5,Ciutadella de Menorca

S’Amarador, Carrer de Pere Capllonch, Ciutadella de Menorca

Map

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I travelled to Menorca as part of a project between iAmbassador and Visit Menorca, who sponsored this project.  As always, I have complete editorial control. With particular thanks to Antonio and the Fra Roger Gastronomic and Cultural Society and Menorca Guides for their help on this wonderful day in Ciutadella.

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