Two years of eat in my kitchen and a fantastic Chestnut and Apple Pie

Another amazing and crazy year with eat in my kitchen in my life - thank you to all of you who come back to these pages, every day, from all over the world!

I'm a little early this year, the exact anniversary will be tomorrow, on the 23rd November, this is the day I pushed my blog's publish button for the first time, but the weeks before this fateful moment were just as important. It was then that I decided to start writing about my cooking and baking, to set up a blog called eat in my kitchen and share a recipe each day. The early readers of my blog will remember that I published one of my recipes 7 days a week for one whole year. It was an easy decision to make as I had no idea what it would mean for my life - but that changed after about 3 months. It wasn't actually the creative work of coming up with new recipes every day that was hard to cope with. This is luckily quite easy for me as they come to me naturally, I feel inspired by almost everything I see, smell and taste. But to cook and bake the dishes, to take the time for the pictures no matter if the light was good or bad, if I felt tired or sick, that was exhausting at times. I'm not a trained photographer, everything I do, I do intuitively. I didn't learn this skill from someone else or at a school, and I had to learn a lot. Sometimes I just felt like giving up, I sat on the floor of my kitchen, crying my eyes out because I couldn't capture the deliciousness of a dish in a photo. Thinking back, it sounds ridiculous and I laugh about it, but in those moments it felt serious. As much as I wanted to share my recipes and inspire people to enjoy their kitchen and cooking, I also wanted to learn and grow for myself. And for one year, I wanted to do this every day. That was my mission, it wasn't forced upon me, I just wanted it. I'm hardheaded and once an idea is stuck in my head, I go for it. Now I'm happy that I hung on to it, my skills improved a lot, be it in the kitchen, behind the camera or at my computer writing a post. But during this journey, I had to face many doubts, insecurities and setbacks - and I still have to go through many of them.

Eat in my kitchen became a platform where thousands of people find inspiration for their kitchen life every day, and this is the greatest gift to me. To see so many of you cook and bake my recipes, sometimes on the same day that I publish them, and to receive all the beautiful emails from happy cooks around the world, often with pictures attached to share their results with me; there are no words to describe what this means to me. And then, on a cold day in March this year, another wonderful incident happened in my life. A woman called Holly La Due, who lives and works in New York for the Prestel publishing house, reached out to me and asked if I would like to write a cookbook. I said yes, of course, and Holly became more than just my editor, she's my friend.

I've shared my progress with you throughout the past 6 months and I'm as thankful as can be that I got chosen to move on from the digital to the analog world by working on a physical book. My recipes will be printed on paper and published next year in September and I must admit that, although I've been cooking, shooting and writing for this awesome project for over half a year, it still hasn't sunk in that I'm writing a book. It feels rather surreal and I think I might have to hold it in my hands at one point - overwhelmed and with happy tears - to understand what eat in my kitchen has done with my life.

I feel thankful.

xx

The reason I'm sharing all this with you today, is because I'll be off to London in a couple hours for a few amazing, new features for my meet in your kitchen series and I'm totally excited to share them with you over the next few weeks. So we had a little pre-anniversary party. To follow my 'apple tradition' - I made a Tyrolean apple strudel for last year's blog anniversary - I came up with my new favourite pie. The short crust pastry is buttery but not as fragile and crumbly as in my usual pies. Since I started my blog, I've wanted to make a pie with a pretty lattice top and I felt that the time had come. It was much easier than expected but to get there the pastry has to be a little more flexible than my normal dough, therefore I left out the eggs, added a bit more water and a little cider vinegar (it makes a tough crust). A great tutorial giving instructions about how to create the pattern was also quite helpful. The filling in this edible piece of art is more than delicious: Sour apple chunks on top of a creamy chestnut mousse refined with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg and orange zest. The flavours of the buttery crust, sour fruit and spiced chestnut mousse merge into the most amazing pie experience - totally anniversary-worthy!

Update: This recipe is also in my 2nd book, in 365!

Chestnut and Apple Pie

You need a 23cm / 9″ shallow pie dish for this recipe.

Here's a link which shows how easy it is to make a lattice top for a pie crust.

Serves 6-8

For the pastry

• plain flour 350g / 2 2/3 cups

• fine sea salt 3/4 teaspoon

• butter, cold, 200g / 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons

• cold water 4 tablespoons

• apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon

For the filling

• cloves, ground in a mortar, 1/8 teaspoon

• nutmeg, preferably freshly grated, 1/8 teaspoon

• ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon

• allspice berries, ground in a mortar, 1/8 teaspoon

• orange zest, freshly grated, 2 teaspoons

• chestnuts, pre-cooked, 200g / 7 ounces

• granulated sugar 100g / 1/2 cup

• orange juice, freshly pressed, 60ml plus 3 tablespoons / 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons

• organic egg 1

• firm, sour apples, cut into 8 pieces each, 850g / 30 ounces (about 5 apples)

• plain flour 2 tablespoons

• butter, cut into little pieces, 1 tablespoon

For the glaze

• organic egg yolk 1

• milk 1 tablespoon

• pinch of salt

• granulated sugar 1 tablespoon

For the pastry, combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter into the flour with a knife until there are just small pieces left. Continue with your fingers and quickly rub the butter into the flour. Add the water and vinegar and continue mixing with the dough hooks of an electric mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Press the dough together and form a ball, split in half and form 2 discs. Wrap the dough in cling film and freeze for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F (conventional setting).

For the filling, combine the cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and orange zest in a bowl. Purée the chestnuts in a blender until smooth and transfer to a large bowl. Whisk in half the spice mixture, half the sugar, 60ml / 1/4 cup of the orange juice and the egg, mix until well combined.

Mix the apples with the remaining sugar and spice mixture, 3 tablespoons of the orange juice and the flour.

Take the dough out of the freezer and, using a rolling pin, roll out 1 of the discs between cling film, big enough to line the bottom and sides of a 23cm / 9″ shallow pie dish, let the dough hang over the rim a little. Roll out the remaining dough between cling film, it should have a rectangular shape, a little wider than the widest part of the pie dish and about 25cm / 10" long. Cut 8 strips off the long side, each about 3cm / 1 1/4" wide.

Pour the chestnut purée into the pie dish lined with the pastry, even it out, and lay the apples on top. Sprinkle with the butter and quickly prepare a lattice top with the remaining dough following this link. Whisk the egg yolk, milk and salt for the glaze, brush the lattice top with the mixture and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake the pie for 15 minutes and then turn down the heat to 175°C / 350°F, bake for another 45 minutes or until the pie is golden and the pastry is baked through. Let the pie cool for at least 15 minutes before you cut it into pieces.

Spicy Harissa Lentils with Lemon Tahini and Sweet Onions

A friend of ours gave us a large bottle of tahini which he brought back to Berlin from his latest trip to Israel. Guy knows how much we love this oily sesame paste and it wasn't the first time that he brought some for us from one of his trips to the Middle East. This time, he announced solemnly that this Blue Dove Tahina is the best tahini ever. Unfortunately, I can't read anything that's written on it, apart from Quality Since 1921, the rest is in Arabic and Hebrew, but Guy told me that it's not actually from Israel but from Palestine. If only people could forget about borders as easily as food does when it travels.

So, our special Tahina deserved some special recipes. Hummus came first, enjoyed only with some soft chunks of a white loaf of bread dipped into the velvety creaminess. We sprinkled a few pieces of the bread with the pure tahini paste and agreed that it's so good that it doesn't really need any addition, pure on bread - that's perfection! However I couldn't stop myself from coming up with another delicious way of making use of it: I whisked together a thick, oily sauce made of tahini, garlic roasted in olive oil and lemon juice - it's divine. Then, I cooked red lentils in my  homemade vegetable broth and mixed it with spicy harissa, I drizzled the tahini sauce all over it and finished it off with onions, cooked until they were juicy, golden brown and almost as sweet as candy.

This recipe has been featured by Food52!

Spicy Harissa Lentils with Tahini and Sweet Onions

Serves 2

For the lentils

• red lentils 200g / 7 ounces

• vegetable broth (unsalted) 1/2l / 2 cups plus 1 tablespoon

• harissa

• fine sea salt

• ground pepper

• olive oil 1 tablespoon

For the topping

• olive oil

• onions, cut in half and thinly sliced, 2

• a pinch of sugar

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

• fresh parsley leaves 12

For the tahini sauce

• olive oil 3 tablespoons

• garlic, cut into tiny cubes, 2 large cloves

• tahini 1 1/2 tablespoons

• freshly squeezed lemon juice 1-2 teaspoons

• a pinch of fine sea salt

In a large heavy pan, bring the lentils and broth to a boil and simmer on medium heat for about 8 minutes or until the lentils are al dente. Stir in 1 teaspoon of harissa and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, season with salt and pepper.

While the lentils are cooking, heat a splash of olive oil in a heavy pan and cook the onions on medium heat for a few minutes until golden brown and soft, stir in a pinch of sugar.

For the tahini sauce, heat the olive oil and garlic in a small saucepan and cook on medium heat for about 1 minute or until the garlic is golden but not dark. Take the saucepan off the heat and pour the garlic oil into a bowl. Whisk in the tahini, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and salt, season to taste.

Divide the lentils between plates, sprinkle with the tahini sauce, a little more harissa (optional), crushed pepper and parsley. Enjoy!

Ginger Spice Cookies with Cinnamon Oat Crunch & Paris on my mind

We are all one, we may all be different, unique individuals, but still, we are all one.

We were out at a concert and got home late on Friday night, we saw the news on TV and were shocked. Paris had been attacked, but not only this city, everybody who believes in freedom, tolerance and compassion was attacked that night. This wasn't against a state or against a religious group, it was an attack against individual lives, to make us feel scared, to spread hatred and fear amongst each other, everywhere in the world. We felt shaken on Saturday, we were sad and confused, not knowing where all this would lead to. Why does humankind have to be like this, why can't we learn from our history? We know all this violence won't lead anywhere, it will only spread the seeds for even more pain and suffering, and if we continue following this sickening road, nothing will ever change.

Yesterday, we were invited to dinner, to my aunt and uncle's traditional St. Martin's celebration feast. We took our bikes and rode through the city, down the Unter den Linden boulevard until we got to the Brandenburg Gate at thePariser Platz, lit up in blue, white and red, in the colours of le tricolore. We wanted to pass the French embassy which is right there but we couldn't, we had to stop and get off our bikes, to take a minute for ourselves. Hundreds of candles, flowers and letters all over the pavement, people standing and sitting on the floor, in silence. We didn't know each other but it's easier to stand the pain when you can share it. We looked into each other's eyes, coming from different countries, not sharing the same language, lives and beliefs, but this doesn't matter, in this moment we all cried and were one.

Later on, when we sat at the dining table together with our family and friends after enjoying a wonderful meal cooked by my aunt Ursula and my uncle Uwe, I felt a little more peaceful again - and safe. We discussed and shared our opinions, some of them were close, others were further apart, but still, we sat at the table together, looked into each other's eyes and used words to express our feelings, worries and beliefs. Eight individual people, with individual opinions, knowing that we can't escape the fact that we are all different yet still one.

When we rode home, we stopped in front of the French embassy again and I read a handwritten note - Nous sommes unis. This gives me hope.

There was a lot of silence in the past couple days, we were speechless, no words to express what we felt but it wasn't necessary either. My boyfriend and I felt the need to sit down together more often than usual, we drank tea and ate cookies. My ginger cookies were made for happier times, but still, they made us feel good, warm and cozy, exactly what we needed.

Ginger Spice Cookies with Cinnamon Oat Crunch

Makes about 20 cookies

For the cookie dough

• plain flour 355g / 2 3/4 cups

• baking soda 1 teaspoon

• fine sea salt 1/2 teaspoon

• cloves, ground in a mortar, 1 teaspoon

• ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon

• allspice, ground in a mortar, 1/8 teaspoon

• butter, soft, 130g / 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon

• granulated sugar 175g / 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons

• fresh ginger, grated, 1 1/2 tablespoons

• cane syrup or molasses 80g / 4 tablespoons

• honey 60g / 3 tablespoons

• organic egg 1

For the oat crunch

• rolled oats 90g / 1 cup

• butter, soft, cut into small pieces, 60g / 4 tablespoons

• granulated sugar 100g / 1/2 cup

• ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon

For the cookie dough, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and all spice in a large bowl.

In a second large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and ginger with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the syrup, honey, and egg and mix well. Add the flour mixture to the bowl and mix with the dough hooks of an electric mixer until just combined. Scrape the dough together, leave it in the bowl, and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (an hour would be even better).

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 355°F (preferably convection setting). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

For the oat crunch, mix the oats, butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium bowl and mix with the dough hooks of an electric mixer until crumbly.

Form a spoonful of the cookie dough into a 4-cm / 1 1/2-inch ball. Continue with the remaining dough and spread the balls on the lined baking sheets, leaving enough space, about 5-cm / 2-inch, in between them, they will rise. Lightly flatten the balls with the bottom of a small espresso cup (dip the bottom in water before you touch the dough) and scoop a generous amount of oat crunch on top (see the picture below). Bake in the oven for about 13-15 minutes, the tops of the cookies should be slightly soft when you touch them, don't overcook them or they will get hard. Let them cool completely.

You can store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Pear & Star Anise Tarte Tatin

Ten years ago, on Bonfire Night, I moved to England. I lived in a tiny harbour village called Whitby in the far, far North close to the old city of York. To reach this secluded and picturesque place, you have to drive through the silent moors of North Yorkshire. At one point you will see the river Esk with its pretty swing bridge, and if you follow the water, passing the wooden piers, you'll end up right in front of the dark, rough waves of the North Sea. If you take a left, you can walk down the endless beach under the cliffs for hours until you reach Sandsend. If you take a right, you'll get to the Gothic ruins of the Whitby Abbey from the 13th century, high above the East Cliff overlooking the sea. This mystical place inspired Bram Stoker to write his novel Dracula; here, Captain Cook also learned seamanship and this is where I fell in love with England.

So it's a very special place for me, with precious people and memories, and - of course - amazing food experiences. Especially Botham's, the local bakery, stole my heart and awoke my love for British pastries. Every year in November, I feel a strong pull to go there again, or at least to England. This year, the feeling was particularly strong, but my work on the German translation of my book doesn't really allow me to travel for long. I needed an excuse. I thought it would be a very nice idea to prepare a few new meet in your kitchen features for the Christmas season, and why not in England? I booked the flights, and although I'll only be in London for 3 days, I managed to set up 4 kitchen sessions with wonderful people whose work I deeply admire and I can't wait to turn the oven on together with them.

I still have to wait another 2 weeks and until then, I'll keep it warm and cozy in my own kitchen. Autumn's pears meat Christmassy star anise to melt in a golden brown pan of caramelized fruits and spice covered in crisp short crust pastry. Baked in the oven and flipped around, this becomes a Tarte Tatin. It works for a late breakfast, it's pleasant at teatime and I love to enjoy the last bites at our traditional Sunday pizza night. The recipe is based on my mother's tart, only the apples gave way for more wintery aromas.

Pear & Star Anise Tarte Tatin

For this tart you will need a 21cm / 8″ ovenproof Tarte Tatine dish or frying pan.

• butter 90g / 3 ounces

• granulated sugar 90g / scant 1/2 cup

• star anise 2 pieces

• large, crisp pears, peeled, cored and quartered, 3

For the shortcrust

• plain flour 130g / 1 cup

• granulated sugar 1 tablespoon

• a pinch of salt

• butter, cold, 75g / 3 ounces

• egg yolk 1

• cold water 1 1/2 tablespoons

For the shortcrust, combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are only small pieces left. Continue with your fingers and quickly rub the butter into the flour. Add the egg yolk and water, continue mixing with the hooks of your mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a thick disc, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F.

In a pan or a Tarte Tatin dish, melt the butter and sugar, add the pears and star anise and cook on high heat for about 12 minutes. Turn the fruits a few times and watch them well, they should be golden brown and caramelized. Take the pan off the heat when the pears are done.

Roll out the dough between cling film, big enough to cover the pan. Lay the flat pastry on top of the pears tucking the edges down the sides. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown. When the tart is done and the caramel is still liquid, place a large, heat resistant plate on top and flip the pan around carefully. Enjoy warm or cold, pure or with whipped cream.

Pumpkin Crespelle with Ricotta and Sage

Around Halloween, my boyfriend feels the call of his American roots and carves scary faces in pumpkins. Being a good girlfriend I know my duties, so I went out into the world - or rather my local shop around the corner - to find only the finest examples for him. I brought quite a pretty collection back home and let him do his work but I ended up with far more squash in my kitchen than we needed. We had a vast selection, a few Hokkaidos in different shapes and sizes and butternut, which isn't really helpful due to its shape but I forgot in my enthusiasm. So it was obvious, pumpkin had to be on the menu!

Thin, golden Italian crespelle have been on my mind for weeks but my inspiration was missing, I had no idea what to fill them with. Halloween's squash became my muse and here it is: roasted pumpkin cubes paired with a little ricotta, the obligatory creamy Béchamel sauce, Parmesan and crisp, fried sage leaves. It looked and tasted so good that my sister Nina, who's in Berlin at the moment for a quick visit, almost bit my laptop screen when she saw the pictures. We ate it all, so unfortunately, there was nothing left for her.

Pumpkin Crespelle with Ricotta and Sage

Makes 4 crespelle

For the filling

• mixed pumpkin (squash), cut into 1 1/2cm / 1/2" cubes, 550g / 1 1/4 pounds (like Hokkaido (with skin), or peeled butternut and musquée de provence)

• olive oil

• flaky sea salt

• butter 2 tablespoons

• fresh, large sage leaves 30

• fresh ricotta 4 heaping tablespoons

• Parmesan, grated, 70g / 2 1/2 ounces

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

For the Béchamel sauce

• milk 600ml / 2 1/2 cups

• bay leaf 1

• a pinch of nutmeg, freshly grated

• fine sea salt

• ground pepper

• butter 30g / 2 tablespoons

• plain flour 30g / 4 tablespoons

For the crespelle

• milk 160ml / 2/3 cups

• organic eggs 2

• plain flour 130g / 1 cup

• fine sea salt 1/4 teaspoon

• butter, to cook the crespelle

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 390°F (conventional oven) and line a baking dish with baking paper.

Spread the pumpkin in the lined baking dish, coat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, sprinkle with flaky sea salt and cook in the oven for about 25 minutes or until soft. Take the pumpkin out of the oven and set aside, keep the oven set to 200°C / 390°F.

For the Béchamel sauce, bring the milk with the bay leaf, nutmeg, salt and pepper to the boil, take it off the heat once boiled. In a saucepan, melt the butter and whisk in the flour, let it cook on medium heat for 1 minute. Take off the heat and slowly add the hot milk, whisk until smooth and cook for about 3 minutes on lowest heat until it’s thick and creamy. Discard the bay leaf, season to taste and set the pan aside.

Mix the ingredients for the crespelle with an electric mixer until well combined and let the dough rest for about 5-10 minutes. Heat a little butter in a large, heavy or non-stick pan and cook 4 large, very thin crespelle on medium heat until golden on both sides.

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan on high heat and roast the sage leaves for a few seconds in the sizzling butter until golden and crisp but not dark.

Lay each crespelle flat on a plate, spread with 1/4 of the pumpkin and sprinkle each of them with 2 1/2 tablespoons of Béchamel sauce, 1 heaped tablespoon of ricotta, 3 sage leaves, some Parmesan and crushed pepper. Roll into a tight wrap and place them next to each other in a baking dish. Pour the remaining sauce on top and sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown, switch on the grill (broiler) for the last 1-2 minutes.

Espresso Madeira Cake with Caramel Chips

Many years ago a woman called Carole Handslip came into my life. It wasn't really Mrs. Handslip herself, rather her recipes. My aunt Ursula rearranged her vast selection of cookbooks and asked if she could hand down some of her culinary jewels to me. I didn't have to think twice and was happy to receive a few of her 80's kitchen classics, which were about tapas and baking, of course, as Ursula is as passionate about it as I am. Carol Handslip's slightly old-fashioned but nonetheless beautiful Home Baking book was one of them, it's a great collection of typical British biscuits, scones, tea-breads and festive and novelty cakes. I fell in love with it immediately as I thumbed through the pages for the first time.

There's something very relaxing and nostalgic about these old books. The styling and the choice of recipes is often quite different to today's aesthetics and culinary trends, it wakes up so many memories and reminds me of many forgotten sweet and savoury treats, it feels like time traveling. These are treasures of the past so I'm always more then excited to spot a fine example at a book store or in my aunt's kitchen.

One of the first Handslip recipes I tried was a Caramel Chip Gâteau, a quite extravagant and dramatic looking cake. It's a layered coffee sponge with buttercream filling, golden icing and tiny caramel chips on top. It's a gorgeous creation and it inspired me to make my own espresso Madeira cake without a filling but with a shiny espresso icing. Carol uses dark coffee for her recipe but I prefer to bake with instant espresso powder, it adds more depth. Although I'm not the biggest fan of caramel candy, to me it just tastes sweet and sticks to the teeth, the carmel chips on Mrs. Handslip's creation were visually so captivating that I couldn't help myself but pick up on her idea. It's Halloween weekend after all and it fits perfectly.

A few months ago I shared one of Frances Bissell's recipe with you, her lavender white chocolate caramel cake, she's also a fantastic British cookbook author. I wrote about her great book, The Floral Baker, and also mentioned her wonderful London publisher, Stephen Hayward of Serif Books. Stephen died of a heart attack last week, which made me very sad. Although we never met in person I enjoyed the email contact we had. My condolences to his family and friends. Rest in peace, Stephen.

Espresso Madeira Cake with Caramel Chips

Makes 1 cake

• plain flour 220g / 1 2/3 cups

• cocoa powder 1 teaspoon

• baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons

• instant espresso powder 4 teaspoons

• a pinch of salt

• butter, at room temperature, 200g / 7 ounces

• granulated sugar 200g / 1 cup

• organic eggs 3

• milk 2 tablespoons

For the espresso icing

• icing sugar 100g / 1 cup

• instant espresso powder 1 teaspoon

• about 5 teaspoons water, boiling

For the caramel chips

• granulated sugar 100g / 1/2 cup

• vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 180°C /  355°F (convection oven) and butter a 18cm / 7" springform pan.

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder and salt.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy, add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well in between. Add the dry mixture and the milk and mix until combined. Scrape the dough into the buttered pan, even it out and bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes or until golden and firm on top. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool completely before you cover it with the espresso icing.

Whisk the ingredients for the icing until well combined and very thick, add 1 teaspoon of water at a time, and sprinkle or spread over the cake.

Brush a piece of baking paper with a little vegetable oil. Melt the sugar for the caramel chips in a pan until golden brown and pour it onto the oiled baking paper, flatten it quickly with a knife. Let it cool completely, break it into pieces and decorate the cake.

A juicy Lamb, Pomegranate and Pistachio Halloween Sandwich

This has been the longest sandwich break ever since I started my Sandwich Wednesdays almost 2 years ago - and I missed them badly. There's something deeply satisfying about creating a sandwich, taking the pictures of this luscious dish - and especially - eating it! It's back again and although it was supposed to be a Halloween sandwich I must admit that it didn't really work out. I expected my creation to look a bit messier, wildly dripping with red (pomegranate) juices, but it turned into a pretty sandwich beauty instead. Never mind.

Anyway, the flavours count more than the looks and they are more than promising in this recipe. A bit more than a year ago I shared my juicy lamb sandwich with preserved lemons and capers with you, it was a much loved and often featured sandwich that called for a new interpretation. Seared lamb fillet only needs a little salt and pepper to become the most tempting piece of meat you can possibly have on your plate, so there's no need to change the preparation. But this time the composition went into a different direction. Sour and salty gave way for sweet, sour and nutty. The fine taste of the fillets goes unbelievably well with the tangy, deep red juices of the pomegranate and unsalted pistachios. The topping of mint leaves should be handled with care. The herb can easily be too overpowering and I don't recommend using the whole leaves as you can see in the pictures but slice them thinly instead. Apart from this rule, you only have to stuff the composition between two slices of thick, juicy ciabatta - or even better, potato bread - and enjoy!

Lamb, Pomegranate and Pistachio Sandwich with Mint

If you don't feel like a sandwich enjoy the creation without bread, just juicy lamb fillets sprinkled with pomegranate, pistachios and crushed pepper.

Makes 4 sandwiches

• olive oil

• lamb fillets 250g / 9 ounces

• fine sea salt

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

• juicy, white bread 8 thick slices

• fresh rocket leaves, a small handful

• pomegranate seeds about 4 heaping teaspoons

• unsalted pistachios, chopped, about 4 heaping teaspoons

• mint leaves, thinly sliced, 8

Heat a splash of olive oil in a heavy pan and sear the lamb for 1 1/2-2 minutes on each side (not longer!), the meat should be pink and slightly undone in the middle. Season the fillets lightly with salt and pepper and wrap them in aluminum foil. Set them aside for a few minutes before you slice them thinly.

Brush the inside of the slices of bread with the juices from the pan and a little olive oil. Spread some rocket leaves on each slice of bread, lay a few slices of lamb on top and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, pistachios, a little mint and crushed pepper. Close the sandwich and enjoy!

Bittersweet Chocolate & Orange Muffins

One of eat in my kitchen's hungry followers asked me if it's possible to turn my Maltese granny Edith's bittersweet chocolate and orange sponge cake into muffins without loosing any of its scrumptious qualities - and the answer is: yes, it is possible and they taste as amazing as my Mediterranean granny's cake! The muffin loving lady called Edith's cake the best orange cake she's ever baked - which I still have to tell Edith as I'm sure it will make her a little proud - and I call these miniature versions one of the best muffins our coffee table has every seen. They are so soft, buttery-juicy and aromatic, the warm chocolate lusciously melting into the yellow sponge. It's the kind of sweet you want to enjoy snuggled into a blanket on the sofa on a cozy Sunday afternoon with a hot amber-coloured cup of Darjeeling tea or a thick, dark hot chocolate.

I had an interesting hot chocolate experience a few days ago. It was a typical autumn day, not too cold yet, the leaves vigorously flying in front of our living room window. I felt like a walk through Berlin's West and took the afternoon off. We live in the eastern part of the city and at the moment I tend to spend a lot of time in the area where we live, so it felt a bit like a holiday to go to a different Kiez (the Berlin word for district). The restaurants, shops and houses look a little different and we even needed a map at one point as we lost our way - we felt and looked like tourists. Whenever I discover a new area I have to go to at least one café or restaurant. We went to Winterfeldt Schokoladen, a chocolate shop and café in Schöneberg, located in a stunningly beautiful old pharmacy from 1892. Tiny drawers and ornate cabinets filled with the best chocolates and pralines, cupcakes and caramel candy displayed on scratched up, old marble. Luckily, we found a free table - there are only a few in the tiny shop - so we placed our order: scones with clotted cream and thick Italian hot chocolate. When our dark beverage was served in fragile antique cups, we looked at each other and smiled. The hot drink was as thick as custard, the purest taste of chocolate mixed with steaming water - no milk and just a little sugar. It's not the kind of hot chocolate I could drink every day but it was delish. And it felt so good to just sit there at the window and watch the people passing by that we didn't want to get up and step out into the cold again.

Bittersweet Chocolate & Orange Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

• plain flour 200g / 1 1/2 cups

• baking powder 2 1/2 teaspoons

• baking soda 1/2 teaspoon

• a pinch of salt

• granulated sugar 180g / 3/4 cups and 2 tablespoons

• butter 150g / 5 1/2 ounces, melted and cooled for a few minutes

• organic eggs 3

• freshly squeezed orange juice 6 tablespoons

• orange zest 1 1/2 tablespoons

• bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped, 100g / 3 1/2 ounces plus 1 tablespoon finely grated for the topping (optional)

Set your oven to 200°C / 390°F (fan-assisted oven) and put paper baking cups into the 12 molds of a muffin tray.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.

Whisk the melted butter, eggs, orange juice and zest and pour into the bowl with the dry mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until you have a lumpy dough, with a bit of flour left here and there. Keep in mind, the more you mix it, the more it will lose its light texture. Quickly stir in the chocolate and scrape the dough into the muffin cups. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden and firm and spongy on top. Let them cool for a few minutes before you take the muffins out of the tray, sprinkle the warm tops with a little more chocolate.

Herbed Polenta with Parsnip Chips and Maple Butter - and a feast!

The past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster. I finished my English book and happily gave in all the recipes, text and pictures 3 days before my official deadline - something that had never happened before according to Holly, my editor, and it impressed her and the Prestel team in New York quite a bit. I just wanted to have everything off my desk at one point - and celebrate. And that's what we did!

Holly came to visit us in Berlin for a few days and all we did was talk and eat (and work on the cover for my book). We showed her around the city as it was her first time here and I planned a special dinner for her with some of the people at the table who have strongly influenced me during my eat in my kitchen blog and book experience. Not all of them could make it, but to see how many came and how some of them tried to make it possible truly touched me. Molly from My Name Is Yeh wanted to come from North Dakota just for this dinner, she even checked out the flights - this is crazy! - but she had to be in the States the day before and after. Thank you girl!!

Malin from The Bread Exchange came with her handsome baby boy Lode - in the early days of my blog we made sandwiches together with her bread and now we even share the same publisher (for her German book that will come out in the Spring of 2016). Marta from What Should I Eat For Breakfast Today? - my great inspiration for photography and positivity in life (this lady has the most beautiful smile!) and one of the first meet in your kitchen guests - was here to celebrate with us. And she took the pictures of us at the table, which I love because usually I'm the one taking pictures so I'm never in them. They truly show what a happy night we had, thank you Marta! Cynthia Barcomi - the founder of my favourite Berlin Deli - already had her cake for our dinner in the oven but sadly had to cancel at the last minute. Luckily, we didn't have to worry about having enough sweets on the table anyway. My apple cinnamon crumble was delicious and looked rather rustic next to Laura's elegant raw chocolate avocado cake. The Berlin Tausendsuend baker impressed all of us with her composition and took us right to chocolate heaven.

It was an amazing night with amazing people that I'll never forget. And a nice coincident gave us another reason to cling the glasses - in the same week of my deadline, my boyfriend finished the EP he produced for a fantastic artist from Australia. Josh The Cat happened to spend a lot of time at our apartment in the past few months for the production and became one of my book's first testers. He loved my recipes as much as I love his music and we shared far more than just food and songs this year, he and his girlfriend, the gorgeous artist Phia, became close friends of ours and we're more than sad that they'll soon leave us to go back to Australia. But I'm sure we'll hear more about their music soon!

A dinner becomes special through the people and conversations at the table, it's delicious through the right food - we enjoyed some of my book's recipes which I can't share with you yet - and it's a feast when you have good wine in the glasses. I have to send a big thank you to a man from the South and fantastic wine maker who made it possible for us to enjoy amazing wine on that special night. Martin took over the Weingut Robert Bauer - which is now called Martin Albrecht Weingut - more than 10 years ago, a wine maker who's filled my mother and step father's wine cellar since I was a child. You could certainly call it our family wine. With a family tradition of more than 400 years of producing wine, Martin comes from the right background to continue Mr. Bauer's philosophy of creating only the best wines  - ohne Restzucker (without residual sugar). This is wine of the highest quality, which you can smell and taste with the first sip. We enjoyed an excellent Gelber Muskateller (Muscat) with an autumny, fruity soup and an outstanding 2012 Herbstnebel (Syrah, Cabernet-Sauvignon and Nebbiolo) with hearty lamb. I love this wine! We were over the moon with our treat from the Württemberg area. If you're looking for a wine, handpicked in old vineyards, a wine that guarantees to please your taste buds to the fullest and puts a smile on your face, get in touch with Martin through their website, or visit him in Flein (50km / 30 miles from Stuttgart). He also offers the best vinegars I know - his Balsamic Pear vinegar is one of my favourites, you can basically drink it off the spoon. Thank you Martin!

And thank you Holly for giving me a reason to bring all these great people together at our table!

I can't share the recipes with you from that night, we have to be a little more patient until my book comes out, but as we enjoyed a dish that featured scrumptious parsnip I decided to create a dish for you that fits the current mood of autumn and allows the roots to bring out their confident qualities - fluffy herbed polenta topped with crisp parsnip chips and sizzling maple butter.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey for making all this possible, it makes me a very happy person - and a happy cook!

Herbed Polenta with Parsnip Chips and Maple Butter

Serves 2

For the polenta

• polenta 120g / 4 ounces

• water 240ml / 1 cup

• milk 240ml / 1 cup

• salt 1 teaspoon

• olive oil 2 tablespoons

For the parsnip chips

• parsnip, very thinly sliced, 200g / 7 ounces

• vegetable oil

• fine sea salt

For the maple butter

• butter 2 tablespoons

• maple syrup 1/2-1 tablespoon

For the topping

• fresh rosemary, finely chopped, 1-2 teaspoons

• fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped, 1-2 teaspoons

• ground pepper

In a saucepan, heat the water and milk, add the salt and bring to the boil. Take the pan off the heat, add the olive oil and polenta and whisk. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and put the pan back on. Cook the polenta for 10 minutes, stirring and adding more water once in a while if necessary. When the polenta is thick and creamy, take if off the heat and season with salt to taste.

Heat a generous splash of vegetable oil in a heavy pan, the bottom should be covered. When the oil is hot, add the parsnip, just enough to lay them next to each other. Turn them after a few seconds and take them out immediately once they are golden and crisp but not too dark. Mind that they burn very quickly! Transfer the chips to kitchen paper and season with salt.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, whisk in the maple syrup when it's sizzling and take the pan off the heat.

Scrape the polenta into bowls and sprinkle with maple butter, parsnip chips, pepper and fresh herbs.

Dutch Honey Cake

This cake was one of my childhood's culinary highlights. Whenever I visited the Netherlands I had to get a large loaf of this juiciest, spongiest and stickiest of all spice cakes. You can buy this sweet treat all over the country, from artisan bakeries or simple supermarkets, which I did most of the time. The long square tightly wrapped in foil is stuffed with the wintery aroma of honey, ginger, cloves, aniseed, nutmeg and cinnamon. I'll never forget the moments when I opened the package, sitting on a long and lonely beach, the sand in my shoes and the cold wind blowing against my face, my fingers touched the sticky golden cake to break it into chunks. Fantastic!

I never dug very deep into Dutch cuisine, although the country is quite close to my hometown. My appetite focused more on the culinary pleasures coming out of France and Italy, or England when it comes to pies. I'm a big fan of milky Gouda cheese from the flat meadows of the Netherlands but apart from my beloved honey cake I'm not too familiar with the country's cooking and baking traditions, I'd love to learn more about it.

To bake my first Dutch honey cake in my kitchen was only the start. I did some research and learned that the dough needs some strong black tea (or coffee), most of the sweetness - and the particular taste - comes from the honey and the spices, and a little sugar beet molasses is responsible for the cake's dark warm tone. It was much easier than I expected, taste and texture left no doubt that this is a real Dutch honey cake - baked in Berlin.

Dutch Honey Cake

Makes a 24 x 10cm / 9 1/2 x 4″ cake

• plain flour 260g / 2 cups

• a pinch of salt

• baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons

• baking soda 1 teaspoon

• butter 45g / 3 tablespoons

• honey 170g / 6 ounces

• sugar beet molasses 45g / 1 1/2 ounces

• milk 120ml / 1/2 cup

• organic eggs, lightly beaten, 2

• strong black tea 60ml / 1/4 cup

• Demerara sugar 55g / 2 ounces

• ginger, freshly grated, 1 teaspoon

• ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons

• aniseed, ground in a mortar, 1/3 teaspoon

• cloves, ground in a mortar, 1/2 teaspoon

• nutmeg, freshly grated, 1/4 teaspoon

For the topping

• pearl sugar (optional)

Set the oven to 160°C / 320°F. Lightly butter a 24 x 10cm / 9 1/2 x 4″ cake pan and line it with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder and soda.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, let it cool for a few minutes and add the honey, molasses, milk, eggs, tea, sugar, ginger and spices to the warm pan. Whisk well, stir into the bowl with the dry mixture and mix with an electric mixer until well combined. The dough will be quite liquid. Scrape the dough into the lined cake pan and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the cake is done. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes before you take it out of the pan.

Keep the cake wrapped in paper and cling film to keep it moist for 2-3 days.

Potato, Apple and Onion Pie with Taleggio

I appreciate a good pie with a buttery crust all year round but there's something particularly satisfying about this hearty dish on a cold autumn's evening. Since the season started, I've already pulled a few of them out of my oven, Nigella Lawson's potato, cheese and spring onion pie is one of my all time favourites. Imagine coming home after a walk through the pouring rain, your bones cold and clothes wet, and then you see - and smell - this golden beauty on the table. Just the idea is so tempting that I could walk straight back into my kitchen and bake another pie.

Nigella's recipe inspired me to think about possible potato fillings wrapped in short crust - with apples and shallots for example. The fruits are at their peak at the moment, crisp, firm and packed with juices, they fill the air in my kitchen with the sweet smell of autumn. I sliced them thinly and layered them with onions to melt into the rich aroma of fresh thyme and milky Taleggio cheese. It was a good pie, especially in combination with German black pudding sausage (Blutwurst) on the side, thickly sliced and cooked in butter. I love this season!

Potato, Apple and Onion Pie with Taleggio

Serves 3-4

For the filling

• potatoes, peeled and diced, 350g / 12 1/2 ounces

• heavy cream 4 tablespoons

• fine sea salt

• ground pepper

• nutmeg, freshly grated

• fresh thyme leaves 2 1/2 teaspoons

• medium shallot, thinly sliced, 1

• small sour apples, quartered, cored and thinly sliced, 2

• Taleggio cheese, chopped, 70g / 2 1/2 ounces

For the pastry

• plain flour 300g / 2 1/3 cups

• fine sea salt 1 teaspoon

• butter, cold, 150g / 5 1/2 ounces

• organic egg yolks 2

• cold water 2 tablespoons

For the glaze

• organic egg yolk 1

• milk 1 tablespoon

• a pinch of salt

Cook the potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes, drain and let them cool completely.

Mix the cooked potatoes with the cream and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and thyme to taste.

For the pastry, combine the flour with the salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter into the flour with a knife until there are just small pieces left. Continue with your fingers and quickly rub the butter into the flour. Add the egg yolks and water and continue mixing with the hooks of your mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form 2 discs, dividing the dough roughly 2:1, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) (conventional oven).

Whisk the egg yolk, milk and salt for the glaze.

Take the dough out of the freezer and roll out both discs between cling film, the bigger piece for the bottom and sides and the smaller one as the lid of the pie. Line a 23cm / 9″ shallow pie dish or a 20 ½cm / 8" loose bottom springform pan with pastry. Spread the potatoes on top of the dough, cover with a layer of onions and a layer of apples and finish it off with the cheese. Close the pie with the smaller pastry lid, gently push the rim with your fingers to seal it. Make a few small holes in the top with a skewer and brush the pastry with the egg glaze. Bake the pie for 15 minutes before you turn the heat down to 350°F (175°C), bake for another 45 minutes or until the pie is golden and the pastry is baked through. Let the pie cool for at least 15 minutes before you cut it into pieces.

Serve on its own or with thick slices of black pudding cooked in a pan in hot butter for just a couple minutes.

Sunken Cardamom Apple Cake

There are many cake recipes that I'll never get tired of experimenting with, but there is one that gives me deep pleasure and guarantees satisfaction no matter what I come up with. A simple apple cake. I appreciate it with crunchy cinnamon crumbles, with blackberries in a pie, elegant and light for breakfast, or rolled into a Tyrolean strudel. And I'm quite sure that I will continue trying out new ideas to melt crisp apples into a spongy cake for as long I can bake. The simplicity of this treat, its fruity sweetness, impresses me over and over again and makes it the perfect choice when my hungry but impatient mind calls for a quick teatime sweet.

Today's apple cake started off with another delicious but more time consuming coffee table treat - Swedish cardamom Bullar (yeast snails) packed with cardamom seeds crushed in a mortar. A friend of mine baked them for me and reminded me that spices ground with pestle and mortar are always far more tasty and rich than any pre-ground products from the supermarket. Most of the time I use whole seeds for my savory dishes but I tend to forget about them when it comes to sweets. So, as soon as the cardamom pods were back on my mind and out of my spice box, I knew that I wanted to combine their confident flavour with sour apples. I had a vision of a pretty little loaf cake, fair and spongy, with halves of apples beautifully arranged on top. A thin layer of Demerara sugar mixed with cardamom sprinkled over the fruits was suppose to add the strong note of the spice to the whole composition and give it a sugary crunchy finish. The preparation only took a few minutes and everything looked nice and neat as I put it into the hot oven, I was quite a happy baker. But after about 20 minutes I passed the oven again, dragged into the kitchen by the unbelievably good smell and my curiosity. I glanced at my cake - and the apples were gone. It seemed like the cake had swallowed them, they sunk in like a volcano, the whole fruits disappeared including the cardamom sugar topping. Although I had a different look in mind, I didn't regret this incident at all. It was rather the opposite, the sunken apples kept all their taste and juices inside the cake, it was fragrant and moist, the sponge infused with the sweet aroma of cardamom.

Sunken Cardamom Apple Cake

Makes a 24 x 10cm / 9 1/2 x 4″ cake

• butter, at room temperature, 180g / 6 1/2 ounces

• granulated sugar 200g / 1 cup

• freshly squeezed orange juice 2 tablespoons

• organic eggs 3

• plain flour 180g / 1 1/3 cups and 1 tablespoon

• baking powder 2 teaspoons

• salt 1/8 teaspoon

• sour apples, cut in half, peeled, cored and the top carved lengthwise, 2

For the topping

• cardamom, the seeds crushed in a mortar, 2 pods, more to taste

• Demerara sugar 1 tablespoon

Combine the cardamom and Demerara sugar for the topping and adjust to taste.

Preheat the oven to 175°C / 350°F (convection oven) and butter a 24 x 10cm / 9 1/2 x 4″ loaf pan.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Pour in the juice and continue mixing for a minute. Add the eggs, one at a time and mix well in between. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and add to the bowl, mix quickly until well combined. Scrape the dough into the buttered cake pan and even it out. Lay the apples on top, push them into the dough and sprinkle with the cardamom sugar. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before you take it out of the pan.

meet in your kitchen | Alex's Kusksu Soup with Beans, Goat Cheese & Eggs

I'm in love - with my dear Maltese / British kitchen hosts Alex and Benjamin, with their beautiful 400 year old palazzo in Zebbug, their wonderful friends who joined us for a delicious traditional lunch and with the most gorgeous kitchen island I've ever seen in my life. A huge slab of Carrara marble on top of a simple wooden shelf took my breath away as I walked into the gorgeous kitchen. It's one of those rooms that you never want to leave again. It's welcoming and cozy, with an old fire place on one side, sparkling copper pots and pans hanging on a long limestone wall and a rustic wooden table at a glass door facing a bright courtyard. Here, you can cook, bake, chop and stir in peace and with plenty of space. A lot of the fresh produce comes straight from the garden, the cheese is made by a lady who lives in the village and Alex has enough ideas, energy and creativity to throw fantastic dinner parties on a weekly basis. It's my Mediterranean heaven.

The house is  a gem and every detail feels effortlessly right. Found and restored by Alex more than 20 years ago, he saw the old walls' beauty built of thick Maltese limestone. The charismatic man used his sense and sensitivity to bring his home's true soul to life. Alex believes that everybody can create a nice house but not necessarily a home - a home needs a past, present and future and this palazzo has plenty of them all. It's a peaceful oasis, tranquil and calm, in the middle of an ancient village. Hidden doors and winding corridors, steps and balustrades cut out of the island's typical golden stone turn it into a playful labyrinth. The rooms furnished with elegant antiques are surrounded by walls more than 1m (3 feet) thick, the charm is rather introverted, here, the focus isn't on the world outside but surprises with dreamy views onto the lush green garden and into the courtyard with an almost cloistral atmosphere.

We met to cook and what is more fitting in this scene than an old Maltese recipe - the traditional Kusksu. The locals call it peasant food, I call it the most comforting, nurturing and scrumptious soup. Thick like a runny risotto, it's made with lots of onions, concentrated tomato paste, fava beans and peas, enriched with Maltese short cut pasta - the Kusksu pasta resembling couscous - eggs poached in the fruity juices and Gbejna, the islands' fresh goat cheese. The soft egg and cheese melt into the soup and spread their fine flavors, it's delicious!

Alex uses the tasty greens from their garden in Gozo, Malta's sister island. The fertile soil around another old house of his - this time from the 18th century -  supplies the passionate cook and his food loving sous chef Benjamin with fresh produce all year round. I have only seen pictures of Casa Mezzodì in the village of Kercem but it looks like paradise.

Alex loves to use his self-taught kitchen skills to treat his friends to casual lunches and extravagant dinner parties. I'm very happy to be one of them, thanks to Benjamin who I've been visiting for years due to his amazing treatments. Originally from London, Benjamin left England a while ago to live with his partner on the Mediterranean archipelago and work as a reflexologist. He is simply the best, he knows the foot map and its pressure points so well that I trust him blindly.

Kusksu - Maltese Pasta Soup with Beans, Peas, Eggs and Goat Cheese

Adapted from the fantastic 'The Food and Cookery of Malta' by Anne and Helen Caruana Galizia.

Serves 4

• olive oil

• medium sized onions, thinly sliced, 2

• garlic, crushed, 2 cloves

• tomato paste 3-4 tablespoons

• water 2l / 8 1/2 cups

• fava beans, fresh or frozen, shelled, the outer skin removed, 350g / 12 1/2 ounces

• bay leaves 2

• peperoncino, chopped, to taste

• salt and pepper

• Kusksu pasta (or any other rice-shaped pasta) 100g / 3 1/2 ounces

• peas, fresh or frozen, shelled, 200g / 7 ounces

• eggs 4-8

• small fresh goat cheeselets (like Maltese Gbejna or soft Chèvre) 4-8

• Parmesan, freshly grated

Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a large pan and soften the onions and garlic for about 10-15 minutes, they should be golden but not dark. Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the water, stir in the beans, bay leaves and peperoncino and season with salt and pepper. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the beans are al dente. Add the pasta and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, stir once in a while. Add the peas, take the pan off the heat, cover and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Season to taste. Gently slip the eggs and goat cheeselets into the hot soup and let them cook, covered, on low heat for a few minutes. Serve the soup when the egg whites are still slightly soft, sprinkle with Parmesan and black pepper.

What fascinates you about old houses - and especially - their restoration?

I have been very privileged in my life to have been able to do a job I thoroughly enjoy. In my opinion, old houses allow us to revisit the past, which although can never be recreated, is fascinating to dip in to. It gives me a great deal of personal satisfaction to revitalise a period building and adapt it to contemporary living, whilst preserving the atmosphere and charm of past centuries.

You collect antiques. Some say it's impossible to stop collecting once you got started, do you feel the same? Where do you look for new finds?

Some of us suffer from Horror Vacui, and I suppose it is fair to say that there is a magpie in all of us. However, jesting apart, an old house needs props, rather like a stage and it is the love of old houses which leads one to forming collections.I mainly find things at auctions and house clearance sales. I also like rummaging on the barrows at Portobello Road whenever I happen to be in London.

As a passionate cook you host wonderful lunches and dinner parties for your friends. How important are these gatherings for you?

I am a very gregarious person by nature and nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see friends and family gathered round the table sharing food I have prepared. Besides, houses need to be filled with laughter and friends, and our house really comes alive when we give a dinner or a lunch party. As my partner is British, we frequently have house guests to stay. This always presents an opportunity ask our Maltese friends to lunch or dinner to meet them.

When did you start cooking and who or what was your inspiration?

As I have always been (overly!) fond of my food, I remember experimenting with recipes at about 16. Although, I suppose that I started taking cooking seriously in my twenties. One of my earliest inspirations was the great Elizabeth David, who pushed boundaries in her time and was seminal in bringing the Mediterranean cuisine to the rest of Europe. Malta at the time was still very British, with a tendency towards food of the meat and two veg variety, in spite of the great choice of Mediterranean vegetables available in local markets. I discovered a worn paperback copy of Elizabeth David’s Italian Food in the local RSPCA second hand bookshop, and it was this publication that flung open the doors for using local ingredients, and I still dip in to it to this day. Later on I discovered The Food and Cookery of Malta by Anne and Helen Caruana Galizia, and this publication has been my most thumbed cookery book since, as it revives all the traditional and wonderful Maltese dishes.

Some of the fresh produce you use in your kitchen is grown by your gardner in Gozo, from Malta's sister island, where you also spend a lot of your time. What are the differences between living in Malta and in Gozo?

We are very fortunate to have a weekend house called Casa Mezzodì in the village of Kercem in Gozo, where the garden is looked after by a very special man called George Spiteri. George is passionate about growing indigenous crops using organic methods, and we are very privileged to be able to have these vegetables made available to us.Gozo is essentially composed of rural communities living off the land and the sea. In spite of the close proximity, Gozitan kitchens produce different fare to Maltese ones. Gozitans being particularly inventive with stretching ingredients, creating delicious pies and stews made with the wonderful vegetables and fresh fish available.While we rarely venture out to restaurants in Malta, in Gozo we take every opportunity to visit the charming fishing village, turned resort, of Xlendi which is a mere five minutes from our home. There, we visit our favourite waterfront restaurants, and especially enjoy the cheese-less Gozitan “pizza” or ftira as it is known locally, which is topped with unusual layers of thinly sliced potato, tomatoes, capers, olives, anchovies and onions. The freshness of the ingredients, without the heaviness of cheese, on the crispiest of bases is the most heavenly combination.

What do you love about the Maltese cuisine?

The most simple, and frugal of ingredients, are always transformed into delicious dishes, which never fail to please. The stuffing of vegetables with rice, or meat, or fish…the wonderful pies, the vegetable stews, all combine European and Arabic influences and truly reflect Malta’s extraordinary geographical location at the crossroads between North, South, East and West.

Where do you find inspiration for new creations in the kitchen?

This wonderful age of communication has meant that one can browse for hours through fascinating blogs, such as yours, exploring new territory. In a sense, other peoples kitchens are brought in to your own at the click of a mouse, and perhaps, we do not fully appreciate how previous boundaries have now come down.

What was the first dish you cooked on your own, what is your first cooking memory?

I made a pea soup using terribly uneconomical petit pois, and best quality bacon rashers which I had pilfered from the deep freeze in my parents’ kitchen. Despite the velvety sweetness, and the beautiful emerald green colour of the soup, my long suffering mother was unamused that I had helped myself to her ingredients!

What are your favourite places to buy and enjoy food in Malta? 

I pay a weekly visit to the local farmers’ market at Ta’ Qali, which is about ten minutes from where we live. I have my favourite suppliers and will buy aubergines, green peppers and cauliflowers from Serafin, who comes from Siggiewi, which is a neighbouring village. I buy all my tomatoes, salads, cucumbers and qara baghli (the superb local sweet marrows) from Anna who hails from Mgarr. Of course, the produce is all seasonal, so it’s broccoli and cabbages in the winter, strawberries in the spring, and watermelons in the summer. I love cooking and eating according to the time of the year, and knowing that my ingredients have sometimes been freshly picked just hours before being brought to the market.Y

ou shared a recipe for Kusksu on eat in my kitchen, what are the memories you connect with this dish?

We always had Kusksu on Good Friday when we were children, as this dish satisfied the very strict Roman Catholic fasting obligations. Once you had eaten it for lunch, it was very filling and would keep you going until supper time. It is a firm favourite of mine as it truly reflects Malta’s cosmopolitan cuisine, and besides, I get to use the broad beans, peas, and onions which George Spiteri has grown in Gozo.

If you could choose one person to cook a meal for you, who and what would it be?

Kelina Sultana was a Gozitan cook who worked for dear family friends. Sadly she died some years ago, but her lampuki pie (local fish pie) was the best I have ever tasted, and I would love to taste it one more time.

You're going to have ten friends over for a spontaneous dinner, what will be on the table?

It depends entirely upon what is in the fridge! For example, looking right now it would probably be a pasta dish using a variety of fresh vegetables, or a risotto with some chicken stock I made yesterday.

What was your childhood's culinary favourite and what is it now?

As a child I loved my mother’s lasagne. Today it would be a risotto a la Milanese.

Do you prefer to cook on your own or together with others?

I am quite happy cooking on my own, but really appreciate it when my partner Benjamin offers his assistance as a sous chef.

Which meals do you prefer, improvised or planned?

Either, I have no preference at all. Both can be fun, and have their appeal.

Which meal would you never cook again?

Farfalle with strawberry sauce, courtesy of Sophie Grigson in the London Sunday Times. Fortunately, I had offered our guests a trio of pasta dishes, so it was easy to avoid the disastrous results of combining strawberries with pasta!

Thank you Alex!

Pumpkin Pesto, Date and Ripe Chèvre Sandwich

They are finally back on my windowsill - colourful pumpkins in all shades, shapes and sizes! At the beginning of a new season I tend to hoard nature's new produce like a squirrel. My excitement for the fruits and vegetables that I've been missing and looking forward to for months causes irrational behavior at the market. When I came home with enough pumpkin to feed a large Mediterranean family I thought it would be a good idea to purée one of them and make space on my crowded kitchen tops. I turned it into a pesto.

Pesto comes from the Italian word pestare, meaning to pound and to crush, herbs are the most common ingredient but vegetables are an equally delicious but often neglected addition. Broccoli, asparagus, beans, peas, there are no limitations. Winter squash is packed with taste and subtle sweetness, once puréed the texture is so smooth that it seems like pumpkin is practically made to become a pesto. You can use canned purée or cook the squash in the oven, which I always prefer, it tastes better. My bright pesto is refined with orange juice and zest, thyme and the vegetable's seeds. I went for Hokkaido as you can use its skin and I appreciate its nutty flavour, butternut or Musque de Provence work just as well. I'm sure it would be scrumptious stirred into warm spaghetti but I spread it voluptuously on a sandwich instead, with dried dates to enhance the sweetness and Sainte-Maure de Touraine affiné, an aromatic ripe Chèvre.

Pumpkin Pesto, Date and Ripe Chèvre Sandwich

You can also use the pumpkin pesto for pasta dishes.

Makes 3 sandwiches

• dark buns, cut in half, 3

• Sainte-Maure de Touraine affiné, sliced, 80g / 3 ounces (or any other aged Chèvre)

• juicy dates, pitted, quartered, 3-4

• fresh thyme leaves, 1 tablespoon

• pumpkin seeds 1 tablespoon

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

For the pumpkin pesto

• Hokkaido (with skin) or butternut squash (peeled), cut into cubes, 350g / 12 1/2 ounces

• pumpkin seeds 2 tablespoons

• olive oil 2 tablespoons

• freshly squeezed orange juice 1 tablespoon

• orange zest 1/4-1/2 teaspoon

• fresh thyme leaves 1-2 teaspoons

• salt

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 390°F (convection oven).

Spread the pumpkin in a baking dish and fill the bottom with water (about 60ml 1/4 cup). Wet a large piece of parchment paper, big enough to cover the baking dish and lay it on top of the pumpkin. Cook it in the oven for about 20 minutes or until tender but not mushy. Purée the pumpkin in a food processor, add the pumpkin seeds, olive oil, juice, zest, thyme and salt and purée until smooth. Season with orange, thyme and salt to taste.

Spread the pumpkin pesto voluptuously on the bottom side of a bun, lay the Chèvre on top and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds, dates, thyme and pepper. Enjoy!

An Autumn Breakfast - Mushroom and Potato Buns with Thyme

As soon as the sweet and earthy smell of my warm autumn buns reached my nose, I felt at peace again and forgave my gnocchi recipe for not performing as expected. A few days ago I mentioned that I had the genius idea to make mushroom gnocchi with chopped porcini and chanterelles stirred into the mixture. However it was a rather frustrating experience, no matter how much flour I added to the soft dough, it was too moist and the texture didn't change at all. It was impossible to form anything resembling gnocchi. After adding a full 1kg-package (2 1/4 pounds) of flour I gave up, it seemed hopeless and I was ready to chuck everything in the bin. Luckily my boyfriend suggested turning the dough into bread - a juicy loaf of potato bread, fluffy, light and juicy - simply satisfying. All of a sudden the recipe made sense, I mixed in a little more flour, some yeast and let it rise for an hour. This gave me enough time to calm down and think about how I'd like to shape my aromatic autumn creation. I went for buns, 24 to be precise, enough to eat mushroom potato buns for the next 2 weeks. It wouldn't have been a big deal, they taste fantastic, but I decided to freeze half the batch for cozy weekend breakfasts. Instead of going to the bakery on Sunday mornings I'll just switch on the oven and fill my kitchen with the aroma of thyme, porcini and chanterelles. 24  buns made of 1600g (3 1/2 pounds) flour can be a bit intimidating for a weekend baker so I scaled down the recipe by half.

The past few weeks have been so busy that I didn't even realize that it's been a month since we got back from our Mediterranean island. I miss it, of course, and I felt so happy when Molly from My Name Is Yeh asked me if I'd like to meet her in Malta. A short trip with friends took her to the archipelago and I would have given a lot to make it possible for us to finally meet after our cross-continental kitchen talk a few months ago. Unfortunately, I didn't manage, the final work on my book has kept me anchored to Berlin and my computer. But she went and enjoyed it so much that she wrote a sweet post about her 3-day trip and her new culinary discovery: Timpana, click here for her travel experiences!

I've kept one special bit of news for the end: Ever since I held Nigella Lawson's Domestic Goddess in my hands for the first time, I've been a great admirer of her work. So when she decided to share my vanilla profiteroles on her Instagram, it was a very, very happy day. Thank you Nigella! And here it is!

Mushroom and Potato Buns with Thyme

Keep in mind that the potato mixture for the dough has to cool in the fridge before mixing it in, you can prepare this step a day in advance.

Makes 12 buns

• starchy potatoes, cut into cubes, 450g / 16 ounces

• butter 30g / 2 tablespoons

• organic egg yolks 2

• plain flour, white spelt (type 630) or unbleached wheat, 810g / 6 1/4 cups

• dry yeast 1 sachet (7g / 1/4 ounce)

• salt 4 teaspoons

• ground pepper

• nutmeg, preferably freshly grated

• fresh thyme leaves 1/2 tablespoon

• mixed mushrooms, finely chopped, 100g / 3 1/2 ounces (half porcini, quarter chanterelles and quarter king oyster mushrooms)

Cook the potatoes in salted water until soft, about 15 minutes, drain well in a colander and press through a potato ricer. Mix immediately with the butter and egg yolks and let it cool down to room temperature before you put it in the fridge to cool completely. You can prepare the mixture a day in advance.

Scrape the cool potato mixture into a large bowl.

Combine the flour, yeast, salt and a generous amount of ground black pepper and nutmeg. Add the dry flour mixture, the thyme and mushrooms to the bowl with the potatoes. Mix with the hooks of an electric mixer for about 7-10 minutes until well combined. The dough will be soft and damp, if it's too sticky, add more flour. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let it rise in a warm oven (35°C / 95°F) for 60 minutes (top/ bottom heat and not fan-assisted!).

Punch the dough down, take it out of the bowl and knead for half a minute. Divide it in 12 portions, dust your hands with flour, put a portion of dough on the palm of your hand and roll with the other hand, holding it like a dome. Turn the dough for about 1o seconds on the palm of your hand until its top is round and firm, this builds up surface tension and prevents the buns from becoming flat. Continue with the remaining dough and lay the buns on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Cover them with a tea towel and let them rise for about 15 minutes in a warm place.

Set the oven to 220°C / 430°F (top/ bottom heat).

Bake the buns for about 11 minutes or until golden brown, knock on the bottom of a bun, it should sound hollow.

Cumin Cinnamon Sweet Potato with Candied Lemon and Olives

The leaves on the vine in front of my kitchen window are changing their color and start falling as soon as the wind picks up. It's slowly getting colder in Berlin, my wool sweaters replaced my t-shirts and it hasn't taken long for cozy dishes to be back on my mind. Stews and pies, roasts and cookies - my cooking and baking is getting ready for the cold season. I bought the first quince for my spice and fruit flavoured brandy that I'll soon need for all those minced pies and fruit cakes. A pile of small lemons from my kitchen counter has been squeezed into a jar with lots of Mr. Cini's sea salt to preserve and soften them for aromatic lamb shanks. My mood leaves no doubt that I'm ready for winter to come.

I'll still wait a few more days before indulging in the bright orange pleasures of pumpkins, for now I'll enjoy the autumny warmth of sweet potatoes, chopped into chunks and sautéed in fragrant cumin and cinnamon oil. Red onions softened in their velvety juices, plump Kalamata olives stirred in at the end and a few parsley leaves sprinkled on top to wave goodbye to summer. I finished it off with a sweet and tart topping, candied lemon peel tends to stick to your teeth a little but it tastes so good in this composition that I'm willing to compromise.

Cumin Cinnamon Sweet Potato with Candied Lemon and Olives

Serves 2

• olive oil

• ground cumin 1 teaspoon

• ground cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon

• medium red onions, cut in half and quartered, 2

• sweet potato, peeled, quartered and cut into 1 1/2 cm / 1/2" slices, 430g (15 ounces)

• freshly squeezed orange juice 3 tablespoons

• white wine 3 tablespoons

• water 6 tablespoons

• coarse sea salt

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

• lemon zest 1 heaping teaspoon

• Kalamata olives 6

• a few parsley leaves

For the candied lemon peel

• long, wide strips of lemon, peeled off the fruit with a vegetable peeler, 5 (without the white pith)

• freshly squeezed lemon juice 4 tablespoons

• water 4 tablespoons

• granulated sugar 3 tablespoons

For the candied peel, bring the strips of lemon peel, juice, water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan and simmer for about 15 minutes until golden and soft but not dark. Set aside.

Heat a generous splash of olive oil with the cumin and cinnamon in a heavy pan. When the pan is hot, add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes on medium-high heat until soft, stir once in a while and mind that they don't turn dark. Add the sweet potato, stir well and cook for 2 minutes. Deglaze with the orange juice, pour in the wine and water and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the zest and turn the temperature down to a medium-low. Close the pan with a lid and cook for about 10 minutes until the potatoes are just soft but still in shape. Stir in the olives and season to taste, take the pan off the heat, cover and let everything sit for a few minutes.

If the candied peel became hard, put the saucepan back on the heat to soften them. Divide the sweet potatoes between the plates, sprinkle with crushed pepper, candied peel and fresh parsley.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I am impressed! I did not expect Doris' peanut butter cookies could possibly be turned into something even more delicious than the original recipe - once I called these cookies the best ever and for good reason. For years I didn't even feel the need to modify anything of the sweet formula created by our granny in Florida. Her cookies are perfect! But - I felt tempted, I couldn't let go of the idea of rough chunks of bittersweet chocolate melting into the nutty richness of these crunchy bites once it got stuck in my head.

It was a very quick project - another quality of these cookies, they can be done in 20 minutes. I chopped the chocolate first, moved on to unsalted peanuts lightly broken for the topping and waited impatiently in front of my oven to see how my kitchen experiment would turn out. My boyfriend was skeptical - we're talking about an old recipe from his beloved grandmother - but he approved in the end, they were just too good.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Makes about 40 cookies

• plain flour 280g / 2 cups and 2 tablespoons

• baking soda 2 teaspoons

• salt 1/4 teaspoon

• butter, at room temperature, 250g / 9 ounces

• light brown sugar 280g / 1 1/3 cups

• organic eggs 2

• peanut butter (smooth not crunchy) 350g / 1 1/3 cups

• bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, 160g / 5 1/2 ounces

• peanuts (unsalted), roughly chopped, 70g / 2 1/2 ounces

Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (fan assisted oven) and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, beat the butter until fluffy, add the sugar and continue mixing for a minute. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, add the peanut butter and beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients gradually and mix well. Stir in the chopped chocolate and shape the dough into large walnut sized balls. Lay them out spaciously on the lined baking sheet, they will rise! Flatten lightly with a fork, sprinkle with peanuts and push the nuts lightly into the dough. Bake for 10-11 minutes until golden. Leave them to cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes before you cool them completely on a wire rack.

Porcini and Chanterelles Spaghetti with Orange Butter and Sage

Three bags full of porcini, chanterelles and king oyster mushrooms fresh from the market and a sudden change of recipe: mushroom gnocchi were on my mind, aromatic porcini finely chopped and mixed into a soft potato dough, but kitchen life doesn't always go to plan. My recipe didn't work out at all. A complete kitchen disaster, which I had to save by turning the gnocchi dough into a completely different kind of dish. Although it ended successfully, I felt exhausted but that's another story and recipe to share another time (soon!).

The frustration about the unexpected failure and my growing appetite could only be cured by my most beloved comfort dish - pasta. Spaghetti with a little finesse, stirred in fruity orange butter - smooth like velvet - I mixed them with my leftover mushrooms. Sautéed until al dente with a topping of woody, crisped sage leaves, they were delicious! I was in peace again, with mushrooms and gnocchi and experimental recipes.

Porcini and Chanterelles Spaghetti with Orange Butter and Sage

Serves 2

• spaghetti, cooked al dente, 200g / 7 ounces

• butter

• olive oil

• porcini, cut into 1 1/2 cm / 1/2" pieces, 60g / 2 ounces

• chanterelles, cut in half (lengthwise), 100g / 3 1/2 ounces

• king oyster mushrooms, cut into 1 1/2 cm / 1/2" pieces, 100g / 3 1/2 ounces

• fine sea salt

• black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar

• fresh sage leaves 15

• freshly squeezed orange juice 5 tablespoons

• zest of 1 orange, for the topping

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a heavy pan and sauté the porcini for 1 minute on high heat until golden. Stir constantly, season with salt and pepper and transfer to a plate. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in the same pan and sauté the chanterelles for 1-1 1/2 minutes, season with salt and pepper and transfer next to the porcini on the plate. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and a splash of olive oil and sauté the king oyster mushrooms for 2-2 1/2 minutes until golden brown and with bite, season with salt and pepper and lay on the plate with the other mushrooms. Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the pan and fry the sage leaves on medium-high heat for about half a minute until golden and crisp but not dark, transfer to a plate and pour the orange juice into the hot pan. Scrape off the bits and pieces and add the cooked pasta and mushrooms to the pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle with orange zest (to taste) and crisp sage leaves and enjoy warm.

Sunday Profiteroles! Vanilla Cream Puffs with Figs, Pears and Blackberries

There's something wonderfully old-fashioned about profiteroles - or cream puffs. And they look so voluptuous. Generously filled with vanilla cream, ripe figs, pears, and blackberries they are anything but a simple teatime sweet. This creation calls for a pretty coffee table, delicate porcelain, frilly napkins, and table cloth, my granny Annie would have loved it! She was very much into extravagant Sunday afternoon treats, she used to welcome her guests all dressed up, with lipstick and jewelery. Her Frankfurt Crown Cake - the German Frankfurter Kranz - is a legendary masterpiece, delicious and opulent, it was the star of many coffee tables in my childhood.

Airy choux pastry, golden and crisp, is the secret of a good profiterole. Be it in an elegant oblong éclair or a baroque shaped Windbeutel (meaning cream puff in German), the pastry needs to rise like a ballon but then keep its shape and not deflate. To get there stress-free, there are two rules to obey: the door of the oven should never be opened while the pastry is baking; and, once it's done, the little puff balls have to stay in the oven with the door closed for a few minutes to dry and build up structure. After they cooled off a little they are more robust than they may seem, which is helpful as they have to carry quite a rich filling.

Vanilla Cream Puffs with Figs, Pears and Blackberries

For 12 cream puffs you need

For the vanilla cream

• milk 350ml / 1 1/2 cups

• large egg yolks 2

• granulated sugar 80g / 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon

• a pinch of salt

• cornstarch 30g / 1/4 cup

• vanilla pod, slit, 1

• heavy cream, whipped, 100ml / 1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons

For the choux pastry

• butter 80g / 3 ounces

• granulated sugar 4 teaspoons

• a pinch of salt

• milk 90ml / 1 /3 cup and 1 tablespoon

• water 90ml 1 /3 cup and 1 tablespoon

• all-purpose flour, sieved, 130g / 1 cup

• large eggs 3

For the fruit filling

• crisp pear, cut into slim wedges, 1

• ripe figs, cut into slim wedges, 6

• blackberries, a small handful

• icing sugar, for the topping (optional)

For the vanilla cream, whisk 4 tablespoons of the milk with the egg yolks, sugar, salt and cornstarch until well combined. In a saucepan, bring the remaining milk with the vanilla pod to the boil. Take the vanilla pod out and scrape the seeds out of the bean into the milk. Add the egg-sugar mixture to the hot milk, whisking well. Take the saucepan off the heat immediately and whisk for another minute. If it crumbles, whisk in a little more milk. Let the cream cool and then chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Once it's cool, whip the heavy cream and fold into the vanilla cream gently. Keep the vanilla cream in the fridge until you fill the choux pastry.

Set the oven to 200°C ( 400°F) (top / bottom heat) and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

For the dough, bring the butter, sugar, salt, milk and water gently to the boil. When the butter has melted, stir in the flour vigorously with a wooden spoon, mix until smooth and the dough comes away from the side of the pan. Transfer the dough to a bowl and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Beat the eggs in with a spoon, one at a time, only mix in the next one when the one before is well combined.

Fill the dough in a piping bag with a wide nozzle and pipe the mixture into 12 balls. Bake in the oven for about 19 minutes or until golden brown and crisp, don't open the door while the choux pastry is baking. When it's done, switch off the oven but leave it closed. After 5 minutes open the door slightly, only the stick of a wooden spoon should fit in, and let the pastry dry for another 5 minutes (this way they keep their shape). Take them out of the oven and let them cool on a wire rack completely.

Prepare the cream puffs just before serving: cut off the tip, fill generously with vanilla cream and fruits and close with the lid again. Sprinkle with icing sugar (optional) and enjoy!

Caponata and Chorizo Ciabatta Sandwich

Caponata is the pure dark, concentrated juice of summer, the sweetness of Mediterranean fruits cooked to a chunky vegetable stew of aubergine, zucchini, green bell pepper and tomatoes. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to find tasty produce at the market, ripe and rich in flavor, so I'm stocking up while it lasts. I cooked enough caponata to feed a family of 6, but in our case it only lasted for a few days. Breakfast, lunch and dinner saw piles of the juicy dip shuffled onto one thick slice of bread  after the other - delicious.

I had a sandwich in mind, I decided to include a Spanish speciality - chorizo - to reach the next level of caponata pleasures. My boyfriend really loves this spicy salami, so I bought a big piece from the butcher as a little thank you to him. In the past few weeks he's been helping me out tremendously reading through recipes and stories for my book and weathering my changing mood throughout this rather stressful time. It's supposed to be my baby, my work - which it definitely is - but it's also cutting off a big chunk of his time. He deserved an exceptionally good sandwich: caponata voluptuously layered on spongy ciabatta with bitingly hot salami and a little fresh parsley. It felt like a yummy good-bye to summer!

A short note: The combination of chorizo and caponata is also great with pasta!

Caponata and Chorizo Ciabatta Sandwich

Makes enough caponata for 4-6 people

For the caponata

• olive oil

• aubergine, quartered and thinly sliced, 200g / 7 ounces

• fine sea salt

• ground pepper

• large red onion, quartered and sliced, 1

• garlic, thinly sliced, 3 cloves

• large green bell peppers, cut into cubes, 1/2 (about 130g / 4 1/2 ounces)

• zucchini, cut in half and thinly sliced, 200g / 7 ounces

• small tomatoes, chopped, 4

• balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon

• tomato paste 1 heaping tablespoon

• capers, rinsed, 1 heaping tablespoon

For the sandwich

• large ciabatta bread 1

• chorizo salami 3-4 thick slices per sandwich

• black olives, pitted and cut in half, 3 per sandwich

• fresh flat-leaved parsley, a small handful

Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a large, heavy pan and sauté the sliced aubergine for about 7 minutes on medium heat until golden and soft, stir once in a while. Season with salt and pepper, transfer the aubergine to a plate and set aside. Add a little more olive oil to the pan and cook the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes until soft but not dark. Scrape them aside, add some oil and cook the bell pepper for 2 minutes, add the zucchini and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and the sautéed aubergine to the pan, season with salt and pepper and cook for about 15 minutes or until soft. Stir once in a while. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, tomato paste and capers and cook for 5 minutes. Season with vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and let it cool a little.

Divide a few generous spoonfuls of the caponata between the sandwiches, lay the chorizo and olives on top and garnish with fresh parsley. Close the sandwiches and enjoy!