Recipe adapted from a Gary Meghan recipe in Masterchef magazine

Serves 4

2 racks (1.5kg) pork spare ribs, cut into 4

Spice rub:
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
​1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup olive oil

​Marinade: 
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
zest of 1 orange
220g (1 cup firmly packed) brown sugar
160ml (2/3 cup) malt vinegar
125ml  (1/2 cup) bourbon or whiskey
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 dried bay leaf

1/4 cup olive oil, extra, for drizzling

To serve:
lime cheeks
buttered corn cobs
​
Make the spice rub: In a large snap lock bag combine the sugar, salt, chilli powder, smoked paprika, mustard powder, ground cumin, dried oregano, onion, garlic and oil. Add the ribs, seal the bag and rub the marinade all over the ribs. Refrigerate for 2 hours. (If you want to double the ribs, do the same in a separate bag, see note in introduction).

Meanwhile make the marinade: Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, add the onion, garlic and tomato, and stir for 8 minutes or until onion is soft. Add the cinnamon, chilli powder, mustard powder, cumin, smoked paprika, jalapeno and orange zest, stir for 2 minutes, or until fragrant.

Add the brown sugar, malt vinegar, bourbon, tomato sauce, Dijon mustard and bay leaf, bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 25 minutes or until thickened.
​
Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan forced. Line a large roasting pan with a few layers of baking paper (makes clean up easier).

Preheat a chargrill pan or barbecue to high.

Take the ribs out of the marinade, remove most of the onion from the ribs (they burn in the pan). Drizzle over the extra 1/4 cup olive oil. Cook in hot pan, in 2 batches, turning, for 3-4 minutes, or until charred all over.

Place ribs in a single layer in your prepared roasting pan, presentation side up. Spoon over the marinade, making sure you cover each piece. Place a sheet of baking paper over ribs, then cover the whole tray with aluminium foil. Roast in your oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Then remove the foil and baking paper and roast for a further 45 minutes, turning the ribs over every 15 minutes, roast until the marinade has caramelised and the meat is very tender.
​
Transfer ribs to a serving plate, and spoon or pour over the marinade that is in the pan.

​Serve hot with lime cheeks and buttered corn cobs.

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Recipe adapted from easyFood magazine

Makes 6 falafel

4 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 small brown onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2-1 jalapeno, finely chopped, optional
400g can chickpeas, washed and drained
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
handful parsley, finely chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1 egg, beaten

To serve:
Pita Bread
Tzatziki
Hummus
Sweet Chilli Sauce
Lettuce
Tomatoes, sliced
​
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large frying pan, then fry the onion and the garlic over a low-medium heat for 4 minutes, add the chilli, if using, fry for 1 minute or until the onion has softened. Tip into a large mixing bowl, add the chickpeas, cumin and coriander, mash everything together with a fork until the chickpeas are mashed well.
​Stir in the parsley, season with salt and pepper. Add the egg, mix it in well.
​
Shape the mixture into 6 balls, then flatten into patties. 

Heat the remaining oil in the same frying pan, then fry the falafels on medium heat for 3 minutes on each side until golden brown and firm.

Serve in pitta bread spread with tzatziki and/or hummus, if not adding chilli to the patty, a little sweet chilli sauce is a great addition here, top with lettuce and tomato and your falafels.

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​As soon as I saw these breadsticks I knew I wanted to make them. These are easy to make and are fun.

We either eat them with dinner, or they are treated like a snack. 

You can add chopped garlic with the rosemary if you like.

You could also omit the rosemary and oil from the topping and instead brush the breadsticks with melted butter then sprinkle over a mix of 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning and 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese. You can change the flavour to what suits you.

For the sticks I use take away chopsticks that I didn't use. Wrap them in foil and if you need extra length, just make that out of the foil. Don't throw these out after one use, re use them again and again.

When you roll out the dough. The longer the length the more twirls you will get. In the photo above you get thinner bread, with more twirls. The bottom photo, a shorter length was rolled, so thicker bread with less twirls. I found the bottom photo gave a more bread roll feel, the top one was when I wanted a snack.

Now I have only made it with dried yeast as I always have that at home, but I added the fresh yeast option as it was in the original recipe.

This a fun bread idea that I like to make when I want bread, but I don't need it for sandwiches or toast. This can substitute bread rolls with dinner.

Recipe adapted from Bakina Kuhinja magazine

500g plain flour or bread flour
6g dry yeast or 20g fresh yeast
​1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
60ml olive oil
250ml warm water

​5 x 25cm chopsticks or skewers, covered in aluminium foil

2 tablespoons olive oil and water, extra, for brushing
flake salt, for sprinkling
fresh rosemary (or oregano) chopped, for sprinkling


Crumble the fresh yeast (or sprinkle in your dry yeast) into a small bowl, add in the sugar, 1 tablespoon of the flour and 50ml of the warm water. Set aside until it starts to activate.

In a large mixing bowl add the flour and salt, mix to combine. Now add in the yeast mixture, oil and the remaining warm water. Mix until it comes together and then knead (or use your dough hook on a mixer) for about five minutes, until your dough is smooth and elastic. Cover with a tea towel and let lest for 30-45 minutes.

Cover unused chopsticks or skewers with aluminium foil. If your sticks are not long enough, just roll foil that is larger in length than the sticks. The section without the stick will keep its shape even if the stick is not in that section. Spray or brush oil all over the aluminium foil.

Divide the dough into 5 even pieces.

Now roll each dough into a long sausage about 30cm long. 

​Cover and leave to rise, 30 minutes, covered loosely with a tea towel.

Mix together the extra water and oil. Brush onto each breadstick. Sprinkle over the rosemary. Sprinkle over a little sea salt flakes.

Bake for about 25 minutes until golden in colour and the bread is cooked.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes then gently slide out the aluminium sticks. ​

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​My husband says there should be a page on my blog called 'what's cooking when Ella's not cooking'. That page would be a page of soups and stews, because we know in our house if tata (dad in Croatian) is cooking, he's throwing together a soup or a stew. He's cooking from what is growing in his garden and cleaning out the fridge. Now he does do great barbecues to, but they are not just last minute throw together dinners.

My husband rarely follows a recipe for soups and stews, he cooks from memory what his mum taught him while he still lived at home. He measures nothing and rarely does he make the same thing twice, because he never writes down his recipes. This one I made him tell me how he made it, so I could make it myself.

My husband would be great on a cooking competition show, because you can give him a box of ingredients and he'll throw something together. I on the other hand like cooking what I feel like cooking, For example I used to get fruit and vegetables delivered from a company that sold imperfect produce, perfectly good produce, just might not look shop perfect. After a few months I had to stop buying it, because it dictated what I had to cook for the week, where I don't cook that way. For me to enjoy cooking I need to be free to cook what I want.

Now for this dish, this was delicious, it really was. The meat was so soft and full of flavour. The stew from all the vegetables was absolutely delicious. He asked if I could make the njoklice, which are dumplings, as he doesn't make those, and they were the perfect addition to it, they help thicken up the stew while they cook.

I only had one onion in the house, and an eschallot, so he used those, you could just add two brown onions. He also had two fat shallots growing in the garden so he added that, I wrote leek in the recipe as it would give the same result, and unless you are growing big fat shallots, you can't buy them.

When adding the noklice, I use a hot spoon, then you cut off with the spoon a strip of the dough, the strip will puff up. I you make them too big they will take longer to cook and will be tougher.

This is a family recipe we will be making again and again, and hopefully one day my kids will be making this to.

​A Josip original recipe

​3 tablespoons olive oil
1kg beef spare ribs, cubed, bones removed
1/4 cup plain flour
1 brown onion, diced
1 eshallot, diced
​1 leek, sliced
1 long red chilli, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 carrots, peeled, sliced
1 stick celery, diced
1 eggplaint, cubed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
250ml red wine
water, as needed
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon vegeta
salt and pepper, to taste
2 zucchini, halved, sliced
600g yellow beans

Njoklice:
200g plain flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
salt, to taste
water, as needed


Heat a large pot, add olive oil.

Dust beef in flour, shake off excess flour​, add the beef to the pan and brown on all sides, do it in two batches, if needed. Remove and set aside.

Add to the pot the onion, leek and eshallot, sauté for 2-3 minutes.

Add the carrot, celery, garlic and chilli, sauté for 2 minutes. Add the wine, simmer until the wine has reduced by half.

Now return the meat to the pan, add tomato paste, stir, add the eggplant, vegeta, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Now add water to cover the meat and vegetables, bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 2 hours.

​Meanwhile make your noklice: In a bowl add the flour, eggs, oil and salt. Give it a mix. Now add in 2 tablespoons of water, mix. Keeping adding water a tablespoon at a time until you get a smooth thick pancake batter consistency, (I added an additional 4 tablespoons of water). Set aside, until needed.
​
After 2 hours of cooking, add the zucchini and beans, simmer for 30 minutes.

Heat the spoon in the stew for 30 seconds, now drop the dough into the stew by putting the dough and spoon into the simmering stew, the dough will slide off and this way the spoon stays hot, repeat until all the dough is used up, simmer for about 10 minutes or until the noklice are cooked through.
Serve hot.

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​These are probably my favourite brownies, they are gooey and fudgy and I just love the combination of raspberries and chocolate. This is the perfect brownie.

The raspberry is tart and the chocolate rich, it is just perfection in every bite.

The original recipe says to bake them for 30-35 minutes, mine took 50 minutes. So start checking them at 35 minutes, I stopped baking them when they just feel set when you gently press on them. While still soft, keep baking.

This is some thing you should absolutely try, they're amazing!

​Recipe adapted from www.janespatisserie.com/

200 g dark chocolate
200 g unsalted butter
275 g caster sugar
3 x 60g eggs
150 g plain flour
50 g cocoa powder
300 g raspberries
150 g milk chocolate chips


Preheat your oven to 180C/160C fan forced. Line a 22cm x 22cm square tin with baking paper.

Add your dark chocolate, butter and sugar to a small saucepan, and melt on a low heat. Stir frequently so the chocolate doesn't burn, and melt until it's smooth.

Transfer the mix to a bowl, and leave to cool for 10 minutes.

Add in the eggs, one at a time, stirring in fully each time.

Add in the flour, and cocoa powder, and stir until combined.

Add in 2/3 of the raspberries, and stir through.

Pour the mixture into the tin, and then sprinkle over the chocolate chips and the rest of the raspberries.
​
Bake the brownies in the oven for 50 minutes (start checking if done after 35 minutes, my oven took 50 minutes, the original recipe says 35 minutes). They are done when you gently press on it and feels just set, if too soft keep baking.

Leave the brownies to cool completely in the tin. I like to put it in the fridge for 2 hours so I can slice them easier. Just take out of the fridge one hour before serving to soften.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/chocolate-and-raspberry-brownies.html
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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella