​One of my favourite drinks is the mojito. It's refreshing, it's delicious.

Raspberries can replace the strawberries if you like.

​Recipe adapted from Lorraine Pascale's cookbook 'Fast, Fresh and Easy Food

Makes 4

3 limes
8 tablespoons caster sugar, to taste
12 strawberries
400g crushed ice
small handful fresh mint
250ml white rum
250ml soda water
​

Cut the limes into quarters lengthways and put three pieces in the bottom of each of four 350ml serving glasses. Make sure the glasses are wide enough to fit the end of a rolling pin.

Add two tablespoons of sugar to each one. Then using the end of a rolling pin, squash everything together to squeeze the lime juice out and mix it with the sugar (you can now keep the lime pieces in the glass or discard them).

Hull the strawberries and add three to each glass. Then gently crush them a bit to.

Fill the glasses almost to the top with ice. Pick and reserve four nice mint sprigs from the bunch, set aside, then rip the remaining leaves off the stalks and scatter them onto the ice.

Divide the rum evenly between the glasses and then top with the soda water.

Mix everything with a spoon, then add a sprig of mint to each glass and serve immediately with a straw.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/strawberry-and-mint-mojito.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

​My husband bought a whole goat home from the butchers one day, as one does, it's not uncommon for him, he'll regularly buy meat or seafood and then I have to figure out what to do with it. He asked if I could make a curry. Now I've never made an Indian curry before, but I said okay. So off I go researching curry recipes, trying to figure out which one I will go with. This one felt traditional, it was a family recipe, so I went with it in faith.

My husband said it's fricken amazing, he loved it. The goat was super soft and delicious, the sauce was spicy and flavourful. My kids all loved it to, even my daughter who doesn't love Indian flavours normally.

This curry is a yoghurt based one with a few different spices added to it. It's very easy to make, nothing different to a stew really, just a different flavour base.

Now with curries I had to make naan bread, also something I had never tried, but I went with a recipe from a site I trusted and it was perfect.

​My husband also requested 'fluffy rice', so I put some basmati rice in a rice cooker and it turned out perfectly. Rice really went nicely with this curry.

There are differences in curry recipes from different regions in India in terms of the selection of spices, herbs and the cooking techniques. For example north Indian or Punjabi goat curry will use spices like coriander & garam masala and yogurt, but a south Indian goat curry might use curry leaves, coconut or coconut milk. When we get to India in Our Eating Around the World Adventure I look forward to exploring these.


Don't cook cold, straight out of the refrigerator meat. I usually pull the meat out 1 hour before cooking it. And use meat with bones in, it adds so much flavour to your curry. We used an assortment of meat cuts, my husband used clean 'meat only' garden shears to cut up the meat into smaller pieces. But you could just use leg or shoulder meat. 

Goat is quite lean, but if you were to try this with lamb or beef, make sure to trim off all fat, it will be oily.

You don't need to marinate the meat in advance, however, if you wish you can marinate the goat meat for a few hours prior to cooking it.

Slow cooked curries take a lot of time and patience. Don't rush it. You need the slow cooking for the meat to soften and for the flavours to develop.

Use green cardamom pods if you do not have black cardamom, I used green. The two are not a substitute for each other. Green cardamom adds a sweetish lemony aroma versus the woody smoky aroma that black cardamom.

Variation: You can add 1 large diced potato when you add the garam marsala, and cook it until cooked through.

Variation: you could add a tablespoon or two of tomato paste if you wish when you add the marinated meat to the pot. You can also add 1-2 medium fresh tomatoes. Add the fresh tomatoes after the onions have browned and soften them a bit. Then add the marinated meat

​This is a great curry, it's not hard, and it was absolutely delicious, try it soon.

Recipe adapted from sinfullyspicy.com/ 

​Serves 8-10

2kg goat meat 
2 cups plain Greek yogurt

​Marinade:
3 tablespoons coriander powder
3/4 tablespoon cayenne pepper, to taste
4½ teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder or paprika (for color)
3/4 tablespoon cumin powder
1½ teaspoons turmeric powder
3 teaspoons salt

For The Curry Sauce:
9 tablespoons sunflower oil
375g onions, sliced
9 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1½ inch piece of ginger, peeled, grated

Whole Spices:
3 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon mace
3 black cardamom pods or 6 green cardamom pods
1 1/4 cinnamon sticks
22 black peppercorns
6 cloves

2 1/4 tablespoons ghee
2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 cup fresh coriander, chopped

extra fresh coriander, to serve
naan bread, to serve
basmati rice, to serve 


Make sure that the goat meat is at room temperature before you begin to cook. Take it out of the fridge at least one hour before needed. 

In a large bowl (that the goat will easily fit in) place all your marinade ingredients.

Add the yogurt and goat to your marinade spices. Mix using hands to rub and coat the meat thoroughly. Set aside until needed.

Place all your whole spices on a plate.
​​
Place a heavy bottom Dutch oven or large pot on low-medium flame. 

Add the oil and let warm on medium heat. 

Take the pot off the heat. Wait for few seconds and then add the whole spices, not the mace. Spices will sizzle and swell in hot oil. Stir for a few seconds and return the pot to stove.

Immediately, add the sliced onions and mace. Cook the onions to golden brown, do not burn them, it takes about 12-14 minutes on low-medium flame. Take your time to brown the onions and don't stir too much (else instead of browning they start steaming).

Next, add the ginger and garlic along with little of water, about 2 tablespoons. Stir for 10-15 seconds. You will smell a wonderful aroma. 
 
Add the goat meat along with all the marinade. Give it a good stir to mix the goat with the browned onions. Keep stirring frequently, you can reduce the heat, if needed, and let the meat warm up. In about 7-8 minutes, you will see bubbles of the water from yogurt being released. Don't add any water at this stage. Since we are using a large quantity of meat, the juices from meat and the water from yogurt will be enough to cook the meat for the first hour or two.

Cover the pot with a lid. Reduce the heat to low. For the next hour keep and eye and stir frequently to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of pot. After about 1 hour, you will need to add a splash of hot water, I didn't as their was enough liquid from the yoghurt and goat at the one hour mark, I added the hot water at the two hour mark. It all depends on how much water the meat releases, we want it to cook in its own juices for as long as possible for great flavour.

Cook the curry for 3 hours in total, then add the garam masala, ghee and coriander.  Now if it is too thin, cook it uncovered for 30 minutes or until thickened to your liking. If you want it thinner just add some more water and cook for about 10 minutes.

Rest the curry for at least 20 minutes before serving. You can fry the naan bread at this time.

Serve with naan bread or rice and with extra fresh coriander.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/indian-goat-curry.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

​My husband asked if I could make a goat curry one day, so I figured I should make some naan bread to go with it. After several searches I decided on this recipe.

These were perfect-light, fluffy and delicious.

They are quite easy to make, no real skills needed, just follow the recipe.

I don't have a tandoor oven, how they would traditionally be cooked, but this stove top method worked just fine.

If you are not going to eat them all in one sitting, don't garlic butter them all. Leave the ones not eaten the same day unbuttered, and store them in a zip lock bag for 2 days, 4 days if you refrigerate them.

​Serve with Indian curries. You can also use them as wraps.

Once you've made these, you will make them again and again.

Recipe adapted from cafedelites.com/

Makes 10

​1/4 cup warm water
​2 teaspoons caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast or instant
3/4 cup warm milk
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt or natural plain yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil plus 2 tablespoons extra for cooking
2 cloves garlic minced
560g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Garlic Butter Topping:
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh chopped cilantro or parsley, optional
​
​
Combine the water, sugar and yeast. Let sit for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture begins to bubble on top.
​Add in the milk, yogurt, oil, minced garlic, flour baking powder and salt. Mix until the dough comes together with your hands.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Use floured hands to knead the dough until smooth, about 3 to 5 minutes. Only add flour if it's too sticky.

Lightly grease the same mixing bowl with a small spray of cooking oil. Transfer dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest at room temperature for about an hour until doubled in size.

When ready to cook, divide the dough into 10 equal pieces. Roll into balls, then use a rolling pin to roll each piece of dough into a large round or oval (or whatever shape you get), roll them about 3mm thick. Repeat with remaining dough.

Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Brush oil into frying pan with some of the extra extra oil.

Place one piece of the naan on the oiled hot pan and cook until bubbles form on top, about 1-2 minutes. While cooking, brush the top with a little oil.

Flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until large golden spots appear on the bottom.

Remove from the skillet and wrap in a clean kitchen towel. Repeat with the remaining naan (keep them wrapped in a towel while you work).

For the garlic butter: Combine melted butter and minced garlic together in a bowl. Brush each naan with the garlic butter and top with the fresh herb of your choosing.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/naan-bread.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

I may never buy bread again, honestly, I don't need to anymore. Recently I have been interested in bread making, why, because I hate going to the shops just for bread. 

I have been trying so many recipes, trying to find the bread my family will love. 

This one is amazing. This one has a softer crust, not like the crunchy artisan ones, but it's delicious, still crunchy when hot, but softer, thinner. The centre crumb is light and fluffy. It is amazing hot, it is amazing cold, it is still amazing the next day, perfect for school lunches. My son recently said it was the best bread he has ever used making a toastie in a sandwich press.

The video to this recipe can be found here. It's not my video, but I wanted to share it as I think she's fabulous. Plus you can see how easy it is to make. She calls it peasant bread as her mum did. 

If it's cold outside, I turn on an empty clothes dryer for a minute. Then turn it off and place the dough inside to rise in there with the door shut.

If you don't have kitchen scales, buy some, they are invaluable in the kitchen.

I have tried using oil to grease the bowls, it failed, I could not get the baked bread out of the bowl. I have used baking paper which I greased with oil or butter, and although the bread was great, it didn't quite get the crisp outside like you would without it, but it was still fabulous, so I would still do it again. Today I buttered the bowl liberally as per recipe I'll let you know how I go. It worked perfectly, it popped right out of the bowl.

You can turn this bread into artisan crusty bread to. Preheat a Dutch Oven (lid to) for 45 minutes at 230C/220C fan forced. Dust a clean work surface with flour. After the first rise, turn the dough out onto the floured surface and shape it into a ball: I like to fold it envelope style from top to bottom, then side to side; then I flip it over and use the pinkie edges of my hands to pinch the dough underneath and create some tension. Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper dusted with fine semolina. Let rest for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes, transfer the dough, parchment paper and all to the Dutch oven. Put the lid on. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover. Bake 15 minutes more. 

I Haven't tried baking it is a loaf pan, but I will soon. You can also make rolls in muffin trays, something I will try soon also. You can add bagel mix to the outside, you can add polenta or other flours, you can bake it like a focaccia. I can't wait to play with this recipe.

If you have never baked bread, this recipe is the perfect one to start with. ​

​Recipe adapted from alexandracooks.com/ 

Makes 2 small loaves

512g bread flour
10g salt
454g lukewarm water
8g caster sugar
8g instant yeast

room temperature butter, about 2 tablespoons
​

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, and instant yeast. Add the water. Mix until the flour is absorbed. 

Cover bowl with a tea towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for at least an hour. (If the weather is cold it can take up to two hours).

Preheat oven to 220C/200C fan forced.​ 

Grease two 1 litre or 1.4 litre oven-safe bowls with about a tablespoon of butter each. They need to be well greased. Do not use oil, it does not work.

Release the dough from the side of the bowl, using a damp hand. This will deflate it.
Perform a set of stretch and folds on the dough. To do this, wet your hands, then take a section of the dough furthest from you and stretch it up and fold it onto itself towards you. Rotate the bowl 90° and repeat the process. You need to do a total of 8 stretch and folds. You will get the dough roughly shaped like a ball.

Then, take two forks and divide the dough into two equal portions—eye the centre of the mass of dough, and starting from the centre and working out, pull the dough apart with the two forks. Then scoop up each half and place into your prepared bowls. This part can be a little messy as the dough is very wet and will slip all over the place. It’s best to scoop it up fast and plop it in the bowl in one fell swoop.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/no-knead-soft-crust-bread.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

​This recipe came about because I always have ricotta in my fridge. I can't buy the ones in tubs in supermarkets, I think they are horrible, so I am always buying the ones in strainers that are fresh and delicious. Two problems with that, I have to buy a minimum of 1kg of ricotta, when I may only need 300g, and two I cannot tell you how many strainers I own, in various colours and sizes. I just can't throw them out. So one day my children will inherit strainers as will my grandchildren. There really needs to be a place to return them to the cheesemakers.

Well with my leftover ricotta today, I didn't feel like making something savoury, so I went searching for something sweet and I came across this recipe. No mixer needed, quick and easy to make and a sweet ricotta filling, I had to make it.

It was delicious and it truly is quick and easy to make. It's not too sweet, which I like, so although it's a dessert, I enjoy it for breakfast or as a midday snack with a coffee.

For the crumble, you can use a food processor, which makes things super fast. I don't as I hate the washing up involved. I just place the ingredients in a large bowl and just use a pastry cutter, to cut in the cold butter, then I change to just using my fingers towards the end. Now there can be small chunks of butter here once you are done, it does not need to be super well blended.

From start to finish this cakes one hour. I like it cold personally, so once cooled I refrigerate it for at least an hour, but you may like it at room temperature.

The original recipe uses orange zest, I use lemon, as I love lemons and there is always lemons in my fruit bowl.

This is also a great make ahead cake, as it keeps well in the fridge for a few days.

So if you are like me and you have ricotta in your fridge this is something you should try.

Recipe adapted from www.cookingwithmanuela.com/ 

Serves 8

For the crumble:
300g all-purpose flour
100g caster sugar
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
175g unsalted butter, cold and cut in small cubes

For the filling:
​450g full cream ricotta, well drained
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 lemon, zest (you can use orange)
1 large egg
powdered sugar, to sprinkle on top (optional)


In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, 1 egg, and butter (cold from the refrigerator and cut in small cubes).

Cut the butter into the other ingredients with a pastry cutter or with your fingers until you get a crumbly dough. You can use a food processor.  Store in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes while you prepare the filling.

Preheat your oven to 175C/155C fan forced.

In a large bowl, add the ricotta (well drained), sugar, egg, vanilla extract and finely grated zest of 1 lemon. Mix well.

Grease and line with baking paper a 23cm springform round baking pan.

Add about 2/3 of the crumble dough, cover the bottom of the pan and press down gently.

Pour the ricotta filling in and level.

Top with the remaining dough. pinching it in pieces between your fingers, to give a crumbled effect.

Bake for about 45 minutes until lightly golden on top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy.

​You can eat it at room temperature, but I prefer it cold so I refrigerate it once it's cooled for at least an hour, even overnight.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/ricotta-crumble-cake.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

​Recipe adapted from Nikica Gamulina Games cookbook 'Hrvatska Kuharica'

Serves 5-6

500g pasta flour
3 eggs
20ml olive oil
5g salt
50ml water


Place the flour on a board or on your kitchen bench and make a well in the centre.

Crack the eggs into the well, add the oil, a pinch of salt and the water, then with a fork or your fingers, mix the wet ingredients into the flour as much as possible so it’s not sticky. Don’t worry if there are lumps in the dough. Keep mixing and then when crumbs form put it on a flat surface and knead together.

Once it is all combined, knead until you have a silky, smooth, elastic dough. You are aiming to achieve a playdough texture. If your dough is crumbly (too dry) add a teaspoon of water. If the dough sticks to your hands (too wet) add a little extra flour.

Cover with cling film and rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
​
When using a pasta roller, take a tennis ball-sized amount of dough, squash it flat with your fingers (remember to keep the rest of your dough covered with the cling film so it doesn’t go dry and crusty) push it through the pasta roller on the widest setting. Fold into thirds, then repeat 3 times. Once you have a rough square shape, start working it through the machine, taking it down one setting at a time, until the thinnest setting. If your pasta is too sticky, it won’t go through smoothly, so add a little flour to each side before you put it through the roller. Try to avoid too much flour – the less you use, the better otherwise your pasta can start to feel heavy and claggy when cooked. 

I do prefer the pasta machine as I like the dough quite thin, but you can also roll the dough by hand using a rolling pin, but make sure you get it as thin as possible.

You will end up with long rectangular sheets of pasta approximately 8-10cm wide and about the thickness of two playing cards. Lightly dust a flat surface with fine semolina and lay out the pasta sheets.

Cut the pasta sheets into three pieces lengthways, now horizontally, cut out squares, your squares will be around 3cm x 3cm. If you have hand rolled the pasta you can go as large as 4cm x 4cm.​

​Now pick up a square of pasta and join two opposite ends, press to seal. There are three ways I do this, one way is to wrap the two ends over a finger and press the join onto your finger, then slide the pasta off. Second way is to do it over a chopstick, these two methods give your fuzi that look like the top picture. The third way is you grab a square and bring the two opposite ends together but have the ends pointing upwards and you squeeze the ends together, this gives you the shape like in the bottom picture. 

Cook in boiling salted water for about a minute or two. It really does not take long. Serve with a tomato sauce, a creamy mushroom sauce or a ragu.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/istarski-fuzi.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

​I love focaccia bread, it's amazing. Recently I have been watching video after video on how to make it like they do on Instagram, where it puffs up and it just looks divine.

I have nailed it, truly, and it's so easy to make. So after getting my basic focaccia perfect, you can find that recipe here I had to venture and try more, what else can I do with focaccia.

So my kids have got me doing meatless Mondays, which we love, but unless there is a pasta or a bread involved, they tend to be hungry soon after dinner. One day I had sugar snap peas that I needed to use up, and as I didn't feel like doing a stir fry, I decided to try a new way of cooking them and made Italian Roasted Sugar Snap Peas, now I had to come up with something to go with it. Then I stumbled upon this recipe. 

This was delicious, the dough light and fluffy, the ends had a beautiful crispness to it and the sauce absolutely delicious. Now I have to mention that I was tempted to cook the sauce first as I did not think adding a fresh sauce on top would work, but work it did.

This is like a deep pan pizza with minimal effort with maximum return.

With the price of pizzas today, when your kids have friends over, this is a great snack/lunch/dinner for them.

This is something you need to try.

​Recipe adapted from mumsfoodies on instagram

​Makes 1 pizza

​375g bread flour
7g dried yeast
½ tablespoon salt
345g lukewarm water
40-60ml oil for top and greasing

​Pizza Sauce
1 x 400g tin tomatoes
4 x garlic cloves, finely chopped
Salt & Pepper, to taste
1 cup grated Mozzarella
110g Bocconcini
8-10 Basil leaves, to taste

Extra basil leaves, for topping


​Mix all the dough ingredients together well, it will be sticky, cover for 20 minutes.

Release the dough from the side of the bowl, using a damp hand. This will deflate it.
Perform a set of stretch and folds on the dough. To do this, wet your hands, then take a section of the dough furthest from you and stretch it up and fold it onto itself towards you. Rotate the bowl 90° and repeat the process. You need to do a total of 12 stretch and folds. You will get the dough roughly shaped like a ball. Cover for 45 minutes. (You can place it in the fridge now for up to 12 hours, but remove 45 minutes at room temperature before you continue).

Line a 22cm x 33cm pan with baking paper. Oil it well, about 1½ tablespoons, also oil hands.

Pour the dough in the dish, fold twice, you kind of get a rectangle shape, rotate the dough 90 degrees, so the long ends of the dough match the long ends of your baking tray, then flip over, you need the fold side down, stretch out slightly from underneath and cover for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 220C/200C fan forced.

Meanwhile make the pizza sauce. Using a hand blender, blend the tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper until smooth. Add basil, to taste.

After 45 minutes, drizzle the rest of the oil oil over dough, dimple dough, add tomato sauce, dimple dough again.
Bake at bottom of oven for 18 minutes and then add the cheese, grated first, then fresh bocconcini, bake again in middle now for 15 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, take out of tray and slice.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/easy-focaccia-pizza.html 
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​This year we had a great season growing sugar snap peas. I had one bag left and I just didn't feel like a stir fry, I wanted to try cooking them a different way.

We loved this, everyone just kept picking at them, until there was none left.

I might even try this with green beans, I think it will work.

This is super quick and easy to make. Definitely making this again and again.

​Recipe adapted from www.midwestliving.com/

1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 pound fresh sugar snap peas, trimmed
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup cherry tomatoes
½ teaspoon dried Italian seasoning, crushed
​

Preheat oven to 220C°/200C° fan forced.

​On a large rimmed baking sheet, carefully toss together the snap peas, onion, oil, salt and crushed red pepper until evenly coated. Roast 5 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes and Italian seasoning. Roast 8 minutes more or until vegetables are tender and lightly browned at the edges.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/italian-roasted-sugar-snap-peas.html 
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​Soparnik is a traditional Croatian chard or silverbeet pie baked in a komin. Now I don't have a komin so I have had to find a way to make it in my oven.

Other names for soparnik are soparnjak, zeljanik or uljenjak. It comes from the Dalmatian region of Poljica, between Split and Omiš, it's actually heritage listed to this part of Croatia, by the Croatian ministry of Culture.

This has been a labour of love for me, a little like the Goldilocks and the three bears story. The first time I made it, I used a recipe that used too much silverbeet, so the filling was wet and my base was soggy and my dough edges were so thick, they couldn't bake properly. The second time I made it, I overfilled it again and I had a huge dome shape happen as it went in the oven, and it didn't go down once baked. But it had great flavour, I needed to try again. The third time was amazing. I followed a recipe that used a fraction of the silverbeet compared to the other recipes, so I could see finally what the filling should look like.

This is the video I used as a guide to help me get it right.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJg8RyT0fJI

This was honestly amazing and easy once you get a bit of practice.

The breadcrumbs are not traditional, but as my mother in law adds them to her strudels to soak up excess liquid from apples, I figured it would not hurt here as silverbeet has water in it.

DRY your silverbeet leaves well, water is your enemy here. I rarely pull out my salad spinner, but for this recipe I do. You can dry them with clean tea towels, before chopping also.

Add only enough water where your dough is no longer sticky. As flour can behave differently depending on the weather, you may not need it all, or you may need more.

The sea salt flakes I say are optional as I love it, but you may not need it.

Do not throw out your excess dough. I make it into a ball again, rest while your soparnik is baking, then, reroll it and stretch it out with my hand to make it as big as possible. Then I fill it with a thin layer of nutella and bake for about 20 minutes. No waste and my kids love it.

​​This is a fabulous pie that is not too hard to make and a brilliant way to use up silverbeet growing in the garden or when a recipe doesn't use a whole bunch and you need to make something from a few leaves.

Recipe adapted from Vegan Foodie Cooks

​Makes 1 pie

Dough:
3 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 cup of water

Filling:
5-6 big silverbeet leaves, stalks removed, roughly chopped, dried well
1/4 cup of parsley, chopped
1/4 cup of green onion, sliced
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/3 cup of olive oil
​
1/4 cup breadcrumbs, optional

Topping:
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
parsley leaves, finely chopped, optional

​Sea salt flakes, to taste, optional


Preheat your oven to 200C/180C fan forced.
For the dough: Add the flour, salt and oil to a mixing bowl. Slowly add the water in, stirring first with a spoon after each addition, then later with your hands. The dough should not be sticky. Rest 5 minutes, then knead for 4-5 minutes until you have a smooth dough. Leave to rest for 15 minutes.​

Make the filling: To a large bowl add the silverbeet leaves, parsley, onion, salt, pepper and olive oil, mix well to combine.

Now roll the dough, it will feel soft and pliable. Cut the dough in two, one bit slightly larger than the other. Take the smaller piece, shape it into a rough circle, then roll out as thin as you can get it. Cut off any thick edges.

Line a large oven tray with baking paper, place your rolled dough on top. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs, if using. Place filling on top, make the filling flat and level, not dome shaped, so each piece gets the same amount of filling. Now shape your second dough piece into a rough circle and roll out like the first one, this piece needs to be larger than the first piece as it has to go over the filling, you can also use your hands to stretch it, but you don't want any holes. Cut off any thick edges. Place over the filling, gently press the edges together, cut off any thick bits. Tuck the edges under to make a nicely shaped soparnik.
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Place in your preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, until it is until the dough is golden brown and cooked to your liking.
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Meanwhile in a bowl, mix together the garlic, oil and parsley, if using.

When the soparnik comes out of the oven, brush the garlic and oil mix all over the top. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes, if you like. Cut up into diamond shaped pieces.

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​What I love about Turkish food is how they make vegetables the star of a dish. Here in this Kapuska, the cabbage is fabulous, the amount of flavour you get in this simple dish is amazing. 

Now this one was not on my list of the dishes I wanted to make for Turkiye, as I scrolled through my cookbooks I figured this was just a cabbage dish. But one night while I was watching my son play football, I get a text from my daughter with this recipe, saying my husband wants me to make this, he was watching Rick Steins show from Venice to Istanbul and he saws this and wanted me to make this.

This dish is so easy to make. My whole family loved this, there was nothing left, some wished I had made more.

Cook until you are happy with the cabbage, my husband liked it softer, my kids love it while it still has some bite.

I've now made a few dishes on our eating around the world adventure in Türkiye, and my family are loving it. We are eating some of the tastiest dishes we have ever had. You need to try this.

Recipe adapted from Rick Stein's cookbook 'From Venice to Istanbul'

Serves 4

 45ml olive oil
250g minced lamb
2 medium onions, chopped
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon Turkish red pepper paste
1/2-1 teaspoon chilli flakes, plus extra to serve
4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon salt
white pepper, to taste
375ml water
1/2 savoy cabbage, coarsely chopped
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Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large frying pan (with high sides) over a high heat and fry the minced lamb until broken up and browned all over. Reduce the heat to medium, add the rest of the olive oil, the onions and garlic, and stir until softened.
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Add the tomato paste, red pepper paste, chilli flakes, stir for 30 seconds, then add the chopped tomatoes and season with salt and pepper, cook for a few minutes until the tomatoes start to break down. Add 250ml of the water, bring to a simmer, put a lid on the pan and cook for 30 minutes.
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Add the cabbage and the rest of the water, and simmer for another 30 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. 

Sprinkle with a large pinch of chilli flakes and serve with crusty bread.

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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