Hello! I'm Nandi

Salty seamen paella

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 20:46:00 +0200

Wanted to do a real paella, but no prawns. Had no fish broth either, so DIY.

Ingredients

500ml fish broth:

2 tsp vegetable broth powder
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp salt (too much, probably)
hot water
6-8 saffron threads

Other:

mussels, rinsed in boiling-hot water, 30s
chicken thighs, sliced and wok fried
250g round rice
a small double concentrate (tomato paste)
2 decent-sized garlic cloves, sliced
fresh parsley
1 medium onion
0.5-1 tsp smoked paprika

Topping:

Minesweeper salmon lasagne

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0200

Twice the béchamel you think you need.

Ingredients

Béchamel, aka filling 1:

70g butter
50g firm Italian cheese of your choice
flour, milk

Filling 2:

250g spinach
5 garlic cloves + garlic pesto, or 8 garlic cloves
olive oil
fresh rosemary
salt
vegetable stock
MSG

Topping:

salmon, without coat, in pieces
cocktail tomatoes, cut in half

Pasta:

fresh pasta: 1 egg, flour

Method

Make the pasta dough and let it rest! Roll thin sheets.
Filling 2 must be overly salty. Obviously too salty is the target flavour.
The top layer gets no béchamel, only the toppings: salmon, and the tomato halves water side up.
Sprinkle olive oil, rosemary, a bit of salt and pepper on top.
Lay the mines.
Into the oven, 220°C for about 35 minutes, closer to the top of the oven so the tomato and salmon get some colour.

Persian fantasy curry

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0200

I had leftover boiled green peas with some onion, and 6 medium boiled, peeled potatoes.

Ingredients

6 medium boiled potatoes, peeled
150-200g green peas, boiled with some leek
200g pork shoulder, thin cubes
vegetable stock (powder, MSG is not optional)
100g carrot
150g celery
1 large onion
cumin, caraway, nutmeg, green cardamom
cilantro, mint
lime
rice for 2-4 people

Method

Start with a soffritto, but 1.5x on the celery.
Make rice for 2-4 people.
In a wok, on high heat, roast the tiny pork cubes. When there’s enough brown, take them off. Add some vegetable stock, garlic salt and white pepper.
Use a bit of water to get all the flavour from the wok into the soffritto.
Mortar 6-9 green cardamom pods and sift them into the mix. Mortar a tiny piece of nutmeg too. Lots of salt and about as much sugar.
Add 1/4 tsp cumin and 1/4 tsp caraway.
Boil until everything is soft, adding water as it evaporates. At the end, water it up properly so it’s a thick sauce. Add some flour to thicken it.
Cut the potatoes into big cubes and put them in the pot. Cover for 3 minutes.
Fire off, wait 1 minute.
Fresh herbs: mostly coriander, a bit of mint and rosemary. Mint and coriander are the essential part, 90-10 coriander to mint. Add the herbs and mix well.
Serve the ragout on top of the rice with lime wedges.

Pumpkin season is ON

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 16:34:37 +0100

I’ve been making pumpkin spice purée for years now, with decent results. My method follows.

Ingredients

good, ripe organic pumpkin
sugar
ground ginger
ground cinnamon
ground nutmeg
ground cloves

The spices go in step by step, ratios explained below. Spices differ by brand and by country, so any fixed recipe is misdirection.

Method

Cut the pumpkin into big chunks and put it in the oven for a good 40-45 minutes, until you see strong marks of caramelised sugar.
Let it rest.
Put 5-7 tbsp sugar on the stove and start caramelising. Don’t wait until it’s done, add 300-400ml water halfway.
Wait until the caramel dissolves, keeping the gas on a low setting.
Peel the baked pumpkin and add it to the caramel syrup.
Add 2-4 full teaspoons of ginger powder. If the ginger is hot and spicy, use less.
Add the same amount of cinnamon.
Add half that amount of nutmeg, or slightly less. If it’s strong, use a bit less.
Add half or slightly less of ground cloves.
Blend it into a smooth paste.
After blending, adjust the flavour if needed. Sometimes extra ginger helps.

Notes

Careful with the cloves. Too much spoils the blend easily. The other spices forgive overdoing it.

Hello World!

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 03:00:00 +0000

Hello world or “initial commit”.

As I am launching my proper site now, I was wondering, there are many ways of launching a project.

Here, follows a list of famous first words.

“Let there be light.”

How it all started according to the Bible’s Genenis.

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Neil Armstrong said these words during the moon landing.

« Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas. »

Translated to: Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. L’étranger of Albert Camus, setting the tone right away.