Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie

May 15, 2020
by Kelsey
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Western cuisine

Quick and easy

“Shepherd’s pie is a ground meat pie with a crust or topping of mashed potato. The recipe has many variations, but the defining ingredients are ground red meat cooked in a gravy or sauce with onions, and topped with a layer of mashed potato before it is baked. Sometimes other vegetables are added to the filling, such as peas, celery or carrots. The pie is sometimes also gratineed with grated cheese to create a layer of melted cheese on top. In early cookery books, the dish was a means of using leftover roasted meat of any kind, and the pie dish was lined on the sides and bottom with mashed potato, as well as having a mashed potato crust on top.

Growing up, a lot of my friends who migrated to Cyprus always ate shepherd’s pie and would mention it as their weekly tea, aka dinner. I remember making fun of the name and refer to this dish as a shepherd making my pie and picture this dish as a traditional  pastry pie. Call me naive back then, but now it’s one of my favourite dishes and I even came to learn how to make it into a vegetarian option by Hellofresh.

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Potato of Calzones

May 13, 2020
by Kelsey
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Western cuisine

Quick and easy

“An Italian dish known as calzoni di patate filanti, AKA trousers of stringy potatoes. A calzone is directly translated as “stocking” or “trouser” is an Italian oven-baked turnover made with folded pizza dough. It originated in Naples in the 18th century. A typical calzone is made from salted bread dough, baked in an oven and is stuffed with salami, ham or vegetables, mozzarella, ricotta and Parmesan or pecorino cheese, as well as an egg. Different regional variations in or on a calzone can often include other ingredients that are normally associated with pizza toppings. The term usually applies to an oven-baked turnover rather than a fried pastry (i.e. panzerotti), though calzoni and panzerotti are often mistaken for each other. A calzone is somewhat similar to a stromboli. A calzone is a baked turnover stuffed with pizza ingredients.” 

Perfect as a little appetiser, easy to make and a favourite for those who love cheese. For a vegetarian option, replace the sliced ham with spinach.

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Vegetarian Japanese Udon

May 13, 2020
by Kelsey
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Asian cuisine

Quick and easy

“Udon is a type of thick, wheat-flour noodle used frequently in Japanese cuisine. It is usually topped with thinly chopped scallions.”

I’ve always loved japanese food, it’s culture and country. Recently, since the start of 2020, I made a personal choice to focus on eating more vegetarian meals throughout the week the choice was to see whether my health would improve; such as sleep, energy levels. Before covid-19, I used to always talk about food and watch the club lounge chef prepare meals in our tiny back of house and decided to steal this easy to make recipe by chef Robert, a work colleague of mine at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. It’s a very healthy and fuss free meal which takes me back to my Japan travels.

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Asian risotto

May 13, 2020
by Kelsey
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Asian cuisine

Quick and easy

“Asian style risotto inspired by Master Chef of Thailand Pam, recipe from Taste Life.”

It’s always exciting to combine both cuisines from different cultures like East meets West. This fusionised risotto is so easy to make with a heaty kick in the end, all you want to do is have another bite of this rich creamy dish. This dish does really well with duck breast as an alternative to pork tenderloin.

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Losing my passion with Tastingtales

February 18, 2019
by Kelsey
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My thoughts

For all my readers out there wondering what has happened to Tastingtales, it is with sad news to say that I find it hard to find the motivation to log into my blog following the death of my dad. Everything about food, cooking and eating doesn’t feel the same and everything about Tastingtales reminds me of him and it pains me to feel emptiness when attempting to get back into the kitchen or brain storm future blog posts. Tastingtales is about family, memories and the food that binds us together. It is with a heavy heart to admit to everyone that i have loss my sense of purpose. For the last year, I have finally managed to log back into my blog and update you with my decision to post this message to let everyone know of my hiatus and have chosen to take time away to focus on myself, my wellbeing, mental state and continue to understand the stages of grief until I find the strength to pursue my love for cooking once more. I hope that in time i am able to get my spark back and fall back in love with food and Tastingtales. I promise to be back on here soon to share my knowledge and stories.

All my love, and happy cooking, Kelsey x

Mexican lasagna

February 9, 2018
by Kelsey
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Western cuisine

Quick and easy

“This is a latino inspired lasagna style. A healthy and quicker alternative than it’s traditional Italian rival.”

This is a shorthand Mexican-influenced piled up in a lasagna-like fashion. In place of pasta layers, there are soft tortillas and in between them an assembly of minced beef tomato sauce, sour cream, avocado and tortillas sheets and plenty of cheese. I recently came across this dish when someone cooked this dish for me one evening. I was very impressed and asked for the recipe, to our amusement, it had been confided that it came from Taste.

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