The Electric Monk

This is one of the first breads I've made on the new baking brick Keren has got me for my birthday, and is probably one of the best breads I've made. It's got a rich and full-bodied nutty flavour thanks to the honey and... well... nuts.

I've been using a lot of sweet potatoes and pumpkin lately, as my CSA provider keeps sending me them week after week. This forces me to try creative ideas (or at least, more creative than the usual ingredients I use), and this week's dish is one outcome of this. The ravioli filling is simple but really delicious and can probably stand on its own as a spread or pasta sauce.

This ragù is based on the traditional Bolognese ragù but replaces half of the beef with lamb. Note that the meat is roughly chopped rather than minced, this gives the sauce a more 'meaty' texture. The use of sage as the sole herb compliments the lamb's aroma.

My twist on the good old creamy orange goodness includes a pinch of chili hotness and a hint of roastness from the bell pepper.

A surprisingly delicious dish which will also work well with fresh pasta such as Fettuccine or Tagliatelle. I never thought that pumpkin would taste so good to me :)

The grated potato makes the meatballs juicy and fluffy and the seasoning is just exquisite. This dish is excellent served over mashed potatoes or clean white rice.

This bread has such a rich taste and soft texture, it's a real treat. The basil gives it an amazing aroma and the nuts are crunchy and full of flavor.

I first made this sauce when I had some very ripe grape tomatoes (a plum-shaped variant of cherry tomato) left over. I sliced a few of them, threw in the wok with some garlic, chili peppers and rosemary and then found out I was out of red wine, so I used some balsamic vinegar instead. The sauce was surprisingly delicious and I earned a new recipe.

You can use regular tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes, but try to pick the smallest, ripest tomatoes you can find. If using regular tomatoes, cut each tomato to 4 or 8 pieces, according to their size.

This marinade makes for an especially tender and delicious dish. The chicken thighs are also suitable for cooking as whole steaks on a BBQ.

The easiest way to make this marinade is to throw all solid ingredients with a little olive oil into a food processor and run it for a few minutes, until everything's chopped. This way, you don't even have to peel the garlic cloves - the BBQ fire will burn them anyway.

This soup was an improvisation using leftover vegetables from a previous shipment of Chubeza, my CSA provider and a few vegetables from the latest shipment. What I like about this kind of improvisations is that often I find the result to be much more tasty than I have anticipated, like this particular soup has proven to be. Only later did I find out that the combination of chickpeas and chard is actually quite popular.