how to make gravadlax

How to make gravadlax

Gavin Wren Basic Ingredients, Fish & Shellfish, Food Techniques, Main Dishes, Recipes, Small Bites, Writing

Today I’m talking about gravlax, or gravalax, or gravadlax, or even Gravad laks depending on where you are, who you are and why you’re here. There might be other spellings that I’m missing out, but so far I’ve covered Norwegian, Swedish and Danish as well as the slightly confused situation in England where it seems to go under a few of those names. However you spell it, this is an absolute peach of a recipe, …

Super minty potato salad

Gavin Wren Recipes, Side dishes, Small Bites, Vegetables, Vegetarian

I need you to help me with this recipe, play along if you will. Just close your eyes and imagine a gentle warm breeze blowing against your skin, like a soft blanket, whilst the hot sun sears through the atmosphere, partially muted by an ethereal haze, yet still causing you to squint gently as you lay back and gaze across the orchard and listen to the shimmering of leaves in the breeze. OK, so hopefully …

Avocado prawn khobez wraps with mint yoghurt

Avocado prawn wraps on khobez with mint yoghurt

Gavin Wren Fish & Shellfish, Recipes, Sandwiches & Wraps, Small Bites, Vegetarian

I’m in a lucky position. I live in a part of North London where there’s a strong Turkish community and just down the road there’s a lot of Greeks as well. That means I’m tripping over mediterranean delis and restaurants and there’s an abundance of new ingredients to discover that seem to magically fall into my shopping basket on a regular basis. It also puts me in the unique situation of never having any trouble …

Halloumi with mint yoghurt

Hot halloumi slices with mint yoghurt

Gavin Wren Recipes, Salads, Side dishes, Small Bites, Vegetarian

Yesterday I told you how to make mint yoghurt, with a straightforward recipe. Today is day two of the Birthday trilogy and I’m indulging that dip with a little bit of halloumi, the Mediterranean cheese found in Greek and Lebanese restaurants or otherwise known as the hard, squeaky cheese which people buy for vegetarians during BBQ season. It’s also a word that isn’t featured in my iMac’s spellchecker dictionary, so it keeps on getting corrected …

Courgette, spinach and feta bundles

Spinach and feta courgette bundles

Gavin Wren Recipes, Side dishes, Small Bites, Starters, Vegetarian

On today’s special weekend episode of ‘le petit oeuf’ I’ve got some utterly fantastic courgette parcels for you, small bundles of joy stuffed with earthy spinach, pine nuts, sweet golden raisins and oozing feta cheese. They might look tricky to make, but these little bundles of joy are incredibly straightforward and deliver a really high level ‘wow’ factor to the table. I like to think of them as individual, savoury, gluten free vegetable pies, crafted …

hot melt sun-dried tomato and mozzarella muffins

Hot melt sun-dried tomato and mozzarella muffins

Gavin Wren Baking, Breakfast, Recipes, Small Bites, Spelt & ancient grains

I’ve got a muffin hangover today. In fact, that’s a lie, I deserve to have a muffin hangover today, because I ate… errr, six muffins last night, instead of my dinner. If that had been six of the supermarket’s in-store bakery, not-quite the finest double chocolate efforts I might not be so chipper about it, but the muffins I ate were actually really wholesome, soft, crumbly little cakes with very little sugar or unhealthy bits, …