Happy 2016! My resolution for the first week of this year is to share this post, so I’m going to start the year on a high note.

Blogging is fun, but it can also be tough sometimes.

I could have started one of those stream-of-consciousness sites where people write about whatever it is they’ve done over the weekend, with photos of a soap dispenser in a restaurant bathroom, or deep insights into their favorite Instagram memes.

But I didn’t, so here I am.

The reason I’m even getting blog-osophical is that I ended 2015 with blogger’s block. Cooking is still happening, and some of it has been fun and very successful (some less so) but it just doesn’t make it online. No photos (ok maybe a few), no testing, no tweaking.

Instead I’m going to round up some of my favorite recent recipes from the big sites like BBC Good Food (seriously the best) and fellow bloggers.

Here’s what I’ve been making lately:

Cod with Lemon and Tarragon (Nigel Slater)

I found this recipe in Eat, a Nigel Slater cookbook, but lots of his recipes are published in the Observer/Guardian. It’s really easy but looks and tastes much more complex. I got the best cod I could. It makes a difference.

Char Siu (Burp Appetit)

When it was time to release the pork belly from its freezer hibernation, I tried this. I had no idea char siu could be so easy at home! Next time, there will also be buns.

Vegan White Bean Chili (Bon Appetit)

Warm and full of winter veggies. I add a lot less water so it’s less like soup, and use canned beans instead of dried, because I am not organized enough to soak beans a day in advance.

Blueberry Crumble Traybake (Holy Crabness)

This one first came into play for a summer barbecue, back when blueberries were in season. Though mine weren’t nearly as pretty as Emma’s, they were gobbled up without any hesitation.

Apple Cider Doughnuts (NY Times)

There is no craving like a homeland craving, and I decided I wanted cider doughnuts. Keep in mind cider doesn’t even mean the same thing here as it does in the Northeast US, and I’d never made doughnuts before…

But doughnuts I got. Delicious, cidery, imperfect doughnuts. (Props to Brambletye Farms, who make an unfiltered apple juice that worked so well in this.)

A few bank holidays ago, (May 2, 2015, to be precise) the gent and I visited the Melton Mowbray Artisan Cheese Fair, with no idea what to expect. The things we knew were: it was on for 2 days, it was in May, and there would be cheese. How much of it, and how good it would be we decided to take a chance on.

Spoiler alert.

There was a lot of cheese, and it was very good. And there was gin. It was also very good.

Welcome to Melton Mowbray

First, a little about Melton Mowbray. It’s a small town that’s known for two very big foods in Britain, though if you’re reading this from Britain, you probably already knew that.

I have to confess that I’m not a big pork pie fan, generally… I’d never been convinced that they were worth eating. The examples I’ve had were always too fatty, with really dense, lardy crust and cold pork in the middle. Honestly, even the best pork pie is probably not going to convince me that any of those things aren’t true. However, when in Melton Mowbray… We split a stilton pork pie, and the sharp earthiness of blue cheese really helped balance the fattiness and richness of the pork/pastry combination.

The fair itself was interesting and busy, but not too over-crowded. It only cost £2 to enter, which is apparently twice the price of previous years, but well worth it.

The weather the day we visited was pretty terrible, so that might have scared a few people away. There is a lot of jostling and pushing forward for samples, which can be a bit trying when you want to sample something, talk to the producer or take a photo, which is why some of my photos ended up being at pretty weird angles.

If you got the opportunity to speak to them, most of the producers were friendly and keen to talk about their wares. Most of the people there really were small (or fairly small) providers that you wouldn’t necessarily find in your local supermarket, so it was nice to get insight into the joys of cheese making, gin distilling and making cheese-making kits.

There were around 75 different stalls across the cattle market and they included cider, bread, ice cream, wine, and cheese of course… there was no lack of great British products.

A soft, white unpasteurized cheese, and my favorite of the fair, from Chalke Valley Cheese.

Even after a train ride home, the Dorset White was perfect. Creamy, spreadable and so delicious.

Loosehanger had very dedicated cheesers manning their stall, and a lovely blue goat cheese.

Stichelton’s unpasteurized stilton definitely came home, too. Complex in flavor and so pretty to look at.

We ended up taking 6 cheeses home, and it took serious willpower to not buy more than that. There was the creamy Dorset White from Chalke Valley, a blue goat cheese called Nanny Williams from Loosehanger Cheese in Salisbury, a beautiful brie-styled cheese from Tunworth in Hampshire, a traditionally full flavored blue (yeah, there’s a theme) from Cote Hill in Lincolnshire, a deliciously strong, aged Red Leicester made by Leicestershire Handmade Cheese, and finally, a beautiful Stichelton, which is exactly a stilton, but made with unpasteurized milk.

There were also some very interesting talks on, most notably a history of Stilton cheese, from one of the UK’s big stilton producers. It was a great explanation of how the Midlands became a home base for many foods (as it was a natural stopping point for people traveling through the country), how much of an effect war rationing had on cheese production (immense) and what makes a stilton a stilton.

But I can’t wrap up this overview without talking about the two gin distilleries we tried, both of which were fantastic. Recently I’d had a bad run of picking gins without tasting them, but we were very confident about taking both of these home… after sampling them. Burleigh’s Gin has robust flavor and uses citrus and spices to great effect.

The second tried-and-loved distiller is called Da Mhile, from Wales. While there’s an interesting version with seaweed as a botanical, we stuck to the regular gin, which is made with mint. I was skeptical at first, but the mint isn’t overpowering at all, and adds an interesting fresh dimension to a g&t.

As a final note, it must be said that there was a great ukelele orchestra, playing hits from across the decades.

The Melstrum Ukulele Band got a lot out of their ukes.

if you find yourself with the opportunity to visit the Melton Mowbray Artisan Cheese Fair, I would recommend it, but only if you’re willing to wander around for a few hours, sampling cheese, alcohol and pies, and coming home loaded with goodies. You’ve been warned!

For someone who absolutely despises the taste and smell of anything remotely like aniseed or liquorice, I’m surprisingly coming to appreciate ingredients like fennel seed and caramelized fennel root. I can even tolerate fennel that isn’t cooked down to the point where it just tastes of sweetness!

My slowly growing tolerance for the fennel family is where these meatballs come in. When I first tried them at Polpo, one of my top London restaurants, I was really reluctant, but my dining partner was eager to sample them. I gave in and I’m really glad I did… they were delicious.

They were so good that I have even tried replicating them at home. While my pork and fennel meatballs are not exactly the same (for one thing I make mine a lot smaller), they’re easy to make and delicious. Just as an aside, I haven’t bought the Polpo cookbook (yet), so these are my own recipe, rather than from the book, but I’m eager to compare them.

My favorite way to eat these is with a slow-cooked tomato sauce and spaghetti, though they’re pretty good as Swedish meatballs, too. One of the best things about meatballs is making a big batch and freezing the leftovers for future quick and easy weeknight dinners.

I’ve tested regular and gluten-free versions, which I’ve included in the recipe below. Next trial: egg-free meatballs.

Serves: 8

On the Counter

500 g ground pork
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
1 small onion (1/2 cup or 75 g), very finely diced or blitzed in the food processor
1 egg
50 g breadcrumbs or blitzed gluten-free oats
1 clove garlic, finely minced or blitzed
1 tsp salt

What to Do

Combine all ingredients and squish them together until thoroughly combined. Take enough of the mix to make 2.5 cm/1 in diameter meatballs into your hand, and roll them into a ball. (If you’re worried about the meat sticking to you, rub just a drop of vegetable oil onto your hands before rolling.)

Once you’ve rolled all your meatballs, set 4-5 per person aside if you’re using them for pasta or Swedish meatballs with sides. Take the rest and lay them on a flat baking sheet, then cover it tightly with plastic wrap and freeze them overnight. (The next day, you can just throw them into a zip-top bag and back into the freezer.)

There are 2 ways to go forward with meatballs now. You can sear them in a very hot pan with a little oil, turning them so they brown on all sides. The other option, and my preferred, is to lay them all on a baking sheet in 1 layer, and bake them in the oven (200C/390F) for at least 5 minutes per “side” to ensure browning and consistent texture.

Once you’ve browned them, you can try them in Swedish meatballs, or cooked low and slow in a tomato sauce.

Recently, the gentleman and I were in Sweden for few days. It was my first trip that far north – which is a fact I checked on the map as I write this. (I’ve also just learned that most of Scotland is a lot further north than I realized.)

Besides the super-friendly people, the ease of watching ice hockey on TV (yep hockey fan here), and the interesting (but expensive) beer selection, my favorite part of Sweden was the food. Of course.

Oh, the food. Giant buffet breakfasts with 3 kinds of eggs, caviar in a tube, yogurt with seeds, cereal, nuts – you name it. Four kinds of bread, pastries…

But this is not a breakfast recipe. Because just about everything that I had on our four days in Sweden was excellent. Cinnamon buns at the cafe, chicken terrine, Swedish-style beef tartare and wild boar (a-may-zinng) for our Valentine’s Day dinner, pub dinners that included beef stew, lightly breaded fried fish and brisket…

Ok, I need to stop. Just know that Sweden = delicious.

In the interest of authenticity and a bit of tourism, we had to have try Swedish meatballs. Maybe the ones that were considered the best in town. Maybe we looked them up to check.

And then, maybe the weekend after, just in time for the Sweden/Canada Olympic Ice Hockey gold medal game, we made homemade Swedish meatballs. They got rave reviews from the hockey viewing party, who all happened to be rooting for the Swedish team. I think the meatballs helped heal our crushed spirits.

If you like comfort food that’s easy to make and store in the freezer – you should make these too.

To keep mostly authentic, I’d suggest serving them with mashed potatoes (mine included whole grain mustard because a. it’s delicious and b. there was a lot of mustard in Sweden) and lingonberry jam. Slightly less authentically, we may have also had some steamed spinach. It worked well.

Ikea sells a reasonably good and reasonably cheap jar of lingonsylt (lingonberry jam), and I personally think it’s also delicious stirred into oatmeal or on toast.

Makes about 35 meatballs, and they freeze well.
Serving size: 3-4 meatballs

On the Counter

2.2 pounds (1 kg) ground beef (or 50/50 beef-pork mixture)
2 medium onions, grated
1 tbsp olive oil + 1 tbsp olive oil
2 large eggs
4/5 cup (200 ml) milk
1 cup beef or chicken broth
100 g whole wheat breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp creme fraiche or sour cream
1 tsp + 1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

Serve with:
Mashed Potatoes
Lingonberry Jam
Spinach (optional, less traditional)

What to Do

Combine the milk and breadcrumbs and set aside for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, sweat onions in 1 tbsp olive oil until soft, transfer to large bowl and allow to cool. Add beef and pork to onions, mix in eggs, milk and breadcrumbs, season with allspice, 1 tsp salt and several grinds of black pepper. Combine well and allow the mixture to rest for 10 minutes.

Form meat into balls (roughly one inch in diameter) by rolling them between your palms until they’re tightly packed. Set aside those that you plan to cook and see below for freezing suggestions.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add meatballs in a single layer and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes total. Set meatballs aside on a plate, and finish off all meatballs. Put them all back into the pot and add broth.

Cover the pot, and simmer over medium-low heat until the meatballs are cooked through, (with an internal temperature of 170 F or  76.5 C) about 10 minutes.

Add soy sauce and crème fraîche or sour cream. Stir carefully to just combine and simmer until the sauce begins to thicken. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To freeze: Line up the remaining meatballs on a cookie sheet lined in plastic wrap. Cover them with more plastic wrap. Freeze them overnight, and transfer them into a zip top bag. They should be fine in the freeze for 3-4 months, and probably longer. 

I had some amazing souvlaki in Santorini, on a tiny island called Thirasia. There were more cats than people living on the island, and it was a very interesting, and slightly surreal place to visit for a few hours. Our tour guide recommended a restaurant on the beach; it was a place that she said she went to every time she was there. (Which, I’m guessing, was probably once a day.)

It was absolutely delicious, and half of the seating was on a deck sitting above the ocean. It was a peaceful and amazing meal, accompanied with a very refreshing Greek beer. I’m sure it all tasted even better after my companion and I hiked up a mountain of stairs to see the village, but that doesn’t take away from it being so, so good.

However, of the list of tasty things that we had while in Santorini, it wasn’t one of the first things that I recreated after returning. I’ve had a healthy stock of Greek yogurt in the fridge since, and I have a newfound love for speciality honey. Souvlaki came to mind again when I was uploading photos from the trip. There it was, that beauty of a dish, waiting for me perpetually in a photo.

Traditionally, souvlaki is pork. I was surprised to learn it, as I thought for sure it would have been lamb. I was pretty insistent on having it in the most traditional way possible, so pork on a small, barely-populated island had to be the way to go.

Mine wasn’t nearly as good as the amazing souvlaki I had looking out at the islands of Santorini, but it’s a pretty tasty second-runner. It’s recommended to marinade your pork overnight, so it’s not going to be a meal I could put together on the fly, unfortunately.

In the making of my souvlaki, I went a slightly untraditional route. Because I was just cooking for myself, I didn’t bother with the skewers, and I decided to eat it more like a sandwich than a fork-and-knife meal. Really, the whole thing was pretty untraditional, since I also broiled (grilled) it rather than putting it on the grill (BBQ). As an aside, talk about confusing terms. Broil (US) = Grill (UK); Grill (US) = BBQ (UK). Some of the differences still take a bit of getting used to.

But now, on to the recipe!

On the Counter:

Serves: 4

for the tzatziki:
(I like mine strong; add more yogurt if you like it less intense)
8 oz (225g) fat free Greek yogurt (I use Fage, or Chobani in the states)
1/2 cucumber
the juice of half a lemon
1 clove garlic
salt

for the pork:
1 lb pork loin or tenderloin
1/4 cup red wine
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

for the plate:
4 whole wheat pitas
2 vine-ripened tomatoes
1/2 onion (preferably red)
1 handful lettuce/salad greens per person
1 vine-ripened tomato

What to Do:

for the tzatziki:
You can also make this ahead.

Peel and de-seed cucumber, then grate it into a bowl. Sprinkle the cucumber with salt, let sit for 5 minutes. Wrap it in a paper towel and squeeze out excess water. Put it back into the bowl.

Finely mince garlic, add to bowl.

Squeeze lemon juice into bowl.

Add yogurt and stir well to combine.

for the pork:
In a large, non-metal bowl, whisk together wine, garlic, oil, thyme, salt and pepper.

Cut pork into one inch cubes.

Add pork to marinade, stir to coat. Cover bowl and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

If using wooden skewers, soak in water for 30 mins before using.

Grill/BBQ: Heat grill to medium-high for 10 mins, turning occasionally until cooked.

Oven: Broil/grill on medium heat, about 6 inches away from the heat, for 6 minutes, turning the skewers once halfway through.

The pork should show just the slightest bit of pink in the center.

for the plate:
Slice tomatoes into wedges, seed if desired, then cut wedges in half. 

Thinly slice red onion. 

Slice pitas in half and gently open up the pockets. 

Place all veggies and pita onto the plate in the arrangement of your choice. Add a dollop of tzatziki and the pork, and serve. 

I love being inspired by dishes while traveling. Next, I’m hoping to try my hand at baked feta. Have you ever been inspired by meals you’ve had while traveling?