Main ingredients

• 450g Seven seed and grain multigrain bread flour

• 40g Demerara sugar

• 300g water

• 2tsp yeast

• 1tsp salt

• Cinnamon to taste

Finishing ingredients (spread on top)

• 2tbsp room temperature butter

• 2tsp Demerara sugar

Pro tip: feel free to use any sugar available. I enjoy the texture of the multigrain bread flour but you can use any bread flour you have at home. Each flour will be a little different. I started with 250g water, then added more when I saw the flour leftover in the mixing bowl.

Step 1. Mix all the main ingredients into a mixing bowl

Step 2. Knead the dough to develop gluten. Everyone has a different preferred method. The easiest is if you have a KitchenAid and just use the dough hook. I don’t have one at the moment so I grabbed the dough and threw it into the mixing bowl over and over for 10 minutes. (My neighbours heard all of it.) Keep kneading until the dough no longer sticks to the bottom of the bowl when you lift it.

Step 3. Spread flour onto the base of another mixing bowl (or the same one after you wash and wipe it dry). Leave the dough in it and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise for an hour or until it doubles in size.

Step 4. Spread flour onto kitchen counter and roll out the dough.

Step 5. Divide and roll out the dough. I just used my hands to roll them.

Step 6. Spread sugar and cinnamon to taste (a pinch of cinnamon with ¾ tsp of sugar)

Step 7. Roll them up, split each of the rolls into two and place them into the baking tray. Let them rise for 1.5 hours or until they double in size again.

Step 8. Preheat the oven to 180 celcius and into the oven they go for 30 minutes or until it passes the cake tester test. Take the butter out of the fridge to let it soften.

Pro tip: most ovens have a hot spot so I would turn the tray around 8 minutes in so the left and the right side would rise a similar amount.

Pro tip: I use a cake tester, which has a toothpick-like thin metal rod to check the temperature inside the buns. It should be quite hot to touch.

Step 9. Mix the finishing ingredients in a cup. Scoop a spoonful onto each bun. Bake for 3 more minutes, and voila! Fresh 5 ingredient cinnamon buns. Yes, technically 7 with salt and water. Anyways, you can still see the butter bubbling in the picture.

And of course, the moment of truth - the tear test. I took a video to show my friends but I think Substack is not letting me upload videos directly, so here’s a screenshot.

Happy baking!

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If you’ve been following along, you know, I’m quite carefree with my cooking. There aren’t really ratios in this recipe because I use a storebought puff pastry dough to save time. The rest is difficult to mess up! Have fun with it and see what tastes good to you.

Apple Galette

1. Slice apple thinly and layer onto pan in an aesthetic pattern

Pro tip: it’s fine to keep the apple skin on! Peel it off for soups. Nobody will judge if there’s skin on a rustic galette.

2. Sprinkle around 1 tablespoon of sugar with a dash of cinnamon and add 1 ½ tablespoon of butter for every ½ apple you use (I find half of a small apple works well for a 1/6 gastronorm pan)

3. Roll out puff pastry dough (I bring it to number 4 on a KitchenAid pasta roller attachment) and use a fork to dock the dough

Pro tip: poking tiny holes on the rolled out pastry helps the steam escape so you don’t get soggy layers.

4. Add 4 layers of rolled out pastry dough on top of the apples

Pro tip: be sure to leave a gap on the sides so the steam can escape! No soggy layers here.

5. Bake 185 celcius for ~15 minutes or until the top layer is brown

6. Demould, flip, and bake on wirerack at 200 celcius for 10 minutes

Whipped cream

1. Use an electric whisk to whip ¼ cup double cream, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste

That’s it! Happy cooking 🍖

Every now and then I want a ridiculously easy pasta. This is one of them.

Recipe

• Cook tagliatelle in a pasta pot according to the packaging

• In a separate pan, add ¼ cup olive oil and bring to a medium-low heat

• Crush the black peppercorns in a mortar (I use a tablespoon of it but feel free to adjust to taste)

• Throw the crushed peppercorns into the pan and let them panfry at low heat for 5 minutes, then take off heat

Pro tip: blooming the peppercorns in oil takes out the heat and accentuates its taste! The dish is not going to have a lot of heat, so feel free to experiment with the quantity of peppercorns.

• When the pasta is ready, add 3 tablespoons of pasta water and thinly sliced cherry tomatoes (8-10 tomatoes, but feel free to adjust to taste) into the pan, and mix

• Mix in tagliatelle

• Plate, add a drizzle of olive oil on top if desired, and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese

That’s it! Happy cooking 🍖

The concept of this dish is simple:

• Boil and cook pasta per packaging instructions

• Panfry minced beef in a stock pot, add half a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of mustard

• Mix in the leftover vegetables in the fish stock from yesterday and 2 cups of stock

• Pressure cook at high for 2 mins then let it sit until pressure is released

• In a separate bowl, add one tablespoon of flour, stir in two ladles of the sauce from the ragu and mix to dissolve the flour

• Pour the flour slurry into the stockpot as a thickener, then bring to a boil until it reduces to your desired consistency

Pro tip: a nappé consistency will be great for this ragu. It is when the sauce coats the back of a large spoon, and you can draw a clean line through it with a finger. That said, go wild! It’s your dish!

Happy cooking 🍖

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Element 1: Easy fish stock with lentils

Pro tip: feel free to skip this step if you have stock in the fridge! I like to use a milder fish stock but chicken stock would go well with mushrooms and chives too. Also if you don’t love eating fish, this is a great way to hide it in your diet.

Pro tip: I make this with lentils and the leftovers in the pot can go into a lentils-beef bolognese tomorrow. Don’t be alarmed if we only use a few ladles. Any leftover stock can be used to cook other things as well.

Pro tip: this is a very flexible recipe. I use whatever seasonable vegetables I have leftover. Feel free to use any combination of a traditional french mirepoix (eg. carrots, celery, onions) or bouquet garni (eg. bay leaf, thyme) instead. A traditional french recipe would use fish bones, leftover fish etc, but I just use the fish I have. Potatoes might cloud the stock but I enjoy the earthy taste.

Pro tip: we normally do not salt the stock to give more flexibility when cooking

This week, I will be using 1x leek, 1x carrot, 1x small potato, 1x portion of fish, and a handful of lentils

• Slice leeks thinly, dice the carrots and potatoes into 1cm cubes roughly

• In your stockpot, panfry vegetables with a tablespoon of oil until it has a little colour - start with the leeks, then add carrots, then potatoes

• Add in a handful of lentils, fish, and 2L of water

• Leave in pressure cooker at high for 2 minutes then natural pressure release (leave for 20-30 minutes), or bring to a boil then let it simmer at medium-low heat for 20 minutes and rest for 30 minutes, both with lid on

Pro tip: I normally just throw it into the pressure cooker and go walk my dog!

Element 2: Gnocchi with mushroom and chives

• Preheat your pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter, panfry the a pack of gnocchi (about 2 ½ cups) to give them a little colour (be careful not to burn them)

• Add in mushroom, stir

• Add in ¾ cup of fish stock and chopped chives, bring to a simmer and stir

• Plate, shred a generous serving of parmesan, and add a sprinkle of fresh chives to serve

Pro tip: the starch from the potatoes will naturally thicken the stock! No thickeners needed.

Happy cooking! 🍖

I got fed up with the fish in cream sauces and wanted to go the complete opposite direction this week — a light, light, light fish linguine, and as you saw in the subtitle, a dish lighter and simpler than a traditional french court bouillon. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a standard poaching liquid with wine, celery, carrots, onions, bay leaf, lemon etc. Too much work for a Tuesday morning, and tastes too much like my usual french stocks.

Here’s my version:

• 1/4 cup white wine

• A handful of thyme and chives

• 1 teaspoon of sea salt

• Skinless cod fillet

• A few cherry tomatoes

• Squeeze of lemon

• Linguine

Recipe:

1. Boil and cook linguine in a separate pot

2. Add 1 and ½ cup water, ¼ cup white wine, a handful of thyme, 1 teaspoon of sea salt, and thinly sliced chives into your pan

3. Bring to a simmer

4. Take off heat, add fish fillet, close lid and let it sit for ~8 minutes

Pro tip: Do not boil your fillet or the oil in your cod will go into the poaching liquid, and your fish will become very dry.

5. When the thin edges curl up, your fish is done cooking!

6. Take the thyme and fillet out of the pan, set aside

7. Add in fresh sliced chives, boil and reduce liquid by 1/3 to ½

8. Switch heat off, add thinly sliced cherry tomatoes, linguine, and mix

9. Plate, add sliced chives on top of fish as garnish, drizzle olive oil, and sprinkle fleur se sel sea salt to finish

That’s all folks!

Happy cooking! 🍖

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Ingredients

• Portion of tagliatelle

• 1x courgette

• 1x onion

• 1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard

• Kimchi, manouri cheese to taste

Recipe

• Start cooking the tagliatelle according to packaging

• Preheat pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil, and panfry sliced onions until it has a little colour

• Add a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard and salt, stir, cook until it takes on more colour, be careful not to burn it

• Add diced courgettes, stir, let it cook for a minute or so

• Add ¼ cup water and cook with lid on until soft, heat off

• Mix tagliatelle into the pan together with kimchi

• Plate, add manouri cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of fleur de sel sea salt to serve

That’s all folks!

Happy cooking 🍖

Compared to a traditional french recipe, I lower the amount of butter slightly and bring the sugar content way down. This recipe has 5 eggs, which gives it a higher protein content. The cake itself has only 4 ingredients + a flavouring liquid, which you can replace with flavours besides matcha eg. lemon (zest only to not mess with the acidity of the batter and water content, zest of ½ - 1 lemon in 30g double cream), chocolate (10g cocoa powder in 30g double cream), or coffee (5-10g instant coffee in 30g double cream). This recipe relies on egg whites for volume, instead of baking soda or powder.

Ingredients for matcha sponge cake

• 5 large eggs

• 100g butter

• 40g flour

• 40g sugar

• Flavouring (30g double cream, 10g matcha)

Pro tip: a traditional french recipe would include some almond flour for extra flavouring, you can add 5g of almond flour into the flour for this recipe, but I kept the ingredient list simple.

Ingredients for chantilly cream

• 100g whipping cream (I use 70g double cream + 30g whole milk)

• 8g sugar (confectioner’s sugar is ideal but any sugar would work)

• Flavouring (5g vanilla paste, vanilla extract is fine too if you want a boozy finish)

Pro tip: I am confident that you will want to have a large serving of this chantilly cream, just multiply the quantity by 2x, 3x etc. for more.

Recipe for matcha sponge cake

1. Separate egg yolks from egg white

2. Whisk egg whites (with an electric whisk or KitchenAid) until they form a stiff peak when you lift the whisk, add half of the total sugar to stabilize the egg whites towards the end

Pro tip: start the whisk at a medium speed then slowly speed up.

Pro tip: if you add the sugar too early, the egg whites will take on a stretchy texture and your cake will be chewy.

Pro tip: the whisked egg white is doing the heavy-lifting for this cake. Be sure to google images of what a stiff peak looks like or search for a tutorial on Youtube. This is the most important part, if you don’t have whisked egg whites you won’t have a cake!

3. For the flavouring liquid, warm up double cream in a microwave, it should be warm to touch but not scalding hot (try 20 seconds), then stir in the matcha powder

4. Whisk butter, egg yolks, and remaining sugar with an electric whisk until it has fully incorporated, then slowly pour in the warm flavouring liquid while the whisk is on, whisk until fully incorporated

Pro tip: I know bakers love room temperature butter but I just use cold butter sometimes, and the cake comes out fine. I slice cold butter thin so it would whisk more evenly. The warm double cream helps too.

5. Preheat oven at 160 degrees celcius

6. Fold in your whisked egg white slowly into the whisked butter mixture (translation: use a silicone spatula or spoon and mix in slowly by hand, start with small amounts of egg white, take care not to whisk it any further)

7. Fold the flour into your batter

Pro tip: You can sieve in the flour but in most cases sieving only makes a difference when you’re baking at a bakery / restaurant scale, or when you are baking something very delicate like meringues or macarons. Feel free to pour in the flour and fold the batter.

5. To make sure your cake comes out of the cake pan easily (I use a ¼ size stainless steel gastronorm pan), either use a non-stick, line the cake pan with parchment paper, or butter and dust with flour (translation: grab a stick of butter, rub it around the insides of your cake pan, then add some flour to the pan and wobble it so the flour adheres to the buttered surface evenly, if you have a lot of flour left in the pan be sure to pour it out).

Pro tip: the size of your cake pan makes a big difference. Too small and it will take longer to cook, too big and it will end up flat and uninspired. It takes a bit of trial and error to find the ideal size for a recipe.

Pro tip: I butter and dust with flour because I think it’s healthier than the alternatives, but parchment paper is the best if you are a little anxious about demoulding. Just pull the entire paper out of the mold. Easy.

6. Pour the batter into your cake pan and bake for ~30 mins at 160 celcius

Pro tip: if your cake pan is on the smaller size and the batter is quite thick, high heat can cause it to expand quickly, form a raised dome in the center, and crack the surface. Some bakers put a flower nail in the center of the cake pan before the batter goes in, with the pointy side up. There are different things you can try as well to make it cook more evenly. For example, a hot water bath (bain-marie) is likely to change the texture of the sponge cake, but you can fill a ramekin with tap water and let it sit a little further away from your cake pan.

Pro tip: I use a cake tester (a very thin metal rod with a handle) to see if the cake is done. You can use a fork, a toothpick, or a chopstick. Anything that doesn’t create a massive gap and affect the appearance of the cake too much. If the cake tester comes out clean, your cake is ready. I also use the cake tester when I’m making larger cuts of meat, so it’s a handy tool I recommend. Some chefs and bakers will use a thermometer for a more precise cook, but this recipe is really quite forgiving.

7. If you lined the cake pan with parchment paper, simply pull it out of the mould and let it cool. You can leave the cake to cool in a non-stick. If you buttered and dusted with flour, be sure to slide a knife around the edges so that the cake does not tear when it cools and contracts. Demoulding is a lot easier once your cake has cooled. This is the perfect time to work on the chantilly cream.

Recipe for chantilly cream

1. One and only step. Pour all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk with an electronic whisk until it has a nice soft peak. That’s it!

Plate, use a sieve to dust a bit of matcha powder on top for a nice presentation, and serve. This recipe took a little longer to write with all the tips, but I hope they help you understand more about the “why”. I’ll make a more advanced strawberry chantilly cake at some point. Stay tuned, be sure to subscribe.

As always, happy cooking 🍖

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I have been with the United Nations for a few years now — I started my fellowship in 2021, shortly before a significant escalation in the Russo-Ukrainian War in February 2022. Most people didn’t connect the dots, but there were moments when Russia’s nuclear forces were on high alert. I was arguing with some of the folks at Harvard about the risk assessment.

Not too long ago, I moved from New York to London. It felt a bit surreal looking back. (I miss home a lot.) I still serve as an Expert at UNESCO, but I decided to go back to the private sector after my book tour for 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy came to a close, and return to the arts part-time. I studied at an art school and then at a policy school, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

I started cooking every day, and nearly every meal since the pandemic started. At first, it was out of an abundance of caution. There was never a good time to wine and dine, and then get horribly sick. But I soon found cooking to be a great creative outlet even when I didn’t give myself the permission to spend time on “hobbies”. I have to eat. Might as well cook efficiently. Make the meal count.

After 5 years of cooking every meal, I find cooking well and eating well life-affirming. There is so much chaos in the world, but when it’s time to eat, I lay out a white cotton placemat for myself, sit down, and enjoy the meal. Life-affirming is an unusual term. It’s the feeling I get when I think of pearls. As it turns out, diamonds can form on any planet where carbon is under pressure, but pearls can only form through biological processes — where there is life.

I also find a lot of individuality in cooking. Give a bunch of people the same ingredients and every dish will taste different. At a time when there’s so much sameness in the world and pressure to do what you are “supposed to”, it’s a great reminder that we can each make our own paths. It’s the reason I try not to be too prescriptive when I write recipes. Go have fun with it and make it your own!

I ended up spending some time learning to cook at Le Cordon Bleu in London. There are lots of standardized recipes, and recipe books I reference, which I will share in a future article. My food journal helps me keep track of the dishes I make, and share the joy of cooking — even if you barely have time to cook. I hope you too will find the joy in cooking and eating well.

To use my signature signoff for this journal,

Happy cooking 🍖

M. Freddy

My artist and writer alias

Https://Studio.MFreddy.com

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Ever since I watched the Barbeque Showdown on Netflix, I have been making more barbeque-style dishes. Oven-baked pork ribs is one of my go-to recipes. The trick to cooking good ribs is trust — they may look finished or even overcooked after 45 mins but you have to let it keep going to breakdown the connective tissues.

I like the umami flavour miso brings, and I find that the ribs have enough flavour that I can skip the over-night marinading. I use a reduced-sodium brown miso, but regular, red, or black miso could work too. Just a basic rub (more below) and toss it in the oven. Very manageable.

I’m quite carefree with my cooking, so sauce / rubs / spreads / liquids ratio to taste. I’ll post some more formal recipes in the future - leave a comment and let me know what recipes you’d like!

Element 1. Ribs

• For the rub, mix miso paste + olive oil + wholegrain mustard + salt, spread evenly across the surface of the ribs

• Add thin slices of butter on top of the ribs for extra flavouring

• Bake at 160 celcius in gastronorm pan, covered, for 1.5-2 hours depending on size

• Pro tip: don’t worry if you uncover the pan and see a lot of liquid during the baking process, it will reduce and make a great sauce!

< I walk my dog when it’s in the oven 🐶 and start working on the potatoes when I’m back >

• For the finishing sauce, take the leftover sauce (jus) from the pan, mix with ketchup, hot sauce, and worcester sauce for a simple BBQ sauce, brush (I just scoop it on with a spoon) onto the ribs

• Pro tip: if the meat of the ribs slide off the bone clean, that’s when you know it’s cooked perfectly — takes a few tries and I don’t get it right every time as well

• Pro tip: this is a great time to adjust the flavours of the ribs, try a small piece of the ribs and mix the finishing sauce to your taste

• Bake at 220 celcius for ~10 mins uncovered, taking the ribs out every 2 mins to brush more sauce on top

• Let the ribs rest, covered for ~30 mins

Element 2. Mash

• Chop up the potatoes into chunks and throw into pot with cold water

• Bring to a boil

• Boil for ~20 mins or until soft

• Strain liquid and mash potatoes (I use the pestle from my mortar)

• Loosen up the mash with milk, add salt, feel free to add butter if desired

• Sprinkle chives on top as garnish

Happy cooking 🍖 Let me know what you made today!

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