Daniel Diver Recipes

Happy New Year 2022

Firstly, Happy New Year! I wish you good health and happiness in 2022. It has been another tough year lockdowns and restrictions and just when you think that it’s over the news breaks that comedy legend Betty White passed away on New Year’s Eve. Rest in Peace Betty.

New Year at least for me always feels like a time of change. I don’t really make resolutions or plans of diets. This year, however, I am going to or at least do my best to approach life more positively. The past couple of years have been trying for lots but as we move into a new year let’s do so with optimism and love.

Here are some recipes I am looking forward to in the coming days and weeks.

Turmeric, Ginger & Butternut Squash Soup

Turmeric, Ginger & Butternut Squash Soup

Harissa Prawns, Spinach & Spaghetti

Harissa prawns spaghetti

Tandoori Chicken

 Take care, stay safe & Happy eating in 2022.

homemade waffles

Waffles

Hi Guys!!

I Hope everyone is as excited and glad as I am the weekend is almost upon us, its been a long long week. Sorry about the lack of updates and addition of new recipes but I have been extremely busy with some projects that for now must remain a secret even though I am bursting to tell you all. I just wanted to let you know that I have added a new recipe both to my site and YouTube channel for waffles. The recipe and video are both below I hope you enjoy and have a great weekend and I will catch up with you soon.

Stay safe and have a fab weekend.

daniel diver

Foyle Pride 2021

In celebration of Foyle Pride 2021. I am sharing one of my favourite breakfast recipes. My super easy & delicious fully loaded scrambled eggs. As the name suggests this is a scrambled egg dish loaded with lots of good thing and it even has its own toast element. I hope if you are celebrating #Pride this weekend that you have a blast. Although the celebrations may be a little different I thoroughly hope you have the most fantastic time.

For more on Foyle pride check it out here: Foyle Pride

Happy & safe pride everyone

Happy Easter

Hey there,

Happy Easter!

I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend. The celebrations again may be dampened once again due to restrictions. It is at times like these that I feel that food and traditions are more important than ever to mark and celebrate these occasions and save us from the everyday mundane. For those that follow me on Instagram you may have noticed I started on the hot cross buns several weeks ago. Easter Sunday there will be herb stuffed leg of lamb and all the trimmings. For pudding there will be a couple of options my Eton mess roulade and chocolate fudge cake. Below are a few recipes that may be of use over the long weekend.

However you celebrate I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend. Stay safe & well friends

Easter Chocolate Cheesecake RecipesCupcakes

Happy Easter

It feels no time since I posted about St.Patrick’s day and the lack of celebrations this year and in the blink of an eye it’s Easter. Again, we will not be celebrating Easter with the usual traditions or customs. This doesn’t mean we have to let the occasion pass without marking it. I will still be indulging in my favourite recipes. I always have lamb at Easter it’s a tradition much like turkey at Christmas. This year though as I will be cooking for a lot less just the two of us it is for this reason I am sharing these two recipes that may be a little more suitable for those unable to celebrate with family this year.

Lamb Ribs

As you may have seen on my Instagram I have been making Easter chocolate cheesecake cupcakes all week and I plan to make a batch for pudding after my ribs. Check out the recipe below

Lamb ribs

Luscious lamb ribs

I am delighted and excited to share with you my recipe for lamb ribs. I am evangelical about this recipe. My first encounter with lamb ribs was at a young age. A local supermarket sold them and as a rare treat, we would get them occasionally. These ribs were kept in a hot cupboard all day and whilst big on flavour were nothing more than fat and bone, which is really a lot of what a lamb rib is about. These ribs were never very impressive in comparison, in appearance anyways to other ribs with there sticky glazes and sauces, but what they lack in appearance they sure made up for in taste. These ribs are nostalgic for me and evoke memories of childhood. Chewing on the bones until every last ounce of meat and flavour was gone.
I had completely forgotten about them for such a long time until recently seeing them in an utterly alluring episode of Simply Nigella. I tried immediately Nigella’s. Recipe and I did love it, but I had to reinvoke the flavours of my youth, and thus this recipe was born. I also as an adult realizing how expensive lamb can be, am even more entranced by this cut as it is not only one of the tastiest ways of eating lamb but also one of the most inexpensive was too.
I use a shallow roasting pan with a wire rack so that the ribs, which are a fatty cut, as they cook render their fat and let it drip below. I use all my favourite herbs and spices to use with lamb when cooking these; cumin garlic rosemary and of course mint. They take a long time to cook but are a very simplistic recipe. It’s merely a matter of combining the spices with just enough oil to make it into a wet rub to smoosh and coat the ribs in. When they have had their time in the oven the fat will have shrank and crisped, and the meat so tender that it comes away from the bone with ease.

My top 3 Valentines Recipes…

I think the most important factors for valentines recipes is that they are quick, easy and light on the washing up, not that the washing up should be a factor on Valentine’s Day. It can be taken care of tomorrow.

First recipe up is what I call my date steak. One Steak can feed two generously. A lush juicy steak is given a quick fry then rest in the salad dressing, where it oozes some of it meaty flavor into the dressing whilst also taking on some of the flavors of the dressing. The steak gets sliced finely and then strewn over a messy tangle of salad. Delicious and only moments of work. Steak is always a real treat and even though this recipe takes very little time to make you would never know it. It is a quick feast.

Spaghetti Carbonara

Again, another quick and easy meal and of course you can have your lady and the tramp moment with this dish. It takes longer to eat than it does to make. By the time your pasta has cooked everything else will be ready to go.

If you want to get ahead of the cooking then try this Fabulous dessert, strawberries in Prosecco jelly. I make this in champagne saucers and it really just looks like a glass of champagne. It is a gently set jelly, the Prosecco retains the bubbles so the jelly has the most gentle light tingle in your mouth as you eat. To vamp it up even more for your loved one, whip some cream gently, scoop out a passion fruit and fold through the softly whipped cream.Dollop spoonfuls of the cream as you eat your jelly. I laugh at the cheesiness but I call this ‘’Quivering with passion jellies’’ and I think it sums up this day perfectly.

The Best Buttermilk Pancakes

This is exactly what weekend breakfasts are all about.

These are fluffy and spongy American style pancakes and the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten. I can already see the barrage of comments about those Japanese style pancakes and how light and fluffy they are but in truth I don’t see them as pancakes more as souffle and yes, they take as much work as a souffle to get right. I do love them, but they require as much work and attention as a new born baby. These pancakes are simple and delicious just a matter of stirring wet ingredients into dry and dolloping into a greased pan for a few minutes. To get even sized pancakes I would recommend using a quarter cup measure it makes the perfect sized pancakes. Enjoy warm from the pan with an ooze of maple syrup, crispy bacon or with lemon juice and sugar.

I believe it is also very important not to use a whisk to combine the batter as this over works the batter making a tough pancakes. Instead, simply fold the ingredients together with a rubber spatula until just combined you want to remove most lumps but if the odd one remains it will not affect the pancakes.