Steamed buns incl. bao, hirata… & the best filling ideas

I get SO much pleasure from street food, but I would say that steamed buns – whether Chinese bao, Japanese hirata – are right up there among my favourites.

Two-tone bagels – 100% natural

Two-tone bagels of different shapes and sizes that are not just naturally coloured, they are also fully flavoured: part pesto and part beetroot & walnut.

Bean burgers & “falafelesques”

A rustic recipe, but no less tasty for its homeliness I think, the mixture, using butterbeans as the key protein, is great whether shaped as burgers or into balls as a homage to falafels.

Crispy left-overs pancake rolls (gluten- & dairy-free)

Crispy, with a hint of spices and bursting with flavour, these pancake rolls/spring rolls are easy to make.

Hot & sour chicken and lentil curry

This is my chicken and lentil version of my hot and sour fish curry and it remains a simple, quick and very addictive curry.

Store-cupboard red pepper dip

This quick and easy version of muhamarra is a tasty way to make use of store cupboard ingredients.

A fabulous store-cupboard curry sauce

This is an even simpler version of my Fish Curry (recipe here). Now that curry was hardly extravagant, but this version uses even fewer ingredients and still tastes, as my partner said the other day, “bloody good”. Praise indeed!

Coriander glass dim sum

The joys of Har Gow: transluscent steamed dumplings, with a pork and prawn filling. Little bites of sheer pleasure.

PFC: Philip’s Fried Chicken!

Tender strips of chicken dipped in spiced buttermilk and then a multi-spiced flour….a very tasty spiced chicken dish!

Black truffle arancini

Light, crisp risotto balls bursting with the flavours of black truffle, garlic and Parmesan, with a melting Fontina cheese centre: terrific little bites.

Baba ghanoush

Rich, smoky, oily and pungently garlicky, baba ghanoush is a joy of a dish and for me it makes the best use of aubergines.

Spiced halloumi & hummus pockets

This modest offering ranks as one of my favourite meat-free dishes: packed with flavour and made in moments, it is very much one of my go-to snacks.

Smoky butternut squash hummus

Roasted squash, smoked chickpeas and gently warming spices give what I think is a lovely autumnal twist on hummus. 

Smoked hummus

Forget that sludgy beige-grey slop that passes itself off for hummus in the shops. Home-made hummus is infinitely better than any you can buy and it is elevated to spectacular heights when you use smoked chickpeas.

Thai Sticky Quorn wraps (vegan)

Sticky, spicy, sweet and fragrant, this Thai dish proved to be a massive hit at a recent vegan supper I gave recently. So much so that I was asked for the recipe by several of my guests.

Spiced tandoori chicken wraps

Tender, spiced chicken pieces in soft flat breads, bursting with lettuce, red onion and a tangy yoghurt dressing, these are incredibly easy to make and are so tasty.

Aubergine & onion pakoras with roasted cumin salt

Crisp, spicy and bursting with flavour, pakoras are a joy to eat. They are also very easy and as customisable as you want.

Spiced crispy chicken skin

Shatteringly crisp, melt-in-the-mouth and with a gentle curry kick, these chicken skin shards – think spiced pork crackling – are so easy to make and are insanely moreish.

Spiced soy sauce-glazed chicken wings

One of several favourite starters in my local Thai restaurant is melt-in-the-mouth glazed chicken wings: smothered in a sticky and dark spicy soy sauce glaze, it ticks every box for me.

Beetroot, walnut and goats’ cheese arancini

I made wild mushroom arancini during the quarter-final of Britain’s Best Home Cook, which got great comments from the judges. While that is my favourite arancini flavour, this beetroot version comes very close.