Halva Ye Havij: Persian Sweet Carrot Confection

Halva ye havij is a Persian sweet carrot confection flavored with the likes of saffron and rosewater. It makes for a delicious dessert at any party!

Carrot cakes made from scratch – from real carrots – is a recipe that’s hard to find. Fortunately for us, we stumbled on this Persian sweet carrot confection called Halva Ye Havij. It’s a celebratory cake in Persia. We get really excited at Arousing Appetites, whenever we find a recipe that combines fruit and pastry … Read more

Muamba Nsusu: Congolese Peanut & Palm Oil Stew

Muamba Nsusu: Congolese Peanut & Palm Oil Stew

Few ingredients in the world have had as big an impact on their native region as the palm nut. Whether used in dishes like muamba nsusu or as industrial machine lubricant or even in beauty products, this tiny reddish nut (and especially its oil) did so much for West Africa… including both the good and the … Read more

Ca Kho To: Vietnamese Braised Fish

Ca Kho To is a Vietnamese caramelized fish stew cooked in a clay pot to perfection

Say what you want about Vietnamese food, but it’s hard to deny its uniqueness and special appeal. Even in a dish like ca kho to, which is a fairly everyday dish from the South, what you see (and what you get) is a diversity of ingredients exquisitely cooked in unpretentious, simple but really effective ways. … Read more

Caponata: Cooked Sicilian Aubergines

This is caponata, a classic Sicilian dish of stewed aubergines or eggplant, complete with loads of vegetables, fresh herbs and spices and lovely balance between sweet and sour

This was a cuisine we’ve been really looking forward to exploring. Sure, Sicily is technically part of Italy these days, but the island’s history has endowed it with a culture so unique, so incredible and so distinct from the mainland. In this way, pairing Sicily and Italian together would be quite the misnomer. One area that … Read more

Bircher Muesli: Swiss Oats and Fruits

This is Bircher Muesli: Swiss Oats and Fruits

Nowadays, it’s fairly common wisdom that most foods are best for you in their all natural, unprocessed and rawest state. And yet, even as recently as a century ago, this notion was a hotly contested topic. Even the idea of eating vegetables as a health food could (for some) border on heresy. We’ve come a long … Read more