5 Minutes With Mandy Mortimer

Video editor by day and intrepid food blogger by night, early morning and all weekend long, Mandy Mortimer has long been a friend of the I Love Cooking show.  We love her recipes that ALWAYS work, and are in love with her photography. So, we thought it was about time we sat down with her and got her to spill the beans about what makes her kitchen tick, what kitchen kit she wouldn’t be without, and most importantly – find out once and for all what her secret food shame is.

My first food memory is… You know what? I honestly don’t know! I wish I had a profound memory like the smell of something delicious wafting from the kitchen or being given my first slice of fluffy cake or something, but I’m drawing a blank here. But, I’ve been told that the first time I was given an olive as a baby, I chewed it. Pulled a face. Spat it out. Then promptly asked for another one! The Greek is strong in me!!!

I cook because… I love seeing people sit in fat and contented silence with a pleased look on their faces after enjoying a good meal.
The recipe I would teach the entire world would be… A basic omelette. Honestly, it’s one of the most underrated meals and there’s so much you can do with it. And, it’s ridiculously quick to make!

You can always make a meal once you have EGGS in the fridge. (As seen above!)

I blog because… I was bored! True story. I wasn’t working when I first moved to Ireland, and being new here, I knew almost no one. When I came across my first food blog online, I just thought, “I can do that.” So I did. It kept me busy, even helped me meet new people, and now I continue to blog because it helps me learn so much about food as well as photography, and it’s also a great way to keep your favourite recipes in one place that you can access on your grocery trips 😉 To be a little clichéd here, blogging has opened a lot of new doors for me and I’m amazed by that!

The most important piece of kitchen kit is… A sharp chef’s knife.

If I were to share one of my recipes with the world it would be milk tart, because it’s my absolute favourite dessert from my home country, South Africa. It’s basically a very milky custard tart in a lovely shortbread-like crust, then sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon to finish it off. It’s not heavy or overly sweet, and I’ve been known to devour half of one in a single sitting. (And I only stopped myself from finishing the other half ’cause my hubby had dibs!)

My secret food shame is… dipping McDonalds chips into ice-cream. It tastes like Belgian waffles!

If you looked in my store cupboard right now you would see that I hoard… Ground almonds. I don’t know why, but I have so many bags of ground almonds in my kitchen on multiple shelves! I also hoard cake sprinkles.

I am happiest when… Someone else has cleaned up the mess I made in the kitchen.

Check out more of Mandy’s work on her blog What The Fruitcake.