Recipe developer, photographer, and the person cooking everything you see on this website.
Add your photo here — a real photograph of yourself in a kitchen. This single image does more for reader trust than anything else on the page.
Hi, I’m Simon
I’m Simon Ab, the cook behind Salam Recipes. I’m not a restaurant chef and I’ve never worked a professional line. I’m a home cook who fell in love with food, and who got tired of following recipes online that left out the one detail that actually mattered.
My cooking started the way most people’s does — badly. Burnt garlic, dry chicken breasts, a pot roast that came out of the slow cooker somehow tougher than it went in. What changed things for me was writing everything down: what I did, what went wrong, and what I would try differently next time. That notebook eventually turned into this website.
What I Cook
I focus on American home cooking — the food people actually make on a Tuesday night, not the food that photographs well and never gets eaten. That means:
- Weeknight dinners that are on the table in under 45 minutes.
- Air fryer recipes — the appliance I use more than any other.
- Slow cooker and Crockpot meals for days when there is no time to cook at 6pm.
- Casseroles, because one dish and one oven is a fair trade for a good dinner.
- Breakfast and desserts, where small details like pan size and oven temperature decide everything.
How I Test a Recipe
Nothing gets published here until I have cooked it properly. My process is the same every time:
- I cook the dish once the way I think it should work, and write down every weight, time, and temperature.
- I cook it again with adjustments — usually less liquid, more salt, and a different order of steps.
- I test at least one substitution, because someone will always be missing an ingredient.
- I serve it to people who will tell me honestly if it isn’t good.
- I photograph the finished dish myself, in my own kitchen, with no styling tricks that change how the food really looks.
- I write the instructions so that someone cooking the dish for the first time cannot get lost.
If a recipe fails that process, it doesn’t go on the site. I would rather publish one recipe a week that works than five that might.
What You Won’t Find Here
- Copied recipes. Everything is written in my own words, tested in my own kitchen, with my own photographs.
- Fake ratings. Star ratings on this site come from readers, not from me.
- Medical or diet advice. I’m a cook, not a dietitian. Nutrition figures on this site are estimates only — see the Disclaimer.
- Hidden advertising. Sponsored posts and affiliate links are always labelled. See the Affiliate Disclosure.
My Most-Used Kitchen Tools
- A 5-quart basket-style air fryer — the timings in my recipes are based on this size.
- A 6-quart slow cooker with LOW and HIGH settings.
- An instant-read thermometer, which is the single tool that fixed my chicken.
- A 12-inch cast iron skillet and a 9×13 inch baking dish.
- A digital kitchen scale, for baking where volume measurements are not reliable enough.
When I Get Something Wrong
I do, and I fix it publicly. If a recipe on this site doesn’t work for you, please tell me. Send the recipe link and the step where it went wrong to [email protected]. I correct errors quickly and I note the change on the page rather than quietly deleting it. Reader reports have made several recipes here noticeably better. You can read the full standards on the Editorial Policy page.
Get In Touch
Recipe requests, questions, corrections, and business enquiries all reach me at [email protected], or through the contact page. I read everything, and I answer as much of it as I can.
Thanks for cooking with me.
— Simon Ab