Recipes

Baking is complex or simple, depending on how you’re feeling on the day. The food I cook is mostly very simple. Baking, on the other hand, is full of mysteries. If you’re up to the shock of it all, give this classic ginger and honey cake your best shot...

Hot dogs are usually street food. From the polystyrene-textured roll to the petrol-accented tomato sauce, even the cheapest street hot dog represents good business, with a profit margin seldom less than 300%. Here’s a better way to treat the concept.

Overcome by the unexpected dinner-time arrival of the hungry multitudes demanding something warm to fill their bellies? Here’s what you do to provide a splendid combination of fish flavours and pasta, without the need to bait a hook and visit the dam.

Unusually, I’m going to spend most of my five-hundred words converting you to wok science. If you intend stir-frying regularly, get yourself a wok and a gas ring if you don’t have these. A frying pan, with its flat, shallow design, is an awkward substitute. Here is a simple and delicious oyster beef recipe to practise on.

The thing about South-East Asian food is that you find it everywhere in that region, regardless of the country. This recipe, a good basic winter’s meal, lies between a soup and a stew, and has delicious familiar accents such as nam pla (fish sauce), coriander and lime juice.

About a million years ago when I was in Std 7, my parents sent me to my tweetalige oom in Kroonstad to improve my Afrikaans, this being impossible in Durban. The oom in question was a weekend hunter and this is what I remember of his uitstekende marinade for game steak.

Take a break from regular roast fowl with this flavour-packed version of oven-cooked chicken thighs. Your grateful guests will shower you with compliments.

So you’re somewhere in the Bronx and a big deal is going down with your fellow mafiosi. Never mind the details. The big issue is: what are you eating? The serious bets are on spaghetti and meatballs in a highly seasoned tomato sauce. It’s an offer you can’t refuse.

This superb side-dish is a cinch to make. Baked in the oven, it leaves the rest of the kitchen free for whatever delights you are planning to add to the menu. Like an inch-thick sirloin steak per diner, for example. Alternatively, served on its own, it makes a tasty, satisfying light meal for four.

This Durban boykie has chilli, jeera, elachi and high-octane dhania running in his veins. But recently, other elements such as lime juice and fish sauce have begun to enrich his bloodstream. Add these to a rare beef fillet, and Vietnam makes its victorious arrival in the kitchens of our grateful nation.

Tradition says eggs make a breakfast. But what about adding some roasted vegetables? And a freshly made roti in place of toast? The only thing better than tradition is progress, believe me.

An important celebration deserves food that’s a feast for the eye as well as the more usual parts of the body. Apple Tarte Tatin certainly plays its part: it looks superb and tastes like a few slices of heaven.