Recipes

So this family holds a major braai with food of limitless quality and abundance. Somewhere around midnight, the well-fed masses went home, leaving this writer with the singular task of cleaning up.

This quick and easy recipe produces a meal that works almost as well cold as it does hot, providing content for a dinner party or picnic. The breakthrough that makes these fishcakes out of the ordinary is the use of sweet potato. The effect is dazzling, especially when you add the sauce...

Do tiger prawns taste different from non-tiger prawns? Not in my opinion. But they certainly look better on the plate with their stripes only marginally dimmed by cooking. So here is a great way to dress up pasta, giving it that five-star restaurant finish.

This is a magnificent dessert. Never in the history of human pear eating has such a marvellous recipe come into being. Splendid to look at, blissful to eat, this out of the ordinary dessert is a real winner for the beginner cook.

Part of the seriously marvellous joy of cooking is the combination of the familiar with the new. While sometimes this produces a meal fit for Frankenstein, mostly the outcome is thrilling, satisfying and in this singular case – very easy to prepare.

Good to look at, better to eat and best to cook, this Italian-influenced masterpiece might just have been invented by Michelangelo, and offers yet another inspiring way to cook chicken.

Surprise your loved one with a homemade chocolate heart-shaped gift filled with dipped chocolate strawberries.

Sheep have been on the menu for over 10 000 years. It follows that there’s one hell of a lot of ways to cook one, either whole or in part. While roasting lamb is a technique as well-known as any, it remains a challenge for the new cook determined to put their stamp on a classic.

A scone is one of the best things that can happen to flour, eggs and butter. This coffee-time staple is filled with mystery, especially in the hands of home bakers reluctant to share their secrets. So here’s a classic recipe, made by millions of successful home bakers whose number you are about to join.

The stirfry is one of the quickest routes from raw to cooked. Ideally, you need a wok and a blast of cooking gas. And if a good wok is hard to find, the hardy skottelbraai is a perfect substitute. Most of the effort this delicious meal requires lies in its preparation, but this is no big deal and well within the reach of the beginner cook.

For some diners the electric tingle of chilli is as essential as salt and pepper. And for this cook, one of the best ways to get your daily chilli fix and have a damn good meal at the same time is to get stuck into a lamb and potato curry. If lamb is in short supply, goat makes a substantial substitute with a texture and flavour that some prefer to mutton.

Mutton bunny There are lots of stories about how bunny chows got their name. All that matters to you and me is that the meal has nothing to do with rabbits. More to the point, it is a simple KZN classic that deserves its place as an easy-to-make lunchtime replacement for sandwiches, burgers or even a pie and slap tjips.