Recipes

It’s no secret: lemon and chicken in combination appear in a wide variety of international cuisines. Here’s an Italian- influenced classic to add to your repertoire of fine home cooking.

The second-best thing you can do with a potato is turn it into gnocchi. Since you ask, the best thing is deep-fried, slap chips. Sticking with gnocchi means you have an unexpected but welcome dish for your guests, easy to dress up with a highly flavoured sauce.

There are times when the harassed lunch-maker wants something quick and easy that isn’t a chunk of ham between two slices of buttered bread. If you are this person, here’s the way to go.

Why did the chicken cross the road? It wanted to be a flattie. A feeble joke, I grant you, but here is one heck of a fine way to cook a fowl. Especially when you add a delicious dipping sauce.

The ideal dish must not only be satisfying, but generate feelings of cosiness and camaraderie. This tasty, heart-warming casserole does it all.

Unreformed carnivore that I am, the vegetable kingdom flickers only marginally on my culinary consciousness. But here’s a brinjal-based collection of tastes and aromas that’s impossible to ignore. It’s easy to prepare too.

A casserole deserves a lot of attention for the best results – these textures and flavours take work to bring them together, but the final meal is worth it.

New ideas for chicken are always welcome, and this one’s a real winner, especially when accompanied by buttery, garlic-enhanced mashed potato. Here’s a delicious winter warmer that’s guaranteed to earn the cook heaps of praise.

While chilli con carne remains this kitchen mechanic’s favourite US approach to minced meat, meatloaf comes a very close second. Here’s a simplified, classic, carnivorous recipe for beginners.

Only very good friends share their recipes. This one comes from my very good friend Immie Mostert, who got it from her grandmother, Suzanne le Grange. Now it’s yours – enjoy.

Devoted wok mechanic that I am, pork fillets with sweet and sour sauce are the staple of my stir-fries. But as this delicious, classic recipe from Georgia in the US shows, there are other ways to prepare those pork fillets.

Huevos rancheros (ranger’s eggs) is the mid-morning meal on a Mexican ranch. Regardless of its origin, this recipe – in all humility – improves this KZN augmented culinary breakfast delight.

This delicious and satisfying dish works equally well as a midday meal for busy workers and a laid-back, candle-lit dinner for a few close friends. As a bonus, it’s simple to prepare.

Fellow kitchen mechanics, it’s time to return to the wrap for easy cooking, splendid eating, and minimal washing up. Beef and seafood roti wrap is the best.

Strangely, chillies are not everybody’s idea of a good time. The veldfire in the mouth is held in low esteem, despite the endorphine lift that so joyously follows. Here we have a curry in which chillies are only an accent, that exalts the battery of spices that thrust this outstanding menu item into the culinary stratosphere.

Also known as spicy buns, these teatime favourites can be enjoyed any time of the year. What makes them so special? Two things: the spicy bite that enlivens every mouthful and the simple delight of baking them yourself. These buns are ready the moment you choose!

Is this not just totally, excessively marvellous in every way? There is literally nothing else your guest will be able to say, except … may I have some more?

Now that eating butter has been decriminalised, all the old favourites are coming back into fashion. Béarnaise is very nearly the best thing you can add to a superb grilled or braaied steak.

Here's our take on the traditional trifle, mixed with the secret ingredient... Amarula Cream. Try this delicious recipe now.

So, you’ve bought a pork fillet. Should you haul out the trusty wok and go for the old sweet-and-sour pork standby? No, my fellow kitchen mechanics, it’s time for something rather different: spicy, slightly Portuguese, and totally marvellous. May I present vindaloo?