southern fried chicken
Reality TV has been a lot of fun lately. Shock developments, scandals, threats, petty fights, claims of unseemly behaviour with women-not-your-wife... Such interesting characters with such interesting names. Names like Reince. Reince Priebus. I am of course talking about the American presidential election. Our boy Reince is the incoming White House chief of staff. Now I may not care much [...]
Raspberry ‘bazaar’ pudding
Church fêtes were a big deal back when I was a kid. Pretty much the biggest deal other than the annual Boswell Wilkie circus visit to town. You must understand that the era I’m referring to predates DStv, computer games, malls of any kind except in the ‘big city’ and whatever the heck else kids these days do for fun. [...]
Liver patties (lewerkoekies)
This recipe for what I’ve decided to call liver patties caused some consternation amongst my English family and friends. In Afrikaans these patties of minced liver, grated onion and a few other things are called ‘lewerkoekies’. They’re as quintessentially South African as a recipe can be. I hadn’t given these morsels any thought for a couple of decades because, to [...]
Chocolate salami with cherries, nuts and brandy
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… Yes, yes, I know it’s 6 weeks plus a bit to go, but on my planet I’ve been wearing my elf hat since September. Because that’s how lead times work with this food styling gig and because, frankly, I adore Christmas. Giddy as a 5-year-old at the thought, that’s me. So here [...]
Polpette in a parmesan cream sauce
Polpette – that’s what the Italians call small meatballs. Now you could say ‘small meatballs’ when you serve this up, but it’s a lot more fun to give it your best Italian inflection and shout ‘polpette’! Recipes for polpette are legion, with each Italian nonna or mamma giving it her own special twist. Some add herbs, some garlic, some chilli, [...]
Rosemary lamb chops with green olive salsa verde
Salsa verde, or as the French call it sauce verte, sounds very fancy. It is. But in a good way – fancy on the tongue, easy on the prep. Because salsa verde or sauce vert simply means a green sauce. Recipes differ wildly, but they all have one thing in common – loads of fresh herbs. To give backbone to [...]