Soetkoekies with oats
Shop-bought biscuits were not something I knew as a kid. Oh no, one baked. Being a diplomatic sort, gran never said it outright, but her inference was pretty clear: buying was for lazy wives, bad mums and townfolk. The world has moved on a bit since then. I figure gran would probably have been OK with me going the shop [...]
Melkkos with sago
There are many dishes I feel deeply nostalgic about. Sunday leg of lamb, invariably followed by souskluitjies. Tongue in a sweet mustard sauce, mum’s dinner party ol’ faithful. Gran’s chicken pie and Ideal Milk ice cream. This is the food of my childhood and, as much as I like cooking lighter, more modern for everyday, it’s still the food I [...]
provençal lamb shank
Cookbooks are a little like shoes, you can never have too many. But unlike shoes, books do not have to be new. In fact some of my very favourite ones in my collection are at least 40 years old. I often go rummaging in second-hand bookstores and almost always discover a new gem – like my latest find, Robert Carrier’s [...]
Arancini (risotto balls)
The thing about carbs, is something truly marvelous happens when you combine them with fat and heat. Take the humble potato. Slice and deep-fry it and they turn a golden crunchy on the outside and pillowy soft awesomeness on the inside. My ideal nibble is probably home-made mayonnaise and a bowl of French fries, or as we call them here [...]
Pear and marzipan tartlets with chocolate ganache
The thing about spending the amount of time in the kitchen that I do, is things can get a bit lonely. Merlot is an excellent conversationalist, to be sure. But as I don’t actually speak 'cat', her incessant chatter isn’t exactly what I would call spell binding. So when the inimitable Nina Timm from My Easy Cooking asked if I’d [...]
Smokey tomato soup
Ask me for my all-time favourite thing to eat and the answer would probably have to be tomatoes. Not crayfish, not chocolate, not caviar. Nope, just plain old tomatoes. I love them fresh on a thin pizza base with truckloads of basil. I love them in a simple tomato sauce for pasta. And, if they’re really ripe and juicy, I [...]