From the kitchen
Recipes & ratings.
Everything here has been cooked in my kitchen, on a weeknight or a Sunday, and rated honestly. Five stars means I'd make it again next week.
Cookbook of the month
Our Italian Legacy of Love
By Ciara Viljoen — Café del Sol Botanic, Bryanston. Every recipe I have tried has been a genuine hit. Five out of five stars. Let's put South African Italians on the map.
Favourites tried: Nonna's secret ragù, Napolitana, Creamy chicken pasta — and the best of the best, Filet Picante with tomato and basil sauce.
For company
About 1½ hours (estimated), including 30 minutes resting
Beef empanadas
Golden half-moons of buttery pastry filled with cubed beef, paprika, onions, green olives and hard-boiled egg, served with mixed leaves and chimichurri. An Argentine grill recipe from Jozi, shared by Cass.
From the Argentine grill in Jozi. Small cubes of beef — not mince — with green olives and chopped hard-boiled eggs tucked into the filling. Serve with mixed leaves and chimichurri of your choice.
For company
10 minutes, plus 20 minutes resting
Chimichurri
A hand-chopped parsley, oregano and garlic sauce with olive oil, red wine vinegar and a little chilli — a bright accompaniment to beef empanadas or grilled meat.
A supplementary Argentine-style accompaniment for the empanadas, using Italian flat-leaf parsley. This recipe is an added suggestion, not attributed to the Jozi grill.
For company
About 1¼ hours
Spicy Mexican burgers with lime mayo, guacamole and smoky peppers
This is a colourful Mexican garden fiesta, put on a sombrero, have frozen margaritas and these spicy burgers. Switch it up by braaing your burgers!
A colourful Mexican garden fiesta — put on a sombrero, pour the frozen margaritas and let everyone build their own burger.
For company
About 45 minutes (estimated)
Rump steak and cheesy enchiladas
Rump steak strips in a sweet chutney-and-barbecue sauce, rolled into soft flour tortillas with Cheddar and mozzarella, grilled until molten and served with a black-bean and exotic-tomato salsa.
Cheesy comfort under the grill — the flavour combinations are the magic: chutney and barbecue sauce through the beef, rosemary for perfume, and a fresh, slightly crispy black-bean salsa alongside.
Sweet
About 30 min hands-on + 2 hr proving + 25–30 min baking
Basic brioche loaf
A proper butter-rich brioche: a soft paddle-mixed dough worked with eggs one at a time, proved until doubled, packed into the tin as six glossy balls and baked until the top is deep golden and the centre is cooked through. Torn warm, it barely needs anything but butter.
Butter, eggs and patience — that is what makes brioche. The dough should be soft, but not runny, and the long first prove is where all the flavour and fluff come from. Serve thick slices toasted, or tear it warm straight from the tin.
For company
About 1 hr (plus the labneh hanging overnight)
Tuna tartare with avocado mousse, tortillas, labneh and a lime-and-tequila dressing
A beautiful starter for company: cubed sustainably caught yellowfin tuna seasoned simply, served with dots of silky avocado mousse and homemade labneh around it, crisp baked tortillas for scooping and a lime-and-tequila dressing to drizzle over everything.
Thank you, Food and Home South Africa magazine, January 2018, for this recipe. Make the labneh a day or two ahead — it keeps in the fridge for up to 3 weeks — and cut the tuna only when you are ready to serve.
Sunday
7 days for the starter + 4–8 hr folding + 12 hr proving + 35–45 min baking
Sourdough bread, from starter to loaf
I would love to get behind the sourdough train — a great skill to have, and something to keep me busy. Now that I have read possibly everything, the most important thing is the starter: seven days of daily feeding, a flotation test to prove it is alive, then a slow-folded, overnight-proved loaf baked until it sounds hollow when tapped.
The biggest challenge with sourdough is patience and time. Sourdough is a living organism, and you cannot rush the process. Feed it, fold it, let it prove overnight — and it will reward you with a golden loaf and an open crumb.
For company
About 15 minutes prep + 55 minutes cooking
Chicken and chorizo stew
Chicken thighs and chorizo simmered with red pepper, mushrooms and cannellini beans in a tomato-and-balsamic broth, finished with oregano and crusty bread.
Garnish with a few sprigs of oregano and serve with crusty bread to soak up the sauce.
Sunday
About 3 hours 15 min
Spanish oxtail stew with chorizo
All the flavours of the Med are in this rich dish. Oxtail browned with chorizo, smoked paprika and Robertsons steak seasoning, then three long hours in the oven with balsamic, beef stock, cherry tomatoes and rosemary until the meat gives way completely. It comes to the table with carrots in the pot and bright stir-fried savoy cabbage alongside.
Woolworths sells the best oxtail — buy it there and the pot is half done before you start. And watch the onions: softened, not browned. A few minutes is genuinely all they need before the vinegar and tomatoes do the rest.
Weeknight
25 min
Serranito — Seville's favourite sandwich
Andalusia in a crusty roll: hot pork loin, jamón serrano, fried green pepper and ripe tomato. The Serranito is now found across Spain, but its heart — and its greatest concentration of devoted bars — remains in Seville and Cádiz.
No cheese, no muddle, no reinvention needed. The beauty is the contrast: crisp bread, juicy pork, salty ham, soft green pepper and cool tomato.
For company
1 hr 15 min
Classic paella — Jamie Oliver's, with chicken and chorizo
A nod to Spain in one wide pan — saffron rice, chicken, proper chorizo and shellfish, with the prized socarrat crust at the bottom.
I cook Jamie Oliver's version, which adds chicken — I'm told this is controversial to Valencian purists, but who am I to argue with Jamie? Two non-negotiables before you start: confirm no one at the table is allergic to shellfish, and use proper Spanish chorizo (cured, not the fresh cooking kind). Don't stir once the rice goes in — that's how you earn the socarrat.
For company
10 min + 2 hr chill
Classic white sangria — the signature drink
Crisp white wine, stone fruit, citrus and a whisper of brandy — the drink I pour the moment guests walk in, and the one they ask for again.
Always have a signature drink. Mine is white sangria — it's lighter and more elegant than the red version, and it goes with almost everything I cook in summer. Make it at least two hours ahead so the fruit perfumes the wine, and top with soda just before serving so it stays lively.
Sweet
1 hr
Spanish almond cake — tarta de Santiago
Flourless, fragrant with orange and lemon zest, dusted with icing sugar in the cross of Saint James — the most generous dessert for the smallest amount of work.
The classic ending to a Spanish meal — and a brilliant one for entertaining because it's naturally gluten-free, it's better the next day, and it needs nothing more than a cup of coffee or a small glass of sweet sherry alongside. Stencil the cross of Saint James on top with a paper cut-out before dusting with icing sugar, and you have a showstopper.
Weeknight
2 hr 30 min
Molletes
Andalusia's breakfast bread — soft, pale, barely-baked rolls that only come alive when you split and toast them. Bagel comfort, Spanish soul.
They look underdone when they come out of the oven, and that is exactly right. The toaster finishes the job every morning after.
Sunday
2 hr 30 min
Rustic Spanish bread
The picture-perfect loaf. Over two hours from start to slice, a soft light crumb and a crust that is only slightly crisp — never armour-plated.
This is the loaf people photograph. Slash it confidently and let the oven do the drama.
Sweet
40 min plus soaking
Torrijas — Spanish French toast
Day-old bread soaked in cinnamon milk, fried in olive oil and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Spain's Easter treat, and just amazingly perfect.
Stale bread is not a compromise here, it is the recipe. Fresh bread collapses; yesterday's drinks the milk and holds its shape.
For company
2 hr
Empanada gallega
A great golden Galician hand-pie of tuna, onions, peppers and egg. Breakfast, lunch or dinner — and even better at room temperature.
Cook the filling first and cool it completely. Warm filling steams the pastry and you lose the crisp bottom.
Weeknight
45 min
Spanish flatbread
Crunchy, mild and made in under an hour. A blank canvas — mini pizzas, breakfast eggs and chorizo, or nothing but anchovies and oil.
Roll these flatbreads thin for a crisp finish, then add your chosen toppings.
Sunday
4 hr 30 min
Pan de horno
Crusty, wonderfully soft inside and properly yeasty. Four hours and more from flour to table — and worth every minute of the wait.
Start it after breakfast and it will be on the table for supper. The long, slow rise is the flavour; there is no shortcut.
Sweet
2 hr 45 min
Pan de leche
Sweet Spanish milk bread — dense, hearty and almost biscuit-like in the crumb, with a glossy egg-washed top.
Not the cloud-soft Asian milk bread — these are sturdier, made for butter, jam and dunking into coffee.
Weeknight
1 hr 15 min
Pan básico
Basic Spanish white bread — seven ingredients, a little over an hour, and no experience required. The beginner's loaf that never fails.
A simple white loaf with one rise; cool before slicing for toast or sandwiches.
Sweet
35 min
Churros con chocolate
The bonus. Ridged, golden, sugared batons of fried dough with a cup of chocolate thick enough to stand a spoon in.
Fry them for a crowd and hand them out standing up in the kitchen. Churros do not survive a plated dinner — they are meant to be eaten hot and immediately.
Weeknight
35 minutes
Sausages with real baked beans
Roasted sausages, homemade tomato-sauced haricot beans and crispy streaky bacon, finished with rocket and crusty bread alongside.
Serve in lovely bowls with a handful of rocket and crusty bread for the sauce.
Weeknight
About 20 minutes
Gourmet fish finger and tartare sandwich
Elevate the humble fish finger to something a bit more sophisticated: panko-crusted hake fried until golden, tucked into a toasted mini ciabatta with homemade tartare sauce and a handful of rocket.
Toast the ciabatta properly so it holds the sauce, and make the tartare while the fish fries — it is five minutes' work and the whole sandwich tastes brighter for it.
Sunday
About 45 minutes prep + 2–3 hours in the oven
Pot roast beef in ale
Slow-roasting beef brisket in stock and ale keeps it wonderfully moist — a one-pot Sunday pot roast with mushrooms, swede, carrots and baby new potatoes, served with mashed potatoes and creamed horseradish.
Rest the beef before slicing thickly, and serve with mashed potatoes and a spoonful of creamed horseradish on the side.
Sunday
About 30 minutes
Cheese scones
A quick, cheesy bake: the dough comes together with a flat-bladed knife, pats out to 2 cm and cuts into little rounds that bake up risen and golden, served warm with chive cream cheese.
Serve warm with the low-fat cream cheese mixed with chives or spring onion.
Sunday
About 30 minutes prep + 2 hours 20 minutes in the oven
Rolled pork belly with gooseberry and almond chutney
An alternative to porchetta, with a South African twist: garlic-rubbed pork belly rolled and roasted until the crackling shatters, served with a sweet-sharp gooseberry and almond chutney and a simple baby spinach salad.
Serve the pork belly slices with a bit of chutney on the side, garnished with microherbs and fresh gooseberries, alongside a simple baby spinach salad with a splash of olive oil and lemon juice.
Sunday
About 30 minutes
Simple herb-baked trout & horseradish
This is what I would rather have other than fish and chips as an English dish! Two whole rainbow trout stuffed with lemon and herbs and baked in 20 minutes — as easy as it is for six, and it lets the natural flavours of the fish sing.
The trout can be served as they are with your favourite seasonal vegetables, but for an added extra touch, peel away the top layer of skin and dollop over the horseradish before serving.
Sunday
About 1 hour 15 minutes
Beef meatballs in Guinness with horseradish dumplings
Proper pub comfort: beef steak meatballs browned and simmered in a rich Guinness and beef stock gravy with Worcestershire sauce and redcurrant jelly, then baked under golden horseradish dumplings until they puff and brown.
Scatter over a little fresh thyme and serve straight from the casserole.
For company
About 6½ hours
Pappardelle with slow-roasted lamb ragù, blackened vine tomatoes and basil
The first course after antipasti: wide ribbons of pasta with tender, slow-roasted lamb ragù, blackened vine tomatoes, finely grated Parmesan and fresh basil.
After antipasti, the first course will be pasta: pappardelle with slow-roasted lamb ragù, blackened vine tomatoes and basil. A beautiful beginning to the Italian feast.
For company
About 2½ hours
Venetian duck ragù with pappardelle
In Venice this sauce would usually be served with thick, noodle-like pasta called bigoli — however, I prefer this with pappardelle pasta. Duck legs braised slowly in red wine, tomatoes, cinnamon and rosemary, shredded and folded through wide ribbons of pasta.
In Venice this sauce would usually be served with thick, noodle-like pasta called bigoli, however, I prefer this with pappardelle pasta. A Venetian classic, made for a slow Sunday or a lavish table.
For company
About 35 minutes
Special seafood & saffron pasta
Linguine tossed with king prawns, scallops and mussels in a golden saffron, white wine and lemon cream, finished with fresh tomato, parsley and toasted pine nuts.
Use a large frying pan with a lid — the mussels need to steam. Discard any mussels that stay closed.
For company
About 3½ hours (including 3 hours braising)
Braised shin in red wine with buttered porcini mushrooms
Bone-in beef shin braised in red wine, tomatoes and herbs, finished with buttered porcini and exotic mushrooms, and served on creamy polenta. The lavish centrepiece of an Italian soirée.
A nod to Italia! This is how you get a lavish Italian soirée — recipes from Food and Home South Africa, June 2016. The creamy polenta below is an added accompaniment, not a recipe from that edition.
For company
About 20 minutes
Tenderstem broccoli with crispy prosciutto
Tenderstem broccoli with crisp prosciutto, green olives, capers and red chilli, lifted with lemon zest, juice and lemon-infused olive oil. A beautiful warm platter for the Italian table.
From Food and Home South Africa, June 2016 — a lovely Italian side with olives, capers and crispy prosciutto. Serve it warm, with the lemon-infused olive oil drizzled over at the end.
For company
About 1 hour 15 minutes
Artichoke and kale stuffed conchiglioni
Large pasta shells filled with kale, ricotta and artichokes, nestled in a chilli-tomato sauce and covered with a lemony crème fraîche drizzle and Parmesan. Baked until bubbling and golden.
A great Italian feast needs a beautiful pasta dish. From Food and Home South Africa, June 2016 — artichoke-and-kale shells, creamy ricotta and a golden Parmesan finish, with a lovely South African Pinot Grigio in the glass.
For company
About 2 hours 15 minutes (including proving)
Caramelised red-onion and pine nut focaccia
Golden oblong focaccia topped with caramelised red-onion jam, toasted pine nuts, sea salt and fresh wild rocket. Beautiful bread for the Italian table, served on a wooden board.
Finally, the bread! Food and Home South Africa’s June 2016 focaccia, with red-onion jam, pine nuts and wild rocket — made for sharing, and for mopping up every last bit of sauce.
Sweet
About 25 minutes + at least 6 hours chilling
Pistachio, rose and raspberry tiramisu
A dreamy, floral twist on tiramisu: rose-syrup ladyfingers, pistachio mascarpone cream and raspberries, finished with chopped pistachios and nut brittle. Delicate, romantic and made for a feast.
This is a dreamy, floral twist on tiramisu — it’s delicate, romantic and the perfect finale for a feast of any kind, not just Christmas. From the Woolworths TASTE Christmas 2025 edition. Serve with Haute Cabrière Pinot Noir Réserve.
Weeknight
About 45 minutes (estimated)
Pea, bacon and sun-dried tomato penne
An easy weeknight delight: penne tossed in a silky white wine and cream sauce with crisp streaky bacon, sweet peas, sun-dried tomatoes and chopped chives.
An easy weeknight delight — a lovely throw-together supper for any night of the week, from Cass's Italian table.
For company
About 4–5 hr roasting (plus overnight chilling)
Roast pork with creamy cider mustard sauce
For something different from the original gammon: a whole bone-in pork shoulder roasted slowly in cider, verjuice, bay and peppercorns until tender and cooked through, with crackling crisped at the end and a sharp-yet-creamy cider-and-mustard sauce. A beautiful alternative for the Christmas table.
For something different from the original gammon, this will easily feed a crowd. The sharp yet creamy sauce is the perfect accompaniment — a lovely alternative to Christmas lunch options.
For company
About 2 hr 15 min cooking + prep and resting
Rib-eye beef with truffle-and-bone-marrow sauce
A Christmas centrepiece: beef rib-eye on the bone, rubbed with Wagyu fat, with a rich and decadent sauce of roasted bone marrow, truffle, cream and cold butter. From the Woolworths TASTE Christmas magazine for 2025.
I made this for Christmas 2025, and it was legendary! It is rich and decadent, and so well worth it. Please try it — you won’t be disappointed. Add this to your next holiday recipe lexicon! I adore this. Thank you, Woolworths TASTE.
For company
About 20 min (estimated)
Crab and prosecco linguine
Recipe by one of the best and funniest chefs — thee Gino D’Acampo. Sweet crab, cherry tomatoes, green olives and lemon zest, with a splash of prosecco and a generous scattering of fresh parsley, tossed through linguine straight from the pot.
I think Gino is spectacularly funny! One of the best and funniest chefs — and this is his crab and prosecco linguine. Italian flat-leaf parsley for me, always.
For company
About 40 min
Sri Lankan kingklip curry and a quick green chutney
Once you've made your own quick chutney, you'll never go back. A turmeric-gold tomato curry with mustard seeds and green beans, thick flakes of kingklip poached right in the pan at the end, and a vivid coriander-and-coconut chutney blitzed while the tomatoes simmer. It comes to the table with roti and fragrant rice.
The chutney is the whole point — blitz it while the curry simmers and taste as you go: more lime, more chilli, whatever the moment asks for. And don't stir the kingklip around once it goes in; lid on, five minutes, and let the pan do the work.
For company
About 15 min
Fennel and artichoke salad
The no-cook bright one on a long summer table: jarred marinated artichokes, baby fennel sliced thin on the diagonal, baby spinach with rocket and watercress, and parmesan shaved over the top. The lemon-and-wholegrain-mustard dressing goes to the table in a jug, so nobody’s leaves go sad before everyone has helped themselves.
Slice the fennel on the diagonal as thin as you can get it — that is where the sweet anise note lives. And shave the parmesan last, right at the end, so the curls stay pale and dry instead of going oily off the artichoke marinade.
Sweet
About 30 min hands-on + 8 hrs freezing
Strawberry, mint, watermelon and coconut cream popsicles
Summer on a stick, and the coolest thing on the braai table. Strawberries, watermelon and mint puréed together, poured over a set layer of sweetened coconut cream with a leaf pressed against the side — then frozen hard and served straight off a tray of ice with whole strawberries scattered around. The original recipe is from Food and Home Magazine SA, February 2020.
Press the mint leaves up against the sides of the moulds before the coconut cream sets — that little green leaf suspended in the cream is the whole trick. And freeze them overnight if you can; patience makes the prettiest line between the layers.
For company
About 45 min
Jamaican peas and rice
The proper partner to my jerk spatchcock chicken — creamy coconut rice studded with red kidney beans, allspice, thyme and a whole scotch bonnet doing its quiet work in the pot. Spooned onto a platter with the carved bird over the top, orange wedges and spring onion scattered over everything, it is a whole Caribbean evening on one dish.
The chilli goes in chopped but nobody has to fish it out — it perfumes the rice rather than setting it on fire. And do pour the brine from the can of beans straight in; that is free flavour.
For company
About 45 min + 4 hrs marinating
Jamaican jerk spatchcock chicken
A whole free-range chicken, butterflied flat, painted all over with a jerk marinade of scotch bonnet, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon, then cooked on the braai until the skin goes lacquered and dark. I spatchcock the bird myself — I love doing it, and I will not pretend it isn't a flex, even though my hands don't work the way they used to since I was diagnosed with FND.
Always reserve half a cup of the marinade before it ever touches the raw chicken — that is your basting liquid. And once the brown sugar in the glaze starts to catch, move the bird to the low-heat side and be patient; burnt jerk is bitter jerk.
For company
About 20 min
Cucumber with creamy peanut-ginger sauce
I adore cucumber — I could eat it with nothing but a little cracked sea salt — but this is a little different, more elevated, and just yum. Ribbons of cucumber under a thick, creamy peanut-ginger sauce, finished with extra salted peanuts and avocado.
Add the water one tablespoon at a time until the sauce is smooth and spoonable (is that a word? I've decided it is). And I would definitely add avocado to the dish — it turns a lovely side into a meal.
For company
About 50 min
Sticky chilli crunch wings with whipped feta
Elevated pub food! Crisp baked wings glazed in honey and Tabasco, piled on top of a swoosh of whipped feta, with lemon wedges all round. Great for summer, great for crowds, great for dude food.
Drying the wings properly is what makes for the crispiest skin — do not skip it. And the whipped feta can be made a day ahead; just bring it back to room temperature before serving.
For company
About 35 min
Lamb chops with salsa verde and charred lemon
Chef Shaun Scrooby of VUUR (Fire), on Remhoogte Wine Estate, via the braai edition of Woolworths TASTE. This could be an amazing Christmas platter — although you might need your entire salary for 1.5 kg of lamb loin chops. Why lamb is so expensive in South Africa, I will never understand!
Italian flat-leaf parsley is my preference, and capers — love! Crisp the fat first, then give the chops their proper turn on the grill. Serve on a generous platter with the salsa verde over the lamb, charred lemons, tomatoes and marinated olives.
For company
About 20 min
Burnt gem lettuce with butter beans and anchovies
A smoky, salty little salad to sit beside the lamb: charred baby gem hearts, creamy butter beans and anchovies in a sharp lemon dressing. This is a home-kitchen adaptation created for Cass’s requested combination, not a reproduction of the magazine’s exact salad recipe.
Burnt at the edges, not burnt to a cinder. Keep the lettuce hearts intact and dry them well before charring. The anchovies bring plenty of salt, so taste before adding any more.
For company
25 min
Roasted rib-eye with peppercorn-and-miso cream
Another great one from the Woolworths Taste magazine. Again they want it over coals — not going to braai the meat, okay, maybe I will, on the gas. A whole head of garlic in foil, an 800 g rib-eye on the bone, and a peppercorn-and-miso cream that is worth the noise all on its own.
Always cook protein that is at room temperature, and do not burn the garlic — there is nothing worse than burnt garlic. Pool the cream across the bottom of the platter and lay the steak right on top of it.
For company
25 min
Calamari with herby yoghurt emulsion
The latest Taste magazine has an ode to braaing, and this is their star turn — but I don't do coals. I have a gas braai, which in South Africa is sacrilegious, so mine happens in a hot pan on the stove. It always comes out perfectly, and the herby number is special.
Calamari is cooked hot and fast — 1 to 2 minutes a side and no more, or it goes rubbery. And chill the emulsion just long enough to thicken up a little; never serve it ice cold.
Weeknight
20 min
Spaghetti with anchovy butter, alla Roscioli
The pasta Bobby Flay fell in love with at Roscioli in Rome on Bobby & Giada in Italy — spaghetti glossed in a silky anchovy-butter emulsion, crowned with more anchovy. Three ingredients, one bowl, and I swear I was meant to be born in Rome.
The Roscioli trick: the anchovies never touch direct heat — they melt into the hot pasta water and butter off the stove, so the sauce stays delicate, never fishy. Use the best anchovies you can find; they ARE the dish.
Sweet
15 min prep + 4 hrs freezing
Orange, guava and mint granita
Spring for who? We slipped right into summer while no one was looking — this is my answer to a 30-degree week: sunshine-orange granita with pink guava and cool mint, raked from the freezer.
Rake with a fork every 30 minutes for the first few hours — that is what makes the light, flaky crystals. If it freezes rock hard, five minutes on the counter brings it right back.
For company
35 min
Smoked salmon Lyonnaise salad
My new favourite French summer salad — right up there with the niçoise. Silky smoked salmon (already prepared for you, bless it), warm potatoes, frisée, asparagus and homemade garlic croutons under a Dijon dressing. A full meal, no cooking heroics required.
The asparagus is my addition — it sets the whole dish off the way green beans do in a niçoise. And make your own croutons: you control the crunch, and nobody breaks a tooth.
Sweet
1 hr 15 min + drying
Ouma-style buttermilk rusks
The very South African rusk — baked golden, torn apart, and dried low and slow until it's built for dunking. Ambassador Shimizu approved; arigato for the excuse to bake a batch.
A rusk is not a biscuit. It is a commitment — to tea, to dunking, and to never eating just one.
Weeknight
10 min
Tornado omelette
The spiral omelette from MasterChef Australia — beaten egg swirled with chopsticks in a hot non-stick pan until it furls into a soft golden tornado over rice.
I saw it made on MasterChef Australia and had to try it the very next day. It is incredible — soft, silky, and it takes about ninety seconds once the pan is hot.
For company
45 min plus resting
Fresh egg pasta — Jamie Oliver's method
Jamie Oliver's simple ratio: eggs and flour, kneaded until silky, rested, then rolled until you can read a newspaper through it. The base for every ravioli I will ever make.
Jamie's rule is the one I follow: one large egg per 100g of flour. Everything else is patience and elbows.
For company
1 hr 30 min
Butternut and ricotta ravioli with toasted hazelnuts
Roasted butternut mashed with homemade ricotta, parmesan, nutmeg and toasted hazelnuts, sealed into fresh pasta and dressed in burnt butter with candied pine nuts.
This is what I made my first batch of homemade ricotta for. Sweet squash, creamy cheese, and hazelnuts for the crunch that stops it being baby food.
For company
20 min
Burnt butter sauce with candied pine nuts
Butter cooked to hazelnut brown, sharpened with lemon and sage, poured over pasta and finished with pine nuts lacquered in caramel and salt.
Three ingredients and a nose. The moment butter smells like toasted hazelnuts, it is done — five seconds later it is bitter and gone.
Sweet
1 hr 15 min
Choux pastry with bananas Foster cream
Crisp, hollow choux buns filled with rum-caramel banana cream — bananas Foster reimagined as a profiterole, with a dark caramel drizzle over the top.
My first ever attempt at choux. The rules everyone repeats turned out to be true: dry the dough out in the pan, add the eggs slowly, and never open the oven.
Sunday
1 hr 10 min
Chicken chasseur — Julia Child, reimagined by Bobby Flay
The hunter's chicken: bone-in thighs browned hard, then simmered with shallots, mushrooms, white wine, brandy and tomato, finished with tarragon and cold butter.
Julia Child taught the technique; Bobby Flay gave it the swagger. My first time making it, and it will not be my last.
Weeknight
30 min (plus draining)
Homemade ricotta
Three ingredients, one sieve, twenty minutes. Warm, milky curds that make shop-bought ricotta feel like an apology.
My first time making it and I could not believe it worked. Eat it warm, with olive oil, salt and good bread.
For company
1 hr 15 min (plus lángos dough)
Lángos boerie-roll with lemony labneh
Boerewors browned with onions, finished in the oven in beef stock the Italian way, piled onto hot lángos with lemony labneh and a chive-and-lemon-oil salad.
The angels from on-high were singing. I am not South African when it comes to food — I fry my wors like an Italian.
For company
2 hrs 30 min (mostly rising)
Lángos — Hungarian fried bread
Puffed, golden deep-fried dough rubbed with raw garlic, then piled with soured cream and grated cheese. Budapest street food at its best.
Eat it standing up, straight from the pan, with garlic on your fingers.
Weeknight
20 min
Lemon ricotta pasta with brown-butter basil
Five ingredients, one pan, the kind of dinner that feels like a small kindness to yourself.
Use the best lemon you can find. Worth the extra zest.
Sunday
2½ hrs (mostly hands-off)
Slow-roast tomato & garlic sauce
The sauce I make in a big batch and live off all week — toast, eggs, pasta, soup base.
Pour cold water in the empty tin and add it to the tray. Trust me.
Sweet
1 hr
Brown butter banana bread
Crackly top, fudgy middle, smells like a cafe you can't quite remember.
I keep meaning to try it with rye flour — let me know if you get there first.
For company
10 min
Whipped feta with honey & chilli
The starter that makes people text you the next day asking for the recipe.
Hot honey works too. Serve with warm flatbread, always.
Weeknight
25 min
One-pot lemon orzo with greens
Bright, brothy, the kind of bowl I want when I'm tired but want to feel like a person.
A spoonful of mascarpone at the end is not strictly necessary. Do it anyway.
For company
1 hr 20
Crisp-edge potato gratin
Cream, garlic, gruyère, and the kind of edges that make a dinner party.
Slice the potatoes thin enough to read through. A mandoline is a friend.
Sunday
2½ hrs
Moroccan Lamb Tagine
Warm spices, slow-braised lamb, and apricots that melt into the sauce — the smell alone is worth the wait.
Let it rest for 10 minutes before serving. Best with warm couscous and a spoonful of harissa.
Weeknight
25 min
Thai Prawn Red Curry
Vibrant, fragrant, and faster than a takeaway — coconut, lime leaves, and plump prawns in a silky red curry.
Use fresh kaffir lime leaves if you can find them. The difference is everything.
Sunday
1 hr 45
Melanzane alla parmigiana
Layers of golden aubergine, slow tomato sauce, torn mozzarella and parmesan — the dish that tastes like a Sunday in Naples.
Salt the aubergines first and don't skip the rest before serving — it sets into proper, scoopable layers.
For company
15 min hands-on, 24 hrs straining
Lemon labneh with sumac, za'atar & roasted vine tomatoes
Thick, tangy strained yoghurt with my squeeze-of-lemon twist — finished with sumac, za'atar and blistered vine tomatoes for scooping.
The lemon juice is my twist — it sharpens the yoghurt so the labneh tastes almost like fresh cheese. Don't skip the long strain.
Weeknight
25 min
Thai beef salad (yum nua)
Inspired by Nagi Maehashi — seared rare steak tossed with herbs, chilli, lime and fish sauce. Bright, punchy, and dinner in under half an hour.
Nagi's recipes never miss. Rest the steak properly and slice it thin against the grain — that's the whole game.
Sunday
1 hr
Qeema with peas, tomato salad & mint yoghurt
A recipe from my childhood — an homage to my grandmother, who passed on my love for cooking and entertaining. Spiced minced lamb with sweet peas, a sharp tomato salad and cool mint yoghurt on the side.
Nani's kitchen always smelled like this. Cook the masala low and slow until the oil splits from the spices — that's the moment it turns from mince into qeema.
Sunday
40 min
Kedgeree — Nani's Sunday morning
The Indo-English breakfast that found its way to South Africa via my grandmother's kitchen. Jamie Oliver's recipe, with a little of her foot on its neck.
South Africa has one of the largest Indian diasporas in the world (Canada may have overtaken us by now — who knows), and kedgeree is one of those colonial-era dishes that travelled, softened, and came home better. Of all the recipes Indian cooks gently handed to English lords and ladies, my grandmother put her foot right on the neck of this one. When I miss her, I make this — this, and green bean stew. Jamie Oliver's version is my favourite starting point; everything else is hers.
For company
15 min + overnight
Spicy marinated Queen olives
Warm, fragrant, addictive — the bowl I put out before every gathering, and the first one to be emptied. Epicurious's recipe, with Queen olives only.
I have served these at every event before and since I first made them, and I will keep serving them forever. Always Queen olives — there's a reason they're called the queen of olives. Big, meaty, buttery, and they hold up to all that warm spiced oil without going soft. I buy mine from Woolworths — their pitted Queen olives are perfect for this.
For company
1 hr 15 min
Roasted whole cauliflower — the MasterChef way
Charred at the tips, tender in the middle, dressed with tahini yoghurt, toasted almonds and pomegranate. A whole cauliflower at the centre of the table is a quiet showstopper.
I adore cauliflower. I was vegetarian at one point — weren't we all, ladies, be honest — and when I moved to the UK during foot-and-mouth I was simply not eating questionable beef or meat of any kind. To this day, this is my favourite way to eat cauliflower. I don't have one definitive recipe; I've watched countless variations on MasterChef Australia and they all sing. This is the version I land on most often. I could eat it as a main meal, easily.
For company
1 hr + overnight chill
Arancini in neapolitana — the complete project
Saffron risotto bianco set overnight, rolled around a fresh mozzarella heart, panko-crumbed, fried golden and served in a deep, slow-cooked neapolitana with parmesan and basil.
The complexity of arancini is the whole point — it is a project, and it rewards every step. Start the day before with Jamie Oliver's risotto bianco and cool it overnight so it rolls cleanly. Panko is non-negotiable; nothing else gives you that shattering, lacy crust. A cube of fresh mozzarella at the centre is the molten reward. For the sauce, I cook a proper neapolitana enriched with beef stock, basil and a glug of red wine — deeper and rounder than a standard tomato. I came across the combination on Epicurious and it has never let me down. If you want to hero an Italian evening, this is my go-to.
For company
1 hr 45 min
Roast spiced duck with plums & spring onion pancakes
Foodgasm food. A BBC Good Food classic — star anise, coriander seeds and muscovado lacquering a whole duck, served with jammy roast plums and a stack of blistered spring onion pancakes.
My absolute favourite thing to cook for a girls' night or date night. Duck has quietly become my favourite poultry, and these pancakes — life affirming.
Weeknight
10 min
Shickled eggs — soft, slow, buttery scrambled eggs
My grandmother's scrambled eggs, named for the shickle-shickle of the fork against her steel bowl. My forever comfort food.
I was a toddler when I named them. The sound the fork made as Gran whisked the eggs against the steel bowl was shickle-shickle-shickle — so shickled eggs they became. On Friday nights when there wasn't much to go round, she'd fry an egg or two for everyone else and quietly make me my shickled eggs. I think about her every single time I make them. It's the dish I reach for when I'm unwell — which, let's be honest, is most of the time — and it never stops tasting like being loved.
Sunday
1 hr 15 min
Roasted tomato soup with fresh basil
Clean, fresh, and unapologetically not creamy — just roasted tomatoes, basil and a squeeze of lemon. My winter comfort, edging just above minestrone.
The house smells like love when the tomatoes roast. I could honestly live off this soup.
Sweet
1 hr 30 min
Carrot cake (the only cake I bake)
The All Recipes classic, tweaked just-so. The smell when it bakes is half the reason to make it.
Come closer — let me whisper it: skip the pineapple, add a smidge of nutmeg, roast the nuts. Trust me.
Weeknight
20 min
Cacio e pepe — the mother of all pasta
Three ingredients, one Roman miracle. Pecorino, black pepper, pasta water — emulsified into the silkiest sauce you'll ever make.
Rome in a bowl. I went, I ate, I fell in love — and I've been chasing that plate ever since.
Sunday
3½ hrs (mostly oven)
Boeuf bourguignon — Food & Home South Africa
The dish that made me fall, properly and finally, in love with French cooking. My go-to recipe from Food & Home South Africa's French edition — no carrots, ever.
OMG. And I mean Oh my Heavenly Father. The technique, the smell, the softness of the beef — it is and always will be glorious.
For company
45 min
Chateaubriand — Women's Weekly Cookbook
A whole roasted centre-cut of beef fillet, crusted, rested and carved at the table. My summer entertaining showstopper from the Australian Women's Weekly cookbook.
Serve with béarnaise, braised leeks and fennel, confit potatoes and homemade mayonnaise. The whole act of carving it is theatre.
For company
20 min
Baked camembert with rosemary, thyme & white wine
The opener I reach for again and again. Whole camembert melted in its box with fresh herbs and a splash of white wine — torn baguette mandatory.
It is impossible to be a bad host with this in the middle of the table.
Sweet
45 min
Pears poached in white wine with clotted cream
The end I almost always choose — translucent, vanilla-perfumed pears in a syrupy white wine bath, with a dollop of cold clotted cream against the warm fruit.
Elegant, light, makes the kitchen smell like a perfumery. The clotted cream is the whole point.
For company
35 min
The GREAT chicken Caesar salad
The salad that illuminates my summer — a full meal in a bowl, and the crowd pleaser at every ladies' lunch I've ever hosted.
Anchovies were jarring the first time. Now I can't imagine the dressing without them — they are the whole soul of it.
For company
20 min (plus soaking if using dried chickpeas)
Hummus — velvet, lemon, and a lot of garlic
The quiet anchor of every table I set. Silky, lemony, and generous with the garlic — because garlic is the mother of all game-changers.
Do not skimp on the garlic. Three cloves is polite. Four is right. Five and your guests will ask for the recipe.
For company
35 min
Hola Mexico! Minced beef tacos
Nostalgic, spicy, generous — the kind of dinner you set in the middle of the table and let everyone build their own. Cumin, coriander, lime, and my guacamole with a proper squeeze.
The spicier, the better. Perfect posh spice with a little of not-so-posh spice.
For company
40 min
Baja fish tacos with lime crema (a nod to Chef Nagi)
Crisp-battered white fish, cold crunchy slaw, lime crema — the taco that tastes like a holiday. A nod to Chef Nagi at RecipeTin Eats, whose Baja fish tacos have taught half of Australia how to fry fish properly.
Beer in the batter, cold cabbage in the slaw, warm tortillas — non-negotiables.
For company
25 min
Chilli-lime prawn tacos with mango salsa
Charred garlicky prawns, sweet-hot mango salsa, warm tortillas — the fastest fancy dinner in the book.
Marinate the prawns while the salsa sits — everything comes together in the time it takes to warm the tortillas.
For company
10 min
Spicy mango margaritas
Don Julio Blanco, fresh mango, lime, a chilli-salt rim and a slice of red chilli floating on top. The star of any Mexican night.
Freeze the mango cubes an hour ahead and you will not need much ice — the drink stays vivid, never watered down.
For company
15 min, plus 20 min rest
Fresh tomato salsa (pico de gallo)
The salsa that belongs on the table at every Mexican night — ripe tomatoes, red onion, coriander, lime, chilli. Another nod to Chef Nagi, whose ratios I still steal.
Salt the tomatoes and drain — this is Nagi's trick and it stops the salsa going watery.
For company
10 min
Foolproof blender hollandaise
Silky, lemony, buttercup-yellow — the sauce that turns a brunch into a party. Blender method, no split-sauce panic.
Warm the blender jug with hot water first. Cold glass is the enemy of a glossy hollandaise.
Weeknight
8 min
Perfect poached eggs
Neat, wobbly, molten-yolked poached eggs — the kind that make you feel like you have your life together, on toast or under hollandaise.
The freshest eggs you can find. A splash of vinegar. A gentle whirlpool. That's the whole trick.
Sweet
40 min
Bran and raisin muffins
Old-fashioned, deeply comforting bran muffins — plump with raisins, sweetened with molasses honey, best warm with cold butter.
Soak the raisins in hot tea for ten minutes before folding in. They plump up gorgeously and never bake dry.
Sweet
45 min
Home-made honey granola
Big golden clusters of oats, almonds, pecans and coconut, bound with honey and olive oil — the granola I always have in a jar on the counter.
Press the mixture flat on the tray and don't stir for the first 20 minutes. That's how you get proper clusters.
For company
5 min
Grapefruit Bellinis
Pink grapefruit and cold prosecco — the brunch cocktail that tastes like Sunday sunshine in a flute.
Chill everything. Warm bubbles are a tragedy.
For company
35 min + 3 hrs brining
Japanese katsu curry fried chicken burger
Rosie Birkett's genius from BBC Good Food — your favourite Japanese curry, in burger form. The fried chicken recipe that quietly retires every other one in your notebook.
Better than five stars. Sushi can take a seat — this is the one. Recipe by Rosie Birkett, bbcgoodfood.com.
For company
1 hr 15 (plus marinating)
Gochujang spatchcock chicken with spicy Korean slaw & flatbreads
Tom Kerridge's sticky, lacquered gochujang chicken from BBC Good Food — with a spicy Korean slaw and Chef Nagi's soft flatbreads. A K-pop night in three continents' worth of recipes.
Spatchcock the bird — I learned this from Tom Kerridge and never went back. Recipe by Tom Kerridge, bbcgoodfood.com.
Weeknight
15 minutes
Spicy Korean slaw
Cold, crunchy, gingery and just hot enough — a gochujang-mayo slaw adapted from Sue at My Korean Kitchen. The perfect foil to anything sticky, fried, or off a grill.
Adapted from Sue at mykoreankitchen.com — a generous, beautifully written Korean home-cooking site I return to constantly.
Weeknight
45 minutes
Chef Nagi's soft yoghurt flatbreads
Nagi Maehashi's absurdly reliable yoghurt flatbreads — no yeast, no waiting for a rise, blistered and pillowy in a hot pan in minutes. My go-to for wraps, dips and Korean nights.
Recipe by Nagi Maehashi, recipetineats.com — the most trusted recipe site on the internet for a reason.
For company
40 minutes
Hake & prawn skillet
The Good Friday hero from Woolworths Taste 2025 — pearly hake and pink prawns simmered in a smoky, garlicky tomato sauce, all in one pan. I keep making this. It is fantastic.
Recipe from Woolworths Taste magazine (South Africa), Easter 2025 issue.
For company
4 hours (mostly hands-off)
Pulled gochujang lamb hot cross buns
Mogau Seshoene's genius twist on Easter Sunday — slow-braised lamb glazed in sticky gochujang, piled into split spiced hot cross buns. Sweet, spicy, soft, unforgettable.
Recipe by Mogau Seshoene (@lazymakoti), Woolworths Taste magazine, Easter 2025.
For company
45 minutes
Peri-peri oven-roasted seafood skillet
Hannah Lewry's next-level Good Friday centrepiece — a fiery peri-peri butter poured over prawns, mussels, calamari and hake, all roasted together in one shallow pan.
Recipe by Hannah Lewry, Woolworths Taste magazine, Easter 2025.
For company
35 minutes
Salmon with confit tomato dressing, crispy capers & crème fraîche
Slow-baked salmon draped in a jammy confit tomato dressing, showered with capers fried until they burst, and a cool swoosh of crème fraîche. Woolworths Taste Easter 2025.
Recipe from Woolworths Taste magazine, Easter 2025.
For company
50 minutes
Harissa-battered hake with chimichurri, harissa yoghurt & salt-and-vinegar smashed potatoes
Woolworths Taste's technicolour take on fish and chips — crisp harissa batter, punchy green chimichurri, cooling harissa yoghurt, and smashed potatoes doused in salt and vinegar.
Recipe from Woolworths Taste magazine, Easter 2025.
For company
40 minutes (plus resting)
Dry-spiced rump espetada with horseradish & sun-dried tomato butter
Cubed rump threaded onto skewers, coated in a dry spice rub, seared hard, then finished with a punchy horseradish and sun-dried tomato butter melting into every crevice. Woolworths Taste, Easter 2025.
Recipe from Woolworths Taste magazine, Easter 2025.
For company
45 minutes (plus 2 days pickling)
Cape Malay pickled fish
The Good Friday non-negotiable. Firm white fish poached and layered under a golden turmeric-and-vinegar curry sauce, thick with soft onions and bay. My grandmother would die if this were not on the table.
Make it two days ahead. It only gets better in the fridge.
Sweet
3½ hours (mostly rising)
The best spiced hot cross buns
Soft, deeply spiced, glossy-topped hot cross buns — the Woolworths South Africa recipe I return to every year. Torn open warm, smeared with cold butter, eaten in silence.
Woolworths South Africa make the best commercial spiced hot cross buns in the country — this is my baked-at-home version in the same spirit.
For company
5 minutes
Flirtini
The Sex and the City cocktail that almost killed everyone at my Easter Sunday table. Pineapple, vodka, and a top of champagne — deceptively soft, dangerously easy.
Warn your guests. This tastes like fruit juice and hits like a truck.
Weeknight
1 hour
Melting meatballs with macaroni
A gem from BBC Good Food (October 2016) by @cassiecooks — soft, slow-simmered beef meatballs in a rich tomato sauce, tumbled through macaroni and finished with molten mozzarella. Only 20 minutes prep for a proper banger.
The 'melting' bit is real — the meatballs go so tender they almost collapse into the sauce. Stringy cheese, absolute comfort food. This is the dish my whole house comes running for.
For company
5 minutes
Sloe gin autumn cocktail
A jewel-red autumn cocktail from BBC Good Food, October 2016 — sloe gin, dry vermouth and a hit of orange bitters, stirred until frosty and poured into a chilled coupe. Book club, pamper party, fireside gin o'clock — a banger.
Autumnal, elegant, and a little bit witchy. The sloe gin does all the heavy lifting — deep berry, almondy, warming. I make a jug when friends are coming over.
Weeknight
1 hour
Tom Kerridge's pumpkin & bacon soup
Roasted pumpkin, smoky streaky bacon, sweated onions and thyme, blitzed silky with a good chicken stock. Autumn in a bowl — from Tom Kerridge in BBC Good Food, October 2016.
Outstanding. Sweet roasted pumpkin, salty bacon, a proper hit of thyme — this is the soup I make when the wind turns.
Sunday
1 hour 30 minutes
Diana Henry's chicken, leek & cider pie
Poached chicken, sweated leeks, a proper cider and cream sauce, all under a golden puff pastry lid. Diana Henry's thoughtful, comforting classic from BBC Good Food, October 2016.
My kind of comfort food. Before South Africa had pizza and burger joints, chicken pie was all I ever wanted — and this one is the best I've ever made.
Sweet
2 hours 15 minutes
Chocolate-orange steamed pudding with chocolate sauce
Deep, dark, molten. A steamed sponge fragrant with orange zest and cocoa, turned out under a river of glossy chocolate sauce. A Sunday wow-dessert by Sara Buenfeld — BBC Good Food, October 2016.
A crowd-pleaser, a no-fail, a Sunday moment. The orange lifts the chocolate; the steaming keeps it impossibly soft.
For company
3 minutes
French 75
Gin, lemon, sugar, Champagne. The most elegant cocktail ever invented — and impossible to get wrong. From the BBC Good Food October 2016 issue that gave us the sloe gin and the meatballs.
The perfect welcome drink. Fizzy, bright, a little bit dangerous — you cannot serve one, only a jug.
Sunday
1 hr 30 min
The perfect roast chicken
The chicken I've evolved into over years — herb butter pushed under the skin, lemon and rosemary in the cavity, trussed and tucked and roasted until the skin shatters. Recipe by Chef Nagi Maehashi.
The trick is butter under the skin AND into the legs. Everything else is patience.
Sunday
1 hr 10 min
Duck fat roast potatoes
Boiled first, roughed up in a steel colander, then straight into hot duck fat. Shatteringly crisp outside, fluffy inside. Method inspired by Jamie Oliver.
The colander rough-up is the secret. Every ragged edge becomes a crisp edge.
Sunday
1 hr 20 min
Hasselback potatoes with duck fat
My love calls them piano potatoes — and they do deliver a dramatic punch. Thinly sliced, fan-roasted and basted in duck fat until the edges are crisp and the centres are creamy. Based on Chef Nagi's method, with my duck-fat twist.
Use the excess duck fat from a whole roasted duck, duck legs or duck breasts. That rendered fat is liquid gold here.
Sunday
1 hr 30 min
Dauphinois potatoes
Wafer-thin potato slices baked in garlic cream until the top blisters gold and the middle is silk. My new Sunday jam. Recipe by Chef Nagi Maehashi.
Slice as thinly as you can — a mandoline is worth it. This is the one I make when I want people to swoon.
Sunday
45 min
Roasted fennel with leeks
Fennel and leeks roasted low and slow until they collapse into sweetness. The gentle side that lets the chicken shine.
Save the fennel fronds — they're the prettiest garnish.
Sunday
15 min
Asparagus with almond pesto
Bright green spears with a spoon of almond pesto and toasted flaked almonds. Pine nuts are lovely; almonds are lovely AND kind to the wallet.
Cook the asparagus in salted boiling water for exactly 2 minutes, then straight into iced water. Bright and snappy.
Sunday
10 min
Almond pesto
Basil, garlic, toasted almonds, Parmesan, lemon and good olive oil — everything a classic pesto does, at half the price.
Toast the almonds until fragrant. It's the difference between good and great.
Sunday
35 min
Roasted cauliflower florets
Deeply caramelised florets with cumin, coriander and lemon. Simple, addictive, straight from Nigella Lawson's playbook.
Don't crowd the tray. Space is the difference between roasted and steamed.
Sunday
30 min
Yorkshire puddings
Tall, crisp, golden. The English demand them with a roast — I don't always deliver, but when I do, this is the recipe. Method by Jamie Oliver.
Batter cold, tin screaming hot, and do NOT open the oven for the first 15 minutes. That's the whole game.
Sunday
10 min
Little wedge salad with sour cream dressing
Cold crisp iceberg wedges under a river of cool sour cream dressing, chives, cracked pepper. The salad I make when I want the vegetable to feel like a moment. Recipe by Molly Baz.
Ice the iceberg for 20 minutes before you dress it. It's the difference.
For company
1 hr 15 min (plus overnight marinating)
Lamb biryani — the way Mama made it
There is a huge Indian community in South Africa, and I think there is a skill to making a good biryani. This is from BBC Good Food magazine, January 2018 — one of the recipes I have tried on my way to the biryani the way my grandmother used to make it.
I have tried various recipes to perfect this dish and get close to the way that Mama — that's what we called my gran — made it.
For company
40 min
Malabar prawn curry
Easy, creamy and delicious — a curry from Kerala, in the south of India. Mustard seeds popped in oil, curry leaves, onion and tomato cooked down into coconut cream and coconut milk, and prawns dropped in only at the very end.
From Kerala, in the south of India. The prawns go in just before you serve — they need only a few minutes and any longer turns them rubbery.
For company
1 hr 20 min
Chicken Madras
Deep red, fragrant, hot enough to make you sit up. Toasted whole spices, tomato, a slow simmer until the oil rises. Served with basmati rice and peas, roti and all the sides.
Toast the spices whole, then grind. It is the single biggest thing I ever did for my curry.
For company
1 hr 30 min
Durban chicken curry (with potato)
Hotter than anything you'll get in India. Potatoes tumbled in with the chicken — the tell-tale sign it's a Durban curry. Serve with rice, roti and sambal.
The potato is not optional. It is the whole point.
For company
1 hr (plus marinade)
Chicken tikka masala — Jamie's version
The British-Indian classic, invented in a Glasgow curry house in the 1970s and refined ever since. I follow Jamie Oliver's version off a cliff — creamy, tangy, charred at the edges.
Marinate overnight if you can. And char the chicken hard — that smoke is the whole thing.
For company
35 min
Prawn curry
Fast, fragrant, coastal. Curry leaves crackling in oil, tomato and coconut, prawns just cooked through. Ten minutes at the stove and the whole room smells of the sea.
Prawns overcook in a blink. Add them last, take them off the heat the second they curl.
For company
1 hr 15 min
Crab curry with tamarind
My favourite curry in the whole world. Whole crab, dark spiced gravy, tamarind for the sour edge. The Oyster Box makes this for me when I visit — this is the closest I get at home.
Wear an apron. Use your hands. There is no elegant way to eat crab curry — that is the joy.
For company
40 min (plus marinade)
Masala lamb chops
Char-grilled lamb chops in a punchy masala rub — the recipe was given to me by the chef at the Oyster Box after I had made a nuisance of myself. Lip-smacking good.
Marinate for at least 4 hours. Overnight is better. Char hard.
For company
1 hr
Soft roti
Soft, pliable, faintly smoky. The vehicle for every curry on the table. Warm oil in the dough is my grandmother's trick — they stay soft for hours.
Rest the dough for 30 minutes. It makes them tender.
For company
20 min
The sambals — tomato and onion, raita, carrot
Three small bowls that make an Indian meal an Indian meal. Cool cucumber raita, bright carrot salad, sharp tomato and onion sambal. Do not skip these.
Make these before you start the curry. They only get better sitting.
For company
1 hr + marinade
Gochujang chicken wings (baked, sticky, mine)
My own dude-food Sunday wings — Woolworths gochujang paste, fresh ginger, garlic and soy. Marinated, baked, glossy.
Marinate them properly. The paste needs time to sink into the skin.
For company
35 min
Truffle oil macaroni cheese (no white sauce)
Opulent, silky, no roux, no faff. Cream, cheese, pasta, porcini, truffle oil — because actual truffles in South Africa are a fool's errand.
Truffle oil is the answer until South Africa steps up. Porcini rehydrated in hot water carry the earthy weight.
For company
20 min
Creamy broccoli & cauliflower (steamed, then dressed)
My favourite side. Steamed hard so they keep their bite, folded through a quick cream, mustard and parmesan sauce.
Steam, don't boil. And season the cream properly — nutmeg is not optional.
Sunday
2 hours 30 minutes
Jamie Oliver's steak, Guinness & cheese pie
Slow-braised beef in a dark, glossy Guinness gravy, folded through with sharp cheddar and buttoned under a golden puff pastry lid. From Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners (2004) — the ultimate comfort pie, made in my kitchen more times than I can count.
The pie to best all pies. Rich, indulgent, English/Irish to its bones — and always, always a wow.
Sunday
3 hrs (mostly slow simmer)
Nonna's ragù — Café del Sol Botanica
The ragù from Ciara Viljoen's Café del Sol Botanica in Bryanston — slow, deep, tomatoey, the kind of sauce that fills the whole house.
Ragù IS bolognese. And who does not LOVE bolognese?? Serve over linguine with a mountain of parmesan.
Sweet
15 min
Gabrielle's knockout hot chocolate
Why buy hot chocolate when you can make AMAZING hot chocolate at home? This mix is rich, silky, and completely knock-out.
The better the cocoa, the better the mug. Gabrielle knows her chocolate.
Sunday
45 min
Gordon Ramsay's mushroom risotto (Hell's Kitchen)
The mother of all risottos — silky, deeply savoury, crowned with a snowstorm of parmesan. The Hell's Kitchen classic, followed to the letter.
Risotto rewards patience. Warm stock, low heat, keep stirring — that's the whole trick.
For company
45 min
Classic Niçoise salad
The French salad that tastes like summer on a plate — seared tuna, jammy eggs, crisp beans, silky potatoes and a sharp shallot dressing.
The dressing is best made an hour ahead so the shallot mellows in the vinegar.
Weeknight
30 min
Mushroom Alfredo penne (the Primi Piatti memory)
The dish that made me fall in love with Italian food — creamy, garlicky, packed with mushrooms and a snowstorm of parmigiano. Based on the classic Allrecipes fettuccine Alfredo, built up with mushrooms and garlic and swapped onto penne.
Do not skimp on the parmigiano. And use more garlic than you think — calling all vampires.
Weeknight
35 min
Penne alla vodka
Blush-pink, silky, gently spiked — the pasta that turns a Tuesday into an occasion. Adapted from the Allrecipes classic.
The vodka is not there to taste — it is there to unlock the tomato. Do not skip it.
Weeknight
40 min
Gnocchi alla pomodoro (chasing the Westcliff dragon)
Pillowy potato gnocchi in a slow-cooked San Marzano tomato sauce with basil and butter. The dish I have been chasing since a near-midnight bowl at the Westcliff hotel in Parktown.
Fresh gnocchi cooks in 90 seconds. Have the sauce ready before you drop them in.
For company
35 min
Spiced Middle Eastern lamb patties with pita & yoghurt
Kofta the way I've made it a hundred times — quick, deeply spiced, moreish, made for a Friday night. Manna from heaven, I tell you.
Warm the pita on a dry stove-top pan until it puffs — it opens up like a little pocket and everything slides in easily.
For company
25 min
Herby tabbouleh — parsley-forward, the way it should be
A parsley salad with a whisper of bulgur, not the other way around. Bright, lemony, essential on any Middle Eastern table.
Chop the parsley by hand — a food processor bruises it. And squeeze the tomatoes to lose the seeds so it doesn't go watery.
For company
20 min
Fattoush salad with crispy pita & sumac
Everything crunchy, everything bright — the Levantine salad that saves any heavy plate on the table.
Add the pita chips right before serving so they stay crisp.
For company
10 min
Warm spiced olives with lemon & thyme
The five-minute nibble that makes people slow down and pour another glass.
Serve warm — the aromatics wake up completely when the oil is hot.
For company
15 min
Warm-spiced roasted almonds
Smoky, salty, a little sweet — the almond you can't stop eating before dinner has even landed.
Use whole skin-on almonds — they hold the spice mix best.
For company
15 min
Spiced hummus — cumin, paprika & pine nuts
Silky, deeply spiced, olive-oil-rich hummus with a warm cumin-paprika topping and toasted pine nuts.
Warm the chickpeas in their own liquid before blending — it gives you cloud-soft hummus every time.
For company
45 min
Smoky baba ganoush
Charred aubergine, tahini, lemon — smoky, cool, and absolutely essential on a mezze table.
Char the aubergines over an open flame if you can — the smoke is the whole point.
For company
35 min
Classic shakshuka — baked eggs in spicy tomato sauce
The original — silky red pepper and tomato sauce, deeply spiced, with soft-yolked eggs baked into the top. Breakfast, lunch or dinner. Divine.
Shakshuka means 'all mixed up' in Hebrew. Bring the pan straight to the table with warm pita and let everyone dig in.
Weeknight
25 min
Green shakshuka — Jamie Oliver style
The lighter, greener cousin — a skillet of wilted spinach, leeks, spring onions and herbs with soft-poached eggs and feta. Jamie Oliver's way, and I love it.
Salt the greens well as they wilt — it draws out enough liquid to poach the eggs in.
For company
40 min
Tunisian chakchouka — peppers, harissa & baked eggs
The North African original. Slow-cooked mixed peppers with tomato, garlic and rose harissa, eggs baked into the top. Bring bread.
Char the peppers a little in the pan first — that scorched sweetness is the whole soul of a Tunisian chakchouka.
For company
45 min
Moroccan lamb shakshuka with merguez & harissa
The heartier Moroccan cousin — spiced lamb merguez browned into a harissa-red tomato sauce, eggs baked in, coriander scattered over. Weekend dinner.
If you cannot find merguez, use 300g minced lamb browned with 1 tsp ras el hanout, ½ tsp cumin and ½ tsp harissa paste.
For company
10 min
Zhoug — Yemeni green chilli & coriander sauce
The Middle Eastern condiment I put on everything — fiercely green, garlicky, cardamom-scented. A spoonful on top lifts any shakshuka into another gear.
Keeps in the fridge for a week in a sealed jar under a slick of olive oil. It gets better on day two.
For company
1 hr 20 min (plus marinating)
Grilled chicken summer salad — the fascinator on the platter
The Gina Marie and Miraglia Enríquez composed platter from Gourmet on Epicurious — six little salads and grilled chicken and mushrooms, all on one enormous board. The fascinator that rounds out a great summer lunch.
Find the biggest platter in the house. This salad has more components than a busy floral summer dress — do not shrink it into a bowl.
For company
5 min
Paloma — pink grapefruit and tequila
The cocktail I serve at summer lunches: pink grapefruit, tequila, lime, a splash of soda, a salted rim. Refreshing, a little bitter, ridiculously easy to drink through an afternoon of laughs and book chat.
For a jug for eight: 500ml blanco tequila, 1L fresh pink grapefruit juice, juice of 4 limes, 2 tbsp agave, top with 500ml soda. Stir over ice.
For company
30 min
Lemon and herb butter new potatoes
Baby new potatoes tumbled in a warm lemon and herb butter — parsley, chives, thyme, plenty of zest. The side that quietly holds the whole table together.
Steam rather than boil — the potatoes hold their shape and the flavour concentrates.
For company
3 hrs (mostly rising)
Olive and feta focaccia
Dimpled golden focaccia studded with olives and crumbled feta, rosemary needles pressed in, plenty of good olive oil and flaky salt. The bread that turns a summer salad into a lunch.
The trick is a very wet dough and a long, slow rise. Do not knead — fold. The dough should feel almost impossible.
For company
10 min
Watermelon and feta salad with chilli crisp and basil oil
Ice-cold watermelon, chunks of Danish feta, a scatter of mint and red onion, and a double drizzle of chilli crisp and homemade basil oil. Sweet, salty, hot, cold, all at once.
The watermelon must be very cold and the feta must be a good creamy Danish or Greek block — the salty-tang is what balances the sugar.
For company
20 min (plus infusing)
Homemade herb oils — basil, parsley, coriander, rosemary-lemon, cayenne
The five oils I make on repeat for summer entertaining — vivid green basil, parsley and coriander oils, a warm rosemary-and-lemon oil, and my favourite: a fiery cayenne pepper oil. Drizzle over labneh, focaccia, salads, anything grilled.
I decant them into small glass bottles with linen ribbon and a hand-written tag, and send the ladies home with an oil and a jar of speciality salt. The nicest thank-you for coming.
For company
30 min
Nigella's salt and pepper chilli squid
Nigella's crackling, feather-light salt-and-pepper squid — a shameless love letter to Eastern Cape calamari, the stuff South Africa exports to the world.
First time making it. Fingers crossed — Nigella and I have had a rocky recipe history.
Sweet
25 min (plus cooling)
Lemon and mint curd
Silky, spoonable lemon curd with a whisper of fresh mint — the answer to a garden drowning in lemons and a fridge full of mint.
My testers are Ntombi and Happy — they don't grow up eating this kind of thing, so their honest 'mmm' is the only review I trust.
Sweet
2 hours (mostly waiting)
Lemon and mint meringue pie
A blind-baked, buttery shortcrust holding a cool pool of lemon-mint curd under torched swirls of Italian meringue. The crust is everything.
The crust is where lemon meringue pies live or die. A soggy base is a betrayal. Blind bake it properly, brush the inside with beaten egg white, and give it the respect it deserves.
For company
1 hour 15 min
Breakfast tart (Food & Home South Africa)
A golden shortcrust tart holding a savoury custard studded with crispy bacon, wilted spinach, blistered cherry tomatoes and softly set eggs — the spring-brunch showstopper from my favourite magazine.
From Food & Home South Africa — the magazine I've torn pages out of for twenty years. This tart yields properly and everyone at the table gets a slab.
Sweet
40 min
Enormous lemon and poppy seed muffins
Sky-high, sour-cream-tender lemon muffins studded with poppy seeds and soaked with a warm lemon-sugar syrup. Big enough to be a meal on their own — and I mean it.
Use half a jumbo (Texas-size) muffin tin — six holes only, filled to the very top with a mound over the rim. That's how you get bakery-style domes.
Sweet
2 hours 30 min + overnight soak
Lemon marmalade (a gift in a jar)
Amber-glossy, bittersweet lemon marmalade with fine ribbons of peel — perfect on hot buttered toast, and even better tied with twine as a gift.
When you have lemons for years, you make marmalade. Small jars with cream tags in your own handwriting: the loveliest thing to press into someone's hand as they leave.
For company
4 hrs (mostly hands-off)
Bolognese beef ragù pot roast — silverside in white wine & tomato
My favourite beef ragù, from my first Italian cookbook. A whole silverside braised low in tomato and white wine until it falls into the sauce. If you want to impress your prospective in-laws, this is what you make.
The house smells incredible for hours. It turns a house into a home — something I would be proud to feed my granny.
For company
1 hr 30 min
Rick Stein's prawns in prawn bisque
The ultimate date-night dish: fat tiger prawns seared in butter and set into a silky, brandy-laced prawn bisque built from their own shells. Rick Stein's classic — French technique, Gauteng seafood.
Seen it made on MasterChef Australia a million and twenty times. The French just know. Get the prawns from Dunkeld Fisherman's Deli — the best of the best in Gauteng.
For company
1 hr 45 min
French onion soup
Deeply caramelised onions, good beef stock, a raft of baguette and a bubbling gruyere lid. Simple, and it packs a flavour punch in the gut in the absolute best way.
From The Food of France by Maria Villegas and Sarah Randell. Not something I grew up eating as a South African — travel and a love of adventure brought it to my table.
For company
1 hr 30 min
Crab bisque
Silky, coral-coloured and quietly luxurious — the most impressive starter you can put in front of people in winter.
From The Food of France by Maria Villegas and Sarah Randell. I adore crab and this is an absolute crowd pleaser. Crab from Dunkeld Fisherman's Deli.
For company
1 hr 20 min
Bouillabaisse
Marseille in a bowl — saffron and fennel broth loaded with firm white fish, mussels and prawns, with rouille croutons to float on top.
From The Food of France by Maria Villegas and Sarah Randell. Seafood and fish from Dunkeld Fisherman's Deli — kingklip holds its shape where hake crumbles.
Weeknight
1 hr
Soupe au pistou
The Provencal cousin of minestrone — vegetables, white beans and small pasta, with a spoon of basil pistou stirred through at the table.
From The Food of France by Maria Villegas and Sarah Randell. Homely and comforting — though if I am honest, I still prefer minestrone.
For company
45 min
Bourride with kingklip
A stunning and simple Provencal fish soup, thickened with aioli until it turns pale gold and velvety. My new favourite.
From The Food of France by Maria Villegas and Sarah Randell. I use kingklip — it is meatier and does not crumble like hake. Pricier, but fish in South Africa is expensive whatever you buy.
For company
1 hr 15
Provençal tart
A light, sunny tart that feeds a crowd. Sweet tomatoes, briny black olives and herbes de Provence on buttery pastry — pure southern France.
Use the ripest tomatoes you can find. Puff pastry is a perfectly acceptable shortcut.
For company
45 min
Baked trout with fennel and capers
A French classic and a proper crowd pleaser — whole trout baked over shaved fennel with capers, lemon, white wine and butter.
Simple and delicate, and it makes the whole kitchen smell like a French holiday. Use the freshest trout you can find — South African farmed trout is superb.
For company
10 min
Blanched asparagus with lemon and butter
Bright green spears, barely cooked, rolled in melted butter with lemon zest and flaked salt. The perfect partner to baked fish.
Blanch, shock, butter. That is the whole trick — and it is what keeps them emerald instead of army green.
For company
30 min
French potato salad
No mayonnaise in sight — warm waxy potatoes dressed in Dijon vinaigrette with shallots, chives and tarragon.
Dressing the potatoes while they are still hot is everything. They drink the vinaigrette instead of wearing it.
For company
15 min
Baguettes with whipped truffle butter
Warm crusty baguettes and a crock of whipped truffle butter on the table — the most generous, least effortful thing you can serve.
Make the butter the day before so the truffle has time to perfume it properly. It keeps for a week in the fridge.
For company
30 min, plus 4–24 hrs marinating
Seared and roasted marinated steak with mushrooms and green noodles
Thick-cut mature sirloin, seared hard, then marinated with shiitake in a sriracha-soy marinade and left in the fridge until you're ready to roast. My way of doing braai day.
Woolworths TASTE, December 2025 — and it has not left my kitchen since. All the work happens the day before, which is exactly what you want when people are coming.
Weeknight
30 min
Tarragon, mushroom and sausage frittata
Beef sausage, meaty portobellini, asparagus and tarragon set in eggs loosened with sour cream and wholegrain mustard, then finished under the grill so the middle keeps a slight wobble.
BBC Good Food, May 2019. A fantastic family eggy recipe — quick, generous, and just as good for brunch with friends as it is on a weeknight.
For company
30 min
Peri-peri chicken livers on ciabatta toast
The best peri-peri chicken livers there are — from Food & Home South Africa, tweaked my way with green pepper, oreganum and sage, spooned over thick ciabatta toast.
I have made this a gazillion times and it has hit the spot every single time. Original recipe: Food & Home South Africa — foodandhome.co.za/recipes/peri-peri-chicken-livers-ciabatta-toast.
For company
45 min, plus overnight biga and 3 hours rising
Ciabatta
A slow overnight biga, a wet dough handled gently, and a hot steamy oven — blistered crust, open airy crumb, and the only bread worth putting under peri-peri chicken livers.
The dough is meant to be slack and sticky. Resist adding flour — that wetness is exactly what gives you the big irregular holes.
Weeknight
25 min
American pancakes
Fluffy, light and utterly unpretentious — the perfect vehicle for savoury or sweet. Breakfast for dinner is my comfort food, and this is the base for all of it.
American pancakes are a lot less pretentious than their French cousin the crêpe. When I am sick, this is what I crave: soft, warm, forgiving, and ready to go savoury with scrambled eggs and sausage or sweet with compote.
Weeknight
10 min, plus 20 min standing
Simple saucy tomato salad
Ripe tomatoes, red onion, olive oil and vinegar left to make their own sauce — the sharp, saucy thing that makes savoury pancakes sing.
The magic is in the standing time. The salt pulls the juice out of the tomatoes, it meets the oil and vinegar, and you get a dressing you didn't make. Serve with bread or pancakes to mop it.
Sweet
12 min
Blueberry compote
Glossy, jammy, barely sweet — half the berries collapse into syrup and half stay whole and burst on the spoon.
Frozen blueberries work beautifully and cost a third as much. Go straight from freezer to pan; don't defrost them first.
Sweet
10 min
Bananas Foster
New Orleans, 1951: bananas caramelised in butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, flamed with dark rum, spooned over pancakes with ice cream melting into the sauce.
Born at Brennan's in New Orleans and named for Richard Foster. Ten minutes, one pan, and an entirely disproportionate amount of drama.
Sunday
3 hr 30 min
Stracotto — Tuscan beef ragù
A Tuscan pot roast so slowly braised it makes bolognese look ordinary: beef chuck in Chianti, tomato and fennel, until the meat collapses into silk.
Jamie Oliver's recipe from his Italian cookbook, dedicated to Gennaro Contaldo and the late Antonio Carluccio. I have made it a few times now and it genuinely makes a great bolognese taste average. The fennel is non-negotiable.
Sweet
15 min prep + 4 hrs freezing
Lemon and Grapefruit Granita
A sharp, icy forkful of summer. No ice-cream machine needed — just citrus, sugar, water, and a little patience while the freezer does the work.
Scrape with a fork every 30 minutes for the first few hours to get those light, flaky crystals. If it freezes too hard, let it sit at room temperature for five minutes before serving.
Sweet
20 min (plus at least 6 hr freezing)
Strawberry frosè
A whole bottle of rosé blended with fresh strawberries and a little grenadine, frozen solid, then whipped back to a spoonable, ice-cold slush. My finishing option for a summer ladies' lunch — sweets for grown-ups.
The perfect way to finish a summer ladies' lunch: grown-up sweets, spooned into chilled glasses while everyone is still at the table.
Breakfast
About 15 min
Poached eggs on avocado and feta toast
The breakfast of champions: two eggs poached in simmering vinegar water — swirled into a whirlpool first — laid on thick sourdough toasted under a mash of avocado, feta, chilli flakes and lemon juice, seasoned well with black pepper. Crack the egg open a little and let the yolk run.
Swirl the water into a whirlpool before the eggs go in so the whites stay neat, give them two and a half minutes, and crack the egg open a little on top so the yolk runs over the avocado and feta.
For company
About 25 min (plus cooling)
Watermelon and spinach super salad
Fluffy quinoa folded through chunks of watermelon, baby spinach, sliced avocado, chopped mint and crumbled feta, with pumpkin seeds toasted until they start to pop, lime squeezed over and a whole punnet of salad cress on top.
A super salad for the summer lunch table — quinoa, watermelon, spinach, avocado, mint, feta and cress, finished with lime. With thanks to BBC Good Food, July 2016.
Sweet
About 20 min (plus freezing overnight)
Chocolate hazelnut ice-cream cheesecake
Chocolate lovers' paradise: honey nut cornflakes pressed into a springform tin with chocolate hazelnut spread, then a thick layer of cream cheese folded through with the rest of the jars, frozen overnight and cut into slices. No baking, no water bath — just a bowl, a tin and the freezer.
Something sweet — chocolate lovers' paradise. Make it the night before, wrap it tightly and forget about it until thirty minutes before you cut. With thanks to BBC Good Food, July 2016.
Sweet
About 30 min (plus at least 9 hrs freezing)
Peppermint Crisp ice-cream cake
A South African favourite with a massive twist — a Tennis biscuit crust, a salted Caramel Treat ice-cream layer and a peppermint ice-cream layer full of Peppermint Crisp, frozen hard and showered with more chocolate. No oven needed.
A South African favourite, but with a massive twist, and a good one at that. This would be a great option for Christmas, as Christmas in South Africa is very hot and this cake would be perfect.
For company
About 1 hr + at least 2 hrs marinating
Sticky soy pork ribs
Pork ribs lacquered in a soy, maple and sherry marinade — roasted low first, then finished over direct braai heat, brushed with a reduced sticky glaze until they char and shine. From Food and Home Magazine SA, Spring 2025. The drink is easy: Savanna, properly cold.
Oven first, fire last — that is the whole trick. The long roast renders the ribs tender and caramelised so the braai only has to build the sticky, charred lacquer. And pour an ice-cold Savanna alongside.
For company
About 50 minutes
West Coast mussels with tomato broth
From a recipe at Bocca, on the west coast of South Africa: plump West Coast mussels steamed open in white wine, then drowned in a silky tomato broth built on fennel, leek, Pernod and half a vanilla pod, finished with butter, cream and lemon, and a good handful of fresh dill.
Serve in a large, warmed bowl with the broth poured over at the table, fresh dill scattered generously, and fresh warm pot bread to mop up every last drop.
Sunday
About 30 minutes prep + 1 hour rising + 45 minutes baking
Fresh South African pot bread
A proper South African potbrood — a soft, steamy loaf with a deep golden crust, baked in a cast-iron pot. The only right answer to a bowl of mussels in tomato broth, or a Sunday bredie.
Serve warm, torn rather than sliced, with butter — and use it to mop up every last spoonful of broth.
For company
About 2 hours preparation + 4 hours freezing
Poached crayfish with frozen bisque, mange tout juice and cream cheese
An elegant South African estate dish from Chef Christian Campbell at Boschendal: crayfish medallions, icy bisque granita, fresh green mange tout juice and soft goat’s or kefir cream cheese, finished with pea flowers and shoots.
Go all out I say.
Weeknight
5 min
Classic French vinaigrette
The mother dressing. Dijon, red wine vinegar and good olive oil, in the only ratio you really need to remember.
Three parts oil to one part vinegar, and the mustard does the emulsifying. Learn this one and you never buy bottled dressing again.
For company
10 min
Green goddess vinaigrette
All the herbs in the fridge, blitzed with lemon, anchovy and olive oil into something electric green and deeply savoury.
The lighter, pourable cousin of the creamy original. Wonderful over butter lettuce, cold chicken or a plain baked potato.
For company
5 min
Julia Child's best vinaigrette
Julia's method, in the spirit of Mastering the Art of French Cooking — vinegar and mustard first, oil last, all in one jar.
Julia insisted the salt dissolve in the vinegar before a drop of oil goes in. She was right, and you can taste the difference.
Weeknight
5 min
Lemon garlic vinaigrette
Sharp, garlicky and clean. The dressing I make most often, usually while the pasta water boils.
Grate the garlic on a microplane so it disappears into the dressing rather than ambushing you in bits.
Weeknight
5 min
Honey-mustard lemon vinaigrette
Sweet, sharp and mellow all at once — the one that converts people who say they don't like salad.
Wholegrain mustard for texture, Dijon for the emulsion. Use both.
For company
10 min
Herb and citrus vinaigrette
Orange, lemon and a fistful of soft herbs — made for fennel, avocado and anything from the sea.
Zest before you juice. The zest carries the perfume; the juice only carries the acid.
For company
10 min
Andrew Zimmern's carrot-ginger vinaigrette
The bright orange, sweet-savoury Japanese steakhouse dressing — blitzed carrot, fresh ginger, miso and sesame.
Inspired by Andrew Zimmern's version. Thick enough to be a dip, loose enough to dress a wedge of iceberg.
Weeknight
5 min
Apple cider vinaigrette
Autumn in a jar — cider vinegar, maple and a whisper of cinnamon. Perfect on anything with apple, walnut or blue cheese.
Unfiltered cider vinegar has far more character than the clear stuff. Worth seeking out.
Weeknight
10 min
Lemon-shallot vinaigrette
Shallots softened in lemon juice until sweet, then loosened with good oil. Elegant, restrained, endlessly useful.
Let the shallots sit in the lemon juice for ten minutes before adding oil — it takes the raw bite clean out of them.
For company
10 min
Basil vinaigrette
Pesto's lighter sister — basil, garlic and lemon blitzed into a green, fragrant dressing for tomatoes and mozzarella.
Blanch the basil for ten seconds and shock it in ice water if you want the colour to stay emerald for a dinner party.
Weeknight
10 min
Spicy coriander vinaigrette
Coriander, green chilli and lime — the dressing that wakes up grilled meat, black beans and any braai salad.
Use the coriander stalks as well as the leaves. That is where most of the flavour lives.
Weeknight
5 min
Balsamic vinaigrette
Dark, sweet and syrupy. The one everyone knows — done properly, with real balsamic and a little honey.
Cheap balsamic is sharp and thin. A decent aged bottle needs no honey at all.
For company
5 min
Sumac dressing
Tart, ruby-red and lemony without lemon. The Levantine dressing that makes a tomato-and-onion salad sing.
Soak the sumac in the lemon juice for a few minutes first — it blooms and turns the dressing a beautiful dusty pink.
Weeknight
5 min
Easy home-made za'atar vinaigrette
Za'atar, lemon and olive oil — herby, nutty and faintly tangy. Three minutes for something that tastes like a trip.
If you cannot find za'atar, mix 2 tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds and 1 tsp sumac and you are most of the way there.
For company
5 min
Pomegranate vinaigrette
Jewel-red, sweet-sour and festive — pomegranate molasses and juice with a little Dijon to hold it together.
My Christmas-table dressing. Scatter the seeds over the salad as well and it looks like a decoration.
For company
10 min
Sunshine piña colada jug
A whole pineapple, lime juice and coconut milk blitzed into one big jug of sunshine — with white grape juice keeping it bright and rum added to taste. Made for long afternoons and people who stay.
The jug lives in the fridge until everyone arrives, then it goes out with loads of ice and mint. Taste before you serve — and add a little more rum, if you dare!
For company
3 weeks in the fridge
Strawberry gin
A whole punnet of strawberries and caster sugar steeped in a bottle of gin until the spirit turns the colour of the fruit — started today, poured three weeks from now.
Ten minutes of work, then three weeks of leaving it alone. Stir it every two days, strain it when you are ready, and keep the jar in the fridge where you will not forget it.
For company
5 min
Gin sling
The one to add to your next party. Long, cold, faintly sweet and endlessly drinkable — and it works just as beautifully with whisky or brandy.
A sling is the friendliest cocktail there is. Make a jug of the base before people arrive and top with soda to order.
For company
3 min
Screwdriver
Two ingredients, no excuses. Vodka and freshly squeezed orange juice, ice cold, in a tall glass.
Squeeze the oranges. Bottled juice makes a fine drink; fresh juice makes a memorable one.
For company
4 min
Harvey Wallbanger
A screwdriver that put on a good jacket — Galliano floated on top so every sip starts with vanilla and anise.
Float the Galliano over the back of a spoon so it sits in a golden band on the surface.
For company
5 min
Chi Chi
The piña colada's cooler cousin, made with vodka. An afternoon or evening drink — creamy, cold and completely disarming.
Unsweetened pineapple juice, always. The coconut cream brings all the sweetness the glass needs.
For company
4 min
Between the sheets
A nightcap in the truest sense — brandy, rum and Cointreau, sharpened with lemon, to let you drift off to a heavenly sleep.
One is a lullaby. Two is a decision. Sip it slowly in a quiet room.
For company
5 min
Sidecar
The pre-dinner cocktail that pleases everybody. Cognac, orange liqueur and fresh lemon juice in a sugar-rimmed coupe.
Fresh lemon juice only — bottled juice makes the whole drink taste flat and slightly metallic.
For company
4 min
Tequila sunrise
Orange at the top, red at the base, and a gradient in between that you can absolutely get right every single time.
The sunrise is physics, not luck — grenadine is heavier than juice, so it will always sink if you let it.
For company
3 min
Americano
Campari — infused with herbs and orange peel — with sweet vermouth and soda. An aperitif over ice, enjoyed at any time of day.
Bitter, low in alcohol and endlessly civilised. The drink I make when we're sitting outside doing nothing in particular.
For company
5 min
B-52
Three liqueurs in three distinct layers — a heady nightcap to be sipped slowly, never thrown back.
Swap the Cointreau for Grand Marnier and the drink becomes a KGB. Same layers, deeper orange.
For company
5 min
Boo Boo's special
Fruity, refreshing and made to indulge in on a long hot day — white rum, pineapple, orange and a whisper of grenadine.
The drink for the second half of a Jo'burg summer afternoon, when nobody is going anywhere.
For company
About 2½ hours; allow longer if needed for tender ribs (estimated)
Korean short ribs with spicy kimchi cucumbers
This is serious comfort food, with enough spice to shake up your comfort zone. It's slow food, but watch how fast it disappears!
Buy the best short ribs with the least fat and gristle. Rich, slow-cooked ribs, carrots and mushrooms meet spicy stuffed kimchi cucumbers — comfort with a kick.
For company
About 25 min + 3 hours marinating
Crying tiger salad
Another fantastic Thai salad! Sliced beef fillet on a bed of mint, coriander and Thai basil, with a lively lime-and-chilli dipping sauce on the side.
There are several stories behind the name of the dish — the most popular is that the sauce should be spicy enough to induce tears. If you want to achieve this result, add a few more chillies to the sauce.
For company
50 min
Singapore chilli crab
Singapore's great messy masterpiece — whole crab in a fiery, faintly sweet chilli-tomato sauce thickened with ribbons of egg.
This is HOT. You can temper the chilli, but that rather defeats the purpose — chilli is in the name of the dish. Fresh limes or lemons over the top, rice underneath, and a pile of napkins.
For company
20 min + 2 hr marinating
Goreng sotong
Singaporean fried squid — marinated for two full hours, then flashed in hot oil so it stays sweet and tender inside its crisp shell.
Marinate for two hours, not twenty minutes. That is the whole difference between good fried squid and squid you remember. Starter, or a main alongside the chilli crab for a seafood evening.
For company
35 min
Sambal sotong
Squid in a deep, oily red chilli sambal — sweet, sour, salty and properly hot, all at once.
I would not serve this alongside the crab and the fried squid. This one stands perfectly on its own as a main, with rice and nothing else competing.
For company
40 min + 2 hr marinating
Sate ayam — chicken satay
Indonesia's most travelled dish: sweet-soy marinated chicken over coals, with a peanut sauce you will want to eat with a spoon.
Serve with rice and a cucumber salad, or lontong as the natives would call it. Always with the sauce. Always.
Sunday
4 hr
Rendang Padang
West Sumatra's slow-dried beef curry — coconut milk cooked down over hours until it turns to dark, spiced caramel around the meat.
My absolute favourite. Do not stop cooking when it looks like a curry — keep going until it is dry, dark and glossy. Serve hot with rice.
Sunday
2 hr 30 min
Kambing korma
Malaysian lamb korma — mild in heat, enormous in flavour, rich with coconut, cashew and warm spice.
OMG, this is fantastic. Best with rice for me, though noodles can be subbed in. A wow dish.
Weeknight
40 min
Gado gado
The great peanut salad of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore — blanched vegetables, egg, tofu and tempeh under a warm peanut sauce.
Fantastic as a light lunch. I love peanut sauce, so this is right up my alley.
Weeknight
45 min
Sambal bajak
Indonesia's dark, oily, deeply cooked chilli relish — sweeter and smokier than a fresh sambal, and it keeps.
My favourite hot relish. It keeps for a good while, so it goes on just about everything — and personally, I do.
Weeknight
40 min
Ngà-gyaw — Burmese spiced fried fish
Fried fish under a heap of slow-golden onions, turmeric and garlic — humble on paper, extraordinary in the mouth.
A lot more than a simple fish dish. The aromatics underpinning it are perfection. White rice, and it stands entirely on its own.
For company
45 min
Pazun hin — Burmese prawn curry with tomatoes
Big prawns in a bright, oil-slicked tomato and onion curry — the Burmese show-stopper that looks like it took all day.
The bigger the prawns the better — I use tiger or Mozambican. Serve this with the fried fish and you have a Burmese evening your guests will love you for.
Weeknight
35 min
Tom yum kung pla muek
Hot and sour Thai soup with prawns and squid — lemongrass, galangal, lime and chilli in a broth that goes straight to your bones.
One of my favourite winter soups, and a fine starter. I make it with chicken stock — the original Thai version uses pork stock, which I have never seen sold in South Africa, and I'm not really a pork fan anyway. Lemon juice to taste, always. Fresh coriander, always.
Weeknight
30 min
Pad king kai — chicken with ginger and honey
Chicken stir-fried with a great deal of ginger, soy and honey — simple, fragrant, and better tomorrow.
The flavour is vastly improved if cooked the day before and reheated just before serving. Amazing, flavourful, and I absolutely love it.
Sunday
2 hr 30 min
Massaman curry
The gentlest, most perfumed of the Thai curries — cinnamon, cardamom, tamarind, peanuts and slow-cooked beef.
OMG. INCREDIBLE. Clap-hands incredible, standing-ovation incredible. King Rama VI wrote that a lady who makes a good massaman will never be short of suitors. Cook away, single ladies, cook away.
Weeknight
10 min
Nuoc cham
Vietnam's hot, tangy table sauce — fish sauce, lime, sugar, garlic and chilli, pounded not blended.
You have to add this to your spicy arsenal. No Vietnamese meal — no South East Asian meal, really — should be served without it. Use a mortar and pestle; an electric blender will not give you the correct consistency. It keeps a week in the fridge. Mine never lasts that long.
Weeknight
25 min
Stir-fried beef with broccoli
The humble Chinese classic — velveted beef, crisp broccoli and a glossy brown sauce over steamed rice.
My absolute favourite Chinese dish. Humble, easy, weeknight — and so fantastic. I make it a lot, always over steamed rice.
Weeknight
30 min
Shijin chaomian — chow mein
Ten-treasure fried noodles: prawns, chicken, cabbage, carrot and beansprouts tossed through egg noodles in a smoky wok.
Could there be anything more popular? For a long time it was all I ate, and over noodles. Come on. Ten out of ten.
Weeknight
25 min
Dashi
The light seaweed and fish stock that sits underneath almost all of Japanese cooking.
Indispensable. Once you have made dashi from scratch, the powdered version tastes like a rumour of the real thing.
For company
40 min
Yakitori
Charcoal-grilled chicken skewers lacquered in tare — the most popular of all Japanese grilled dishes, and rightly so.
Intensely amazing. Soak your skewers first, or you will spend the evening putting out small fires.
For company
45 min
Sukiyaki
A meal in one pan: paper-thin beef, tofu, mushrooms and greens simmered at the table in sweet soy warishita.
An extraordinary combination of ingredients, and the juices that blend together in that pan are unsurpassed. Serve with steamed rice and vary the vegetables with the season.
For company
1 hr
Gyoza yaki — fried dumplings
Pan-fried dumplings with crisp lacy bottoms and steamed, juicy tops — humble, and utterly beloved.
Very well known, and fantastic anyway. Fold them badly the first ten times; nobody minds once they are in the pan.
For company
About 2½ hours, including 1 hour chilling (estimated)
Cambodian lobster short soup
Lobster and prawn dumplings poached in a fragrant broth of roasted shells, star anise, lemongrass and kaffir lime.
This is a must try for me, I've been dying to try a beautiful broth with dumplings.
Weeknight
About 40 minutes (estimated)
Chinese chicken noodle soup with peanut sauce
Chicken thighs simmered in ginger-soy stock with Chinese cabbage, mushrooms and udon, finished with a peanut sauce.
The peanut sauce is mixed with a splash of water while the chicken simmers, then drizzled over the bowls at the end. A dash of sriracha goes into the broth itself if you want more warmth.
For company
40 min
Fig and ricotta tart with hot honey
Puff pastry, whipped homemade ricotta, halved fresh figs and a hot honey drizzle — served warm the moment everyone walks through the door.
From the BBC Good Food September 2024 issue. Light, divine, and it looks like you tried far harder than you did. Now that I make my own ricotta, it is a completely different tart.
For company
15 min, plus chilling
Rum punch for a crowd
One enormous vessel, one ladle, and everybody pours their own. Dark and white rum, pineapple, orange, lime and a slow sink of grenadine.
Make the base the night before and keep it cold. Only add the ice and the fizz when the doorbell goes, or you will be serving something sad and watery by half time.
For company
10 min, plus cooling
Pink G&T with rooibos and lemongrass
Pink gin lengthened with tonic over a rooibos and lemongrass syrup — utterly South African, with a lemongrass twist that lifts the whole glass.
From Food & Home Entertaining SA, February 2020. Serve it in the biggest balloon copa glass you own — half the pleasure is the size of the glass.
For company
1 hr, plus resting
Florentine T-bone with polenta chips and balsamic tomatoes
Thick T-bones from Sloane Meat Market, rubbed with steak and chops spice, carved onto a board with blistered baby vine tomatoes and crisp polenta chips alongside.
From Food & Home Entertaining SA. Carve it at the table on a big wooden board and let everybody pick — this is finger food if you slice it properly.
For company
35 min, plus marinating
Lamb kebabs with watermelon salsa and dill yoghurt
Turkish-spiced lamb on skewers, with a cold watermelon and mint salsa and a cool dill yoghurt to drag them through. Made for eating outside, standing up.
Another Food & Home Entertaining SA recipe, and a champion of al fresco eating. The watermelon against the hot lamb is the whole trick.
For company
25 min
Tuna and pepper quesadillas
Crisp golden tortillas filled with tuna, roasted peppers, spring onion and melting cheese, cut into wedges — the easiest thing on the table and the first to go.
From Woman & Home. The fish option that nobody treats as the fish option — they simply disappear.
Sweet
50 min, plus freezing
Chocolate brownies with plum sorbet
Dense, fudgy brownie squares against a sharp magenta plum sorbet — the cold fruit cuts the chocolate and makes the whole thing feel like a grown-up pudding.
Something different. Cut the brownies small so they can be eaten with fingers, and scoop the sorbet into little glasses beside them.
Sunday
3 hours
The base bredie — lamb, potato and green pepper
The mother recipe every South African bredie is built on: lamb browned properly, onions cooked down to nothing, green pepper, potatoes, and time.
Lamb, always. Mutton is traditional and it is stronger, but lamb is sweeter and I prefer it. Everything after this is a variation — you add the vegetable that names the pot.
Sunday
3 hours
Tamatie bredie — tomato
The Cape classic: lamb slow-cooked into a deep, sweet-sour tomato sauce with a whisper of sugar and chilli.
The trick nobody tells you is the sugar. Tomatoes go sour over three hours and a teaspoon of sugar brings the whole pot back into balance.
Sunday
2 hours 45 min
Pampoen bredie — pumpkin
Lamb and pumpkin cooked until the pumpkin half-dissolves and thickens the gravy into something sweet, orange and comforting.
Half the pumpkin should melt away and half should stay in pieces. That is the whole texture of the dish, and it is why you add it in two goes.
Sunday
2 hours 45 min
Kool bredie — cabbage
The humblest of them all: lamb, potato and wedges of cabbage braised until silky and peppery in a clear, savoury gravy.
Cabbage bredie is the one people underestimate. Cut the wedges thick and keep the core intact so they hold together, and be generous with the black pepper.
Sunday
2 hours 30 min
Blomkool bredie — cauliflower
Lamb with cauliflower and potato in a pale, gently creamy gravy finished with nutmeg — the quietest bredie and the most elegant.
This one goes in late. Cauliflower turns to nothing if you treat it like pumpkin, so give it twenty minutes and no more.
Sunday
3 hours
Groenboontjie bredie — green bean
My absolute favourite. Lamb and green beans cooked long past bright green into something soft, savoury and deeply, unfashionably good.
Forget everything you have been told about keeping beans crisp. In a groenboontjie bredie the beans cook down with the lamb until they are olive-green and full of gravy. That is the point, and it is the taste of my childhood.
For company
At least 3 hours marinating + about 2 hours preparation and cooking
Chicken gyros
Lemon, garlic and spice-marinated chicken thighs grilled on skewers, with homemade pita wraps, lettuce, tomato, red onion and cool cucumber-and-mint tzatziki.
Marinate the chicken for as long as possible — this will make it more tender and flavoursome. Keep within the recipe’s 48-hour refrigerated limit and any earlier use-by date.
For company
About 40 min + at least 30 min chilling (plus lángos)
Souvlaki — Greek meatball perfection!
My minced-meat take on Jamie Oliver’s souvlaki from Food Escapes: oregano-and-mint kebabs, smoky sweet peppers and cool cucumber tzatziki, all piled onto warm, golden lángos. A Greek feast on a wooden serving board. Opa!!!!!
Jamie Oliver is one of my absolute favourite chefs — the best Mediterranean food captured in Food Escapes. The recipe calls for pork, but I prefer beef mince, or a combination of the two. Oregano is one of my absolute favourite herbs! I make lángos as the flatbread accompaniment because, since having made lángos earlier this year, it is really all that I make! Life doesn’t get much better!
For company
About 30 min prep + 4–5 hours in the oven
Pull-apart Greek lamb
John Torode’s slow-cooked Greek lamb — a whole shoulder studded with garlic and anchovy, cooked low over whole tomatoes, carrots and herbs until it falls apart. Served in big shredded chunks with tzatziki, a no-cook chickpea salad and flatbreads for mopping up the juices.
The lamb shoulder comes from Epsom Downs butchery in Bryanston. Make the tzatziki and the chickpea salad a day ahead and keep them in the fridge — they only get better for it.
For company
About 30 minutes
Lemon lamb cutlets
Four lamb cutlets off the grill, glazed with lemon zest and juice, garlic and oregano, served over soft dry-fried leeks with green beans and cannellini beans, with extra lemon wedges for squeezing.
A quick-fire Greek supper — the grill does the cutlets in ten minutes while the leeks soften gently on the stove, so the whole thing is on the table in about half an hour.
For company
About 40 min prep + marinating (a few hours or overnight) + 2 hours in the oven
Beef stifado
The perfect no-fuss meaty dish to cook ahead and then reheat — chuck steak marinated overnight in red wine, rosemary, bay, oregano, cloves and cinnamon, then braised slowly with golden baby shallots in a rich tomato sauce, served over soft orzo.
Marinate the beef the night before and cook the whole casserole a day ahead — stifado is even better reheated, which makes it the ideal dish for company.
For company
20–30 minutes in the oven
Spring onion and cheddar stuffed bread
A South African goodie, especially for a braai: a ciabatta sliced almost through and stuffed between every slice with matured cheddar, cream cheese and mayonnaise, then baked until the cheese is melted and the bread is lightly golden and crisped in places.
A far better option than just old plain garlic bread. Serve the bread warm with extra spring onion slices sprinkled over.
For company
About 1½ hours (estimated)
Rosemary-stuffed beef fillet with blue cheese sauce and onion rings
A South African roast feast: beef fillet rolled around rosemary, olives, breadcrumbs and macadamias, served with creamy blue cheese sauce and crisp, golden onion rings. A perfect meal for a crowd, especially Father’s Day.
With thanks to Food & Home SA, July 2018. The photograph is an AI-generated serving illustration. Servings and total time are estimates.
Sunday
About 3 hours (estimated; browning varies by batch)
Ossobuco with creamy polenta and gremolata
An Italian dish for the South African family lunch or dinner table: slow-braised beef shin, creamy polenta and fresh parsley-and-lemon gremolata, with roasted baby tomatoes alongside and Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage in the glass.
With thanks to Food & Home South Africa, July 2018. The dish photograph is an AI-generated serving illustration; the wine bottle photograph is from Kanonkop. Total time is an estimate.
For company
1 hour marinating, plus cooking and assembly
Duck breast in raspberry jam herb marinade with caramelised onion and spinach salad
Raspberry, rosemary and thyme-marinated duck with sticky red onions, baby spinach, Cape gooseberries, radishes, feta and toasted almonds — a colourful addition to the South African family table, with Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon alongside.
With thanks to Food & Home South Africa, July 2017. The black-slate dish photograph is an AI-generated serving illustration. Light typos and the duplicated onion instruction have been corrected. The radish quantity was supplied as ‘80’ without a unit; it has not been converted to grams. Wine, botanical and food-safety notes are supplementary.
For company
20 minutes simmering, plus preparation, reduction and steaming
Mussels with creamy white wine sauce
La Petite Ferme in the Franschhoek Valley: black mussels in a creamy white wine, thyme and garlic-butter sauce, finished with parsley, toasted baguette and lime — with Spier Chenin Blanc alongside on the South African table.
Recipe from La Petite Ferme, Franschhoek, credited by Cass to chef Neethling du Toit and Food & Home South Africa, July 2017. Cass: ‘I don't bother, I buy them cleaned from Woolworths.’ The dish photograph is an AI-generated serving illustration. Supplementary cooking note: wine reduction does not guarantee that all alcohol has evaporated. Buy mussels from a reputable supplier, keep refrigerated and follow the packaging instructions; for live mussels, discard broken shells and any open shells that do not close when tapped before cooking. Discard unopened shells after cooking. The supplied 3-minute steaming time is approximate, not a guarantee of safe doneness; cook thoroughly and serve promptly. Homemade garlic butter and wine notes below are supplementary, not part of the magazine attribution.
Breakfast
About 30 minutes (estimated)
Avocado, egg and sausage breakfast salad with avo-naise
A South African breakfast: cubed avocado, sliced breakfast sausages, quartered hard-boiled eggs and chopped bacon, drizzled with a homemade avocado mayonnaise and scattered with micro herbs. Did you know that avocados contain no cholesterol, are free from sodium and high in monounsaturated fats and potassium, making them great in assisting to combat health issues like high blood pressure. How great is South Africa!!!!
The dish photograph is an AI-generated serving illustration, shot top-down so every ingredient can be seen. Total time and servings are estimates; no source was supplied for this recipe.
Breakfast
About 10 minutes (estimated)
Citrus, ginger and coconut smoothie
Naartjies, grapefruit, lemon juice, fresh ginger, oats, raw almonds and fat-free yoghurt blitzed with reduced-fat coconut milk — a South African breakfast in a glass. Ginger is an antioxidant: it has antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory potential from phenolic compounds like gingerol, shogaol and paradol. These compounds activate and suppress certain immune-specialised cells, which leads to the improvement of the body's immune responses and defence systems.
The drink photograph is an AI-generated serving illustration. Total time and servings are estimates; no source was supplied for this recipe.
Breakfast
About 1 hour 15 minutes (estimated)
Chocolate and oat breakfast brownies
A breakfast treat: squidgy chocolate brownies baked with pecan nuts and oats and a shot of strong coffee, cut into squares and served with fresh fruit and a cup of freshly brewed coffee for a breakfast treat.
The photograph is an AI-generated serving illustration. Total time is an estimate; makes 16 squares as written.