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
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
The easiest bread on this page and the one I make most. Roll them thin — thin is where the crunch lives.
Read the recipe →
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.
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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.
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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.
This is the recipe I give anyone who says they cannot bake. If you can stir and wait, you can make this.
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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.
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