Recipes

Meals & Dishes

Baked chicory with ham

Slightly bitter white chicory, grown in the dark as a ‘forced’ salad vegetable, is at its peak in early spring. Here, it’s wrapped in ham and cooked under a cosy blanket of cream, gruyère and parmesan. It makes a great side for roasts or can star in a veg-led dinner”

Techniques

Spicy braai sole with polenta, peppers and spinach

Nokx Majozi, head pie maker at London’s Holborn Dining Room, grew up in South Africa and was inspired from an early age by her dad Richard’s creative cooking. This barbecued sole recipe is a tribute to him. “My father would always be bringing fish back from the harbour to cook. And we ate maize, which is like white polenta, every day. Every time I make it, it reminds me of home.”

Meals & Dishes

Seriously Good Apple Salad

This apple salad with celery and fennel is one of my favorite fall salad recipes. Its creamy dressing and toasted pecans make it a perfect side dish or holiday salad!

Techniques

Barbecued mackerel wrapped in fig leaves with pickled figs

Just like preserved vine leaves, fig leaves can be used to wrap food and cook it. A barbecue (or griddle pan) is a great way of preventing the mackerel from sticking to the barbecue rack or pan. If you can’t get hold of fig leaves, preserved vine leaves work well too. The picked figs cut through the oily richness of the mackerel perfectly.

Meals & Dishes

Pommes anna with lemon and sage

Pommes anna is a dish of thinly sliced potatoes baked in layers, similar to dauphinois. There’s no cream added, though. Instead, the potatoes are cooked in butter enriched with the wonderful flavours of sage, garlic and lemon. Perfect served with all types of meat, fish and vegetables.

Techniques

Caramelised onions

If you’re wanting to know how to caramelise onions, you’re in the right place. The ‘boss level’ of alliums, caramelised onions take time, patience and care to do properly. But the results are so, so worth it. Take them as far as you dare and scrape, stir and deglaze your way to sweet, jammy onion heaven.

Meals & Dishes

Easy Coconut Rice

Coconut rice is just as easy to make as plain rice and tastes fantastic! All we need to do is swap half of the water for coconut milk. This coconut rice is perfect for almost any dish served with plain rice. It’s perfect in rice bowls, with curries, Thai dishes, stir-fries, and as a side to chicken and fish.

Meals & Dishes

Pork stifado

Stifado is a classic Greek stew, originally made with rabbit, but often now using pork or beef. The addition of warming spices of cinnamon, allspice and clove gives it special flavour, and makes it ideal for Easter celebrations. Here the spinach is added right at the end, so if making ahead, omit it until you reheat for serving.