Tomato, Basil and Bacon Pasta
My Teenagers are complaining that they are bored with my cooking and even though my repertoire isn’t that great, I think it is because they are sort of fed up with “winter” food. So, I have decided to make pasta which always goes down well, with a salad. I have started [...]

A very easy crustless cheesecake that is absolutely delicious. I had a problem finding ricotta cheese, but maybe it was just a slow delivery week so you shouldn’t have a problem. I found the recipe in one of those supplements that came with my groceries and it seemed easy enough, and it is!
4 x [...]

Lamb roast reminds me of Sunday lunch during my childhood and believe or not, this was the first meal I cooked for a dinner party – after I phoned my Mother to find out how to cook it! Remember as I said before – if I can cook it, anybody can!
This recipe serves about 4 [...]

As we are in the final stretch of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, let us go out with a traditional bang and have something for everyone with enough preparation time beforehand so everybody can sit and watch the final without having to tend to braai fires or stoveplates. Here goes and may the best team [...]

A visit to Cape Town isn’t complete without a visit to the Bo-Kaap*. The bright, colourful homes that line the cobbled streets are about 260 years old and the suburb is a melting pot of cultures – mostly descending from slaves that were imported to the Cape from Malaysia, Sri Lanka and India. The majority [...]

This time of the year everybody seems to have a project – whether it’s building cupboards, re-doing the garden, going on diet or creating something – we all have a one!  I’m on a sausage making/green fig bottling kick and even though the figs on the farm aren’t cooperating because they simply don’t want to [...]

The Taino and Carib peoples of the Caribbean and South America were the first people to slow cook meat over a fire. It was the Spanish conquistadores who first found them roasting, drying and smoking meats on a wooden framework over a bed of coals called a barbricot and the Spaniards pronounced it barbacoa.  The [...]

The hectic Christmas season is over but the guests still keep coming and coming because the Cape, at this time of the year, is the most magically beautiful place on earth. As February approaches, the weather just keeps getting better and long, perfect days melt into long perfect evenings – which means that entertainment simply [...]

Today, in Egypt, lamb is one of the most popular meats and since Egypt is in Africa, we decided to include this really superb recipe. Because this dish cannot be appreciated without a glass of wine, let’s briefly look at the Egyptian wine production. They do make wine and produce about 42,000 hl per annum [...]

Many of us believe that because Morocco was in French and Spanish possession for periods in the 19th and 20th centuries, the cuisine has been heavily influenced by the French and the Spanish. Of course, some ideas must have been shared but the culinary tradition is firmly rooted in the culture of the indigenous Berbers [...]