Two of my favourite things together at last: clafoutis and tamarillos. Clafoutis is a firm custard-like baked pudding studded with seasonal fruit. Dreamy for dessert with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream, clafoutis also makes for an excellent weekend breakfast with a dollop of thick Greek yoghurt (Zany Zeus is my choice). Tamarillo clafoutis Adapted from…
Cocoa brownies
I’m completely in love with words about food. My cookbooks, my folders of printed out recipes found online and notebooks of handwritten recipes are prized possessions. There’s a distinct possibility I could feature on the recipe edition of Hoarders. Every so often, to ensure I don’t have to be dug out from beneath a pile of…
Tuna, tomato & celery pasta bake
You don’t get any more retro than a tuna pasta bake (extra points for for using bow-shaped pasta and baking it in a Temuka pottery dish). I hesitated over sharing this recipe as it’s retro in a totally unfashionable way, but you know what? Who the hell cares — it’s bloody delicious and that’s the most…
Green polenta with butter bean & chorizo ragu & Parmesan gremolata
This is my idea of midwinter dream food. A bowl of buttery polenta (with a kick of virtuous greens) topped with a rich ragu with a lemony zing of the parmesan gremolata on top. Add a glass of red, crank the heat pump right up (30°C) and this is as good as winter gets IMO….
Rhubarb & caramel cake
This cake is a god damn dream and will make all other cakes seem a bit, well, not as good. Four layers of a simple vanilla-scented sponge flecked with rhubarb, sandwiched with layers of caramel cream cheese icing, pieces of roasted rhubarb and ribbons of caramel sauce. See, told you — dream cake. The recipe…
Roasted pumpkin & Brussels sprouts with tahini dressing
Having a jar of tahini dressing in your fridge is something to feel pretty smug about. This dressing can elevate roasted root vegetables and blanched greens to an Ottolenghi-esque salad that you’ll want to eat again and again. Preparing the dressing is a matter of finding a jar with a lid, a couple of ingredients…
Apricot Bretonne
It might be too late: apricot season might already be over, but if you can find some late-season beauties then you need to make an apricot bretonne. It’s the ultimate summer apricot tribute: tangy and meltingly soft apricots on top of a buttery shortcake with a delicious dusting of cinnamon sugar. It’s best eaten warm…
Plum & cinnamon sugar clafoutis
It should be fairly apparent by now that I’m not afraid to mix dessert with breakfast. Some of my all-time favourite desserts make perfectly socially acceptable breakfasts: fruit crumble, rice pudding with (booze-soaked) plump sultanas, and of course, clafoutis. Clafoutis is a custardy pancake batter encasing tart seasonal fruit baked until it is puffed and…
Fish larb with vermicelli & mint salad in cos lettuce leaves
There’s nothing that grinds my gloof gears more than ordering a bao/slider/taco thinking I’m getting a gluten-free version of the original, when instead those unimaginative buggers have just wrapped the filling in a lettuce leaf. Lettuce is not and will never be a delicious carb. When there’s full disclosure that my dinner involves a lettuce leaf carrier then…
Beetroot & orange loaf cake with cream cheese icing
‘Are you sure you didn’t forget and just use normal flour?’ my sister asked with a mouthful of beetroot & orange loaf cake. And that my friends, is what every gluten-free baker wants to hear: I can’t believe it’s not gluten! Believe it. Beetroot & orange loaf cake gets better with age: this particular one lived…
Polenta-crusted fish with zucchini ratatouille & garlic aioli
Polenta and wine are two things that make life without gluten not such a bad time after all. Baked polenta with a slow-cooked ragu and a glass of red: good. Polenta fries with a glass of prosecco: great. Polenta-crusted fish with a glass of rosé: yes thanks, I will. Fish coated in polenta is a great…
Grilled stonefruit with passionfruit crème fraîche
On a recent holiday to Bali I made it my responsibility to eat as much tropical fruit as I could find and/or work out how to eat. A new discovery for me was selak, a reptilian-skinned fruit which, once peeled, resembles large garlic cloves and is deliciously crunchy and tart. I ate many mangosteen, branches…
Chargrilled corn, green bean & spice-rubbed chicken salad
A cast iron griddle pan is one of my essential kitchen implements. If you don’t have a barbecue or even if you do have a barbecue and just can’t be bothered firing it up, a griddle pan can be used to quickly chargrill vegetables and meat. Perfect for cooking asparagus and the best crispy skinned salmon…
cake for breakfast 