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…
Author: Frances
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 