Terrific to throw on the BBQ – of pan fry them if it’s not grilling season. They brown nicely on the outside and are extra juicy on the inside thanks to the marinade! Grilled Pork Chops – Marinade This lemon garlic marinade is SO GOOD with grilled pork chops – though also excellent with chicken and lamb so I’ve have notes for marinating times and cooking directions for those too....

This is a terrific quick and easy dessert for assembling ahead then popping in the oven while you’re eating dinner. Just don’t forget the ice cream! Today’s recipe is brought into this world courtesy of Modi Apples, bright red balls with a hint of yellow full of crisp juiciness with fabulous apple flavour! Baked Apples recipe I’ve been munching on Modi Apples obsessively since I discovered them which, admittedly, was only a couple of months ago when I was asked to try them....

Mediterranean Baked Chicken Dinner This is a chicken sheet pan dinner that ticks a lot of boxes for midweek cooking: complete meal – no need to bother with side salads low effort prep – no finely chopping anything, no fiddly assemble, just throw it all in a pan no need to watch over it – pop it in the oven, set the timer and walk away; no gourmet or hard to find ingredients – plus plenty of substitutions IT’S TOTALLY DELICIOUS!...

David Chang. Ramen obsessed, quirky, edgy, brash, entrepreneur, rebel – a handful of words that only scratch the surface to describe this Korean-American chef who has become an unlikely superstar in the culinary world. Named in the Times Top 100 Most Influential People in 2010, he’s known for his “bad boy” attitude, like his “no reservations, no vegetarian options” policy and claiming Californian chefs “don’t manipulate food, they just put figs on a plate....

This is a fully loaded mushroom recipe – there’s 750g / 1.5 lb mushrooms in this! Mushroom Risotto It’s such a let down when you’re faced with a giant bowl of Mushroom Risotto, only to find you have to fish around desperately through piles of gluey rice to find a a few piddly bits of mushrooms. Let me assure you, no fishing expedition will be required for this Mushroom Risotto!...

Hefty and interesting enough for lunch, but not so heavy it loses its summery personality. Though mind you, I happily serve this year-round! After a (very!) extended water break, the inaugural Holiday Salad Marathon has resumed! Today – how the French make canned tuna fabulous: Nicoise Salad (Salade Nicoise) Nicoise Salad – or in French, Salade Nicoise – is a classic salad originating from the city of Nice in Provence, France....

I grew up being taught that instant meals were bad bad bad. The same applied to take out, frozen meals and canned meals. It wasn’t until I moved out of home and instant ramen became a regular in my midweek meal rotation that it dawned on me that my mum used to dish up ramen all the time – using instant ramen. “That’s against her rules!”, I thought. “What a hypocrite!...

You’ll love how the syrup is made using peach juices, rather than just a plain sugar syrup. Peach flavour to the max! Peach Cobbler Fruit cobbler is a traditional American dessert that pushes everybody’s comfort food-lovin’ buttons. Peach cobbler especially is a solid favourite, particularly in the Deep South. There’s two main types of peach clobbers – those with a batter topping, and the ones with the American biscuit / Aussie scone type toppings....

Salisbury steak meatballs There’s a good number of meatball recipes on this website. Sixteen, to be exact. So to say that these Salisbury steak meatballs have shot straight into the top 3 is a big call – but I’m standing by it! Think – savoury seasoned juicy tender beef meatballs smothered in a wickedly tasty mushroom gravy. It’s got even more flavour than ordinary Salisbury steaks even though we use the same ingredients....

STICKY DATE PUDDING – A CHILDHOOD FAVOURITE Who else has childhood memories of Sara Lee frozen Sticky Date Pudding?? It is the only store bought dessert my mother ever bought – and only on special occasions. And as much as I loved it, my one gripe was always that there was not enough Butterscotch Sauce to go around. Never fear. You won’t have that problem with this recipe! 😂 I know this recipe is called Sticky Toffee Pudding by most of the world – other than Australia and New Zealand it seems....

This is one of those recipes that’s so easy and versatile, you don’t even need a recipe for it. The variation possibilities are endless in case you don’t have the exact ingredients called for, and I’ve provided a handful of ideas. So you can make this tonight with whatever you have! One of the pleasures / tortures of working in the food industry is constantly being surrounded by food. Whether on social media, research, creating and testing recipes, jobs for clients, for my monthly feature in Super Food Ideas magazine, and even when I’m with friends and family, I live and breath (and eat) food for most of my waking hours....

Background – COVID and the canned tomato shortage When the COVID Pandemic first hit the shores of Australia and Sydney went into lockdown in March 2020, grocery store shelves were cleared of long shelf life items with a rush of panic buying. Things like pasta, dried beans, rice and all manner of canned goods. While canned tomato was one such item that was always sold out, tomato paste was still widely available....

This Celery and Lime Bruschetta topping remains “undiscovered” but once you try it, you’ll definitely add it into your summer rotation. It’s a fantastic way to get a lot of healthy nutrition into you without even thinking twice about it, each slice has about 1 1/2 sticks of celery in it, but you would never guess. While I do like celery, and I often serve it cut up into sticks alongside dip as a “healthy” snack, I get sick of it easily....

All made in one pot – from scratch, in 20 minutes. Fist pump! Vegetable Pasta There’s a time for making vegetable pasta the proper way – roasting veggies until beautifully caramelised, making a pasta sauce, cooking the pasta, then bringing it all together at the end. It’ll take close to an hour, and it’s totally fabulous. This one pot vegetarian pasta is for all those other times. A complete meal that covers all bases:...

I like to BAKE my tacos to crisp the shells and melt the cheese before piling on the fresh toppings. Because melted cheese wins over unmelted cheese every day! Totally un-authentic Beef Taco Recipe! You will never find ground beef / mince tacos in Mexico. Authentic beef tacos are either sliced seared steaks (like Carne Asada), or marinated beef chopped into thin strips that are pan fried to get golden crispy edges (taqueria style), or slow-cooked and shredded into sauce like this Shredded Beef Mexican Beef and Beef Barbacoa....

Char Siu Pork – Chinese BBQ Pork No trip to Chinatown is complete without taking home a container of Chinese BBQ pork. And I am yet to manage the drive all the way home without sneaking in a little taste test (or two…or three). The darn traffic lights! If they were GREEN all the way home, then I wouldn’t have a chance to do that! OK, that’s a blatant lie. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and we both know I would be hooning over the Harbour Bridge, holding the steering wheel with one hand and rummaging around in the plastic carry bag with the other, blindly trying to feel my way to the barbecue pork container....

And this is how they make it. (It’s easy!) Chinese Crispy Pork Belly recipe In my humble opinion, the Chinese are the undisputed king of two things: crispy duck and crispy pork belly. It’s unlikely that I will ever share a proper Peking Duck recipe because it’s too hard to make properly in an ordinary home kitchen. Pork belly, on the other hand, is totally doable. That juicy, seasoned flesh....

TOP TIP: you can buy the cake and custard ready made, but I really recommend making the jelly yourself. It’s such a major component in trifle, it makes all the difference – and it’s SUPER easy! Christmas Trifle The first time I made trifle, I used raspberry flavoured Aeroplane jelly and store bought custard. It looked so fabulous, I was beaming with pride. Blinded by the beauty of the trifle, I completely forgot the first rule of cooking – it doesn’t matter how pretty it looks or how good the photos are if it tastes meh....

Independence statement: These are 100% my own independent opinions. There are no affiliate links here, and I have no commercial or personal relationship with any of the authors or publishers. These are genuinely just cookbooks I personally value! Cookbooks are an investment…. both cost-wise and space-wise!! In fact, sometimes I even test drive cookbooks before I buy them by borrowing them from the library. If I renew them repeatedly, only then do I buy them....

Serve with everything. Mashed Potato This is the mashed potato you’ve seen smothered in sauces and gravies in hundreds of recipes on my site. It’s made an appearance alongside roasts and uncountable chicken recipes. It’s nestled on the side of plates with huge steaks dripping with garlic butter, it’s buried under a mound of meatballs drowning in delectable sauces. You’ve seen fleeting glimpses of it in recipe videos, from grand holiday centrepieces like Roast Turkey, to quick midweek meals like Honey Garlic Pork Tenderloin and slow cooked comfort foods like the Fall Apart Beef Stroganoff Stew from last week....