THE FAMILY LIBATIONS LIBRARY A collection of drinks we’ve tested, tasted, and refined over years of entertaining. Everything from after-dinner classics to party-size batches. Many use fresh citrus from the garden — when you’ve got lemons, limes, and tangelos coming off the trees, you learn to make them do interesting things. Mix and match, adjust […]

TANGELO CHRISTMAS INFUSION When kumquats run out or fail you, tangelos step in. This version uses thinly peeled tangelo zest in a brandy-and-vodka mix. It’s less fussy than whole kumquats and produces a smoother, honey-forward liqueur that tastes almost like Cointreau. Add zest gradually throughout the steeping period for depth. This batch was made exactly […]

This is the recipe that will keep you fed without spending too much time or money. Learn the base and you have four completely different dinners. Once you can make this, you can cook something nutritious and at least you won’t starve. CHEAP AND EASY – WAYS WITH MINCE Your Pantry Kit Stock these once […]

This is not a jam and it’s not a marmalade — it’s something better. A soft, spoonable citrus paste that sits beautifully on a cheeseboard, scooped into a small ramekin and left small knife, for people to help themselves. It is exceptional with blue cheese as well as with soft cheeses. The flavour is intensely […]

If you’ve ever reached for preserved lemons needed in a recipe and found the jar uninvitingly old and mouldy, this is the fix. One lemon, three ingredients, twenty minutes — and you have a small jar of intensely flavoured paste that works anywhere you need a salty, lemony hit without adding liquid. It keeps in […]

This started as an experiment to turn a crumpet batter into a tray bake, and ended up somewhere much more useful — a fast, one-bowl yeasted bread with a super crisp top and bottom and an open, sliceable crumb. No kneading, no shaping, just mix, pour, rest and bake. Slice it through the middle and […]

This dish has become a genuine showstopper on our table. Roasted sweet potato on a billowy whipped tahini yoghurt base, finished with a spicy honey drizzle and toasted pine nuts — it looks impressive, tastes extraordinary, and most of the work can be done the day before. It works equally well as a vegetarian centrepiece […]

If you’ve got a lime tree you know the problem: come Spring and Summer, you’re drowning in fruit. One week there’s a handful on the branches, the next week there’s enough to fill a bucket, and by next week the tree’s completely overloaded and you are sending visitors home with bags of limes, and the […]

When the garden hands you more spinach than you know what to do with, this is the answer. A rich, savoury filling built from things you likely already have — cream cheese, eggs, good hard cheese, a splash of kefir for tang — it comes together quickly and works in almost any format you can […]

The icebox cake has been around since the 1920s, born when refrigerators were still a novelty and food companies were printing recipes on packaging to convince people their new appliance was indispensable. Nabisco introduced their Famous Chocolate Wafers in 1924 and by 1929 the icebox cake recipe was printed right on the box — one […]

SWEET POTATO PAPTERT – INDIVIDUAL SERVES Paptert is a South African layered bake — traditionally stiff maize porridge with a savoury filling, baked with cream and cheese until bubbling and golden. This version swaps the maize meal for roasted sweet potato mash, pressed into individual moulds and filled with whatever vegetables need using up. The […]

This is the kind of soup that asks almost nothing of you. Nothing really needs to be measured, almost everything is swappable for what you’ve got in the garden or the pantry, and it freezes beautifully in single serves for nights when winter has got the better of you. The bones of the recipe come […]

SHAKSHUKA A one-pan dish of eggs poached in a spiced tomato and capsicum sauce — perfect for using up pizza-night leftovers (passata, half a capsicum, that lonely onion). Freeze the base in portions and you’ve got a 10-minute meal whenever you need it. The same tomato base also doubles as the filling for our Sweet […]

  How to Organise a Pizza Party Pizza parties are one of those ideas that sound effortless but rarely are. The trick isn’t the dough or the oven — it’s stopping everyone from burying their pizza under fourteen toppings and wondering why it came out like a wet casserole. If you give people a bench […]

This is the sauce that ties pizza nights together — and it freezes well enough to keep a pizza-day stash in the freezer ready to go. Make a big batch, divide into portions, and you’re sorted for weeks. See Wood Fired Pizza Dough for the dough that goes underneath. It’s also the base of any […]

I had to make a gluten-free pizza for a relative, so I adapted this one from the Leggos website. I didn’t taste it myself, but I was assured it was good — and the person I made it for took the leftover dough home to make her own pizzas. If gluten isn’t an issue, see […]

This is the dough for when you haven’t made the overnight doughs and you just feel like pizza now. It takes about 10 minutes to make, 10 minutes to rest, and uses ingredients that are always in the house. No yeast, no fermenting, no planning — the baking powder and yoghurt (or kefir) do the […]

SPRINKLING GRANOLA If the Seeded Kefir Soak Breakfast isn’t crunchy enough for you, this is the answer. Same pantry, different treatment — toasted, crispy, and ready to sprinkle on anything that needs texture, and make this quantity every month or so, it comes together quickly. It’s also far cheaper than anything you’ll buy at the […]

SOCCASocca is a thin, crispy-edged chickpea flatbread from the south of France — known as farinata across the Italian border — and it’s one of those recipes that rewards almost zero effort with a genuinely impressive result. Four ingredients, a screaming hot pan, and about ten minutes in the oven is all it takes. The […]

PANTRY BUSTING CHEESE DIP This is cucina povera at its cheesiest — a bubbling, golden cheese dip made from whatever’s lurking in your fridge and freezer. Cream cheese, ricotta, kefir, sour cream, odds and ends of grated cheese, a handful of pickled jalapeños, and a scattering of crispy fried shallots on top. It takes about […]

FENNEL, APPLE AND CUCUMBER SLAW This bright, crunchy slaw is built for seafood. No mayo, no cream — just a sharp apple cider and lemon dressing that cuts cleanly through rich, buttery dishes. The salting step is worth the extra few minutes; it transforms the texture of both the cabbage and cucumber and means the […]

SWEET POTATO, PRAWN AND CORN TRAY BAKE A reinvention of the classic prawn cook-up, this tray bake builds layers of flavour from the bottom up. Parmesan-crusted sweet potato forms a crispy, golden base; corn rounds roast alongside until charred at the edges; and prawns nestle into the gaps for a final blast of heat before […]

This is the updated version of a recipe I have made many times — what was a chocolate espresso cake is now a tray bake slice, with two small but meaningful technique changes that lift it from very good to genuinely brilliant. Rich, fudgy, and flourless, built on a base of dark chocolate, butter, and […]

Liebherr BioFresh Fridge Reference Where everything goes — and why 🥬 BioFresh Drawer — ClosedHigh Humidity  ·  Vegetables & leafy produce Bok choi Cabbage (incl. cut pieces) Zucchini Capsicum Fennel Corn on the cob Mini cucumbers Regular cucumbers Carrots Daikon Eggplant * Remove all produce from supermarket plastic bags before placing in the drawer — […]