“This is the kind of pie that gets me. The kind I fall head over peel in love with. The buckwheat crust is the ‘edible bowl’ I love and the earthy, toffee sesame crunch is the pie accessory you never knew you needed…

“If you ever see me at the supermarket, chances are I’ll have a caramel mud cake in my basket. It is my favourite massproduced treat and resolutely non-guilty pleasure. Alas, so many attempts to re-create it left me disheartened – until I dabbled with chicory, a caffeine-free coffee substitute…

“Brownies are like socks. Stay with me here … They are mostly functional, but when you get a really, really good one, you really, really know it and you become deeply loyal to those socks/that brownie. Brownies are also a deeply personal bake – no nuts, fudgy, cakey, edge piece or centre piece…

A classic Chinese dish from the cookbook Bao Family by Céline Chung. These tasty dumplings are simple to make and well-loved…

A popular dish from the cookbook Bao Family by Céline Chung. Granny Smith apples are a great choice, as they’re firm and slightly tart, which balances out the sweet sugar coating…

A popular Chinese dish from the cookbook Bao Family by Céline Chung. Tasty, simple to make, and packed with flavour…

“White pomfret was Amah’s favourite fish to eat, but it was really expensive. I knew every time we ate it something special had happened: maybe my dad had closed a business deal, maybe one of us got straight As at school or maybe it was for Lunar New Year. It was precious…

“Malaysian roast chicken has crispy, dark skin and lots of flavour from the five-spice and salt rub. Back in primary school, when my mum was working and it was just us boys and Dad, he would often ask, ‘Chicken rice tonight?’ It was always a big yes from us, and we’d go to the chicken rice shop near our house where…

“The quality of beef in Malaysia sucks, and my grandparents never ate beef because of their religious beliefs. One of the few times we ate it was at Kayu Nasi Kandar, a shop in Petaling Jaya that serves rice with a choice of curries on top. The rendang gravy at Kayu was delicious, but the beef was so tough and chewy…

Potato salad. Just yum. We love us a classic version, complete with mayo, chopped boiled egg, a hint of powdered mustard and chopped chives/parsley – we don’t even mind if a smidge of very finely chopped celery finds its way in…

If you’re going to make a meatloaf, you may as well make one with knobs on, no? That’s our philosophy anyway and the Sicilians, bless ‘em, agree; this dish is based on a homey Sicilian dish called polpettone. Which is simply Italian for ‘meatloaf’…

Oh, shoot… did we miss Valentine’s Day? Cue the mournful violins and activate the Sad Face emojis. 🎻😥 Just kidding; we don’t really give a rats about V. Day but hey. If you do, don’t let us rain on your chocolate/champers/Hallmark card parade!…

If tofu’s not your thing, maybe chicken is and you won’t notice there’s bean curd in the mix in this effortless Chinese-inspired dish. We genuinely love tofu, but totally get that some of you think it’s bland. TBH that’s kind of the point of tofu…

Oops. We’ve been doing pesto ALL WRONG. Well, pretty much wrong. We just heave all the ingredients into a food processor, blitz the hell out of them, then presto! Pesto!…

Calm your farm if you’re up in arms over the thought of syrupy, sweet tomatoes. They’re a fruit, doh! If rhubarb can be a vegetable that masquerades as a fruit, then tomatoes can reclaim their fruitiness and appear in dessert situations. So there…

Why are baby carrots often called Dutch? That’s probably a question for our Eternal Questions team here at the LSC but off the top of our heads, we’d say it’s because the Dutch, bless ‘em, developed the modern orange carrot as we know it…

Darn. It’s back to reality with a dirty great thud after a glorious summer break, when we enjoy slumming it in the cooking department, letting our fresh produce purchases and whatever knocks around the fridge inform lazy dinner decisions. Very. Lazy. Dinner…

Inspired by a 2023 visit to the Veneto, this easy, summery chicken dish is a riff on the famous sarde in saor, a Venetian sweet-sour arrangement. Consisting of fresh, deep-fried sardines marinated in a vinegary mixture containing piles of tender, cooked onion, raisins and pine nuts…

Apricots. We wait all darned year for the things yet, despite their cheery appearance and promise of juicy, sun-shiny flavour, they’re often incredibly disappointing. And it’s not their fault. Unless you live in a stone-fruit orchard, or have access to one…

“This recipe makes wings similar to the type you find at izakaya and kushikatsu (fried skewers) restaurants. After being fried, the wings are dipped into a sauce, which, naturally enough, slightly softens the crispness. The wings are at their absolute best eaten within 10 minutes of being fried and dipped but are delicious…