“I came up with this recipe when I was dreaming about Christmas ham one day. The glaze is sweet, sticky and ever so slightly bitter. Chicken legs, which comprise the thigh and drumstick, are the most flavourful part of the bird, and are made even better with a sweet glazed crispy skin.” - Olivia Galletly

A pox on butter prices! We’re baking anyway. Have you seen the price of butter? Of course you have. You live here. It's depressing, especially if you love to bake. But here’s some good news on that front: cakes made with oil (even the budget stuff) are just as tender, often lighter, and stay delectably soft for longer than a butter-based bake. This plush, lemony number is…

"Keep the silverbeet stalks for a spring minestrone. Mum always said it was the stalks that were the secret to her minestrone, adding flavour without complicating the other vegetables…"

“There is nothing sweeter nor more life-affirming than the smell of spiced, roasting chicken. The chickpeas in this dish are like hundreds of golden beads edging in and around the chicken. When I was a child, Nonna Giuseppa and Mum called me Sango mio (my blood). Nonna and Mum may not have considered this dish traditional…”

Recently we went to a dinner party and were served a green salad that was dressed with something sweet. We don’t mean a tad sweet, as in a-shot-of-honey-in-the-dressing sweet. No, we mean diabetes-inducing, set-your-teeth-on-edge, unbefreakinglievably sweet. It got us thinking. Maybe a salad could have a…

It might surprise some to learn that tomatoes feature in regional Chinese cooking; especially with eggs as a quick, easy, comforting topping for steamed rice or for wide wheat noodles. Yum. This is one of those classic, home-style Chinese dishes…

Jjolmyeon (쫄면) is both the name of this dish and the type of noodles used to make it. These wheat-based noodles have a fabulous chewy quality, due to the way they are made – during manufacture, the dough is heated to 130-150 ˚C and extruded under pressure. Served with plenty of crunchy raw veggies and the lusciously…

“Here’s a dish that basically gives you licence to play with your food! Yusheng is a vibrant, tangy-sweet Chinese New Year salad that’sa confetti explosion of good vibes, prosperity, and everything crunchy. It originated in Southeast Asia and Singapore and Malaysia, who love a tug-of-war over Who Does It Better. It’s kind of their pavlova, if you get us…”

When time’s short, we pimp like crazy. And nothing begs pimping more than a tub of hummus… and look, you could make your own for this recipe if you liked. But we’re cheating like hell here because we’re all out of time this week and we’re rooting for Team Easy. You just grab a half kilo of lamb (or beef) mince, give it a hard sear, amp it up with spices, a slosh of pomegranate molasses and…

Spring greens! Creamy buttermilk dressing! Poached chicken! All the Spring Things! If we lost you at ‘poached chicken’, hear us out. We’ve legit found a way to poach chicken breast fillets so they don’t turn into tasteless cardboard and it’s super, super easy. Happily for the busy cook, it even involves an amount of neglect. Here’s the scoop…

Let’s talk skordalia – part sauce, part dip, and all kinds of delicious. The name comes from the Greek word skordo (σκόρδο), meaning garlic, which tells you everything you need to know… if you don’t like garlic, trust us when we tell you this isn’t for you so just jog on. Creamy, rich and punchy…

If you’re missing the ‘easy cheesy’ in your life, these fritters are here to sort you! Packed with sweet peas, fresh mint, and two kinds of cheese, they’re the ultimate light spring dish. And let’s take a moment to appreciate the humble frozen pea – the unsung hero of the freezer aisle. Picked at their peak and frozen in a flash, they bring that vibrant pop of green yumness to any dish…

Pickled salmon; we’re making this for Christmas! It’s a vibrant and tangy dish that brings together the best of two worlds: spanking fresh salmon and the bold punch of pickling. Historically, pickled fish was an excellent way to preserve fresh catches before refrigeration, making it a staple in colder climates (like Scandinavian countries) where fresh food…

Succulent butterflied chicken… but make it flat! That’s what happens when you cook chicken under weights and no, you don't literally have to use bricks, although you could. We busted out cans of food from our pantry, totalling 3-4 kg in all. Cooking chicken under weights is a technique that gives you gorgeously juicy, crispy-skinned bird…

This recipe is our laid-back riff on fattoush, a zingy, crunchy Middle Eastern salad that’s packed with juicy veggies, crispy pita, and a tangy dressing. Fattoush usually features tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and capsicum, with the dressing kicked up with lemony sumac. We’re taking culinary liberties with…

Fabulous fresh flavours in a flash – and yes, we’re getting all alliterative with this yum, Thai-inspired dish. When you want your noodles quick and you want your noodles with a kick (yep, we’re rhyme-y today too), this recipe will sort you. All you do is make a simple aromatic paste for stir-frying the mince, whip up an easy sweet-sour-salty dressing…

While nothing says ‘I care’ or ‘look at me go’ like homemade dumplings, sometimes frozen ones are a total lifesaver when we’re running out of time. And when we make a dinner out of frozen dumplings, normally we just boil them, steam a pile of Asian greens…

Right. It’s roll-your-sleeves-up time. This dish has a few (very easy) components, so set yourself some time to create an Indian-inspired feast that will fully knock socks off. Fans of rice, spice, lamb and spuds will be in heaven...

Are leeks underrated? We think so. They don’t have the sexy wow-factor of, say, asparagus or sugar snaps or watermelon radish. But they can be incredible, especially when you braise them and make them the hero of a dish – as we have here. Braising really brings out their gentler, sweeter side, and their texture becomes meltingly tender too. The key to these leeks is in the preparation...

"This recipe came from our neighbour Mona, who grew up in Hama in Syria, her childhood home built along the river. A wonderful cook, she would make this layered dish whenever she came to one of our gatherings. It has lived on in our spreads ever since." - Karima Hazim Chatila & Siline Tabbouch