Ingredient: salt and freshly ground black pepper Recipes
Chilli con Carne
Chilli con carne with real depth from a long simmer, cocoa and cumin. Serves 6 in about 2 hours, and an honest answer on whether beans belong in it.
Pasta Salad
Pasta salad that stays moist instead of drying out in the fridge. Serves 8 in 25 minutes, and why you cook the pasta past al dente for this one.
Chicken Soup
Real chicken soup built on a broth from a whole chicken, clear and full flavoured. Serves 6 in about 2 hours, and why you must not let it boil hard.
Tomato Soup
Tomato soup with real depth, from tinned tomatoes in winter or roasted fresh in summer. Serves 4 in about 50 minutes, and how to fix the acidity.
Braised Beef Cheeks
Beef cheeks braised for three hours until they collapse under a fork, in a red wine sauce. Serves 4, and the trimming step that most recipes leave out.
Beef Stroganoff
Beef stroganoff in 30 minutes with tender steak and a sour cream sauce that does not split. Serves 4, and the cut of beef that makes the difference.
Cottage Pie
Cottage pie with a filling thick enough to hold the mash up and a crisp forked top. Serves 6 in about 1 hour 20, plus the shepherds pie difference.
Slow Cooker Lamb Shanks
Lamb shanks slow cooked in red wine and rosemary until the meat falls off the bone, with a sauce reduced properly. Serves 4, 8 hours in the cooker.
Potato Salad
Potato salad is on every New Zealand Christmas table and beside every barbecue from Labour Weekend to Easter, and most of it is disappointing in the same way: the potatoes taste of nothing and the dressing sits on the outside.