“There are a few key things to bear in mind with blended drinks. Try to have everything cold when it goes into the blender; dropping room-temperature ingredients on ice will just cause it to melt and you’ll be left with a runny drink. About 250 g (1 cup) of ice per drink is good. Because the cold numbs your flavour receptors, you can pump up the sweetness more than you usually would in a drink, otherwise they taste thin…”

“As I mentioned in the recipe for the puree used here (see page 97), the Bellini format of puree and sparkling wine is ripe for switching up with seasonal fruit. The Bellini was invented at Harry’s Bar in Venice, which I was lucky enough to visit a few years ago and had a great time. Their peach puree is literally just muddled peaches with very little sugar, so drinks more like peach juice. I prefer the texture from a bit more sugar…”

“We all know and love a Piña Colada, but it doesn’t have a monopoly on fruity, creamy cocktails. One of my other favourites is the Batida, a Brazilian drink. ‘Batida’ literally means ‘shaken’, and is quite a loosely defined combination of cachaça, fruit and lime, often with a creamy element of coconut milk or condensed milk. Cachaça is a sugar-cane spirit – essentially a Brazilian rum – so you can easily substitute it with another lighter-style rum instead.” - Cara Devine

Cars… beer… sausages… efficiency… we have much to thank the Germans for. And if there’s another thing they really excel at, it’s baking. We were in the country recently and quite honestly the breads, cakes, pastries, gingerbread, et al were an absolute highlight; dang, these people know their way around a bucket of flour and an oven. With Bavarian travels now just a 2024 memory, we thought we’d concoct a glorious yeasted plum cake…

We know sago is not everyone’s dessert ingredient of choice, but hear us out. It’s a drum we’ve banged before because we l-o-v-e Asian (and Asian-inspired) desserts and sago is a common presence. Take this Chilled Sago and Melon Pudding, for example. It's the best combo of chilled summery-ness and minimal effort ever, and it doesn’t scream ‘sugar rush’ either…

We’re getting our Austria on with these buns; one of us is contemplating a visit and the wish-list itinerary is quickly filling up with Schloss Schönbrunn, sausage, strudel, Strauss, the Christmas Markets at Spittelberg, sachertorte, the Secession Building, and everything to do with Sisi. And schnitzel. All the ’S’ things, basically...

If you’ve been playing along with the LSC so far, you’ll be bracing yourself for the expected “this isn’t a hard recipe” and true to form, we’re saying “this recipe isn’t hard.” Cooking is all about timing and keeping a tidy bench most of the time, and this recipe has a third factor - breaking things down into manageable sub-tasks...

Rich. Dense. Decadent. No, that’s not a description of Ye; it’s this incredible cake. Flourless chocolate cake is a refined classic, and we think everyone needs a version in their baking repertoire. We love ours (we would!). It's great to bake for a crowd as it will serve 10-12, no worries, and it tastes as amazing as the chocolate and cocoa you use...

OK, so back to your dad. We’re not done with him yet. We’ve dealt with the savoury dads, so let’s address the sweet ones. If he’s a sweet tooth, here’s THE breakfast treat for your Pa; oaty pancakes dripping in gooey caramel sauce with roasted pears.

Is your dad a sweet guy or a savoury type? If you’re planning to make a fuss of him on Father's Day, that’s a detail you really need to nail down. No point making him sweet pancakes for breakfast if he’d prefer a cheesy, corn-y quick bread, loaded with roasted tomatoes, avo, a few leaves and whatever else he likes...

If our soup this week is virtuous and ‘everything good for you’, Berliners are virtually everything not good for you. White flour. Refined sugar. Jam. The cholesterol-y parts of an egg. Deep-fry oil. But we say ‘what EV-er’ to the nutrition police…

“Experts Resoundingly Say a No-Sugar Diet is No Good” ** declared an article headline we read over breakfast the other day, as we shoveled jam-mounded refined carbs and syrupy coffee down our throats with abandon…

We couldn’t do a cookbook without one of our all-time fave dinners in it. We have this at least once a week. It is utterly divine — soul food at its best. The mac is a great way to use up any random bits of cheese in the door of the fridge. We usually serve this with a tangy garden salad (for balance)…

Yeah. It’s actually Christmas time. So no need to panic or anything. How is it here already? What happened to 2024? Who pushed the accelerator button on the year? WDK. But one thing we do know is it’s not too late to make these sweet, citrus pickles to go with your…

Every region in China will tend to have their own version of this dish; however, the one I constantly crave is the garlicky spicy kind. The simple mix of soy sauce, chilli oil and raw garlic is such a classic central Chinese flavour that has grown to be very popular in the West too. This salad is a perfect palate refresher for the table and is packed with flavour, with salivating qualities to make you go back for more until it’s all gone…”

Our lamb chops have become a signature dish at Cassia. We have guests who come in each week to just have their Cassia lamb chop fix. This recipe uses a key spice blend called chapli kebab masala, which was introduced to the north of India by the Mughal kings. The spiced cream is inspired by Goan cuisine, which is in turn influenced by Anglo-Portugese flavours…

This recipe was an essential part of my growing up and has been handed down through generations, so I really felt that it was essential to include it. Brawn was considered a real treat when my mother made it after my father killed a pig. Traditionally we had it sliced on toast with Worcestershire sauce for breakfast…

This was the beginning of our home-made hot sauce journey. One day Sarah said, ‘You know what? I could probably make a hot sauce that would go perfectly with our flavours . . .’ Habanero was our favourite sauce, and we wanted to start HOT so that one came first. But how hot? How thick?…

People often mistake salsa verde (green sauce) for pesto — but once you’ve tasted this tongue-tickler, you’ll want to put it on everything! Use it on pork chops or steak, blob it on schnitzel, drizzle it on cauliflower cheese, stir it through pasta and eggs. It also makes a great dip for corn chips…

Growing up in Korea, fried chicken was a special meal that we didn’t get to have often. Back then we had two choices — plain or gochujang — but these days, there are fried chicken shops all across Korea, doing their own flavours and styles. Fried chicken can seem incredibly simple, but in fact it’s quite complex…