“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…”

Lemon tart… but make it easy, we say! No tricky pastry to roll out and potentially shrink in the oven because you’ve over-handled it… no filling that requires culinary wizardry to get just right. As a bonus, the base here is gluten free, if that’s important to you, although any health-related claims stop well and truly there. No one is pretending…

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…”

We love the old-world, gruff charm of Kao Rou Ji restaurant in Beijing’s Houhai precinct. This gorgeous area is right on the lake and although it has been hijacked somewhat by souvenir shops and pizza joints, it still speaks of a time when life was a little less polished and a lot less Westernised. The dining room is filled with the smells of cumin and lamb and barbecued meat and this dish reminds us of being there…

Just in time for some Sunday baking, these ridiculously rich buns are exactly what the doctor ordered for a leisurely long weekend breakfast. Scrub that - they’re probably not. Because they’re chockers with chocolate, sugar, various fats and evil white flour. YUM! Please, please PLEASE don’t be terrified of yeast…

“Ooh yum, celery for dinner!” Said no-one ever. But when a mighty pert bunch costs two bucks, we’ll give the what-the-heck-do-you-do-with-bulk-celery challenge a red hot go. Soup is the most obvious solution, but if it’s hot, that’s not really a G.O.. There’s only so much celery you can eat raw, so braising strikes us as a good way to go…

And now for something sweet, rich, indulgent and creamy. Just kidding; it’s Lent, doofus. And you know what that’s about – going without. I don’t really ‘do’ Spartan so correct me if I’m wrong, but observant Catholics fast from meat during the Lenten period (the 40 days leading to Easter), while for Greek Orthodox believers…