Father's Day doesn't have to mean power tools, sixpacks of beer and random golf gifts. I'm much more about the food, so hopefully any fathers in your life are too! Here are some ideas for treating Dad at any time of day: there's breakfast all the way through to a nightcap.
Let's make winter sweet! I've gathered together some of my favourite puddings, pies, desserts and cakes for you here. Make them for a special occasion, because you DEFINITELY deserve a treat or as a fun cooking project.
Have you got an hour? Ask a Middle Eastern person about their favourite hummus and be ready to listen long and hard! Hummus is an everyday traditional food all the way from Yemen to Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey but there are as many variations as there are eaters! At its simplest, hummus combines chickpeas and tahini, then there's the potential addition of salt, pepper, spices, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and water. Plus, there's the question of texture. Should it be smooth or sturdy? We dig in...
Lunar New Year (or Chinese New Year) is one of the world's great annual celebrations. How big? Well, in China people are expected to take around three billion journeys as they travel to join family for festivities. The shebang begins on Saturday January 25 with the Year of the Rat starting the following day, and celebrations continuing for 23 days. Special 'lucky' foods are eaten during this period, sometimes because of their colour (red is lucky) and often because their name is a homonym for words such as 'luck', 'prosperity', 'wealth'.
Malaysian cookbook author Annie Xavier shares tips and insights as she discusses her approach to Chinese-Malaysian cooking
Radio chat: Well, there's no denying it. The countdown to Christmas is on! I always know it's coming when my mother-in-law's annual parcel of Christmas decorations arrives from England...and, indeed, it was on my doorstep yesterday. As though by magic, I've got my "ho-ho-ho" happening and my bells are jingling. Every couple of weeks, I drop into ABC Radio Melbourne to chat food. This time, we talked Christmas desserts.
Radio chat: This time I was just back from India so we talked about all the great things I ate (and ate and ate) while I was there. My trip wasn't long and I only went to Mumbai - it's actually kind of crazy to go to somewhere as big and diverse as India for just a week, but it was totally worth it. I dove in and made the most of every moment (and morsel).
Hummus makes the world go around! Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration but it is very important! I drop into ABC Radio Melbourne every couple of weeks to chat food. This week, I just had to talk about hummus. I've been obsessing about it - making it every which way, eating it, talking about it, and looking forward to eating it some more.
I dropped into 3RRR's weekly Eat It show to talk about dinner parties - if we have them, how do we do them, and if we don't, what's stopping us? This is a pretty big topic that I'm diving into with great interest. We also preview my new Signature Dish Series, exclusive behind-the-scenes events in top restaurants.
Every couple of weeks, I drop into ABC Radio Melbourne to chat about what I've been eating, cooking and learning. This time, host Richelle Hunt and I chatted about lunch - how important is it to take the time to get away from your work station to eat, move, and communicate face-to-face. It's not possible for everyone, but I think it's great if you can carve out the time for a proper lunch break.
