Recipe-wise, 2024 has been one for the books.
This year we’ve done our darndest to help you enjoy every eating opportunity that comes your way. We’ve provided first looks at much-anticipated openings, reviewed neighbourhood gems you might have overlooked and offered our opinion on the best Aotearoa has to offer
Alongside that, we’ve attempted to solve that ever-present what’s for dinner dilemma, highlighting extracts from the plethora of fantastic recipe books that hit the market in 2024.
As we enter the final weeks of the year, inching closer to the period where we subsist solely on leftovers and festive goodies, we’re feeling reflective. Below we’ve cherry-picked a highly subjective selection of the “best” recipe extracts we’ve published this year. From a “shovel-fest salad” to a tangy, at-home riff on the dessert that took restaurant menus by storm, it’s been a good year in the kitchen. Don’t just take our word for it though – give them a whirl and make 2024 the year you were introduced to your new favourite recipe.
Best accidental recipe:
These unique soup dumpling and curry hybrids came into the world in a happy and delicious accident. Chef and cookery teacher Tony Tan had leftover duck curry in the fridge one day and, noting it’s gelatinous texture, experimented with setting the sauce so it could be stuffed into dumpling wrappers.
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Advertise with NZME.Best use of subpar fruit:
Lacklustre peaches in your fruit bowl? Even the hardest, most hapless of stone fruit can be resurrected with a spell on the barbecue to caramelise their natural sugars, advises Alice Zaslavsky in her book Salad for Days. Once burnished on the grill they’re dressed in a zippy green peppercorn vinaigrette and nestled among creamy blobs of burrata.
Best way to cater for vegans in high summer:
Fill these nourishing Vietnamese crepes with everything from mushrooms to mung beans (or whatever needs using in your vegetable drawer). Lay out a platter of shredded produce and pickled delights and everyone can assemble as they see fit.
Best recipe to eat after a swim:
Pasta salad is one of the most fortifying summer meals, good to eat at any temperature and robust enough they can be made ahead. Matty Matheson calls his version a “shovel-fest salad,” a tangle of summer produce and silky orzo ovals thrown together in a bowl with a punchy mustard vinaigrette and a generous crumble of cuttingly sharp goat’s cheese. The Canadian restaurateur suggests serving alongside grilled chicken or lamb chops. Yes chef!
Best bowl of comfort:
Fesenjan is a sweet and sour Persian stew traditionally eaten in winter and made with duck that has been cooked in a walnut-pomegranate sauce, softened with honey. This impressive version has been made vegan by incorporating aubergines in place of the poultry.
Best condiment to have in the fridge, just in case:
Slather it on sandwiches, dollop it on a platter of grilled vegetables, or fold it through pasta for a one-and-done meal, no jar of this protean pesto shall go to waste. The versatility comes from what you put in too, not just what you do with it. Blitz up a batch with any soft herb or green, even pūhā and watercress, and a whole range of nuts or seeds.
Best the day after, or the one after that:
Good things take time, but needn’t be a faff. Not only is this homely soy-sauce braised dish easy to make, Tony Tan promises it’ll taste even better if you ladle it up a day or so after it’s cooked. Traditionally, pork belly is the protein of choice, but this isn’t a steadfast rule, use what you fancy.
Best way to do alchemy with a punnet of cherry tomatoes:
This smouldering dish from pasta maestro Andreas Papadakis layers a level of earthy tomatoes into a traditional clam linguine. It’s a bit of a project, but the depth of flavour is well worth the effort.
Best for a long, al-fresco meal:
Made with light ricotta instead of potatoes, these gnocchi are soft, pillowy and begging to take pride of place on the table of a summer meal that unfurls from lunch into dinner.
Best at-home riff on a restaurant menu staple:
“Serve tiramisu or die” – that’s how Viva’s dining Out editor Jesse Mulligan précised one of the culinary trends sweeping the hospitality sector in October. The popularity of the Italian dessert will be evident to anyone who frequents Auckland’s restaurants, but you don’t need a reservation to enjoy the layered delight. This terrifically tangy version from Donna Hay is supremely summery – swapping the traditional coffee for a lighter lick of limoncello.
Best trad-wife level dessert:
On a family trip back to Melbourne, Helen Goh’s kids were so taken by this barbecue staple cake that they begged her to make it back in London. Unable to source the traditional biscuits – Arnott’s Choc Ripple, Helen made them from scratch. Decide whether you want the smug glory of making them scratch, or embrace the easy deliciousness the packet version provides, but definitely try it.
Best thing since sliced bread:
Bread and butter pudding was originally devised as a way to use up stale bread and in this recipe, Rick Stein espouses the simple pleasure of pairing plain white bread with a rich and creamy vanilla custard. However, if you wanted to gild the lily, might we suggest making this on Boxing Day with leftover croissants or panettone in place of the white slices?
Best dessert for sharing, or not:
Lower a still-warm and gooey skillet of this brownie on to the table come dessert time and bask in the chorus of oohs from your tablemates. Or save the marvellously molten treat all for yourself. Either way, there will be no leftovers.
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