These sprightly, mint-infused fritters are great straight from the pan, but taste even funkier after a rest of 20 minutes or so

Walking home the other afternoon, I passed a car with a weed growing around one of its tyres. I found myself stopping, so I looked to see where the weed started and where it ended – it went almost all the way around it, like a snow chain.

It was only when I was right down near the tyre, surrounded by the smell of weed and rubber, that I realised I had done exactly the same thing during the first lockdown. Not with the same car, but one similar – which, like so many cars in so many cities, sat in the same spot for so long that the weeds took over and started using it as a climbing frame. For two odd, vertiginous seconds, it was lockdown again. Then I found the start of the weed in the crack where the pavement met the road, along with a cigarette butt and a damp lottery ticket, rotting leaves and other weeds, including a tuft of mentuccia .

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A hearty winter soup with an ancient punchy pesto called cuminatum – can you guess its magic ingredient?

Frustrated by our inability to do not just urgent things in our small flat, but anything, I recently forced the issue and pulled everything out of an extremely large wardrobe. Weeks later, the empty wardrobe is still waiting to be removed, while the rest of the flat is inside out, there’s no hook without nine things hanging on it and no surface clear. Except one. One of three shelves in the cupboard above the washing machine – the one I look at most, with the tea, custard and jars filled with things that are not only tidy, but clean, so I can see what is cocoa and what is cumin.

In De re coquinaria , or Apicius , an extensive source of ancient Roman recipes, cumin is medicinal and a pantry staple. Its warm, volatile nature adds spice and stimulates all sorts of appetites. The dried seed of the herb Cuminum cyminum – part of the Umbelliferae family along with parsley and celery – cumin is ancient and has its origins in Iran. It is also precious and useful, which is why it travelled so widely. Three types are described in Apicius: Ethiopian, Syrian and Libyan cumin, all of which are used in various recipes, and also made into a cumin-based sauce called cuminatum .

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Potato and wilted cavolo nero or spinach, all bound together by a bubbling, cheesy bechamel and coated in toasted breadcrumbs

The first time I read the instruction “strip the cavolo nero”, I took it to mean that I should cut it into strips. So I gathered a few leaves into a bundle, then cut across the lot, forming thick ribbons before continuing to cook whatever it was I was making, which might have been soup. I prepared cavolo nero like this for years. Until, that is, I watched a cookery demonstration at a country festival in Umbria where the chef demonstrating held a stem of cavolo in one hand, then, with the other, clasped the leaf and pulled, separating the tough midrib from the bubbly green.

Now, for anyone familiar with cavolo nero, I am no doubt describing a logical and completely obvious preparation. For me, though, on a cold Sunday near Perugia, he was a magician and I was an idiot.

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From a west-African take on dauphinoise potatoes to an Indian mustardy tomato dish, these festive sides will wow your guests on the big day

Living in the UK for so many years I have grown to love brussels sprouts. They always make me think of cold, frosty winter days and especially Christmas. I am never without a leg of 5J jamón ibérico at Christmas as it is so versatile with its golden fat and nutty flavour. It makes a great pairing with sprouts instead of the traditional bacon, and is a fantastic way to bring my two countries together in one fabulous dish.

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I’ve been smitten with Tex-Mex food since the early 90s. This dish moves things along, but it still hits the same flavourful spot

My first taste of Tex-Mex was at the Chiquito in the Kingston Retail Park, Hull, in the early 1990s. The lady on the next table ordered a margarita and a chimichanga, which sounded ludicrously exciting. I watched (along with everyone else in the place) as a sizzling fajita landed on another table. Aged 10, I was smitten. I’ve not been to Texas, but would love to one day; in the meantime, I’m content with reading my favourite Texas tome, The Homesick Texan Cookbook by Lisa Fain, and riffing on the flavours within.

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Take your tastebuds Stateside with these smashed potatoes with ranch dressing, sweet potato pie with whipped cream, and quick biscuits with sausage gravy

From Spain last week to the big old United States this, I think I’m still on some kind of imaginary summer holiday road trip. That’s the power of food, though: it can take you to places that life and logistics prevent you from actually ever getting to. In my mind, then, here are three deliciously dialled-up diner dishes for which I’d turn off any highway.

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Yesterday’s rice or potatoes are tonight’s speedy dinner, says the cookbook author. She shares how leftover rice and potatoes can turn into a biryani-like wonder

One handy hack for translating hearty, long-braise dishes into speedy midweekers is to lean on leftovers. In my kitchen, when it comes to carbs like potatoes or rice, I have a hard and fast rule: always cook double.

If a recipe calls for boiled potatoes, cook twice as many. When I’m chucking rice in the rice cooker, I’ll make six servings instead of three.

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Wondering what the heck to make for dinner tonight? I know how it is. Lucky for you, we’ve been blessed with the news of a viral cooking hack that might help a little. And you better believe I’m about to share it here with you all.

As 7 News has recently shared, an Australian mum’s trick for nailing roast potatoes has gained a whole lot of attention online because of how simple her approach is.

Dropping her wisdom on the Mums Who Clean Facebook page, Vicki revealed that her secret to cooking drool-worthy potatoes is, wait for it… dry French Onion soup mix.

In the post, which won Vicki a whole lot of attention when she published it a few months back, the Aussie mum wrote:

“When doing roast spuds, peel, cut and place in a baking dish then …. get French Onion dry soup mix and sprinkle over top of spuds. Then sprinkle your oil over that and bake. It’s the only way I do roast spuds now.”

You can pick up a packet of French Onion soup mix for as little as $0.45 at Coles and Woolworths if you’d like to transform your taters tonight.

Want to step up your potato cooking game even further? Well, according to Family Food on the Table you can cook these little spuds in the microwave in 10 minutes if you want to skip the whole oven situation. ( As we recently discovered , you can also microwave sweet potatoes.)

Getty Baked Potato

They’ve written that if you want to try this approach, you should poke each potato five to six times with a fork, then toss them straight onto the microwave plate for 10 to 11 minutes (this is for two medium-sized potatoes).

To check if your potatoes are ready, the Family Food on the Table website recommends giving them a squeeze (wear an oven mitt or use a tea towel) and checking if they begin to open up. You can find the full write up here .

Ta-da! Perfect (and easy) potatoes.

The post The 45-Cent Hack to Cooking Perfect Roast Potatoes appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .