The change in weather has made Simon crave flavours of home... He is particularly inspired by a memoir by food writer Nigel Slater.

It's a nostalgic one as it gets cold, the palate craves comfort. Not unlike Yumi's foster dog, who craves ATTENTION and tries to get it during the recording of today's episode! LOL.

TREACLE TART

Blind bake some pre-bought shortcrust pastry that you've rolled out in a 23cm tart tin until golden.

Allow to cool.

Meanwhile loosen 400g golden syrup by warming it gently. Then add in 100g fresh breadcrumbs and 2tbs lemon juice and zest of a lemon.

Mix then pour it into the pastry shell.

Bake until set - around 25 - 35 mins on 180C.

Serve warm in modest slices with some beautiful stone fruit on the side.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yumi had a delightful dinner party experience over the weekend and urgently needs to talk about it!

And as a consequence, urgently needs to talk about this way to do potatoes with capers!

It's from a book called EASY WINS by Anna Jones which Simon has recommended many times over...

ANNA JONES'S BROWN BUTTER POTATOES WITH LIME TARTARE SAUCE

Add 1kg small potatoes to a large pot of boiling, salted water.

Bring it back to the boil then simmer for around 15 mins.

Drain well and allow to steam dry in the collander.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

Warm up 100g salted butter in a pan until it turns nutty brown.

Tumble the potatoes into a roasting pan, pour over the browned butter, season generously with salt and pepper then roast for 25 mins.

Use a potato masher to squash the potatoes slightly.

Add 4tbs of drained capers to the pan, toss, then bake for another 25 mins until golden and crisp.

SAUCE

Meanwhile whisk 1 egg yolk with 2tbs Dijon mustard and then very gradually mix in 150ml good olive oil. Loosen with 2tbs caper brine and 100g sour cream.

Add in finely chopped 2tbs capers and the juice and zest of 1 lemon.

Serve the hot potatoes with the sauce.

DELIGHTFUL!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's HOT CROSS BUNS SEASON and everyone has an opinion on What To Do (and what NOT to do) with this most raisiny of buns.

What are your thoughts on Simon's advice?

Send us an email [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Simon is BACK! And what a welcome return.

Yumi and Simon discuss what it was like to have comedian Jennifer Wong onboard as guest host, and Yumi has some tips about what to order - and what NOT to order - when going out for Yum Cha.

And if you want to make Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) at home? Here's Nagi's recipe. And to do it at home?

1 Bunch of Gai Lan. If you can't get this vegetable, try it with broccolini, it's very good!

Trim the woody ends off the green vegetable. Wash well. If any of the stems are especially thick, slice down their length.

Place the gai lan in a steamer basket or plunge into a big pot of boiling water. Cook for about 5 minutes but test to make sure it's to your liking. You want it not too chewy and raw, but you definitely don't want to overcook it either. In this case I would get sexy with a timer to really make sure.

Meanwhile, gently heat 4tbs oyster sauce with 2-3tbs water. Add a teaspoon of vegetable oil and 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil IF YOU CAN BE BOTHERED.

Toss the cooked vegetable through the sauce but try not to make it a messy jumble: at yum cha it's all neatly laid out facing the same way and halved. Enjoy!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Special Guest Host Jennifer Wong shares a couple of great ways to make instant ramen LESS GRIM.

And if you love Jen and want to see her in person, a good link to upcoming shows is here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Both Jennifer Wong and Yumi have had experience with going viral on social media - which they've decided is low-key pointless - but it doesn't mean they're not both dead keen on trying a great hack when other food influencers recommend one...

It might be as simple as using a fish weight when frying a good quality piece of fish...

Or it could be this little hack as tested by Nat's What I Reckon in this video which, at time of publishing this podcast episode, has 11 million views!

BTW if you wanna see Jennifer Wong in person, she has a VERY FOOD RELATED SHOW coming up at Vivid Sydney 2026. More info and a link to the Great Debate that both Yumi and Jen will be on here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is the dumbest gadget you ever bought?

(you can email if you like: [email protected] )

Yumi and guest-host Jennifer Wong share their thoughts

PLUS - Yumi has a gadget to help your fish fillets turn out AMAZING - that you probably can use tonight at home!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In these terrible times Yumi is self-soothing by re-watching her favourite TV show and Jennifer Wong is re-reading a tried, tested and quite wonderful food book called Sapphires and Garlic by New York Times critic Ruth Reichl (which you can read for free in pdf form here; the chapter on Betty is page 205.)

In it is a fantastic and fantastically simple and humble recipe that the world-famous foodie created - for a frugal, whole roasted chicken.

A FRUGAL REPAST FOR BETTY - WHOLE ROASTED CHICKEN

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Wash and dry the whole raw chicken. Pat dry. Snip off the fatty flap of skin with scissors. Gently lift the skin on top of the breast meat, being careful not to puncture the skin, and spread out the fatty piece of skin between the skin and the breast.

Prick a whole lemon 8-15 times with a fork and place it inside the chicken's cavity.

Season the whole beast well with salt, pepper and olive oil.

Place the chicken on a small rack and place that inside a roasting tray.

Cut 4 x potatoes into 8 pieces each, 1 onion into 6 pieces, add 4 cloves of garlic to this then toss the lot in olive oil then tumble into the roasting tray with the chicken.

Roast for 1 hour.

Serve elegantly!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

JENNIFER WONG joins me as guest host again (don't worry Simon, we miss you!) - and we talk about her amazing book 'Chopsticks or Fork?' - discovering where the name comes from! (It's pretty funny.)

I have an opinion on where some of the truly buried treasures might be found in cookbooks and we unearth one from Belinda Jefferey's 'MIX AND BAKE'. (I said I'd post a link to buy it but unfortunately it's out of stock everywhere! My local library has it - good luck.)

BELINDA JEFFEREY'S SUNDRIED TOMATO NO-KNEAD FOCACCIA

THE DAY BEFORE:

Mix the flours: 250g plain flour and 250g spelt flour, 1tsp salt, 1/4tsp dried yeast

1tbs honey

Stir through 500ml water and 3tbs olive oil. It will be a wet, shaggy dough. Do your best to mix well.

Put it into a clean, oiled bowl, and leave in a calm spot for 12 hours.

Knock it down by kneading and folding it a couple of times and then stretch out the dough to fit a baking tray. Set it aside for 2 hours.

When ready, pre-heat the oven until it's properly hot 200C.

Dimple the top of the dough with your fingertips, drizzle it with good oil and flaked salt, rosemary and olives (or sundried tomatoes).

Bake for 30 - 35 mins.

Eat on the day!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Simon takes a break from Food Fixing and so I rope in Jennifer Wong, host of 'Chopsticks or Fork?' on ABC, a show about food, that is also a book.

Jen is funny and literate about food, especially Chinese food, so I thought: Great! Let's absolutely drag this online trend of making dumplings without actually bothering to wrap the filling in the wonton skin. You can see what I'm talking about here.

It's not all ridiculous, though. From Tony Tan, we have a fantastic vegan mushroom dumplings recipe here, which also has the Curry Oil Jen was talking about.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Simon's Creamy Bean Gratin

METHOD:

2 tins of white beans, drained well, or 300g flageolet beans soaked overnight then cooked for 30-40 mins the drained and dried out well

In a bowl, mix together these things:

8 anchovy fillets

4 tbs garlic oil (from last episode)

1 head of garlic (from last episode)

300ml cream

salt, pepper and a light grind of nutmeg

splash of milk

In a gratin dish (smallish, around 25cm), lay out the beans then top with the creamy mixture and some sprigs of rosemary.

Optional: Top with gruyere cheese.

Bake for 15 mins and use the broiler if the top isn't going all bubbly and brown.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.