Five days a week, for 50 weeks a year, I cook a different recipe. In an average year, that is 250 recipes. And TGIFood celebrates its first five years a week from now. We’ll be looking back through those five years next week, but for now, here’s my choice of my top 10 recipes of 2023.

Even when cooking the recipe in March, which I think was the best of my cooking year, and even more so when eating it, I thought: this is going to be hard to beat.

That is something that I do to keep myself on my toes in the kitchen: challenge myself to make the best roast chicken ever (or the best of whatever I’m cooking). But the rest of the year went by without being quite able to best that recipe, in my own opinion at least.

This is inevitably a subjective list, based on my own idea of what good food is and also on what I like. It’s a list to my own taste, but it also reflects the range of what we offer you in TGIFood. So, there’s an air fryer recipe, but there are also some classics. It will be no surprise that there’s a curry, because anyone who reads my columns knows that curry is my thing.

There are two tarts, and both are South African classics. I’m particularly proud of one of the two because, the first time around, it was an unmitigated flop. Then I set out to get it right, and a week or two later, found the courage to come back to it. And this time it was as very right as the first version had been very wrong. I love a learning curve.

There’s a lamb dish, of course, and a seafood dish, which is included because it’s unusual for me, yet stands out from the pack. There’s even a soup, but I think it’s a soup that takes the concept of this particular kind of broth to its perfect solution.

But first, at the top of the list, there is this:

1

Persian roast chicken with nut-studded couscous

Tony Jackman’s Persian roast chicken. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

I wrote in March: Roast chicken is a feature of cuisines all over the world, from Ireland to Peru and Germany to Australia, but if there were to be a prince among roast chickens in all the world, surely it must be the way it is done in the style of Persian cuisine. This recipe was later part of my entry for the annual Galliova awards for food writing, which I was lucky enough to win as South African Food Writer of the year, shared jointly with my colleague Anna Trapido. If anything was going to win me that award, I was happy that it was (in part) this recipe.

2

The fascinating history of vindaloo

Tony Jackman’s Goan pork vindaloo, a product of colonisation. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

This was also a part of my Galliova entry package. It was a real rabbit hole dive, and utterly fascinating. The further down that hole I went, the more fascinating the story of Vindaloo became. If you missed it, read it at the link above. It’s full of surprises.

3

Cremora Tart, perfected

Tony Jackman’s Cremora tart. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

Here is the second version of my two attempts at making a cremora tart. The first had been terribly disappointing and frankly a waste of good ingredients. In truth, I almost let it go, to remain a failure best forgotten about; but then I thought, nah, find out how to do it properly and give it one more go. You never know.

So I did masses of research and also asked friends for advice. In the end, it not only worked, it was triumphant. I was relieved, overjoyed, and very grateful that I could find it in me despite my initial despondence.

This recipe actually makes both my personal list and the people’s choice list.

4

Whole Brie in phyllo with green figs and almonds

Wineland Brie with green fig baked in phyllo. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

I wrote in April: Here’s the recipe for that whole Brie studded with green figs that I wrote about here. We got hold of some phyllo pastry and turned it into a party piece to come out at the end of a splendid food, charcuterie and wine affair.

The Brie came from Dalewood fromage, already studded with green figs. We wrapped it in phyllo pastry, baked it until golden and crisp, then dressed it with crushed almonds, sesame seeds, green figs and their syrup. It was a show-stopper.

5

Peppermint Crisp tart

Tony Jackman’s peppermint crisp caramel tart. Now you can have a turn at sending us your best dessert… (Photo: Tony Jackman)

I wanted this to be as peppermint-crispy as it could possibly be. The Springboks were nearing the final of that spectacular World Cup, and I fancied that the green shards represented their colours and their grit.

This recipe goes all out. I wrote in October: On the Peppermint Crisp chocolate bar front, most recipes are far too timid. The original recipe called for a mere three. Some use only two. Come on! I used two for the topping alone. With another five inside. Yes, five. It needs to sing of Peppermint Crisp like the Bokke singing the national anthem, not have a mere whiff of it.

Look at it this way: they won. Right? They must have had a slice each before going onto the field.

6

Mediterranean calamari and chorizo stew

Tony Jackman’s calamari and chorizo stew. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

In March, I decided to cook calamari the other way; not for three minutes but at least 30. I wrote: Let’s cook calamari the slow way for a change. Combining it in a very Mediterranean stew with chorizo and anchovies and boy… my next thought was, why have I never made this before?

We all know, if we’ve ever cooked calamari, that the likelihood of it turning chewy in barely three minutes is almost guaranteed. But we also know that the other way to cook it is long and slow. So I glared at the chorizo in my crisper for a while and something in my head went zing. I still had an open jar of anchovy fillets, and within minutes this recipe was formulated.

7

Roasted butternut soup

And then there was this butternut soup. My starting point here was to take it as far as it could possibly go, to up every bit of potential flavour and deliciousness. That meant: roasting. And a few other things.

I wrote, in May: Butternut is not short on flavour in its own right. Even if simply roasted with salt and pepper and a splash of olive oil, its caramelisation will turn it into a flavour bomb. But, by the same token, butternut can take on plenty of other flavours, and that is what this soup is all about. The butternut is roasted with cardamom, star anise, cinnamon sticks, onion and garlic for an hour before you even start to make the soup, finishing it off with fresh orange juice and zest. The result is a soup with a whack of flavour that’s best served with butter-fried crunchy croutons.

8

Eight-hour shoulder of lamb

Tony Jackman’s eight-hour shoulder of lamb with rosemary and garlic. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

There has to be lamb. And this recipe for it is pretty classic: garlic and rosemary. But the third ingredient is time.

I wrote in March: For many people, the usual choice is either shank or leg when you’re talking about a lamb slow roast. But if you haven’t yet discovered the charms of a shoulder of lamb, you have been sorely deprived… I went all out with garlic and rosemary, a classic and wise pairing for lamb at any time. Neither ingredient changes the innate flavour profile of lamb meat; both only enhance it so that the delicious appreciation is glorified rather than masked.

9

Mutton yoghurt curry with fried cumin onions

Tony Jackman’s mutton yoghurt curry with fried cumin onions and saffron basmati rice. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

But there has to be mutton too, and curry. What added a bit of magic to this mutton curry was two things: yoghurt, and finishing it with cumin fried onions.

I wrote in April: Don’t mess about with also-ran yoghurt for this recipe. Go right for the full cream version, thick and luscious and a beauty to work with. Plan to start a day ahead or at least in the morning for that night.

I don’t usually marinate meat for a curry; in fact I don’t remember ever having done so. But times are always up for a-changin’ and it occurred to me to throw a spicy marinade together for the mutton pieces I’d earmarked for a curry. Pieces? Anything in chunks, whether neck, shank, leg, or a mixture of the above. Ribs are great in a curry too, whether mutton or lamb.

10

Southern Fried Chicken in your air fryer

Tony Jackman’s Kentucky Fried Chicken style chicken wings cooked in an air fryer. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

Finally, in the year in which we introduced our weekly AirFryday feature, there had to be an air fryer recipe. I was really chuffed with how these southern fried chicken portions turned out when cooked in an air fryer.

I wrote in June: Here’s some southern comfort brought to you not by Colonel Sanders but courtesy of your air fryer. That’s right, we’ve adapted a good ole southern family favourite for the electronic beast in your kitchen that you’ve been getting to know better lately.

It’s a fairly straightforward recipe. In one bowl, you whisk eggs and buttermilk together. In another, you mix flour and cornflour with a range of spices and dried herbs. The chicken portions get dipped into the liquid mixture first, then into the seasoned flour, and then they go right into your air fryer.

And with that, see you next week, when I will be sharing with you my pick of the first five years of TGIFood. We started in the final weeks of December 2018, a year before the pandemic was due to break out, with us blithely oblivious of the awfulness to come. But more about that next week, when we’ll be reminiscing and replaying some of the tales and recipes of those five years. See you then. DM