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Chinese New year is a time of celebration, togetherness, with plenty of feasting on delicious food. One of the dishes you will often see served is a whole Chicken. Chicken is a homophone for ji (吉, meaning ‘good luck’ and ‘prosperity’) and also signifies ‘a good beginning and end’ to the year. It’s usually offered first to your ancestors and the gods for blessings and protection. This whole roasted Sichuan Chicken from @omnivorescookbook is aromatic with the right amount of spice and heat and is juicy and delicious inside, with crispy skin on the outside.

There’s nothing quite like a créme brûlee and this recipe with a hazelnut twist topped with cinnamon apples from German food blogger Lena Fuchs @mein_leckeres_leben is quite the showstopper. Don’t be put off, this delicious dessert isn’t too difficult to make and the smiles around the table as your guests crack the hard toffee top with their spoon when you serve it up, will make it worth it.

As much as we love a traditional Christmas meal, down here in the warmer Southern Hemisphere, the thought of a table full of hot food isn’t always appealing. If you’re on the look-out for festive feast alternative to hot roast potatoes, look no further. This cold, minty and herby potato salad will hit the spot and it keeps for 2-3 days in the fridge – perfect for Boxing Day catch ups and easy meals with all that left-over ham. Yummy.

Glazed baked ham is a bit of a Christmas crowd-pleaser, served warm with a selection of sides for the main meal, and dived into later for late-night festive snacks, served cold with mustard in a crunchy roll or fresh bread. This glaze is easy to make, tastes out of this world and is the perfect sweet partner for a picture perfect finish.

There’s nothing like fresh asparagus, and in New Zealand, we are extremely lucky (for a very limited time) to get it straight from the garden to the table. This Jamie Oliver risotto recipe takes the best of spring fresh flavours, marrying fresh mint, asparagus and lemon, all currently in season and at their tastiest. Easy to make, delicious to eat, if you wanted to add some protein, you could always throw in some cooked bacon, or some hot smoked salmon would also taste spectacular alongside this rice dish.

Spring has sprung, the blossoms are on the trees and the days are warming up. This recipe encompasses the freshness and vibrancy of the start of the warmer months. A classic fluffy herby French bread served alongside a palette pleasing pea and mint soup. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a hosting a Spring lunch.

There’s nothing like a home-baked scone, fresh from the oven, golden brown, crunchy on the outside, soft and warm on the inside. We love serving ours with some butter when the scones are cool enough to handle, straight from the oven, so the butter is all melty and delicious. Try baking some of these spectacular savoury scones this weekend – you won’t regret it.

This recipe from British-Vietnamese chef, restaurateur and author Thuy Pham (@chef_thuy_pham) with chopped seasoned prawns nestled within sweet Romano peppers is a wholesome choice that doesn’t compromise on flavour. Whether paired with a refreshing salad, fluffy rice, or comforting noodles – enjoy the perfect balance of healthy eating and indulgence in every bite!

With apples in abundance at this time of year and the cold wintery evenings, it feels like the perfect time to make this easy and delicious pie. Our passionate home cook, Amanda created something special to celebrate Matariki, Māori New Year in New Zealand. The Matariki stars number nine, so you might need to cut a slightly larger slice that has the correct amount, just to make it official.

Taste isn’t defined by the length it takes to cook something or the amount of ingredients if this deliciously moreish soup is anything to go by. Four ingredients, some oil and herbs and you have yourself the most hearty, tasty winter soup imaginable.

This is the quintessential Autumn/Winter comfort dish. Soft pillows of handmade gnocchi, served with grilled, caramelised wedges of pumpkin in a sage butter sauce. Sounds too delicious to be true – but it’s not! And if the thought of making your own gnocchi sounds too onerous, we promise, it’s well worth the small effort for the large and tasty rewards.

This is a fantastic recipe to create with younger children as it’s ridiculously easy and lots of fun to make. The only difficulty will be stopping the mini eggs being eaten before decorating and the hour-long wait before the nets are set.

Quite the table centrepiece, this Guard of Lamb is something to behold. We know lamb racks can be quite expensive, but since Easter is a bit of a special occasion, we believe it’s well worth splashing out on them for this recipe. The delicious herbed crust has to be tasted to be believed and browning the lamb first and cooking it at a high temperature means you can finish it to your preferred level of rare to medium.

Nothing says ‘Easter’ like a hot cross bun. These are super tasty and packed full of fruit and spice. You need a bit of time to let them prove (30-90 minutes) but other than this, they take no time at all to make and bake. Serve them warm from the oven with plenty of butter (or try with cream cheese). You can also store them and toast them the next day, if you can wait that long to try them.

Dark, malty and chocolatey, soft in the center and crunchy on the outside, these moreish cookies are a great way to use up any left over mini eggs. Look, who are we kidding, we know you probably won’t have any left over, if you don’t, no worries! Just substitute with chopped milk chocolate or white chocolate. Rye flour is filled with vitamins and minerals and is high in potassium and magnesium. It’s also much lower in gluten than wheat, so is great for those wanting to consume less gluten in their diet.

What better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day than indulging in Nigella Lawson’s slightly fancier take on the Irish classic, Colcannon. You could swap out the kale for cabbage if you didn’t have any on hand. We think this would be a great side dish for a classic Irish Stew (with a glass or two of Guinness of course!)

While this delicious duck recipe was created to celebrate Chinese New Year by Vietnamese Chef Thuy Pham, we think sliced crispy duck breast with a juicy interior, served alongside a fruity, savoury sauce filled with Asian flavour, sounds far too good to only enjoy once a year. You could serve alongside rice or vermicelli noodles.