Alice Taylor celebrates old-fashioned cooking with recipes for a simple, tasty curry and a deliciously saucy chocolate pudding.
Spend any time online at the moment and you will notice there's a growing appetite for the past. Many have dubbed this the year of analogue, a reaction to our constant doomscrolling and digital overload.
I understand the pull. Recently I've taken up knitting and become completely absorbed in it. I bought a cheap, cheerful DVD player and started collecting second-hand DVDs. It feels grounding. It's the same with food; there's something deeply reassuring about returning to recipes that have stood the test of time.
Much of my own cooking is shaped by nostalgia, whether consciously or not. When I create cheap, cheerful meals, I'm almost always drawing on what my grandmothers taught me. They cooked through rationing, scarcity and economic uncertainty, and many of the most practical, affordable recipes we still rely on today were born out of those conditions.
Those lessons remain relevant. The techniques, ingredients and mindset that fed families then are often exactly what we need now.
My nana came to New Zealand from Fiji during the war, and the chicken curry recipe I share below is inseparable from my childhood. It's also one of the most popular recipes on my Instagram page. I'm sent photos of people’s recreations every week, from Poland to Singapore, Wellington to Iceland. My dad likes to joke that my nana never gave us the full recipe because, despite countless attempts, none of us have ever quite matched hers!
What makes this dish special is not complexity, but technique. Using affordable chicken on the bone, with the skin on, creates depth of flavour and richness, allowing you to get the most out of what you have spent.
Recipe: Nana’s Fijian Chicken Curry
Serves: 6; Cost per person: approx. $3.50; Total time to cook: 2 hours 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
5 onions, finely diced
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
Salt, to taste
1 kg bone-in chicken pieces or nibbles
1 can tinned tomatoes or 3 fresh tomatoes, diced
METHOD
Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add curry powder and turmeric and cook until fragrant.
Add onions, garlic and ginger. Season well and cook on low for at least 20 minutes until soft and deeply aromatic.
Add chicken and tomatoes. Season again, cover, and simmer gently for around 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Add a little water if needed. Serve with rice, naan and something tangy, such as mango chutney.
A Kiwi classic
This second recipe is inspired by my mum. As in many households, the Edmonds Cookery Book was a fixture in our kitchen, and it remains one book I would never, ever part with.
This chocolate self-saucing pudding draws on those classic Edmonds-style desserts. It uses fewer eggs, no butter, and more sauce, partly for cost reasons and partly because no one has ever complained about too much chocolate sauce. It feeds a family for less than $3.
Recipe: Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding
Serves: 6; Cost: approx $3; Time: 45 minutes
INGREDIENTS
Batter
⅓ cup brown sugar
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
⅓ cup cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1 egg
½ cup milk
3 tablespoons oil
Sauce
¼ cup cocoa powder
¾ cup brown sugar
2 cups boiling water
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180°C, or 160°C fan. Grease an ovenproof dish.
Mix batter ingredients until just combined and spread into dish.
Combine sauce ingredients except water and sprinkle over batter.
Pour boiling water over the top without stirring.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Serve hot.
Chocolate is now treated as a luxury, something we're advised to cut back on when money is tight. Yet this recipe, which is older than I am, costs only a few dollars to make and remains one of the most comforting chocolate desserts there is.
Chef Alice Taylor posts cooking videos as @alicetayloreats on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.
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