The Top 10 Most Popular Recipes of 2024
The top ten recipes of the year
I have spent a lot more time on writing up and publishing my recipes on this website this year, and you seem to enjoy it! Traffic to the website has increased significantly month-on-month, and these were the most popular recipes this year.
These are the Top Ten Most Popular Recipes:
How to Make the Best Braai Broodjie
South Africans love a good Braai Broodjie, , which for overseas readers not familiar with it, is like a toasted sandwich made on the braai. And if you’re not familiar with the word braai, this is the word South Africans use for a barbecue. There. Now you know the most important South African (Afrikaans) words in our lexicon.
A real braai starts off with some hard wood and a roaring fire. Once the logs have turned to coal, it is time to braai! While South Africans love meat, this vegetarian alternative is a crowdpleaser. And if a braai is not a braai without meat, I challenge you to think differently: a braai is not a braai without a braai broodjie!
Try it yourself using the recipe below. For the ultimate braai broodjie, I have included some tips and tricks, or “Ten Commandments”. And then of course there’s the secret ingredient: bobotie!
9. Pear & Brie Cheese Pastry
This Pear & Brie Cheese Pastry Square recipe is easy. delicious, crunchy! A crowd pleaser that can be put together in less than an hour.
I made this on on the Expresso show and it was a huge hit!
8. Parmesan & Hellmann’s Mayo Chicken
This Parmesan Mayonnaise Chicken recipe will become an instant favourite for both family dinners and gatherings with friends.
The chicken is easily prepared in the airfryer.
7. Berry Compote Recipe
I first tried out this Berry Compote recipe when I had a Mother’s Day themed cook-with-me demo coming up, at Makerslanding by the V&A Waterfront. I wanted to add a slightly sour element to the dish, to prevent it from being too sweet as I was going to serve the flapjacks (recipe here) with my childhood favourite peanut brittle (recipe here) as well!
6. Five steps to ensure you make the Best Risotto
Ah, risotto – the creamy, comforting Italian dish that holds a special place in the hearts of food lovers worldwide. While its velvety texture and rich flavours make it a standout dish on restaurant menus, making risotto at yourself at home is not easy. Risotto demands patience and following a few steps religiously.
These are the five essential steps that I found guarantee success in creating delicious risotto. Follow these guidelines and you'll soon be wielding a wooden spoon with confidence.
5. Duck Leg Confit
Many people are not confident cooking duck. If you don’t know how to prepare it properly, duck leg can be tough or even dry. But when cooked well, it is delicious.
I love this recipe as you get an amazing result without the feeling of excessive cooking times. It is a bit of a cheat confit in terms of time.
Together with the beetroot and coriander salad, this is a great low-carb meal.
Dutch Apple Pie
While it should be no surprise that I am the cook of the Roasted family, few of you will know that The Roasted Mom is the baker. She’s been making this traditional Dutch apple pie for me since we first got together fourteen years ago.
Nothing is better than a warm slice of Dutch apple pie!
3. How to Prepare an Ostrich Steak
This salad is light, yet filling and as it can be served up warm or cold, it makes the perfect dish!
2. Fluffiest Flapjack Recipe
We often take some time on the weekend to make a nice breakfast together with the kids. And of course on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day this is a must. But these flapjacks are so delicious, they double-up as a wonderful desert of afternoon treat as well.
After making flapjacks from scratch many times, I have learned a trick to make the flapjacks extra fluffy.
1. The Best Marie Biscuit Fudge Recipe
Nostalgic sweet treats and my childhood are linked to the church bazaar favourite, Marie Biscuit fudge. I grew up making these for church sales, school bake sales and later I even had my first enterprise selling them for R1 a packet to all the local neighbours. To bring back my awesome memories of my first entrepreneurial endeavours we got Aiden setup at our local market! This Marie biscuit fudge recipe is based on my childhood one, with a few tweaks I made ahead of the market.
Enjoy! Please tag me on Instagram if you make any of my recipes, I love to see it!
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About Shawn Godfrey
Photo credit: Niki M Photography
Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.
Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.
It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.
On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (6), Olivia (4) and Harvey (2).
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