Judging by the Instagram stories I’m seeing every day, the only way to get through this lockdown is to be in the kitchen cooking and baking up a storm.
From homemade bread to slow-cooked pasta sauce, it feels like half of Australia is gearing up to be a Masterchef-worthy home cook. But now that we’re entering week four of self-iso, the recipe ideas (and motivation) might be drying up.
But there’s no need to reach for the instant Alfredo packets just yet. Australian culinary icon – and owner of our hearts – Maggie Beer has come through with some incredible content on her social media.
Every day the restaurateur and host of The Great Australian Bake Off will be sharing new instructional vids on her Facebook and Instagram, showing us all how to whip up delicious rustic dishes in less than 20 minutes.
“I’m just doing really simple food that we love to eat ourselves,” she says in one video.
Coming at us from her epic country kitchen in the Barossa valley, Cook With Maggie is truly wonderful and wholesome. Maggie aims to use simple ingredients that you’ve probably already got at home, or are easy to get your hands on.
It’s exactly the kind of food you want to be eating right now: rustic oven-baked chicken with tomatoes from her garden, beetroot and chickpea salad, pumpkin and oat risotto.
Maggie says that the one thing she can’t cook without is high-quality Aussie extra-virgin olive oil. For other things, like verjuice, she gives more standard ingredients you can substitute in.
In each video, she seems genuinely excited and passionate about the recipe and food, it’s infectious. As she cooks, she slips in little tips and anecdotes so it almost feels like you’re sitting in the kitchen with your grandma while she’s cooking.
And a special shout out to one of her first episodes, where she wore a Kath & Kim apron – what an icon.