In today's Bite: Come on in winter, you are good enough to eat

Dhal with roti. Photo / Bite magazine

Find all your favourite bits from today's Bite magazine online. Follow the hyperlinks in Jo Elwin's editor's letter and lose yourself in bite.co.nz.

We are welcoming in winter this week with an easy pumpkin soup and a sustainable fish chowder with Thai flavours. It's also a good time to load up the freezer with chicken stock which we have an easy recipe for here.

Left to right: Goat raan, fish chowder and Coq au vin. Photos / Bite magazine

Come the weekend, get your slow cook on with Warren Elwin's recipes for braised beef ribs and coq au vin. Try slow-roasting a leg of goat or confit some pork cheeks if you are looking for something different.

Something else that will perk up dreary winter days are the fragrant spices in Ray McVinnie's Sri Lankan recipes. I have tasted his dhal with roti, fish with eggplant pickle and coconut custard with pineapple salad and, oh my goodness, they are good... and that roti is ridiculously easy to make.

Pumpkin is still plentiful and makes for a cheery-looking weeknight pizza and Sarah O'Neil has more good news on the winter produce front - we can hopefully enjoy fresh peppers, chillies, zucchini and peas for a little longer yet.

Left to right: Fish with eggplant pickle, coconut custard with pineapple salad and pumpkin pizza. Photos / Bite magazine

In our latest how-to video Ray is teaching us to make perfect rice, every time. Do it once and you will never do it any other way again, except of course in the rice cooker! And for that leftover rice? Peter Gordon helps us make the perfect fried rice here.

Come on in winter, you're good enough to eat.

- nzherald.co.nz