There’s something special about a potluck. It’s where family favourites meet discoveries, where recipes carry stories, and where one table holds many hands and hearts. This collection celebrates dishes made to be shared—easy to transport, generous in flavour, and perfect for bringing people together. Whether you’re feeding a crowd or contributing just one beloved dish, these recipes are all about comfort, connection, and the joy of sharing good food.

Chicken And Veg Stew With Dumplings

INGREDIENTS



3 to 4 pieces of bone meat

1 tablespoon garlic

½ teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon green chilli masala

½ teaspoon haldi

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon thyme / fresh

1 teaspoon garlic and herb

Salt

A can or a pack of mushroom soup

Veggies

3 carrots

Celery sticks

3 baby marrow

1 big onion sliced

Dumplings: recipe

2 cups self-raising flour

125g grated butter

Salt

Pepper

Cold water

METHOD

In a large deep pot or saucepan, add oil, ginger, garlic, and green masalas. Braise for 1 minute, and add the bone chicken. Allow to cook for 5 minutes. Now add 250ml of water and allow to boil until the chicken is cooked. Now, remove all the chicken from the bone and dispose of the bones. Add the canned mushroom soup and cook for 2 minutes. Add the fried veggies, mix well and lastly the dumplings with at least 1 to 2 cups of water and cook on low until the dumplings rise and cook.

Veggies

In the meantime :

In a pan, fry all veggies and fry for at least 15 minutes until the onion starts to change colour.

Dumplings :

Add all the dry ingredients, then using a grater, grate the butter into the mixture and using your hand, mix everything by forming crumb-like dough, not adding water to bind and make dough.

Memon Akni

RECIPE

1 chicken or 1 kg of mutton meat

1 large onion, finely chopped

Soak 2 teaspoons whole Jeeru (Cumin)

5 cardamon pods

7 cloves,

2 cinnamon sticks

and 12 black peppercorns.

METHOD

Braise onions in a little oil, and just before they turn gold.  Add the soaked spices to the water

and close the lid of the pot, this gives it a lovely flavour.

When onions are golden, add your chicken or meat pieces and 1 tablespoon ginger garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons Jeeru (Cumin) powder,½ teaspoon turmeric. Let it cook until done.  

Then add 2 cups liquidised tomato and 1 green pepper liquidised with 3 teaspoons of paprika and hot chilli powder according to taste, and 2 teaspoons dhania (coriander) powder and cook.

Just half an hour before lunch time, add water about 4 and a half cups, and for 2 and a half cups of rice, add 2 teaspoons of salt.

When water boils, add your soaked rice and 8 to 10 pieces of fried potatoes, and 1-2 cups frozen vegetables..Cook on high heat and stir the rice several times.

When little water is left, simmer and cover the lid till the rice is cooked. steam

Garnish with fresh chopped coriander.

Orange And Lemon Pudding

INGREDIENTS

½ cup (125 g) butter at room temperature

3 jumbo or extra-large eggs at room temperature

3 tablespoons (45 ml) apricot jam

1 heaped t (5 ml) each of grated lemon and orange rind

1 x 600 g  Vanilla Cake Mix

2 tablespoons (30 ml) lemon juice

¾ cup (180 ml) fresh orange juice

Sauce

½ cup (125 ml) water

1 heaped t (5 ml) each of grated lemon and orange rind

½ cup (125 ml) fresh orange juice

2 tablespoons (30 ml) butter

½ cup (125 ml) sugar

¼ cup (60 ml) apricot jam

⅓ cup (80 ml) fresh lemon juice

METHOD

Adjust oven shelf to the middle position.

Preheat oven to 180C °C, Butter a 23cm x 30cm ovenproof dish.

Cream butter until soft. Add one egg and one tablespoon of dry Cake Mix at a time and beat in thoroughly. Continue in this way until all three eggs have been beaten in.

Add apricot jam together with lemon and orange rind and beat in. Add one-third of the dry Cake Mix to the creamed mixture. Beat in on slow speed.

Add lemon and orange juice. Beat slowly to blend. Add the remaining cake mixture and fold in by hand with a spatula. Scrape mixture into prepared dish. Bake for 45 minutes.

While the pudding is baking, heat all the sauce ingredients to a boil. When you remove the pudding from the oven, prick it with a fork many times all over. Pour hot sauce over the pudding. Serve warm or at room temperature with custard or whipped cream.