Fish and fire
The hiss and pop of whole fish above a crackling fire – these sounds are as synonymous with summer as sunblock is. There are many approaches you can take when braaing fish. Try whole rainbow trout wrapped in wet newspaper – great for moist, juicy flesh. If it's crispy skin you want, try salt-encrusted sardines on open coals.

Flavour yellowtail by burning a bushel of herbs underneath it so that the aromatic smoke subtly infuses the fish. Or baste butterfish with chilli-infused oil and layer with tomato and onion. Lannice Snyman (try her braaied fish with apricot glaze, below) advises that you keep things simple over open coals. Season with olive oil, salt and pepper – and let the fish do the talking.

Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall and Nick Fisher's The River Cottage Fish Book has five golden rules for braaing fish.

Light the fire well in advance, then wait until the flames have died down and the coals are glowing under a layer of white ash.
Preheat the bars of the grill so that the skin and flesh of the fish are seared immediately. To achieve, this put the grill over the fire 10 minutes prior.
Oil the fish, not the grill. Make sure the fish is completely dry before you do this. Dip your fingertips in oil and massage it over the flesh and skin of the fish.
Don’t move the fish too soon. It will take a couple of minutes before the fish has been properly sealed enough to be turned without tearing.
Be firm and decisive when turning the fish. Slide a wide metal spatula underneath the fish, loosen it from the grill, and then quickly flip it over.

Lannice Snyman is giving away two copies of her book Tortoise and Tumbleweeds.
Click here to enter now.

Two readers can also each win a signed copy of Jason Atherton’s Maze: The Cookbook.
Click here to enter now.

Liquid dessert
Summer is well and truly upon us. And when it's so hot, most people don’t feel like a heavy dessert. So why not drink your pud?

Red oil for health
Carotino Palm Fruit Oil is naturally red in colour. Its rouge hue is the result of high levels of pigmented compounds called carotenoids – a rich source of vitamin A

Deliciously dry
It seems that dehydrating ingredients is the latest thing.

Read me
Cathy Erway's memoir, The Art of Eating In, was inspired by her blog, Not Eating Out in New York.

Mpumalanga Wine Show
12-14 March
Making up for the lack of vineyards in Mpumalanga, wine guru Michael Fridjhon, mastermind behind the big-league expo WineX, is brining the best of the winelands to the Lowveld.

Wellington Wine Harvest
20-22 March
The town's folk didn't decide to dub this place Hellington on a whim - it gets absolutely scorching here in summer.

Groot Gat Fees
20 to 22 March
The home of the legendary 3 106-carat Culinan Diamond also boasts the biggest mine hole, hence the imaginative name for this fest

Taste of Cape Town
24 to 28 March
It's the time of year again when the Mother City's gastronomes can treat themselves to tastes of the best culinary creations in the restaurant business.

Tonteldoos Country Festival
3 April
Hot on the heels of the peach harvest, the tiny village of Tonteldoos presents it's annual Country Festival, and with it, its iconic punch-packing mampoer.