Salt has been used since ancient times to preserve food, such as salmon gravlax, and in the koshering of meat; it is still used so today. Unfortunately, it is also a most misunderstood food. Like a lot of other foods, such as fat, it went out of favour last century as it was linked to [...]
Dukkah is an old Egyptian specialty condiment. It is a loose blend of nuts and spices in a dry, crushed but not to a powdered, form. The name “Dukkah” is derived from the Arabic word “to pound” referring to how all the spices are pounded together to prepare the dish. It is a very personal [...]
Makes 2 loaves There are many versions of this recipe. Anne Willan, of La Varenne Cooking School in Burgundy, included her pain d’épices in a couple of her many books on French Cuisine, ‘The country cooking of France’ and ‘Real Food’. Recently, in St Jean de Losne, Burgundy, our host cooked her grandmother’s pain d’épices for [...]
After our visit to the red craw crayfish farm in Wolvi, and cooking those delicious red craws I wrote about in a previous post, I used the red craw shells to make my fabulous, flavoursome crab stock. Usually I make this stock as I have written in this recipe below with blue swimmer crabs. When [...]
Last Saturday, friends invited us to join them on a foodie road trip around Pomona and Kin Kin to visit a few local producers, who are part of the Cooloola Farm Food Trail. Our first stop was the fresh water crayfish farm, Alba Aquaculture at Wolvi, near Kin Kin and on the Kin Kin–Gympie road, [...]
Ingredients Makes 300ml 2 large egg yolks 1 clove garlic minced Pinch of saffron threads infused into the lemon juice or olive oil 2tbsp lemon juice, plus extra if needed 250ml sunflower oil 120ml extra virgin olive oil sea salt and white pepper To make the aïoli: In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, [...]
Serves 6 500ml cranberry juice 110g caster sugar 12 grams gelatine leaves* 2 punnets strawberries 2 punnets of blueberries Our home made creamy vanilla bean ice cream For the jelly: soak the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water for 2 minutes until softened and they look like wet cellophane. Meanwhile, place 250ml of [...]
I thought you might like to try this dish now that sorrel is back in season. It looks like a long recipe, but it may be prepared in stages and is really very simple. It is a perfect dish for Spring and Summertime entertaining. Serves 8 8 x 120g ocean trout fillet, sashimi grade, pin [...]
Spring is such a wonderful time of year with so many beautiful fruits and vegetables in season to awaken our palettes and brighten our cooking after the dreariness of winter. Writing today, on this gloriously sunny, warm Melbourne September day, one feels alive and vibrant, just like this wonderful new season's harvest. So off you [...]
The amuse-bouche is the French word for appetiser. In Australia we tend to call these little pre-meal delicacies ‘hors d’oeuvres’, and to the Italians they are antipasto. In France in the 15th century, hors d’oeuvres was used as an architectural term that referred to an outbuilding, the 'hors d’oeuvre', or 'outside the work'. By the [...]
