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 [...]
There are a few variations on this classic salt cod dish from the south of France. Basically, it is a purée of salt cod, olive oil, milk, garlic and sometimes potato and cream. Some cooks omit the garlic, I like it included. The Basques like it with peppers, tomatoes and garlic, the Bretons prefer it [...]
Yesterday, at Kureelpa, it was 38°C, with high humidity, until about 8.30pm, when a cool wind blew and the temperature fell. We had dinner guests and so I had spent the day in the very hot kitchen rather than the pool. I had planned my menu without factoring in the heat! One of the desserts [...]
Serves 4 - 6 Clafoutis is a rustic, country farm house, ‘batter style’, dessert, hailing from the Limousin region of France and is traditionally made with cherries. The original recipe calls for whole cherries with the pits in them, as the pits impart an almondy flavour; however, I always pit mine for more enjoyable eating. [...]
The International Wine and Food Society, Melbourne Branch, recently hosted a Masterclass in risotto cooking, presented by Beverly Sutherland Smith. The first dish was this ‘basic risotto’ as taught at the Swiss Hotel School in Lausanne in Switzerland’. The method of cookery is quite liberating as it requires very little stirring and, consequently, is very easy [...]
My food philosophy is to eat local food in season. The beginning of a new season is always exciting for those cooks who cook with seasonal produce; it allows enjoying a fresh new range of fruits, vegetables, meats and fish when they are at their best, at their most flavoursome and full of vitamins. Each [...]
Preparing for the weekend Italian classes, I was reading a lovely book called Acquacotta: recipes and stories from Tuscany’s secret silver coast, by Emiko Davies, given to me, recently, by my dear friend Jenny Peters. Along with some wonderful Tuscan recipes, Emiko mentions the story of Stone Soup or in Italian zuppa di sasso. This [...]
