Category Archives: Home cooking

The Big B/C

Making Bacon

G’day Tony.

Well, I’m a little stunned. No, I’m mortified.

How can the UN tag what can only be described in every other way a ‘superfood’ as cancer causing? Of course, I’m talking about bacon.

Alright, so they don’t say it actually causes cancer, but the research suggests that it can increase the risk of certain types of cancer. It does make me wonder though. Given our intake of counter-cancer causing foodstuffs like gin and tonic, I wonder whether this still holds true?

I notice you’ve sourced some locally made bacon? There are many local producers here, unsurprisingly. But just to mix things up a little, I’ve started making my own.

It actually pretty simple, though I use a nitrite mix, rather than the traditional salt cure. But that makes it easier to get some flavours into the meat. The last batch had some bourbon and maple syrup and of course some hickory smoke from the smoker box.

The wonderful thing about the web is accessing some really high quality pork belly for purpose. While there is plenty of pork at the local butchers, I’m just not sure of its source. Am now hunting down some old fashion breed with a good mix of meat and fat.

I wonder if I can source some of that elusive Wagyu pork that one might find in Hong Kong?

Happy bacon-ing in the interim.

Daniel

 

 

Winter fruit

redpapaya

Hi Tony,

Living in the tropics certainly has its benefits. Something I’ve always envied. Though we don’t get it so bad here either.

Apple season has just finished, but there are still some good late season varieties around. The demand for tropical fruit here is pretty high too. We’re especially lucky, as you know the Vietnamese community is significant here. The demand for tropical fruit and vegetables is high. Though it does seem a little odd when the temperature outside barely reaches double figures.

Still some mangos around, as well as some mangosteens. Most are coming from Northern Territory.

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One of my neighbours grows a lot of his own food, which in itself is a feat in inner city. Only a couple of weeks ago Mo gave us a bag of tamarillos. Fabulous little bundles of sweet and tart goodies. If you’ve never had one, they are a little like passionfruit, but with some flesh. I’m a big fan of them.

Tamarillo

Just down the road from us are a host of grocers, butchers and fish mongers. Buying fresh ingredients every day is the way it’s done. If only I didn’t work full time, I could do the same!

We’re off to the snow this weekend. Finally there is some snow. The natural tendency is to cook huge amounts of high carb food, pasta, etc. but it simply doesn’t get cold enough here to burn that many calories.

Balancing a good warming, hearty meal without too many calories is the trick. I’ll let you know how that goes. Either that or I’ll have to ski a bit harder.

Time to find some of our thermals.

Daniel 

 

Bad air

Hi Tony.

Happy World Gin Day!

I know. It really should be World Gin Day every day.

MGC

Sounds like Portugal and Spain were pretty special. Breakfast beer snacks? I think you’re onto something. But I think they should stick to their beer and maybe wine. Gin & Tonics in Spain? Maybe it’s better than some of the overpriced, rather simple versions you are subject to in SE Asia?

Winter is upon us, but we live in constant fear of those pesky (possibly) disease carrying mossies. Luckily there haven’t been any reported cases of malaria in some time, but I put that down to herd immunity. My efforts alone should be enough to protect vast swathes of the community. It’s my little bit for the greater good.

There has been a surge in the interest in gin here. So much so I would put some of the local gins up against most any others. My personal favourite is from Yarra Valley, Four Pillars (www.fourpillarsgin.com.au), though the newer Melbourne Gin Company (www.melbournegincompany.com) from right here is also more than acceptable. While the “standard” fare have beautifully balanced botanicals, the Four Pillars Barrel Aged has a little vanilla toastiness that makes it perfectly fine to sip over some ice…no tonic needed.

FourPillars

FourPillarsBarrelAged

I was lucky enough to be treated to some very special gin from Scotland the other day courtesy of Alex & Amanda. Sipped over some ice, the Caorunn packed a juniper punch that almost gave you “cat’s bum” perse. Smooth as a well-worn…sporran! The NB was a little rougher around the edges. Good, but not as good.Caorunn

NB

So much for the gin. Let’s get to the tonic. No, I don’t mean overpriced, genuine imitation quinine and sugar filled soda water. I mean the real McCoy! Tonic syrups have been a revelation for me over the last 12 months. They all have their own quirks, it’s worth having a few in the fridge ready to go.

CBsTonicSyrupHabersTonicSyrup

Made with actual quinine, a bunch of botanicals and unrefined sugars, these things pack a healthy bitter punch. Want more bite, merely add a dash more. Oh, having a Soda Stream or the like is ideal. Then there isn’t even a need to buy soda water for the spritz.

What I find strange is that many of these are made in the US. Not somewhere I normally associate with G&T’s.

LiberTonicSyrup

My favourite syrup at the moment is C & B’s. My preference is a 1:4:1 mix with soda water and gin.

Only Bitters in Melbourne (www.onlybitters.com) carries a pretty good range.

It’s a cool day today and I’ve picked up some awful lurgy on public transport, so I am forced to be a philistine and not have a gin. I feel bad not being able to celebrate gin on this auspicious day.

Need to keep moving. Slow braised beef is nearly ready to put a pastry top on it and throw it back in the oven. Might even light a fire tonight…to keep the mossies away of course.

Cheers,

Daniel

Cocktail Hour(s)

Hey Dan,

Yes, it has been too long. Oops.

The New Year’s Resolution was to put in a bit more effort at meeting people in our adopted hometown, so the plan is to go to the opening of a paper bag if there’s an invite.

As a result we’ve been doing a lot of standing around at cocktail functions, and noticing just how badly they’re done a lot of the time. So, in no particular order, here’s a list of things to consider for your next function from a (slightly pickled) expert:

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honestslogans.com

1 Finger food. Notice the name. It implies food that may be eaten using one’s fingers. Anything much bigger than a Ritz cracker is not really going to work. Roast meat is lovely, but not to be served in giant slices at a stand-up cocktail function. If you expect people to balance a glass, a plate, a knife and fork, expect broken crockery and glassware. If you’re doing it at home here’s the world’s simplest recipe: buy roast duck from your nearest Asian restaurant; cut into pieces and place on plain rice crackers; add half a teaspoon of hoi sin sauce and a little spring onion. Viola! Finger food. How difficult is that?

Martini

 

Martini = no fruit!

2 Drinks. Okay, while it’s called a cocktail function, usually martinis are sadly absent. (When I say martini I mean gin and a waft of vermouth; anything with more fruit than a twist of lemon is not a martini). Why is it a cocktail function, and why must I wear cocktail attire,  if there are no cocktails? Usually you’ll get wine of both colours and beer. If you’re lucky, one of the three will be palatable. Boozy types – yes, we’ve been to a few Austcham Thailand functions – will inevitably gravitate towards the service area. Set up a couple, otherwise those blokes in suits will have the effect of a black hole on light waves – nothing is going to get out. And here’s a hint: if you put the food and booze service areas in the same place in the venue, it’s going to get crowded there.

3 Venues. These types of functions are bread and butter for hotels, and most event organisers don’t have enough imagination to see past them. There are other options. In Hong Kong recently we went to an event at Umami Concepts, which is pretty-much a large two-room apartment with a big semi-commercial open kitchen. Stand-up cocktail party? Check. Cocktails even. Also cooking classes, events like olive oil tastings, and a decent place to film cooking shows, so I expect it’s rather busy. It’s a great idea in Asia, where space is at a premium, and because it was essentially run by the chef, with one waiter doing the clearing duties. Good thinking.

Now if you’ll pardon me – it’s getting close to the  cocktail hour and I need to suit-up.

 

 

 

 

 

Summer sausage

Xmas cupcakes

Hi Tony.

Ah, ok, so it’s about 2 months since the last blog. My fault! I know I wanted to. I intended to, but stuff got in the way. The festive season for one. Speaking of which, happy new year!

So, we ended up having a quiet Christmas. No travelling this year, just time to catch up on overdue things and spend a little time getting fit and losing the “post-wedding/honeymoon, I ate too much good food” extra weight.

Despite the promise of summer, Melbourne has had a mixed bag of weather. Only some of which has been BBQ worthy. Not letting some rain and thunderstorms dent my enthusiasm, I’ve made another batch of sausages. Every batch seems to get a little better. Or more to the point, I seem to learn a little more.

Thai fixings

I thought back to when we made a batch of Thai chicken sausages and thought I had better give that another crack. Here’s something I learnt this time…mincing chicken in a domestic style mincer…doesn’t work for sh*t. Not sure if you will detect any frustration there, but there was plenty! Tip for young players…buy minced chicken!

Ok, another thing I learned. I bought some collagen casings from my butcher about 9 months ago and kept them in the fridge. Who would have guessed, but they dried out a little much and became fragile. So I had to adapt. I figured out a way to still use them (winning)! Easy as it turns out, simply fill them to ½ to ¾ what you would normally do and after a few mins the mix will soften the casing enough that you can squeeze the mix down further and properly fill the casing. Eh, voile!

Thai chicken sausages

So here’s what I made this time:

  • Pork, sage, apple and brandy;
  • Trusty Italian (pork, sherry, fennel seeds and parsley);
  • Pork, dried apricot, pistachio and saffron; and
  • Thai style chicken (chicken, ginger, garlic, chilli, fresh turmeric, lemongrass, kafir lime and coriander).

Italian sausages

The favourite? The Thai chicken. Pity I can’t do it anymore, but chicken, roast garlic and aged cheddar is pretty tasty too.

I really need to write down the quantities I use as I do the typical thing and play each by ear. I got the chicken and the Italian ones right, but more apple and brandy is needed and heaps more saffron.

All in all, that is about 6.5-7kgs of sausages. Freezer is full again!

Home made

Have you tried out your mincing/sausage machine yet? I would think with the abundance of interesting flavours you can get to, there would be some pretty fun options? I’m keen to try some duck based ones. The extra fat in the duck would help them hold up nicely I would think.

Don’t forget, get the leanest pork you can find and then add about 25% by weight of pork backfat. Even add some of that to the chicken sausages. Any less than that and the sausages dry out too much when you cook them. Oh, and I know I am preaching to the converted, but only ever BBQ them and on low heat. Slow is best.

 

I’ve Got Crabs!

 

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Hey Dan,

It was so nice to see you in Koh Samui, aka ‘The Big Smoke.’ Okay, the Big Smoke bit a relative thing, but when you can only get to the shops once a week, as is the case for those of us staying on remote islands, that weekly shop becomes important.

As the boy who usually goes grocery shopping twice a day (the first time to get the ingredients for a meal, and the second time to get the ingredients that I forgot, usually the main ones: the steak; the pasta; the eggs; anything that cannot be substituted with something from the cupboard) I can only try to describe a day’s shopping in Samui.

Transport is the first challenge – we need to organise a boat for the two-way trip, and a rental car.

Then there’s the list of destinations we need to hit. This week it was (in roughly this order): the nursery; the hardware store; the petrol station; the roadside seafood vendors; the French butchery; the wine shop; lunch with you and your good lady wife; the supermarket that does dry goods and half-way decent bread; the supermarket that does seafood, meat and fresh fruit and veg; the French bakery; the roadside fruit and vegetable vendors. Then all the goodies get piled onto the boat and away we go. Easy, right?

As I write this, the day-trippers have left. I’m breathing fresh air. I can just hear a boat in the distance over the lapping waves. And the colours are so vibrant I have to tear myself away to turn back to the screen. It is definitely worth the effort.

Crabs (1)

But from a grocery perspective, there are highs and lows…

The highs have to be the seafood. I love the guys on the beachfront strip in Nathon with their fresh crabs. We were about to choose a couple of blue swimmers from the table on ice, when the nice vendor pointed out she had some live ones. Excellent. I suspect she saves the rest for the rude Russians (I’ve watched it happen). A kilo of live crabs for 420 baht – very likely that’s the farang price, but I really don’t care.

We cooked the crabs (about 8 mins each in a big pot of water on a rolling boil), and scoffed down a couple with a crisp chardonnay that night.

Crabs

The third crab we saved for a spaghetti marinara that went something like this:

Ingredients:

8 Tiger prawns, peeled, headed and deveined (reserve shells and heads)

2 medium squid, cleaned and cut into rings

1 cooked crab, smash claws and pick meat (reserve shells)

1 can tomato pulp

1 large pinch of saffron

1 splash white wine

1 splash olive oil

1 brown onion, diced

1 clove garlic

parsley

basil

250g squid-ink pasta, cooked per instructions

Stock:

-heat olive oil in a pan, add prawn and crab shells and cook over a high heat until fragrant. Add 2 cups of water and simmer for 15 mins. Strain out shells, and reserve liquid, adding the saffron

Sauce:

-Cook the onions over medium heat until clear, add garlic and cook a minute longer

-Splash in half a glass of white wine.

-Add stock (above) and tomato pulp and reduce.

-When it reaches a saucy consistency, add squid and cook for five minutes.

-Add prawns and cook a further five minutes.

-Add crab and chopped parsley and warm through.

-Stir in the cooked pasta.

It’s rich, seafood-ey, tomato-ey and bloody nice. This much is probably nearly enough to feed four!

 

 

 

Pre-wedding diet

BullerSunrise

G’day Tony,

Ok, so I had to dust off the cob-webs (pardon the pun) and put some electrons on virtual paper. Humblest apologies for being off-line for so long, that’s if you missed me. If you didn’t miss me, sorry I am back.

Winter left in a hurry, replaced by all that is good about spring…except the snow melting, strong northerly winds, hayfever, the smell of dynamic lifter on the garden, changing clocks forward (daylight savings time) and school holiday madness in the city. Other than that, I love spring and all that it brings!

Our final weekend at Mt Buller brought together a great group of friends for a little bit of skiing and a lot of eating and drinking. A boisterous group at the lodge on the Saturday night partook in an array of goodies lovingly BBQ’d by Jim…chicken pieces marinaded in rosemary, garlic, chilli, olive oil and lots of fresh lemon zest and juice, slow braised pork belly (bbq’d to give a really nice caramelisation) courtesy of Alex and lamb rissoles with cumin, turmeric, smoky paprika, sumac, parsley and feta cheese…yep, fetta crumbled through the mix. Much, much goodness!

Some salads and freshly baked bread to round out the meat feast. Oh, and wine. Lots of wine!

Dessert was a surprise. I whipped up a chocolate self saucing pudding, while someone mixed together the fixings for a sticky date pudding. Confusion, wine, not sure which, but flour was inadvertently left out of the sticky date. Unsurprisingly the mix didn’t set. It was only then that the error was picked up. So, I did what any hungry (I was stuffed the gunnels, but still wanted sticky date pudding) I added a half amount of self raising flour, mixed and popped back in the oven. The comments when served surprised me…best sticky date pudding ever! Score!

The last few weeks have been a blur of pre-wedding diet food. Some stand out meals. Nah, who am I kidding. The stuff is okay, but is never going to substitute for real home cooked food!

Julia and I have an agreement. We must visit one nice restaurant a month. Not a big ask in a city like Melbourne. But being away every weekend and both of us super busy during the week, it simply hasn’t happened for a while. About to make up for it, though.

Was taken to Zia Rina’s Cucina by Phil from Armadale Cellars the other day for lunch. Phil’s been around the block a few times and he rates chef/owner Rina as good as any Michelin stared chef he’s seen on the continent. Must admit, the food is blindingly good. So much so, heading back there this week with a good friend who will be in town from Dubai. If any place can float Nick’s boat, this should do it. Oh, it’s BYO too, so I am going to hit Nick up to dust something off from his Arabian cellar…no doubt I will be doing the same from my cellar.

Honey-moon is fast approaching (next week). A few nights in Bangkok, to get into the groove. So, I booked us into Nahm and Gaggan. Both are listed in the top 50 restaurants in the world, but are they that good?

Sure, you can live it up in Thailand without spending a bomb, but I fail to understand how Nahm (rated #12 in the world) can cost BHT2,000/person (~AUD75.00) for degustation dinner, while the highest rated Australian restaurant, at #32, is giving you their experience at AUD190/person. I know, I know, this opens a Pandora’s box of arguments.

Pretty soon, we in Melbourne will play host to The Fat Duck. Yep, that Brayside stalwart which boasts a number of Michelin stars. For 6 months and 45 seats, that means 16,000 people will be served while they are in Melbourne. Getting a table…forget it. Ballot it will be, but at north of $525/person (ex-booze), it is almost cheaper to fly to England and experience it in its home location!

How much are you willing to spend (not including tip) and a meal to remember? Does it need to be a restaurant that is rated by Michelin, or S. Pellegrino or whichever is your go to restaurant reviewers?

For me, that memorable meal may be as simple as some hawker food on the foreshore of somewhere tropical, but it’s not going to stop me visiting Nahm and Gaggan. In the meantime, it is back to the microwave to “cook” dinner for tonight *sigh*

Catch you soon!

 

Daniel

Spring Lamb

Turkishbread

Hi Tony.

I see you were in New Zealand?! How was that? Did you survive the Savalanche?

Spring has sprung here. The weekend at Mt Buller was, well, winter seems like it is over. Warm day on Saturday and foggy, with a little rain on Sunday. Per usual, I worked both days but it was hard to keep the crew motivated in the rain. It wasn’t too hard to convince them that a coffee stop at Koflers was a good idea.

I’m not cooking as much at the moment. Nor are we going out terribly much. Pre-wedding diet don’t you know!

I am lucky enough to get a dinner a week at the local. The Carringbush is doing well to keep things fresh. A recent visit, Mick (one of the managers) let me know he picked up some Yarra Valley truffles from a mate. Who am I to turn down something yummy sprinkled with truffle shavings? There were a couple of offerings, but I found it hard to go past the veal backstrap schnitzel with truffled macaroni and cheese. So much truffly, cheesy goodness!

Mum & dad joined us for a meal later in the week. Royce went the chicken Kiev with lobster & scallop butter and mashed potato with shaved truffle. Also much truffly goodness. Hard to believe, but it was the first time Royce has had truffle.

Had hankering for a burger on Sunday whilst driving back from Buller. So it got me thinking. What could I do only on a BBQ, but be worthy to grace our table. Easy, lamb-burger with all sorts of goodies locked in. Even better, lamb-burger on some fresh home-made Turkish bread. I reckon you can do the bread on the BBQ too. Got to be the easiest bread, other than pizza base. Worth a try if BBQ is your only option.

The bread takes longest to make, so give yourself a good 90 mins:

400gm bread flour
8gm salt
4gm sugar
4gm dry yeast
10ml extra virgin olive oil
300ml water

Carefully weigh the dry ingredients in big bowl and mix. Take temperature of the dry mix. Add the olive oil and then water, but make sure temperature of water adds to 50 degrees with temp of dry ingredients (e.g. if dry mix is 20C, water needs to be 30C). Mix that mess for about 10 mins until the dough begins to pull away from the sides. Cover it with glad wrap and set in warm place for about 90 mins. It should rise to about 3x original.

Dough

When you’re good to go, turn it out onto a lightly greased tray very carefully. You don’t want to knock much air out of it. Lightly dust it with flour and/or sesame seeds and press finger tips in to make dents.

Bread

Whack in very hot 300C oven for about 10-13 mins. This is why I think you do it on the BBQ.

My lamb burger mix is simple, but oh so good on the fresh, hot Turkish bread. In a bowl, whack in an egg, a handful of chopped parsley, a teaspoon each of ground coriander seeds, cumin, smoked paprika and turmeric.

Spicemix

A splash of olive oil and the minced lamb. To really set if off, crumble some fetta into the mix and form into burger patties.

Burgermix

BBQ those bad boys and serve with some shaved cucumber, char-grilled eggplant and if you can wangle it, some chilli relish.

burgerfixingsJuliaandburgerlambburger

When are you heading back to the island? Or have you got a BBQ in Bangkok? Not even sure if you can get lamb easily in Thailand?

Better fly, rare moment, so should clean the house or something.

Cheers,

Daniel

Dough boy

Little Buller Spur

Hi Tony,

I’ve heard you are having some (tasty) wildlife issues on the island? Be interested to hear what recipes you come up with for them. Perhaps a nice game terrine?

As mentioned, we have been up at Mt Buller every weekend this season. It has been quite the season! Not only lots of snow, but snow of the kind you normally expect to find in North America or Europe. On Friday night, it was snowing at the entrance gate. First time I have seen that in about 25 years.

Mt Buller

One of things I find thoroughly entertaining, given we are staying in a lodge, is the amount of food people bring up. Sure, you’re out in the cold for a goodly portion of the day and maybe, just maybe, skiing pretty hard too (have no fear, that doesn’t include me).

I walked into the lodge on Friday night to see mountains of food stacked in the pantries. Thinking an infantry battalion was staying for 6 months in the modest 18 bed lodge gave way to the realisation that those up for the weekend had simply over-catered.

I haven’t had to cook in 3 weekends, with dinners with friends every night so far. Each is well versed in quantity planning, so I have been able to maintain my weight. My turn to cook this weekend, me thinks. The challenge is finding space in a crowded shared kitchen, so 1 pot dishes are preferred. I am erring on pulling some duck ragu from the freezer and serve it with some rissoni. Perhaps with a few slices of my hand-made bread? And a green salad. Can’t bring myself to make a 2kg lasagne for the 2 us.

If you’re interested in making some pretty easy bread, which is crusty and much goodness, I make a pasta dura. Try this, if you dare! Oh, word of advice, use scales and a good thermometer. Using those measuring cups/etc. simply won’t work.

250gm each of good baker’s flour and semolina

10g salt

5g dry yeast (much better than fresh yeast)

10ml light oil or fat

300ml water

Mix the dry ingredients together (you can add mixed seeds if you like, but add a little extra water if you do). Measure the temp of the dry mix (this is critical). Add the oil/butter/fat. Subtract the temperature of the dry mix from 50 and that is the temp the water you add needs to be (e.g. if the dry mix is 22C, the water must be 28C). Add the water and mix by hand until smooth. This will probably take about 10 mins. Cover in the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set aside in warm place with no draft for 1-2 hours. Mould into a loaf by pressing out into rectangle, fold corners in like you would for a paper plane and roll tightly (seam down). Return to bowl, cover and set aside until doubled in size.

Pre-heat oven to 220C. Spray loaf lightly with water and put in oven for 20 mins, spraying with water 2-3 times in that time. Reduce heat to 180C and cook another 40 mins. Remove and allow to cool a little.

I cook mine on a pizza dish with holes in it. Gives the loaf a great crust, but soft and good inside. Spread with lashings of butter and good honey or jam.

Pasta Dura

Not sure how I will go with a strange oven, but it is so worth the 3-4 hours to make. Perhaps you may have some time on the island to give it a go?

Better go and get some dinner sorted for my bride.

Cheers,

Daniel

Haute (altitude) cuisine

G’day Tony.

Sometimes it is the simple things which bring joy. While I enjoy it when restaurants serve me something extra-ordinarily complicated or hard to come by, I often prefer one that celebrates good produce, done simply, without fuss. My latest favourite is from our local pub, the Carringbush. While the menu is likely to change and it will vanish as fast as it arrived, their steak roll with beautifully cooked sirloin, smoky bacon, gruyere and some “garnish” is tasty simplicity.steaksandwich

Winter has well and truly arrived here in earnest. The snow has come quicker than expected after “snow-mageddon” hit. It’s cold and windy in Melbourne. People are sneezing. Days are short, but getting longer. Oh, and it seems schools are on holidays, again.

My weekends in Melbourne are rapidly coming to an end until late September.

As per usual, I’ll be heading up to the ski fields every weekend again this season. It sounds idyllic, but comes with its own set of problems, mostly of the domestic kind. On balance, our time in the snow is worth it.

The old joke goes a little like: how does a ski instructor become a millionaire? They start with $2 million.

The pity is I don’t have $2 million, but I am a ski instructor of sorts. Ok, technically I am a race coach, but same, same. So living in a place where people joke openly about the price of things, $10 for a can of cola and a chocolate bar? $25 for a basic pizza? It is simply not possible for a mere mortal like me to afford to pay for accommodation, beer, petrol, beer, parking, ski equipment, beer, ski clothing (ok, some of that is well looked after, thanks I/O Merino) and the obligatory post ski beer. Something has got to give. Notice the omissions? Yep, food and wine.

It’s easy to carry a bottle up each weekend, but someone drops by before dinner and *poof* that bottle you brought up to have with the <insert pre-prepared meal> is gone. So, you bring a couple bottles up, just in case. And drink them both even if nobody drops by.

Ok, pre-prepared meal. Living in a lodge with shared cooking facilities, means that intricate menu is just not an option, nor something with a long cooking time. Easy solution? Make something during the week and freeze some to reheat and serve with some pasta, risotto, bread, other. Maybe even some vegetable stuff. No, fries with post ski beer don’t count as vegetables.

I’ve settled back into making ragu. Long, slow cooking of any meat, with suitable additions can result in some cracking results. Ok, I am partial to things like rabbit or duck ragu, but pork or beef is well and truly ok too.

To most people it sounds daunting, but so seriously easy. Eg, bone some duck marylands (get butcher to do it for you if you are that lazy), chop into pieces and fry off until brown. In a heavy baking dish add the likes of garlic, onion, red wine, tinned tomato, herbs like bay leaves and rosemary and cook long and slow. Don’t forget to add seasoning. Hardest part is dealing with the amazing smell throughout the house. Stuff like this is great with pasta, rice or risotto. bonedduck

Crack open a bottle of something with some body, a cabernet, shiraz or the like and all that energy used on the slopes quickly recovered. I found a bottle of 1996 Vasse Felix Cabernet from Margaret River in the cellar, but if you can’t lay your hands on something like that, any cabernet from Margaret River or Great Southern (Western Australia) from 2011 is likely to see you right.

Before we head up, some dining out to be done in Melbourne. Went to a nice place last week, chef’s hat restaurant. Not going to name this one as it was far from worthy. I’m truly hopeful the poor service (read: no service) was because their key staff had called in sick. The suckling lamb was, well, it had plenty of garlic, but very tasty.

milkfedlamb

I suspect when next I write, it will be about apricot moguls, hot chocolates and post ski beers.

Daniel