This is such a monstrously long recipe I know, but truly something delicious to prepare on the weekend either for Saturday night dinner or a Sunday lunch with friends and family. Failing that, it is a super special stew to fix on the weekend and dole out after work on weeknights for a delicious and easy meal in the bitter Melbourne winter.
I was fascinated to read in The Age, Epicure section recently, a list detailing Australia’s top twenty recipes searched on Google. Not so dissimilar to those clicked by American cooks, the repertoire included such stodge and tradition as Banana Bread, Meat Loaf, Cheese Cake, Pumpkin Soup, Anzac Biscuits and surprisingly, on both lists, Quiche.
The variations of the composition of this wonderful tart when I have googled ‘Quiche’ have been significant.
This recipe is an interpretation of Elizabeth David’s Rillettes de Porc, found in her classic cookbook French Provincial Cooking. David describes this dish as ‘a soft, melting kind of potted pork’, one of the mainstays of a Norman hors-d-oeuvre, classically served with a duck pate. This is such an easy dish to make, it is worth making in the large quanities given below as it keeps very well, covered and refrigerated for up to three weeks.
Since time immemorial, man has been barbecuing his meat over the flames and coals of a fire, with varying degrees of culinary and aesthetic success. Today’s avid outdoor cook gets to choose from wood, charcoal and gas fuel, all of which essentially provide a heat source under a grill.
I will never forget a day joining other family members for lunch at the home of my wonderful Aunt Clare and Uncle John. Clare was a rather reluctant cook in many ways, yet she routinely sought to create a convivial and generous table. ‘Who said food had anything to do with lunch anyway?’ John would often demand, partly to quell her culinary aspirations and partly, possibly, for the sake of a quiet life. ‘Give me cheese and bread and wine any day.’ I loved this philosophy and enjoyed many such meals with them.
If you haven’t already done so I strongly urge you to get yourself to a cinema screening the fabulous new hit movie ‘Julie and Julia’, starring the ever fabulous Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. The Streep part of the film provides an hilarious and enjoyable account of Julia Child’s life in 1950s Paris, her determination with Le Cordon Bleu and finally the success of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking was an ambitious cook book publication which made a significant contribution to the evolution of American meals. The book was a joint contribution from American Julia Child and her French colleagues, Simone Beck (Simca) and Louisette Bertholle. It offered an elaborate level of information on French cuisine and a positive and meticulous approach towards cooking.
I was fascinated to read recently a Westinghouse survey reporting that, despite Australia’s penchant for watching other people cook all those tricky things on the television, meat-and-three-veg is what most families continue to eat every night of the week. The ho-hum grilled, roasted and barbequed meats, the reliable filler, potato, and a predictable selection of mundane vegetables seem to be what most of us rely upon for sustenance.
Ragu is a traditional Italian pasta sauce with origins in Bologna and Naples. In Bologna, they combine ground meat with a battuto of finely chopped celery, onions, carrots and celery, cooked in lard or butter and add wine and tomatoes, seasonings and ten thousand other variations.
We had our children at a comparatively young age. Many of our friends were still single when our first was born in 1987. I never found the time or seemed to have the inclination to buy into the dictums and philosophies of the relatively older local Pram Brigade.
Countless households have their own version of this perennial family favorite. A rather pedestrian suggestion I know, since the recent revelations made in the grand finale of Master Chef showing what home cooks are really capable of.
Still, for those of us trying to maintain a bar – level of some description, pass this onto your ten year old and ask them to fix it for dinner for you. Sit back and enjoy the results.
Knowing how to make a chicken stock is one of the most fundamental elements of cooking. Chicken stock is one of those things that you need in order to make many things, from risotto to soup. Don’t waste a drop. Store small containers of left over stock (100 – 300ml) in the freezer for the makings to resurrect a casserole, a gravy or a jus or the ability to extend a soup at the tip of your fingers.
Chicken soup of course is the perfect restorative for the ill, the malingering and those just after some simple home comfort on a cold winter’s day.
Osso bucco is such a delicious thing to eat, such an impressive and relatively simple dish to serve for a luncheon or dinner party, that everyone should become confident in adding this meal to their repertoire of ridiculously simple and uncomplicated dishes. A slow braise of veal shanks in butter and white wine, served with a gremolata of parsley, lemon zest and garlic, it is one of the few Italian dishes not eaten on its own but traditionally accompanied by a Risotto Milanese, a delicate, plain risotto, colored and flavored with saffron.
The Good King Henry, one of the most popular rulers of France is attributed as saying "Si Dieu me prête vie, je ferai qu’il n’y aura point de laboureur en mon royaume qui n’ait les moyens d’avoir le dimanche une poule dans son pot!" "God willing, every working man in my kingdom will have a chicken in the pot every Sunday, at the least!"
I guess in those days, anyone given a chicken to put in a pot would have known what to do with it. Today however, an aversion to handling raw ingredients and an over reliance on convenience foods could cause much consternation amongst the chattering classes should our benevolent government start spending money on the distribution of uncooked chooks.
Easter is pending, the days are getting shorter and cooler and the time is now positively perfect for enjoying a roast leg of lamb with friends and family on an idle afternoon or evening.
Despite popular belief to the contrary, tomatoes are not indigenous to Italy. They arrived in Italy from Spain, via Mexico, probably sometime in the sixteenth century, as small berries on bushes, a botanical curiosity. Their relationship to the night shade vegetables, capsicum, potatoes and eggplants may have contributed to the delay in their culinary development.
If you have a crate of over ripe tomatoes taking up space, I suggest the following Fresh Tomato Sauce. It is dead easy to make and you can freeze it and bring it out for a delicious pasta sauce, a pizza topping or something to add to a curry or casserole in a few months time: positively indispensable.
Sangria must be the easiest cocktail in the world.
I have been working hard all holidays refining the details for you, tirelessly mixing, tasting, sampling and experimenting on your behalf; consulting with eager participants most evenings. Curiously, no hard and fast rules apply after all for this refreshing Spanish wine punch, perfect for hot summer days and nights.
The optimism associated with the recently arrived milder weather of spring, complete with a glorious selection of herbs and young vegetables begs for the production of restoratives such as a Soupe au Pistou.
A picnic is one of those occasions that is so weather dependent that if the day dawns brilliant and the mood takes the party, there is an imperative to be able to head off without delay.
Discussions of Fernet Branca loom around the blurred associations of it being a bitter Italian herbal liquor consumed as either a digestive or as an aperitif and more recently as part of a cocktail. Essentially though it falls into the category of Amari – the Italian word for Bitters.
Aglianico (pronounced al-yah-nee-co), one of Italy’s oldest species of vine, is grown in the homeland of the Latin poet Horace, who recommended “Nulla, vare, sacre vite prius severis arborem” (Ode 1- Verse 18) “not to plant any tree before having planted the sacred vine” (Ode to Varus).
Carla Meurs and Ann Marie Monda produce organic Chevre at Sutton Grange Organic Farm where they tend an organically certified goatherd and produce cheese that’s certified Level A with the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA).
This is such a monstrously long recipe I know, but truly something delicious to prepare on the weekend either for Saturday night dinner or a Sunday lunch with friends and family. Failing that, it is a super special stew to fix on the weekend and dole out after work on weeknights for a delicious and easy meal in the bitter Melbourne winter.
I was fascinated to read in The Age, Epicure section recently, a list detailing Australia’s top twenty recipes searched on Google. Not so dissimilar to those clicked by American cooks, the repertoire included such stodge and tradition as Banana Bread, Meat Loaf, Cheese Cake, Pumpkin Soup, Anzac Biscuits and surprisingly, on both lists, Quiche.
This recipe is an interpretation of Elizabeth David’s Rillettes de Porc, found in her classic cookbook French Provincial Cooking. David describes this dish as ‘a soft, melting kind of potted pork’, one of the mainstays of a Norman hors-d-oeuvre, classically served with a duck pate. This is such an easy dish to make, it is worth making in the large quanities given below as it keeps very well, covered and refrigerated for up to three weeks.
Since time immemorial, man has been barbecuing his meat over the flames and coals of a fire, with varying degrees of culinary and aesthetic success. Today’s avid outdoor cook gets to choose from wood, charcoal and gas fuel, all of which essentially provide a heat source under a grill.
I will never forget a day joining other family members for lunch at the home of my wonderful Aunt Clare and Uncle John. Clare was a rather reluctant cook in many ways, yet she routinely sought to create a convivial and generous table. ‘Who said food had anything to do with lunch anyway?’ John would often demand, partly to quell her culinary aspirations and partly, possibly, for the sake of a quiet life. ‘Give me cheese and bread and wine any day.’ I loved this philosophy and enjoyed many such meals with them.
If you haven’t already done so I strongly urge you to get yourself to a cinema screening the fabulous new hit movie ‘Julie and Julia’, starring the ever fabulous Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. The Streep part of the film provides an hilarious and enjoyable account of Julia Child’s life in 1950s Paris, her determination with Le Cordon Bleu and finally the success of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
I was fascinated to read recently a Westinghouse survey reporting that, despite Australia’s penchant for watching other people cook all those tricky things on the television, meat-and-three-veg is what most families continue to eat every night of the week. The ho-hum grilled, roasted and barbequed meats, the reliable filler, potato, and a predictable selection of mundane vegetables seem to be what most of us rely upon for sustenance.
Ragu is a traditional Italian pasta sauce with origins in Bologna and Naples. In Bologna, they combine ground meat with a battuto of finely chopped celery, onions, carrots and celery, cooked in lard or butter and add wine and tomatoes, seasonings and ten thousand other variations. 
We had our children at a comparatively young age. Many of our friends were still single when our first was born in 1987. I never found the time or seemed to have the inclination to buy into the dictums and philosophies of the relatively older local Pram Brigade.
Countless households have their own version of this perennial family favorite. A rather pedestrian suggestion I know, since the recent revelations made in the grand finale of Master Chef showing what home cooks are really capable of. 
Knowing how to make a chicken stock is one of the most fundamental elements of cooking. Chicken stock is one of those things that you need in order to make many things, from risotto to soup. Don’t waste a drop. Store small containers of left over stock (100 – 300ml) in the freezer for the makings to resurrect a casserole, a gravy or a jus or the ability to extend a soup at the tip of your fingers. 
Inspired by Marcella Hazen’s Ossobuco in Bianco
The Good King Henry, one of the most popular rulers of France is attributed as saying "Si Dieu me prête vie, je ferai qu’il n’y aura point de laboureur en mon royaume qui n’ait les moyens d’avoir le dimanche une poule dans son pot!" "God willing, every working man in my kingdom will have a chicken in the pot every Sunday, at the least!" 
Easter is pending, the days are getting shorter and cooler and the time is now positively perfect for enjoying a roast leg of lamb with friends and family on an idle afternoon or evening.
Despite popular belief to the contrary, tomatoes are not indigenous to Italy. They arrived in Italy from Spain, via Mexico, probably sometime in the sixteenth century, as small berries on bushes, a botanical curiosity. Their relationship to the night shade vegetables, capsicum, potatoes and eggplants may have contributed to the delay in their culinary development.
If you have a crate of over ripe tomatoes taking up space, I suggest the following Fresh Tomato Sauce. It is dead easy to make and you can freeze it and bring it out for a delicious pasta sauce, a pizza topping or something to add to a curry or casserole in a few months time: positively indispensable.
Sangria must be the easiest cocktail in the world. 
