Thank god for Melbourne markets

I'm still sorting through various holiday photos and found this doozy from my last visit to New Zealand.

Yes, a single celeriac for NZ$13.31!

The week before our trip I had made a celeriac remoulade at home in Melbourne and was craving it again, until I saw this celeriac at a supermarket in Christchurch.

The main sign noted that it was a product of New Zealand so the crazy price just doesn't make any sense. Its $10 more expensive than the celeriac I had brought in Australia.

No wonder none of the kiwis I spoke to knew what celeriac was, I bet these headed to the supermarket rubbish bin eventually once they were too old for sale.

Who would buy this... for $13? Just crazy.

Home made (better than) chips

Five easy steps to chip success

1. take these gorgeous, addictive potatoes and boil too many a couple of days earlier

2. crush then with the palm of your hand, until they look all arty like this


3. drizzle with olive oil, heaps of Murry River salt, pepper and some thyme from the garden

4. bake on 220C until they are golden brown, crunchy on the outside and a creamy, fluffyness on the inside


5. try not to share too many!

What is it?

In the spirit of the Slow Food Gastronomica Trivia night on Monday -that I unfortunately missed- I stumbled across a very interesting piece of produce at the market today.



I had no idea what it was, do you??

PS No, its not a frazzled underdeveloped tomato (like the ones in my garden!) or a fancy Thai eggplant...

Please leave guesses in the comments!

What to serve with New Zealand roast lamb leg

Roast lamb whether in Australia or not, makes me think of lots of root vegetables cooked in the same roasting pan with peas, gravy and even maybe mint jelly.

If I've eaten it (and swooned over it) a thousand times, no doubt our kiwi friends across the ditch are as equally drained of inspiration. So cooking a family dinner a couple of nights ago in Christchurch New Zealand, PDC and I challenged the idea with a rustic pissaladière along side all the vegies!
Pissaladière is an onion based tart originating from Nice in France, the key components are caramelised onions, anchovies and local olives - all fantastic flavours with lamb - and served on a bread or pastry base.

The books tell me that tomato is only used occasionally on this tart but every version I had either across the country or in Provence had a slight smear of fresh tomato sauce. Hence my addition as you can see.


Pissaladière wedges

I used a bread base, made from a basic recipe in a bread machine (seems like a commonly found addition to a kiwi kitchen that unlike in Aussie kitchens, actually gets used!)
The dough was spread over a tray with olive oil and par-baked and cooled before topping. You could also try a plain supermarket pizza base or a shortcrust pastry, again make sure you partially cook it first.

5 large onions
A handful thyme - picked
3 bay leaves
4 very ripe tomatoes
2 cloves garlic - crushed
pinch brown sugar
olive oil
butter
anchovies, at least 12 fillets
black olives- niçoise or kalamata are best*, pitted
Par-baked bread base
S+P

Make the caramelised onions ahead of time
Finely slice the onions and very slowly cook in a little olive oil with the thyme the bay leaves
Keep the temperature very low to avoid browning, after about 1.5 hours the onions will pulp down to a thick paste
Finish with a teaspoon of butter, and allow to cool

Very simple tomato sauce
Roughly chop the tomatoes and gently simmer in a splash of olive oil with the garlic, salt and pepper and brown sugar
Reduce until fully broken down, about 15 minutes

To make the tart
Smear the tomato sauce on the bread base, all the way to the edges
Top with the caramelised onion, the trick is to add what you think is enough and then double it, the onion is the best bit, you will need all the recipe
Criss-cross the anchovies, using as many as you think your guests can handle, to make large diamonds
Add the olives to the center of the diamonds
Bake until golden brown and the bottom is crisp, cut into triangular wedges and serve along side your lamb roast


We also had a bit of a treat, some potatoes that were dug up from my in-laws cottage in the country. Maori potatoes they are called locally, but I thought they looked like what I'd call pontiac potatoes and purple congos. This had been out of the ground for less than a day when we cooked them, and I thought these ones were fresh!

The local potatoes were roasted with some kumara (of course) and baby parsnips, all unpeeled for ease of preparation and to retain the vitamins under the skin.
I had purchased out of interest some yams the day before, that I wanted to get more of but there was none left, no wonder they roasted up as sweet as candy, with hot pink skin and a caramel coloured flesh.

The lamb was studded with slivers of garlic and small pieces of rosemary. Initially I didn't think the tart would be that popular, yet there was no pissaladière or roast vegies left, or meat on the bones... obviously a success.

*Olives can be a confusing purchase, don't go near those sliced ones that you may see on cheap pizzas. You're best to get whole black olives from a local market or deli and squeeze the pit out

Baby pink eyes

I was on foot at the Prahran market recently but still had to buy a kilo of these most perfectly pretty potatoes.

Baby pink eyes.

Michael Mow from the speciality potato stand can't get enough of these little suckers, they fly off the shelf and no wonder.
They are from South Arm, Tasmania, just south of Hobart and were out of the ground for 4 days before I ate them. Now that's perfect seasonal produce.

Washed and ready for a quick steam.I've enjoyed mine, simply steamed and seasoned with fish, roasted with thyme and served along side chicken and last night just a quick boil and then tossed in butter and chives.

With many of these potatoes smaller than a grape they make the ultimate fast food. I reckon I could cook these quicker than thinking about how easy takeaway would be.

Legumes for Spring

This year, after a bummer crop of selected goodies last year, my small garden is planted with quite a potential banquet of fruit and vegetables.
This image shows the beginnings of my sugar snap peas, planted straight into the dirt, I also have some baby heirloom tomatoes, cavolo nero and silverbeet in punnets still getting enough strength for replanting. I shot these from seeds purchased from Diggers, a great site for those keen to grow varieties that your local garden shop has never heard of.
In anticipation of a successful harvest of sugar snaps, I recently cooked with some beautiful in season fresh borlotti beans. You can have a look at them and my recipe here.
Bring on the warmer days and I'll have more beans than I can handle; if only I can keep the pesky possums away.
The water pistol seems to be working...!! ;)

The smell of Spring

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the smell of Spring; namely one of my favourite parts of it, asparagus.
In the hospitality industry we have certain special understandings of human nature, and when nature calls, and Spring is a time of dread.
I LOVE asparagus and could eat them every day when they are in season but in a restaurant when a special features them in abundance, no body wants to do the necessary toilet checks during the night - asparagus makes urine reek - and put that in a small environment, on a busy night with lots of asparagus loving customers... well I'll definitely be very busy when the toilet check needs to be done.

Apparently, this phenomenon happens very quickly, within half an hour of ingestion, so asparagus entrees are the most deadly. Google tells me that only some people can smell these special aromas, unfortunately for me I am one of these people with a talented nose.

So eat up and enjoy, but avoid restaurant toilets in Spring. Perhaps you would like to cook some at home?

Safeway tells fibs

"The only fresh baby corn in Australia", Safeways claim on a current television commercial

No, I don't shop at Safeway (unless it is for cheap Coopers)

The new ads on tv for Safeways baby corn make me furious, I am not usually this easily mad but when a multinational takes advantage of a dumbed down eating public, then I get mad. Don't get me wrong, I am sad that people are some what dumbed down about food now, but it is the truth, my great grandmother and grandmother cooked from memory, I don't know if my grandmother even owns a cook book; apart from the Aussie house wife classic "The Common Sense Cookery Book" (and doesn't that title just sum it up...) People now generally have very high food expectations and very low skills or basic knowledge to cook from, it is sad.

I digress, Safeway do not have Australia's only baby corn, I brought some this morning at Gasworks market, and to further thumb my nose at Safeway, I bet mine are fresher and not in unnecessary packaging.

I am still tossing up how to prepare mine, if I stop eating them raw. Perhaps sauteed with anchovies and then melting on top some butter, perhaps slightly pickled and served to nibble on, maybe even... its not important. The important thing is, please don't believe what Safeway tells you about food.

Jack

Wellington, New Zealand

I've been regularly travelling to New Zealand for ten years, as long as I have known PDC - a kiwi. Over that time I've been excited to see its culinary horizons develop from clumsy paprika dusting to a smart level of refinement, I know this sounds like a generalisation, yet I have been genuinely impressed the last few visits. The weekend before last was Wellington, and it was no different.

So Wellington in a round up:
-LOVED Moore Wilsons food store, they stocked a selection of fresh fruit and vegetables that I have never seen in a Melbourne market, packs of baby leeks and fennel, trimmed punnets of micro herbs, edible flowers to garnish like in Spain or toss in a very pretty salad. How often do you see wild venison and wild goat fillets at your local store? Or what about mountains of tomatillos?

-city destination bistro Pravda was brilliant for a smart light lunch of manuka smoked Akaroa salmon on nicoise salad, a glass of luscious Nevis Bluff pinot gris from Central Otago and the obligatory Antipodes mineral water in its designy, yet medicinal bottle

-Maria Pia's Trattoria, Wellingtons representation in the famous Italian cookbook Silver Spoon. This homely little dining room would fit right in on Melbournes Lygon St, memorabilia lined walls, simple menu and a strange private dining room that reminded me of sitting in a sauna, no, it was not hot and steamy but lined in timber and a little separate building in the the backyard. Our waiter was easily flusted and going through the motions, even some of the classic Italian dishes were off the mark, yet restaurants are not always about the food, service or even ambience, the company was more important this night so hence if you can gather a table like I did that night Marias was remarkable...

-Taste Breakfast, great friendly service and an excellent breakfast dish of a chunky cut ham and tomato panfried sandwich, topped with two soft poached eggs and the most artery clogging cheddar sauce that was to die for- potentially!

-Talking coffee, the coffee culture in NZ in has just become addictive, with fair trade and boutique roasters the norm the 'translation' issues of the past, where latte meant being served in a bowl French style, where strong meant bitter and less than 65C was too cold. The times have changed.

-Cheap boutique beers, you've got to love them, Monteiths and Macs, even fancy apple cider and alcoholic ginger ale. And the government is not making a mint in alcohol tax, like in Australia, so $12 a 6pack is the norm.

-Martin Bosleys. I'm seeing him cook this weekend at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festivals Masterclasses but I couldn't tell you what it tastes like yet as I was not organised enough to make a reservation, cockily thinking I'd be fine, but as I should have expected from the Cuisine Restaurant of the Year - full on Monday lunch.

-So I dined out a few times, but what about in?

Fried whitebait and steamed wild caught salmon one night; the raw salmon smelt like salty butter, and cooked it still looked raw it was so red. I also could not get enough of baby kumaras, roasted one night and simply boiled and served with PDC's garlic ailoi, it was so garlic 'hot' it came with a warning (and a recipe you if ask nicely) but the perfect counterbalance to the sweet starch of the purple kumara.

-New funky wine varietals were abound for the eclectic wine snob in me, chenin blanc, arneis and merlot that I would not be embarrassed to ask for, (think Sideways here!) are all now available from kiwi producers and from what I saw very smartly done as well.

After all that in 4 days I am thankful that Wellington is a VERY hilly city, the next weekend was Sydney and are just as many stories to tell, coming soon!

Jack

Pretty purple kale

Perhaps a bit early in the year, yet I couldn't resist these pretty purple kale leaves from South Melbourne markets. I love it just sauteed with some garlic and chilli, incredibly healthy -high in iron, vitamin C and calcium.
A beautiful bouquet in the corner of the kitchen is also a remarkable tribute to food and produce.
Jack