Post haste!

Glorious autumnal days stolen for picking olives to spite the cheeky birds.
A bumper crop underestimated by a factor of 3 means the cavalry has to be called. Managed to pick half of them before light was called.
Rendezvous with H, the best wild rabbits. Pure livers, hearts and clear lungs and a heritage that honours the rabbito's tradition. The farmed ones are just not the same.
First taste of our 2008 Arbequina a joy, everyone around here is picking olives from dawn to dusk. Tasted the fresh Camilo Ligurian oil, a product of McGovern’s vision.
Running late to Meredith dairy well after dark, Iraki boys milking, the sacrificial lamb for Wednesday's winemakers' lunch is tucked into pillow cases. Wonderful fresh caprini and blues ready for ripening.
The ute laden with translucent jelly persimmons of perfect ripeness, kilos of cumquats waiting for their embalming in the spirit of morello.
New ham stand for the Pedro pig.
Home at last with our fresh Arbequina oil… the menu awaits …have the medlars bletted?
Leo’s cotechino? tongue to pickle? Where’s the wine list? Have the bookings been confirmed? Saturdays class notes edited?
Is it going to rain?
!!!!!
Its pissing down, there is a god.

Draft menu for Sunday May 18

Spelt and potato bread with our freshly pressed extra virgin Arbequina olive oil
Camilo table olives [Ligurian varieties] Teesdale
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Roman style broth with drizzled egg and Parmigiano Reggiano
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Pumpkin and perilla pasties

Our soft dried tomatoes with fennel, peperone and black kale

Spanish style ham with tomatillos avocado and limes

Cannelini Beans with smokey eggplant

Choucroute of mussels with house-smoked ocean trout
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Crepinette of wild rabbit with roasted beetroot and pomegranates
Otway reds with garlic
Cauliflower and Succulent salad

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Upside down spiced cumquat and saffron cake
Vanilla ice cream

Yoghurt honey panna cotta with drunken morello cherries

Quince fool with a white peach sorbet

Chocolate and cardamom crème with persimmons and a lemon sabayon

Turkey livers slowly cooked in duck fat on toast
Provencale paste
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Coffee with a Slice of spice

Introducing Angela our new assistant cook who has brought a wealth of experience coupled with good cheer and a sense of timing that is exquisite….. thank you so much for making the kitchen shine again.
Saturday class then a classic service on Sunday with so many old friends and new visitors…. Still a hundred or will it be two hundred kilo of olives to pick tomorrow?
There will be at least 60 litres of new green glorious oil. The word is out, persimmons and cumquats are delivered by generous gardeners all in excess…
And to top it off 23 mm have fallen to begin a new season in the garden. Perhaps even some fungi in the forrest

Go Cats.

Take Two!

Smitten they arrive Priscilla-style, Nest or with balloons flying through the sun-roof.
Was it really 8 years ago when they were last here as diners?
That sad day, in mourning-black, they brought bags of marbles [I had obviously misplaced mine] and a volume of the Women’s Weekly Cooking for Two to get us through the coming dark days.
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Wood Gary get the sex-kitten to sue?.
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The gray corner table no longer need the high chair. The bambini, now elegant, young sophisticated ladies have blossomed to light up the room. .







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There was Fear on table two from lofty heights to speedy trials and cats out of red bubbly bags.
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The Romannee Drew some fine spirit from the Burgundy socks.
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Wikki-for-two took their chairs home with them.
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Wild strawberries nestled into the bookcase for the delightful long haul.
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The now omnivorous unicorn cadet took the natural path and decided that mother should drive.

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Bille carted Roses into the private room and gave mum a very good seeing-to.

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Oh Neil you looked so radiant in your confirmed diet for two.

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But the cigar goes to Clancy who did a lot more than take care of the overflow…

Playtime

We had a dress rehearsal on Sunday with a group of winemakers and some of the usual suspects in the dining room to help us iron out a few bugs to get this little restaurant machine operational again.
If I was to create a training course on how to open a new restaurant Jacques Tati’s 1967 movie Playtime would be compulsory viewing at the last session. It is shot in magnificent 70mm with such rich detail that it takes a couple of viewings to appreciate the full magnificence of the direction and cinematography. M. Hulot is back in a futuristic and oh-so-stylish Paris culminating in the some of the best restaurant chaos on film. A bus load of American tourists visit a just-about to open large Parisian restaurant.
While we had fun on Sunday it was possibly not quite so much as they had in Playtime.
Playtime in a restaurant is a luxury, but as with a pool, nothing beats diving in at the deep-end.

Here’s a youtube clip that does not do justice to it best seen on the very big screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSSjCg4Ic0Y

TALKING STOCK

Its exactly 8 years since we closed the restaurant, and tonight we embark on the first round of prep to get up and ready to open again. Stock has always been at the base of all our cooking and I wrote the piece below for The Australian in 2000 with a deep melancholy that only now has begun to thaw, so what better way to begin a new era than starting the first foundation stock?

The picture is of a plate by Pallisy the meaning of which is revealed in the story. It looks better than the soup, which tonight will be made with duck bones and giblets as well as the ingredients mentioned below. As to the other bits and pieces needed to open again I am relying on ancestral memory, and a good bit of chaos-theory.

Talking Stock from 2000 in The Australian

I’m getting withdrawal symptoms.
The beguiling scent of stock no longer permeates the kitchen.
For the first time in about twenty years I am not spending most of my waking hours in a restaurant. But where does this curious word restaurant come from?
The original meaning of restaurant was of a medicinal stock or soup used to restore health and vigour.
One of the earliest accounts of it occurs in a volume published in Lyons in 1557 by Bernard Palissy, the renowned French Renaissance potter. He is best known for his whimsical platters, decorated with three-dimensional crustacea and other creepy crawlies executed in an almost super realist style.

His book ‘Declaration des Abus des Medecins’ however is a curious attack on the ignorance and blunders of physicians, which questioned the recipe for this already established medicine.
In those days doctors would recommend an old hen or capon as the basis of the ‘soup’. Most cookbooks still recommend older meats for stocks. Palissy argued that a younger bird is “much fuller in nourishment and flavour”.
In fact the argument although valid now, was in fact absurd at the time because the original recipe for restaurant involved the distillation of the stock with minced meat, barley, cinnamon, roses, coriander and currants. The resulting dew was in fact nothing but distilled water.
Sometimes jewels, gold and other precious metals were added to the brew. A practice not lost on some modern restaurant developers in Las Vegas.
Over the next two hundred years restaurant was transformed into a rich soup and eventually gave a name to the public houses that provided this hospitality.
The story usually starts in Paris with M. Boulanger and his famous sheep’s foot ragout.
All cooks have their own ways of making stock and often define the way we approach all our cooking.

This simple stock contains lots of vegetables and meat, not just bones.
You will find it reduces well without becoming gluey if you wish to use it as a glaze. The clarity comes from the roasting of the bones to stabilise any blood or other impurities that may dissolve and make your stock cloudy.

The garnish is Parmesan, egg, and parsley in the modern Roman style. It could easily be dill, egg and lemon if you are feeling Greek.

They say the best cure for my kind of withdrawal symptom is a restorative. Until then this restaurant will do.



Stracciatella Romana

Serves 8 or 24

1 Whole beef shin cut like osso buco
1 Veal shank cut the same
1kg Chicken wings 1 small pigs trotter
1kg Carrots, 1 kg Onions peeled and cut into medium pieces
1 stick of celery, 1 leek cut into medium pieces
2 bay leaves 10 pepper corns 5 juniper berries
1 Whole head of garlic cut along the equator

For the garnish
150g finely grated Parmigiano

3 eggs
30g chopped parsley, salt and pepper

Roast the meats and bones in a hot oven till just browned.
Add all the ingredients into a large stockpot.
Add about 15 l of cold water. [A big pot is a sound investment]
Bring to the boil and let it boil hard for 1 minute Skim
Set to a low simmer for about 6 hours [open a few windows]
Dont keep skimming it while its cooking as all the impurities will form a natural raft on the top catching any new ones as the come to the surface

Skim again when finished.
Strain and cool overnight in the fridge.
Remove the layer of fat on the top.

Reduce by half it you should be left with about 6 l
Stash 4l in the freezer in take away containers for later.

Heat the remaining 2l, when simmering add the parsley the Parmesan while stirring and slowly drizzle in the eggs. Taste, season and serve immediately.

Glass half Full

I have been away from the post for a few days finalising the details needed to get me back into the very comfortable saddle of my kitchen and taking care of you in the dining room.
The re-opening date [May 11] is fast approaching and we are in the middle of finalising the opening wine list. This week concentrating on the wines of the Moorabool Valley a district that has developed into a seriously good source of very fine wine. Amietta, Austin’s, Bannockburn, Cohen, Clyde Park, Del Rios, by Farr and Farr rising, Provenance, Lethbridge to name but a few, have provided some stunning bottles.
In the last 8 years over 50 new wineries have popped up in the Geelong Otway region so compiling the list is proving a bit daunting. The Bellarine is the next stop.
How to organise wines by the glass for a small restaurant with limited opening hours is at the forefront of our planning.
Why is it that so many wine lists offer wines by the glass mainly from the cheaper end of the range on offer?
Do they think that all moderate drinkers are all on a budget?
Or do they think that there is less of a chance of wastage from this price bracket?
I am facing this challenge by offering the first 4 or 5 reds and the first 4 or 5 whites from the whole list selected by the diners for pouring. So if you want to compare an aged Bannockburn with a new one it will be possible. If, as with Diane and I, sometimes you would like to try the best Riesling and a great Shiraz with the same dish there will not be a conflict. As each bottle is finished a different one can be chosen to be poured. I am betting that the top end will be the first to be requested. BYO as always will also be available.

The new format of the menu is a bit simpler to organise. The effect I am trying to attain is that of coming to the home of a professional cook but he has all his staff there to make you comfortable. Which is actually exactly what it is.
I apologise to those who could not get in for the first few lunches it will settle down soon enough. Two issues are proving the most difficult to solve: finding a great male waiter to balance the ladies on the floor, and one that is even harder to organise RAIN.

[glass on a photograph by Adrian lander]

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One from the archives of 2002

* mama’s in the basement mixing up macedoine
i’m on the pavement thinking bout a toblerone,
man in a chef’s hat, locked in a big sweat
wants eleven crème brulee and I’ve only got ten,
look out kid your gonna get hid,
better duck down the cool school, looking for a new brule
break a few rule, t’s a bit cruel,
the torch wont work cos the comis took the gas tool.

It has been a year of cooking dangerously….. [for more click here http://www.scribd.com/doc/2583766/Subterranean-Cookhouse-Blues]
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BLOWING IN THE WIND

Never park under a Bunya Bunya tree. Seven of these monsters landed last week..
About 20 years ago Diane and I found one of these wonderful Bunya Bunya cones under a tree at Point Cook Homestead, we planted it in a pot and promptly forgot about it.
About 5 years later it finally sprouted and is now a majestic tree about 15 metres tall.
I have since learned that they first make a tuber and when conditions are right they put out a sprout. Native to Queensland these trees are very important to the traditional Aboriginal diet and provided the occasion for traditional ceremonial feasts.
They bear heavily every 3 years, can be eaten raw, baked or boiled. They can also be made into a type of bread. They are just like a giant prehistoric pine nut.
The tree is very spiky and also makes a safe haven for birds’ nests, some of which unfortunately also came down in the recent winds. Thankfully we planted the tree away from anything that might not appreciate a 5 kilo projectile landing on it.

The last of the autumn harvest is coming in.

The bees have performed their magic. I am overwhelmed by the amount of honey they have gathered over the last 3 months. Alfred our beekeeping neighbour came and showed us how to harvest the honey. We simply cut away a couple of full combs from a few of the frames, carefully leaving the brood undisturbed. These full honeycombs were then mashed and very gently heated to about 40 degrees Celsius over a water-bath and left to settle and cool. The wax floats to the top and sets so it can be removed and the resulting honey is then filtered through a fine stainless steel mesh.

The melons are in, and the pulp frozen with some of the honey and lemon for sorbet and syrups. But mostly they are being eaten with the new honey and yogurt. Next year we can serve them fresh. Seeds are drying now.

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The tomatoes were spectacular this year and are now safely stashed as about 200 litres of sauce, a heap of semi-dried tomatoes in olive oil and some also fully dried.

We prepare the sauce by heating whole tomatoes until they burst and become soft, then moulli them and reduce the liquid till a slightly thickened emulsion happens.
I do not add anything to this at all preferring to have a pure tomato flavour that can be adapted to many uses as needed.
Some preserving methods discard the seeds and light jelly that surrounds the seeds but I feel that that loses half the flavour. The clear liquid is full of complex tomato tastes I feel its a bit like the sum of the peel and the juice of a lemon two parts of the whole. When they get to the right consistency I then process them in Fowlers Vacola jars.
The market price of these wonderful Aussie icons has dropped over the years and we can pick them up in the op-shops for less than 50 cents each. Supply and demand, I fear it’s a generational thing . These jars are very well made, heavy and last for many years. New rubbers and stainless steel lids are available at hardware stores or at the Fowlers shop in Racecourse Road Flemington. [Worth a Detour]

The Tomatillos went berserk this year and we ended up with over 5 full wheelbarrow loads from the seedlings of two self-seeded plants. The dilemma was how to preserve them?
I made some traditional Mexican salsa verde but there is only so much of that that you can make, so then I pickled them in slices and tried to give away the rest. The pickling mix was made with vinegar, jagerry sugar, fennel seed [our own] chilli [ditto] some coriander seed [ditto] some rose-hip syrup and a touch of rosewater and cinnamon. I poured the boiling hot pickle over the sliced tomatillos and vacuum packed them hot. The acid in the vinegar and the heat will protect them for many months out of the fridge. I think they will go very well with duck livers, or perhaps avocados? They will be paired with anything rich that needs a strong sweet and sour accompaniment for balance.





The pumpkins are always spectacular. I am working on a sweetmeat recipe using pumpkin to go with the coffee. Any suggestions for unusual uses will be gratefully accepted.
The larder is starting to look good.
The last crop to be picked will be the olives; it will be touch and go whether the oil pressing or the restaurant opening is first. Luckily the winds did not harm them too much but the 30 new citrus trees planted before Christmas copped a bit of a beating.
I always feel the year begins at the end of autumn with the beginning of a new cycle.
Time to start thinking about planting the garlic.
If you need some good seed, try the Argentinean garlic now available at the market. I don’t often use or recommend imported vegetables but unless you grow your own seed, good garlic at this time of year can be scarce. It is well flavoured, untreated and importantly knows which way is up and what time of the year it is, as it comes from the southern hemisphere. Leave the Chinese garlic alone.
When the restaurant opens the garden will be virtually starting from scratch but lots of seedlings are on the go and as ever we pray for rain.
The tanks are almost full but the dams are at less than 20% and the cracks in the ground are long and deep.

QUINCE ESSENTIALS

Some things never leave you. Like the scent of a loved ones hair, the aroma of a ripe melon, the first taste of a mulberry.
Each year in early April, after the peaches, plums and nectarines have performed their magic, just when you thought that the preserving pan can be stowed till next year the quince appears and their heady aroma rekindles the last sparks of summer.
Unlike colour we do not have a well defined vocabulary to express our sense of smell, but very light scents can trigger rich memories and strong emotions. Some aromas are elusive like the exquisite smell of a tomato bush that can only be enjoyed in the garden, but leave a bowl of quinces in a room and very quickly you have a fragrance that few perfumers can match.
Quinces take me back to my childhood in Hungary. Quinces slowly braised with goose or duck, my mother also made quince cheese or paste that was served with fresh goose liver. Little did we know how special these dishes were?

Few fruit have a more colourful history than the humble quince.
In his definitive book “The Complete Book of Fruit Growing in Australia” Louis Glowinski puts forward the quince as perhaps the most “famous or infamous fruit of all time.”
If you think product placement is a recent phenomenon consider the quince from a marketers’ point of view. From the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden they pop up everywhere in the ancient Greek myths. Quinces were often called Golden Apples as apples at that time referred to a very wide group of fruit. Apples as we know them did not grow at those latitudes.
The ancient spin doctors gave Hercules the task of stealing the Golden Apples. They were at it again with Paris giving one to Aphrodite eventually leading to the downfall of Troy. Even Solomon in gives them a plug in the Song of Songs.

Quinces are one of those old fashioned fruits that play hard to get but reward the patient cook with fine deep flavours and powerful aromas
Raw quinces are tart and astringent but some varieties are quite palatable if fully ripened on the tree. The birds and possums usually get to those first, but luckily they can ripen off the tree.
The common quince was improved by the Greeks from an exceptional variety from Kydonia in Crete giving it its present generic botanical name of Cydonia oblongata
In Australia we mainly find the smaller Smyrna with a heady aroma or the larger Pineapple quince so called for its tropical scent.
The pineapple quince has a softer flesh that is not suitable for pot roasting and it also does not develop the characteristic deep red colour when slowly cooked. Quinces contain large amounts of natural pectin for making jellies also providing the setting power to other fruits. Under ripe fruit have the most pectin and the levels also diminish if the fruit is refrigerated. In fact the whole of process of setting fruit in natural jelly can be traced back to the quince. An elaborate culture of quince preserves flourished in the ancient Middle East. In Spain there is membrilos a thick slightly coarse paste. France has the famous Contingac d’Orleans a clear very fine preserve reputedly presented to Joan of Arc for lifting the siege of Orleans. The original marmalade was also made from quinces, its name derives from the Portuguese “marmelos’.
It was not until the late 18th century in of all places Scotland that oranges were used for this preserve. The popularity of the quince plummeted with the availability of new exotic tropical fruits and the taste for sweeter fruit started to take hold.
The trees are long-lived and have very attractive blossom.
You can often spot on old quince tree gracing the site of an abandoned farmhouse or orchard still bearing well after many years of neglect.

In Australia Maggie Beer has in recent years restored the quince to our culinary consciousness with her wonderful paste, her slowly baked quinces and quinces in verjuice. And slowly
these Golden Apples are making a comeback.

In the modern kitchen the quince can add a surprising element to very simple dishes. Try adding some to roast leg of lamb. A wonderful variation on the classic Tarte Tatin can be made with quinces. A little quince in an apple crumble gives it another dimension.
For the ultimate quince experience you can visit pick your own fruit and even stay at the cottage at Ellisfeild Farm on the Mornington Peninsula where Liz and Barry Pontifex have meticulously restored an old quince orchard to its former glory. After a hard day in the orchard curl up by the fire with a bit of whimsy from Edward Lear

They dined on mince and slices of quince,

Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand on the edge of the sand

They danced by the light of the moon

From The Owl and The Pussycat.

Quince and Jasmine Fool
Fools are a group of old English fruit based deserts; the name comes from the French verb fouler to mash.
I make this with a custard flavoured with jasmine tea.
Serves 6
350g of quinces peeled and diced with a squeeze of lemon juice.
30ml Honey
50ml Vin Santo or Muscat
20ml Water
Cook the quinces in the Vin Santo Honey and water till soft and slightly thickened. Lightly mash with a fork set aside and cool.
For the custard
250ml cream [ 35% butterfat]
3 egg yolks
40g sugar
1 tablespoon of Jasmine tea
½ Vanilla bean
100ml of cream whipped to light peaks.

Mix egg yolks with sugar and the seeds scraped from the vanilla bean.
Heat the cream with the vanilla pod and the jasmine tea and allow to infuse for 20 mins
Add the cream to the egg yolks and sugar and heat gently till it thickens [82oC]
Strain through a fine sieve and cool. Fold in the whipped cream.
In a highball glass layer the fruit and custard.
Best eaten with a Runcible Spoon.
Serve slightly chilled with a glass of the Vin Santo or a Muscat.
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Pork with quinces and myrtle

This dish has its roots in Sardinia where myrtle is often married with pork. The quince adds an exquisite aroma and also cuts the richness of the pork. Myrtle myrtus communis is a fragrant bush, the berries taste a little like Juniper berries. It was sacred to Venus as were the quinces in ancient Greece. The berries can be cooked but the leaves are used to infuse its flavour to the meat after it is cooked. A useful shrub in the garden as it has very attractive small white flowers as well as the dark blue berries. Available in most nurseries. The recipe works well with lamb or kid.

Serves 6
A 1.5 kg piece of belly pork with the skin attached and scored as for crackling
2 quinces cut into thick slices dressed with a little lemon juice.
2 red onions sliced
6 cloves of garlic whole in the skin
Zest and juice of a lemon
1 tablespoon of honey
A little red wine to deglaze the pan at the end.
A large bunch of Myrtle and some of the berries. If you can not find myrtle use bay leaves and juniper berries.
Salt and pepper
A little EV olive oil.

Heat the oven to 200oC
Mix the quinces, onions, lemon juice zest, honey, myrtle berries and garlic and dress with the olive oil.
Place in a heavy baking tray.
Pat dry the pork with a cloth and rub the skin with a little salt. Place on top of the vegetables and roast for about 20 mins. Lower the heat to 170oC and bake for about 40 mins till cooked. The skin should be crisp with crackling.
If the crackling is done before the pork cover with aluminium foil to shield the skin.

Place some myrtle leaves on a platter and put the pork and quinces on top cover with more of the myrtle leaves and allow the pork to “inhale’ the aromas. While the pork is resting on the leaves deglaze the pan with the red wine and reserve the sauce. Remove the leaves carve and serve with the sauce on the side. I like it with a tomato, olive and parsley salad.

First published in The Age Epicure March 2004

Opening Date May 11 and Vale the Plongeur

SUNDAY MAY 11

The date has been set.
Sunnybrae Restaurant and Cooking School will re-open on Sunday May 11 for lunch after nearly eight years. It will be Sundays only and classes on Saturdays and Mondays.
The dining room will seat 40 and a small private room will seat 10.
I have not finalised the menu format but it will again be a multi course long slow lunch a little different in structure from last time. We have been working towards this for the last 6 months on many essential details and small renovations. The essence of what we will do has not changed. That is simply to make you comfortable, relaxed, with as close to a balanced seasonal, local, country dining experience as we can provide. When we closed in 2000 there were only a handful of local wines but now we are spoiled for choice and the list will concentrate on wines of this extended district. We will again also be BYO and there will be a small list of special reserve wines.
I do not like to bang on about a culinary philosophy but I was given an opportunity to express these ideas a couple of years ago in the form of a detailed report for Geelong Otway Tourism as part of a strategy which I called A Sense of Place which says it all.
We are very proud of this district and try to create an experience that echoes the seasonal flavour of this small piece of Victoria. If you wish to read the whole report.click here.http://www.scribd.com/doc/929252/asop-section1-lowres Especially the final conclusion, this years prediction is less difficult. Back to Back in 2008.

Part 2 of the report is the Regional Produce Guide on the right of the page under Sunnybrae Rescouces I am updating it soon.

If you are thinking of coming to the restaurant please book on the phone rather than email as its easier to discuss any special needs that you may require . 03 52362276.

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VALE THE PLONGEUR

It has been a tough week with news that Michael Thwaites our first plongeur at Sunnybrae had died.
Reflecting on our dear mate [he was a friend way before he hit the sinks] I realised that Mick has been on the plonge at some time at nearly every kitchen that I had run.
My mate David [17 summers with me on the floor] reminded me how neglected this spot is in the libraries that have been written about food.
Michael was a deep, complex, well read individual with immaculate taste in music and was always in charge of the kitchen sounds. Each season can be fondly recalled by the popular anthems of the time from Mick's legendary kitchen tapes. We first heard Ian Dury from Mick plus many others, Neil Young took us back at the funeral to time of innocence and play, King Crimson sent us off to the pub to celebrate the man.
He held the kitchen together without you even knowing he was there with perfect timing both on the sink and on the speakers.
If a kitchen brigade can be compared to a group then the plonge is the Bass, Michael was the best bass player I ever knew.
Cool moods for early morning prep building up to blinding crescendos at the dinner rush.
The pan you needed always there, the pass clean and fresh, sink water really hot.
He could turnout over 400 hand-made dim sims an hour and keep the fridges and cool room spotless all the while smoking and cruising with the usual suspects at the kitchen door where Malcolm his beloved dog waited patiently..


We will miss you dearly Mick.

Supertaster

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I see Red or is it Blue?

Some years ago Norman Swan on the Health report [link later]
reported on a symposium on.. "how we inherit our sense of taste, how that affects which foods we like or hate and the ways that could affect our health. This special symposium took place at the l997 American Association for the Advancement of Science Congress in Seattle".

It seems that some of you are what’s called Supertasters which means that some have a very highly focused sense of taste due to the high concentration of taste buds on the tongue.

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This can readily be seen if blue food dye is placed on the tongue. The taste buds do not stain blue and a tiled effect is seen on the Supertasters tongue.

No my tongue is not in my cheek, just yet.

We sometimes tested cooking class participants when they seemed to be sensitive to bitter flavours. Its not a great syndrome to have as some great flavours are just too painful to appreciate.

But the link here explains all ttp://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s369.htm

While watching SBS on a Sat night and reflecting on the brilliance of the programming line up I came up with this…..

Blue Tongue , The Taste Test or Supertaster.

The Pitch---

ROCKWIZ MEATS IRON CHEF
It’s a panel show
Setting A Flash Restaurant
The panel sits in the kitchen at the chef’s table in real time.
Dining room is wired for roving vision, sound and wireless pad from each table.
Host Ignatius Jones [Showman, offal aficionado, and noted gastronaught]
Captains
Frank Moorhouse..[Author bon vivant, loose liver] and Jill Dupleix [Myffy expatriate author, foodie ]
Guest panellists
1 Visiting foodie… insert here…. Charlie, Michele, Ruth, Rick, Tony, Jamie there’s always at least a dozen in the country at any one time.
1 Local hero/villain insert here … Ronnie, John, Ed, Shannon, Matt, Tom, Dick, Harry……

The restaurant serves a degustation menu that defines the game structure of the show.
The panel and all diners paint their tongues with a blue food dye to identify any Supertasters .
The dining room uses this for warming up the audience.
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Game 1
Red or White? Panel has to tell if a wine is red or white from a concealed glass through a straw. Both wines at the same, proper or reversed temperatures. Noses blocked with a peg.

Game 2
Fish or Fowl
5 small appetisers are served and panel has to guess if each one is Fish or Fowl
The pass is wired for sound so home viewers know the answer.

Game 3
Whose signature is it?
A small iconic/historical starter is served and 3 alternative creators are offered.. panellists and diners guess. A brawl ensues over the origins of the dish.

Game 4
Wait here!
The panelists have to clear a table in the dining room and the first one finished gets the points.

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Game 5 Offal? innit?

Next course is served and the anatomical source is questioned.

Its a photo of????

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Game 6
Reel Food
5 Foodie film clips are shown and first buzz that identifies Film and Food reference wins the points

Game 7
Eat your words-
A passage from a ripe volume of food writing is read backwards. First to identify the book and author gets the points.

Game 8
Chowrades

One panellist has to eat a hidden dish with his fingers and describe the dish using only expressive muffled sounds.

Game 9
Pressure Point

Chef is given 3 ingredients by the panel to create a dish he has 5 minutes to deliver six tasting serves. One Panellist has to review the dish and all the others served on the night. The review is scored by Chairman Ignatius and diners.

Game 10

Feel free to add your own games and please take the taste test with the blue dye it may explain why you can’t handle really spicy foods…

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Cartoon is by

David Low

Circa 1930

Caption.

Diner:

"Here what do you call this?

Beef or Mutton?

Waitress: Carnt you tell the difference?

Diner: " No!"

Waitress; Then why worry about it.

RIPE and SEEDY

For the last eight years we have been decidedly seedy gardeners. Without the pressures of a restaurant to supply the garden has for the most part grown itself.
While the restaurant was going ten seasons of kitchen gardening had left us with a very big self seeding vegetable patch that more than adequately supplied our, and our mates' needs. Plants once in neat rows now popped up in the most unexpected places. Tomatoes under the olives, asparagus in the artichoke beds, fennel with the garlic. All this in a rather romantic state of semi-controlled chaos. We kept on collecting seeds just in case plants like the poppies bought on our first trip to France decided to stop growing. A frightening prospect. Not only have they grown but crossed with each other into the most extraordinary combinations that surprise and delight each year. Diane collects the seeds and carefully stores them for the next season. We have lost some varieties though, the white wild strawberries that seemed to seed so prolifically have disappeared in the big dry but luckily one of our friends has now got more than they need. We regularly get calls from guests who have grown our plants from cuttings or seed asking how to prepare them.

The joys of sharing seeds.

Some seeds are also picked for cooking. fennel, coriander, lovage, caraway and such but some seeds are also useful when green like these nasturtiums "fruit" that will dry into mature seedpods..

They are moist, crunchy, and peppery like horseradish perfect for a surprising addition to salads and sauces.

This year a little more order is required as the full potential of the garden is again to be realised.
Picking ripeness is an art in itself and a little local knowledge is priceless. Take tomatoes for instance. The large beefsteak varieties if left to fully ripen on the vine can become floury but if you pick them when just red they ripen to a magnificent moist sweetness.

Pears also get very floury if fully ripened on the tree, they need to be picked when they easily separate from the branch and left to ripen in the kitchen. These ones are
Mock’s Red Williams quite aptly re-named Sensation for marketing purposes.

The most difficult fruit to pick ripeness in are the olives. Most Australian consultants tell you to pick them black, fully ripened for the best yield of oil. On the other hand most high quality European olive growers advise picking them when just changing from green to red and a fascinating equation is offered to get it right.
Take 100 random olive samples from the crop and assign a number to each starting from 0 for the least mature deep dark green to 7 for the ripest black skin and black flesh. Multiply the number of olives in each grade by the number of its ripeness add all the numbers together and divide by 100. The optimum result is supposed to be 5.
But here over the last 3 seasons the cockatoos seem to be the perfect actuaries. When the cockies strike we harvest. The greener the fruit the better the flavour, that is if you like strong spicy oil. The small loss of yield is more than made up for by the intensity of taste.

The cooking class program is up at this link http://www.sunnybraecookingschool.blogspot.com/ Starting in the second week in May.
If anyone has a better calendar that can enable photos and recipes to be added please send me a link it looks a bit OfficeWorks at the moment.