This Won't Hurt a Bit!

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to cook a suckling lamb from Meredith Dairy and I wanted to do it in the wood oven. Lamb of this age is very delicate and does not have a lot of fat as it’s so young. The skin comes up a treat in a masonry oven. In order to keep the meat moist inside and the skin crisp I had to reach for the gun. A big surgical syringe is an extremely useful tool in the kitchen to baste from the inside.
It can also be used to sneak a few flavours into places that are hard to reach.
Try a warm chocolate and cardamom sauce injected into a freshly baked brioche?
A few delicate jabs of lime essence into a coconut custard?
Or a little truffle emulsion into a few turkey livers before slow cooking?
How about a little shot of Madeira into a beef rib while it’s resting?
Or a hit of goose fat into that home made sausage.
Garlic oil spiked into the spuds before roasting?
Why not disperse a little liquid fresh truffle essence under the skin of that roast chook as it comes out of the oven?

Any suggestions? Please keep it clean.

You would be right in thinking I have a one track mind at the moment, yes its black smelly and another kilo was unearthed today.

Now You'll Think I'm Offal

Just when Fergus Henderson was making all the headlines with his brilliant book The Whole Beast/ Nose to Tail Eating from his highly regarded restaurant St. John in London, Melbourne was losing a culinary icon in the form of Alf Paulet’s extra-ordinary offal stall in the butchers’ section of Victoria Market. Paulets’ little shop was a beacon for lovers of what the Italians call the fifth quarter. I am saddened by how we worship the foreign but let the local slip off the radar without so much as a parting farewell?
The Culinary Cringe that Cherry Ripe said Goodbye to so eloquently I’m afraid is back-big-time.

Monday’s class was a meeting of the true believers. Quietly they came to feast on the unmentionables. If you are afraid of eating organs please leave now.
We started with some crepinette or caul the membrane that lines the outer layer of the stomach, in this case from a pig. Caul is pure fat in lace form, perfect for making a parcel of oxtail braised with root vegetables, served with baked beetroot and a few pomegranates to add texture and acidity this had to go on early.
The sweetbreads of veal went on next, blanched in lemon water to be pressed and peeled and served with wild field mushrooms that one of the true believers has brought with them. We added a little soaked porcini and the sauce was quite something, velvet with a nutty texture from the thymus glands.

The duck giblets were next on, these are pure solid muscle and I decided to cook them as a rendang inspired by a recipe from Sri Owen they were to be eaten last with some good Harcourt cider as a cleanser. Veal liver was skinned and sliced and a lemon juice/orange juice/stock/cream reduction was begun. Quickly seared served pink with a small watercress salad. On it went with Devilled Kidneys using a very old recipe that used only black pepper as the spice paired with slow cooked shallots in sherry and stock. Pickled Ox tongue with horseradish sauce provided a little light relief before the lambs brains in a Parmesan crust with wild rocket and capers.

The Turkey livers had been poaching at 70 C in duck fat and truffle these we had with an anchoiade [you know the one] and some crusty bread.
If you think we were overdoing it I assure you it all came in small tasting plates with lots of cooking, drinking and much discussion between each course. A Pollocksford Pinot held it all together. The rendang indeed put a spark to the end of the set served with a sharp Vietnamese style salad of perilla and pear.
It only needed a short hit of Morello Palinka to settle our own offal.

Since Alf Paulets departure from the market most of the offal came from Leo Donati across the road from Watson’s in Lygon Street it makes a good quinella.

Cassoulet-- Bean There?

.Regional dishes like Bouillabaisse and Cassoulet bring forth many opinions and great after dinner discussions. We had our Cassoulet cooking class last week and armed with a well stocked larder and fridge, volumes by Curnonsky, Robert Courtine and Paula Wolfert I began to plan the day. The more I read about regional dishes the more convinced I become of the importance of seasonal ingredients and the variations that give rise to subtle differences in these great dishes.



We planned to do four different Cassoulet using different beans and preserved meats in each.


A good line up of ingredients was assembled including duck confit [some of it truffled] a whole wind dried ham dissected into its major cuts and its skin, some of Jonathan’s Toulouse sausages, some fine chorizo, some dried smoked turkey and turkey confit, salted pork and fresh pork skin, unsmoked bacon, fat from a confit and a little cotechino. Goose was hard to get but Mick Tennant in Gold St Collingwood can get it for you.
We also had some good stock, haricot beans, green du Puy style lentils, lima beans, flageolet beans and home made bread-crumbbs from good sourdough bread.

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Those of us who are looking for a definitive version of anything I am convinced are missing the point in cooking. The best coffee, the best smoked salmon, the best bread; it’s all a question of being in the moment.
So with that out of the way we simply created 4 dishes along the lines of Wolfert’s odyssey as outlined in her recently re-published book ‘The Cooking of the South-West of France.’
Some personal observations.
Yes pork skin is invaluable to add that unctuousness or richness but you can achieve it with cotechino if you do not have pork skin.
The beans give an overall timbre to the dish and the soaked and peeled Lima beans gave the creamiest deliciousness to one of them.
The smoked meats came from a very good source and did not have that overpowering smokiness that some commercial smallgoods have, so lightly smoked is good.
Salt is very important but best adjusted after cooking as the beans cook easier when not over-salted and some of the preserved meats can leach lots of saltiness into the dish.
One of Wolfert’s favourite Cassoulet after trying many highlighted in her book was with lentils, duck fat, pork confit and Chorizo and we too found it a winner. Sadly I did not have any fresh broad beans so I could not do her favourite but the question I ask is that when fresh and dried broad beans are available it may not be cold enough to indulge?
This is a dish for a cold winters’ day with not much planned for the next day.
A good marc helps to settle the after-effects and certainly adds to the mellowness of the experience.

The Scent of the Black Truffle

A lunch is coming to an end. The table is cleared but shows signs of serious enjoyment. Good friends prepare to part, faces glowing from fine food, good wines. There is a closeness that sometimes sparks over a fine meal. The diners are restored.

On making their farewells one friend turns to her companion and says, “That was stunning, and I can’t quite put my finger on it but the cook has really sparked tonight.” They are puzzled, excited. The night still holds a promise. Quite often when we use truffles in dishes this scenario is played out.
The mere mention of truffles to the uninitiated stirs a mystery. As the puzzle unfolds like with all fine flavours the mystery continues, ever changing. One does not tire of it, merely adding echoes that resonate occasionally when conditions are right.

At first there is the question of what do they taste like. There is no simple answer. They taste like truffles; but it’s the character they impart to other foods that really makes them shine. I remember the first time I tasted real vanilla - fresh thick pods. Try this; take a fresh vanilla bean, block your nostrils with one hand, taste the pod - it tastes like citrus, acidic, slightly bitter sweet but not vanilla. Release your nostrils and the full flavour and aroma is released. Vanilla - interesting but linear. But wait. Poach a peach in sugar syrup, taste - fine - now add the vanilla bean, scraped seeds from the pod. Let it steep and a balanced full palate of flavours emerge. For me this is the way to use truffles.

For example, prepare a great game stock, clarified, finished. Add some freshly chopped black Perigord truffle. Let it steep. Do not over heat; cover. As with the peaches a new level of sublime complexity is reached.

Some people can pick the aroma at a great distance, others are baffled, confused, somehow cheated. Unfortunately we do not have a well defined spectrum for our sense of smell, but very light scents can trigger rich memories and strong reactions, some very physical. Scientists have identified Androstenol, a hormone in truffles. This aroma is very effective in small doses, unashamedly sexy. The perigord black winter truffle (Tuber Melsanosporum has an aroma that I would describe as extremely penetrating but not overtly strong.

The Italian winter white (Tuber Magnatum Pico) from Alba is undoubtedly stronger, perhaps that is why its often preferred, but sadly the aroma is elusive and cannot sustain heat. It has to be used raw, added at the last minute. It is earthy with echoes of baked garlic, forests - immediate, loud and magnificent.

The argument is to which is better for me does not warrant discussion. Do we compare morels, which must be cooked, to porcini, which can be eaten raw or cooked? I am very happy with either at any time.

In hushed tones......

The first truffles grown in the Otways are here, such excitement 3 kg so far, the largest harvest in Victoria as far as I know... will post more later……

A Walk on the Wild Side

Cool morning, thermoses loaded we are on the hunt for wild fungi.
The first stop near Forrest yields some good slippery jacks [suillus luteus] and saffron milk caps [lactarius deliciosa] the two most common edible wild fungi available in this area in autumn. As our eyes become accustomed to looking amongst the forest floor the wonders of the fungi world begin to emerge. Great flushes of Paxillus that to an over enthusiastic amateur could be mistaken for chantarelles with drastic gastric consequences abound near the West Barwon Dam. Before we go any further I have to say- be afraid, very afraid do not try any wild fungi without an absolute positive experienced person to help you to identify them. After more than 15 years of foraging I only eat about six varieties that I am completely confident are edible. These days just to look and wonder about in this extraordinarily beautiful landscape is enough. The field of wild fungi is a minefield for inexperienced foragers look by all means but do not try anything that you are not sure about.
We complete our walk around Lake Elizabeth one of the most beautiful spots in this district we find Wood Blewits [lepista nuda] some brilliant bracket fungi and marvel at the diversity of fungi in this small piece of paradise.
I have not identified these photos for a good reason I do not want you to try anything on just a photo for identification. The more I learn about wild fungi the more careful I have become. Look, enjoy but be very careful.