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.

Blackfella's Bread

M works in the Otways. He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK. While clearing what’s left of our old growth forests he stumbled upon this extraordinary fungus buried under the ground and he thought I might like to see it. M also fishes for snapper and despite his rather controversial profession is a food lover at heart. I had read about “Blackfella’s" Bread, seen photos but I have never tasted one. I emailed a picture to, and called Our Man at the Herbarium Tom May for a positive identification. I cannot stress too strongly the dangers of indiscriminate fungi tastings. Even with this unique specimen I wanted to be sure I had a positive identification and that it was safe. I had not spoken to Tom for a couple of years but he reassured me it was definitely Laccocephalum mylittae and sent an extract of his contribution to a new cookbook about to be published by the International Mycological Society….
In south-eastern Australia, few fungi have been recorded as eaten by Aboriginal people, perhaps through lack of the right questions being asked by mycophobic English settlers. One of the exceptions is Native Bread, the sclerotium of Laccocephalum mylittae, which is reported as being eaten across Victoria and Tasmania under a variety of names, such as the 'Boee Wan' of the Tjapwurong people of western Victoria (Kalotas, Fungi of Australia 1B). A polypore fruit-body is produced from the sclerotium after bushfires, at which time the sclerotium shrivels. The deeply buried sclerotia can reach 30 cm in diameter, and were detected by Aboriginal people by the smell of rotting wood associated with the fungus (which forms a brown rot). Nowadays sclerotia are typically found when recently cleared land is ploughed. They can be eaten raw or cooked, and have a rather bland flavour, like boiled rice. Nevertheless, Native Bread has been enjoyed by forest workers as a hearty meal around the campfire.

Now; what was I to do with it? It has the texture of a rubber ball, quite solid but slightly pliant and I decided to bake it whole in foil to see if really had any flavour. Well Tom was right, bland is a bit of an understatement but at least it was neutral nothing unpleasant. Salt did little to improve it, honey the same but somehow it gave you the impression that if you were to eat it all it would be very filling.
I guess if I was to follow the locavore path I could pair it with a couple of Barwon River Crayfish and the “bread” would be good to mop up the juices of its roe.

But the find was of some importance. There is a project based in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne called the Australian Fungimap Project. It focuses on 100 target species of fungi that are being watched by professional and amateur mycologists to chart the habits of these extraordinary wonders of nature. This is one of the target species.
I fear that it will be a lean year for mushrooms due to the drought but never the less its always fun hunting.

Check out the site..link here http://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/fungimap.html

Sweet Pickings

The rhythm of the garden is surging and right now magnificent.
The home harvest brings the challenge of making sure the excess is well preserved.
But if we do not get above average rainfall this autumn Victorian growers will really be pushed to the limit.















The prune plums attained their glory and are now dried and stashed along with the dried Granny Smiths. There is a glut of cucumbers so some pickles are on the cards.














.The melons are getting to a decent size and preservation recipes are being collected, perhaps a Callison-style sweetmeat with the new honey?

Last week was full-on beginning with preparation for our Melbourne Food and Wine Festival lunch. The itch slowly faded as Diane and I became completely immersed in the menu planning and set up.
A very capable crew assembled with Anton of la Madre fame, helping in the kitchen. Denis oven builder and resident honorary health and safety officer, on oven and sink. Ella and Kathleen, new faces on the floor. With Lea [Mr.T Spoon, the coffee magician] Ingrid back from 7 years of un-paid long-service leave and Di leading the floor.
All intentions of capturing the day on the camera quickly dissolved into the bustle of the prep and service.
The menu is like a jigsaw always finalised on the day.
The bread was made with a long slow Biga fermented overnight.
Katos came good with some very fresh local Snapper which we flashed in the wood oven with a salad of home grown garlic, purslane, fennel, rock samphire and a dressing made by Di using the last of our Arbequina EVO.
Gosling Creek Reisling 2006 Murroon.
This was followed by a selection of antipasto-










House made panir [the only photo I took]
Garden fresh cucumbers, perilla and pepper.
Skipton smoked eel with an anchoiade de Croze and Leeks.
A haricot bean salad with a smokey mustard dressing.
A confit of wild rabbit and Western Plains pork with spiced morello cherries served with finely grated Granny Smiths that had just ripened last week.


The prep started early with the beef slowly braised in the wood oven with a sofrito enhanced with orange zest. The bones removed much to the delight of the four leggeds exiled to the canine stalag for the day. Narelle is not to be trusted and Barbie is a bit bewildered these days and can’t hear the cars.
The tomatoes for the salad came good at the last minute and now we are picking 3 to four buckets a day for the year’s supply of tomato sauce. The spuds came from one of our neighbours.
Innisfail Cab merlot 2004 and Farr Rising Shiraz 2005.

Poached white nectarines and plums served with a buttermilk Bavarois

Fizz with a white peach granita.

I apologise for some of the chairs the new ones will be here soon.

MEMORIAL SERVICE

There will be a Memorial Service for Donlevy Fitzpatrick on Monday March 3 at the

Sacred Heart Church 87 Grey Street St.Kilda at 11 am.

Donlevy Fitzpatrick

Don died peacefully at his home around 11pm on Thursday 21 February Palm Beach Sydney 2008 .

You brought a sense of occasion to everywhere you went.

your loving mates

George and Diane

Roquette Science

December 2004 Dear Editor.

What do you think about a story, working title Roquette Science
On the molecular gastronomists?

Tracing the trend back to Marinetti who in his futurist manifesto Cucina Futurisimo in fascist Italy as well as attributing the demise of Italian supremacy to the slothful practice of eating pasta, invented dishes like salami dunked in coffee to be eaten while stroking a cat to the soundtrack of Wagner in a room sprayed with perfume? [Sound familiar?]

On a more serious note, how, much of the movement is based on pseudo-scientific assertions like The Fat Duck’s Heston Blumental’s justification that white chocolate goes with caviar because they both contain amines?

Amines of course are found in most organic compounds including meth-amphetamine, L.S.D as well as most other foodstuffs. In fact white chocolate has had most of its amines removed which would mean that caviar, if you follow his assumption would go much better with a big dark chocolate on ice. [I've always liked my Beluga with Valhrona.]

I would like to explain how Adria Ferran fits perfectly into the cultural context of the Spanish surrealists as an extension of Dali and Gaudi while the copyists are trying to dazzle us with science providing yet another way of alienating the diner from the cook.

It has always been important for the top end of the restaurant world to keep the diner at a good distance from the professional kitchen. Although the techniques are readily demonstrated and the doodads to make them available we can feel a little silly cooking a piece of beef for 8 to 24 hours at home but bow to the post-future-molecular masters for $$$$ a pop.

Also how molecular [read chemical] winemaking is considered to be the enemy of good wine and natural winemaking traditions are fiercely protected by master winemakers yet no such consideration is given by the new age cooks. This contradiction is ignored by many commentators, we all need the copy. George Lang once told me in 1989 that “ If Joe Shmo wants to read about a capuccino of snail caviar in a cloud of dry ice, who am I to disappoint him?”

I would like to explain how our palates are being seduced by manufactured concentrated flavours that are so strong and wasteful of valuable resources that food matches and combinations need to become more and more intense to satisfy our neophillic needs
I would also like to explain that all this intense food preparation is also extremely useful to a bottom line because many of the preparations are stable for considerable periods of time, allowing the restaurant to dazzle the diner with intricate presentations to justify exorbitant prices for essentially tiny bits of pre-prepared products.

Or to put it another way?

What’s the matter with the food I’m fixing?
“Can’t you tell that it’s out of style?”
Should I be molecular minded?
“If you don’t then you’re in denial.
Don’t you know about the new fashion money
Don’t need bees to make a new-age of honey”
Fat duck, mind fuck, cook muck, big suck
Still sausage rolls for me.


Photo is of a New-Style Sausage Roll from Studio Sunnybrae circa 2004

My excuse for this rant is that its 42 degrees C, some would say the perfect temperature to cook an egg.

Opportunity Knocks.

There is a vacancy for a young chef at Sunnybrae.
The position is full time and provides an ideal opportunity to spend some time consolidating and building on a serious career in cooking. The applicant will be responsible for preparation and assisting in cooking for the restaurant, being the assistant during cooking classes, picking up supplies and helping in the kitchen garden. The position is full time from Thursdays to Mondays with no evening work and no split shifts. The ideal candidate would live close to or in Geelong as some ingredients are sourced from there. They must have their own transport.
The most important attributes that the candidate can bring to us is enthusiasm coupled with energy, an open mind and a fine developing palate. They will be exposed to all facets of cooking and work with fine seasonal ingredients of an interesting nature. The position is available to an experienced third year apprentice or a young capable chef. Some solid experience in a busy professional kitchen is mandatory. The position is suited to a confidant individual who is excited by the industry. Good wages and conditions allow for a settled private life outside the job. If you know anyone who may fit this description please let them know. The job is available from mid April for a May opening. We are short-listing candidates now.We are an hour from Geelong on a small farm near Birregurra

Cafe Des Artistes

D.F.L Clancy, he of many seasons on the floor at Miettas, di Stasio, Dogs Bar and a decade at Sunnybrae now green-carded in New Jersey asks:
Does the Magic Robot know anything about Zoltan Sepeshy? And of any connection to the café art scene?

Robot replies: Nu? So you think because he’s a Magyar we all know of each other?
Zolli [I think I can call him that now] according to a biography of another Detroit artist Sarkis was known amongst his contemporaries as that “mad Hungarian artist” who eventually became the director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
The local arts scene in Detroit in the 30’s and 40’s was based around the Scarab Club and your painting may indeed be of that revered institution. Or it could also be of the Russian Bear, the Roxy Bar, the Bagel Café or any of another dozen cafes and clubs in Detroit haunted by these émigré artists. But it would probably be the most important if it was of the “Round Table” at Greenfields Cafeteria, the Algonquin of Detroit at the time.

The idea of the Artist’s Café holds a mythology that bears examination.
Every city with a history of artistic endeavour has had its share of bohemian cafes and restaurants that have made an immeasurably important contribution to the spiritual life of that city.
At 144 Little Collins Street Melbourne in the thirties you could possibly have found Tucker, Dargie, Bell and many other established, emerging or struggling Melbourne artists enjoying and possibly trading pictures for good Russian inspired tucker provided by Minka Wolman/Veal in her much loved cafe Petrushka.

Mietta's salon was also a unique moment in time for Melbourne.
Lucio's in Paddington?

There are so many.








The patron of such places has to have a generosity of spirit to nurture artists, who often contribute more to the long term reputations of the restaurants than the fine cooking that may be on offer.
How many of us have taken coffee at Aux Deux Magots just to feel the spirit of de Beauvoir and Satre? Taken a drink at the Closerie de Lilas to feel the Absinthe in Baudelaire’s veins?














But to consciously construct such places is thankfully nearly impossible. They spring out of the essence of hospitality which is what makes this business so rewarding to its owners and its regulars.
Any others that come to mind?

Top Photo of Gerbeaud Budapest by Manfed Hamm
From Coffee Houses of Europe by George Mikes.

A Bowl of Fruit

The end of a lunch for the artist and his muse.
The lunch remains ours but the fruit is fair game.
I spent a couple of days in town this week and could not help but notice the size of the stone-fruit in the markets; they’re breeding them big for the city.
The fruit you see in the bowl are Green-Gage plums and white nectarines. The tree from where the nectarines were picked I found at the Birregurra tip over 20 years ago and was one of the first fruit trees planted here at Sunnybrae. As found it was a gnarled old stump that had been coppiced a couple of times, like a huge Mallee-root with a few sticks still in leaf. After taking an axe to it I chopped it into about six bits and each one has grown and fruited from that day on. I don’t know the variety but its small intensely flavoured with a back palate that’s very pleasantly slightly bitter. Each year we dry the excess and the perfume of the dried fruit is still strong after a year.
The plums on the other hand are from a three year old tree, pure sweetness almost painfully so. Green Gage plums are deceptive. The colour green to our visual palate always suggests sour or un-ripe but in this case green definitely means go.
The liquid they were marinated in is a light sugar syrup with plenty of lemon and a touch of cardamom and vanilla. The hot syrup is poured over the raw fruit and that is enough to lightly soften the already perfect ripeness.



It was to be served with a fresh goat’s cheese panir. But as I warmed the milk added some buttermilk and lemon I immediately realised that there would not be enough curd but kept at it. It tasted a little bland so I added some extra salt and as the heat grew the curds became plastic like a mozzarella. Finally I placed the lightly pressed curd onto a bowl and put the closest weight on top [the melon] to make a small indent on the top.
This was filled with a little chopped shallot, EVO [last years] and some finely cut basil and it found its way into the antipasto.
The Angelinas, Prune d’Agen and Satsumas are next.

The cooking class schedule is on the new Cooking Class blog at the top right of this page.
More later.

Hard Copy

Travel and travel writing is quite an art. What got me started on this thread was an essay by Linda Jaivin. No not the one from Eat Me that could be made into a cheeky new age Safeway ad, but an essay titled Where Travel Stops in Meanjin Leaves Town 2003. Jaivin begins with an observation on the one-upmanship of contemporary travel writing where “One travel writer rides on the single most bone-rattling bus over the single most inhospitable territory known to humankind. The next one comes along and rides the same bus, but hangs off the roof-rack. The third one does the same – with a rifle between her teeth…”
Contemporary food travel writing loves themes like eating live snake heads in a steamy Borneo jungle amongst unexploded landmines using nitro-glycerine for stove fuel, you get the picture.
With our attention focussed Jaivin takes us through some of her more hardcore travel adventures and gently eases us into probably the most frightening travel destination in Australia, a Detention Centre: the Place Where Travel Stops. She waves her velvet glove with a final plea to our writers to remember to record the journeys of those travellers who having fled torture and persecution in their own countries, to arrive, only to be caged and silenced in our own.

Then the mail arrived with my second volume of Edawrd Behr’s wonderful quarterly the Art of Eating that Flavour Addict from Sydney very generously [of soul] signed me up for last year when he realised that the itch was getting a bit out of control. Of course it only added to the scratch which I am sure was part of the plan.
Thank you it worked.
The Art of Eating is one of those now rather rare publications that give authors room to get into a subject without the commercial restraints of the dailies, glossies or some aspects of the web. Link Here http://www.artofeating.com/ . We can remember Andrew Wood’s Divine a journal that launched many of our contemporary food and wine writers.

It has also been a season of travellers passing through Mr. B called over summer he is living proof that those students with the most chutzpah get the rewards. Michael Benyan [I’ll out him here, he’s not shy], is possibly the most successful expatriate Australian restaurateur/hotelier in London in recent years. It has only taken Michael 18 years to become an overnight success in London. He was with Sam and Samantha Clark from virtually the beginning and now with Mark Sainsbury in a very special Hotel/Restaurant called the Zetter in Clerkenwell central London.http://www.thezetter.com/

One of the most exciting aspects of this quirky cool hostelry is that it is built over an ancient aquifer hence the name of the district Clerkenwell. The area was an 18th Century spa and had a number of breweries.

The underground water is fresh, sweet and plentiful and not only serves as drinking water bottled for the restaurant but uses the temperature differential to drive all the air-conditioners in the building, so no ugly water coolers have to placed on the rather picturesque roof. Michael was one the cheekiest, naughtiest and most likeable students I have taught at TAFE. You always knew he would crack it. No small part of his success I am sure is attributable to his ability to play cricket. If you think the Ashes are competitive, there was/is a game between Nick Smallwood's Hospitality Eleven and Chris Jagger’s Allsorts that meant if you could wield a bat or spin a ball, it assured you a place in the best hospitality houses in London. Michael has translated his Australian/Melbourne hospitality sensibilities to conquer one of the most difficult markets in the world. They’re planning the next Zetter now.
My apologies to those that missed out on booking for the Itch but soon on Sundays

We've got Hives! and lots of other bugs!

Finally after many years of unforgivable procrastination we have finally got some beehives. Alfred Wittosch a local beekeeper from Otway Apiaries delivered our first hives about a month ago and today resplendent in his brand new outfit he gave us our first taste of fresh honey.
Fresh almost pure nectar straight from the comb that can only be compared to the taste of the first extra virgin oil directly from the press.
It was too young but we just could not resist a sample. Alfred explained that the bees concentrate the nectar and reduce the water content from about 60% to less than 15% by fanning it to give us what we call honey. Alfred is one of those people who for me rekindles the passion that we can lose sight of in pursuing this sometimes frantic foodie life. He loves his bees.
By the time we re-open [probably the first week in May] [more details later] we should have enough to be self-sufficient in this divine seminal sweetness.
But there are many other bugs here too... the spiders were at it last night.
With certain weather conditions we get a lot of small beetles that are attracted to the house lights and somehow our resident arachnoids know when and where to web.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Program goes Live

Get in early as many of the small events are sold out very quickly.
Link to the Website and Program
http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/www/html/24-mfw-festival.asp

Our event The Seven Year Itch is on February 24 bookings taken from Sat 26 January only by telephone 03 52362276. 50 places available.

In answer to Passable Cook but complete Luddite.

Robot says in answer to second question re Perils of P, the detail of which cannot be printed because of a limited liability that covers this site.

“All I can say is that MSG may be one solution or perhaps seek.com at right price. Caveat etc.”

The first question asked the Magic Robot for
”help in finding a good recipe for duck ragout” Sounds innocent enough.

Robot says:
My friend Kettner aka E.S Dallas and I have seen your cunning plot!
Ragout of Duck? The word that gives it away is ragoût.
Duck Stew does not have the same je ne sais quoi? Does it?
How about a Contise of duck? [Stack] or a Chartreuse [a concealment] of the same? Too plebeian?
But ragout also poses a different dilemma. Not only are we perceived to be gilding the lily in English but if we have to mix our languages,at least then let’s give them a considered title. The French are disdainful of the word ragoût because it ignores the rich chorus of words that describe specific “stews”.
Matelote –Fresh water fish. Civet of Hare. Gibelote of Rabbit. Fricassee of Chicken. Compôte of pigeon. Daube of Beef. Navarin of Lamb. And many more.
Dallas says a Salmi of Duck is preferred, the term for a “ragoût” of winged creatures. Robot also approves.

Stewing duck is in the traditional way poses some difficulties as duck meat does not like being simmered in anything other than its own fat for initial cooking. So first slowly roast the duck or prepare a confit [another can of words] then prepare your stew. The duck can be portioned and the bones, offal and giblets used to make the sauce.

Salmi of Duck
Suggested garnishes:
Green olives and wild onions with thyme?
Chestnuts, juniper berries and Pinot Noir?
Small turnips, garlic and cabbage?

But that’s really for Autumn.

This week I made a passable supper with some roast Chinese duck and a garnish of spiced Morello cherries [see a previous post] and a salad of succulents?

Magic Robot Replies


The Magic Robot on the side of the screen is from a 1950’s Board Game it features a futuristic atomic age plastic robot figure that sits on a mirror. To play the game you direct the pointer to the question and then place it on another mirror and it magically turns and gives you the answer. But this version is for questions culinary although a few others have crept in.

From S.W. Is Diane still making her collages? They were such a strong part of the Sunnybrae experience.

My word she is, although the style has changed considerably. Instead of the Victorian decoupage look she has been working in a much broader style.

She has combined painting with collage in some work. This screen was made from vegetable boxes and is now at Vince and Rosas market in Geelong appropriately as thats where most of the boxes came from.

The latest series is called Sex Kittens.

I will set up a blog for her in the near future to exhibit more of her work. She has completed a number of screens and her work has featured at the Linden Postcard exhibition and she stole the show at the Fitzroy Football Art show with her Geelong Football Club “Keep a Lid on It” that was the first piece to sell. Unfortunately I did not take a photo of it.

From Fun Guy: How can you tell the quality of Shiitake mushrooms and what is the best way to cook them?

The grading of Shiitake is an art in itself. Generally the thickest darkest fungi that have deep white creases when dried are considered superior. They are referred to as “flower mushrooms” or Donko grade, the thinner caps are called “love letters” in Japanese. Elizabeth Chong in a Melb Food and Wine Masterclass demonstrated that a very hot smoking wok is needed to cook them to develop most of the flavour.

From Darling Grace. I remember the Dim Sims from the Grace Darling Hotel [ that dates me] can you pass on the recipe?

Gee that goes back to 1979! As you have reminded me, we served them in the bar at the Grace Darling Hotel in Collingwood and every second Saturday the publican Peter Charleston [who did the footy stats at 3KZ] would bring back Jack [Captain Blood] Dyer and Bob Davis to the pub for an after-the-game session. Jack loved the dimmies but one Saturday the bar manager, Freddy [Brownlow Legend] Goldsmith came into the kitchen and said that God wanted to speak to the cook. I sheepishly went to face the legend and as he sat at the bar he skulled a ramekin of the chilli dipping sauce and said “Son, you’ve been watering it down!”

Chicken and Ginger Dim Sims
A simple Dim Sum Aussie style.

Serves 6
30 Won Ton wrappers
500g minced skinless chicken thighs
1 medium onion cut into small pieces
Two small pieces of ginger cut into pieces
2 cloves of garlic
Half a small carrot
Half a bunch of coriander
A small red chilli deseeded and cut into small pieces
Juice of one lime a small splash of fish sauce
30ml of ketchap manis [Conimex Brand]
10ml Kikoman soy sauce
30g bean shoots 30g pea shoots for garnish

Crush the garlic, one of the pieces of ginger, chilli and half of the coriander in a mortar and pestle. Mix with the ketchap manis, soy, lime juice and fish sauce. Taste.
Mix half of this mixture with the chicken, carrot, onion, the rest of the coriander and the other piece of ginger and mince or put through a food processor. Fry off a little and taste. Adjust the seasoning to your taste. A little Tabasco is good.

To make the dim sims spoon a little of the chicken mixture on to each wrapper and bring up the sides to make a dim sims, the top can be open.

Steam for about 10 minutes and serve on the sauce and shoots. Add more Chilli if there is a Blood in the bar.

From Alistair:
You mentioned planting Charentais Melons in an earlier post can we buy them in Victoria?

I am not sure, I heard that there were some being sold a couple of years ago but not recently. They are not difficult to grow and ripen well in a Victorian Summer. I hope they will be grown in greater numbers as they have an exquisite perfume as well as flavour. Ask at Stall 83 at the Victoria Market or Fratelli Fresh in Sydney.

From J.R. Magic Robot Says NO!

Fine Print

It’s always in the fine print.





The pile for the op-shop was getting suspiciously large.
Madam D has to be supervised in certain weather. She would say I need supervision regardless of the weather. On some days she can come back from op-shopping with 16 koala bears, 10 kg of knitting patterns and a dozen tea-towels. On other days your favourite Johnny O’Keefe album can end up on its way out the door.
Today it was an early Barry Humphries album and 2 Phantom comics amongst a lot of mutually agreed upon surplus stuff.
Just in the nick of time I noticed them. I had forgotten about the Phantom comics bought for the graphics, the old paper, and a lost childhood. Then I thought I had better check to see if it was worth anything, as the renos were starting to add up. That’s when it happened. Bingo! an article in the SMH confirms a very rare first edition worth a couple of weeks of builders’ work. See Link: http://www.smh.com.au/news/money/for-the-ghost-who-walks/2006/04/03/1143916462088.html. Jackpot.
For about a half an hour I basked in my forgotten op-shop coup. Then I rang a Frew Publishing with my find and instead of a ticket to Sydney to offer the rarest of Phantom comics to the keenest of collectors his secretary asked an innocent question. Did it have a printers’ line under the second page? No I replied, then she told me of the 1991 facsimile reassuringly adding it was worth about an hours' worth of plumbing.
Always check the fine print.

De Croze returns

But the day ended well, very well. The copy of Austin de Croze’s What to Eat and Drink in France 1931 has returned from a short holiday in the lost books’ dimension.
What’s so special about this edition? It all started about 25 years ago with a casual peek into Elizabeth David’s book Mediterranean Food. A small aside, an unusual recipe sketch for an Anchoiade de Croze containing figs, almonds, fennel seed, very alluring. I started to make it and it became a regular in our recipe repertoire for over 20 years usually paired with a Cantal or Parmesan Cheese tart.

Much later I had the privilege of meeting Jill Norman, E.D’s good friend and original publisher. Jill started the Penguin Cooking List. She is an author of many fine books and a highly respected editor. A couple of years later we had the pleasure of presenting a lunch and dinner together honouring Elizabeth David. Jill Norman was the guest speaker at an event called ‘Is there an author in the house?’ where the said anchoiade was featured.
This image below is from the original Memorial Service for E.D. Jill had brought a copy for each person at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival event.











She had recalled that I was intrigued by De Croze and that I did not know much about him. About 3 months after the event a package arrived in the mail. She had remembered and sent a copy, not just any copy but a first edition containing the recipe with a very special provenance. So you can see I’m glad he’s back.

Now you can follow the trail of de Croze who completed a similar journey as Elizabeth David in recording the traditional foods of France a generation earlier. He dedicates the book to his son Joel ‘a future gourmet who, through this book will learn the Geography, History, and Psychology of his native land in the language of a good friend country..

Lovingly A de C.




The trail if you follow it will take you to Curnonsky who invented Bibendum through all the various Provinces of a time gone by. I won’t spoil it for you.

Eels Dam Eels

Spent the morning adjusting the water systems.

Water conservation here at Sunnybrae is an ever-changing week to week proposition.

This area is blessed with good rainfall so I am not whingeing, but as so much of our time is spent on water management I thought you may as well be privy to the most important aspect of how this property works.

Drinking water comes from the roof into 4 tanks that are now all pretty close to being full. The large roof area means that each millimetre of rain gives 3 or 4 hundred litres of very fine clear drinking water. All the tanks are connected to an underground tank that dates back to 1868 when the house was built and for 10 years before the restaurant began [’81 to 91’] it was plenty for all our household needs. Now all the drinking water from the other tanks is filtered and gravity feeds into the old underground tank where it is cooled naturally. I think it is one of the highlights of a visit to the restaurant. It tastes great. Although the mains-water goes right past the front of the property we have resisted connecting to it.

Flavour especially in water is fundamental.

The dams on the other hand are a different matter altogether. We are on deep sandy loam and even very heavy rain like we thankfully had last month does not begin to create run-off these days unless we get a very sudden downpour. I say these days because the underground water-table has dropped significantly over the last 10 years. Some of our neighbours have bore-water and they have said that now they are sourcing the bores more than 15 metres lower than last year. They say that there is a very large artesian river under the Otways but the last 10 years or so has depleted this reserve considerably. While the garden can look quite green it’s an illusion.
Some call it a green drought. It is when large twenty year old trees begin to die that this becomes apparent. We have lost over 20 big trees in the last two years.We also use the dams for the 20 dairy cows that are agisted here, so it’s not all available for the garden. Just as the drinking water is connected to a central point all the dams are connected to the front dam and we use a windmill to pump water from our largest dam up to a holding dam and then gravity feed it to the central distribution dam that is near the road.

This dam gets good run-off from the road so it is only in these summer months that the windmill needs to be used. The cows had been playing with the now exposed pipes on the bottom dam so maintenance was needed.

Around this time of year we drain the holding dam into the front dam as evaporation in two places is wasteful.
We have used over 60 cubic meters of mulch this summer so the vegetable garden is holding its own but only tomatoes have been planted in large quantities. We need them for this year’s sauce and once you have tasted home grown there is no going back. It is all about the flavour.

Flavours can be elusive. They hide in the parts of an ingredient we sometimes find too difficult to bother with.
The shell of a cray, the giblets in a chook, the skin of an eel.
One way to capture a flavour is by infusion or slow poaching.
A few years ago as the dams were drying up, ever optimistic, we decided to enlarge one hoping for good rains later. The muddy bottom that was left had to be dredged out. As the ‘digger jigger’ started to move the sludge that was the only moisture left, we noticed a mass of what looked like wriggling agie-pipes.

Eels, lots of eels.

This dish uses smoked eel, the skin of which contains an intense flavour perfect with a fragrant red wine. This recipe was designed for a mate Barry Williams who loved Pinot Noir and is based on the traditional Burgundian dish of

Oeufs Meurette.

Smoked Eel with Pinot Poached Eggs

Skin a good fresh smoked eel I don't like to use them frozen. Check the regional produce guide on the right for details of where to source them. Or view the Skipton Primary Schools excellent eel project at http://www.skiptonps.vic.edu.au/eels.htm

Cut up the skin and take the meat off the bones and cut it into small pieces.
Make a gutsy red wine stock from the eel skin and bones using good pinot noir for the liquid. Use lots of vegetables carrots, leeks onions garlic, a little celery. Strain and remove as much of the fat from the top as you can. If there is too much fat left cool it in the fridge it will set and be easy to remove.
Save a little stock to heat the eel in and reduce the rest till its rich and shiny. Toast a few slices of your favourite bread rub with garlic and set them aside. Fry a little bacon and leek till crisp and set aside.
Warm the eel gently in the stock you saved.
Poach the eggs in the red wine sauce place on the toasted bread arrange the eel around it and garnish with the fried leek bacon.

A breakfast dish for a sunny summer’s day by the shade of a tree?
I would prefer to eat it to the sound of a thundering storm on the tin roof, filling those thirsty dams.

We'll always have Paris

Of all the travel memories that Diane and I share this image holds a very special place.
On a cold winters day after walking the old historic market area of les Halles we ducked into the dark and glorious Eglise St. Eustache at the bottom of rue Montorgueuil. Here amongst the sombre side chapels with their vaults and family tombs, past the smoke stained Rubens you come across this diorama and it hits you hard. A simple naive monument depicting the last traders leaving the market for the last time when it was pulled down to make way for what must be the largest Metro maze in the world. Standing there in the semidarkness amongst somber religious icons this gaudy childlike plaster installation confirms why Paris is such an extraordinary place. No stuffy planning committee to oversee the interior of this historic church where Moliere, Madam Pompadour and many others were originally buried. He was moved to Pere Lachaise later. Parisians still mourn the loss of the belly of the city.




But all is not completely gone. If you go up rue Montorgueuil look down the side alleys you will find knife makers, shops that sell those wonderful plastic Croque Monsieur signs, shops selling rules of the hotel boards that tell you that washing your feet in your room is verboten. All sorts of clues to an extraordinary time. These streets were the service areas to the great halls of Paris. On another trip in a side street we found a Foie Gras dealer that had been there for over 100 years, in another alley we found a game supplier with a similar history in a three level building where the game birds are received in the cavernous basement into which you can drive, then the produce moves up a floor to be dressed and finally to ground level to be sold both wholesale and retail. Bresse chickens amongst a very wide selection of other Produit Fermier or classified farm produce.




On our first visit to Paris we stumbled upon Dehillerin the legendary cookware shop. To our surprise with the franc at 9.5 to the Aussie dollar we could buy a very comprehensive batterie de cuisine and not go to jail when the credit card bill came. The pots are still in use after 25 years. A couple of years ago the shop looked sad and almost empty but there is a website. Andre Simon a similar cookware store has gone and now the wonderful façade holds another chic boutique.

At 15 rue Monmatre you will find le Cochon a L’Oreille a very small bistro seating about 18 inside and about 10 on the street. .
All the walls in the dining room are covered by hand painted tiles each wall depicting a different time at the market. From the toll of the opening bell to the last orders of the day. The bar is best example of an original Zinc I have seen. It is totally preserved including the purpose built wine coolers and compartments for all the required mis en place for the bar. During our first visit I was drawn by the XXXXX anduilette and we struck gold. The normal chef was away and the summer stand-in was a true student of classic les Halles bistro fare. Visitors since have reported less than perfect dishes but I can say that on each occasion our meals were brilliant. The patron grumpy, intoxicated and utterly delightful.
Our Paris ritual has been made: Saint Eustache and an andouillette at our zinc.

Is Salle Wagram still there?

Creme de la Crema

Crème de la Crema

Some blokes need bigger toys.
Thankfully I have been able sublimate my most of my retro-techno lust with stuff that also makes flavour. I love good machines that make edibles. Since seeing my first coffee machine a Herend porcelain covered neo-baroque Gaggia at the Gerbaud Budapest I have been hooked.
In 1981 after a stint in London I opened a café in Chapel street South Yarra that had a killer 1950’s Gaggia 4 group Cosmopolitan. Ramesh the man you see behind the beast, dear Sam [sadly no longer with us] and I spent many hours fine tuning each group to the point that I think it took us about a month to come down from a massive caffeine overdose. A few weeks ago I popped into the 100 mile café where one of our ex-chefs Richard works and lo and behold there was an identical model. I think it’s the same one but you can never be sure.

About 3 years ago I had another close encounter with a Gaggia, this time a 1962 Americano in original condition. I had no idea if it worked but bought it on spec. A small metal plaque on the bottom displayed the original distributors Bancroft and Sons in South Melbourne. One night when I popped Gaggia and Bancroft into Google the story of how Espresso came to Melbourne was revealed. http://www.rosarioscarpato.com/en/the_machines_eng.pdf. When you read this wonderful tale in the link above. you will come across the name Flavio Vedelago as I did on that night.
With only one F. Vedelago in the phone book I took the chance and met the man that not only made the Americano, the Cosmopolitan and still keeps many of the old lever machines going, but also a true gentleman of coffee. He said bring it over and I’ll see what I can do. Bancrofts made the whole machine in Melbourne as for a short time import duties were prohibitive. When casting the large brass groups they had trouble making them without flaws so they decided to turn them instead out of a solid piece of metal, so all the Oz built Gaggia groups are practically indestructible.
On inspection he was thrilled to see it had been kept so well and vaguely remembered selling one, possibly this one to a Chinese café in Wagga. He restored it to perfect condition and the friendship continues over a mutual love of kitchen gardens and coffee machines.

The home machine, a single group 1959 Faema Lambro, has kept me in coffee over the last few years, but a new boy has appeared on the block. For the restaurant I just can’t see myself letting anyone without a boilermaker’s licence drive her professionally. So welcome to the modern world with a newish single group Azkoyen that makes very fine coffee.

My favourite lever machine still in operation in Melbourne is at Sila Coffee Lounge in Brunswick Street. I still refer to the café as Pasquali’s. Pasquali’s son has carried on the legacy and keeps this gem in perfect working order . I have enjoyed many a coffee from this exquisite 2 group Faema Urania while doing a stint at the original Comedy Café way back in the early eighties and never fail to cop a short black when passing.

The 2 group Gaggia Cosmopolitan at the Special Cake Shop in Chapel Street Prahran is still there but it needs a good seeing-to from Flavio.

Faema E61’s the quantum leap from the lever jobs are around if you look closely but the lever machines are few and far between. The Galleon’s Cosmo is in retirement.
Perhaps we should create a virtual tour of the classic lever machines in Melbourne.

Does anyone know of others?

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival was looking at an event so keep your eyes on the program. Time for another shot and then back to the garden.
Planting out Charantais melons and more pimento di padrone today before the heat returns.

The Cookbooks that ate the Dining Room

We all love our books but dread the day when we have to move them. The floors are being done next week and everything has to be cleared and stashed away from the dreaded dust machine. I am not sure what's worse: floor sanding dust? or plaster dust? I think plaster has away of creeping into places that you never imagined even sawdust could enter. But there is one compensation for having to move a library and that is you can reacquaint your self with some of your best mates.

Suddenly a job that may have taken a couple of hours if it was moving furniture could easily end up a whole day especially if the weather's too hot to do anything useful in the garden. Then comes the moment when you are sure that the copy of de Croze is missing, that can eat up another hour. Time can stand still while you visit Chapelle and just have a little peek into Blue Trout and Black Truffles and then see what Ketner's has to say about, well just about anything! .

Its been a great day of rediscovery.

This group of ephemera holds a special place in the collection. In 1986, at least I think it was then [and now I can't check because the box is under a massive pile in the ladies loo] I read an article about Betty Austin, the head librarian at the Emily McPherson college who was compiling a bibliography of all Australian cookbooks prior to 1941. Over the years I have been a keen op-shop obsessive and have collected old cookbooks and had quite a stash at the time.

I went to see Ms. Austin and we quickly established a strong friendship over our mutual interest. She showed me through the library's collection and I even had a couple that she had not seen. During that time the Emily Mac library became place that I enjoyed visiting whenever a culinary question came up. [ Now you can ask the Magic Robot on the right]

Betty completed the bibliography and kindly sent me a copy that holds this whole collection together. Diane and I are still op-shop crazy but now of course its the fifties to eighties that we waste our hours on. The older bits of cooking ephemera are much harder to find. One of the small sub-sets in this collection are the wonderful but rather sad booklets given to injured returned servicemen after the First and Second World Wars to raise money.

It must have been a horrific comedown after losing your limbs in the Somme to go door to door selling little cookbooks. But they do give a very clear picture of the home cooking of the time.

The next stage of putting all the books back is also very important, after some more distractions a new order is achieved. The pile of must-read-agains grows and the cull that you know you should make somehow stays in the background. Although I must admit I love to cull a few copies bought in a moment of weakness or utter folly. What was I thinking?

Now if you have my copy of Austin de Croze please return it along with Frank Moorhouse's Loose Living. Which, if you haven't read I can heartily recommend to anyone except the person who's got my copy. Late fines apply.

And finally a small Crumb from Robert for all you Mr. Natural fans.