BEEF CHEEK WITH ROASTED CAULIFLOWER MASH

If you haven't tried cooking beef cheeks, have a go. Dead simple and delicious. Butchers will denude them (remove sinew etc to leave just the meat). I put them into a deep cast iron casserole with red wine, veal glace, cognac, star anise, garlic, salt and pepper to cover the meat. I placed some dampened baking paper over the top, put the lid on and baked for 6 hours at 125C. That's it. I cut a head of cauliflower into florets and put these in a singe layer in a tray and brushed with olive oil. I added this tray to the oven for the last 1 1/2 hours of cooking the cheeks. I peeled and boiled 1 large sebago potato and drained this. I then combined the potato and cauliflower with about 100 gms of butter, salt and pepper and puréed.

BEEF CHEEK WITH ROASTED CAULIFLOWER MASH

ROASTED CHICKEN THIGH, CHOKOS & SEBAGO WEDGES WITH BASIL PESTO

Sebago potatoes make a good mash. They also make fine roasted wedges - boiled in salt water first, drained, some butter added to melt, then placed in a roasting pan with the melted butter poured over, salt, pepper, 30 minutes at 180C. The chokos were marinated in extra virgin olive oil, with finely chopped garlic and oregano leaves, then roasted for 75 minutes at 180C - covered for the first hour.

ROASTED CHICKEN THIGH, CHOKOS & SEBAGO WEDGES WITH BASIL PESTO

PUMPKIN AND SAFFRON RISOTTO

I've been tinkering with risottos for 30 years. Lost count of how many variations I've made. My favourites are fennel, beetroot, blue swimmer crab. I experimented with this one and was really happy the way it turned out. There's the usual onion, chicken stock, rice (vialone nano), salt, pepper and parmesan. In this version there's pumpkin, fino sherry, saffron and a tiny amount (about 1/8 of a teaspoon of smoked paprika - enough to add interest, but not enough to be identifiable).

PUMPKIN AND SAFFRON RISOTTO

SALAD OF BEETROOT, FIGS, CIPOLLINE AND HAZELNUTS

Hands up those of you who like beetroot? Okay. And those of you who like figs? Excellent. And those of you who like hazelnuts? Good. And those of you who like cipolline? Cipolline? C-I-P-O-L-L-I-N-E. Anyone? Anybody know what they are? Hmm. If you haven't had them, they are small, flat wild onions from Italy. I have only seen them here in Oz preserved in vinegar, usually balsamic. That's what I've used here - about 5 or six of them finely sliced, along with roughly crushed hazelnuts, fried eschallots, beetroot vinegar, hazelnut oil, salt, pepper and coriander.

SALAD OF BEETROOT, FIGS, CIPOLLINE AND HAZELNUTS

RISI E BISI

To we English speakers, risi e bisi sounds more romantic than rice and peas, the translation of this Venetian phrase. But rice and peas is basically what this is. Okay, it's vialone nano rice - along with carnaroli, one of the two best varieties of rice for risotto. And there's a bit more going on here than simply mixing it with peas - baby leeks sautéed in butter, garlic, home made chicken stock, vialone nano rice, finely chopped celery leaves, peas, salt, pepper and parmesan to finish. But at the end of the day it is essentially rice and peas. Delicious.

RISI E BISI

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH SALSA VERDE

Confession time. First, the salsa verde might look familiar. I made it two days ago. Second, the observant amongst you might suspect that the broccolini isn't roasted ...okay, the reality is that none of you suspected that it mightn't have been roasted - or cared whether it was or wasn't. But it wasn't and that's because when you roast broccolini, the roasting doesn't enhance the flavour. So there are two roasted vegetables and one steamed vegetable ... no, that's a lie, because there's garlic in the salsa verde and, well, um, who gives a ...? Let's settle for veg with sauce (which is what salsa means, for the non-Spanish speakers amongst you)? Pumpkin from our neighbours' farm. Chokos also from their farm. Broccolini from the market. Enough.

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH SALSA VERDE

BAR COD WITH RED CURRY REDUCTION

The first time I had bar cod was 20 years ago. Sydney chefs Neil Perry, Tony Bilson, Chris Manfield and Steve Manfredi were a team in a professional chef challenge organised by Seppelt, an old Australian wine company. Steve had asked me to come along and taste the chefs' trial run. Neil steamed bar cod wrapped in lettuce with a really fine sauce based on fermented soya beans. Bar cod isn't a species you see very often, so when I saw this at our local fishmonger, I grabbed a couple of fillets. I simply salted  and sautéed them in a little grapeseed oil. The sauce is exactly what it sounds like - a mix of home made Thai red curry paste, a little chilli paste and half a cup of coconut cream, reduced by about a quarter. A squeeze of lime juice. A watercress salad dressed with macadamia oil, a few drops of sesame oil and coconut vinegar.

BAR COD WITH RED CURRY REDUCTION

STEAMED FLATHEAD, PURPLE CONGO MASH & SALSA VERDE

Purple Congos are without doubt the most colourful potatoes around. No regulation white, beige or pale yellow here. These are in-your-face purple - intense and deep and rare in foods. Some eggplant varieties have purple skin, but it fades to a wishy-washy brown when cooked. If you boil these whole and then mash, they remain vibrantly purple. If you cut them before cooking, the colour leaches from them. I simply steamed these flathead fillets (caught by my brother). The salsa verde is a mix of parsley and coriander leaves, garlic, anchovy fillets, extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar and salt.

STEAMED FLATHEAD, PURPLE CONGO MASH & SALSA VERDE

CHICKEN SATAY

We Australians have a weird relationship with our neighbour Indonesia. We don't much like the politics. We mostly don't try to understand the religion. But we go there in droves for holidays. And we like the food. There's no food more Indonesian than chicken satay ... well maybe chicken curry. And rendang. And ... Well, anyway, satay is something that we all seem to love. The secret is in marinating the chicken. That's the first secret. The second secret is getting the peanut/sweetness/chilli/tang/saltiness balance just right in the sauce. Did I get it right? You'll never know.

CHICKEN SATAY

POLLO ADOBADO, SALSA DE ELOTE, GUACAMOLE, CHIPOTLE EN ADOBO

Another simple family meal - but a Mexican family meal this time around. Chicken thighs (with skin and bone intact for flavour) rubbed with adobo paste and grilled. Corn pan fried until it starts jumping, with a little agave syrup, lime juice and fresh chilli. Chipotles en adobo, for those who don't know, are smoked jalapeños cooked in a rich spicy sauce. They make an awesome accompaniment to barbecued meats. Add a tequilita and sangrita and you're in Mexican heaven.

POLLO ADOBADO, SALSA DE ELOTE, GUACAMOLE, CHIPOTLE EN ADOBO

GOLD BAND SNAPPER, BEETROOT SALAD, PUMPKIN SALAD, ROAST GARLIC AIOLI

Beetroots are so plentiful and cheap at the moment that I roasted several of them and used one to make this salad - with extra virgin olive oil, spiced beetroot vinegar, a little pomegranate molasses, salt and pepper. Our neighbours gave us a pumpkin, so chunks of this were mixed with pecan oil, white balsamic vinegar and toasted pumpkin seeds. A fresh fillet of gold band snapper, simply salted and pan fried in grapeseed oil and a dollop of roast garlic aïoli - sweet, salty, nutty, soft, crunchy.

GOLD BAND SNAPPER, BEETROOT SALAD, PUMPKIN SALAD, ROAST GARLIC AIOLI

MUD CRAB RISOTTO

My brother brought us a small mud crab caught in his crab pot. It wasn't really big enough for a substantial meal on its own, so it went into this wonderfully rich risotto. Not much in the way of extra flavours - Noilly Prat vermouth, eschallots, garlic and stock, so the sweet pure taste of crab shone through. Delish.

MUD CRAB RISOTTO