PORK BELLY WITH ROASTED PINEAPPLE SALSA & POMEGRANATE MOLASSES

Pork belly is my favourite cut of pork. Berkshires are my favourite breed of pig. If you don't know what breed of pig you're eating, you should. You know what breed of fish you eat, so why not animals with legs or wings? We're lucky to get really sweet pineapples at our local markets - in season. If you slice the pineapple quite fine (say half a centimetre thick) and cook the slices in a dry non-stick pan, the surface will brown as the sugars caramelise. The flavour intensifies as this happens and it adds another dimension to any dish you put it into. In this case, I made a simple salsa with a little lime juice. Pomegranate molasses is available from good delis (by good delis, I mean what Europeans understand by the word deli, not the horrible cold meat counters that masquerade as delis in Queensland). To get the pork crackling crisp, rub it with oil and salt. Cook it very high for 30 minutes, then (once the skin has bubbled) turn the oven down way to about 140C and cook for a couple of hours. This way, the flesh stays moist and the skin stays crunchy.

PORK BELLY WITH ROASTED PINEAPPLE SALSA & POMEGRANATE MOLASSES

TURMERIC BARRAMUNDI WITH A SRI LANKAN TOMATO & CORIANDER CURRY

If you turned out the lights I reckon this would glow in the dark. Nice fat fillets of line-caught barramundi dusted with turmeric and other goodies. The Sri Lankan curry is very light - in flavour and density. I've met a few people who were very dense. If this curry were a person, it would be one of them.

TURMERIC BARRAMUNDI WITH A SRI LANKAN TOMATO & CORIANDER CURRY

BREAST OF GRIMAUD DUCK, PUMPKIN, PLANTAIN & PINEAPPLE & STAR ANISE CHUTNEY

Ducks. This is a Grimaud duck. It seems to be a hybrid Pekin (spellcheck wants to spell this with a g, but it doesn't belong) duck - which is confusing because it's apparently 100% Pekin bloodstock, and that seems at odds with it being a hybrid. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing it was bred by the Grimaud Freres. How the good brothers developed their eponymous duck I have no idea. If you're Fijian or Mexican you'll be familiar with plantains. If not but you live in Sydney you will find them at a couple of Fijian stalls at Flemington Markets. We have a fruit vendor near home who also gets them in occasionally. They're basically big fat bananas. They're green when they're sold and you have to ripen them until the skin starts turning black. You also have to cook them. I slice each plantain in half and saute them, cut side down, then peel back the skins. The pineapple & star anise chutney works with the rich duck flesh and also works in combination with the plantain.

BREAST OF GRIMAUD DUCK, PUMPKIN, PLANTAIN & PINEAPPLE & STAR ANISE CHUTNEY

BEEF, SNAKE BEANS & TIANJIN PRESERVED VEGETABLES

Are you familiar with Tianjin preserved vegetables? If you speak Mandarin you might know them as 天津冬菜. I don't speak Manadarin, so the characters here could just as easily mean 'Blow fish dancing aunt' or 'happy disco giraffe' (which is the sort of thing you sometimes see printed on t-shirts worn by teenage girls from Japan). Tianjin preserved vegetable is a variety of cabbage that has been preserved in salt. The brand I have comes in a squat brown crock.

BEEF, SNAKE BEANS & TIANJIN PRESERVED VEGETABLES

GARLIC CHICKEN WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES

Home cooking 101. Some chook. Preferably the thighs. Preferably with skin and bone intact. Some garlic. Some olive oil and lemon juice. Some black pepper. Under the grill or onto the barbecue for 12-15 minutes. If you're using the oven, then heat it up earlier and roast some vegetables tossed with olive oil. Potato wedges will take about 30 minutes. Asparagus can go in at the same time as the chook. Zucchini will need just five minutes. Do the veg and the chook at about 200C.

GARLIC CHICKEN WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES

BARRAMUNDI WITH BLACK BEANS & TOMATILLO SALSA

How's your cholesterol? Too high? Do you suffer from diabetes? What about hypoglycemia? Need to reduce the saturated fats in your diet? Looking for a power-packed source of antioxidants to fight those pesky free radicals? Black beans are for you. They have about 10 times the antioxidants of cranberries. They have zero fat. They're packed with protein. What's not to like? OK, tomatillos. One University of Illinois study concluded that tomatillos might help prevent cancer. That's quite useful in my book. Black beans and tomatillos have been staples of the meso-American (Mexico and neighbours) diet for a few thousand years. If you live in Mexico or the USA, buying fresh tomatillos is easy. If you live elsewhere, like Australia, you might have to grow your own. Here in Oz, The Diggers Club stock tomatillo seeds. I planted some last year, got a good harvest and will plant some more every year. The coriander & green serrano chillies in the salsa also came from the garden. Panko crumbs on the barramundi give a nice crunch.

BARRAMUNDI WITH BLACK BEANS & TOMATILLO SALSA

TERIYAKI MACKEREL WITH UDON NOODLES

Udon noodles. Big fat slippery buggers. Heated in a stock of dashi, light soy, dark soy & salt. The stock is simple to make and once you've removed the noodles, you can freeze the stock until next time. Teriyaki is also simple. Three parts sake, three parts mirin, three parts soy sauce and one part sugar. Bring to the boil. The longer you cook it, the thicker it becomes so you can choose a light teriyaki or one that's more like balsamic glaze. Mackerel's around at the moment and is a perfect fish for Japanese flavours & techniques. I guess this might also count as a healthy dish for those watching their diet - not something I worry about TOO much. I don't eat crap, but I'm no food Nazi. If I eat more, I simply exercise more. (And if you're not exercising so you can indulge in more food, then why on earth are you going?)

TERIYAKI MACKEREL WITH UDON NOODLES

VEGETABLE SOUP WITH CHICKPEAS, BARLEY & BASIL PESTO

Sometimes we eat meat. Other times we drink it. I made a few litres of rich chicken stock this morning. Then used the chicken stock to make this soup (I also used some to make a pumpkin, parmesan & pine nut soup for the freezer). There's barley in there - both whole grains and also some pureed with the stock in which they cooked. There are chickpeas that I cooked on the weekend, baby leeks from the markets, broccolini stems, bok choy, tomatoes etc etc. You could make your own combination of vegetables. I'll post the recipe soon.

VEGETABLE SOUP WITH CHICKPEAS, BARLEY & BASIL PESTO

SPAGHETTI WITH CRAB

You can do this with linguine. In fact that's what I'd normally use. But if you only have spaghetti, it works just fine. Make it a good brand of pasta. One of the best readily available brands is Garofalo. It has great  texture and flavour - the equal of artisan pastas costing several times more. Blue swimmer crabs are also know as blue crabs, sand crabs, flower crabs and blue manna crabs. They're around the Indian ocean, the western Pacific and the eastern Mediterranean. (These are the crabs sold as soft-shell crabs in Asia.) In Australia their season runs from November to April - our summer. Getting the flesh out of the crevices of the body and limbs is fiddly. Tolerable when cooking for two or three, but a sentence if cooking for a crowd. You can buy the crab uncooked and do that yourself or buy it cooked - if you're sure it's fresh. Apart from collecting the flesh, this is simplicity - good olive oil, garlic, chilli, lemon juice and parsley combined with the crab meat. Cook your pasta and drain it. Add the crab and stir it. A bit of salt and pepper and that's it. The original recipe (with linguine) is in the original River Cafe Cookbook

SPAGHETTI WITH CRAB

MORETON BAY BUGS WITH TRUFFLED POTATO GALLETTE

Moreton Bay bugs and Balmain bugs are very similar. One has a wider head than the other - but not necessarily a bigger brain. They are also known as bay lobsters - but look nothing like lobsters. They're also called slipper lobsters - but look nothing like slippers. (Well, they might resemble slippers but only after the pet bull terrier has lunched on them.) No matter from what angle you view them, they're ugly. But they taste sublime. Possibly my favourite crustacean - along with blue swimmer or sand crab. These guys have been beheaded and halved as you can see. Some garlic butter and a slow roast until JUST cooked. The truffled potato gallette adds a touch of luxury. A bunch of wild rocket from the garden keeps it from sliding into decadence.

MORETON BAY BUGS WITH TRUFFLED POTATO GALLETTE

MPARRETTATI CON SUGO DI SALSICCIE

Mparrettati. The word gives Spell Check the heebie jeebies. Heebie jeebies give Spell Check heebie jeebies. Whatever. Mparrettati does nice things for the body. There's something deeply satisfying about some of these rustic regional pasta shapes. This one especially because of its length combined with the curl. The curl seems to give the pasta a will of its own, so that if its lying one way on your fork it behaves perfectly, but if it lies the other way it can flip over unexpectedly, flicking a bit of sauce out in any direction. This is live food. I get some good fat pork & fennel sausages at the weekly markets. I save a few for grilling. The rest go into a big batch of this sauce. I then divide it into 2-serve portions for freezing. This way there's always a sugo waiting for those nights when there's no time or energy for anything flasher.

MPARRETTATI CON SUGO DI SALSICCIE

SQUAB WITH PUMPKIN COUSCOUS, OLIVE & SAFFRON SAUCE

Do you hate pigeons? Think of them as flying rats? Here's an idea - eat them. OK, some people have trouble with the concept of eating pigeon. What if I told you that these aren't simply rounded up from city buildings, but raised for the table? And instead of scavenging for human leftovers, these birds are treated to a mixture of whole grains like wheat, corn, peas and safflower. Still not convinced? Then you need to try one because the flavour is superb. Deep, rich - about as rich as bird flesh can be. The best pigeon I have eaten was in Cairo. This is pretty good, though. A mix of Chris Manfield and Greg Malouf. Chris's recipe for the squab and sauce, which has a distinct Moroccan influence. Paired with a couscous recipe from Greg Malouf in which a dish of steamed diced pumpkin is covered with couscous, hot stock is poured over it, a few pieces of butter placed on top and it is then covered and baked. Delicious.

SQUAB WITH PUMPKIN COUSCOUS, OLIVE & SAFFRON SAUCE