SALMON SALAD

Salmon salad could just about be anything. It could be something northern European, modern Asian, Alaskan, Yemeni ... if there really were salmon in the Yemen. It could be one of those hideous shredded numbers drowned in mayo - like American tuna salad. This version is Mediterranean/Mexican/Belgian - bintje potatoes, avocado, mesclun, baby capers.

SALMON SALAD

CHICKEN THIGH WITH PUY LENTILS & FRESH SOYA BEANS

Here's a tip for all of you who find chicken bland. Leave the skin on and the bone in. Put simply, that's where the flavour is. And try to find a breeder of decent free range birds. The best chickens we've tasted were in Mexico - basically because corn is cheaper than man-made pellets. Here in Australia, the closest in flavour to those birds are the chickens that Carlo from Sydney's AC Butchery raises on his farm near Mudgee. The lentils were braised in a rich chicken stock (made from the frames of free range chickens). The soya beans were steamed, then mixed with a little agave syrup before serving.

CHICKEN THIGH WITH PUY LENTILS & FRESH SOYA BEANS

SPELT FETTUCCINE WITH SAUSAGE SAUCE

We once rented the ground floor of an old olive mill in the Umbrian town of Trevi. It was porcini season. It was also truffle season. The village trattoria had a pasta dish on its menu every night. The sauce was always either a porcini sauce, a truffle sauce or a truffle and porcini sauce. The pasta was a village specialty - long strands of fine square-cut pasta (similar to spaghetti ala chitarra) made from faro, the ancient grain that is mostly called spelt here in Australia. If they had made a sausage sauce, it would probably have been with the great wild boar sausages from nearby Norcia (which also have chunks of truffle in them during truffle season). Not being near Norcia, I have use some great pork and fennel sausages from Jack Sprat, our local butcher.

SPELT FETTUCCINE WITH SAUSAGE SAUCE

SEARED SALMON WITH HARICOTS AND ROE

In Sydney and spent a great day with my sister wandering around Eveleigh Markets, then Chinatown. Lunch in a little hole-in-the-wall joint serving amazing with cabbage, bean sprouts and garlic chives and steamed beef buns. Dropped in to Cyril's Delicatessen - and Cyril is still there, just as he was 40 years ago. When it was established, this was about the only place you could buy goose fat, Polish sausage, chanterelles and other European goodies. Cyril had some jars of gorgeous salmon roe. Each egg was a distinct sphere. There was none of the salty sludge that settles in the bottom of less than fresh jars of roe. As well as this roe, I also bought a tub of fresh goose fat - for some future potato wedges.

SEARED SALMON WITH HARICOTS AND ROE

PANKO CRUMBED SNAPPER WITH GOMA-DARE AND SHISO RICE

More goodness from the markets. The local fishermen are catching some big snapper off the coast at the moment and the guy at the markets had some of these. At another stall the Thai girls who sell lots of Asian herbs and leaves had some big bunches of fresh shiso leaves. I had read in Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking that shiso leaves are sometimes folded through cooked rice before serving, so that's what I did. Goma-dare, if you don't know it, is a gentle sesame-based sauce that most Asian grocers sell.

PANKO CRUMBED SNAPPER WITH GOMA-DARE AND SHISO RICE

SPAGHETTI WITH PORCINI RAGU

How much parmesan is enough? How long is a piece of string? Do I look fat in this? Life is complicated by unanswerable questions. Some will look at this and think there's way too much cheese. Others will think it's underdone. Others might say that it depends on the quality of the cheese. These are the people who look for excuses for not giving an emphatic answer to any question. (To answer their question, it's a great 3 year old from Reggio.) I can't tell you how long a piece of string is, but I know how long a strand of spaghetti is. And I know the truthful answer to the third question - but I'm not saying.

SPAGHETTI WITH PORCINI RAGU

BROCCOLINI WITH SUN DRIED TOMATOES AND ISRAELI COUSCOUS

Back in the 80s, sun dried tomatoes were everywhere. Predictably, they fell out of favour and to serve/use sun dried tomatoes was very passé. Like lots of other things that have fallen out of fashion (with the notable exception of the mullet), they deserve to be rediscovered. These aren't really sun dried, but oven dried, then packed with extra virgin olive oil and capers until needed. They are a great way to use tomatoes at the height of their abundance, letting you go on enjoying tomatoes right through the year. A farmer at the markets had big bunches of broccolini and I had some Israeli couscous and home-made chicken stock on hand - and so this simple dish was born.

BROCCOLINI WITH SUN DRIED TOMATOES AND ISRAELI COUSCOUS

SEARED SALMON WITH WEDGES AND EGGPLANT PICKLE

Fish and chips. Some very nice Atlantic salmon (which comes from about as far from the Atlantic as you can get without leaving earth - Tasmania). Some more wedges of Dutch cream potato and some eggplant pickle - based on a recipe by Christine Manfield. A simple mesclun salad served on the side.

SEARED SALMON WITH WEDGES AND EGGPLANT PICKLE

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH WARM ROAST GARLIC VINAIGRETTE

Doing a few meatless dishes - for no particular reason. Here's one. Roasted Dutch cream potato wedges, roasted okra and cherry tomatoes. Could almost feel it doing me good.

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH WARM ROAST GARLIC VINAIGRETTE

PUMPKIN, FETTA, MUSTARD FRUIT AND ROCKET PIZZA

There's no arguing that pizzas are messy things to make. Making pizza dough is especially messy. I partly get around this by making enough dough for half a dozen pizzas, portioning the dough and freezing what I don't need straight away. It freezes and thaws perfectly. I rolled out the dough, ladled on a little home-made fresh tomato purée (which also freezes perfectly), cooked and diced pumpkin and diced fetta. Just before serving, I added fine slices of mustard fruit and rocket leaves.

PUMPKIN, FETTA, MUSTARD FRUIT AND ROCKET PIZZA

LAMB SHANK WITH SEBAGO MASH AND BRUSSELS SPROUTS

I keep a number of master stocks in the freezer. There's a Chinese master stock with star anise, orange peel, shaoxing and other goodies. There's another stock I use for oxtail and cheeks. And this one I use for lamb shanks. Each stock gets richer and richer and when I have too little left, I top each up with the core ingredients. Sebagos are large potatoes with white flesh that make a very fluffy mash. Not the healthiest of mashes, with lashings of butter and cream, but oh so sexy. And Brussels sprouts ... I know they have a bad rep, but sautéed rather than boiled and cooked until just tender rather than soft and mushy makes all the difference. Proper old-fashioned comfort food

LAMB SHANK WITH SEBAGO MASH AND BRUSSELS SPROUTS

OKRA, PUMPKIN AND POLENTA

If lamb mince is made from lamb, and pork sausages are made from pork, what is dog food made from? And what are children's meals made from? These questions crossed my mind as I started writing this post. This could be called vegetarian. But then, is vegetarian food made FOR vegetarians or FROM them? This isn't pure vegetarian, since the polenta was made with a rich home-made chicken stock. One of the local stores had some beautifully fresh okra. Some people don't like okra. I bet that's because the okra has been overcooked, when it develops a mucus-like sliminess. The best way to cook okra is to sautée it in olive oil, but stop before it's really tender. I then quickly added and heated sliced garlic, dried chilli and Italian canned cherry tomatoes (worth searching for - I got these from Sydney's Fratelli Fresh). The pumpkin was dusted with organic cumin seeds, Murray River salt and pepper then roasted in a very hot oven. In the polenta? Stock and salt, cream and parmesan to finish.

OKRA, PUMPKIN AND POLENTA