EPAZOTE-CRUSTED FLATHEAD WITH BLACK BEANS

Flathead is the fish I most closely associate with my childhood. It was what we most frequently caught during our May school holidays at Port Macquarie. They are one of those fish species with eyes on top of their heads rather than on the sides. They partly bury themselves in sand and wait for unsuspecting fish to swim by, then lunge up and swallow them in their gaping mouths. Of course, sometimes the hunted becomes the hunter and flathead find themselves being dragged out of the water by fish that seem to have superhuman powers. Next things they know, they are in a boat and a couple of hours later they are dinner. Thank you, Charles Darwin.

EPAZOTE-CRUSTED FLATHEAD WITH BLACK BEANS

SALMON CAKES WITH PRESERVED LEMON & CAPSICUM JAM

A second use for leftover salmon. This time the flaked salmon was mixed with preserved lemon, parsley, panko crumbs and egg and fried in ghee. Tangy capsicum jam was a nice foil. But foil does not make a nice jam.

SALMON CAKES WITH PRESERVED LEMON & CAPSICUM JAM

GAI XAO XA OT

According to Luke Nguyen of Sydney restaurant The Red Lantern, this is a classic of southern Vietnam. I can understand why. Easy to make, nice fresh flavours - what more could you want? Other than to be Hugh Heffner. Or an English cricketer right now. The chicken is marinated in sugar, lemongrass, garlic, fish sauce and pickled chilli, then flash cooked in a wok with onion, a little peanut oil, fresh chilli and finished with a little chicken stock. It would normally be decorated with coriander. However, I did not feel like battling local floods, so I made do with Vietnamese mint from the garden. Jasmine rice and a cabbage & ginger salad kept the gai xao xa ot company.

GAI XAO XA OT

SALMON, COCONUT & HOLY BASIL CAKES

Christmas lunch for twelve yesterday. One of the things I cooked was a whole salmon - baked with a pouch of jasmine tea leaves and sugar to give it a light smokiness. I had plenty left over, so decided to use some in these Thai-inspired salmon cakes. Salmon, fresh coconut flesh and coconut milk, chilli paste with holy basil, crispy prawn chilli, fish sauce, soy sauce and an egg. Shallow fried in peanut oil. Baby spinach & chicharron salad dressed with lime juice, sugar & fish sauce. On a base of kumera, caramelised eschallot & coriander salad.

SALMON, COCONUT & HOLY BASIL CAKES

RED EMPEROR WITH SLOW-ROASTED TOMATOES

Red emperor is a sweet-fleshed reef fish caught off the Queensland coast. Not as sweet as blue swimmer or mud crab. Not as sweet as chocolate. Not as sweet as Shirley Temple. But sweet enough. Ditto these small tomatoes bought at the weekly market. Drizzled with a little olive oil, a light sprinkle of sugar and salt and a few sprigs of thyme, then 6 hours in an 80C oven - which really concentrates the flavour. And intensifies the sweetness. Green beans with garlic to complete the dish.

RED EMPEROR WITH SLOW-ROASTED TOMATOES

SALMON ADOBADO, BLACK BEANS AND SALSA CRUDA

A summery 31C here today, so something cool and fresh seemed in order. Johnny Depp is about as cool as they come. But he was not available. So I settled for fresh. Great vibrant glistening deep orange salmon marinated in a classic Mexican adobo and orange juice, then seared in a hot skillet. Really wholesome black beans and a fresh tomato salsa. Served with a mesclun salad and a dressing of macadamia oil, agave syrup, and white wine vinegar.

SALMON ADOBADO, BLACK BEANS AND SALSA CRUDA

SEARED YELLOWFIN TUNA WITH A COMPOTE OF MEDITERRANEAN VEGETABLES

When I was a kid we stayed once or twice in guesthouses in rural New South Wales. I remember one in the southern highland where a maid stood in the hall outside the dining room in the evening and hammered a small xylophone to announce that dinner was served. I recall another on the southern headland at Mollymook on the south coast. I mention these guesthouses because something I recall at breakfast in both establishments was a compote of fruit served for breakfast. These mixtures of sweet and gently stewed fruits usually included apricots, peaches and prunes - which my parents told me kept me regular. I thought of this when I decided to poach baby eggplants, yellow zucchini, spring onions and tomato in olive oil with some fresh thyme. I stuck with a southern French influence with a spoon of olive tapenade.

SEARED YELLOWFIN TUNA WITH A COMPOTE OF MEDITERRANEAN VEGETABLES

BARBECUED MACKEREL WITH CABBAGE SALAD

Mackerel is not one of the most popular fish species. It sure is tasty. I marinated these steaks in roasted chilli oil, olive oil and lime juice and then barbecued them. A great cabbage salad recipe from Stephanie Alexander.

BARBECUED MACKEREL WITH CABBAGE SALAD

PENNE WITH ASPARAGUS

When a dish has just four ingredients, the difference between mundane and great really comes down to the quality of those ingredients. Apart from salt and pepper (and I will return to these in a moment), the ingredients here are the pasta, the asparagus, the parmesan and the oil used.

The pasta is a lovely organic penne from Gioie di Fattoria. The asparagus is from the local markets. The parmesan is a 2007 Reggiano. The oil is the sensational Colonna Granverde, made from olives and lemons crushed together. The salt is coarse grey sea salt hand harvested from Guerande. The pepper is Tellicherry from India - larger, fruitier and hotter than regular black pepper. You can make this dish with supermarket penne and asparagus, with grana padana in place of the Reggiano and with a pedestrian olive oil, salt and pepper. You will have a nice dish, but not a great one.

PENNE WITH ASPARAGUS

SNAPPER WITH LEMONGRASS AND GINGER

A quick and simple stir-fry. Peanut oil, light soy sauce and crispy prawn chilli paste heated to sizzling in a hot wok. Add finely sliced baby ginger, garlic, sliced lemongrass, chillies and eschallots. Mix through, then add fish cut into 3cm chunks and cook until opaque. Add some fried eschallot and serve. Really nice contrast of textures and no one flavour dominant.

SNAPPER WITH LEMONGRASS AND GINGER

2003 CASA FRESCHI LA SIGNORA

I had a delightful dinner with winemakers David Freschi and Tom Adams in Adelaide a couple of years ago. Apart from both being great human beings, they are both terrifically talented winemakers. I have had several bottles of wines produced by each of them over the years. This 2003 La Signora is an interesting blend of nebbiolo, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and malbec. I am not sure if it is his Italian heritage, but David has produced an Australian wine that has a lot of what I admire in the best Italian (and French, for that matter) reds - a savoury character that works in perfect harmony with food. Whilst I admire the rich fruitiness of some iconic Australia shirazes, I reckon they shine in wine shows, but not at the table. It is like trying to eat a steak and a bowl of Christmas pudding simultaneously. I am not sure what is the current vintage of this wine. If you can find some, buy some.

2003 CASA FRESCHI LA SIGNORA

SNAPPER WITH RED QUINOA, KUMERA AND PUMPKIN SEEDS

Here is a nice way to use sweet potato (which we know here in Oz by its Kiwi name, kumera) -

Dice a kumera and boil in salted water for about 5 minutes (until tender). Drain. Make a dressing of pecan oil, a small amount of pomegranate molasses and an equally small amount of a really good vinegar - I used a 50 year old Spanish sherry vinegar. Toss the drained kumera and the dressing together. Toast some hulled pumpkin seeds in a dry pan, then coarsely grind with mortar and pestle. Sprinkle over the kumera after plating up.

I used this with the red quinoa cooked in chicken stock and snapper cooked in ghee. A dollop of salsa verde on top.

SNAPPER WITH RED QUINOA, KUMERA AND PUMPKIN SEEDS

SNAPPER WITH BABY TOMATOES & CARAMELISED TOMATO VINAIGRETTE

I love the name for snapper in Mexico - huachinango. There is something musical about that word. It sounds like a dance. I thought of this when chatting with Shane, our local fishmonger. He had bought this monster snapper at the fish markets this morning. I did not ask him, but the fish must have weighed 6 or 7 kilos because I bought one whole filleted side of it and that was pushing 2 kilos. I left the skin on and cooked it in butter, mostly skin-side down so it developed a crisp texture and turned this deep brown colour. The flesh was only just cooked through, so it remained flaky, sweet and moist. I had bought a great caramelised tomato balsamic vinegar (Robinvale, for Aussie readers) at the weekly markets and this seemed a natural for a vinaigrette with the baby tomatoes. A simple mesclun and avocado salad on the side. Summer bliss.

SNAPPER WITH BABY TOMATOES & CARAMELISED TOMATO VINAIGRETTE

COCONUT CRUSTED BARRAMUNDI WITH MANGO SALSA

Next time you buy a nice white fish fillet, try this. Mix equal amounts of panko crumbs and grated coconut in a bag. Add the fish fillets, twist the top to form a balloon and rotate the page several times until the fish is well coated. Sear the filets in a medium hot skillet or sautee pan with ghee or butter and cook both sides. The panko crumbs give texture. The coconut imparts its unique flavour. Serve with this mix of mango, eschallots, chilli (serrano or jalapeño) and lime juice

COCONUT CRUSTED BARRAMUNDI WITH MANGO SALSA

ROASTED PORK BELLY WITH RED DATE CHUTNEY & ROYAL BLUE POTATOES

I try to eat local produce whenever possible. Three of the main ingredients come from reasonably close to home. The pork from Bangalow. The asparagus from the Ipswich. Royal Blue potatoes from the Lockyer Valley. The red dates had to travel a long way. They are not really dates. They are jujubes. In Mandarin I think they are called da zao. They are brilliant in a slow braised dish with pork - the kind of of dish cooked by the Hakka people, but also popular in Beijing. In this case, I used a Chinese staple in an Indian-style chutney. Royal Blue potatoes have purple skin and a thin layer of purple flesh wrapped around a creamy white core. To get the benefit of this colour, they really have to be cooked whole and unpeeled. Once done, I simply mash them with a good butter (such as Lurpak) and a little milk and salt.

ROASTED PORK BELLY WITH RED DATE CHUTNEY & ROYAL BLUE POTATOES

DRY AGED RIB OF BEEF WITH CARAMELISED ONION

I am a simple man. Not ignorant. Just simple. Uncomplicated. I get pleasure from simple things. Like a simply grilled slab of beef. If it is of good quality. One of the sacrifices I have made lately is to cook meals devoid of meat in order to help Sharon reduce the acidity of her body. No beef, no lamb. I have occasionally been able to do pork. And chicken has put in frequent appearances. But it has mostly been a diet of fish. And vegetables. Or vegetables and fish. Sometimes just vegetables. Fish is great. But it is not meat. Tonight I made up for weeks of sacrifice with this rib of fine grass-fed beef from up near Gympie. It has been dry-aged for about 5 weeks by our butcher. The benefit of dry-aging is that the flavour intensifies and the meat becomes softer and less fibrous. It might be another 3 or 4 months before my next beef hit. I  will have to live on the memory of this meal until then.

DRY AGED RIB OF BEEF WITH CARAMELISED ONION

PAPRIKA CHICKEN WITH CAPSICUM JAM

Nothing much needs explaining here. Proper chicken-flavoured chicken from Alstonville WITH skin and bone intact, rubbed with smoked paprika and roasted. A jam of red capsicum and chilli. A salad of watercress, avocado and asparagus (all from the local markets) with a dressing of great olive oil (Novello di Macina from Primagoccia, bought at Ranieri Deli in Fivedock, Sydney) and brilliant vinegar (from cider, seaweed, shallots and fleur de sel by Domaine des Terres Rouges from Simon Johnson in Sydney). See if you can find this vinegar in your neighbourhood. There is nothing like it.

PAPRIKA CHICKEN WITH CAPSICUM JAM

OCEAN TROUT, PUY LENTILS AND WATERCRESS PUREE

Some times flavours just work. Not always, but occasionally. I bought some great ocean trout at the markets. Also some watercress. i had made some chicken stock with the frame of a bird bought 2 days ago. So ... I cooked Puy pentils in stock. I pureed some watercress with extra virgin olive oil and a little salt. I seared the ocean trout skin side only until the skin crisped up. A really nice combination of flavours and textures.

OCEAN TROUT, PUY LENTILS AND WATERCRESS PUREE

CHICKEN WITH ROASTED CHILLI OIL AND CORN PUDDING

I bought some really fresh ears of corn at the markets and so I then started thinking of something different to do with them. I remembered this classic Mexican dish and thought it would be a good thing to serve with this chicken. For each person, you will need to remove the kernels from an ear of corn. Put these kernels in a food processor with 20 gms per person of queso panela, ricotta salata or fetta and process until smooth. Stir in 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder and 20 gms of whipped lard (per person). You can bake this in a single buttered dish or in individual ramekins as I used here. Bake at 180C for about 45 minutes.

CHICKEN WITH ROASTED CHILLI OIL AND CORN PUDDING

SALMON WITH SALSA VERDE

Green sauce. A lot of cuisines have their version. This one is mostly Italian in influence - finely chopped parsley and celery leaves, along with a couple of basil leaves, capers, anchovy, garlic, salt, extra virgin olive oil and a little white wine vinegar. A great and simple accompaniment for grilled beef, fish or chicken.

SALMON WITH SALSA VERDE

FAJITAS DE POLLO CON ELOTE

Mexican home cooking. Corn season here at the moment. And avocado season. A bed of corn & yellow capsicum, strips of chicken breast cooked in lard (and no healthy substitute will do here), guacamole, cebollas en escabeche & jalapenos en escabeche.

FAJITAS DE POLLO CON ELOTE

SEARED TUNA SALAD

Dead simple (and that is a moniker that could be applied to a number of deceased people I can think of). Yellow capsicum, jalapeno, baby spinach, chickpeas and seared tuna. A basic dressing of extra virgin olive oil and lime juice.

SEARED TUNA SALAD

CLASSIC ROAST CHICKEN WITH ROAST VEGETABLES

I based this on a recipe from the great Stephanie Alexander. The one thing I did differently was to brine the chicken before cooking it. Have you ever brined meat? Try it. I soaked the whole chicken in a bath of very salty water for a couple of hours. I then drained it thoroughly and wiped it dry inside and out before rubbing it with lemon and stuffing it with 3 cloves of crushed garlic, two halves of lemon, a sprig of rosemary and salt. The brining helps the skin crisp and keeps the flesh moist. The bird cooked for 60 minutes  - 20 on each side and 20 breast up. I added parsnips, zucchini and flat beans (all tossed in olive oil and garlic) for the last 20 minutes.

CLASSIC ROAST CHICKEN WITH ROAST VEGETABLES

ADOBO TUNA WITH GRAPE TOMATOES

In Australia, we love diminutives. Mosquitoes become mozzies and presents becomes prezzies. In Mexico, they also seem to like diminutives. Instead of Gregory, my colleagues called me Goyo. But then they changed that to Goyito, which means little Goyo. Funny that it is longer than Goyo. I thought of this whilst contemplating these tomatoes. Grape tomatoes are baby tomatoes. But then I am not sure what to make of these baby grape tomatoes purchased at Fratelli Fresh in Sydney. Baby baby tomatoes? They look bigger than life size in this photo because they are nestled up against smaller than usual chickpeas. Small, but not baby. From the size of the tuna fillet, I would say that the fish was not a baby. The wine we drank with it was.

ADOBO TUNA WITH GRAPE TOMATOES