CURRY OF SWEET POTATO AND ONION

Not quite Indian, not quite Pakistani - kind of in the middle of the conflict zone really. I'll tell you what I did and then you can decide what cuisine it belongs to. Onions were sautéed in corn oil with dried chillies until deep brown, then removed and set aside. Then cumin seeds were also sautéed briefly and removed. Slices of sweet potato were added to the pan, along with turmeric and cayenne. The pan was covered and the sweet potato cooked for about 10 minutes. I then added grated tomatoes and salt and cooked another 5 minutes. Finally, the onion and cumin seeds were stirred through and heated. Borderline Indian? Borderline Pakistani?

CURRY OF SWEET POTATO AND ONION

GRILLED TAMARIND-GLAZED MACKEREL WITH THAI BABY SPINACH SALAD

There's something inadequate and lazy about 'Thai salad', but how else to describe this mix of baby spinach, lemongrass, ginger, fried eschallot, roasted peanuts, pork crackling and dressing of lime juice, sugar and fish sauce. The fish was marinated in a reduction of tamarind purée, garlic and sugar before grilling. Mackerel isn't part of the pescatorial royalty. Nor is it aquatic trash. It's one of those species that people just seem to ignore. Shame, because it's a great fish - especially when given a robust Asian treatment.

GRILLED TAMARIND-GLAZED MACKEREL WITH THAI BABY SPINACH SALAD

RED-THROATED EMPEROR WITH BABY CAVOLO NERO AND MASH

The world needs more places like Sydney's Fratelli Fresh. You can eat proper Italian food at Cafe Sopra then go downstairs and buy great vegetables, cheese and bread to take home. This time around, I bought these leaves of baby cavolo nero, which I sweated very gently in olive oil with a little garlic. The red on the red-throated emperor isn't on what I'd call the throat, but higher up near the gills - but, hey, I understand that red-neck doesn't sound very imperial. Come to think of it, that would be better suited to a more common fish. Red-neck mullet, anyone?) My favourite panko crumbs, fluffy mash, squeeze of lemon juice and flakes of sea salt ... and that's a pretty tasty simple dish.

RED-THROATED EMPEROR WITH BABY CAVOLO NERO AND MASH

BARRAMUNDI WITH BLACK SESAME AND MISO

Interesting things happen when you coat barramundi in black sesame seeds. Not as interesting as Angelina Jolie turning up at the front door. Not as interesting as the sun rising in the west for a change. But what happens is that whilst the sesame seeds develop that deep nutty flavour that comes with cooking, the fish more or less steams inside its crust. You end up with an incredibly soft white flesh in a black crust with the unique salty sweet tang of the miso sauce.

BARRAMUNDI WITH BLACK SESAME AND MISO

BLUE EYE WITH CASTELLUCCIO LENTILS

A simply grilled fillet of blue eye trevalla on wonderful Castelluccio lentils (which are similar in size to Puy lentils, just a little paler but equally rich). Castelluccio is near Norcia, home to some of Italy's best makers of wild boar products (prosciutto, sausages etc) and also truffles and porcini. If you're lucky you could visit the region when both truffles and porcini are in season. What you'll be served are pasta with porcini sauce, pasta with truffle sauce, pasta with truffle and porcini sauce, wild boar sausages, wild boar and truffle sausages, pecorino with truffle, chocolate biscuits with truffle, truffle without the chocolate biscuits, grilled porcini, grilled porcini with wild boar prosciutto ... you get the picture. You might also be lucky to visit when the high plateau of Norcia is covered in wild flowers and a grey wolf crosses the road in front of you - as happened the last time I visited. Back to the dish - two steamed green veg to keep the vitamin police happy.

BLUE EYE WITH CASTELLUCCIO LENTILS

TERRINE DE CAMPAGNE

It's almost worth moving to the country to have terrines like this ... oh wait, I live in the country. Kind of. Anyway, this country terrine looked right at home. The Heart Foundation wouldn't approve. Nor would the gluten-intolerant. Nor a vegetarian. Nor a modernist. Nor a post modernist. Nor a Baptist, dentist, rapist, therapist or any other kind of ist. Nor a pig. But who cares?

TERRINE DE CAMPAGNE

ROASTED CHICKEN LEG WITH BABY VEGETABLES

There are two kinds of people in the world. The breast people and the leg people. I'm a leg person. At least, I'm a leg person as far as chickens go. More a bum person as far as girls go - but that's another story. So here we are with a leg of chook. Simply roasted, along with some baby carrots, baby beetroots and broccolini - which is baby broccoli.

ROASTED CHICKEN LEG WITH BABY VEGETABLES

CORDERO DE YUCATAN

There's a whole sub set of mexican cuisine that involves magic pastes and painfully slow cooking - traditionally in pits, but more commonly performed today in ovens. So here's a slow braised piece of lamb - in this case a rump - that has been brushed with garlic-infused olive oil then rolled in a ground mix of cumin seeds, pepper, chipotle chilli and salt, marinated for several hours, then covered in lamb stock and cooked in a covered clay pot for 4 hours at 140C. The bed is chickpeas with the sautéed garlic used to infuse the oil.

CORDERO DE YUCATAN

5 CLASSICS OF MEXICAN COOKING DONE 5 WAYS

Every now and then the moons align. Not often. Maybe once in a blue moon. They did last week when a good mate asked if I'd like to join his staff in a bonding session at Cooking For Blokes in Sydney. He explained this would be a great chance to meet the team before I do some work with them next month. And, he pointed out, the bonding was going to take place at a cooking school. (He knows my passion for cooking.) AND the group would be preparing Mexican food (and after living there for 2 years, I'm pretty fond of Mexican food). So last Thursday I joined about 25 others as they whipped up fresh tortillas, baked fish, guacamole, pico de gallo salsa and chorizo. Maybe it's the influence of the incredibly popular Masterchef series here, but there seemed to be more care than usual in plating up. By the end of the 3 hours, bonding was complete - maybe aided by the dozens of Coronas and glasses of wine that accompanied the cooking class. A great and novel way to build a team - and a complete change from other 'bonding' activities like paintball, which seems to be anti-social.

5 CLASSICS OF MEXICAN COOKING DONE 5 WAYS

OCEAN TROUT, BLACK BEANS AND ROASTED HEIRLOOM TOMATOES

I thought I'd take tomatoes back to their homeland of central America and pair them with a Mexican staple - black beans. Slow roasting intensifies the flavour of most foods. Who knows? It could even give chokoes some flavour.

OCEAN TROUT, BLACK BEANS AND ROASTED HEIRLOOM TOMATOES

HEIRLOOM TOMATOES

I bought this random collection of tomatoes at the weekly markets. I don't know what your experience with heirloom varieties has been, but mine has been hit and miss. Some look brilliant but miss out on flavour - which kind of makes them pointless. Others display flavours that are markedly different from most commercial hybrid varieties. I'll keep some of these to serve simply sliced with a good oil and vinegar. The rest are going into the oven to accompany tonight's ocean trout.

HEIRLOOM TOMATOES

SPAGHETTI WITH EGGPLANT

Not a classic Italian pasta, but it'd pass for something genuine - at least down south. Lots of garlic, baby eggplants, onion. chilli, olive oil and some shave pecorino to finish.

SPAGHETTI WITH EGGPLANT

CHICKEN WITH SAUTEED KALE AND MASH

All that greenery must do me good. A couple of bunches of kale from the markets were gently sautéed in olive oil with a little garlic. A buttery sebago mash and roasted breast of chicken makes for a simple and somehow comforting traditional dinner.

CHICKEN WITH SAUTEED KALE AND MASH

SALMON WITH LILLIPUTIAN VEGETABLES

Carrots the size of half-used pencils, beetroots the size of the end joint of a thumb ... or is it an illusion? Is this a massive slab of salmon? You'll never know.

SALMON WITH LILLIPUTIAN VEGETABLES

PORK & VEAL BURGER

Is anyone old enough to remember when hamburgers were made of ham? Were hamburgers EVER made of ham? Or did they simply come from Hamburg? Was Hamburg named after ham? Was there really a mountain made of ham? I'm asking a lot of questions. Could that be because I am reading The Interrogative Mood? Interesting concept, a book composed entirely of questions, don't you think? So here's a ham-free hamburger. In fact, there's not much here that resembles a hamburger - at least, not a McDonalds hamburger. But then a McDonalds hamburger doesn't resemble a proper hamburger - or real food, for that matter. This burger starts with a toasted Turkish bun, then slices of roasted beetroot, ripe heirloom tomatoes, Balsamic onions, Heidi gruyere, a pork and veal patty with smoked paprika and some baby spinach on the side. Delish.

PORK & VEAL BURGER

WHITING FILLETS, TRUFFLED MASH, BABY CARROTS AND BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Apart from being very elegant fish, whiting are also one of the tastier. These fillets with their silvery skin and fine white flesh were coated in panko crumbs and sautéed in ghee. Pontiac potatoes (which might be the workhorse of potato varieties) make a fluffy mash - in this case tarted up with white truffle.

WHITING FILLETS, TRUFFLED MASH, BABY CARROTS AND BRUSSELS SPROUTS

TUNA WITH BABY SPINACH, PUMPKIN PUREE AND CAPSICUM

A cumin-crusted fillet of wonderfully fresh yellowfin tuna on the softest pumpkin purée and barely wilted baby spinach leaves. I could feel it doing me good with every mouthful.

TUNA WITH BABY SPINACH, PUMPKIN PUREE AND CAPSICUM