DOU BAN XIAN CHICKEN WITH BABY BOK CHOY

Dou ban xian paste is a Sichuanese condiment with fermented soy beans, chillies and other indeterminate ingredients. I love some of these mysterious Chinese pastes because they are the foundation of so many dishes - and because we'll never know exactly what goes into them. Here I've simply tossed peanut oil, garlic, light soy sauce, dou ban xian paste, baby bok choy and chicken thighs in a wok and cooked over high heat until the chicken is cooked. I stirred through some fried pork skin and Bob's your uncle ... which doesn't sound very Chinese.

DOU BAN XIAN CHICKEN WITH BABY BOK CHOY

RIB OF WAGYU, TRUFFLED MASH AND FRESH SOY BEANS

The butcher had this magnificent rib of wagyu. He rarely has this on the bone, so I just had to buy it. Really nothing to do with meat this good but season it and cook it. The Dutch cream potatoes were boiled, drained and mixed with lots of Lurpak butter, salt and truffle. I boiled some soy beans. The end result looks like a basic meat and two veg - which it is. I figured it deserved a decent bottle - 1988 Moss Wood cabernet, which worked just fine.

RIB OF WAGYU, TRUFFLED MASH AND FRESH SOY BEANS

ROAST CHICKEN LEG, PUY LENTILS AND CAVOLO NERO

Southern European home cooking. A simple leg of chicken rubbed with oil, sprinkled with thyme, salt and pepper. Cavolo nero slowly sweated with garlic and olive oil. Puy lentils poached in rich chicken stock. That's it, folks.

ROAST CHICKEN LEG, PUY LENTILS AND CAVOLO NERO

YUCATECAN SPICED PORK NECK, ROAST PUMPKIN, PUY LENTILS AND CHERRY TOMATOES

For this pork neck, I used a Yucatecan spice mix recipe from great Mexican chef Patricia Quintana. The neck was sealed and roasted in a slow oven (140C) for 5 hours, then opened and transfered to the barbecue to brown up a little. The pumpkin was sprinkled with oregano, pepper, salt and olive oil before roasting. The lentils were poached in rich home made chicken stock. The tomatoes came from a local grower. They too were roasted very slowly (100C) until partially dehydrated and intensely sweet.

YUCATECAN SPICED PORK NECK, ROAST PUMPKIN, PUY LENTILS AND CHERRY TOMATOES

BARRAMUNDI WITH CANNELLINI, CAVOLO NERO AND TOMATO SALSA

Could barramundi pass for an Italian word. Maybe. At a pinch. It's an indigenous Australian word, but that i on the end lends it an Italian look. And that would make it a perfect candidate for this Italian treatment. I had already cooked the cannellini, so I simply needed to heat them in extra virgin oil and a little chicken stock. The cavolo nero was gently sweated in olive oil with garlic. The salsa has heirloom tomatoes, chilli and a little sugar and salt. To add to the Italian theme, the whole things is red, white and green!

BARRAMUNDI WITH CANNELLINI, CAVOLO NERO AND TOMATO SALSA

MAHI MAHI CURRY

So simple, so good. Home made Thai curry paste, chunks of local mahi mahi, a handful of Thai basil leaves, palm sugar, lime juice, fish sauce and coconut cream - and that's it. What's not to love about a good Thai curry?

MAHI MAHI CURRY

REEF COD, CANNELLINI PUREE AND WATERCRESS

I like mashed food. I guess it goes back to childhood. All those puréed vegetables and fruit we ate as toddlers. Well, not so much ate as sucked and spat and smeared. As a kid, my favourite comfort food was stewed apple and custard. Whenever I was sick, that's what I wanted. Many decades later, puréed food still does it for me. Not ALL puréed food. There are somethings that just don't work as a mash. A cake, for example. So here's a fillet of reef cod, simply pan fried in a little butter. The purée is mostly cannellini beans, with a small sebago potato to smooth out the consistency. A very simple watercress salad with mustard vinaigrette.

REEF COD, CANNELLINI PUREE AND WATERCRESS

TAMARIND MAHI MAHI WITH HERB SALAD AND PURPLE JASMINE RICE

This dish might be Thai or it might simply look vaguely Thai. A Thai impostor. A mock Thai. The mahi mahi was marinated in a mix of tamarind paste, black soy sauce and Vietnamese caramel sauce, then cooked in grapeseed oil. The salad is a mix of Thai basil, coriander, mint and Asian micro herbs, fresh eschallots, ground roasted rice and fried eschallots, with a dressing of lime juice, fish sauce, crispy prawn chilli paste and sugar. Purple jasmine rice is interesting. In its uncooked state there are grains of various colours - white, mottled and purple. The whites outnumber the other colours, and yet when cooked, they purple guys have coloured the rest of the grains.

TAMARIND MAHI MAHI WITH HERB SALAD AND PURPLE JASMINE RICE

SEARED SALMON WITH SALSA VERDE

Sometimes you just want a simple piece of fish. Sometimes. This is one of those times. And because I'm the one doing the cooking, I have the power to grant my wish. Here's a simply seared salmon fillet - cooked skin side only. That's the salsa verde underneath. Out of picture is a simple green salad - because sometimes you just want a simple green salad. (Maybe not so simple. Along with various lettuces, there was an interesting mix of Asian micro herbs from the markets.)

SEARED SALMON WITH SALSA VERDE

SMOKED HAM HOCK, CAVOLO NERO AND MASH

I don't know what constitutes normal weather where you live, but where we are, the climate is called sub-tropical. If those words suggest warmth, then what I'm about to tell you might come as a bit of a rude shock. I went out at 4pm and the temperature up here on the hill was 12.5C. We've been here seven years and it has NEVER been that cold during the day. I recall a 16C day once or twice, but not this. Nothing to do but cook something appropriate. I happened to have a smoked ham hock in the fridge, so I poached this until tender and pulled the flesh apart. I made a mash with sebago potatoes and lots of butter. And I sweated cavolo nero in oil with garlic. Perfect food for a chilly night.

SMOKED HAM HOCK, CAVOLO NERO AND MASH

ROAST CHICKEN LEG

Was Maryland the first US state to think about cooking chicken legs sans body? Or was it the ONLY state to have the idea? I have been thinking about this whilst I try to understand why, in certain parts of the world (including Australia where I live), chicken legs are called chicken Marylands. Nothing especially tricky with how I treated these ones. Brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with fennel and ground coriander seeds, roasted at 200C for 20 minutes, along with Japanese pumpkin and Brussels Sprouts and zucchini (these two added half way through cooking). Classic meat and 3 veg.

ROAST CHICKEN LEG

PONZU MARINATED TATAKI OF TUNA

Here's a Sino-Japanese mash-up. The local fishmonger had this sensational sashimi-grade yellowfin tuna, which I marinated in home-made ponzu sauce. I then briefly seared this on all sides - about 60 seconds each side. I steamed some baby bok coy and dressed the whole thing in a ponzu, soy, sesame oil dressing with black sesame seeds. It MUST be healthy.

PONZU MARINATED TATAKI OF TUNA

STEAMED CORAL TROUT WITH CHINESE SPINACH

I wonder how a fish that looks nothing like trout ends up being called a trout. Maybe it's irony - the same irony that has bald guys being called Curly, tall guys Shorty and fat guys Slim. Or maybe not. Anyway, I wonder about it, but I don't stress over it. It's called what it's called. I simply steamed this trout-that-doesn't-look-like-trout. Talking of names, Chinese spinach goes by a few different ones throughout Asia, so I've simple called it by its English name. It was cooked in a wok with peanut oil, light soy, black soy, chilli bean paste, ginger, garlic and chillies. I also cooked some ginger, garlic and chillies in a little peanut oil, light soy sauce and shaoxing which was poured over the fish after plating up.

STEAMED CORAL TROUT WITH CHINESE SPINACH

CHICKEN AND PORCINI PIE

Okay, this is bad for you ... but oh so good. Every now and then it's important to be reminded how good pastry tastes. This is a basic one - flour, butter, water. The filling is chicken, porcini, chicken stock, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and roux (a mix of butter and flour with stock added to make a thick sauce).

CHICKEN AND PORCINI PIE

ROAST CHICKEN, PUMPKIN AND CHOKOS WITN BASIL PESTO

Classic Italian food. Well, almost. Chokos don't figure highly on Italian diets, but they could/should. I brined a whole chicken and then cooked it in a Schlemmertopf - one of those great German terracotta pots that seem to ensure that whatever's cooked in them remains moist. Luckily the Schlemmertopf likes a hot oven (200C), because that's a perfect temperature to cook the vegetables - marinated in olive oil, garlic and oregano. In case you're wondering (and you're probably not), the wine was a 2002 Shaw & Smith shiraz.

ROAST CHICKEN, PUMPKIN AND CHOKOS WITN BASIL PESTO