BARBECUED CHORIZO WITH CHICKPEAS AND BROCCOLI

This is proper family food ... which is great if you have a proper family. These chorizos are made just down the road using Bangalow pork (also from just down the road). They are serious chorizos - big fat buggers full of smoky sweet porky goodness. A bed of chickpeas cooked with tomato, chilli, garlic and olive oil and some steamed broccoli.

BARBECUED CHORIZO WITH CHICKPEAS AND BROCCOLI

SEARED SALMON, BABY VEGETABLES AND CHILLI JAM

What constitutes a baby vegetable? Is it a regular vegetable not yet fully grown? Or is it an undersized mutant?Here we have baby Dutch cream potatoes, broccolini (Italian for baby broccoli) and baby roma tomatoes. The salmon is fill size. Maybe I need to add a pencil or slide rule  to the photo. That used to be a popular trick amongst geologists and archeologists so you had a point of reference against which to judge the scale of the rock sample or artefact shown.

SEARED SALMON, BABY VEGETABLES AND CHILLI JAM

VERDURE IN BRODO

Verdure in brodo in Italian. Verduras en brodo in Spanish. Vegetables in broth in English. Take your pick. I used the Italian because the artichokes dominate this plate (if only because of their size relative to the other vegetables here) and I associate artichokes with Italy. Hold on. Come to think of it, I recall seeing an awful lot of artichokes in Spain. AND a lot of chickpeas. So maybe the Spanish would be better. Or maybe Bhutanese. Or Swahili ... okay, here's what I'll do. I'll tell you how I prepared the vegetables and YOU decide what language I should use - the artichokes were poached in chicken stock, lemon juice and olive oil. The chickpeas were boiled. The asparagus was steamed. Maybe that's more Spanish than Italian. But hold on. I grated parmesan over the finished dish. And that's definitely Italian ... I give up. Vegetables in broth - and off to sip another glass of red.

VERDURE IN BRODO

STIR-FRIED CHICKEN OMELETTE

I usually do this Chinese-influenced omelette with crab. However, I'd barbecued some chicken and thought I'd use the leftovers in this omelette. The omelette has ginger, coriander, sesame oil, rice wine and other goodies in it ... I think this dish deserves a more enthusiastic description than this. But after 2 1/2 hours sleep (the result of falling into the wrong hands in Melbourne last night), this is the pathetic best I can muster right now. "Must try harder" - as most of my school reports used to remind me.

STIR-FRIED CHICKEN OMELETTE

COBIA WITH THAI HERB SALAD

I hadn't cooked cobia until tonight. The fish is sometimes called black kingfish - possibly because it's shaped like a kingfish but is black up top. Fish names aren't very creative, are they? Apparently cobia is genetically closest to suckerfish, those guys with suction pads on their foreheads that attach themselves to sharks, whales and sometimes stingrays. Anyway this cobia was caught off the Queensland coast. And now here it is with a salad of herbs, crushed peanuts, eschallots, ginger, grated galangal, chilli, palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice.

COBIA WITH THAI HERB SALAD

CHAR-GRILLED SALMON WITH CHICKPEAS AND CHILLI JAM

Some people have an issue with salmon. They find it too oily. Telling them that the oil is good for them won't sway them. They just don't like. And they especially don't like it when it isn't cooked until all trace orange rawness has gone. Bears don't seem to have that problem. Nor me. I usually only cook one side of the fillet - in a very hot pan so the flesh goes crisp. The other side is raw - but warm. Some people have issues with chickpeas. Usually these people have issues with other legumes as well - black beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas and so on. Telling them that these are good for them won't sway them. They just don't like them ... now, just in case you thought that this was going to be an exact copy of what I wrote about salmon, you'd be wrong. Unlike salmon, which tastes best when raw or slightly cooked, all of these dried beans are are a little tough on the teeth if served raw. Actually, that's not true ... chickpeas are ground into powder, which is edible, but a whole lot better if cooked ... do you get the feeling there's no real point to this? I do. So I'll stop.

CHAR-GRILLED SALMON WITH CHICKPEAS AND CHILLI JAM

BARBECUED CHICKEN, WEDGES AND SALAD

One thing I have learnt (and I haven't learnt all that much) is that there's nothing fickler than a fickle fourteen-year-old and there's no amount of fancy food that is ever going to impress them the way a hamburger does or a plate of chips. So here's a dish that's about as simple as I can do. Okay, it's not completely plain, but close. The chicken was marinated in olive oil, chilli, fennel seeds and lemon juice. The wedges of sebago potato were boiled about 3 minutes, drained and then roasted with melted butter. Just describing it has taken more effort than actually went into cooking it ... so I'll stop.

BARBECUED CHICKEN, WEDGES AND SALAD

SPECK WITH BRAISED RED CABBAGE

Cooking this made me feel like an Alsatian ... and I don't mean the dog, I mean the fine folks of Alsace. Which is pretty much the same things as saying Germany - because Alsace is about as German as you can get outside of Germany (okay maybe not as German as Austria ... and parts of Argentina straight after WW2 ... but close. And in any case, I'm pretty sure Alsace WAS Germany at one stage). This speck had polka dots on its skin. I thought it might have come from a rare spotted breed of pig, but no. It seems the speck was smoked on a rack with holes in it and so the dark circles are simply where the smoke rose through the holes. Anyway, the smoky richness of the speck and the sweet earthiness of the cabbage were a marriage made in ... um Alsace.

SPECK WITH BRAISED RED CABBAGE

DRY-AGED RIB OF BEEF WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES

As a species, I think I am right in saying that it is only we humans that like to dress up our food. Other critters find it, dig it, pick it or kill it and then eat it. We, on the other hand, like to trim it. stick little doily things on it (I'm thinking lamb cutlets and standing rib roasts), scatter pretty microherbs over it and generally embellish it in some way. Presented with a magnificent slab of dry-aged beef, I was sorely tempted to tamper with it. I resisted. Nothing more than a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper and then over the coals. To accompany it? Unadorned roasted baby Dutch cream potatoes, cauliflower and asparagus. Okay, there's a dollop of Dijon mustard lurking just out of picture, but otherwise, tonight's meal is presented naked.

DRY-AGED RIB OF BEEF WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES

SWEET LIP, BUDIN DE ELOTE, SALSA DE JITOMATE SIERRA DE PUEBLA

Budín de elote is a wonderful simple dish from México - a mixture of puréed fresh corn, milk, butter, eggs, salt and pepper baked in a dish lined with breadcrumbs. It goes brilliantly with this equally simple salsa - puréed tomatoes, garlic, onion, red serrano chillies cooked in a little lard or corn oil until the raw garlic flavour have dissipated.

SWEET LIP, BUDIN DE ELOTE, SALSA DE JITOMATE SIERRA DE PUEBLA

PUMPKIN RISOTTO

If I had a dollar for every risotto I've cooked I'd be quite wealthy. Not Donald Trump wealthy, but comfortable. I cooked my first in 1982, after tasting my first risotto in Mantova. I have lost track of the different risottos I have cooked ... no, I'll have a go at remembering them. Milanese, squid ink, porcini, fennel, radicchio, champagne, primavera, crab, risi e bisi, prawn, asparagus, pumpkin, beetroot, sherry, gorgonzola, scallop ... there are more, but I can't recall them right now. I have done pumpkin man times. This was the best. Why? A richer chicken stock, deeper flavoured pumpkin, a good dose of Noilly Prat, a pinch of nutmeg, another pinch of Spanish saffron strands ... I think each element contributed to the end result. Oh, and good Carnaroli rice and 3 year old parmigiano reggiano.

PUMPKIN RISOTTO

THAI SALAD OF TEA-SMOKED SALMON, PORK SKIN AND HERBS

Ever have those days when, in a quiet moment, you take stock of where your life is right now and think "there's something missing"? Well I had one today. Rather than wallow in self-pity, I decided to do something about it. Yes, I haven't been cooking or eating enough Thai food - and I had to fix the situation before it got completely out of hand and dragged me down into its black hole. The first taste of this salad, the chillies, fish sauce and lime juice assailing the taste buds, the smokiness of the fish, crunch of pandan-flavoured pork crackling and peanuts, the enthusiastic freshness of eschallots, mint and coriander ... ah, I felt better straight away. The world is a much better place this morning.

THAI SALAD OF TEA-SMOKED SALMON, PORK SKIN AND HERBS