PORK BELLY WITH ROASTED PINEAPPLE SALSA & POMEGRANATE MOLASSES

Pork belly is my favourite cut of pork. Berkshires are my favourite breed of pig. If you don't know what breed of pig you're eating, you should. You know what breed of fish you eat, so why not animals with legs or wings? We're lucky to get really sweet pineapples at our local markets - in season. If you slice the pineapple quite fine (say half a centimetre thick) and cook the slices in a dry non-stick pan, the surface will brown as the sugars caramelise. The flavour intensifies as this happens and it adds another dimension to any dish you put it into. In this case, I made a simple salsa with a little lime juice. Pomegranate molasses is available from good delis (by good delis, I mean what Europeans understand by the word deli, not the horrible cold meat counters that masquerade as delis in Queensland). To get the pork crackling crisp, rub it with oil and salt. Cook it very high for 30 minutes, then (once the skin has bubbled) turn the oven down way to about 140C and cook for a couple of hours. This way, the flesh stays moist and the skin stays crunchy.

PORK BELLY WITH ROASTED PINEAPPLE SALSA & POMEGRANATE MOLASSES

TURMERIC BARRAMUNDI WITH A SRI LANKAN TOMATO & CORIANDER CURRY

If you turned out the lights I reckon this would glow in the dark. Nice fat fillets of line-caught barramundi dusted with turmeric and other goodies. The Sri Lankan curry is very light - in flavour and density. I've met a few people who were very dense. If this curry were a person, it would be one of them.

TURMERIC BARRAMUNDI WITH A SRI LANKAN TOMATO & CORIANDER CURRY

BREAST OF GRIMAUD DUCK, PUMPKIN, PLANTAIN & PINEAPPLE & STAR ANISE CHUTNEY

Ducks. This is a Grimaud duck. It seems to be a hybrid Pekin (spellcheck wants to spell this with a g, but it doesn't belong) duck - which is confusing because it's apparently 100% Pekin bloodstock, and that seems at odds with it being a hybrid. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing it was bred by the Grimaud Freres. How the good brothers developed their eponymous duck I have no idea. If you're Fijian or Mexican you'll be familiar with plantains. If not but you live in Sydney you will find them at a couple of Fijian stalls at Flemington Markets. We have a fruit vendor near home who also gets them in occasionally. They're basically big fat bananas. They're green when they're sold and you have to ripen them until the skin starts turning black. You also have to cook them. I slice each plantain in half and saute them, cut side down, then peel back the skins. The pineapple & star anise chutney works with the rich duck flesh and also works in combination with the plantain.

BREAST OF GRIMAUD DUCK, PUMPKIN, PLANTAIN & PINEAPPLE & STAR ANISE CHUTNEY

BEEF, SNAKE BEANS & TIANJIN PRESERVED VEGETABLES

Are you familiar with Tianjin preserved vegetables? If you speak Mandarin you might know them as 天津冬菜. I don't speak Manadarin, so the characters here could just as easily mean 'Blow fish dancing aunt' or 'happy disco giraffe' (which is the sort of thing you sometimes see printed on t-shirts worn by teenage girls from Japan). Tianjin preserved vegetable is a variety of cabbage that has been preserved in salt. The brand I have comes in a squat brown crock.

BEEF, SNAKE BEANS & TIANJIN PRESERVED VEGETABLES

GARLIC CHICKEN WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES

Home cooking 101. Some chook. Preferably the thighs. Preferably with skin and bone intact. Some garlic. Some olive oil and lemon juice. Some black pepper. Under the grill or onto the barbecue for 12-15 minutes. If you're using the oven, then heat it up earlier and roast some vegetables tossed with olive oil. Potato wedges will take about 30 minutes. Asparagus can go in at the same time as the chook. Zucchini will need just five minutes. Do the veg and the chook at about 200C.

GARLIC CHICKEN WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES

BARRAMUNDI WITH BLACK BEANS & TOMATILLO SALSA

How's your cholesterol? Too high? Do you suffer from diabetes? What about hypoglycemia? Need to reduce the saturated fats in your diet? Looking for a power-packed source of antioxidants to fight those pesky free radicals? Black beans are for you. They have about 10 times the antioxidants of cranberries. They have zero fat. They're packed with protein. What's not to like? OK, tomatillos. One University of Illinois study concluded that tomatillos might help prevent cancer. That's quite useful in my book. Black beans and tomatillos have been staples of the meso-American (Mexico and neighbours) diet for a few thousand years. If you live in Mexico or the USA, buying fresh tomatillos is easy. If you live elsewhere, like Australia, you might have to grow your own. Here in Oz, The Diggers Club stock tomatillo seeds. I planted some last year, got a good harvest and will plant some more every year. The coriander & green serrano chillies in the salsa also came from the garden. Panko crumbs on the barramundi give a nice crunch.

BARRAMUNDI WITH BLACK BEANS & TOMATILLO SALSA

TERIYAKI MACKEREL WITH UDON NOODLES

Udon noodles. Big fat slippery buggers. Heated in a stock of dashi, light soy, dark soy & salt. The stock is simple to make and once you've removed the noodles, you can freeze the stock until next time. Teriyaki is also simple. Three parts sake, three parts mirin, three parts soy sauce and one part sugar. Bring to the boil. The longer you cook it, the thicker it becomes so you can choose a light teriyaki or one that's more like balsamic glaze. Mackerel's around at the moment and is a perfect fish for Japanese flavours & techniques. I guess this might also count as a healthy dish for those watching their diet - not something I worry about TOO much. I don't eat crap, but I'm no food Nazi. If I eat more, I simply exercise more. (And if you're not exercising so you can indulge in more food, then why on earth are you going?)

TERIYAKI MACKEREL WITH UDON NOODLES

VEGETABLE SOUP WITH CHICKPEAS, BARLEY & BASIL PESTO

Sometimes we eat meat. Other times we drink it. I made a few litres of rich chicken stock this morning. Then used the chicken stock to make this soup (I also used some to make a pumpkin, parmesan & pine nut soup for the freezer). There's barley in there - both whole grains and also some pureed with the stock in which they cooked. There are chickpeas that I cooked on the weekend, baby leeks from the markets, broccolini stems, bok choy, tomatoes etc etc. You could make your own combination of vegetables. I'll post the recipe soon.

VEGETABLE SOUP WITH CHICKPEAS, BARLEY & BASIL PESTO

SPAGHETTI WITH CRAB

You can do this with linguine. In fact that's what I'd normally use. But if you only have spaghetti, it works just fine. Make it a good brand of pasta. One of the best readily available brands is Garofalo. It has great  texture and flavour - the equal of artisan pastas costing several times more. Blue swimmer crabs are also know as blue crabs, sand crabs, flower crabs and blue manna crabs. They're around the Indian ocean, the western Pacific and the eastern Mediterranean. (These are the crabs sold as soft-shell crabs in Asia.) In Australia their season runs from November to April - our summer. Getting the flesh out of the crevices of the body and limbs is fiddly. Tolerable when cooking for two or three, but a sentence if cooking for a crowd. You can buy the crab uncooked and do that yourself or buy it cooked - if you're sure it's fresh. Apart from collecting the flesh, this is simplicity - good olive oil, garlic, chilli, lemon juice and parsley combined with the crab meat. Cook your pasta and drain it. Add the crab and stir it. A bit of salt and pepper and that's it. The original recipe (with linguine) is in the original River Cafe Cookbook

SPAGHETTI WITH CRAB

MORETON BAY BUGS WITH TRUFFLED POTATO GALLETTE

Moreton Bay bugs and Balmain bugs are very similar. One has a wider head than the other - but not necessarily a bigger brain. They are also known as bay lobsters - but look nothing like lobsters. They're also called slipper lobsters - but look nothing like slippers. (Well, they might resemble slippers but only after the pet bull terrier has lunched on them.) No matter from what angle you view them, they're ugly. But they taste sublime. Possibly my favourite crustacean - along with blue swimmer or sand crab. These guys have been beheaded and halved as you can see. Some garlic butter and a slow roast until JUST cooked. The truffled potato gallette adds a touch of luxury. A bunch of wild rocket from the garden keeps it from sliding into decadence.

MORETON BAY BUGS WITH TRUFFLED POTATO GALLETTE

MPARRETTATI CON SUGO DI SALSICCIE

Mparrettati. The word gives Spell Check the heebie jeebies. Heebie jeebies give Spell Check heebie jeebies. Whatever. Mparrettati does nice things for the body. There's something deeply satisfying about some of these rustic regional pasta shapes. This one especially because of its length combined with the curl. The curl seems to give the pasta a will of its own, so that if its lying one way on your fork it behaves perfectly, but if it lies the other way it can flip over unexpectedly, flicking a bit of sauce out in any direction. This is live food. I get some good fat pork & fennel sausages at the weekly markets. I save a few for grilling. The rest go into a big batch of this sauce. I then divide it into 2-serve portions for freezing. This way there's always a sugo waiting for those nights when there's no time or energy for anything flasher.

MPARRETTATI CON SUGO DI SALSICCIE

SQUAB WITH PUMPKIN COUSCOUS, OLIVE & SAFFRON SAUCE

Do you hate pigeons? Think of them as flying rats? Here's an idea - eat them. OK, some people have trouble with the concept of eating pigeon. What if I told you that these aren't simply rounded up from city buildings, but raised for the table? And instead of scavenging for human leftovers, these birds are treated to a mixture of whole grains like wheat, corn, peas and safflower. Still not convinced? Then you need to try one because the flavour is superb. Deep, rich - about as rich as bird flesh can be. The best pigeon I have eaten was in Cairo. This is pretty good, though. A mix of Chris Manfield and Greg Malouf. Chris's recipe for the squab and sauce, which has a distinct Moroccan influence. Paired with a couscous recipe from Greg Malouf in which a dish of steamed diced pumpkin is covered with couscous, hot stock is poured over it, a few pieces of butter placed on top and it is then covered and baked. Delicious.

SQUAB WITH PUMPKIN COUSCOUS, OLIVE & SAFFRON SAUCE

RICE NOODLES WITH KING PRAWNS

There are several posts with rice noodles and prawns. One with XO sauce. One with crab paste. This one. Basically they're the same dish. I simply vary the condiments I add. I keep 3 jars of Asian condiments in the pantry or fridge. An XO sauce, crispy prawn chilli and crab paste with soya bean oil. My favourite is probably the crispy prawn chilli. The brand I see most frequently here is Tean's Gourmet. No fancy name for this condiment. There are a couple of additional ingredients, but the name fairly describes the contents.

RICE NOODLES WITH KING PRAWNS

BEEF CHEEKS WITH SOFT POLENTA & SLOW ROASTED TOMATOES

I like polenta. I like its flavour and its adaptability - the way you can make it really soft (almost a thick porridge) or medium soft (like mashed potato) or quite firm (when you can slice it - once it's cool - and fry in a little butter or even grill over coals). This version is on the soft side. The beef cheeks are also on the soft side. They really do melt in your mouth. The sweetness of the little tomatoes intensifies with long slow roasting. In fact the whole dish is so soft it really doesn't require any tooth work at all - perfect for those without their natural teeth. It's so soft you could almost suck it off the plate. Or inhale it. If you try this, write to me about what it was like - but please don't send photos.

BEEF CHEEKS WITH SOFT POLENTA & SLOW ROASTED TOMATOES

SEARED TUNA, CABBAGE SALAD, POTATO SALAD & ROAST GARLIC AIOLI

Not much to explain here. The cabbage salad is a wonderful Stephanie Alexander recipe (from The Cook's Companion). I use kipfler or nicola potatoes for the other salad, with eschalots, olive oil (sometimes with a little walnut oil) & white balsamic or white wine vinegar). The local fishmonger has a blackboard out on the footpath on which he writes the seasonal fish he's selling each day. When he has tuna, he seems to write its name larger than other fish. Maybe because it's a short word. Maybe because he reveres it above other species and so gives it prominence. I think he's writing it just for my benefit because he knows that if I know he has tuna, I'll buy some. I buy it because I trust him to only buy it when it's great. I haven't been disappointed. He'll buy a fish at the markets only if its flesh is deeply translucent with that rainbow-coloured mirror shine on its cut surface. If he doesn't think he can sell all of the fish in a couple of days, he'll stop at another fish shop on his way back from the markets and sell half the fish to his mate there. I like that.

SEARED TUNA, CABBAGE SALAD, POTATO SALAD & ROAST GARLIC AIOLI

SALMON WITH KUMARA MASH & SMOKED ONION JAM

Salmon used to be a luxury in Australia. Then they started raising it in pens moored in deep water off the coast of Tasmania. It became a lot easier to buy. And cheaper. So there's really no reason to go without the goodness of salmon once a week. I sear it in ghee in a pan over a 3/4 flame. I cook it only on one side - the skin side. I spoon over a little of the hot ghee to warm the other side. Maybe once or twice. That's all. I want the salmon warm inside, but still raw. To ensure this, you'll need to bring the fish to room temperature for a half hour before cooking. I usually skin the fish, but you can leave the skin on if you like (but make sure you scrape off any scales). If the heat's high enough the skin will crisp up nicely. If you buy the salmon already portioned, there's a good chance the pin bones have been removed. To check, run your fingers across the inside (opposite the skin) of the fillet. You'll feel the tips of the pin bones in a line across the middle of the fillet. Global (and other knife manufacturers) make a really handy broad-bladed pair of tweezers especially for this purpose. They're MUCH easier to use than your girlfriend's eyebrow tweezers. Besides, most girls seem to object to the smell of dried fish on their tweezers. I smoked some onions - not too heavily - before making this jam with brown sugar and balsamic vinegar.

SALMON WITH KUMARA MASH & SMOKED ONION JAM

HOKKIEN NOODLES WITH EGGPLANT, MUSHROOMS & XO SAUCE

What's not to love about noodles? Whether made from rice, wheat or other flour, whether Chinese, Japanese or Italian they seem to do the same thing. Provide you with a meal that's comforting but also playful. There were some interesting mushrooms at the markets - king, oyster, shiitake. I picked an eggplant from the garden. I added a couple of spoons of wonderful XO sauce (good stuff to keep on hand at all times). I used some slivers of Chinese celery plus various condiments and there's this big sexy bowl of food in about 10 minutes.

HOKKIEN NOODLES WITH EGGPLANT, MUSHROOMS & XO SAUCE

WAGYU RIB FILLET, PUY LENTILS & KALAMATA TAPENADE

Is it wagyu or isn't it wagyu? Like lots of things, there's a bit of deception when it comes to wagyu. In Japan this prized meat comes from the tajima breed of cattle. Like all things that experience rocketing popularity, the few producers of true 100% wagyu beef in Australia couldn't keep up with demand. So a lot of what's sold as wagyu comes from a crossbreed of tajima and black angus. Now black angus can be bloody good. But it isn't capable of the marbling in the tajima breed. So, as with most things, it pays to get to know your butcher well and ask him what he's selling. The other things about (genuine) wagyu is that the level of marbling can vary significantly. Marbling in wagyu is simply monounsaturated fatty acids. Basically the fat in wagyu is better than the fat in other beef breeds. Enough about the fat. Whatever the facts, the result is a meat with an extraordinary depth of flavour and texture. In this case some rib fillet is matched with Puy lentils cooked in stock and a kalamata olive tapenade.

WAGYU RIB FILLET, PUY LENTILS & KALAMATA TAPENADE

BEEF CHEEKS WITH POLENTA & BABY BOK CHOY

Beef cheeks. I wonder if cows look at themselves in the mirror and think they need collagen injections or cheek implants. Do cows get boob jobs? Whilst I think about deep stuff like that, I'll write about beef cheeks. When we first moved here, the only place I could get beef cheeks was Woolworths supermarket. Yes, they were in the meat section - but over with the pet meat, along with hearts and other bits that mustn't have been considered fit for human consumption. I asked at a couple of butchers and was told that they couldn't get them. The truth is they were too lazy to get them. Or they didn't want to buy a whole carton of them because they weren't sure they'd sell them. There's a fair bit of waste with cheeks. They have to be denuded, which removes sinew and other stuff. It also reduces the cheek to about half its original weight. Anyway, a proper butcher opened here a year ago. Jack Sprats. Paul knows his meat. And he cares about quality. I bought a dozen cheeks, which he trimmed for me. Braised for hours at a really low heat with red wine, beef stock, star anise, garlic, bay leaves and other goodies. Polenta a bit thicker this time around - with more parmesan. And bok choy. We (well I mean I) seem to compartmentalise food so bok choy only gets considered in the context of Asian food. But since it's related to cabbage and lots of other not-so-Asian greens, there's no reason it can't work with something more European. And it does. A treat.

BEEF CHEEKS WITH POLENTA & BABY BOK CHOY

PECHUGA DE POLLO CON SALSA RANCHERA

Pechuga. Breast. In Spanish. In Australia the breast of a chicken is usually sold stripped of the one thing that can give it flavour - its skin. It's also usually sold without the second thing that gives it flavour - bones. Same goes for thigh meat - usually sold as skinless, boneless fillets. The best way to get around this is to buy a whole chicken. That way you have a pair of legs with skin and bone for one meal for 2 people. If you remove the end joint of the wings you then also have a breast with the first wing joint for a second meal. And you have the chicken frame and wing tips to make stock to use in soups and risotto. Salsa ranchera is one of the classics of Mexican cuisine. You can find a recipe in many books, but try Diana Kennedy or Mark Miller et al in a fabulous book devoted to a Mexican specialty rarely cooked outside Mexico - tamales. (It's been a while since I did tamales, so I'll fix that soon. Advanced notice: if you want to make your own, you'll need pork lard, so off to the butcher for a kilo of fat and start rendering. It keeps for months in the fridge.) The secret to so many Mexican tomato-based salsas isn't just the quality of the tomatoes, but holding the tomatoes over a flame so the skin blisters and burns. If you have a gas cook top, an easy way to do it is impale a tomato on a carving fork or long skewer and rotate it slowly close to the flame. Diana Kennedy's books and others and some online recipe sites will have recipes for adobos. There are many variations using different combinations of chillies and other spices - and there are dry versions, wet versions and others with the consistency of a paste.

PECHUGA DE POLLO CON SALSA RANCHERA

DUCK CURRY

I really need to start writing down the recipe for my green and red curry pastes. First, if I did they'd be consistent. Second, when I do a good batch, I'd be able to reproduce it - which I guess is the same as point one. The point of these points is that this is a good batch of paste - but I don't recall what I did. The only thing I know is that I didn't grind the paste as smooth as usual, so there are occasional crunches of lemongrass and chilli and other bits. And it's VERY rich. Lots of stuff going on in the mouth. Cheated by buying half a Chinese red-glazed duck. Does that make this take-away food? Maybe. Thai basil from the garden. Really strong aniseed notes. I'll have a go at writing a recipe of sorts for this.

DUCK CURRY

PUMPKIN & SAFFRON RISOTTO

I think I made my first risotto in 1982 after tasting my first risotto in a restaurant in Mantova a few months earlier. I don't know how many variations on a risotto them I've made since then. It's a lot. Favourites are crab, fennel and beetroot (which I first tasted in an Italian restaurant in LA). Our wonderful neighbours brought in a huge Japanese pumpkin yesterday with the weekly bag of lady finger bananas and passionfruit from their farm. I had some quail stock in the freezer, so these were combined with some saffron strands and other goodies to make this risotto. A sprinkling of fetta over the top to add a bit of tang.

PUMPKIN & SAFFRON RISOTTO

TUNA ADOBADO WITH ROASTED CHILLI PASTE & CORN

I made a dry adobo spice mix on the weekend. Roasted and ground ancho chillies, birds eye chillies, cumin seeds, fennel seeds,  smoked paprika etc. It works on steaks for the barbecue. It also works a treat on yellowfin tuna. The paste sounds scary, but is really quite mild - roasted chillies, roasted capsicums, sugar, fish sauce and a few other things.

TUNA ADOBADO WITH ROASTED CHILLI PASTE & CORN

CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH PARMESAN & HAZELNUT OIL

Making soup is easy. Making soup is therapeutic. Yes, you need a good home-made stock - but then why wouldn't you make big batches of chicken stock and fish stock and vegetable stock and keep batches of them in the freezer? In this case I cooked cauliflower florets (should that be cauliflorets?) in a covered saucepan with a little stock and garlic. I then added a little grated nutmeg, salt, pepper and grated parmesan (4-year old from Reggia) and blended it. This went into the freezer for a night such as this - when I've been too busy to cook and the weather's turned cool. A drizzle of hazelnut oil before serving, some warm slices of Iggy's sourdough and either a good olive oil (I used Partanna from Sicily) or great butter (Lurpak, Echire or Isigny and others).

CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH PARMESAN & HAZELNUT OIL

BARBECUED PORK SAUSAGE, KUMARA MASH, ROASTED CORN SALSA, CHILLIES TWO WAYS

The great sausage debate. Grill or barbecue. OK, it's not a debate, it's just a decision you have to make and it's one you make based as much on energy level as flavour outcome. Can you be bothered firing up the barbie? Plenty of times chez moi, the answer's no - and that's pretty pathetic given how easy it is to start a modern gas barbecue. (When I'm REALLY serious, I cook in the kamado and use hardwood charcoal for fuel.) When you taste the added complexity that only a barbecue can give, you wonder why you don't cook them this way all the time. Jalapenos (and I'll fix this once I find the lost international accents from my Mac keyborad) done two ways. First fresh jalapenos en escabeche and second dried chipotles (smoked jalapenos) in a spicy sauce. Both quite easy to make. Both seem to last forever. We buy the corn from the local markets. Generally it's been picked the day before the market so it's still really sweet as the sugars haven't started to convert to starches. Sauteed (add missing acute) with eschalots and a teaspoon of maple syrup and a few drops of liquid smoke added at the end.

BARBECUED PORK SAUSAGE, KUMARA MASH, ROASTED CORN SALSA, CHILLIES TWO WAYS

OCEAN TROUT, BALSAMIC TOMATOES, AMARANTH BROTH & ONION JAM

If it looks like salmon then it must be ... um, well, salmon. Then again, it could be ocean trout. Often it's sold skinned, pin-boned and portioned so it's hard to tell it from salmon on looks alone. But taste it and you know straight away it's a different beast. Not the same oil content as salmon. And that subtler flavour that's somehow troutier. And smaller flakes that are somehow less flaky. Anyway, the best of its type here in Oz comes from ocean farms in deep cool water off Tasmania's remote western shores. I imagine there must have been a few failures with early attempts at ocean farming. I wonder how many farmers lost tractors in the early days. I love amaranth. Amaranth is another of Mexico's culinary gifts to the world. Maybe not in the same league as tomatoes or chocolate, but a goody. If you're familiar with amaranth, you'll know it's highly nutritious. You'll also know it's very, very light. In fact, I'd advise against cooking with amaranth in anythings stronger than a 5 knot breeze. Anyway, I've based this dish loosely in a Charlie Trotter recipe.

OCEAN TROUT, BALSAMIC TOMATOES, AMARANTH BROTH & ONION JAM

SMOKED PAPRIKA CHICKEN, BLACK BEAN SALSA & TOMATILLO/AVOCADO SALSA

I like smoke. Not fire, just smoke. I like smoked things. Smoked duck breast, smoked salmon, smoked chillies, smoked paprika. I like avocado. But not smoked. I like black beans. Both types, the Mexican ones and the fermented soy bean ones. I like tomatoes when they taste like proper tomatoes. And chicken when it has chicken flavour. I'd forfotten what chickens taste like until we went to live in Mexico. My first taste of a free-range chicken that's included kernels of corn and marigold flowers in its diet unlocked memories of a taste I recall from my childhood. I guess back then Australia poulterers raised chickens the way they still do in Mexico. I've had one chicken in Australia that tastes like the Mexican chickens - from Carlo Colaiacomo's farm near Mudgee (and sold in his fabulous AC Butchery in Sydney's Leichhardt). I've put some of my favourite things together in a very simple dish for a simple midweek meal for a simple family.

SMOKED PAPRIKA CHICKEN, BLACK BEAN SALSA & TOMATILLO/AVOCADO SALSA

STEAMED CHICKEN & FRIED PORK SKIN SALAD

Mandolins. When I was in primary school the Deputy Principal's name was Mr Morris. We called him Moose. Moose played mandolin. Intensely. He often broke strings. I thought of him when I was thinking about the other kind of mandolin - the one that slices fingers. And food. It does a brilliant job on both. Of course you can slice stuff with a knife. I have sliced my fingers often with knives. I even managed to cut the tendon on the back of my thumb with a knife. Knives are fine for cutting fingers but you can't get vegetables as consistently fine as you can with a mandolin. The reason we slice fingers on mandolins is that we invariably choose to hold whatever we're slicing by hand, rather than using the grip provided. And then we always try to cut one more slice than we can safely cut. I marinated the chicken in a little lime juice, fish sauce, sesame oil and dissolved sugar before steaming.

STEAMED CHICKEN & FRIED PORK SKIN SALAD

MPARRETTATI WITH BROCCOLINI

Mparrettati is the stuff of dreams. Well, maybe not your dreams but mine. I'm lying. I never dream of mparrettati. I hadn't even heard of them until six months ago. Maybe that's because I'm not Calabrian. Mparrettati is long, thick and curved into an o- or u-shaped tunnel. It holds sauce well, which makes it ideal for a hearty ragu. On this occasion it had to settle for wrapping itself around a simple sauce of fresh tomatoes, garlic and chilli with broccolini. It's fun to eat because its peculiar shape and the springiness of the pasta dough makes it reluctant to stay on a fork. Who says you can't play with your food?

MPARRETTATI WITH BROCCOLINI

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH ROAST GARLIC AIOLI

Roasted vegetables and ... nothing. I'm not a vegetarian, but I often don't eat meat. This works on it own for those times you just feel like veg. Or you can do it with slices of barbecued chicken or slow-roasted shoulder of lamb. Or fish. Or cheesecake. With an anchovy milkshake on the side.

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH ROAST GARLIC AIOLI

PONZU MACKEREL WITH MISO SAUCE & SOY BEANS

The mackerel season in Australia runs through the front half of the year with its peak in March and April. It's a great fish - but not as fashionable as some breeds. The Japanese seem to know what to do with it and use it a lot, so I did something with a Japanese influence. Dead easy. I make batches of ponzu which keeps for many months. Of course those of you more time-challenged than me can buy it ready-made. I simply marinated the fish for half an hour before searing it in a little grapeseed oil. The sauce is a mix of mild dashi and miso paste. Nothing more. The soy beans were boiled briefly. Local watercress got an olive/sesame/light soy/black vinegar dressing.

PONZU MACKEREL WITH MISO SAUCE & SOY BEANS

BARRAMUNDI WITH CHILLI MAYONNAISE, TOMATO SALSA & TOMATILLO VINAIGRETTE

Barramundi arrives at the fishmongers from 3 sources. Wild is better than farmed. Line-caught is better than netted. Same fish, incomparably different taste. You don't often see line-caught as it seems to go mostly to the restaurant trade. But if you live in a barramundi fishing zone, you'll see this line-caught version now and then. Something else that's interesting - if you find food trivia interesting: barra is one of those species that softens as it cooks, while some other fish gets firmer.

BARRAMUNDI WITH CHILLI MAYONNAISE, TOMATO SALSA & TOMATILLO VINAIGRETTE

WAGYU SIRLOIN, ESCHALOT & VINEGAR SAUCE, POTATO PUREE

There isn't a better tasting slab of beef than wagyu - at least not here on Oz. I've had some grass fed black Angus from Tasmania that comes close. Close but no cigar. Decadently rich flavour, great texture, magic. A bit of 25 year old sherry vinegar and some eschalots seem to counter the meat's fat. Well at least that's what I tell myself. I'm not sure there's anything that can take on the slippery luxury of wagyu fat and win. Royal blue potatoes for the puree. Talking of puree, my computer seems to have lost the ability to add acutes, graves, umlauts and other non-English language flourishes whilst I've been away. Anybody sees a homeless umlaut anywhere, please send it home.

WAGYU SIRLOIN, ESCHALOT & VINEGAR SAUCE, POTATO PUREE

STIR-FRIED CHICKEN, EGGPLANT & SNAKE BEANS

One of those dead simple stir-fries that are great mid-week meals. The crisp fried pork skin is a great addition to these dishes (along with fried eschalots). Perversely, the ingredient that causes the most problem is the bean sprouts. They have such a short shelf life that it's sometimes hard to buy them before they've started to go off.

STIR-FRIED CHICKEN, EGGPLANT & SNAKE BEANS

PORK SAUSAGES, CARAMELISED ONIONS, CHICKPEA SALAD, TOMATILLO SALSA

There are a couple of English lads at the weekly markets. They make the best pork pies I've tasted in Australia. They make Cornish pasties that actually manage to make Cornish pasties feel like proper food - not an excuse to use chopped up leftovers. They make Eccles cakes. And they make proper old fashioned English pork sausages. I built this multi-cultural dish around the pork sausages - appropriate, given English history of colonisation. Caramelised onions (which the Italians do so well), a salad of chickpeas (which might have originated in Egypt, but also in Turkey, near the border with Syria) and tomatoes (Mexico) and a tomatillo (Mexico) salsa which includes coriander (which could also have originated in Egypt). Might sound like all these nations would fight it out on the plate, but it seems to work. Even if it didn't, it's occasionally good to served English pork sausages with something other than peas and mash.

PORK SAUSAGES, CARAMELISED ONIONS, CHICKPEA SALAD, TOMATILLO SALSA

CHIPOTLE BARBECUE SAUCE

I was going to post a photo, but I figure a shot of a thick brown sauce isn't going to add much to your comprehension of the recipe. This stuff is simple to make (once you have the ingredients), tastes brilliant on barbecued beef, pork ribs and sausages and keeps for a very long time. If you don't know, chipotles are smoked jalapeño chillies. Chipotles en adobo are chipotles cooked in a sauce that includes brown sugar, vinegar and other goodies. You can buy canned chipotles en adobo from a number of delicatessens or from online Mexican food sources. Alternatively, you can make your own BUT (you knew there'd be a complication, didn't you?) to do this you'll have to get hold of dried chipotle chillies (which you'd get from the same Mexican food suppliers as the canned chipotles en adobo or from Herbie's Spices in Sydney or other spice traders). If you want to make life even more difficult, I suppose you could buy jalapeño seeds, grow the chillies until red, smoke them over mesquite wood THEN make a batch of chipotles en adobo and THEN make your BBQ sauce. While you're at it, you might as well grow your own onions, celery, garlic, rape (for the canola oil) and tomatoes (for the ketchup), harvest your own cumin seeds, make your own Worcestershire sauce, smoke your own paprika and whip up a batch of cider vinegar from fruit from your orchard. See you in a couple of years. Recipe below.

CHIPOTLE BARBECUE SAUCE