STIR FRIED CHAR SIEW AND VEGETABLES

I love Chinese barbeque shops with their racks of glazed ducks, deep red char siew, links of lap cheong and crisp-skinned roast pork. There's one at Mermaid Beach that has the fattest, tastiest lap cheong, but it was the their char siew that caught my eye on this visit.

Here it is with tatsoi, baby bok choy, beans sprouts and green chilli.

STIR FRIED CHAR SIEW AND VEGETABLES

RED CURRY OF PRAWN AND PUMPKIN

What staples do you always have in your refrigerator? I always have home made chicken stock, pizza dough, master stock, yum cha dumplings and bolognese sauce in my freezer. There's always a number of chilli sauces, red and green curry pastes, lard, jams and Lurpak butter in the fridge.

Tonight, the red curry paste got a run.

RED CURRY OF PRAWN AND PUMPKIN

PEARL PERCH WITH HERB SAUCE AND SALAD OF FARRO, BEET LEAVES, BEANS AND BASIL

Pearl perch has a short season. It happened last Saturday and lasted almost until Sunday. It's short.

There are some people who reckon it's the best eating fish in the sea. The fisherman at the weekly markets is one of these people.

So here it is with a fresh herb sauce on a bed of farro grains, baby beetroot leaves, beans and basil.

PEARL PERCH WITH HERB SAUCE AND SALAD OF FARRO, BEET LEAVES, BEANS AND BASIL

WARM POTATO SALAD WITH SMOKED OCEAN TROUT AND QUARK

Warm salads are what you eat on schizoid days of Autumn and Spring - warm enough to tease you into thinking it's Summer, but cool enough to not stay in your board shorts after sunset (if you were wearing them when the sun was up).

So here's organic Dutch cream potatoes with Tasmanian smoked ocean trout, organic quark, Sicilian extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and fried shallots.

WARM POTATO SALAD WITH SMOKED OCEAN TROUT AND QUARK

ROASTED BERKSHIRE PORK BELLY WITH FRESH HERB SAUCE

Another slab of wonderful pork from just down the coast. These Berkshire pigs are raised in the Byron Bay hinterland. They're incredibly tasty - soft, sweet, succulent and unctuous.

A very simple herb sauce of basil, baby kale and parsley, garlic, organic cider vinegar.

ROASTED BERKSHIRE PORK BELLY WITH FRESH HERB SAUCE

YELLOW FIN TUNA WITH CHIPOTLE SALSA, BLACK BEANS AND MICROHERBS

We don't always think of seafood when we think of Mexican food. However, with 3000 miles of coastline, fish is an important part of the local diet. Here's seared yellow fin tuna rubbed with salt and Yucatecan oregano on a salad of black beans and goat fetta (which is close to the flavour of a popular Mexican cheese) - with a chipotle salsa and microherbs.

YELLOW FIN TUNA WITH CHIPOTLE SALSA, BLACK BEANS AND MICROHERBS

BARBEQUED RUMP CAP WITH FRIED POLENTA AND PUY LENTILS

Nothing restrained, delicate or nouvelle about this. Rump cap has a blunt, unsubtle manliness about it. Two simple syllables, each terminated by a p which sounds disdainful, distasteful, dismissive.

Lentils are French peasant food. Polenta is northern Italian peasant food.

There was a microherb salad off camera. To include it in the photo would have compromised the brutal lowliness of the other ingredients. So too the roast garlic aïoli (although this too might pass for peasant food).

BARBEQUED RUMP CAP WITH FRIED POLENTA AND PUY LENTILS

PRAWN PIZZA

Making dough is satisfying, but messy. I don't have a solution for the messiness. All I can do is reduce the frequency by making a big batch, portioning and freezing it until I get the urge to make a pizza.

I got that urge the other night. Here's a really simple one with prawns and Spanish onion.

PRAWN PIZZA

STIR FRIED CHICKEN WITH LOMBOK AND BOK CHOY

There's something about stir fries that makes me think of those speed dating events. You have a bunch of ingredients that haven't met. They get thrown into the wok, given barely enough time to say hello and a moment later they're unceremoniously scooped out onto a plate.

The positive of this is that the flavour of each ingredient is clear, pure, untainted. The negative is that if each flavour - and the combination of flavours - isn't right when raw, it won't be when cooked.

STIR FRIED CHICKEN WITH LOMBOK AND BOK CHOY

WHITING FILLETS WITH SALSA VERDE AND DUTCH CREAM POTATO WEDGES

I'm a big believer in healthy food. I eat a lot of it.

I am also a big believer in balance. I have balanced the healthy fish, salsa verde and kale with potato wedges baked in goose fat.

That should keep all the gods happy.

WHITING FILLETS WITH SALSA VERDE AND DUTCH CREAM POTATO WEDGES

MASTER STOCK PORK BELLY WITH BABY BOK CHOY

I started this master stock about 12 years ago. I have topped it up quite a few times since then. It just keeps getting better and better. I use it, strain it, refrigerate it, remove any new fat and freeze the stock until I need it again.

This time I used it to braise a piece of Berkshire pork belly from the Byron Bay hinterland about 50 kms from here.

MASTER STOCK PORK BELLY WITH BABY BOK CHOY

SEARED PETUNA OCEAN TROUT WITH THAI HERB SALAD

One of my favourite fish species. Rich, subtle, gorgeously coloured. I can feel it doing me good.

This was quickly seared, skin side only, in coconut oil.

A tangle of Asian microherbs on top, dressed with macadamia oil, rice vinegar, lime juice and a couple of drops of sesame oil.

SEARED PETUNA OCEAN TROUT WITH THAI HERB SALAD

CHICKEN CHOP WITH EGGPLANT GRATIN, SALSA VERDE AND CARAMELISED BABY TOMATOES

Our local butcher gets chickens every Tuesday. During the afternoon, the birds are broken down into breast fillets, thigh fillets, wings, drumsticks and thigh sections. These are left on the bone, with the skin on. The butcher calls them chicken chops - and that's fine by me.

So here they are with a dusting of sea salt, dried chilli and rosemary. Small eggplants interleaved with tomato and with panko crumbs on top went into the oven until soft and golden. Amoroso tomatoes caramelised until dark, sticky and concentrated. Tangy salsa verde to liven things up.

CHICKEN CHOP WITH EGGPLANT GRATIN, SALSA VERDE AND CARAMELISED BABY TOMATOES

SALMON ADOBADO WITH BLACK BEAN, AVOCADO & FETTA SALAD

Simple Mexican fare. Salmon rubbed with a dry adobo of smoked paprika, cumin & chipotle. The salad is one of classic Mexican ingredients - except the fetta. However a sheep's milk fetta isn't a bad substitute for one of the traditional cheeses used in México.

What great culinary gifts México gave us with avocado, tomato and black beans. Come to think of it, we could add chocolate and corn to the list.

SALMON ADOBADO WITH BLACK BEAN, AVOCADO & FETTA SALAD

RICE NOODLES WITH CHICKEN AND LAP CHEONG

I like to have rice noodles once a week. I'm not addicted. I don't have a physiological need for them. I just like them, the slippery smoothness of them, the way the slither down my gullet. More often than not I'll cook them with either chicken or prawns. Sometimes both. Sometimes with the addition of another meat. In this case, fine slices of Chinese sausage.

The usual suspects as far as flavourings - garlic, soy sauce, chilli bean paste, ginger, fried eschalot, fish sauce, sugar, fresh chilli, coriander leaves and ground roasted rice.

RICE NOODLES WITH CHICKEN AND LAP CHEONG

MOROCCAN LAMB WITH HARISSA, CHICKPEAS AND SPICED ROASTED

It's not really Moroccan lamb. It's Australian - just given some Moroccan spices. Come to think of it, it mightn't be Australian lamb. Well, it was raised here, but it's probably Dorper, which is an African breed. So multicultural lamb - which is suitably Australian.

Home made harissa, pumpkin from our neighbours' farm and organic chickpeas cooked in chicken stock (home made). All this home-made start-from-scratch stuff makes me feel kind of Amish.

MOROCCAN LAMB WITH HARISSA, CHICKPEAS AND SPICED ROASTED

WILD BARRAMUNDI WITH QUINOA & KALE SALAD

In my mind there are three grades of barramundi. Farmed is grey and dull when raw, and tastes that way when cooked - even a little muddy. Wild is bright and white, sometimes with a bluish tinge and with flashes of red. The best is wild line-caught, with the brightest, clearest colour and cleanest taste of all.

Nothing but fish flavour here. Pan seared, a squeeze of lemon juice, a sprinkle of sea salt.

WILD BARRAMUNDI WITH QUINOA & KALE SALAD

QUAIL WITH STREAKY BACON, PUY LENTILS AND POLENTA

There used to be a restaurant near Picton, south of Sydney. The French owner raised quail, pigeon, guinea fowl and pheasant on a nearby farm. It was a great place for a long Sunday lunch. Unfortunately, random breath testing killed the idea of long Sunday lunches - especially ones that required a fair drive. Luckily, the game farm continues to this day and these quail come from there.

The streaky bacon comes from a family of Italian immigrants. It's not too salty and lightly smoked - just perfect. Remarkably (or encouragingly), both of these products come from supermarkets - not a place I normally shop for food.

Continuing the Franco-Italian theme, there are Puy lentils and polenta, both cooked using home-made quail stock.

QUAIL WITH STREAKY BACON, PUY LENTILS AND POLENTA

LAMB SHANK WITH CELERIAC MASH

Nothing delicate about this dish. A Flintstones plate of food. Chunk of meat on a bone, admittedly tasty lamb gently braised in red wine with star anise, bay leaves, garlic etc. And I suppose I'd have to confess that celeriac, which looks like a weapon when whole, cooks into a genteel subtle bed for the shank. Still, it's a bone and a bulb.

LAMB SHANK WITH CELERIAC MASH

HOLMBRAE CHICKEN WITH ROASTED FENNEL, CHOKO AND DUTCH CREAM POTATO

Ever since returning to Australia after a couple of years in México, I have searched for a chicken with the real chicken flavour the Mexican chooks have. I had tried all the likely contenders from the Barossa, Mudgee, Alstonville, Kangaroo Island. They are good, but none had the taste I remember from childhood - and had forgotten until the memory was rekindled in México.

Well, I think these Holmbrae chooks from the NSW Southern Highlands come closer than any other Australian chicken. This one was rubbed with rosemary salt (from Salt, Meats, Cheese) and simply roasted, along with wedges of choko, baby fennel and Dutch cream potatoes.

HOLMBRAE CHICKEN WITH ROASTED FENNEL, CHOKO AND DUTCH CREAM POTATO

FENNEL RISOTTO

If you live in the north of Italy, this is comfort food. Soft, gentle, subtle risotto. Home made chicken stock, fennel bulb, a touch of Pernod, Lurpak butter, parmigiana reggiano.

FENNEL RISOTTO

CHICKEN THIGH WITH TWO SALADS

This is simple school night food. I could have described each salad in detail, but writing 'two salads' is simpler - and it's a simple school night dinner, after all.

So, chicken thigh with two salads it is.

CHICKEN THIGH WITH TWO SALADS

BRAISED WAGYU RUMP CAP WITH BABY KALE, RED CABBAGE & AIOLI

Australia produces some great wagyu (Kobe) beef. A lot of what's labelled wagyu here is a cross - usually wagyu and black Angus. The best pure wagyu gets shipped to Japan or snapped up by top-end restaurants. The big demand is for the premium cuts - porterhouse, eye fillet, rib fillet, rib. The rump cap is one of the unloved bits. Treated with love, it produces deliciously satisfying meals.

The piece I bought (about 1.25 kg) was braised whole in red wine, veal stock, with garlic, bay etc. It had about 6 hours cooking at 130C. Braised red cabbage underneath with baby kale leaves tossed in a tablespoon of walnut oil and a little red wine vinegar. Roasted garlic aïoli. Heaven.

BRAISED WAGYU RUMP CAP WITH BABY KALE, RED CABBAGE & AIOLI

BARBEQUED LAMB SHOULDER WITH CAPSICUM JAM

I love lamb shoulder. It needs & deserves long slow cooking. This one was rubbed with rosemary, mint and garlic. I roasted it at 140C for 3 hours, then finished it on the BBQ.

Red capsicum jam is delicious, easy and versatile - gently braised in olive oil, with smoked paprika, cumin seeds and red wine vinegar. Then palm sugar added to caramelise.

Maple glazed heirloom carrots from the weekly farmers markets are so packed with flavour.

BARBEQUED LAMB SHOULDER WITH CAPSICUM JAM

ADOBO PRAWNS WITH ROASTED CORN AND CHIPOTLE SALSA

I realised I haven't been cooking as much Mexican food as I used to. One dish doesn't make amends, but it's a start.

So, classic flavours here. Prawns dusted with a seasoning of ground chipotles and other goodies. Roasted organic corn, tomato, local avocado, black beans and coriander under it. A chipotle salsa reclining to the side and a clutch of microherbs on top.

ADOBO PRAWNS WITH ROASTED CORN AND CHIPOTLE SALSA

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH ROAST GARLIC AIOLI

To my devout carnivore friends, I'm sorry. There's no meat in this picture.

To my devout vegan friends, I'm sorry. There's egg in the aïoli.

To the rest of you, here's something delicious for those times when you don't need flesh.

You can use all combinations of vegetables for this. Root vegetables are especially good - parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, celeriac. I've used chokoes (I hate them boiled, but love them roasted), fennel and Dutch cream potatoes.

The roast garlic aïoli is a Christine Manfield recipe I have been making for years - and it always works and tastes brilliant.

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH ROAST GARLIC AIOLI

STIR FRIED MINCED KANGAROO WITH CHILLI AND CORIANDER

There's a bit of faith required here. This dish is much tastier than it looks. Trust me.

It looks like a pile of chopped brown stuff with the occasionally green coriander leaf and a few pieces of fried eschalot. What you have to imagine is the richness of kangaroo, the sweet unctiousness of coconut oil and the marriage of garlic, chilli, soy sauce and palm sugar - with chopped coriander and a couple of tablespoons of fried eschalot added before serving. So good I want to cook it again. Now.

STIR FRIED MINCED KANGAROO WITH CHILLI AND CORIANDER

BARBEQUED BABY OCTOPUS WITH SQUID INK RISOTTO

I've always liked the visual drama of squid ink risotto. There aren't enough black foods in the world - and this is one of the few. This is true black. Black as jet. Black as #000000.

There are two ways to get the squid ink you need for this. You can squeeze it from the ink sacks of fresh squid or octopus. Or you can buy it in jars from specialty grocers.

Once cleaned and cut into pieces, the octopus was marinated in olive oil, chilli and garlic before cooking. Just a light squeeze of lemon juice over the plated dish and that was that.

BARBEQUED BABY OCTOPUS WITH SQUID INK RISOTTO

STIR FRIED CHICKEN WITH SNOW PEAS AND MINT

Stir fries aren't pretty. You can't beautifully plate up a stir fry. It is what it is - a bunch of ingredients flipped and slapped and stirred around a wok over a fierce heat.

So here is this version with chicken thigh meat with ginger, soy sauce, chilli bean paste, snow peas and mint.

STIR FRIED CHICKEN WITH SNOW PEAS AND MINT

GRILLED QUAIL WITH PUY LENTILS, RED CABBAGE AND BABY SPINACH

There used to be a restaurant south of Sydney that specialised in birds - duck, pheasant, guinea fowl, quail, spatchcock and pigeon. It was a great place for a slow weekend lunch. The birds were raised on a nearby farm - called, surprisingly, the Game Farm. The introduction of random breath testing killed business in the restaurant - as it did for other out-of-town restaurants.

Luckily, the farm continued. These quail come from The Game Farm. I've take some of the work out of eating quail by removing the breast and legs from the carcass (which I used to make quail stock - which I used to cook the lentils).

The Puy lentils have a wonderful nutty flavour, enhanced by the stock in which they cooked. The cabbage was braised with red wine vinegar, sugar, quail stock, garlic, star anise and bay leaves.

The baby spinach leaves were barely wilted in a covered pan over low heat.

GRILLED QUAIL WITH PUY LENTILS, RED CABBAGE AND BABY SPINACH

SPAGHETTI AL PANGRATTATO

Have you been to the opera? Did they have surtitles? Have you read the story line of an opera? Or the libretto? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then answer the next question. Did the words strike you as silly?

They did for me - in many operas at least. Sublime music, glorious singing - but singing about something inane in an improbable story.

Well the name of this dish reminds me of opera. Spaghetti al pangrattato sounds so much sexier than wheat strands with fried breadcrumbs.

Like a lot of Italian pasta dishes, this is really simple, but delicious. Basically breadcrumbs (home made from sour dough) shallow fried until golden, then mixed with cooked spaghetti, extra virgin olive, a little chilli, saltand garlic. That's it.

SPAGHETTI AL PANGRATTATO

POT AU FEU

I don't know if history books record how many wars started over food. My guess is quite a few. Some might have started because a city's food supply was cut off. That's enough reason reason to go into battle. I wonder how many battles started over a recipe. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of them.

I remember a Rick Stein TV program where Carcassonne and neighbouring Castelnaudary battled over what goes into a true cassoulet. I remember Jamie Oliver cooking in an Italian village in which the local women almost beat him out of town for the liberties he was taking with a traditional pasta dish.

So it is with this humble French country stew. It seems that recipes for pot au feu are treasured family secrets and each is the only true way to make this dish. So at risk of upsetting French families with their firm beliefs about what should and shouldn't go into a pot au feu, here's mine.

This one started when I bought a nice piece of wagyu topside at the local markets. I immediately thought of a slow braise. I used red onions, parsnips, potato, tomato, celery - because I had them all on hand. I used bay leaves and thyme - also because I had them on hand.

It cooked for 5 hours at 140C. It was delicious. Was it authentic enough to satisfy a French country woman? I don't know. It satisfied me and our guests and worked a treat with a 1982 Chateau Léoville Barton.

POT AU FEU

OCEAN TROUT WITH GINGERED SNOW PEA TENDRILS & ROE

Ocean trout is possibly my favourite eating fish. I write possibly because there'll be times when I might name yellow fin tuna or line-caught wild barramundi or coral trout as my favourite. And if I included crustaceans, I'd definitely include Western Australia scampi, Balmain bugs and blue swimmer crabs to my list.

When I can, I buy it with the skin on because the fat just under the skin adds extra flavour. So this piece was simply sautéed skin-side down in coconut oil. I tossed some snow pea tendrils with ginger, soy sauce and fish sauce and heated them just enough to take some of the unruly springiness out of the stems. Rice underneath and fresh unpasteurised roe on top. Embarrassingly simple and oh so healthy.

OCEAN TROUT WITH GINGERED SNOW PEA TENDRILS & ROE

GRILLED CHICKEN WITH SMOKED ORANGE CAPSICUM SAUCE AND CORN SALSA

I like flavour in food. I lived in Mexico for a couple years. The first chicken I ate there had flavour, flavour I had forgotten. I took one bite and was immediately and magically transported to childhood and the flavour of a roast chicken on Sunday. I had forgotten that this is what chickens taste like - when they're free to graze on wild grasses and seeds, when they aren't encouraged to grow abnormally fast.

I occasionally taste chickens with real chicken flavour here in Australia. They invariably come from small producers and are sold by old-fashioned butchers.

Because I like flavour, I buy chicken on the bone and with the skin on (unless doing an Asian stir fry). Here's a thigh from a local butcher. He gets his chickens delivered on Tuesdays and cuts them up for sale. One of my favourite pieces is this thigh, which he calls a chicken chop.

It's simply brushed with olive oil and dusted with salt and chilli. The organic corn (organic because I suspect that most non-organic corn in Australia is genetically modified) is roasted and mixed with lime juice, coriander and a drizzle of maple syrup.

The orange capsicums are sweated with onion, smoked paprika and turmeric in olive oil. I then add a little chicken stock and purée smooth. It's delicious with chicken, fish and pork.

So there it is - vaguely Mexican. And full of flavour.

GRILLED CHICKEN WITH SMOKED ORANGE CAPSICUM SAUCE AND CORN SALSA

CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH ROASTED TWEED VALLEY PECANS

I don't know about you, but I sometimes just crave a soup. Even in summer, when gazpacho is a favourite. So here's a cauliflower soup that I do now and then. The recipe varies according to my mood - which varies according to my emotional recipe.

This one is based on home made chicken stock. The cauliflower is slowly roasted to deepen the flavour. Then the two are introduced and blended with a little salt, pepper and nutmeg. I sometimes roast hazelnuts and drizzle hazelnut oil on top. This time I stirred in a little roast garlic infused olive oil and sprinkled some roasted local pecans.

CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH ROASTED TWEED VALLEY PECANS