As much as I love asparagus and can’t wait for those heads to pop out of the ground almost teasingly as they seem to come up in relays; never enough for a full serve each night so much so, that we often eat them raw as we break them off in our impatience! So sweet without any cooking at all but I can’t wait till the whole bed comes into full production all at the same time. Read the rest...
A quick trip to New Zealand to do some special occasions for Miele. Miele have always supported the Foundation and I love working with them! Read the rest...
We arrived back from N.Z. just before midnight to our bed in the Barossa knowing I had to be up at the crack of dawn to film with Curtis Stone and his head chef Chris Flint from Maude in Los Angeles. Read the rest...
Still lots of travelling and so many exciting things; none more than the visit to Yerrabingin (We Walk Together) Australia’s first Indigenous rooftop farm. Even though I was looking a little like the wreck of the Hesperus the morning I visited Clarence (Slockee) and Christian (Hampson) as suffering from a migraine that day, nothing could have taken the joy of the visit away. Read the rest...
I am so proud of my friend Simon Bryant and what he has achieved with Tasting Australia. Not only does the city come alive but there are so many regions of South Australia having wonderful events. Mine was to be part of Peter Clark of Vintner's lunch at Coffin Bay; a request I jumped at truly loving the area with the richness of its seafood and its fishermen. What I didn't allow for though was the weather the night before the lunch. The wind was so strong there was no visibility from dust storms all the way to the airport; checking 'willyweather' there were gale force winds expected at Port Lincoln and the flight is serviced by what I consider a small plane. For the first time in my life I was too scared to fly and instead leaned on my friend Peter Clark telling him that I was turning around and would fly in the morning and to the big question to him 'could he manage' he calmly said - not to worry Maggie we will make it work...and he and his team did exactly that; as Simon said 'Peter would always have your back'....Luckily I had already poached the baby octopus I was going to serve as the precursor to finishing on charcoal on the day (as you see from the photo - the leftovers after service...) I had the octopus and verjuice and vino cotto packed with me but as I had Brendon from Prestige Oysters there opening 25 dozen oysters between just 50 people; I had sashimi of ocean jacket and Hiramasa kingfish organised to be cut a la minute to be served with umeboshi (Japanese salty sour plum) evoo, vino cotto and spring onion. So it was a pretty easy thing for me really but Peter made it even easier by carving my sashimi so that when I arrived on the coach as it happened with the 50 guests I sprang into action whilst they sipped on some very special Bollinger as Guy de Rivoire of Bollinger was hosting with us. I pulled a few things together and tossed the baby octopus from Port Lincoln onto the charcoal and savoured this beautiful spot with not a whisper of the terrible weather the day before. I should say that the ocean jacket caught at Port Lincoln by the Braby family was my first ever taste of this and every morsel was fantastic from the sashimi to the fish on the barbecue to the amazing flavour of the liver Peter put into his sauce.... Read the rest...
Looking for delicious recipe inspiration? Sign up to the Food Club and receive weekly seasonal recipes delivered to your inbox