Last time we visited the Mornington Peninsula we promised ourselves we would return to eat at Green Olive. On Sunday it was time to make good.

We were greeted by one of the resident kelpies who stretched out waiting for a tummy rub then fetched a chunk of stick for a game. This is a working dog, I believe, whose duties include keeping an eye on the hens free ranging round the property.

It was definitely worth the visit. Their fare includes a number of farm-to-fork tasting plates featuring their own produce such as lamb meatballs, lamb sausages, trio of cold cured lamb  including lambchetta and salt-cured lamb backstrap.

Their beautiful olives are served in various permutations and there are some fine dishes from their herb and vegetable gardens featuring beetroot, pumpkin, tomatoes and salads plus some lovely chutneys and relishes on the side.

Fine cheeses from their neighbour’s farm and Green Olive’s own Kelpie Bridge wines marry well with the dishes.

The rhubarb patch at the door was looking mighty healthy in the late autumn light and there was rhubarb tart on the dessert menu.

I’d already stocked my larder with their olive oils both plain and infused and have made plenty of chutney and relish lately, but I couldn’t leave without a dozen of their chooks’ eggs.

We could see a lot of work had been done in the garden since our last visit in March and this is an interesting place to spend a couple of hours. For the more adventurous there was even a vineyard horse trek.

On the return journey to Melbourne, we decided to check out the action at the Red Hill Baker’s Balnarring shop. Every Sunday afternoon from 1-4 baker Ray Johns and his ensemble get together for a jazz session. When we arrived the five musicians were in full flight, inspired by “arrangements by Sauvignon Blanc”, he quipped.

The place was packed with people lining up for soup and savoury fare, coffee and cake, a wine or two and some hot jazz. If you’re ever there, request the band’s take on that glorious Woody Herman hit, The Golden Wedding. It was an amazing performance, particularly the licorice stick solo.

I got my camera out and started clicking and as soon as the musos broke for  inspirational “arrangements”, the clarinet player Denis Ball made a beeline for our table with a bag and said “Wait till you see what I have here.” He pulled out a brand new Nikon D800E and asked me if I would mind taking a few photos of them in action.

I am still trying to master my Canon EOS 50D but figured as long as his recently acquired dream camera was in “point, focus and click” mode, I could probably cope. I shuttled between the two using mine for the close-ups, and so ended my first (and probably only) gig as photographer for a band.

And the cakes were pretty good, too. For a trumpet player, Ray Johns is quite a baker…

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I love weekend jaunts in the Victorian countryside, even if only for a few hours. Sometimes our destination is a complete surprise because we don’t have a set journey in mind. That way we never have to admit to getting lost on our way somewhere else!

With The Sister in town for a couple of weeks, however, we needed set destinations so we could do important things like make lunch bookings.

Autumn is a beautiful time to explore Victoria. The grapes have been harvested and pale yellow leaves were still holding on to the vines, providing splashes of colour in the misty rain. Round the small townships, bolder displays of autumn leaves had everyone out with their cameras.

Our Saturday plan was lunch at Alla Wolf-Tasker’s beautiful Lake House restaurant at Daylesford and after a short tour round the township and a little beyond, we settled in at our windowside table with a grandstand view of the tall trees beyond the deck showing off their late autumn colours.

While I have been guilty of photographing the food I eat, this wasn’t the time or place

When presented with a menu full of  “pick me!” dishes, we decided  the best policy was to by-pass the angst of choosing, and head straight for the tasting menu – eight dishes very representative of the main offerings. Out of sympathy for The Spouse who was our designated driver, instead of going for all the matched wines, we put our trust in the waiter who suggested sampling three wines that would see us happily through the dishes.

While I have been guilty of photographing the food I eat, this wasn’t the time or place. More so, because the Ricoh Caplio camera that has spent  at least five years travelling around in my handbag, finally died and my bulky SLR is anything but discreet.

The Sister was keen to have a copy of our little menu so she could return to New Zealand and gloat about the experience so here is what we ate. Readers will just have to imagine the exquisite presentation for each dish.

Sashimi mackerel, slow cooked octopus, fennel, smoky paprika
Scallops, chicken, corn, Bois Boudran
Smoked Skipton eel, Istra pancetta, heirloom beets
Butter poached pheasant, sausage, chestnuts, choucroute
Rabbit – cassoulet, loin and cottechino salad
12 Hour suckling pig, blood pudding, trotter
Quince, honey, hazelnut
Coffee and sweet indulgences from the bon bon trolley

Extras included sunny muffin-shaped cornbread presented in little bowls, luscious warm olives and fried quail’s egg on a slice of brioche.

I was pleased to have an opportunity to study the menu at my leisure because executive chef Alla Wolf-Tasker has gone to great pains to acknowledge the provenance of the locally sourced produce used in her kitchen. In fact, many of the suppliers to this Good Food Guide two-hat restaurant are prize-winners in their own right.

After lunch I had another mission. I recently discovered that my paternal gg-grandfather’s twin brother, Thomas Graham emigrated from Paisley, Scotland in 1855 to nearby Eganstown and in fact ran a pub there, the Glasgow Arms Hotel. After his death in 1907 it appears his daughter Margaret Mayson continued as the hotel and store-keeper. She died in 1914 and her son Arthur later had the hotel pulled down and the materials were auctioned off in 1917. This was war time and building materials were in sort supply.

We decided to head to Eganstown and look for the cemetery as, thanks to research done by a new-found cousin in Melbourne, I had a map of the graveyard.

First time round we missed the broken sign with its faint lettering pointing off the main road down a track into the bush. We found the Catholic cemetery but I was positive my Presbyterian Scottish forebears wouldn’t be found there.

Fortunately, in spite of dubious navigation skills, we persisted. In dimming light and misty rain we eventually came upon the sign that led us to the little burial ground deep   bush.

We visit our great great grand uncle Thomas Graham, laid to rest here in Eganstown more than a century ago. The family’s unmarked graves are in the foreground.

Unfortunately the graves I was seeking mainly had no headstones but at least I now know where my adventuring 3xgreat uncle, lured to Australia by the gold rush, no doubt, is laid to rest.

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Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula is one of our favourite destinations, particularly if we want to take visiting friends for a drive and a vineyard lunch. Recently we lingered there a bit longer enjoying a dinner, bed and breakfast voucher The Spouse received as a gift.

Our base was Lindenderry at Red Hill, an attractive hotel in a vineyard and garden setting.  We were soon relaxing over afternoon tea in one of the several comfortable lounges, admiring the surrounding trees.

The hotel is a popular conference and wedding venue and we ambled through the gardens before sitting in one of the outdoor courtyards for a late afternoon ale.

At dinner, we had a chance to taste the various Lindenderry wines before selecting one to have with our meal. The menu is driven by local produce such as goat cheese, Flinders mussels, fish, beef. And it includes vegetarian choices.

I was elected officer in charge of activities for the next day. I picked up a copy of the Mornington Peninsula Gourmet Guide from the front desk and thanks to a comprehensive list of growers, producers and provedores and a numbered map, I soon had a plan of attack.

At our first stop we chose some wines and cheeses from an excellent range of local products at the nearby Cellar and Pantry store.

Further down the road was Montalto Vineyard. I’ve visited here before and was keen to buy more of their verjuice.  They have an excellent one for cooking and another, Verj, for drinking over ice or with soda. Great on a hot day and alcohol-free.

Montalto is also home to a one-hat restaurant plus a café. But there’s more. The property is dotted with amazing sculptures. On show until the end of April are the finalists in Montalto’s sculpture prize. There’s also a lush vegetable garden on-site.

Green Olive was my next choice. A couple of years ago one of the sons gave me a hamper containing their olives and oils and I wanted some more of both. Here they grow olives, grapes, vegetables and herbs, and raise chooks, sheep and fish. They have farm-to-fork grazing plates available all day along with Kelpie Bridge wines. We sampled their oils and olives and came away with plenty of both plus a dozen of the lovely chook eggs. We plan to lunch there next trip.

Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm is Australia’s largest strawberry producer and there were plenty of takers eager to pick their own. They have a well-stocked shop featuring farm gate produce, fresh berries and local gourmet produce, and a cellar door. I bought raspberries and deliciously sweet small strawberries along with some raspberry and strawberry ciders.

By now we’d worked up an appetite and fellow food bloggers had recommended we stop off at Red Hill Brewery and Eatery for lunch. This is set in the bush and the brewery grows its own hops for its range of beers. We sipped a cool one over a generous ploughman’s platter and bought a selection of beers to take home.

A bit more sightseeing and it was on to the Red Hill Baker. We’d visited here previously on a very chilly Sunday when a sign advertising live jazz coaxed us to enter. While the jazz sessions have now moved to their larger Balnarring premises, the baking continues so we went for some carrot cake and coffee before heading home.

This is only a small taste of what the peninsula has to offer but we had to leave some for another day.

Join us as we wander round the gardens of Red Hill – first Lindenderry, then the shop and herb garden at Green Olive, the hop patch at Red Hill Brewery and the kitchen garden and sculptures at Montalto.

• If you’re visiting Victoria, check out http://www.visitvictoria.com/ where you’ll find plenty of information on current attractions, smart phone and iPad apps, route planners, videos, how to get there, where to stay, where to eat – and more.

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New year, new menu, new head chef. It’s all happening at Raymond Capaldi’s Hare and Grace.

Last year we bought one of their dinner vouchers at a charity auction and it was time to collect the goods.

We’ve eaten Capaldi’s fare at several venues round Melbourne – perhaps one of the most memorable was a Melbourne Food and Wine Festival dinner on the 89th floor of Eureka Tower where the chef double-billed with Noma’s Rene Redzepi for a dinner that blew our socks off.

This is a very attractive space at 525 Collins Street, nestled under the Rialto Towers on the corner of King Street. It’s modestly labelled “Eatery and Minibar” and is accessed via a courtyard with a barbecue that is stoked up during the day. Indoors are the bar and an uncluttered dining room, simply decorated and with small branches suspended from the ceiling that cast their arty shadows on the walls.

The new head chef is Adam Liston, an Adelaide boy made good who has spent recent years in Shanghai.

It was great to hear the staff enthusing about the new menu as they took our drinks order and poured the water. They’d all done their homework and happily explained items on the menu and specials list as we embarked on the difficult business of choosing.

Capaldi is a master of the molecular that means what you think you are seeing might be something altogether different. The main menu features five composites or starters, five principals and five wagyu and black angus numbers from the charcoal grill.

While the list may not be long, it still took a while to choose because it all sounded like fun. How many times have you received a dish that looked great on paper but was an absolute disappointment? This was no occasion of plate envy – we were delighted with our selections.

But first we had to forage for our food and do a spot of digging for the baby vegetables presented in small clay plant pots, complete with edible soil. A nice touch to start with.

The sourdough bread came with a quenelle of butter served on a bluestone slab, a nod to the fact that the old York Butter Factory was once housed in the heritage bluestone building.

Then came the first of our wise choices. Mine was the dish of yabbies served in a little jasmine tea with aloe vera, lychee and thin disks of crisp apple garnished with miniature snapdragon flowers and tiny chenopodium shoots.

The Spouse had the smoked quail with sage cream, wild brambles and undergrowth – more floral touches, peppery nasturtium leaves and little blackberries.

The pressed pork dish, we learned, featured layers of pre-cooked pork belly interspersed with black pudding and topped with the crackling. Pork belly can be turned into a masterpiece or a fatty disaster depending on how it is treated. This dish was a triumph. It was served with preserved plum, dehydrated tubers and a little puddle of jus.

My lacquered blue groper had been burnished with coffee and honey and was served with an artful display of greens and walnut mayo. The fish was perfectly cooked, separating into moist fat flakes.

From an inviting list of side dishes we chose the roasted sprouting broccoli which was garnished with grated anchovies, crumbs and a touch of sieved egg.

We savoured every mouthful. The food was fresh, light and a pleasure to look at as well as eat.

Of course there was room for dessert! Silly question.

My choice might not sound like a dessert, but believe me it tasted amazing. The list read parsley ice cream, blackberry, beetroot, coconut ice, fried shallots. The cubes of beetroot jelly, the berries and the sweet shallots along with the snowy coconut and the bright green ice cream plus the floral garnish all worked well together.

Across the table it was braised banana, juniper, lime, coffee and violets.

One thing is for certain. We’re planning on going back. The bar has a great menu ranging from little shared dishes through to more substantial offerings. Sandwiches are available from noon to 3pm.

This is a Monday-Friday venue, closed weekends and public holidays.

Visit Hare & Grace’s website to download current menus.

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High teas are gaining in popularity these days as an increasing number of establishments encourage us to experience some of the social niceties of earlier times. There’s even a website to help you find your way to one of Australia’s high tea destinations.

Last weekend we joined a group of friends for a leisurely V/Line trip into the Victorian countryside to Ballarat for high tea at Craig’s Royal Hotel.

The original hotel was opened in 1853 and over the years it has hosted a string of famous guests including Lord Kitchener, Sir Donald Bradman, Mark Twain, Queen Victoria’s second son Prince Alfred and a number of other dukes and duchesses and that grand Dame, Nellie Melba who sang from the reading room balcony.

Over the years Craig’s has been added to and renovated and last year it re-opened after owners John and Mary Finning undertook an extensive multi-million-dollar restoration that has turned it into one of the handsomest hotels around.

It’s a pleasant 1 hour 20 train journey from Southern Cross Station in Melbourne to Ballarat, with plenty of rural vistas to enjoy along the way. The hotel is then a leisurely stroll along the street from the station.

High tea is held in a magnificent dining room with high ceilings, decorated with intricate plaster work and velvet swags and it was very pleasant sitting in balloon-backed chairs at a white-clothed table enjoying the elegant surroundings and sipping on a glass of bubbly.

Then the pieces de resistance – triple-deck cake stands loaded with calories – were placed on our table.

Executive chef Philippe Desrettes’ menu comprised:

Sandwiches: Smoked salmon, cucumber, dill and caper; shaved leg ham and cheese; curried eggs, cos lettuce and herbs,
Savouries: Asparagus and cherry tomato quiche; wild boar and vegetable pithivier.
Scones: House-made scones with cream and organic jams
Petits fours: Lemon meringue tartlets; chocolate hazelnut truffles; orange and poppyseed friands; chocolate and griottes tartlets; strawberry and pistachio tartlets; Turkish delight; chocolate and hazelnut brownies.

A variety of teas and plunger coffee were available.

Needless to say, there was no room for dinner that night.

At present there’s an opportunity to have a look around the hotel following high tea.

There has been a stunning attention to detail in the restoration including specially made wallpapers that reflect the building’s heritage, antique furniture and modern bathrooms that still manage to remain in sympathy with the overall feel of stepping back to another century. One four poster bed was acquired complete with its horsehair mattress – since replaced!

I believe the hotel offers a variety of accommodation packages that include dinner.

Here’s a gallery of some of the highlights of our afternoon – food and architectural.

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I am suffering from heavy metal fatigue. I guess it’s one of those things you have to tolerate as you put another birthday behind you. I am not as strong as I once was.

Back in the days when my eldest was in his early teens, we’d engage in a bit of wrist wrestling.  He was a talented cricketer and hockey player but his developing muscles were puny compared with mine. I’d always win. Then one day he almost beat me so I wisely quit while at my peak. These days my cat is probably stronger than I am.

Unfortunately my diminishing strength is taking its toll in the kitchen.  Some of my favourite equipment is getting a little beyond my grasp.

I love my Le Creuset ware but when I have to bend over to lift a full cast iron casserole in and out of the oven, it suddenly weighs a tonne.

Six years ago I was offered the chance to test-drive something from the Jamie Oliver cookware range. I opted for a frying pan because I wanted one with an ovenproof handle so I could cook dishes that went from stove top to oven – duck breasts, frittata, salmon.

It’s been a brilliant pan and I use it at least once a week. In fact I bought a deeper lidded sauté pan from the range a couple of years back and it’s also in regular use for curries and the like. I just wish they were a little lighter. One-handed operations like tipping the finished dish into a serving bowl while keeping the flow under control with a spoon certainly test my strength. I wonder if Jamie O’s gran could use his pans?

My mother once owned a vintage speckled green enamelled cast iron frying pan. She used it for cooking chips – in beef dripping, of course – and for frying eggs and bacon, cooking sausages and turning perfectly good steak into boot leather. It was supplanted by a new-fangled electric frypan, but that was a messy beast to clean with its “do not immerse in water” caveat.

Along the way the vintage  pan was jettisoned. Maybe it got too heavy for her. In latter years she had a pretty rumpty collection of lightweight (in more sense than one) frypans. When I visited, I had to turn them over and stand on them to level the bases for her. She wouldn’t part with them because they were “well-seasoned” which meant grease would ooze out of their pores when the pans were heated. I still marvel that she never had a cholesterol problem.

I am now on the lookout for a decent lightweight frying pan, if there is such a beast.  I tried using my pre-JO pan for poaching eggs yesterday but when three out of the four stuck to the pan, The Spouse decided it no longer deserved space in the pot cupboard. It went into the bin – where last week he’d put the muffin pans that had lost their “non-stick” property.

“You don’t have to keep these things forever,” he said.

Nope – they’re definitely not built to last.

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More than two million children are affected by the food crisis in East Africa and a child is dying there every six minutes. So what are we going to do about it?

Most of us here don’t have the worry of wondering where our next meal is coming from – or if indeed there will be a next meal. We enjoy the luxury of being able to dine out. Not only that, but many of the places where we dine often serve us complimentary bread as we sip our first drink. So – would you be prepared to pay a couple of dollars for that bread?

At this week’s launch of The Age Good Food Guide, Melbourne’s award winning newspaper joined UNICEF in also launching the Bread for Good project.  The campaign is seeking support from restaurateurs to register their establishments and encourage diners to donate $2 or more when ordering bread. Participating restaurants will submit their patrons’ donations to help save those precious young lives.

Help a child

Every $2 collected will help UNICEF provide enough therapeutic food to keep a child alive for a day. With this therapeutic feeding, a child can fully recuperate in a matter of four to six weeks.

Restaurants can register here  right now and the campaign will kick off on September 16.

The initiative will also be supported by The Sydney Morning Herald which launches its own Good Food Guide next week.

We can help. Let’s support our restaurants and chefs in making a difference!

Follow the campaign on Twitter and Facebook

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A TG Green dripping pot, complete with lid.

Low glycemic index, glycemic load, trans fats, saturated fats, LDL cholesterol – the good, the bad and the ugly of 21^st century diets.

Michael Pollan once advised, “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food.”

My English, Irish and Scottish great-grannies probably wouldn’t recognise some of the items that come home from the market in my trolley, but most of it  falls under the fairly safe category. I do believe in cooking most meals from scratch rather than from packets bearing a list of ingredients that looks like a chemistry lab inventory.

However, there were some things in my childhood diet that would have today’s food police shuddering.

When I was a child every household I knew had a dripping tin. Some used any receptacle suitable for the job. Others had a purpose-made container, often labelled “Dripping”. They might be made from aluminium or enamel or come from a ceramics factory such as TG Green. Some had a strainer top for separating out the lumpier bits from the roasting pan, and a lid to keep out foreign bodies. If they didn’t have lids, they would sometimes be covered with circles of plastic cloth with elasticised edges. Dripping was saved from one roast for the next.

A Szeilerpot dripping container with treacle glaze

There was usually a good yield. Joints of meat in those days were notably fattier than today’s. No lean little lamb legs or carefully trimmed beef. Hogget and mutton were common fare, beef was valued for its tasty dripping and there was all that creamy suet that surrounded beef and sheep kidneys.

But in addition to the fat that came on the fresh joint, the fat and residue from earlier roasts was pulled out and spread over the meat. A bit like a master stock. Maybe it was our Western umami hit. And, oh, wasn’t it grand for Yorkie puds!

It wasn’t just used for cooking. Dad and I were the bread and dripping fiends in our house. He would carve a couple of doorsteps off the loaf of white bread then plunge a knife into the dripping tin, through the paler firmer layer from the last roast down to the dark brown sediment then the jelly at the bottom. These would be slathered on the bread along with some of the softer fat. Some salt and a good shake of pepper and we’d beam conspiratorially at one another and smack our lips.

A Price Kensington pot

Americans were less poetic about their roasting residue – they called it “grease”. For me, that doesn’t conjure up visions of something delicious.

At boarding school we often got bread and dripping for an after school snack. It was almost as popular as the minced corned beef, onion and tomato sauce sandwiches.

The strange thing these days is that most roasts I cook barely produce enough fat for making the gravy, let alone be saved for later use.

Bread and dripping has given way to dietary correctness. Even butter is something I rarely eat, except when it is presented with dinner rolls at a restaurant. And there are some delicious artisanal butters out there. Of course, as we all know, butter served in restaurants has no calories.

These days the milk I use rarely has any fat in it, I buy cream only about twice a year, cholesterol-containing offal is off the menu and I don’t overdo the eggs. I am the one on statins while my mother, who didn’t give up any of the above, never had a cholesterol problem in her life.

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I often cheat in the kitchen. Life is, after all, supposedly too short to stuff a mushroom. I’ve survived long enough to stuff my share of mushrooms and sometimes it’s good not to be too impatient to get a meal on the table. While I have a cheat’s version of Boeuf Bourguignon which involves a number of shortcuts, last weekend I decided to take the time to make Julia Child’s recipe for this classic dish. I made it for my wedding and, having just celebrated another anniversary, it was time to go back to the original dish.

We had the family round for a meal and they are always an appreciative audience so it was worth the effort.

A few weeks back I made a big batch of beef stock so I had some in the freezer ready for the challenge. When I went to gather the ingredients for the dish my shopping list was a good deal shorter than the recipe.

Making this gloriously deep flavoured stew reminded me of my early days in the kitchen when Julia Child held my hand as I tackled what looked like challenging dishes. MasterChef contestants were recently tested on their recipe-writing skills. They would do well to study Child’s recipe writing in depth. The recipes may look long, but they are very explicit and don’t leave the cook wondering about ambiguous directions. Again, it’s worth a reminder that one should read the recipe from beginning to end. I took the rind off the bacon and, having blanched it, wondered what to do with it next. But of course it reassuringly turned up a page later. I was pleased I hadn’t discarded it.

Julia Child certainly knew her onions and the recipe worked brilliantly. I noticed the son who cleared the dishes at the end of the evening, justifiably claimed the leftovers to take home.

I certainly recommend starting the dish a day ahead, not because it’s unduly complicated but merely because stews developed their flavour when made ahead.

In her preamble to the recipe, Julia Child notes, “As is the case with most famous dishes, there are more ways than one to arrive at a good boeuf bourguignon. Carefully done, and perfectly flavoured, it is certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man, and can well be the main course for a buffet dinner. Fortunately you can prepare it completely ahead, even a day in advance, and it only gains in flavour when reheated

She says boiled potatoes are traditionally served with this dish. Buttered noodles or steamed rice may be substituted. If you also wish a green vegetable, buttered peas would be your best choice. Serve with the beef a fairly full-bodied, young red wine, such as Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone, Bourdeaux-St. Emilion or Burgundy.

The dish's components were cooked the previous day. The onions and mushrooms are now added prior to reheating for service. My rather battered version of the book is 30 years old.

Boeuf Bourguignon
Beef stew in red wine with bacon, onions and mushroom
For 6 people

1 6-ounce chunk of streaky bacon

Remove rind and cut bacon into lardons (sticks, 1/4-inch thick and 1 1/2-inches long). Simmer rind and bacon for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts of water. Drain and dry.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

1 9-10 inch fireproof casserole 3 inches deep
1 tablespoon olive oil or cooking oil
1 slotted spoon

Sauté the bacon in the oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you sauté the beef.

3 pounds lean stewing beef cut into 2-inch cubes

Dry the beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Sauté it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.

1 sliced carrot
1 sliced onion

In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the sautéing fat.

1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons flour

Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set casserole uncovered in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.) Remove casserole and turn oven down to 325 degrees.

3 cups of a full-bodied young red wine such as one of those suggested for serving or a Chianti
2-3 cups brown beef stock or canned beef bouillon
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic
1/2 teaspoon thyme
a crumbled bay leaf
the blanched bacon rind

Stir in the wine and enough stock or bouillon so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs and bacon rind. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms (see recipes below).. Set them aside until needed.

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms over the meat.

Skim fat off the sauce. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock or canned bouillon. Taste carefully for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables.

(*) Recipe may be completed in advance to this point.

For immediate serving
Cover the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. Serve in its casserole, or arrange the stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles or rice, and decorated with parsley.

For later serving
When cold, cover and refrigerate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, bring to the simmer, cover and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes, occasionally basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce.

Oignons Glacés à Brun

18 to 24 peeled onions about 1 inch in diameter
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon oil
1 9-10 inch enamelled skillet

When the butter and oil are bubbling in the skillet, add the onions and saute over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling the onions about so they will brown as evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. You cannot expect to brown them uniformly.

Brown-braise them as follows:

1/4 cup brown stock, canned beef bouillon, dry white wine, or water
salt and pepper to taste
a small herb bouquet: 2 parsley sprigs, 1/2 teaspoon thyme,and half bay leaf tied in cheesecloth

Pour in the liquid, season to taste and add the herb bouquet. Cover and simmer slowly for 40-50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but retain their shape and the liquid has evaporated. Remove the herb bouquet.
The onions may be cooked in advance and reheated before serving,

Mushrooms sautéed with shallots, garlic and herbs

1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, whole if small, quartered if large
1 dessertspoon oil
1 oz butter

Sauté the mushrooms in oil and butter until lightly browned

3 tablespoons chopped shallots or spring onions
optional: 1 small clove garlic
3 tablespoons fine white breadcrumbs

Stir in the shallots or spring onions, optional garlic, and breadcrumbs, and toss over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes.

Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, chervil, chives and tarragon, or parsley only

Just before serving, season to taste and toss with the herbs.

From Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1 by Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle and Julia Child. © Alfred A Knopf, Inc

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Cecil Street in South Melbourne was a-buzz last Thursday night as food bloggers, media and diners descended on South Melbourne Market to cruise the recently opened restaurant strip.

With the latest addition due to officially open in days, the precinct now offers diners a choice of Chinese, Spanish, Turkish and Italian cuisines, seafood and street food.

Food, wine, beer and music - last Thursday night at South Melbourne's Cecil Street restaurants

I’m personally delighted with the development as it’s just a gentle block’s stroll from home and I’ve already beaten a path there since the newer restaurants opened their doors late last year.

On Thursday it was a smorgasbord as we went from restaurant to restaurant sampling standards, special and signature dishes.

Linx food for starters

We kicked off at the market’s LG Kitchen Cooking School with the first beverages of the night and some dishes from Linx BBQ and Yum Cha. It’s run by Ngoc Linh Chau, a Vietnamese boatperson who arrived in Australia at 20 with nothing to her name. She now runs eight restaurants. At Linx, her chef Sunny Chen, another boatperson, served up a range of Chinese food – Peking duck, pork buns, BBQ pork and other dishes. The restaurant has been a market favourite for some time and there are always people tucking in or waiting for their takeaways when I go past. I often stop to admire the burnished cooked ducks hanging in the window. I think they are trying to lure me inside yet again.

Dinner music

Next door we were serenaded by an enthusiastic trio at Simply Spanish while we tried chorizo, heavenly battered prawns and a more-ish Spanish rose. Leno Lattarulo’s large paella pan has been a familiar sight on the Cecil Street pavement for some time and was delivering a tempting seafood paella.

Tapas aplenty in the new Simply Spanish bar

The newly finished bar at Simply Spanish

We’ve often stopped by for sangria and tapas and took the opportunity to preview the latest addition to the premises – a bar for those wanting maybe just a drink and one or two tapas. It’s a smart, sophisticated little area with a chiller cabinet filled with tempting dishes.

The chef at Koy was kept busy all night

The Koy food kept coming - and coming...

Ever since Alan Aksoyoglu and Robert Ricks opened Koy late last year, we’ve been regular customers at this Turkish restaurant. I think we’ve probably tasted every dish on the menu, often leaving it to manager Brett to recommend what’s best or what’s new. This time we had suçuk (grilled meatballs) and manti which are like a Turkish ravioli.

On the street food side, Chidam was cooking up her gözleme. These are flat breads folded envelope-style round a filling and grilled both sides on the barbecue, My favourite is the mince filling and I’m actually sitting here right now wishing I had a wedge of the tasty fare.

Koy's Robert Ricks, in the pink shirt, clearing tables

Koy was really rocking and it’s great to see their village-style food reaching a wider audience.

Oliver Buenaventura might be Philippine-born, but he has a flair for family-style Italian cuisine. The Italian Brasserie was looking smart with red and white check tablecloths and Nonna-style curtains at the side windows, softening what was earlier an almost clinical décor.

The Italian Brasserie's Oliver Buenaventura

The food was a little slow in coming. However, when it arrived the calamari was tender, the chilli mussels nicely warming and the bruschetta tasty. We’ve brunched there a couple of times so it was a good opportunity to sample from the wider traditional Italian menu. Oliver’s street food varies. Currently there are two soups on offer.

Claypots Evening Star - still a few details to attend to before food service begins

Renan Goksin’s Claypots Evening Star has been a long time in the making. It was originally due to open last year but various hitches held things up. In fact when I checked it out a few days earlier, it was still very much a building site. But suddenly, there it was, a stylish bar complete with piano, clever lighting, and chiller cabinets waiting for the food to arrive. Diners will sit communal style along the bar on fairly high (for shorties like me) stools with super cool barramundi-skin seat coverings. And 10 out of 10 for the handbag hooks under the bar!

But the drinks are already cooling...

The restaurant won’t open for a few days till everything is completed and working. The gas has just been hooked up and the pilot lights were running to ensure the gas flow is constant. Renan invited me to fire up one of the burners as a sort symbolic ribbon-cutting. There will be seafood, daily specials and mezze dishes. Take-away and finish-at-home food will also be offered and the on-street cooking will feature chilli crab. My local food blogging friends are already organising a gathering there once the food starts coming off the grills.

Of course the beauty of the whole restaurant precinct is food will be sourced from the market itself. Reassuring to have such fresh produce and other provisions available a few metres away.

Getting there – three trams service the area. The 96 stops at the rear of the market, 112 goes through Clarendon Street a block in the other direction, stopping at York and Dorcas streets. The 1 stops on the corner of Park and Cecil. Melways 1C Ref E11. There is ample parking at the market.

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