I love hot smoking. Quick, effective, and a tonne of fun. These little chicken wings, deboned then brined, only took 5 minutes before they were finished off in the deep fryer. Smoking is a brilliant technique to practice, as the flavour it grants your subject transforms it from the routine and expected taste normally experienced to the rich and strangely familiar taste of F L A V O U R E D  S M O K E. These chicken wings were hot smoked from a base that consisted of  oolong tea leaves, dried shiitake mushrooms and basmati rice.

Hot Smoked Chicken Wings w Tomato Salad

Some people may be quite incredulous to the fact that tearing apart animals and eating their flesh is quite enjoyable. For me, it ranks right up there with the same level of satisfaction you get after polishing off an entire peking duck or 3 dozen oysters. Or 20 McNuggets. Crustaceans scamper around the Earth’s seabeds withholding from human kind some of the most precious and addictive meat known to exist. I find simplicity serves these fellas best. Steamed or intelligibly tossed in a wok with some chilli jam, the less you do with these creatures the more you get out of them. At the other end of the seafood monarchy we find the sardine. Sometimes dismissed as bait and not even good enough, in the eyes of this particular fishmonger, for prime real estate behind the glass display cabinet but instead piled up in a blue container on the floor like an open casket at an empty funeral. They may be small and cheap, but that’s not a good enough reason to discriminate against the sardine, it’s funny but still no reason why you shouldn’t be chowing down on these little pilchards. BBQ a couple and thank me later, after all how could you not like a fish that was named after a Mediterranean island?

Blue Swimmers w Chilli Jam

Steamed Blue Swimmers w Rouille

School Prawns fried in Spiced Tea Butter w Pork Belly Toasts

BBQ’d  Marinated Sardines w Tomato and Parsley

BBQ’d Celery and Watercress Salad

Bloody hell, summer is nearly over. Better fire up the BBQ and make the most of the primo conditions. Portuguese style BBQ’d chooks are a crowd pleaser, and it’s not bloody hard to see why. Crisp, charcoaled skin smothered in piri piri hides a lucious white flesh that would make any cow ‘mooooo’.  BBQing isn’t all about the meat, veg love the hot action too. Zucchinis and scallions, rubbed with a little olive oil and salt, take to the grills heat like  butter on bread….magic. Speaking of bread….sopping up the chicken juice and piri piri with a focaccia laden with mascarpone was one of the most deliciously satisfying moments I’ve had all summer.

BBQ’d Piri Piri Chicken

Green Beans and Watercress w Ranch

BBQ’d Zucchini and Scallion Salad w Onion and Parsley Dressing

Mascarpone and Scallion Focaccia

Our mate Joel (ripper of a dude) is having a little crisis. Recently he has become incredibly cautious as to what food groups compose his diet, which I found a little disturbing. My fears were only magnified when he told us the meat group had been put on hiatus. Shocking. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy a meal that is void of meat, but why would you bother to put yourself through such an awful regime for days/weeks on end. If you enjoy something, then enjoy it more. Joel, I hope you enjoyed that skirt you bloody legend, cos there’s plenty more where that came from champ.

Beef Skirt marinated in Soy, Mirin, Marjoram, Sage, Oregano, Garlic

Button Mushrooms, Apple and Kiwi Cream, Fresh Mint

Burrata, Ox Heart Tomatoes, Strawberries, Purple Cress

Baby Cos, Egg Scallion Dressing, Croutons

Roast Squash and Mache Salad

Iggy’s Bread w Shiso and Parmesan Butter

Sydney’s weather throughout the summer has been more imbalanced than a one-legged vegans diet. However on the off occasion when the sun decides to endure a lengthy stint outdoors, we have opted to follow suit enjoying lunch out on the deck. Strawberries and burrata begin the meal, which is probably my favourite thing to eat right now, topped with a little baby chive and watercress salad. Fresh summer strawberries, macerated a touch, and creamy burrata are a brilliant way to start or end a nice shiny feast. The leftovers from the previous evening were turned into a deserving little dish that would please the socks off any man or beast.

Strawberries, Burrata, Baby Chives and Watercress

Lamp Rump, Confit Baby Onions, White Zucchini, Dashi Jelly, Snow Pea Sprouts

It has been a while since we have hosted a dinner at The Duxford, mainly due to certain members schedules and sheer laziness. Sometimes the meals we enjoy most are the ones we cook for ourselves, for no guests results in minimal stress, less dishes to clean and especially no vegan moon units to worry about. This dinner was enjoyed out on the deck in the cool summer breeze amongst some sterling conversation, which goes hand in hand with the present company. A salad of golden grapes tomatoes, tiny purple grapes, pickled eschallots and snow pea shoots played nice along side the roast lamb rump, cold braised eggplant, asparagus salad and confit baby onion with dried shiso finished with a light dashi gravy.

Roast Lamb Rump, Cold Braised Eggplant, Asparagus Salad, Confit Baby Onion w Dried Shiso, Dashi Gravy

Golden Grape Tomatoes, Tiny Purple Grapes, Pickled Eshallots, Snow Pea Sprouts

Fish soup…..why on earth do we not see enough variations on Australian menus when we are surrounded by the ocean, which is home to some fantastic shellfish and finfish. I find fish soups can swing both ways, where on one hand you can have a strong, luxuriously rich bouillabaisse based demon and on the other, a light, delicate fairy of a consommé. Here is my attempt at the later, which Morgan McGlone (a serious dude) of the Flinders Inn currently has on his menu. I had the privilege of sampling the dish a couple months and could not get the idea out of my head. I love a good bouillabaisse, this is just a variation.

Bouillabaisse Soup w Steamed King Prawn, King Prawn Tartaré and Seared Scallops w Rouille Croutons

I look forward to Christmas leftovers more than opening my presents, maybe even more so than the Christmas lunch itself. I’m not sure if I speak for the majority here, but who doesn’t crave a thick slice of leg ham, smothered with hot english and cranberry jelly,  cuddled between nice bit of bread. This time round I went one step further. I suppose this is like a Christmas Banh Mi……minced turkey and ham, with cranberry jelly and duck liver paté folded through it……leftover prawns with a spicy cocktail sauce, pickled cucumber and carrot, baby spinach and snow pea sprouts. Now if I had to choose between that or opening a chrissy present containing another bloody pair Mossimo underwear……

Christmas Leftover Baguette

I love doing lunch, I love the lunch vibe, I love lunch…..especially in summer. Victor Churchill in Woolahra is probably the finest retail destination in Australia right now. The service, the attention to detail, the atmosphere and the selection of meat, especially beef, will bring tears of joy to your fair eyes with every visit. I picked up a bad ass rib eye,  grain fed and dry aged for 4 weeks on the premises. The 500g of heaven was roasted on a bed of onions with thyme, marjoram and garlic. Supporting the beef was a simple salad of heirloom tomatoes, radishes and brussel sprouts as well as some fries. The beef was smothered with café de paris and devoured on the deck with cold beers in the summer sun.

Roast Rib Eye, Roasting Onions

Heirloom Tomato, Radish, Brussel Sprouts

Fries

I saw Pascal Barbot of L’Astrance do this, so simple yet the visual appeal along with the taste are insane. He made a jelly out of pink grapefruit then wrapped a sheet around a segment. I made the jelly out of creaming soda instead, and sat the little beauty in puddle of gin and grapefruit juice. Bloody summer all over it.

My good mate Dazza, who is head chef at Tetsuya’s, was kind enough to give me some Queensland spanner crab meat. It was amazing. Delicate and sweet white flesh that was so tender it melted at the sight of a  tongue. I did it two ways…..the first was simply pan fried quickly over a high heat, then placed on top of a broccoli heart puree with crispy leeks, dried shiso and puffed rice. Secondly, stirred through some spaghetti with chilli jam which may sound a tad quiffy but it was fantastic. The jam stuck to the spaghetti like glue, which carried the slithers of crab meat along with it.

Queensland Spanner Crab, Broccoli Heart, Crisp Leeks, Dried Shiso and Puffed Rice

Queenland Spanner Crab Spaghetti with Chilli Jam

This meal was largely inspired by the big guy, David Chang. What a dude. Pork buns and fried chicken….without doubt two of the  sexiest things known to mankind. When the night noodle markets took over Hyde Park in October, we fell heads over heels for the chilli jam corn. BBQ’d sweet corn smothered in chilli jam…absolute heaven.

Pork Bun; Pork Belly, Nashi, Cucumber, Scallions, House Hoisin

Fried Chicken Wings

BBQ’d Sweet Corn w Chilli Jam

Braised cabbage of any sort is bloody beautiful. Here the deboned duck had braised savoy and bacon acting as its force meat. The duck was rolled, poached..rested….then pan fried. Silverbeet agro dolce could have been eaten as a dish alone…the same could be said for the salad. White anchovies truly are an amazing product. This dressing was pretty close to a caesar dressing, except better….white anchovie better.

Ballotine of Duck w Savoy Cabbage

Silverbeet Agro Dolce

Iceberg and White Anchiove Cream

Another Lamb inspired dinner thanks to spring time. This time with the rump and sweetbreads. The crostini was a nice little tasty way to start the meal. The sweetness of the eshallot matched the creamy sweetbread and black pudd perfectly, the pickled lombok rounded off an unreal treat. The rumps were roasted on onions and lavender with a splash riesling. The resulting gravy was used to make the sauce with the addition of parsley, tarragon, corchicorns, anchovies and capers. The dark horse of the meal was the iceberg salad. Cherry toms were blizted with sauted red capsicums, chillis and olive oil. Finished with pancetta crumbs….wow, deeeericious. The dessert was inspired by one I had a few weeks before at the Ben Shewry x Mark Best dinner at Marque. His “Violet Crumble” dessert was epic. I’d been fiddling around with this banana soda for a while so I thought it would be a welcome addition to the violet ice cream and honeycomb.

Black Pudding, Lamb Sweetbread, Braised Eshallot Crostini

Roast Lamb Rump, Sauce Verte Au Pain

Truffled Celeriac Remoulade

Iceberg, Tomato and Red Pepper Vinatgrette, Pancetta Crumbs

Greens

Banana Soda, Violet, Honeycomb

It’s always nice to have a group of mates round for a big feed. Even better when you give each of them their own bird to demolish. Roasting spatch is a sinch, then again you can fuck them up pretty good. These little fellas were brined for 3 hours then stuffed with eshallots, olives, smothered in tarragon butter then roasted on a bed of leeks for about 25 minutes at 190c. We recently acquired a deep fryer and have been going fry-crazy. Root veg chips are super tasty and a great snack. The addition of beetroot chips to the iceberg salad added a whole new dimension, and the colour is amazing.  The jerusalem artichokes where sliced in half seasoned with mustard powder then roasted in butter.

Roast Spatchcock

Potato and Cauliflower Salad

Brussel Sprouts, Leeks and Chorizo

Iceberg, Golden Grapes and Beetroot

Roast Jerusalem Artichokes

Spring Lamb, doesn’t get much better than this kids. Juicy, sweet, rose pink meat that would turn any vego on their heads if they would only come to their senses and eat the little baby. And what better pairing to a baby lamb than baby eggplants…joy. Braised these little gems in a soy based stock for 2 hours….perfecto. The roast carrots worked nicely with the orange and chives, the parsnip puree was a very welcome vehicle from the lamb jus. I’m addicted to madeleines…..I could eat them with every meal.  Warm madeleines with the chilled berries and cold silky custard…heaven.

Roast rack of Lamb

Roast Carrots, Orange and Chives

Braised Baby Eggplants

Parsnip PureeMadeleines, Berries, Clotted Cream Custard

I think I can speak for the majority here and say when you hit Golden Century, you order the XO pippies. I used fresh scallops and dried scallops in my XO sauce, along with prawn floss, shrimp paste and dried shrimps. The killer touch to the XO came with a couple teaspoons rendered fat from some roast chorizos….insane. The poached trout and green leaves would have been a nice meal on their own…. but the pippies just elevated this meal to a championship feed.

XO Pippies and Cockles

Poached Rainbow Trout

Green Leaves and Shoots

Boxing Chicken….one of my all time favourite dishes. Think sweet and sour pork, with chicken taking on the role of the pig. It fucking tasty I don’t care what anyone thinks. I had the pleasure to learn this dish from the master that is Uncle Choi, the happy buddha master chef that used to run the kitchen at my Uncle Soo’s restaurant, Choi’s Inn. Probably the best Chinese restaurant ever. The hokkien noodle dish is solid as a rock, and one thats universal the world over.

Boxing Chicken

Ginger and Scallion Hokkien Noodles

Another vego dinner (I despise their views, not their food). The warm four bean salad had to be the highlight. I used to chow down big time on KFCs four bean salad, this was a sort of homage to that little tub beans. All four beans were cooked separately in order to elevate the dish texturally. The green beans blanched, the borlotti braised in chicken stock with a dash of balsamic, broad beans were smashed into a pesto with pistachios and the cannelini were sauted with garlic. Simple and delicious. The Broccolini Casarecce was another dish that I used to love as a kid. Broccoli florets boiled, blitzed, seasoned and stirred through pasta. This version had the florets cooked in cream with the addition of green chillis, then blitzed and tossed through the casarecce. The broccoli heart was pickled quickly in a little salt, then scattered over the top with sauted broccolini. Yum.

Onion and Saffron Risotto

Curried Celeriac Soup

Warm Bean Salad

Broccolini Casarecce

This was a banging winter meal. Roast Duck is one of the easiest birds to roast….far easier than a chicken in my book. The grapes added an incredible deepth of sweetness to the gravy which worked a treat with the duck. This meal was accompanied by some mulled wine produced by  Nicky Van She and his prettier half, Cara. It was sensational…..cold night, mulled wine, good food, great company and a big fat bread and butter pudd to round it all off. Marvellous stuff that.

Roast Duck w Grapes

Fondant Potatoes

White Zucchini, Treviso, Orange and Walnut Salad

Bread and Butter Pudding w Brandy Cremé Anglaise

Horse Meat Disco is one of the most epic club nights our generation has seen. Not only do these London lads throw some fucking awesome parties but they are top shelf blokes, so it only made sense to cook them an awesome feast when they came over for dinner. Originally I wanted to get my hands on some actual horse meat….but…..it never would have happened. Instead a hearty feast of seafood and pork, cos your never gonna disappoint with a nice slow roast of neck, grilled scampi and a  baked snapper. Any one who disagrees is a bloody turkey. Or a vego.

Baked Snapper w/ Miso, Ginger and Onion

Grilled Scampi w/ Eshallot Butter

Cauliflower and Cabbage Gratin

Tomato Salad

Slow Roasted Pork Neck w/ Spiced Parnip’s and Cavalo Nero

This meal was in honour of my mate Tyson and his GF Philipa. She is a vego, yet a lovely girl….its quite rare the two of those go hand-in-hand. The dumpling idea came from a dish at Tets we did for the vego dietry in place of the crab ravioli, except I’ve replaced the potato with celeriac and finished it with a sweet lemon barley dressing. The rice salad may seem outta place with the dumplings and panzanella, but the crisp light taste of the fresh peas and shoots combined with fluffy jasmine rice, dressed in olive oil combated the strong flavours of the other dishes. Also, steamed rice with plenty of maldon and extra virgin is damn tasty….the addition of fresh mint, peas and shoots is just a bonus.

Celeriac and Goats Cheese Dumpling, Lemon Barley Vinaigrette

Pea, Mint and Snow Pea Shoot Rice Salad

Heirloom Tomato Panzanella (more…)

Raw fish is the bomb. The texture and flavour of fresh raw salmon has to be one of my favourites. This salmon dish is finished with hot ginger oil which really heightens the flavour of the salmon, also a great way to start a meal in the winter. The dumplings……were awesome, and so simple to make. A light prawn mousse, with chopped prawn folded through,  incased in gow gee pastry which is available at all good chinese grocers. I love cooking prawns this way, split them down the middle, season and a lick of oil, then under a hot grill for a few minutes. Dead simple and deadly tasty.

Salmon Sashimi w Hot Ginger Oil

Prawn Dumplings, Spicy Prawn Soup

Stir Fried Asian Greens and ShootsJasmine Tea Salted Prawns

Din Tai Fung in Sydney do a great dish of Silken Tofu with Pork Floss and Century Egg. This is my variation on that with prawn floss and herbal soy eggs replacing the former duo,  the tofu itself was poached in the oolong broth for just under an hour. The flavours were amazing. Szechuan salt always reminds me of crispy skin chicken which I devoured a rittle kid. It works equally as nice with pork, and in this case the belly. The japanese eggplants were intially stir fried with black bean paste and red chillis, then braised in a chicken stock seasoned with soy……god damn it was good. The chicken wings were deboned, brined for 2 hours,  dipped in salted egg yolks then fried.

Silken Tofu, Prawn Floss, Herbal Soy Eggs and Oolong Broth

Roast Pork Belly w Szechuan Salt

Braised Black Bean Japanese EggpantSalted Egg Yolk Chicken Wings