Here’s a fun hands-on meal that will satisfy meat eaters as well as vegetarians. There’s quite a bit of preparation involved but none of it is time sensitive. When your guests arrive you can sit back and enjoy their company while everyone makes their own delicious meal. The most important ingredient to make is sushi…… Continue reading Japanese hand rolls
Category: celebrations
christmas 2018
Only four of us this hot Christmas day, so we decided to have a Chinese hot-pot. Cooking everything at the table is the ultimate slow food but very satisfying and delicious! Our home-made stock was made with pork bones, chicken and ginger. Before serving we seasoned to taste with salt and added a black cardamom…… Continue reading christmas 2018
christmas 2017
This year our Christmas lunch was a lovely eclectic mixture of food. Our guests brought the entree of antipasti. For the main course we roasted butterflied chickens over charcoal with a garlic, sage and rosemary butter under the skin. We added oak chips from Chardonnay barrels to the fire for a smoky flavour. Our gravy…… Continue reading christmas 2017
christmas 2016
Christmas day 2016 was a hot 37ºC day, so we opted for some cold dishes in our 5-course menu. We started with an amuse-bouche of naked cherry tomatoes from this recipe by Chef John. This method really brings out the flavour in tomatoes. The second course was a wonderfully fresh chilled green gazpacho soup with burrata…… Continue reading christmas 2016
christmas feast 2015
Our festive celebrations this year began with a wonderfully smooth French style chicken liver pâté thanks to this Jaques Pepin recipe with some homemade sourdough baguettes. For the main course Thomas cooked a ham, brined for 5 days and slow cooked with a little smoke and a brown sugar and mustard glaze. To accompany the ham we had a European style potato salad, a…… Continue reading christmas feast 2015
grand final fiesta
There are many similarities between Super Bowl Sunday and the AFL Grand Final. Many families and friends gather to watch the game and celebrate or commiserate. The drink of choice is generally beer. At the game a meat pie is essential but at home barbecues reign. We decided instead to drink Margheritas and eat chicken fajitas, chorizo with potato and corn,…… Continue reading grand final fiesta
chrismukkah 2014
This year, in keeping with Chrismukkah, we celebrated Christmas day with a Jewish feast. The first course was chopped liver. This fantastic recipe comes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem. We ate it on rye bread while sipping champagne. Melt 70g (2½ oz) of duck or goose fat in a fry pan and fry 2 large sliced onions until dark brown.…… Continue reading chrismukkah 2014
christmas 2012
Only a small gathering this year but we still managed a memorable feast. The first course was exotic mushrooms cooked with sage leaves in butter and served with grilled polenta with pepper and pecorino cheese. The second course featured a rolled roast pork barbecued on a spit served with home-made apple sauce, oven-baked cranberry and macadamia…… Continue reading christmas 2012
Christmas 2011
I’ve already posted the pudding, but here’s the rest of our Christmas feast. We started with some garlic prawns (shrimps) cooked in a generous mixture of olive oil and butter and about as much garlic as we could stand. The garlic was slowly cooked in the oil and butter, the prawns added last and seasoned…… Continue reading Christmas 2011
party pastries
This patchwork quilt of French style savoury pastries kept the food coming at our recent party. Made on sheets of store bought puff pastry they were baked ahead of time and served at room temperature. Here are the six different toppings: artichoke, green olive and pecorino cheese; tomatoes and onions topped with chorizo,…… Continue reading party pastries
michelle picker cooks 