Changing the seasonal style of your food can be just as fun as updating your fall wardrobe. While I was browsing on OTTE I was inspired to create a dish that complemented the tones of the upcoming fall collection.

I channeled my recent visit to the organic farm to create a dish that really showcased the raw colors and flavors of local produce. I thought it would be fitting to make a warm antipasti bruschetta that is a contrast to its summery, raw tomato version.

I used a mixture of roasted, sun-dried and raw tomatoes to create a melange of textures, the grilled Italian vegetables slightly charred for that smokiness, the rich purple waxy potatoes for depth, the creamy mustard mayonnaise to bind everything together, scooped onto crusty bread.

As a fun presentation while entertaining guests, I laid out the ingredients “deconstructed” so my guests can mix and match their own bruschetta.

Ingredients:
Multigrain Baguette, toasted
Italian Grilled Aubergines, marinated in garlic olive oil
Italian Grilled Peppers, marinated in garlic olive oil
Italian Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Pitted Moroccan Oil-Cured Olives, sliced
Roasted Tomatoes in olive oil
Satur Farms Purple Basil
Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes, diced
Purple Baby Creamer Potato (baked)

Dressing:
3 tbsp Mayonnaise
2 tsp Seeded mustard
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Salt and Pepper

Garnish:
Aged Reggiano cheese, shaved

For the carnivores, these would go wonderfully with prosciutto. Serve warm on freshly grilled bread, spread with mustard dressing, combine all chopped ingredients and layer on top.

In the mood to shop for a fall wardrobe? Join me at www.otteny.com/fno !

We live in a world of microwave meals, instant noodles, food deliveries and fast food to comply with our hectic lifestyles. We’re spoilt with so many conveniences in terms of food, when it comes to a dish like risotto, it gets a little overwhelming for a lot of us. Funnily enough, it is that overwhelming feeling that makes me most appreciative of a risotto dish. There are no short-cuts, no instant risotto mix, no cheats. The amount of effort you put into your risotto is directly correlated to how wonderful the results will be. The simplicity of this rule allows anyone to have the skills to re-create a restaurant quality dish.

The most important thing you must consider is the quality of your ingredients, if you are spending the amount of time and effort to make a risotto it will only be ruined if your ingredients are sub par to begin with. My personal favorite is the Vialone Nano rice, although Carnaroli will do just fine as well (I was unable to find any Vialone Nano while I was shopping in the West Village). Use good sea salt, extra virgin olive oil, freshly grated cheese. (If you buy anything pre-grated or pre-packaged, well – stop reading and get out before I smack your face with a Parmesan rind).

The second most important thing is the sofritto. A sofritto is the foundation of the flavor that will slowly be built into the rice later. Most recipes will specify a white onion, garlic, a celery heart, and for the Milanese – bone marrow. The key to this is never brown any of the sofritto. Slowly sweat the onion on low heat with olive oil until it is translucent, so everything slowly disappears and absorbs into the rice as you move through to the tostato stage, where the rice is slightly toasted and a splash of wine or vermouth is added before we start adding the stock.

Stirring is important. A good risotto requires continuous attention – but attention that the ingredients deserve. Remember the wine you just opened to splash into the pan? Start drinking it! Cook with friends around you and share the wine and conversation. As long as you continue to stir the rice, and add the stock ladle by ladle, time will fly by. There’s something very edifying about watching every grain of rice hungrily soak up all the aromatic flavors and transforming into a rich creamy consistency. Don’t forget to let it stand for a few minutes before serving.

Some recipes out there calls for it, but I personally never add heavy cream to my risotto to help with the consistency. This is known as mantecato, and is a richer version than traditional risotto. I feel that it really takes away the flavor of the produce and all the work you’ve put in. Don’t do it!

I had originally planned to cook a traditional Risotto alla Milanese (with saffron), but I received a wonderful surprise in the mail that very day – fresh white truffles from Alba, Italy. Hence, I’ve created a white truffle risotto recipe in the style of a Milanese, probably breaking a few traditional rules. I would actually welcome your criticisms (especially from Italians), though I was very happy with the decadent result.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small eshallot, finely chopped
100 g popped bone marrow (Soaked in salted water for 1 hour)
1½ cups carnaroli rice
⅔ cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
5 cups chicken stock, heated
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus extra
1-2 ounces white truffle, thinly shaved, divided
Good conversation and good friends

Method:

Store your white truffles with the dry rice in an airtight container for just over 24 hours, so the aroma is infused into rice.

In a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, warm with olive oil. Add the onion and eshallot, sauté until translucent (do not brown!). Add the bone marrow and continue to cook on low heat until almost melted.

Add the rice, and toast for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Splash in the wine, and stir until all liquid is absorbed.

Add the stock one ladle at a time, and cook until the liquid is absorbed. One absorbed, add another ladle of stock and repeat. Stir evenly, half a circle at a time, almost making a “Yin Yang” pattern and watch the sides of the pot to make sure there are no drier sections left behind.

Once all the stock is absorbed (about 40 minutes later), the rice should be looking creamy but still al dente in texture. Stir in the butter, Parmigiano and half of the truffle shavings. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

Allow the risotto to stand with the heat off, and the lid on for five minutes. It will make all the difference.

Serve garnished with more truffle shavings and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Serves 4 very happy individuals (you know who you are!)

Truffle slicer

Photo credit: Anthony Bo Chan

One cup of butternut squash contains only 63 calories and almost 150% of your daily recommended amount of Vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene. This vitamin and powerful antioxidant can prevent lung cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetic heart disease, help alleviate or prevent inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, lower cholesterol levels, and much more. Folate is another important nutrient which can help prevent birth defects. It also has 32% of DV of Vitamin C, 25% of your DV of potassium, almost 6 grams of fiber, manganese, omega 3 fatty acids, several vitamin B’s and copper.

If you give the cubed butternut a quick roasted in the oven you can really enrich its flavour.

Ingredients

•Olive oil
•1 small butternut squash, trimmed and cut into cubes
•2 garlic cloves, minced
•1 teaspoon salt
•1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus 1/2 teaspoon
•1 cup vegetable stock
•1 packet Barilla Penne Rigate No. 73
•3/4 cup whole milk
•1/2 cup sage leaves
•1/4 cup grated Parmesan (reggiano)

Directions

Warm a good drizzle of olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat. Add the butternut squash, garlic, a few torn sage leaves (not all of them), 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Saute until the squash is golden and tender, around 5 to 7 minutes or so.

Add the vegetable stock, bring to a simmer, cover and cook until the squash is very soft, another 5 to 7 minutes. Mash with a potato masher until you get a smooth consistency. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, in fact, I like it slight chunky for the texture.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the penne and cook according to packet instructions – minus 2 minutes, so that it’s ever so slightly undercooked. Drain.

Meanwhile, in a separate small saucepan, heat olive oil over high heat. Shallow fry sage leaves until crispy and set aside on kitchen paper.

Add the drained pasta into the butternut mixture, and add 1/2 cup milk. Stir to combine. Add the remaining milk if you prefer a creamier sauce.

Sprinkle fried sage leaves on top and serve with grated reggiano.

Bon A Petito!

Tracey and Ashley Hughes from Alio

This particular recipe that Ashley has chosen to share with us was actually taught to him by Rose Gray of the River Café. Ashley added his own personal touch of chestnuts to the finish of the dish, and makes this a magnificent vegetarian course. 

The Rotolo originated from the region of Emilia-Romagna, and it is simply a sheet of pasta covered with filling, rolled up to form a roulade, then poached and served in slices alongside some sauce. 

The recipe starts by making the pasta dough and allowing it to rest, then making the rotolo filling and allowing it to cool, followed by rolling the pasta dough. 

1000g flour tipo oo
6 egg yolks 
3 whole eggs 
30g salt 
1tsp oil 

Sieve the flour directly onto the bench. Make a well in the centre, place the eggs, salt and oil into the well. Slowly combine all the ingredients together to make dough. If the dough is to dry add another egg yolk. Once the dough has formed, kneed the pasta on a lightly floured bench for five minutes. 

Cover the dough in cling film and rest for 20minutes. 

Time to make the rotolo filling: 

Spinach filling 
25g butter 
2 garlic cloves peeled and finely chopped 
500g baby spinach leaves washed and dried 
375g ricotta 
1/2 bch marjoram picked from the stem 
1/2 whole nutmeg grated 
75g parmesan grated 
Salt and black pepper to taste 

Mushroom mix 
250g sliced field mushrooms 
25g dried porcini 
20g butter 
1 garlic clove 
Salt and pepper 

Rotolo Filling – Spinach 

Using a frypan on gentle heat melt the butter and fry the garlic until it becomes translucent, ensuring you do not brown the garlic. Add the spinach, cooking until it wilts, as we want the spinach looking vibrant green in colour. 

Remove from heat then stir in marjoram leaves. Empty the mix in a strainer to allow all the moisture to drain. Squeeze excess water out. Set aside to cool. 

Place ricotta in a large bowl and use a fork to break it up, until it becomes crumbly. Add the spinach, parmesan and grated nutmeg. Season generously with salt and pepper, gently mix till combined, then set aside. 

Rotolo Filling – Mushroom Mix 

Soak the porcini in boiling water for 20 minutes then drain reserving the soaking liquid. When drained wash under running water to remove any grit. 

On gentle heat melt butter in a pan and fry garlic as before (again ensure it is cooked only until it becomes translucent). Fry the field mushrooms for five minutes allowing them to colour. Add the porcini and the soaking liquid (take care not to use the end of the liquid as it may have grit from the mushrooms). Cook for a further 20 minutes on a low heat allowing the moisture to cook out. 

Roll the pasta dough through a pasta machine so that you have 2 thin sheets of pasta. Keep dusting with flour so they don’t stick together. The desired thickness should resemble a cotton sheet. 

Lay the sheets on a clean cloth or tea towel so they cover an area 45cm by 30cm. To join the sheets together brush edges with water. 

Spoon the spinach mix on the pasta approximately 1cm thick and spread to cover the entire sheet, leaving a 1cm boarder from the edge. Spread the mushroom mix in a line along one entire side of the sheet (this will become the centre of the roll). 

Brush the edges of the pasta with water (once rolled this will hold it together). 

Starting with the mushroom edge, roll the sheet over and over itself working away from you. Once you pull the towel upwards, the rest should roll automatically. 

When it is rolled into a thick sausage roll it in the tea towel as tight as possible, tie both ends with string (this holds the roll in shape). 

To cook, place the roll into boiling water for 20 minutes (a fish kettle or deep sided covered baking tray will work well). When it is cooked remove the roll by holding either end with tongs. 

250g butter
1 bunch of sage picked
100g cooked chestnuts 

Heat the butter in a pan add the sage and the chestnuts Cook until the sage is crisp and the chestnuts start to colour then remove from heat. 

Untie the tea towel, then unwrap the rotolo from the towel and cut in lengths approximately 3-4 cm, trimming off both ends. 

Dress with sage butter sauce, chestnuts and extra grated parmesan. 

Serve alongside tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil salad, warm olives and freshly baked foccacia. 

We had the pleasure of enjoying a lovely meal at Alio restaurant after our pasta class with Tracey Hughes (Ashley’s sister), where she shared wonderful stories about their farm and the day to day stories of running a successful restaurant. Happy 10th anniversary! 

There are two types of classes offered at Alio: hands on (4-5 hours) and demonstration (2-3 hours), with lunch concluding the class. If you are interested in attending, visit the Alio website or give Tracey a call for bookings. 

Alio Restaurant
5 Baptist Street, Surry Hills
Sydney, NSW
T 02 8394 9368 

Thank you to Wasamedia for arranging such a wonderful opportunity.

Ingredients

½ cup whole milk ricotta cheese (I purchased mine from Harris farm)
250g Birds Eye® chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 small pinch of ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2½ tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus 1 shallow bowl of flour for dusting

1 jar Barilla basilico tomato sauce (or any other of your favorite brands)

Directions
In a large bowl, mix ricotta, chopped spinach, cheese, egg and yolk.

After reaching a consistency similar to spinach dip, fold in nutmeg, salt, pepper, and flour.

Now we need to use this mixture to make our gnudi balls. 1 tablespoonful makes a good sized gnudi. I find it’s much easier to spoon the mixture into the shallow bowl with flour, and roll it around a few times before picking it up with your hands, otherwise it gets a little too sticky to work with. Gently roll the floured ball around in your palms to shake off any excess flour and shape them into spheres around 1.5 inches in diameter. Repeat with the remaining mixture.

While you’re making the gnudis, fill a pot with water and turn on a medium heat. Salt the water.

The most important thing is to leave the water boiling very gently. The gnudi is so delicate that a bubbling boil would tear it apart. Slowly lower the gnudi into the hot water with a spoon. You don’t have to cook them all at once, so just boil a few at a time.

After a few minutes, you’ll see them float to the top – this means they’re cooked and ready! Remove the gnudi using a slotted spoon, holding it just above the pot to drain off all the excess water before putting it on your serving dish.

While you are slowly cooking the gnudi, empty half a jar of tomato sauce into a small saucepan and start heating it up on a low heat, stirring occasionally.

Arrange gnudi on a platter and top with tomato sauce. Shave some extra Parmigiano Reggiano on top and watch it melt with the warm sauce.

This is one for the vegetarians out there – how can you not love it?

Ingredients:

Filling

150 gm   pancetta and prosciutto, finely chopped and torn
4   egg yolks
3   eggs
250 ml (1 cup)   pouring cream
½ tsp   freshly grated nutmeg

Shortcrust pastry

300 gm   plain flour, sifted
175 gm   unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
1   egg

Green salad

2 tbsp   extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp   red wine vinegar
½ tsp   seeded mustard
100 gm   mixed baby leaves

I altered the recipe slightly from one found in Gourmet Traveller

1. For shortcrust pastry, combine flour and 1 tsp sea salt in a bowl and using fingertips rub butter through flour until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Alternatively, place flour and salt in a food processor, add butter and pulse until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg and mix (or process) until just combined. Turn pastry out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead gently until smooth. Form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 200ºC. Roll dough out into a 5mm thickness on a floured surface and press into a 20cm foil tin (I chose to use a rectangular one). Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
3. Bake for 20 mins, remove pastry from tray and bake dry for another 15 minutes.
4. While it is baking, brown 150g of pancetta and prosciutto in a pan until crispy and soak the excess oil on kitchen towels.
5. Whisk together 4 eggs and 3 yolks, a cup of cream and half a teaspoon of nutmeg in a bowl.
6. Line the bottom of the baked pastry with meat, and pour egg mixture on top.
7. Bake for another 30 minutes on 150ºC this time , and cool for 10 minutes before removing from foil tray. And the finished product…. [below]

Serve immediately with your favorite salad.

Cooking a quiche from scratch can be a time consuming process.

The next day, I had leftover batter and decided to bake a “Lazy Lorraine“. I bought giant Vol-au-vents from the supermarket, covered the bottom with diced tomato, added a layer of cheese (Emmental or Gruyère), and poured the egg mixture on top. The mixture combines slightly when pouring. I then sprinkle some dried Oregano on top (this is a vegetarian version) and baked for 20 mins.

Tip: The vol-au-vents from the supermarket tends to leak the egg mixture so wrap some foil around it before pouring it in!

Sydney seems to be catching up with this new seafood trend, as I noticeably received a lot less “ewww” from fellow Aussies when I talk about uni. Coming from a time when most Australians found the concept of raw fish and dried seaweed revolting, their willingness to try new things have dramatically increased.

”I’ve sold more sea urchin in the past 12 months than I have in the past four years,” says Wayne Hulme from Christie’s Seafood.

Fresh high quality sea urchin flesh is delicate and just firm enough to hold itself together, and just like pudding, it quickly melts in your mouth. Unfortunately, the taste is initially funky and reminiscent of pungent seawater, and that’s when the unadventurous start to gag. However, just like smoking your first cigarette, after a few more puffs, you start to acquire the taste. Sea urchin flesh is delicious: subtle, sweet, creamy, and sea-salty bitter rather than fishy – If an oyster made love to custard.

You can buy fresh washed urchin roe in pre-packaged trays from the fish markets.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

500g dry spaghettini

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more for drizzling

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes

1 punnet grape tomatoes, halved, ripe and room temperature

Sea salt & black pepper

1 tray of sea urchin

I packet of Muji urchin cream pasta sauce

Shredded dried nori (also available in most Asian grocery stores) for garnish

1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, in a skillet large enough to hold pasta later on, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, reduce heat to low, and tip the skillet to submerge the garlic in olive oil, brown it on all sides so it flavors the oil.

2. Raise heat under skillet to medium, add chili flakes and simmer for around a minute. Add tomatoes, face down, cook until just until wilted and stir gently.

3. When water boils, add a couple of tablespoons of salt and cook pasta according to packet instructions, minus 2 minutes. Stir well and bring back to boil. When pasta is cooked through but still firm, drain, reserving 1 cup cooking water (this water contains starch and is useful later for the sauce)

4. Turn heat under skillet to low. Add pasta sauce (optional: just replace with butter otherwise). Add about 3/4 of the tray of sea urchin to skillet with a sprinkle of salt and a splash of pasta cooking water to your favored consistency. I like it quite thick and creamy. Add pasta to skillet and toss thoroughly but gently over low heat, adding pasta cooking water and more oil to taste if mixture is dry. Don’t forget to season!

Serve hot, decorating each serving with remaining sea urchin and top with dried shredded seaweed.

The sweetness of the grape tomatoes compliments beautifully with the flavor of the urchin roe.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ tsp. Sugar
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 tsp. Active dry yeast
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ cups lukewarm milk
• 1 cup Self raising flour
• 3/4 cup buckwheat flour
• ½ tsp. Salt
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

In a small bowl, dissolve ½ tsp. Of the sugar in warm water. Sprinkle in yeast and let it stand for approx 10 minutes until the mixture appears to be frothy. In a separate larger mixing bowl, beat egg, milk and remaining sugar. Add flours and salt (I like to sift this in) and beat for 1 minute. Beat in the yeast mixture and half of the butter. Cover the mixing bowl with glad wrap; leave it to rise in warm place until it has about doubled in size (takes around 1 hour).

Heat nonstick skillet over medium heat; brush lightly with some of the remaining butter. It’s really just like making tiny little pancakes. I find that it gets a little messy spooning small amounts of batter onto the pan so I used a piping bag. You can also transfer the batter into a zip lock bag, seal it and cut a small corner on the bottom to pipe with.

I piped ‘blobs’ of batter around 4cm in diameter. Cook until bubbles form on top, then carefully flip each one over and cook until bottoms are golden brown.

Makes around 50 blini. It may seem like a lot, but you’ll be surprised how quickly it goes!

Traditionally, you would serve these with caviar. Sturgeon roe is just one of the most divine flavours that make me weak at the knees. Unfortunately, due to illegal fishing, the numbers of wild sturgeon has dramatically decreased over the years. The Beluga sturgeon is currently considered to be endangered, causing the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to ban in 2005 the importation of Beluga caviar which originated in the Caspian Sea and Black Sea basin. Sterling, a Californian company, have started farming white sturgeon caviar that is almost similar to Ossetra caviar. Do not forget to handle caviar with a mother of pearl spoon, as metal utensils tend to impart an unwelcome metallic taste to the delicate and expensive roe.

You can purchase Sterling Caviar (pictured) from Simon Johnson for around $605.00 for a 125gm serving with your whole family on a special occasion. They also have 30gm servings at $163.00, which is a perfect size for two people. (Hint: Valentine’s day is coming up!)

My favorite condiments to accompany caviar on the blini are finely chopped hard boiled egg yolks, egg whites, chives, creme fraiche, capers, and red onions.

You can also serve blini’s with smoked salmon, making it a great canape at parties.

If you ever have chance to get your hands on Beluga – I would suggest not embellishing the flavour of the roe with anything at all. Known to be the largest sturgeon, it can measure up to six meters in length and consists of very large eggs, which makes it very desirable. Even though Beluga weighing up to 600 kilograms existed in the past, the endangered species rarely come in those sizes nowadays because of overfishing.

This recipe has been changed and adapted by many, from an original 3 page recipe by Heston Blumenthal (and I would commend anyone who tries to attempt that!). A touch of advice was added by Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP, I’ve thrown in some of Jamie Oliver’s notes and added a homemade herb butter rub and stuffing for the full fair. There are ways to cut corners to minimize the hard work, and I will show you how - after all, you want to be dressed and looking fresh as a daisy when your guests walk in, not sweating over the kitchen.

There are a few things that I find are really important to a perfect turkey:

1. A good roasting tray with a wire rack (to raise the bird)
2. The overnight soak in brine
3. Herbed butter
4. Remember the rule: 35 mins of oven time to every kg
5. Get your turkey delivered – boy are they heavy to carry otherwise!

Note: I used a 4kg Free Range Antibotic Free Turkey from Sam the Butcher – you can order it online and have it delivered to your doorstep on the day of preparation! They will remove the giblets and clean it for you as well.

The Day Before: Soak in brine

• ½ cup coarse salt, plus more for seasoning
• ¾ cup dark brown sugar
• 4kg free range turkey
• lemon and thyme

In a medium sized saucepan, heat the salt and sugar in 2 cups water, and add 1 whole lemon (just throw it in!) and a few sprigs of thyme. The salt and sugar will gently dissolve over low heat and the aroma from the lemon and herbs will gently infuse the brine.

Turn the heat off, and pour this  mixture into the biggest pot you have, as it has to be big enough to keep the entire turkey submerged.

Add the turkey, then add cold water until the turkey is just submerged. Cover in glad wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Tip: If you have a giant turkey and not a single pot large enough to submerge it, you can use a garbage bag!

5 hours before the party starts: Prepping and Stuffing

• Salt and Pepper
• 1 block of Butter, room temperature
• Turkey thyme (dried thyme – crushed to resemble a powder) & Sage

Stuffing usually needs to be cooked and prepared the night before, but with the amount of Christmas shopping, card writing and tree decorating, we’re not going to do that! Instead, I’ve opted for Sam’s Christmas stuffer instead. This turkey recipe is actually marvelous without stuffing, but I just can’t seem to get my head around the concept. I love stuffing!

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse with cold water. Pat completely dry with paper towels.

Mix butter (enough to cover the inside and outside of the bird) with the thyme, salt and better.

This is the messy part. Insert a baking spatula under the skin of the turkey from it’s rear and open up the skin, and spread knobs of herb butter under its skin (and along with the sage leaves, get your fingers in there). This is optional but it does add to the flavour later on.

Add some stuffing loosely in the turkey’s cavity. You don’t want to pack it in tightly, as that affects how the heat travels inside the turkey. You want to give it some room so the hot air from the oven can travel in and out.

Tie up the legs with cooking twine, then rub the herb butter all over the outside and sprinkle with a liberal amount of black pepper and bit of salt.

Oven time: It’s getting hot in here

2 cups Chicken Stock

Flip your bird over, and place breast-side down in a roasting pan. Loosely cover the top with foil to minimize drying and cook for 35min per kg in a fan forced oven set to 170°C.

The beauty of the brine soaking is that this turkey hardly needs to be basted. I did it once an hour anyway, using pan juices and chicken stock.

After 35min per kg, remove the turkey from the oven and raise the temperature to 220°C and turn on the convection if available (if not, raise the temperature to 240°C). Once the oven reaches temperature, flip the turkey so it’s breast-side up on the roasting rack and put it back in the oven. Roast for half an hour, and test by stabbing a fork into the thickest part of the thigh for 10 seconds. The tip of the fork should be very hot and the juices should run clear.

I like to brush the skin with a small amount of honey alongside the pan juices to give it a nicer color for the last 5 minutes of roasting.

Let it rest at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving – this is a perfect time to make a gravy with the remaining pan juices.

Carving and Serving

I’m going to point you over to Jamie Oliver’s instructional video for this:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/about/jamie-oliver-videos/carving-a-turkey – but I have to say, carving is a man’s job. Make your other half watch this video and ask him to carve the turkey. It makes them feel in control, they feel the Christmas glory when eyes light up as the platter of turkey meat is brought to the table. Garnish with roast vegetables or a rocket salad.

juicy turkey leg

The meat should be tender and moist, even the breast meat from this recipe is utterly delightful. I hope you enjoy a wonderful Christmas period with your loved ones!

One of the best things about Sydney is the abundance of fresh seafood, all so readily available. The trick is to do your fish shopping on a Saturday at the fish markets (they close at 5pm, so it’s hard to shop after work). I often ask my fishmonger to scale and gutt the fish I select.
Once you get home, wash all your fish thoroughly under cold tap water, making sure all blood is rinsed out, and pat dry with paper towels. Wrap them in new clean plastic bags (the bags from the fish markets are often dirty) and they are ready for freezing.

When you’re ready to cook your fish, move it from the freezer to the fridge the night before to defrost.

This is a very simple recipe based on Jamie Oliver’s – it’s healthy and takes under 30 minutes. Just a different alternative to fish en papilotte to mix things up a little. Lemon and thyme shouldn’t be restricted to roast chicken, in fact it works quite well with an oily fish like rainbow trout.

INGREDIENTS:

1 whole rainbow trout, scaled and gutted
few sprigs of thyme
sea salt & black pepper
3 tbsps lemon infused olive oil
1 lemon
4 bay leaves
1 clove garlic, crushed

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Give the trout a good rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Using a mortar and pestle, grind the thyme leaves with 1 tsp sea salt, crushed garlic, black pepper and the olive oil until it becomes a fragrant paste. Rub this mixture all over the trout, covering the skin and inside the belly. Cut lemons in half and remove the ends so they have a flat edge. With the point of a knife, make an incision into the flesh of each lemon half and stick a bay leaf into it. Place trout and lemons on a roasting tray and bake, approximately 10 minutes. The trout is cooked properly when the meat is easily pulled away from the bone at the thickest part of the fish. The skin should be crispy and the roasted lemons should take on a marmalade characteristic.

Serve the trout with the lemon, which you can squeeze on to the fish. The flesh should flake away easily but remain pink and moist. I served my fish with some roasted potatoes and a fresh watercress salad, but it’s really up to personal tastes. You can fillet it restaurant style at the table, or go rustic and combine the flesh with the salad.