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Good Weekend, 16 Oct 2010. Page 10

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Good Weekend
16 Oct 2010

Art of Travel NEW 2010 Tours

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Spirit of BALI Yoga Retreat 2-9 July

Once again we are honoured to be collaborating with Albert Hennick, an inspirational yoga master from Adelaide.
This week combines a sublime vacation in one of Bali’s unspoiled intimate seaside locations with expert, empathetic, dynamic personalised yoga instruction for all levels of experience; resident chef, Sussa’s healthy delicious local cuisine, from the land and sea; opportunities for excursions that take you to the heartland of Bali, and access to activities that are invigorating and exciting: local markets, traditional villages, holy sites, weaving and basket-making families, scuba diving and snorkelling, white-water rafting, natural healing practitioners and massage……
Book Now as only a few Spaces Remain!

Cooking with the Raj: 30 October – 11 November
Join Marieke who shares with you the history and nuances of Indian cuisine in a mix of days that might include a discussion, a demonstration or a hands-on class and meeting with the scions of Rajput clans who are custodians of priceless culinary family traditions.
Highlights include Cocktails “at home” with the Jodhpur Royal family, Rani Chandresh Kumari, a politician;
A night at Lake Palace Hotel in magical Udaipur with a royal barge "Gangaur" party on Lake Pichola.
Two nights at Devigarh Palace with hands-on cooking classes with their Executive Chef exploring spices, the cuisines from the four corners of India and Ayurvedic dietary principles. A further two nights at the very special, luxurious tented camp of Chhatra Sagar where the family manage their own organic farm that provides superior produce for delectable cuisine. The program ends in Jaipur at Rajvilas with an elephant picnic safari, and time to explore this fascinating city.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”. – Marcel Proust

Spaces are still available in the following 2010 Tours

Pearls of South India: Cultural Gems: 21 August - 2 September

The best‐selling travelogue 1,000 Places to See Before You Die describes the river kingdom of Kerala as “staggeringly beautiful,” and it is. However, the “Pearls” sojourn also travels to the utterly charming old French enclave of Pondicherry where colonial civilization has melded with a special spirituality, to the unique Chettinad region renowned for its food and romantic architecture as well as passing through the majestic Ghats, spice and tea plantations to cruising the magic Backwaters, visiting private estates and families as well as some of India’s most vibrant temples.

Spanish Conquistadors

Northern Spain: Creative Revolution 8-20 September

Can any of us anymore live without chorizo or white anchovies in our pantries? We invite you to explore with us on this tour how Spain is taking the world by storm with its cuisine, wines , design, style and architecture. From beguiling Barcelona we wander on to Bilbao, San Sebastian and la Rioja and end in the prettiest mountain village in Majorca, a stone’s throw from the Med. We dine at two of the top ten of this year’s most awarded restaurants. And sail the sparkling Med for a day, dining on fresh seafood.
The only non‐Spanish thing we do is eat early. We will avoid late dinners and indigestion and eat late lunches instead. Sleep in adorable accommodations from a Condé Nast’s Hot List metro hotel to a boutique Relais et Chateaux. Savour the Spanish zest for life and discover her marvellous wines and gorgeous landscapes.

Normandy: The French Table with Marieke at Chateau Bosgouet

29 September – 6 October

Join me in this charming region of France for Autumn with its promise of wild mushrooms, chestnuts, apples, particularly succulent scallops and oysters, rich cheeses and game meats. This magical week in a gorgeously restored chateau allows you to immerse yourself in la Vie en Normandie with Cooking classes based on local market produce, visits to Rouen, Deauville, Monet’s Giverny, Honfleur, and dining in some superlative restaurants. This makes for a most memorable week and a culinary vacation beyond expectations. We collect you from and return you to Paris where we also offer a 2-day extension that explores the gastronomic secrets of this stunning city. Book Now as only Two Spaces remain!

Postcard from GUJARAT

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Why Visit?

Travelling almost anywhere in India raises the most marvellous paradoxes and conundrums, no less so Gujarat, that has the vast salt marsh to the north bordering the Sindh desert, a long coastline and borders to Rajasthan and Maharashtra, but has roads less travelled by tourists, and many tribal communities who continue traditional lifestyles, despite the pressures of modernity and rapid change and population expansion.
For a small slideshow go to>

Important to all travel in India is to remain open to the unexpected and the serendipitous. This recent trip was blessed by several instances of good fortune and surprises beyond that which can be planned for.

The food in Gujarat is almost universally outstanding and one of the most interesting of Indian regional cuisines, much dominated by the most inventive vegetarian dishes not found elsewhere. Throughout the trip, guests kept being delighted by the variety, the lightness and the subtle sweetness of dishes offered. No two thalis were ever the same, though there were certain in-season dishes that were requested often: methi thelpa ( a local flat bread made with fenugreek leaves), and crispy bhindi (tiny ladyfingers/okra).

Whilst staying with the gracious family of Utelia whose wonderful ancestral home is still undergoing restoration after the earthquake, we were able to join members of the usually shy and reticent Jat community who assemble but once a year for four days in the desert to honour their Sufi saint. This was the good luck of timing and the standing with which our host is regarded in this community.

At Dwarka, the most western and one of Indian Hinduisms four most holy cardinal points of pilgrimage we were accompanied by our guide, Durga’s family priest who presides over records of all the visits made by his family before him. To make darshan at the temple and take prasad was as close as a visitor might get to the holy rituals of a devotee visiting the abodes of the gods, as his family has done generations before him.
The legendary city of Dvaraka was the dwelling place of Lord Krishna and modern day Dwarka continues to draw pilgrims from all corners of India bearing a flag that must be blessed at the temple and carried back to their own community.

Throughout Kutch, we were introduced to an astounding array of crafts, decoration and arts still practiced at a very high levels of excellence. Indeed at Patan, the Patola Salvi family’s young son who had taken an engineering degree and had brothers who had trained respectively as architect and physiotherapist, sat at the looms and spoke of his family’s 700 year unbroken record of producing the highly skilled mind-snapping silk double ikat weaving. He spoke of it in devotional terms and gave credence to the idea it would continue even though much now depends on patronage and a willingness to pay princely sums for such superb hand woven and complex cloth. A saree length might take 6 months or more to complete, depending on the number of colours used and complexity of design.

Other highlights:

The Calico Museum established by the Sarabhai family in Ahmedabad has a priceless treasure. Even though it is managed and run by the most eccentric and bizarre rules, it cannot be missed. For those who like their museums more orderly and who love the world of textiles then Shreyas Folk Museum is also a must see.
Our preferred hotel in Ahmedabad is The House of Mangaldass, an experience without compare. This charming property is still so redolent of the family who created its unique rooms. The suave owner and scion of the illustrious family whose house this was, is also an avid collector of textiles and has plans to renovate the building next door into another branch of the hotel that will boast his personal collection of textiles as decorative themes for the new rooms due to open next year.

Extremely rich in Archaeology, Lothal is a well-preserved site of the later Indus Valley Civilisation;
the Temples of Somnath, in Junagarh district, Sarkhej Roza, Jhulta Minar and Sidi Sayed Jali in the heart of Ahmedabad (Gujarat’s largest city) are wonders of medieval architecture; the Sun Temple in Modhera (90 km north of Ahmedabad) and Rani ni Vav (Stepwells, north of Ahmedabad) are both exquisitely preserved monuments of former kingdoms.

Join us 30 January 2011 for the next Tour to this wondrous region

From the Chair: BOOKS

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There is hardly a William Dalrymple title I have not read since he has been writing these last twenty years. Having had the good fortune to lunch with him after the 2009 Jaipur Literary festival, at which he disclosed his next work, I awaited Nine Lives, his seventh book, with the most eager anticipation. Instead of writing from the perspective of authorial experience, the allure of the exotic and being the hero of his own narrative, he had committed himself once again to a travel book, but this time written so that individual voices and stories of spiritual quest would shine. I was not disappointed. From the moving opening story of a young Jain nun and how she manages her terminal illness within the precepts of her community to “the most unreformed — and startling — of his subjects , the hardcore Tantric sadhus he encounters at the cremation ground of Tarapith in Bengal, living with jackals and vultures amid half-burned corpses and skulls and engaging in acts of ‘transgressive sacrality’ involving alcohol, hashish and ritual sex, Dalrymple remains self effacingly insightful about and deeply enamoured of the sub continent on the brink of rapid modernization.

Ruaridh Nicoll surmises: “That this book also makes its political points more powerfully than any newspaper article, while quietly adjusting a reader's attitude to faith, builds its importance. It meets Dalrymple's own criteria…., displaying a deep knowledge of the culture, yet is intimate with each interviewee. This is travel writing at its best. I hope it sparks a revival.”

THE WILDER SHORES OF LOVE published 1954 by Lesley Blanch, a scholarly romantic and truly original travel writer who ran counter to the many mores of her generation and gender.
“There have been many women who have followed the beckoning Eastern star” says Lesley Blanch. She writes about four such women in The Wilder Shores Of Love — Isabel Burton (who married the Arabist and explorer Richard), Jane Digby el-Mezrab (Lady Ellenborough, the society beauty who ended up living in the Syrian desert with a Bedouin chieftain), Aimée Dubucq de Rivery (a French convent girl captured by pirates and sent to the Sultan's harem in Istanbul), and Isabelle Eberhardt (a Swiss linguist who felt most comfortable in boy's clothes and lived among the Arabs in the Sahara).

They all escaped from the constraints of nineteenth century Europe and fled to the Middle East, where they found love, fulfillment, and “glowing horizons of emotion and daring”. Blanch’s first, bestselling book, it pioneered a new kind of group biography focusing on women escaping the boredom of convention. During recent travels this classic was re visited. I first read it perhaps 3o years ago and it sent my heart racing and wanting to take off. It still does.

Foodie Tidbits + Ephemera

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Having convened two Symposiums of Australian Gastronomy in 1991 and 1998, respectively in Geelong and the Grampians, and always regarded it as Australia’s most significant and perspicacious forum for the intelligent and far ranging discussion of food, food philosophy, culture and politics, I was heartened to see its recent return to Adelaide. Held mostly biennially for the last 25 years, and in November convened by Dr Roger Haden, this was the seventeenth symposium, dedicated to “Gastronomic Economics”, a fitting subject given the current zeitgeist. I was very sad not to attend but look forward to the publication soon of the entire series of proceedings since its inauguration in 1984 at University of Adelaide’s Research Centre fro the History of Food + Drink website.

R.I.P.

I am not party to the background of why their Masters program in Gastronomy has been suddenly closed, but it feels an immense loss. This graduate program, a collaboration between the University and Le Cordon Bleu Institute provided a multidisciplinary approach to the study of gastronomy, encompassing history, anthropology, sociology, geography and many other disciplines within the general area of humanities and social sciences, as well as economics, nutrition, agriculture and wine studies. It was one of the few international programs for a masters in Gastronomy.

In Brooklyn in October, newsagents carried another very sudden death notice, for the venerable 70-year old American Gourmet magazine published by Condé Nast, victim of straightened economic times and advertising budgets. The considerable intelligence of its editor, Ruth Reichl, who had brought to the fore such controversial and contemporary issues to do with farming, genetic engineering, and trans fat to an erstwhile indulgent audience, her general resistance to the trend of personalities and brands, and her commitment to long thoughtful, literary pieces, is unlikely to ever be replicated again in a popular food magazine.

In today’s marketplace the old dowager perhaps looked quaint and anachronistic, and I as I had not really bought an issue in over a decade, perhaps even irrelevant but I will never forget the excitement of her arrival in the 70’s when our magazine recipe resource in Australia amounted to Women’s Weekly, and the magazine connected us to the worlds of chefs, wine and travel.

Towards the end of summer two legendary establishment restaurants also closed, Tavern on the Green and Café des Artistes (opened in 1917 and owned by the Langs since 1974) where 20 years ago I enjoyed the lavish floral displays and asparagus sold by the spear within its opulent walls so removed from the tumultuous streets outside. Despite their longevity they were further casualties of the economic downturn and signal for the end of the 20thC.

Art of Cuisine CLASSES

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Marieke will again teach interstate this year.

Early May: Sydney classes at Accoutrement. Spaces are filling fast. Tuesday evening 4 May is a demonstration class and Wednesday morning 5 May will be a hands-on session. The theme is Cooking in Autumn and dishes will include Pimientos padrón, Kim Chee (a brilliant and tasty probiotic), Seaweed Salsa, Steamed Silky Tofu with Shiitake Mushrooms and Blackbean Sauce
Buckwheat Risotto with pippies, seafood and crispy fish, a Fish Tagine finishing with an
Apple and Armagnac Croustade with Armagnac ice cream.
Anyone passionate about food is of course already cooking seasonally. Even more apt is to source local and organic produce. Autumn is a time of 'mists and mellow fruitfulness',
producing an inspirational abundance of foods that lend themselves to ‘real’ and slower cooking. Ayurveda and TCM share the view that our diet prepares us for the upcoming season and at this time we need to eat warmer, spicier, sweet and sour foods and make a gentle transition to cooler, shorter days.
With a legion of followers, Marieke always enthuses cooks with her innovative, accessible and achievable dishes that abound in flavours inspired by her garden and her extensive world travels.
For reservations contact Sue or Jenna at http://www.accoutrement.com.au/

Winter: Saturday 31 July and Sunday 1 August sees Marieke travel to Adelaide to teach Indian Masterclass at the new and truly charming Sticky Rice Cooking School at Stirling in the Adelaide Hills. The 4-5 hour hands-on class will be limited to ten students who then have the opportunity to invite their partners back to join in the evening banquet with lovely wines.
The class focuses on the technical and challenging elements of an extensive Indian menu that draws on the cuisines from private families and royal cooks from all corners of the fascinating sub continent. Dishes will taste truly of India and not of the generic international restaurant variety of predictable flavours.
For reservations contact Claire at http://www.stickyricecookingschool.com.au/school.php

Classes with Marieke return to Rye and will be scheduled for later in May. Dates to be announced soon.

I loved the food on Sunday. Such beautiful flavours again. I do so respect your ability to do this, and to put the whole thing together in such a way that we all feel we can run off and do the same, ignoring the education, the years of experience, the intelligence and a small thing called talent that lies behind it all. Nevertheless, off I'll go and we will see what happens. Louise M
The cooking was inspiring on Sunday - a big thank you. I walked the Prahran market yesterday with recipes in hand...... They are now looking very dog eared!! I stocked up at the Asian stall. My Kimchee is on the go..... I hope it tastes as good as yours. Sometimes something like that takes a couple of goes to get it right! I will have to hold back on the delicious sweet treats … Although I will make the fig salami to use my figs and hazelnuts. Your recipe was much better than the one I have used in the past.
Sarah H

From Art of Cuisine Kitchens: Autumn RECIPES

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Tomato Cooking Tips:

•   For a surfeit of tomatoes. I pack large baking trays with the tomatoes and sprinkle, sea salt, white pepper and some sugar. Tuck is some thyme and plenty of garlic cloves left whole. Pour over some olive oil and roast for a couple of hours. Pass the tomatoes through a mouli and bag into rectangular containers for the freezer. This makes the most superior tomato paste, come puree and base for soups and braises during winter.
•   Tomato Tea. In a food processor, blend 3-4kgs of tomatoes in batches and tip into a very large stock pot. Add a mirepoix of lemon grass, ginger, galangal, lime leaf, curry leaf, spring onions, chilli and garlic. Season with salt, pepper and a touch of sugar. Barely cover with cold water and bring to a simmer for an hour. Turn off the heat and allow to infuse another hour. Tip all into a very large sieve placed over a clean pot and allow to drain freely for several hours or overnight. Taste for seasoning. This is a sublime consommé in its own right. It can be lightly jellied and set with seafood. It can be poured over roasted crab/prawns shells for a magical seafood broth. It can be boiled to reduce to a jam like consistency for a total tomato concentrate.
•   For Roma tomatoes: split tomatoes in half lengthwise. Place onto a flat baking tray lined with bakers paper. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, sugar and sumac. Place in a low oven for at least a couple of hours until tomatoes have the texture of moist dried fat apricots. Delicious as a base for a tomato tarte, or a salad.
•   An incomparable Salad. Pick tomatoes fresh from the garden and NEVER REFRIGERATE. Slice and intersperse the varieties and different colours onto a large platter. Sprinkle with sea salt, freshly ground white pepper and a scant sprinkling of sugar. Drizzle a fine sherry vinegar. Top with a chiffonade of basil, a crumbling of Shanklish (a yogurt based semi-dried cheese rolled in oregano) cheese. And finest extra virgin olive oil. Prepare up to an hour ahead of service so the exquisite juices develop. This makes a surprising change from the classical Mozzarella or Bocconcini- based salads. Shanklish is a Syrian or Lebanese cheese made from goat’s or cow’s milk, formed into orange-sized balls and coated with the tangy spice mixture za’atar.

Let Them Eat Cake:
Dutifully laying chooks, and thereby an abundance of eggs has turned me back to baking as a way to use up such treasures.
Those oversized, over-iced and over decorated cakes you see about cafés these days are anathema to my idea of what a fine cake should be about: elegant, moist, intensely flavoured with a modest portion offering immense satisfaction. For a friend’s recent birthday I resurrected an old Alice Waters recipe for marzipan cake that came out of the oven saffron coloured. It was deemed luscious, even by the youngsters.
This cakes also keeps well for up to a week, well covered in the refrigerator, but like most cakes is best the day it is baked.

Almond Torte

1 ¼ cup c sugar
250 gms soft crumbled pure almond paste (marzipan)
280gm unsalted butter
1 t vanilla essence
6 eggs at room temperature
1 c plain flour sieved with
1 ½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
50 ml amaretto

•   cream sugar, almond paste and butter until white and fluffy….about 20 minutes
•   once base is creamed add eggs one at a time
•   fold in flour and amaretto
•   place into shallow 28cm cake tine lined with bakers paper
•   bake 1 – 1 ¼ hrs in a medium hot oven (170 degrees C) until top is golden and centre has set.
•   cool in tin, running knife to loosen edges. Unmould when cold. May be refrigerated, covered up to 7 days.
•   to serve, dredge with icing sugar

Marieke’s Diary: From the Garden and From the Sea

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From the Garden.
March 2010:

Returning from the States in October saw us making another investment in trailer loads of local chicken manure and mushroom compost to build further depth and sturdiness to otherwise free draining sandy, limey soil.

A wonderful man at Boneo market had raised all manner of heritage tomatoes in handy jiffy pots and some 20 plants were placed in two sunny spots and dutifully staked. Rouge de Marmande, Beefsteaks, Tigerellas, Black Russians, Oxhearts, Black Krims, Brandy Wines, Romas, Principe Borghese, and Grosse Lisse to name most of this year’s selection. Rows were under planted with sweet basil, several varieties of thyme and proper French tarragon.
When I left for India early February it seemed we might not get a fantastic ripening season, but to the contrary, it has been a bumper year with warm and hot days interspersed with summer rains.
Elsewhere, we planted several heirloom varieties of eggplant (that have been rather slow), several varieties of beans, amaranth, different coloured beets, cucumbers for pickling and eating, zucchini of course (that needs daily inspection or else can run away from you and turn quickly into giant marrow), a wide selection of lettuces.

Efforts to raise seedlings of Pimientos de Padrón available from The Italian Gardener in Canberra were left too late in the season to succeed. We shall renew efforts around this superb Galician pepper that is typically served at Spanish markets, when in season, fried in fine olive until they blister and dusted with sea salt. Eating these sweet, herbaceous, occasionally hot little peppers is a little like Russian roulette as you never can tell which might be the hot one and immediately transports you back to early mornings at La Boqueria in Barcelona where they are served from the little bars. The pimientos were so well received at our Christmas cooking class at the end of 2009, most students decided to order them for their own Christmas day celebrations. For gourmands who want easy access to them the pimientos can be mail ordered from inspired musician/farmer Richard Mohan who grows exotic produce in the Noosa hinterlands and whose growing season ends late May early June. To order them Go To>
It may also be worth investigating if Andrew Wood, formerly originator, publisher and Editor of the much missed Divine magazine and now organic farmer on a rich granite strip near Heathcote , Glenora Heritage Produce, succeeded in growing them this Summer.

The cavolo nero cannot be killed. I have never encountered a plant that continues to reward through the seasons and for over 12 months. The new leaves became the most appreciated treat for the three chooks inherited from a friend’s over-crowded run. Sybille, Eunice and Polly have brought a lively vitality to the garden, and have been spoiled with hand feeding of the said kale, as well as copious snails, caterpillars and slugs picked off the vegetables, oyster and clam shells and the like. Such spoiling has rewarded the kitchen with almost daily eggs of the most intense saffron coloured yolks. And their eggs have spoiled the cook from, well, really being able to ever buy eggs again.

The other delightful edible discovery was Malabar Spinach (basella alba) my friend Connie raised from seed from Diggers Club. With some of the characteristics in terms of taste of Kankung, the aquatic sub tropical plant Ipomoea aquatica, or Water Convolvulus widely grown and beloved in SE Asia, this extremely pretty and fetching vine is fast-growing, soft-stemmed, reaching as high as 10 m. Its thick, semi-succulent, heart-shaped leaves have a mild flavour and mucilaginous texture that can be used much as English Spinach, or mixed with other greens.

As we go to press, and venture off to the outback for a serendipitous camping expedition, we have pulled most of the summer garden that is now on its last legs. The abundance has fed us and friends continuously for nigh on five months. To the garden’s bounty we have also been adding treasures from the sea: fresh abalone, pippies, calamari, crabs.

FROM THE SEA:

Just after returning from India in early March was a weekend that included 2 of the permitted 60 days that the holder of an amateur fishing licence is allowed to bag a few and strictly limited blacklip Abalone (Haliotis rubra). These beautiful creatures are gastropod (stomach-footed) molluscs. Their soft bodies consist of a large muscular foot (the edible part) and internal organs that are protected by one flat ear-shaped shell. The colour of the foot generally gives the species its name. The outside of the shell is coloured to blend in with their habitat of browns, reds and green. The inside of the shell is silvery in colour much like mother-of-pearl and the meat is specially prized by Asians as an exceptional delicacy.

The weather was magical, almost sublime with very low high tides, inky calm translucent waters, sparkling days, cloudless blue skies and near perfect sea temperatures for swimming. This was my first ever experience of handling absolutely fresh abalone straight from the sea. In Kauai last year we had the chance to work with frozen shells the size of small footballs, but this was entirely a different kettle of fish, and very exciting.
Extensive web research revealed basically 2 schools of thinking for shucking and cleaning the shells’ meat, the Japanese-style one seeming to be all together more culinarily intelligent and respectful of such exotic, live, raw produce, as well as being efficient and the least messy. In short, it is possible to cleverly extract the delicate white meat and leave behind all the guts attached to the shell.
Once cleaned, the common school of slicing the ab is to cut horizontally, parallel to the bottom of the shell, then use a mallet to tenderize. We sliced half this way, but so thinly that beating the fillets seemed redundant. The other half were sliced in wafer thin vertical slices with a sushi knife.
To round off the experiment we also cooked the abalone in two different ways. The first half were briefly seared in beurre noisette and simply finished with some tamari. The remainder were lightly dusted in besan (chickpea) flour with spices and sea salt and shallow fried in olive oil to crisp the exterior.
Both were quite outstanding in flavour and the texture in the two different cooking techniques imperceptible. Very rich, a rare treat, but one to look forward to again at a future date.

Another of this season’s joyful discoveries has been the humble Pipi (Donax deltoids), closely related to cockles, clams and vongole, valued by our local Mediterranean communities and able to hand-harvested from the intertidal grassy shallows of the Bay. A marine bivalve mollusc with a smooth wedge-shaped, cream to pale brown shell (sometimes slightly yellow or green and with pinky-purple bands) containing dark (often bluey-purple) meat, they should be cooked after a 24 hour cleansing and exude a most fabulous juice.
Spaghetti Vongole was my first welcome home meal and we have repeated it several times since.

To Prepare:
Take the collected pippies and after rinsing, place in a bucket of fresh sea water in a cool shady place or overnight. An hour or two before they are needed, place in a bucket of fresh water with a cup of polenta. All this effort is an attempt to rid them of their sand. Some of our fellow fishermen on the local jetties have advised that they place them on large racks sitting above a shallow quantity of sea water, so they freely spit out the sand from their shells.

To Cook:
One kilo of fresh pippies will make a fine meal for up to 4 persons
Boil until al dente, a fine hand rolled spaghetti such as Martelli or Rustichelli in a large pot of salted boiling water, drain and toss with a little extra virgin olive oil. Set aside until needed.
In a large deep fry pan, melt half butter and half olive oil. Sauté gently a cup or more of finely diced red onion or eschallots and several cloves of fresh crushed garlic and 1-2 dried chillis. When meltingly tender, add 1/2 cup of semi-sweet vermouth and half a bottle of white wine. Simmer until the juices are somewhat reduced. May be prepared ahead to this stage.
To Finish:
Bring the onion base back to the boil. Add drained pippies and a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes sliced in half. Cover the pot. Check at 3 minutes and toss. Cook another 2-3 minutes until pippies are open. They will have thrown off a considerable quantity of their own sweet juice. Add the cooked spaghetti and toss to heat through. At the end, add a handful of sliced flat leaf parsley and a large nugget of fine butter to add sheen and richness.
For a more Asian-style version see Rodney Dunn’s recipe.

Private and Small Group Travel

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For the determinedly independent traveler we are extremely well placed to design bespoke arrangements for you any where in India for any length of time. We have designed trips for honeymooners seeking romance, for highflying corporates who wish to better understand India personally as well within a global perspective, and for revelers who want to design amazingly different parties.

A RECENT TESTIMONIAL:
30 March 2010
Marieke
A note to thank you for all you and your India office did to make our holiday such a success.
I went with high expectations which resulted from my keen interest in India and the era of the Raj. Our expectations were easily exceeded.
The guides, managers and particularly Devender who drove us and did so much to enhance the whole experience, were overall excellent.
It hard to come up with a complaint but even harder to come up with a stand out highlight although I must say how much we enjoyed the villages around Narlai, Shaphura and Delwara and Jodpur (great guide) as a city. The spoil was just that.
The local people are wonderful and it was an added bonus to meet with Maya and her charming family and with Durga Singh and his family who made us feel as if we were guest in a home rather in a “hotel”.
Thank you for all your planning which fitted in well and for your recommendations as to where to stay.
Since coming home I am doing a lot of reading – Kipling, Tod and a more recent work about the 18-21st centuries in India. I think I am a bit of a romantic in this regard and I think of India in the past as much as in the presence. The trip took me back in time and that was very special.

I can’t wait for a second round.
Kind regards,

Hugh Davies, Melbourne

Often in life we just wish to gather around us a few like-minded spirits and undertake a great and unique adventure. The following indicative itineraries are available to groups of at least 4 to 6 travellers. From the moment you land every small detail has been attended to, from excellent guides, to the best available accommodation and interaction with remote villages and adorable people.

Hidden Bhutan: The Last Himalayan Shangri-la

This once isolated Buddhist Kingdom is rapidly transitioning into the 21st C having recently anointed a new king as well as voting in its first democracy. Yet it remains a fascinating destination of immense natural beauty with soaring peaks and vast valleys, a culture where its architecture seamlessly combines the secular and the spiritual under one roof, with a people clinging to fabulous creativity and ancient traditions as they negotiate modernity. This tour can offer any combination of trekking, great luxury, exuberant festivals, and idyllic remoteness….
The ideal times for travel to Bhutan are April/May and September/October. For More Information Go To>

Forbidden Himalayas May or September

In the northeast of Himachal Pradesh fringing the Tibetan plateau lie ancient tributaries to the Silk Route that were until recently almost inaccessible to even the most tenacious of travelers. Today the mystique of the Kinnaur and Spiti Valleys can be visited in a combination of jeep safaris and gentle trekking with possible extensions to Leh and Ladakh. These legendary routes chronicle a fascinating blend of Buddhism and Hinduism as well as startlingly diverse landscapes from thick pine forests and fruit orchards, to snow clad peaks and moonscapes with lakes and monasteries. Contact Us for Further Information

Indian Wildlife Discoveries

With an uncle a founding member of Project Tiger in 1973, my Indian Director is not only passionate about Indian wildlife but has developed an extensive network of the most highly trained and experienced naturalists to provide wonderful interpretative experiences. Moreover, the luxury Taj hotel group have teamed up with CC Africa expertise to now provide four luxurious game lodges with Mahua Kothi in Bandhavgarh being India’s first Relais et Chateaux property and their Pench and Panna properties stealing multiple awards from travel and design magazines this year. Search the elusive snow leopard or view the endangered Bengal tiger from the back of an elephant.
Make a wildlife safari of India your sole focus or allow us to plan an extra week after one of our tours. For Sample Itineraries Go To>

2011 Tours + THE INDIAN PORTFOLIO

2010-04-01T00:02:00.006+11:00

No one knows India like we do. Certainly this complex, intriguing and beguiling destination deserves at least one visit in a lifetime. Perhaps nowhere is there such a powerful expression of humanity. Our tours go far beneath the tourist veil to provide an intimate engagement with her people, culture and marvellous cuisine while ensuring your every comfort along the way.
I invite you to join us on one of these distinctive tours.

Royal Tented Camps + Exotic Estates of Rajasthan: our classic luxury experience: 10-23 January 2011

Our perennially popular, exotic and exclusive Royal Rajasthan tour highlights the best of genuine Rajasthan culture and glorious heritage properties and palaces. We always celebrate HH Maharaja Jodhpur’s birthday at his Umaid Bhawan palace.
This very special tour takes in desert landscapes, private tented camps, stately regal palaces and a plethora of specially commissioned cultural events.

At the conclusion of next year’s tour, we plan a very special 3-day extension at Dera Mandawa, a gorgeous boutique new private property so guests can discover William Dalrymple’s Jaipur Literary Festival as well as special events from the Heritage Festival. The festival programme for 2011 includes readings, talks, literary lunches, debates, performances and interactive activities held in the beautiful heritage property, Diggi Palace in central Jaipur. Already they have gathered luminaries from the world of literature including Richard Ford, Adam Gopnick, Annie Proulx, JM Coetzee, Junot Diaz, Nick Laird, Andrew Solomon, Malcom Gladwell to name a few.
Reservations are now being accepted.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Gujarat Tribals+ Textiles: commences 30 January 2011

A special tour for those who love the road less travelled, have an adventurous heart and wish to experience fast disappearing lifestyles away from tourist crowds.
Collectors of superb textiles, photographers and explorers will thrill to this journey that also highlights remarkable architectural heritage.
We meet in Ahmedabad, the surprisingly charming and fascinating capital of Gujarat. Despite its modern day advances and relative affluence, travelling through the State of Gujarat is like stepping back in time where surviving tribes live often nomadic and traditional lifestyles with immense creativity. There are also outstanding examples of Islamic and Hindu architecture often in a state of better preservation than can be found in Rajasthan.

“It was a truly remarkable trip, and I cannot say enough how much I admire your attention to detail, logistical prowess, standards, energy and ability to make a group cohere( inspired cocktails!) . You paced it all perfectly, calibrating the experience like a theatre director. I have made a list of eleven people I am going to write to about the trip and about the experience of traveling with you, we'll see who nibbles and says they want to know more...

I know that many things will stay with me for life about this trip, and have inspired me on so many levels about day to day living.”

Namaste! C xx

This Tour can be combined with Royal Rajasthan and or the Jaipur Literary festival 2011 Extensions

2010 Tours

2009-11-23T17:44:00.001+11:00

‘If you want to travel quickly, go alone;
if you want to travel far, go together.’
African proverb

As a new service to our clients and guests we are now charging in the currencies that apply to how tours are paid. We trust this is in our clients’ best interests as a measure to avoid the volatility of money markets in the last year. Effectively this means two things. Across the board, tour costs based on current exchange rates are coming in at 2006/7 prices and on average represent savings in the vicinity of $2000 per person. Moreover, your funds are secured into a trust account, so you can park your funds in advance at a time you choose to be most in your favour.

To View the fabulous Portfolio of 2010 Tours go to>

postcards from america

2009-11-18T17:03:00.009+11:00

Private Cooking in Kauai:
When B asked me to join her invitation as a private chef for a family reunion on the island of Kauai, it was an irresistible way to escape the winter doldrums. Kauai is a small green island that lies in the northwest of the Hawaiian archipelago (the world’s most isolated group of islands at almost 3000kms distance from the nearest continent).

The patriarch’s 90th birthday was the occasion to bring together nearly 30 members spanning four generations. The hub of activities was a wonderful 19thC plantation house built by early missionaries on Hanalei Bay. My greatest anxiety was that we might not have much more than taro, pineapple and fish to cook with for 2 weeks, but we were to be pleasantly surprised.
A volcanic tropical paradise of 60,000 people and haven for outdoor enthusiasts with caves to explore, seas to fish and kayak, steep pinnacles to trek, waves to surf, lagoons and bays to swim and rivers to paddle, Kauai boasts one of the world’s highest rainfalls at over 400”!
The Pacific island “life a la manjana” mentality draws a mix of old hippies living “au naturel”, wealthy mainlanders with sprawling holiday estates, and a local mix of islanders (Hawaiian, Filipino etc) whose traditional cultures have long been wiped out by earlier missionaries.
Most dawns brought a torrent of rain ensuring a phenomenal growth rate for plants, followed by brilliant sunshine. The island’s most renowned fish providore was only around the corner with daily supplies of ahi (tuna), mahimahi (dolphin fish), ono (wahoo), uku (snapper), monchong (a type of pomfret) remarkable for their size and freshness but lacking finesse when it came to breaking the fish down.

Hanalei also boasted a twice-weekly farmers’ market and an outstanding albeit expensive organic healthfood shop. Less than 20 minutes away at Kapaa and Kilauea were two other farmers’ markets.
These markets proved to be our godsend, especially the stalls of Hannah and Maria, who had Asian treasures in their garden that they brought to sell specially for us: freshly dug turmeric and new season ginger, curry leaves, cinnamon leaves, lemongrass and unusual herbs.
Luscious mangos and rich creamy avocados were the size of footballs. Sugarloaf pineapples were white-fleshed, intensely sweet and non acidic. Lilikoi and sunrise papayas were super fragrant.
The variety of fruits was heady – rose apples, custard fruit, lychees, a native cherry, Buddha’s hand, jackfruit, carambola, dragonfruit – and heavenly because they are all sun-ripened and ready for eating immediately or within days. The vegetable sections were just as inspiring with a wide variety of lettuces, Asian greens, watercress, plump eggplant, delicate beans and flavoursome tomatoes.

Not much for formality, the family gathered, after cocktails on the lanai, at a long table in a dining room that served as museum to the Wilcox family history, and grazed at elaborate buffets that ranged from homely to “piss elegant”. Desserts were a highlight and inevitably pavlova appeared on the menu as well as pecan pie. Fresh abalone hauled over from California by one of the guests involved great skill in preparing it for cooking, a hefty task and not for the faint-hearted. Well versed in the art, Eric whiled away an afternoon removing the abalone from their shells and detaching the feet, the innards, the guts and the skin. Pounded, sliced and fried, they were much appreciated.
In other ways this part of the world is reminiscent of an earlier era where helmets are not worn, kids climb into the back of utes and open fires are allowed on the beach. BBQing with the sand between the toes was a treat, as were the daily swims.

AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS:

This visit to America was not without trepidation. After all, the political landscape under Bush was hardly enamouring and it had been nearly two decades since my last visit. In that time since Reagan considerable disillusion had set in, indeed a sort of grieving given that typically perhaps of a child born in the fifties, America had been the first foreign culture to fall in love with for its sense of freedom and idealism and a cultural view of happiness and possibility that pervaded our growing up. Our mythic idyll was youth culture and easy living lifestyles of back yard barbeques and beach holidays, but also the assassination of Kennedy, the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement, the Black Panthers, feminism…And now with the mire of Katrina, the Iraq War and the scandals of Wall Street and economic collapse to confront found my view to be perplexed.
Paradoxically there were many surprises in store, not least the realisation that the great things about America are still there, but most joyfully an absence of ageism, a sense of optimism, an eagerness and way of being open around ideas, experiments, and a “can-do” mentality.

Our journey meandered from autumnal Park City to Cambridge, Boston, Cape Cod and New York, where the air was somewhat rarified and bore little resemblance to the increasingly depressing aspects of myopic, fundamentalist, prejudiced, parochial middle America described in another wonderful American journey, Don Watson’s recent meditation and observation over nearly 40,000 kilometres travelled by trains and road that had formed my preparatory reading.

Park City was between seasons, ablaze with reds and golds as trees donned their autumn colour and in party-mode. Renowned as a ski resort and major home to Sundance Film festival screenings, this old silver mining town has been beautifully conserved. In September the locals maximize as it as an outdoor playground for trekking, fly fishing, cycling. They also celebrate a sense of community and creativity with weekly outdoor street markets and the high street galleries all opened late one night. A stand out was the brickart exhibition by lawyer turned Lego sculptor, Nathan Sawaya whose life size pieces are composed of many thousand toy building blocks creating humorous, challenging, startling, mostly anthropomorphic 3-D pieces.

LIGHTER LIVING
Other than picture perfect seaside villages, a dreamscape of marshes, wild cranberry bogs, the steely gray of the Atlantic Ocean, and picturesque shingle-clad and clapboard colonial houses in Cape Cod, the main reason to visit this gorgeous outpost of Boston was to see my sister and meet my 9-year old nephew for the first time and also reconnect with a niece I last saw during my birthday celebrations in Rajasthan seven years ago.
Evolving familial relationships over time and distance is not without challenges. Somehow our memories of each can be trapped in the time warp of the era when we left the country.
None the less there are those things that bind as we discovered parallel lives in some aspects: an enduring passion for good food and wines, a fascination with prevention rather than cure in the pursuit of well-being and good health. Where my life-changing passion has been yoga, Marjolein’s has been Pilates. Over fifteen years she has built a successful enterprise and is now recognized as a master of the Pilates Method, and as the premier expert in home Pilates reformers. She has brought Pilates reformers and quality training videos into hundreds of thousands of households all over the world.
Her Lighter Living brand has also developed a range of complimentary products for living life well from stunning probiotic food bars, to nutritional powders, an organic skin and body care range to a mattress made not only for sublime sleep but also perfect lumbar support. She brings a lot of fun and joy as well as ethical intelligence and tools for healthy living.

New York New York

For a decade my most beloved city has been Paris followed closely by Istanbul. Now there is a new contender after visiting New York again. Six days was simply not enough time to get reacquainted with this grand dame after an absence of 20 years. Friends and frequent visitors to this vibrant of vibrant cities armed me with their list of recommendations. The indispensable guide was “City Secrets New York”, the brilliant volume in an innovative travel series masterminded and edited by the architect Robert Kahn (it also includes the cities of Italy, London, Rome and soon to be released, Paris and Beijing).
New York contributors include novelists, journalists, poet laureate Mark Strand, neurologist Oliver Sacks, architects Richard Meier and Philip Johnson, MoMA director Glenn Lowry and many others including historians, urban archaeologists, gourmets, curators and filmmakers. Their essays range from the erudite to the humorous, the scholarly to the quirky but together create a grand tour of the city’s art, food, shopping, architecture, and cultural and historic landmarks in all five boroughs. The books are elegant, clothbound and fit in your pocket.

Having just read Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn, set inn the 1950's, it was fascinating to stay amongst the new bohemian scene of Williamsburg and see the rapid gentrification of once gritty immigrant enclaves. The downside is that for old habitués, increasing rents are already driving them to find new spaces. And throughout the city many storefront closings are the superficial signs of the battering from the recession.

Case in point, our talented sculptor friend Farah has had to move studio spaces five times in as many years and was displaying her most recent work in a new condo complex in the hope that this would encourage more passing traffic to see her wonderful “mosquito” series.

Small museums allow you to survey a marvellous collection in entirety in a single visit. I had absolutely loved the Frick Collection all those years ago and this time visited the stunning, intimate Neue Gallerie housed in an elegant Vanderbilt mansion and home to a superb collection of 20thC German and Austrian paintings and decorative art. The cafés with their turn of the century décor and Viennese specialties were drawing even bigger crowds that the Kokoschka retrospective on at the time. It was wonderful to be up close and personal with their glorious Klimt, an artist I fist fell in love with when I lived as a young student in Vienna in 1970.

If you are visiting this grand city soon do not miss the spellbinding William Blake exhibition on until early January. These superlative watercolours allow you to appreciate the creativity of this astounding visionary. From the impressive collections at The Morgon Library and Museum, another New York treasure.

The Greenmarket at Union Square was an absolute revelation in possibility for access to truly superior and extremely affordable, fresh, often organic produce available four times a week in the middle of a vast city. I visited each day it was open, revelling in the variety of late summer harvest: heritage tomatoes of every colour and shape, a huge variety of squash and autumn mushrooms, wild-caught fish and seafood, late season deeply perfumed peaches, nectarines and figs and early apples and pears direct from upstate farms, even New York wines. Nearby on Bleeker Street wonderful Mediterranean delis and bread shops and particularly Murrays Cheese Shop supplemented the shopping basket with delicacies and deliciousness. Also around the corner, Wholefoods and Trader Joes, stores the likes of which are as yet completely unknown to us here, provided the doings for several excellent lunches.

Macro, now closed, had clearly been inspired by the model, but was absurdly expensive even for the well-heeled. In the States, despite their reputation for an indifferent and mass produced eating culture, these stores thrive because the variety available is vast, the quality is outstanding compared with the average supermarket shelf, the commitment to truly natural and organic is all pervasive, and the pricing is both fair and very affordable.
Indeed a week in the big apple revealed how very reasonable it is to eat and drink very well. $12 buys you a stunning cocktail (120mls of top shelf liquor in the base), $55 a superb seasonal tasting menu in a Michelin rated restaurant (such as Dressler in Brooklyn), and $7.99 a pound of any combination of salads and hot dishes from Wholefoods that are well seasoned, flavoursome and still lively with freshness. Coming home drew stark attention to how costly our food has become, to wit $75 a kg of King George Whiting fillets or $45 for flathead.

I caught up with a friend who left Australia 10 years ago. Returning to the States she changed her course in life and trained as a chef in New York at ICE®. On 11 September 2001 Darlene was responsible for a promotion of Spanish Food and Wine at Windows on the World. She rang in early that morning to make sure her team was on schedule as she had been delayed. The rest as we know is history. Her response was to become the Director for Windows of Hope, a charitable foundation that raised some $24million in the last decade to assist in myriad ways the members of some 150 families who lost loved ones who worked in the food, beverage and hospitality industries in the World Trade Center attack. In this time she became acquainted with so many of the cities leading chefs who supported her fundraising endeavours and has now established her own consultancy business. Today this means she can snare for friends just hitting town even the most hard won tables at the best restaurants. In chatting over new directions she mentioned her best dining experiences this year, enjoyed with other chefs:

Swiss by birth, Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park that has just won a four start accolade from the New York Times, and Corton, located in the heart of Tribeca. Corton is a partnership between renowned restaurateur Drew Nieporent and chef Paul Liebrandt.

The last high note was walking the new High Line. What a fabulous revivification of the derelict railway that used to service the meatpacking district for over a century. Spanning 22 city blocks between and through buildings starting at Gansevoort Street and 10th, this new public space was being hugely enjoyed by New Yorkers on a late summer’s day. For more wonderful photos of its progress since 2006 go to this link.
A visionary effort on the part of a residents group, this 3rd level park (reminiscent of the beautiful walk recreated over the old viaducts in Paris, Promenade Plantée (Coulée Verte) 11e + 12e) has jaw dropping views of the Hudson River, over the Chelsea Piers to New Jersey, all the way down to the distant silhouette of the statue of Liberty and close up and personal with the daring new Standard, anything but standard hotel by André Balazs.
I most admired the gentle perfumes wafting up from the very naturalistic mostly indigenous planting, such an antidote to the concrete smell of the city, the integration into the design of its original function by incorporating tracks, the built in wooden seating, beautifully crafted, for sunbathing, gathering, conversation and contemplation.
Negronis and a perfect Côtes-du-Rhône was enjoyed at the bustling Pastis owned by Keith McNally, along with a hearty and authentic gratinéed onion soup.
This W 14th precinct also boasts some terrific fashion icons such as the genius Alexander McQueen, Yohji Yamamoto, Stella McCartney, the mother-ship for Apple-heads, the Chelsea markets, so wonderful for browsers and shoppers with deep pockets alike.

Lastly, I also caught up with the brains behind Tour de Forks, Lisa and Melissa who originally hails from Australia. They brought me up to date on their latest developments. The girls have recently joined the travel board at Bon Appétit. Their theme and motivation is to offer Uncommon Epicurean Adventures and the discovery of history, culture and people - through cuisine. Testimonials from guests who have undertaken their tours have raved especially about their unrivalled programmes in Sicily where famed author, Mary Taylor Simetti conducts their market tour and Puglia. New to their portfolio next year are South Africa’s CapeTown and Winelands, and Julia Child’s Paris + Provence.
Together we are collaborating on a culinary program in Rajasthan in October. The tour will bring to bear the evolution of my fifteen year relationship with the kitchens of north India: private homes, royal palaces, swank hotels, spirited young chefs, traditions and innovations.

showcase of young chefs at cutler&co

2009-11-18T14:33:00.000+11:00

From the one hundred diners who had assembled for the 'Seconds to the Fore' Degustation in the gorgeous room at Cutler + Co, on a typically wintry Melbourne Sunday, there rose a sigh of immense pleasure.

The lunch was born from my curiosity to learn about the directions, influences and aspirations that mould the new generation of cooks and how this might augur for future dining and to challenge young chefs to use humble ingredients, with skill, flair and imagination.

Gentleman amongst chefs and surprisingly humble to boot, Andrew McConnell (“The Age” 2010 Chef of the Year) once again agreed to an exploratory collaboration volunteering not only his divine Fitzroy space but his chefs at Cumulus, the young Josh Murphy as well as John Paul Twomey from Cutler & Co. Wanting to balance the genders and metro/rural, I also invited Brooke Payne from Momo, Leilani Wolfenden then floating at Comme and Anthony Simone from Bright in NE Victoria.
Continue reading

from the chair: books

2009-11-18T14:20:00.000+11:00

A young friend with a dual passion for wine and sustainable environments recently located to London and has landed a lucky job at a refreshingly independent innovative publishing house. Founded in 2003 by Barbara Schwepcke with encouragement from the late, great writer and exasperated professor, WG Sebald, Haus publishing has specialised in quality non-fiction and produced amongst others a series of short biographies.
3 years ago they added a list of literary travel writing, the Armchair Traveller, which brought it critical acclaim. They’ve so far published 29 of an anticipated 80 books around the world. More recently Haus has expanded into fiction with a special interest in Arabic literature.

There is something so very alluring about small books that fit so nicely in the hand, pack so easily into a handbag, are so gorgeously produced in lovely cream paper with an appealing layout and are also rich in ideas (see also Penguin’s pocket philosophy series and Melbourne University’s Little Books on Big Themes series).
Of the Armchair Traveller series I have so far loved:
· Spain Body and Soul written by a Dutchman who came to live in Madrid, whose appreciation for Spanish spiritedness and food shines in the memories, eating anecdotes and recipes;
· Hidden Bhutan, endearing for its deep empathy with such a rapidly changing culture, and humorous insight into the peculiarities of its people and capacity for truly adventurous trekking;
I look forward to the much praised Mumbai to Mecca by the prestigious writer Ilija Trojanow who also authored Along the Ganges (voted one of the best travel books of all time by Condé Nast Traveller).

In all, a highly recommended series for people researching a new destination, wanting to recall memories of a beloved place already visited or simply for those readers who do not want to vacate the comfort of their chair to be intelligently engaged, have their inquisitiveness aroused or to discover a perfect antidote to the style of travel writing enshrined by rough or lonely.
Haus have a vibrant web page and books can be ordered on line.

art of cuisine

2009-11-18T13:49:00.005+11:00

Coming up 29 November is a class on Christmas Treats and Summer Entertaining with inspired salads and the art of poaching to create lovely cooling foods. Contact Us To Make a Booking
We shall also prepare wonderful gifts such as perfect Panforte, real Florentines, yummy fig and hazelnut log. Only 2 places left!

From Art of Cuisine Kitchens: In the spirit of things Indian, some of the students donned pretty salwar kameez to attend our recent cooking class in the King Valley. This was my second visit this year to a glorious property set on a bend in the King River, with its extensive orchards, nut trees and vast concrete hoops sporting lush seasonal organic produce. India is still many countries in one, each state offering gloriously diverse cuisines that are never represented in our restaurants, which tend to a generic heavy Mughal repertoire. Over fifteen years of leading tours to the subcontinent, I have had the good fortune to spend time and cook with chefs who have been kept in forts and palaces as royal retainers for decades, with outstanding home cooks from rich Hindi, Muslim, Syrian Christian or Arabic traditions, with Mumbai and Delhi-trained chefs in swank properties and with families who guard family secrets. This has allowed me to glean a vast repertoire of dishes to share with students. In our western servant-less kitchens, tackling an Indian banquet is not for the fainthearted yet certainly appealing to those with adventurous palates. But do not embark on the mission without at least a blender or coffee mill for grinding. Continue reading Indian cuisine: variety The intricacy, variety and subtle nuances of Indian cooking have nothing to do with curry.

The artful blending of spices create masalas that are the heart of Indian cooking. A masala is a dry roasted spice combination, or spices mixed into pastes with ginger, garlic and other ingredients.
Cooking over fire is the norm for rural folk, but wealthy kitchens include an outdoor kitchen that is fire based alongside a more modern setup.
Despite Hindu taboos, meat is beloved by Rajputs and Chettiars alike and almost never browned first.
Food from Gujarat almost always carries a sweetened undertone even when it is savoury. Rarely is the food very hot – chilli-based chutneys and pickles are served only as accompaniments.
The finest cooking is light in oil and prepared à la minute to maintain maximum freshness and delicacy. To this day, even in metro apartments, fridges are bare as servants are sent at least twice daily to local markets and passing barrows to shop for each meal.

In the south, much of the cuisine incorporates a medicinal understanding based on Ayurvedic principals so people eat according to the season, according to their “dosha” type and for the effect the food will have on their current state of body and mind. This is what we created for the class. It was enjoyed outside under a vast canopy of stars, with a massive fire to alleviate the chill and the gurgling river to provide the music.

Quail Curry from Bangala
Fish in Banana Leaf from Bengal
Millet Kedgeree from Nimaj
Eggplant with Tamarind Tomato sauce
Cabbage with mustard seeds and curry leaves
Cauliflower and masala sauce
Carrot Halwa with drained Cardamom Organic Yoghurt

Other classes that have been well received this year have been the De-mystified Duck sessions, and those celebrating the abundance of Autumn and Winter.

from the garden + kitchen

2009-11-18T13:10:00.001+11:00

November 2009:
Before leaving for the States in September we planted an all-organic, modest but intense and efficient vegetable garden, a small espaliered orchard of citrus and stone fruit under-planted with poppies, and indulged in some spring bulbs, and, with a determination to only water productive plants, we prayed for rain in our absence.

I have just been enjoying the fruits of labour from this my fifth vegetable garden.
Blessed by a Spring abundant in rain and spells of warmth whilst we were away travelling in America, we returned to vegetable plots that looked as if they had been overrun by triffids. Gardening for the first time in sandy soils on the Mornington Peninsula coast was a learning curve, but I’ve inherited the foundations of a vegetable plot from an earlier predecessor at this location. By all accounts he was an eccentric hermit who had the entire back garden under production and we have been constantly surprised by the generous consequences: lavishly self-seeding rainbow silverbeet (chard), continental parsley, meaty oakleaf lettuce and warrigal greens.

The initial investment in copious loads of local chicken manure, top soil and mushroom compost reaped a richness that has been feeding us and friends for some time: spinach, broadbeans, broccoli, lime green stemmed and succulent cauliflower, the said silverbeet and parsley, tatsoi, red pak choy, bok choy, mizuna, 5 varieties of rocket (seed bequeathed by friends), a variety of lettuces, romanesco, snow peas, cavolo nero (black tuscan kale) and radishes. I have always been a fan of the Diggers Club. Now nearly my neighbours, they provide not only inspiration with their wondrous Heronswood garden but also the seed mostly gleaned from heritage, non-mainstream and Seed Savers networks.

Cooking directly from the garden, knowing that the produce is organically raised, tasting the succulence and vitality of produce that has not travelled or been stored is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

The rewards in the kitchen have included:
· my favourite parsley salad, originally inspired by that wonderful chef Janni Kyritsis and now a weekly staple. Made with chopped olives, capers, Parmigianino, lemon zest and juice, diced cornichons, lots of EVOO and white pepper and optionally anchovies, preferably the white ones and or shallots
· endless variations of spanakopita made with a special home made phyllo pastry I pick up from Smith Street when in town
· stir fried greens most often flavoured with the holy trinity of garlic, ginger and chilli, moistened with miso and served over raw salad greens.
· Baby broadbeans, radishes and peas, a grazer’s delight, hardly make it to the kitchen but if they do are simply cooked in butter or olive oil or tossed with crisp pancetta.
· the cavolo nero, combined with phenomenally protein and mineral rich wild stinging nettles (carefully kept in check) that together bestow a powerful quotient of antioxidants.

Some basic tips

For a beautiful broth:
We often prepare a herb and spice based broth: a slow distillation of ginger, galangal, lemongrass, garlic, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, makrut lime leaves, that forms the basis for a variety of dishes: Asian style broth enriched by greens and rice noodles or quinoa, a poaching liquid for fish from the Bay, a richer soup with the addition of coconut milk.
The healthful garnish:
The nourishing “sprinkle” that garnishes almost every meal is made from unhulled sesame seeds and dried seaweed (wakame). The sesame seeds are soaked with sea salt overnight, then drained and dry roasted in a low oven until golden.
The wakame is blitzed in a blender until fine, the seeds added and just given a few seconds to combine.
Stored in airtight jars, this is an instant “super food”.

In preparation for Summer and the festive season, we have also undertaken a “cleanse”, enforcing the usual detox taboos on alcohol, wheat, sugar and coffee, and taking in lots of water and vegetable juices. If you feel inspired you can monitor our progress at Baxter’s diary on http://www.palateearth.com/

As I write the poppies have come into full bloom. I adore poppies: California, Flanders, Shirley, Himalayan, Iceland whatever, but have never succeeded in growing them in previous gardens. This winter with seed heads saved from several friends’ gardens, I mixed them with a good seed raising mix and liberally strewed them in the orchard. They have bloomed into a vast carpet in myriad shades of pink, cerise, lilac, vermillion and blood red, with gorgeous back blotches at the base of deeply ruffled petals and intricate stamens.
I am also reminded of the prevalent amnesia about the perilousness of the water supply. It has suddenly turned very dry and we need to remain vigilant about water conservation, the folly of green lawns, and the imperative for productive gardens. No amount of desalination plants or vast pipelines robbing the countryside should delude us into thinking there is a long term solution around the corner.

Last week a friend loaned me a documentary, “Juliette of the Herbs” made in 1998 as a tribute to Juliette de Bairacli Levy who died this year at 96. Born to a wealthy Jewish Egyptian Turkish family in Manchester before WWI, she left home to roam with the gypsies and nomads of the world after completing a university education. This is a lyrical and instructive portrait of a life lived attentively, intuitively, gleefully, profoundly, wisely. Juliette was an amazing herbalist with a special interest in animals and children. She created 10 Mediterranean-style gardens in her lifetime, all of which contained her most essential of healing herbs, rosemary and wormwood (from the Artemisia family). In the next phase of the garden I too intend to create a well-rounded culinary and medicinal herb garden.