Crab salad, cucumber jelly

Chicken liver paté, raspberries, caramelised onion, toast

Barramundi, asparagus, lemon butter, candied lemon and lime zest

Grilled chicken, glutinous rice, kale, Indonesian-style jus

Lamb fillet, pumpkin mash, candied eggplant/aubergine, grilled pepper/capsicum, griddled spring onion, Kalamata olives, balsamic jus

Perfect with Pierre Gaillard Saint Joseph 2011.

Crottin de Chavignol, Comté, croutons, cinnamon sugared almonds, Christmas relish

Lavender and orange blossom honey icecream, pomegranate seeds, toffee pistachios, pomegranate molasses

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Plain and Vegemite gougère

Surf, Turf ‘n’ Garden

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Barramundi, bacon, peas, asparagus, lemon butter

“Steak”

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Watermelon steak, feta, mint

Braised pork belly, galangal-scented salad, Szechuan pepper toffee

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Braised pork belly, galangal-scented salad, Szechuan pepper toffee

Lamb fillet, eggplant purée, mint salad, rosemary lamb jus

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Lamb fillet, eggplant purée, mint salad, rosemary lamb jus

Manchego, Comté/St Agur, poached pear, croutons, spiced walnut

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Manchego, Comté/St Agur, poached pear, croutons, spiced walnuts

Lavender icecream, Manuka honey, scorched almonds

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Lavender icecream, Manuka honey, scorched almonds

Salted Caramel and Peanut Truffles

I remain proud of my “creation” of lavender icecream (actually, in the early days, I was experimenting with vanilla and lavender). I say creation because I’ve never heard of anyone ever making – though I have no doubt it must have been done before. It is a fantastic icecream IMO: “sweet” yet herbal, warm and familiar (yet cold because it’s an icecream), and elusive – because unless you are serving a hardened herb lover, the taster tends to recognise the flavour but is absolutely unable to pin it.

Served here with Manuka honey and scorched almonds, which were a perfect accompaniment.

Lavender icecream, Manuka honey, scorched almonds

Goat cheese and chive ravioli, tomato and basil vinaigrette
A classic flavour combo that just works so well. The “vinaigrette” is more like a light tomato based sauce with sharp acidity.

Goat cheese and chive ravioli, tomato and basil vinaigrette

Celeriac soup, beetroot and red wine emulsion
Rob Feenie’s combo concept-wise. It works pretty well.

Celeriac soup, beetroot and red wine emulsion

Lemon sole, Australian mountain pepper spice, carrot, parsley butter, garlic chips
Halibut, quatre épices rub, poached figs
Essentially two dishes in one, because I just love packing the flavour combos in.
Lemon sole remains a popular N. European fish, particularly in the UK. It’s a delicate fish with a great flavour, and it’s also cheaper than Dover Sole. It doesn’t (or “shouldn’t”) require much treatment, so here I served it with carrot in a parsley butter (coz carrot and parsley work well together, and parsley and butter work well with sole). The garlic crisp and mountain pepper were small touches to just provide some fun (the pepper is a native pepper berry from Tasmania that has quite a hot peppery flavour).
Halibut is amongst my favourite fish, quite unlike many fish due to its firm, almost meaty texture. This fish is great fried, and can take a bit of spice. The figs were essentially poached in port. These components worked surprisingly well together.

The above dishes were served with Bonneau du Martray‘s Corton-Charlemagne 2001. I not think this worked particularly well, but I am not a fan of BdM’s CC (the flavours just aren’t what I look for in white Burgundy) and I may also have been a little tired of it at the time too, since a friend had coincidentally served me blind a different vintage of the same wine a day or two prior. Perhaps I was biased because of this, though really I wouldn’t expect this wine to work with the above dishes particularly well anyway (this wine was opened for what it was, not for the match it might provide).

Lemon sole, Aussie mountain pepper spice, carrot, parsley butter, garlic chips; Halibut, quatre épices rub, poached figs

“Pepper, pita, feta”: stuffed peppers, feta sorbet, spiced fried pita
A wanted to play around with stuffed peppers. I tend to pack them with rice, herbs, tomato sauce and onion. I find they can work fantastically well with red wine if the acidity is kept high (add plenty of vinegar) and they contain Greek quantities of olive oil.

Paired with Château Lagrange St Julien 2003, with which it worked pretty well.

“Pepper, pita, feta”: stuffed peppers, feta sorbet, spiced fried pita

Roquefort cheese, poached pear, spiced toasted walnuts, sweet-wine-poaching reduction
I feel I’ve refined this composed cheese course dish pretty much to the point of perfection. The flavours just work so well together. The pear is poached in a syrup containing white wine and lemon juice, and the nuts are roasted with a little salt, cardamom, cinnamon (perhaps some black pepper or cumin).

I feel this dish pairs very well with a sweet Loire Chenin Blanc. In this case, IIRC, it was Baumard’s 1992 Quarts de Chaumes.

Roquefort cheese, poached pear, spiced toasted walnuts, sweet-wine-poaching reduction

Chocolate dèlice, salted caramel, peanut icecream
Evidently, presentation went a bit wayward.. the diners even joined me in the kitchen at the dish composition phase for some pretty funny cuts and constructions (not shown)… but it tasted pretty good if I do say so myself. Certainly a rich dessert.

Chocolate dèlice, salted caramel, peanut icecream

Weingut Wieninger Gruner Veltliner Nussberg 2006
A reasonably ripe nose of honeydew melon but with some greener (green mango) elements and minerality. The palate is a bit leafy, quite light, very fresh (actually the acid is maybe a tad too high) and a touch hot in the finish. Lacking balance and a bit disappointing.

Tollot-Beaut Savigny-Lès-Beaune Les Lavières 1999
A smooth, rounded nose of dark cherry, forest floor, some earthiness, and quite toasty oak. The palate wasn’t quite “all-together” for us, though I found it hard to pin-point why (maybe because the acidity seemed a tad sharp, maybe not). An attractive nose for me but the palate isn’t quite up to the same standard. It’s still pretty nice though – I definitely enjoyed it.

Domaine des Aubuisières Vouvray Moelleux Le Plan de Jean 2002
Candied fruit nose of dried apricot, dry grass, and maybe some pear drops and canned pineapple. This really has beautiful balance – sweet but nowhere near cloying, nor with high acidity – it’s integrated and graceful. Good typicity and very nice.

The food and food-wine combos:

Seared scallop, banana vinaigrette, vanilla-candied ginger

An experiment partially inspired by Talbot and Kamozawa of Ideas In Food. The banana flavour was too strong (another fruit would work better – I’ve tried lychee before, for e.g., with greater success) but otherwise it worked. The GruV was a possible match but didn’t work. The Vouvray was OK with it, but not great either. A sparkler would probably be better.

Seared scallop, banana vinaigrette, vanilla-candied ginger

Wood smoked pigeon, celeriac puree, root veg, elderberry sauce, hawthorn berry sauce

To an extent I associate wood smoke with autumn, and so I decided to lightly smoke the pigeon prior to cooking it. The resulting flavour was very nice, though it did take away slightly from the gaminess and I feel that it may have made for a poorer combination with the Burgundy. The celeriac and elderberry clashed a little which also took away from the wine experience I think, so maybe a different berry next time. Otherwise this was a very enjoyable combo. Individual components worked well with the Burgundy, particularly the bird – a classic match with good reason I guess.

Wood smoked pigeon, celeriac puree, root veg, elderberry sauce, hawthorn berry sauce

Roquefort, poached pear, walnut gel, spiced toasted walnuts, sweet-wine-poaching reduction

The Vouvray worked with this, as hoped. It was interesting to notice that the nut/pear/reduction components worked better with the wine than the Roquefort. Maybe a Botrytised Semillon would work better with all components, but no matter because for me this dish and wine still provided really nice combos all round.

Roquefort, poached pear, walnut gel, spiced toasted walnuts, sweet-wine-poaching reduction

Acorn crème brûlée, butternut squash icecream

(After picking and roasting acorns from a recent forage I saw an Everitt-Matthias recipe for acorn panna cotta with butternut squash icecream. I took the acorn-squash concept itself but went my own way recipe-wise.)
I don’t tend to feel wine generally works with desserts, but this dessert offered an opportunity to try savoury-associated flavours in a dessert context (such a combo is too weird for some, but others love it – I personally didn’t like the dish so much). I also didn’t make the components too sweet which I think helps. The Vouvray did indeed go OK with this – not perfect, but certainly better than it would with a whole array of other desserts IMO. I’m wondering if maybe savoury-flavour orientated desserts could open up new/improved sweet wine matching possibilities.

Acorn crème brûlée, butternut squash icecream

The syrup here consists of strawberry juice, sugar and Framboise liquer that’s been reduced down to high viscosity. The Framboise really adds a fantastic dimension.

This one has alternating layers of fresh strawberries, lightly poached strawberries in syrup, (real) vanilla icecream (of course), syrup and crème anglaise. A great summer treat.

Strawberry and vanilla knickerbocker glory

This dessert is designed to be eaten “left to right” and combines a few things I’d worked on from scratch.

I thought, why not a pure nut sorbet? Hazelnut is a classic dessert nut for me, so I went with that. This is made with roasted hazelnuts that are simply blended, strained (through muslin), and then made the usual way (with sugar added to the magic 37%).
I was exploring icecream flavours and thought about using herbs and what might work with vanilla. The lavender and vanilla combo is something I’m very pleased with (almost proud of). The funny thing is no-one has yet been able to guess what the flavour is (even seasoned herb lovers). I loved poached fruits (these are poached in a wine and lemon syrup), and the butterscotch brittle (dusted with hazelnut pieces) adds some texture.
The chocolate “snail” is a white chocolate truffle sitting on top of a dark chocolate truffle, with a sweet espresso coffee reduction.

I was very pleased with this creation.