I saw the pork neck on special at the local butcher’s, and it got my creative juices going. Make sure there’s enough fat in the neck – there usually is but I ended up with a fairly lean neck. You can also use pork belly with this recipe; simply reduce the cooking time by one third (an hour roughly).

I’ve found it hard to get rich flavours out of pork dishes, so I tried an Asian twist with apple cider and ginger. Like all casseroles, you can taste and adjust various elements as the dish cooks slowly. It should have a rich, exotic impact, but it should not be simply sweet. The dry white should provide the balance.

As usual I got too involved in the process to remember the photo. This one is straight from the fridge, the pork is buried underneath

It’s the usual routine, not as arduous as it looks:

1. Brown the pork on both sides in a big frypan (use olive oil or similar), after you’ve sprinkled a tablespoon of flour on each side plus seasoning.

2. Move to a casserole dish, pour in the cider and the wine, add the onions and cook for an hour 30 minutes at 150 degrees. Check halfway through the first stage, and turn the neck over. The top half should be roasting, the bottom half broiling. Adjust liquid if necessary by adding chicken stock.

(Allow 3 hours total cooking time for a big neck, two for a belly. The times I list here are for the neck, simply reduce by one-third if you’re cooking pork belly).

3. After 1 hour 30 minutes,

• add all the veggies, chopped into biggish chunks.
• add stock if needed
• add tomato paste, ginger, mustard and Sacla Sauce (see below)
• add balsamic, bay leaves and lemon rind

4. Taste and adjust seasoning, mustard, stock , stir the liquid and turn over the meat, return to the oven.
5. Half an hour before the finish, add sage and thyme, check taste and liquid again – the liquid should not be thick, but should not be as thin as soup either. Aim for somewhere in between.
6. Serve with rice, potatoes or noodles.

INGREDIENTS – this looks like a lot but it isn’t really

• Pork neck / belly – 1.5 – 2kg / 1- 1.3 kg – give or take
• Two heaped tablespoons of flour
• 7 – 10 spring or pickling onions
• 1 leek
• 3 fennel roots
• 2 small red capsicums or 4 red peppers
• 1 zucchini chopped into slices
• 375ml of apple cider (alcoholic, dry)
• Half a bottle of dry white wine
•  1- 2 cups of chicken stock (adjust as needed)
• Seasoning
• 2 teaspoons of sage (fresh or dried leaves)
• Teaspoon of thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger root
• 3 tablespoons of grain mustard (mild)
• 4 tablespoons of SACLA capsicum & eggplant stir-through
• Small tin of tomato paste
• Tablespoon of balsamic reduction / vinegar
• Grated lemon rind

Serve with a big old Riesling or big Pinot Gris or a rich, buttery Chardonnay. Try a light, sweet fruit Pinot Noir if you’re game.

OK, you haven’t had this dish for decades – it’s so seventies, no?

The other night, a couple cooked this dish on MKR and I thought about it for the first time in decades. I checked the MKR recipe but the sauce had 1001 ingredients so I jumped on the web to check alternatives.

source: www.Everyrecipe.com.au

Eventually I came up with my own simple version of this dish, but as usual when I’m busy in the kitchen I forget to take a photo. In essence, you squeeze some orange juice into a small pot or pan, heat it up and add some sugar or honey so that the sauce caramelizes as it reduces slowly. So far, so good, but we have nothing more than a sweet sauce at this point so we’ll have to add some substance.

The good thing is that you can do this gradually, while you keep tasting as you slowly reduce the sauce. I gradually added:

• Some thin strips of orange peel with the pitch removed
• A dash of red wine
• A dash of balsamic reduction
• Two teaspoons of caramelized onion jam
• Two teaspoons of marmalade (I used Lime, which was all I had)
• Handful of finely chopped shallots
• Half a cup of chicken stock

I’ve had mixed success with duck, following recipes that suggest frying or roasting Marylands for half an hour. When you do that, the duck will not be cooked through but dried out. The best way to cook duck Marylands is as a confit, which means cooking them in duck fat very slowly. That’s what I did today but I didn’t have that much time so I browned the duck pieces for a few minutes in a pan, then cooked them submerged in duck fat for an hour and ten minutes in the oven at 360 degrees.

I chucked in a few pickling onions (spring onions have been hard to find) and some sliced potatoes as well. You can use the duck fat a number of times since it’s very stable (just put it back in the container it came in once it’s cooled down a little).

The potatoes got a bit soggy and needed some time in the fry pan once I poured the fat off. I poured the sauce over the duck pieces, added the fried potatoes and some steamed green beans, and chose a 2013 Massale Pinot Noir that I recommended 18 months ago – I got that one right.

Kim

There are many versions of this French dish, including a Coq au Riesling from Alsace. This is the version from Burgundy that uses a light red wine from that region. The original dish was intended to make old roosters as tough as cockatoos edible, but it’s a whole lot easier if you start with a good quality chicken.

Feeds 4, needs 2 hours cooking time (mostly in the oven)

Ingredients

• 1kg chicken pieces – wings and Maryland, separate the legs from the thighs
• 400 g of speck or thick bacon
• Half a bottle of light red wine
• Tin of crushed tomatoes
• 2 T of flour
• Chicken stock to suit
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 4-5 spring onions (keep the green tails for later
• 4 carrots cut into 1 inch chunks
• Two handfuls of Swiss brown mushrooms
• Thyme, Rosemary, lemon zest
• Seasoning, olive oil, butter

The Process

• Roll the chicken pieces in the flour, place in a large frypan with olive oil
• Add garlic and onions, sprinkle with left-over flour
• brown both sides of the chicken
• add speck / bacon, carrots, crushed tomatoes and red wine
• cook for a few minutes, then transfer to a casserole dish
• add enough chicken stock to cover
• add seasoning and stir well
• put the dish in the oven at 170⁰ for an hour and a half

It should pretty much cook itself, but you need to check it after half an hour and adjust liquid and seasoning if needed.

After an hour, fry the sliced mushrooms in a little butter and sprinkle with dried or fresh rosemary and thyme, add the chopped up spring onion tails or shallots, and stir-fry for a couple of minutes before adding to the casserole. Add the lemon zest, then check the dish for taste and liquid level and adjust as needed.  Put back in the oven for another half hour, then serve with potatoes, pasta or rice.

Kim

A real winter warmer

Some of our tastiest dishes come from hard times in the distant past, when our mums had to buy meat as tough as old boots and turn it into a feast. This is one of those. You can substitute the veggies to suit yourself, but the core of the dish is a bunch of beef bones. The bone marrow adds depth of flavour and silky texture to the stew, and it’s full of nutrients.

If you’re worried about the fat, you can trim the meat or read The Cholesterol Myth – They can silence ABC’s Catalyst but they can’t make the facts go away.

Total cooking time: 2 hours 15 minutes (mostly in the oven)

Feeds 4 to 6, keeps for days in the fridge

Here’s what you need:

• 1.5 kgs for marrow bones, brisket bones, short ribs, chuck ribs (pictured), beef Osso Buco and oxtail. Go easy on the oxtail since the flavour can overpower the other meats.
• 300g or thereabouts of speck or thick bacon
• 4-5 spring or small onions
• Garlic to your taste
• 3-4 carrots, chopped into chunks
• 2 fennel bulbs, discard the hard outer shell and the stalks, and chop into halves or quarters
• Red or green capsicum or both
• A breakfast bowl of Swiss brown mushrooms, cut into chunks or left whole if they’re small
• Can of crushed or chopped tomatoes
• 500 ml Beef stock
• 2-3 glasses red wine
• Water to suit
• 2 x tablespoons of flour
• Seasoning
• Bay leaves, oregano, rosemary and thyme (dried is fine), and a dash of balsamic vinegar
• Spring Onion Tails or shallots, parsley

Options: you can substitute fennel bulbs with parsnips or turnips or potatoes or all of these. You can even substitute the red wine with white wine or beer or cider. You can add some paprika and a few chili flakes if you want some extra heat. Stews are forgiving.

Here’s the sequence:

1. Cut the meat into big chunks and brown it in a fry pan, sprinkling flour over each side. Add garlic, carrots and red wine, put the lot in a casserole dish and put it in the oven at 150⁰ for 45 minutes.
2. Add the onions, speck, crushed tomatoes, capsicum and fennel plus some beef stock to cover everything, and put it back in the oven at 170⁰ for an hour and a half. Add seasoning to taste.
3. With half an hour to go, brown the mushrooms in a fry pan with some butter and add them to the casserole, adjust the seasoning and add the herbs and shallots, and top the liquid up with water if need be.

When the time is up, the meat should fall off the bones, which you can take out or leave in for decoration. Just make sure you warn your guests. Serve with pasta, rice or potatoes, and remember: stews are always better on the second day sol cook it the night before you need it if you can.

Good luck

Kim

Yes it’s dead simple but it’s a dish fit for a king when you get it right.

The simpler the dish, the more important the ingredients. That’s because you’re not adding anything fancy, so it’s best to start with a quality chook and good fresh veggies. In Sydney, I go to a butcher called Hudsons who sells Banockburn chickens from Victoria, but any good quality free range chook will do. Hudsons sells chicken pieces such as Marylands and wings – that’s where the flavour is, so I buy a combination of these pieces and put them is a dish for roasting.

Chicken: Wash the pieces and put them on a baking tray (don’t forget to wash your hands as well after handling raw chicken). Drizzle a little olive oil over the pieces then squeeze some lemon juice over them, followed by a decent sprinkle of dried thyme, ground pepper and Vogel’s Herbamare salt. If you can’t get Herbamare, use another herbal salt. Bake the chicken at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, then turn it over and repeat the procedure. Put the veggies on first.

Veggies: Your choice really, but these are my favourites below. The first lot needs an hour and a half – again at 375 degrees:

• 2 – 3 Onions – whole if small, or cut in half
• 3 or 4 Carrots – cut into bite sized rounds
• 3 – 4 Potatoes – bite sized wedges

The second tranche is softer and should be added 45 minutes later:

• 1 Fennel bulb – cut in half
• 1 Sweet potato – bite sized rounds
• A quarter Pumpkin – big chunks
• 1 – 2 Zucchini – bite sized rounds

A few pointers:

Make sure you drizzle enough olive oil on the veggies, and sprinkle some dried Rosemary over them. Turn the veggies over 2 or 3 times during the hour and a half, and keep in mind that you may need more olive oil.

That’s pretty much it. The final secret ingredient is a good Riesling about 2 or 3 years old so it’s developed a bit of flavour.

Kim

Lamb shoulders are tough and full of gristle from elastin that won’t break down, but the flavour makes up for these shortcomings. It’s best to ask your butcher to semi-cut the shoulder into portions and score the fat before you take it home. That’s the hard part; the meal just about cooks itself.

Feeds 4 or more, takes 3.5 hours mostly in the oven, lasts for days in the fridge

Here’s what you need:

• Lamb shoulder on the bone, about 1.5 kgs
• 400g speck, cut into biggish cubes
• 4-5 small or spring onions
• Garlic to taste
• 3 carrots, chopped into chunks
• 2 zucchinis
• Chopped green capsicum or sweet pepper
• Handful of semi-sundried tomatoes
• Tin of crushed tomatoes
• cup or 2 of Passata
• 2-3 glasses of white or light red wine
• 500ml or so of chicken stock
• Seasoning to taste
• 2-3 bay leaves, twigs of fresh Rosemary, thyme, teaspoon of cumin seeds, lemon zest
• Chopped shallots or spring onion tales
• A bowl of spinach leaves chopped

Here’s the process:

1. Roast the shoulder in a casserole dish with a little olive oil for an hour and a half at 125⁰. This will render some of the fat which you can discard.
2. Now add the onions, garlic, carrots, capsicums, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, white wine, chicken stock, bay leaves and seasoning. Turn the oven up to 160⁰ and cook for 2 more hours (until the lamb falls off the bone).
3. With 45 minutes to go, add the zucchinis and sun-dried tomatoes, add the herbs then adjust seasoning and liquid level.
4. With 15 minutes to go, add the shallots and spinach leaves

This dish is like a pot roast, with some of the meat sticking out from the rest. From time to time, spoon some of the liquid over the meat to keep it moist. Add more stock or water if necessary. Serve with roast potatoes or pasta or on its own.

Photo source: the gourmet grocer

Kim

What makes wine unique is its wonderful affinity with food. In addition, food and wine work better in good company. For many people, cooking is a chore. For some of us – me for instance – it’s a time when we can be creative, experiment, and do fun stuff  that friends and family love.

In this post, we’ll focus more on the food side of things than wine. The reason is simple: we have some easy recipes that we’ve cooked and refined quite a few times. They’re now well-tested, dead easy to follow and assured of success. Give it a go.

What’s Different about our recipes?

These dishes are a long way from the fanciful, foamy and contrived artefacts that smart chefs these days think they have to produce to show how clever they are. They’re also a long way removed from the kinds of dishes you see contestants sweating over on Masterchef, in order to please the smart-arse judges. That kind of cooking is very hard work and unforgiving – one small mistake and the whole thing is ruined.

Our recipes help you create flavoursome dishes that are easy to cook and easy to enjoy, devoid of artifice. They have a big margin for error as they don’t depend on exotic ingredients, split-second timing or fancy techniques. A bonus is that they’re easy to pair with the down-to-earth food-friendly wines we love.

There’s a great fish stew, a lamb shank casserole with attitude, the best Paella down under, great Beef Bourgignon, the world’s best pizza, a Nicoise salad like you’ve never had before, a Cassoulet that leaves the original hang its head in shame, tasty Chicken Peperonata, a wonderful Pork and Fennel Potroast, great Osso Bucco and more. Here’s the full list.

Wine and food pairing

Here are a few posts we’ve written on this subject:

Matching Wine with Food – 2 plus 2 = 5 – a simple guide

Australia is Blessed with the Unpopularity of Riesling – the reason, according to this post, is that most people drink it with the wrong foods

Matching Wine and Food – another simple guide

It really is easy but for years I kept adding stuff to the simple recipe to improve on it, and never ended up with that authentic Goulash taste. In my defence, I could argue that Goulash is one of those dishes that has a thousand variations in Hungary, and a few thousand more outside the country. In some places it’s a clear soup, in others a thick stew.

A few weeks ago I decided to go back to basics and follow a recipe that seemed to have all the right ingredients, and a couple of interesting new ones.

Ingredients for 4 serves:
• 1kg of chuck steak
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3-4 spring onions (bulbs – save tails for later)

• 1 each Green &red capsicum
• 2-3 sweet chili peppers
• 3-4 field mushrooms or a bunch of Swiss Browns
• 1-2 sliced zucchinis if you want more veggies

• Olive oil and butter
• Can of crushed tomatoes
• Small tin of tomato paste
• 2 cups of beef stock
• White wine or water to suit

• Tablespoon of red wine vinegar
• 2-3 teaspoons of sweet paprika
• Sprinkle of chili flakes
• Seasoning to taste
• Teaspoon of caraway seeds
• Tablespoon of sour cream
• Fresh Parsley

Cut the chuck steak into big cubes and brown it in a big pan, sprinkle paprika and chili flakes over the top, add chopped garlic and onions (cut in half if big). Add the capsicum and chili peppers, then the crushed tomato and tomato paste and beef stock and water and / or white wine. bring it all to the boil, then transfer it to a casserole dish and put it in the oven at about 175 degrees for an hour and a bit.

Fry the mushrooms in butter for a few minutes, with the spring onion tails and zucchinis, add to the casserole dish, add more water if needed and more seasoning plus the caraway seeds and the red wine vinegar. Cook another 45 minutes. Five minutes before serving, add the chopped parsley and a dollop of sour cream.

Serve with rice or pasta.

Kim