Sausages with grapes, wine and sage,
apple and rhubarb hand pies, a goat's cheese and radicchio salad plus smoked trout on potato chips.
Since I was a kid, I have loved putting together menus. When I was 8, my mum let me cook for a really important dinner she was hosting. In hindsight, I don’t think it was all that important, but I felt like I had been given an opportunity to take the reins, a golden ticket.
I spent the whole week prior going through her cookbooks, mostly Margaret Fulton and Australian Women’s Weekly, working out what would go well together (jelly roll trifle set in a pudding bowl, turned out and doused in Rosso Antico seemed appropriate). I actually can’t really remember all of the dishes I made, except for said jelly roll trifle, but I do remember the feeling of putting together a complete meal. Not to exaggerate, but it was exhilarating. I still feel that today.
As a home cook, I am rather passionate about other home cooks (you guys). We work in these domestic, often tiny, kitchens with limited equipment and budgets and cook from cookbooks (hopefully sometimes mine) or the like, and dream up these magical dinner parties with ambitious menus. For those of you who have Ostro, you can see me cooking in the tiniest kitchen with a stove from the 1960s and the smallest amount of bench space.
I mean, truthfully sometimes they’re not magical nor ambitious, but the idea of it all, of planning something with flow and coherency, is very lovely and admirable.
On the other hand, even deciding which salad you’re going to make with the Sunday roast chicken, is in my mind, menu-making. It’s about seasons, textures, mood and feelings.
And while I don’t want to be too prescriptive, I do find that one of the most common thing I am asked, is what to put with what. So while this newsletter is sometimes a random mix of what I’m cooking, it is also sometimes a complete menu which brings me, and hopefully you, great pleasure.
Today is an offering for Easter. Here in Australia, it’s Autumn, so the spring lamb and artichokes unfortunately aren’t all that practical. Instead it’s about grapes, figs, apples and rhubarb.
The first recipe is a little snack of smoked trout with creme fraiche, served on salty crisps (or some rye bread if you prefer). A make ahead hero.
Then, an autumnal salad of butter beans, figs and radicchio. Goat’s cheese in there too - I love La Luna Skyla goat’s cheese, but unfortunately they are closing down their dairy and will have to find a substitute! Leave me a comment if you would recommend an alternative.
Next is a Tuscan-inspired one pan dish of sausages (these were regular sausages but I just twisted them to make them smaller (because cuter)) with onions, grapes and wine. So so delicious and all it needs is some crusty bread but if you want something heartier you could serve it with some soft polenta.
And finally, my tips for making the flakiest pastry for these apple and rhubarb hand pies. Serve them hot with dollops of double cream. They are really very good and I hope you enjoy making them. If you’re short on time, I would recommend this store-bought puff pastry! I estimate you would need two packets for this recipe.
ALSO A few tickets have become available for our previously sold-out Maltese Feast as part of Melbourne Food and Wine Festival this Wednesday evening! Tickets are available here.
And that’s it from me!
See you next week-ish!
Julia x
Smoked trout and creme fraiche with horseradish
Serves many, as a snack
200 ml creme fraiche
185 g smoked trout (I use Mrs Paynes brand)
2 cm piece horseradish, finely grated (optional)
Handful of dill, finely chopped
Juice and zest of a lemon
1 French shallot (eschalot), finely diced
Sea salt and pepper
To serve:
140 g packet salted chips (I like to use a kettle style)
Trout or salmon roe
Finely chopped chives
In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients with a fork, flaking the trout as you mix it. Season to taste.
Assemble by arranging potato chips on a serving plate and topping with a heaped teaspoon of the smoked trout mixture. Top with some roe and finely some chopped chives. Serve immediately.
Butter beans with radicchio, figs and goat’s cheese
Serves 4
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