Category Archives: Cooking
Chestnut & ricotta ravioli with lamb ragu
It has been chestnut season here in Victoria and we recently bought some beautiful fresh chestnuts at Toscano’s, our favourite supplier of fruit and vegetables. Many of the chestnuts available in Melbourne are grown in the north-east of Victoria, where … Continue reading
Stuffed boneless shoulder of veal
Of all the new veal dishes we produced in 2012, this is my personal favourite. The combined flavours of the stuffing ingredients are very moreish. However, we made a couple of mistakes when we cooked this dish a few days … Continue reading
Braised duck with a red wine sauce
As I have said before, Maggie and I are very fond of duck and it is a rare month when we don’t cook a duck meal to enjoy at home. Sometimes, we even share it with friends! I have met … Continue reading
Twice-cooked goat with fresh herbs and a piquant sauce
Many Australians not of Mediterranean descent would have grown up thinking of goat as a meat that could be used for making a spicy dish in the tradition of the Indian sub-continent. Until recently, that was certainly my assumption but … Continue reading
Cooking with veal
Most Australian meat-eaters cook regularly with some or all of beef, lamb, pork and chicken; far fewer prepare dishes using cuts of veal. In our experience, this is either a matter of taste – some find veal bland – or … Continue reading
Maggie’s garlic prawns
A caricature of how we work in the kitchen might portray me as the creative tyrant and Maggie as the expert-but-oppressed kitchen hand. However, Maggie would like it to be known that she has several specialities of her own, albeit … Continue reading
A dish to crow about?
This could be a long, slow-cooked post but that’s only fitting. After all, it took Maggie and I three days to turn a rooster into a meal of my favourite poultry casserole – Coq au vin! First, some personal, historical … Continue reading
Travel-infused beef braises
While Maggie and I were travelling in Europe earlier this year, I ate four traditional dishes of braised beef: boeuf bourguignon (French), beef goulash (Hungarian), svickova omacka (Czech) and tafelspitz (Austrian). Since returning to our own kitchen, we have cooked three … Continue reading
Sunday scones
Last Sunday morning we baked two batches of scones, one sweet, the other savoury. Maggie likes to take a scone to work for morning tea and both of these scone varieties can be frozen then reheated successfully in a microwave … Continue reading
Rick and Maggie's food and travel adventures 