my favourite recipes
Published by Reader’s Digest,
deluxe P/B $39.95

Who doesn’t always promise to organise their recipes, put the endless scraps of paper into formal form on their recipe index, onto the computer? Well of course we all do, but this lovely book is the answer for the interim (or ad infinitum). It is a recipe journal with plenty of room to scribble in but it also comes with wonderful deep pockets in each section where you can file recipes torn from magazines, downloaded from the net or where ever.

The beautiful cover is an indication of what to expect inside the cover, more beautiful design with lovely images.

This book was discovered when reviewing for The Conservatory Garden and Home and it doesn’t come up in a web search, even on the Readers’ Digest web site. A useful and desirable book or a gorgeous gift it’s lovely!

perfect pears

For a fruit so common and so readily available the pear remains and aloof royal in the food world and appears on restaurant menus from the humblest to the highest. Utterly accommodating it is as equally wonderful as a savoury or sweet course and is one of the most delicious fruits to just eat.

There are hundreds of varieties of pears and it has been good to see more than one or two old varieties resurrected this season. The most common are Duchess, Corella so named for its parrot red and green colours, Beurre Bosch the best of all cooking pears and the Packham, but if you take the time and trouble to shop at farmers’ markets you will be able to buy plenty of great fruit outside of the more common commercial varieties.

We’ve been trying a twist on the fresh Mozzarella tomato and basil and been doing Mozzarella, thinly sliced poached Beurre Bosch, roasted walnuts and whatever leaves and herbs we have to hand. The favourite at the moment is chiffonade of radicchio and basil. Lavish this with your best extra virgin, sea salt and pepper. Add some great freshly baked bread and wait for the undeserved accolades. And, speaking of bread we have changed the flour on the Jim Lahey bread to bakers. It is a little less chewy but still really good on the second day.

We are blessed in Adelaide with a few remaining traditional Italian butchers who continue to prepare their smallgoods by time honoured traditions. Best of all if you buy pancetta it has some fat (yes fat!) and in Adelaide we only buy pancetta from Marino Meats at the Adelaide Central Markets.

fat and flavour when it comes to smallgoods works! Seek out your local treasure and leave the chemical laden crappy smallgoods in the supermarkets!

poaching pears not as simple as one might think
click here

try this!

Poach Beurre Bosche pears in toffee syrup and serve them with vanilla ice cream laced with crushed up toffee pieces……oh yummy mummy!