Author: Robert Beerworth

I love cooking, wine, travel, my three boys, and two girls, Avalon and my beautiful wife and best friend and cook, Nat...

Claudia Roden’s Provençale Daube

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 6 – 8

Red wine. Beef juices. Garlic, Orange peel. Herbs and spices. And hours of time in the oven or on the stove.

Nothing to assume this isn’t a marvellous winter lunch party dish.

Served with a Parmesan polenta, braised mushrooms and green beans, this was comfort dialed up.

We lit the fire pit, turned up the music and wow, didn’t this make for a great afternoon.

Skip breakfast and thank me later.

Ingredients

4 tbsp olive oil
1.5kg beef, cut into large pieces*
2 large onions, each cut into 6 wedges
125gm unsmoked pancetta or diced streaky bacon
5 garlic cloves, peeled
500gm carrots, cut into 1.5cm slices
1 bottle of red wine
2 bay leaves
4 – 5 thyme sprigs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground allspice
3 – 4 cloves
2 – 3 tsp sugar
Strips of peel from 1 orange
3 – 4 tbsp cognac or grappa (optional)
Salt and black pepper

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan or casserole over medium heat, put in the meat and cook, turning the pieces to brown all over.
  2. Remove the meat to a plate and put the onions and pancetta into the pan. Sauté for about 6 minutes, stirring until the onions are lightly coloured and the pancetta releases its fat. Add the garlic for the last minute or so, then the carrots, and season.
  3. Return the meat to the pan, pour in the wine and add the herbs and spices, sugar and orange peel. Add water to cover, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to low, cover the pan, and simmer very gently for 2 – 3 hours, keeping the meat submerged, until it is so tender, you can cut it with a spoon. Towards the end of the cooking time, remove the orange peel and if you like, add the cognac.**

* My brother-in-law Sean really dropped in a cracking rump cap a week ago. He is a master of the BBQ and we share notes, ideas and recipes. We even once had a reverse-sear vs sous vide rib eye bone in challenge (he won ever so slightly, though a win is a win). Anyway, he would never have done a rump cap in a 6 hour braise, though my reading was that it was a perfect cut and indeed… it was.

If you can get a rump cap, trim it and this will be perfect.

** I did the main cooking time in the oven at 160c. After 2 hours, I removed the lid and cooked down the liquid for another hour or two. Would do it again.

Claudia Roden’s Fresh Goats’ Cheese with Herbs and Olives

.Reading time 1 minute.

Makes: 8 – 10 toasts

Monday of a long weekend in Sydney: a Saturday and Sunday filled with chores, a concert for Nat and a birthday party for Max and his class.

So Monday is ours.

Which obviously – obviously – means a long lunch. French. Obviously.

We started with these toasts and my word, they are elegant.

The addition of the white rum is genius. The anise flavour adds such a quality.

And on a fresh, toasted baguette.

If these were trotting around a wedding as canapes, you’d know you were in for a good night.

Next dinner party, these are definitely coming out. Awesome.

Ingredients

150gm fresh goats’ cheese
1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp pastis, arak, raki or ouzo – or white rum
1 small garlic cloves, crushed
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp snipped fresh chives
5 pitted black olives, chopped, to garnish
Sliced, toasted baguettes or other toasts

Method

  1. Using a fork, mash the goats’ cheese with the oil, pastis and garlic and season with a little black pepper.
  2. Spread on toasts and garnish with a spinkling of herbs and olives.

Lidia Bastianich’s Ziti with Broccolini and Sausage

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4

Excited! Nat is just over five months pregnant with baby #4, our first girl!

The spell is broken!

Our schedule of long lunches has been tempered somewhat and much less wine is being decanted. Though we’re having a girl!

It hasn’t meant the cooking has dialed down however. Quite the opposite.

Nat has gone headfirst into dough. Breads, pastry and pasta.

Especially the pasta, where we are determined with each cook to find just brilliant pasta. Stuff that screams: how good is life.

It starts with fresh pasta. In this instance, ziti, a small thin tube similar to a penne.

If making your own pasta, we always use this amazing Kitchenaid pasta dough recipe and suggest you do too!

And this sauce. Which I have adapted slightly and which is just sublime.

Almost as good as it gets. The second pasta we have cooked with a residual liquid which is just fun, so bloody good. Half the point of the dish. (Check out this white ragu which is just incredible.)

My point on the adaptation is a few.

I found the recipe on Lidia’s website and it didn’t quite translate.

I’ve crumbled the sausage meat here. Halved the broccoli and then used broccolini instead, which I cut into 3cm pieces. And guessed at the butter – measurement missing otherwise – which based on her previous recipes, was on the mark.

As Nat says, you need things to look forward to during the waiting period and pasta seems to have become our thing. No complaints there and absolutely no complaints with this pasta.

Sublime as I said. 1 hat good. Totally great restaurant stuff.

Ingedients

1 tbsp olive oil
500gm Italian sausage meat, removed from skins
500gm broccolini
3 tsp sea salt
500gm ziti
3 large garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
1 c chicken stock
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 c grated Parmesan

Method

  1. Heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium-heat and pan fry the sausage meat, breaking it up as you go. Fry until slightly browned, drain from the oil and set aside.
  2. Wash the broccolini, drain and cut into 3cm pieces.
  3. Heat a large pot with boiling water and cook the ziti until al dente.
  4. In a large, deep, heavy skillet with a fitted lid, heat the olive oil, add the garlic and sauté, uncovered until golden, about 2 minutes. Add the broccolini, 1/4 tsp salt and pepper flakes, cover, and steam 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  5. Stir in the sausage. Add the butter and stock and cook uncovered, over a high heat, about 3 minutes, until the liquids are slightly reduced.
  6. Add the drained pasta to the sauce and toss gently. Sprinkle on half the cheese, toss again, serve immediately and distribute the remaining cheese over the pasta.

Gordon Ramsay’s best breakfast sandwich – Cajan style

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2

I’m not sure how Christmas croissant breakfast will be the same for us after eating this. Usually a loaded croissant is a yearly treat but it made it on the menu twice this year.

This breakfast sandwich is seriously good. Better than you think it will be.

The old bay seasoning brings a warmness to the sambo that’s met with the creaminess of the egg and mayo with the crispness of the lettuce giving it the final flare.

Do yourself a Sunday favour.

Ingredients

2 croissants
2 eggs
4 Rashers bacon
Butter
Old Bay seasoning
Olive oil
2 pieces of romaine lettuce
4 Slices of tomato
2 slices of cheddar cheese
Salt

Old Bay Seasoning

1 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne

Spicy mayo

2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp Sriracha
1/4 lemon
Old Bay Seasoning

Method

  1. Mix together the Old Bay seasoning and keep aside.
  2. Add mayo, Sriracha and about a teaspoon of Old Bay. Squeeze the lemon and mix. Taste and adjust with Old Bay and Sriracha to suit your spice levels!
  3. Turn heat to medium-high heat and add bacon. Add a touch of pepper and Old Bay as it cooks in pan. Remove from pan on to plate or bowl with a paper towel. Keep the drippings in the pan.
  4. Add a knob of butter into pan. Season the butter with a pinch of Old Bay. Once butter mixture is browned, crack and add the eggs. Take pan off heat so that egg cooks evenly. Add a touch of Old Bay on top of egg that’s frying. As it. cooks, you can lightly baste the egg with the butter sauce in pan to further cook.
  5. Heat another pan to high heat. Add sliced croissant slice side down until nice browned.
  6. On plate, put the bottom of croissant and put a thin layer of mayonnaise, followed a layer of lettuce (chopped to fit the croissant) and dust with some salt. Then add tomato and cheese. Put a layer of mayo on top of the cheese and add the bacon on top of that followed by the fried egg. Put a dash more mayo around egg and top with your other layer of the croissant!

Bordelaise Sauce with Mushrooms

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 8

A few years ago, I typed up this absolutely brilliant and iconic Thomas Keller dish, the “Yabba Dabba Do“. It is served with a classic Bordelaise sauce and this really is the finest of the juses.

One of our favourite dishes at what was an excellent, local French restaurant – before it closed – was a rib eye, bone-in served smothered with braised mushrooms.

So why not combine the two?

I adjusted this recipe to separate the mushrooms from the Bordelaise sauce and then to reduce the sauce, ready to serve at the side.

My mother joined us from a wonder, late-Autumn French lunch and the tomahawk I cooked over charcoal, with these mushrooms and the Bordelaise sauce was an absolute highlight.

For the rare occasions we do eat beef, this is unquestionably a recipe we will return to.

So rich. So satisfying. Classy!

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp shallot, minced
1 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp butter
2 cups, sliced assorted mushrooms
1 c beef broth
1/3 c red wine
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp chopped fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp cold water

Method

  1. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a skillet over a medium heat. Stir in the garlic and shallot and cook until the shallot has softened and turned translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining 3 tbsp of butter, then stir in the mushrooms once the butter has melted. Cook and stir the mushrooms until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.
  2. Pour in the beef broth, wine and Worcestershire sauce; season with the bay leaf and thyme, and bring to a simmer over a medium-high heat. Once simmering, season to taste, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook, uncovered until the sauce reduces slightly, about 30 minutes.
  3. Strain the mushrooms and solids, and set aside, retaining the sauce.
  4. Continuing on a medium-low heat, continue to simmer the sauce for another few minutes. Dissolve the cornstarch in the cold waer and stir into the simmering sauce until thickened.
  5. Serve the mushrooms along the Bordelaise sauce, ready to pour.

Rodney Dunn’s Pork Burger’s with Pear Relish and Onion Rings

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 6

READER WARNING: this receipe contains a spoiler on the final episode of Succession.

This is a great burger.

And my goodness, it was made even better by incredible, freshly baked milk buns by Nat.

Though back to the burger.

It’s tight. It’s sophisticated. It’s not a homemade burger.

The pear relish is a wonderful addition.

And a side of onion rings?

We plated this for the last episode of Succession. A real weeknight treat and wow, didn’t it make the night special.

Poor Kendall Roy. Though he never had it in him. Good call Shiv. You won.

I have adapted the onions.

Ingredients

700gm minced pork
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 golden shallots, finely chopped
Sea salt
Ground white pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
400gm red cabbage, finely shredded
1/2 c whole-egg mayonnaise
6 burger rolls, halved
Barbecue sauce to serve

Pear relish

2 Packham pears, halved, core removed and thinly sliced lengthways
2 cinnamon quills
4 cloves
1/2 c caster sugar
1/4 c cider vinegar

Onions rings

For deep frying: vegetable oil
2 onions, cut into 5mm rings, separated
300ml buttermilk
4 eggs, beaten
2 c all-purpose flour

Method

  1. For the pear relish, combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the sugar disolved. Increase the heat and cook, stirring occassionally for 20 minutes, until syrupy and the pears are soft. Cool.
  2. Combine pork, garlic and shallots in a large bowl, season with sea salt and white pepper and mix until well combined, Form into 6 patties and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  3. For onion rinds, heat oil to 180c. Emerse the onion rings in the butter milk, then in the egg and finally in the flour. Deep-fry for 1-2 minutes or until golden. Drain on paper towels and season to taste.
  4. Heat olive in a large frying pan, add ptties and cook over medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes each side or until just cooked throough. Combine cabbage and mayonnaise and season to taste. Toast cut side of buns, top with cabbage, patties and barbecue sauce, spoon over pear relish, sandwich and serce immediately with the onion rings.

Patricia Wells’ Caramelised Upside-down Pear Tart (Tarte Tatin aux Poires)

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 8 – 10

This is such an elegant yet rustic tart, expertly plated by Nat for a long afternoon of bistro French.

It can be prepared in advance and served with a homemade vanilla bean ice cream, it ended what was just a wonderful lunch.

Perfectly on theme.

Ingredients

6 tbsp unsalted butter
7 to 8 firm pears, preferably Bosc, peeled, quartered and cored
1/2 c sugar
Crème fraîche to serve

Pâte brisée (Flaky pastry)

1 to 1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
7 tbsp unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1/8 tsp salt
3 tbsp ice water

Method

  1. Prepare the Pâte brisée: place 1 cup of flour, the butter and salt in a food processor. Process just until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 seconds. All the ice water and pulse just until the pastry begins to hold together, about 6 – 8 times. Ao not let it form a ball. Transfer the pastry to waxed paper; flatten the dough into a disk. If the dough seems too sticky, sprinkle it with additional flour, incorporating 1 tbsp at a time. Wrap the pastry in waxed paper and refridgerate for at least 1 hour.
  2. Preheat the oven to 220c.
  3. Melt the butter in a deep skillet (30cm) over medium-high heat. Stir in the pears and sugar. Cook, stirring carefully from time to time, so the pears and sugar do not stick, 20 minutes. (The more you stir, the more likely you are to end up woth caramel, which you do not want.)
  4. Increase the heat to high and cook until the pears and sugar are a deep, golden brown, though not caramel. Shake the pan from time to time to ensure the sugar does not burn.
  5. Literally pile the pears into an unbuttered round (27cm) clear glass baking dish or a special tin-lined copper tart Tatin pan.
  6. Roll out the Pâte brisée slightly larger than the dish. Place the pastry on top of the pears, tucking a bit of the dough around the edges and down into the dish. You do not need to prick the dough.
  7. Place the tart in the center of the oven and bake until the pears bubble and the pastry is a deep, golden brown, about 35 – 40 minutes.
  8. Remove the tart from the oven and immediately place a large, flat heatproof serving platter top-side down on top of the baking dish or pan. Invert the pan and give the bottom a firm tap to release any pears that might be sticking to the bottom. Slowly release the baking dish, so the tart falls evenly onto the serving platter. Serve warm or at room temperature, passing a bowl of crème fraîche to spoon over the tart.

Rodney Dunn’s Mushroom Cannelloni

.Reading time 5 minutes.

Serves: 6 -8

Nat and I did a cooking class with Rodney Dunn a few years ago when we spent a week in Hobart.

It was an awesome afternoon; true paddock to plate stuff, where every ingredient came from his farm. We cooked in his large country kitchen and then ate lunch in a wonderful dining room surrounded by cookbooks and sampling some amazing Tasmanian pinots.

An afternoon that Nat and I still talk about.

Rodney Dunn’s food is about body, flavour and honesty.

This salad of his is a great example.

This mushroom cannelloni is an amazing example.

We’ve slightly adapted the recipe by blitzing the mushrooms and combining them with the ricotta and I think this made a textural improvement on keeping the mushrooms whole.

Though its the flavours that cannot be doubted.

Absoluely beautiful.

The homemade pasta is so good, you’re eating something elevated far above a cannelloni with tubes from the shops. (If making your own pasta, we always use this amazing Kitchenaid pasta dough recipe and suggest you do too!)

And the filling and the Béchamel!

This would be a signature dish in a good Italian restaurant.

Hitting a pasta homerun is my favourite thing and hands-down this pasta is a homerun.

Ingredients

580gm ricotta, drained
2 eggs, lightly beaten
100gm Parmesan, finely grated
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
4 garic cloves, thinly sliced
3 spring onions (white part only), thinly sliced
300gm Swiss brown mushhrooms, coarsely chopped
250gm large flat mushrooms, coarsely chopped
6 sage leaves, thinly sliced
1 tsp thyme leaves
30gm dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 200ml warm water for 10 minutes, drained and soaking liquid reserved

Pasta dough

1 1/2 c plain flour
1/2 c coarse semolina
2 eggs
For drizzling: olive oil

Béchamel sauce

100gm butter, coarsely chopped
1/3 c plain flour
550ml warm milk
1/4 c finely grated Parmesan
Pinch of finely grated nutmeg, or to taste

Method

  1. For pasta dough, pulse flour and semolina in a food processor until combined. With motor running, add eggs, then gradually add 20ml iced water and process until mixture just comes together. Remove dough, knead until smooth (5 – 7 minutes), wrap in plastic wrap and res at room temperature (1 hour). Divide pasta into four, then using a pasta roller, roll until ou have pasta 2mm in thickness. Cut pasta into ten 12cm x 15cm pieces. Cook in a large saucepan of boiling salted water over high heat until al dente (1 minute), drain and refresh, drizzle with a little oil, set aside.
  2. Preheat oven to 180c. Press ricotta through a fine sieve into a large bowl, then combine with eggs and 75gm Parmesan, season to taste and set aside.
  3. Heat extra virgin olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, add garlic and spring onion, sauté until starting to soften (2 – 3 minutes). Add the mushrooms and herbs and sauté until tender (8 – 10 minutes). Add prorcini and soaking liquid, simmer until liquid has been reduced (7 – 10 minutes), season to taste and set aside to cool. When cool, blitz in a food processor until consistency of mince and stir in with the ricotta mixture.
  4. For béchamel, heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat until foaming (1-2 minutes), add flour and stir until mixture is light brown in colour (2-3 minutes). Whisk in warm milk, a little at a time, and stir until beginning to bubble (2-3 minutes), remove from heat, add parmesan, season to taste with salt, freshly ground black pepper and nutmeg, set aside.
  5. Spoon ricotta into a piping bag fitted with a 2cm-plain nozzle, pipe across the middle of each piece of pasta, top with mushrooms and roll to enclose. Arrange cannelloni in a 25cm x 35cm buttered baking dish. Spoon béchamel on top, scatter with remaining parmesan and bake until golden and warmed through (30-40 minutes). 

Antonio Carluccio’s Tuscan Pasta with Pork Sauce

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 6

This was a pretty astonishing pasta we cooked as part of a slow, Saturday-night in Italian date-night.

Astonishing for two reasons.

Firstly, Nat made fresh fettuccini and fresh pasta always gives you a major speed bump. (Note, this recipe calls for pici, a handmade, spaghetti like pasta. The flavours of the pasta call for a thicker pasta like this and so Nat kept our fettuccini thick and it was amazing. The sauce is substantial so you will want a substantial pasta to pair.)

If making your own pasta, we always use this amazing Kitchenaid pasta dough recipe and suggest you do too!

Homemade pasta; an automatic tick.

Secondly, the sauce is so strong, so nuanced, so restrained and subtle, all at the same time. Together with the fresh pasta, this is a dish that says, see what I can do?

We really were lost for words. Whereas the point of a ragu is to overwhelm with flavour, this ragu just swam under the surface is the most wonderful way. It was a bloody triumph.

We’ve fallen into a bit of a Saturday-night pasta habit. It’s not necessarily our evening of peak cooking, though it should be the most enjoyable.

Finding a new and genius pasta each time is hard. My fallback is so often Antonio Carluccio and he never fails.

Make your own pasta. Slow cook that ragu. Plenty of Parmesan. And I promise this will absolutely wow you. 2-hats.

I have slightly adjusted this recipe.

Ingredients

400gm pici or pinci (or the largest spaghetti as possible)
80gm pecorino cheese or Parmesan, freshly grated

Pork ragu

6 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
500gm pork pork mince (not too fatty)
100ml dry red wine
500gm polpa di pomodoro or chunky passata
7 dry bay leaves
Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion, celery and carrot and fry gently until soft. Add the meat and cook until the liquid evaporates and then brown the meat slightly.
  2. Add the wine and let the alcohol evaporate. Stir in the tomato pulp and add the the bay leaves and some seasoning. Cook very slowly for two hours.
  3. Cook the pasta until al dente and then toss with the the sauce. Serve with grated cheese.

Sam Sifton’s Soft-Boiled Eggs with Anchovy Toast

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: As many as you want

Nat is on an absolute bread and pasta tear and so when we nominated this as our starter for a Saturday night Italian meal, she immediately set about on an incredible artisan loaf.

Though hats off to this recipe, the bread was just the start of something really memorable.

This is an absolutely 1-hat starter. Incredible.

The anchovy butter is magic. And then add that soft-poached egg.

I should have sprinkled some chopped parsley or chives, though plenty of time for that. We now have the butter frozen in the freezer for next time.

As long as you have a crusty bread, this is a phenomenal dish. Breakfast, evening starter, it is special either way

Ingredients

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
Tin of anchovies
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 – 3 pinches of paprika
Juice of half a small lemon
Pepper
Soft poached eggs to serve
Toasted, crusty slices of artisan bread to serve
Finely sliced chives or parsley to serve

Method

  1. Drain the anchovies, rinse and pound in a mortar and pestle.
  2. Combine the anchovies with the remaining ingredients.
  3. Toast your bread, butter liberally and place a poached egg on top. Sprinkle over chives or parsley and serve warm.