Category: Recipes
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Rough Cut Kitchen: A Stroganoff with a Twist
Grass-fed beef, a few tired mushrooms, garden vegetables and a beetroot that had no business being in a stroganoff. Or did it? It’s been a while since I’ve written anything for Rough Cut Kitchen. I’ve had a rather ordinary few weeks on the health front, and between illness, hospital visits and surgery, there hasn’t been…
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The fishing weekend
I’ve been away from Rough Cut Kitchen for a little while. I’ve been sick, and life rather rudely interrupted things for a bit. So, apologies for disappearing. I’m getting back on my feet now, and this weekend seemed like a pretty good way to start again. We’ve gone fishing at Barmah Bend on the Murray…
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Pantry Pasta with Pickled Anchovies
Some nights aren’t about cooking. They’re about getting something good on the table without overthinking it. It was one of those evenings. I had work still to finish, Louise wasn’t sure when she’d be home, and I wasn’t interested in shopping. A quick look through the pantry and fridge turned up a can of tomatoes,…
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An Afternoon with a Trout
Some meals begin with a shopping list. Others begin with a recipe. This one began with a trout. It was lying on the fish counter this morning, its skin glowing with soft pinks and golds, looking almost too beautiful to cook. I hadn’t gone looking for fish, but sometimes the best meals aren’t planned. They’re…
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Ten Things I’ve Learned in My Kitchen
After writing these posts, I realised they aren’t really about recipes. They’re about a way of cooking. These are the ideas I keep coming back to. 1. Start with what you already have. The best meal often begins by opening the fridge, looking in the garden or checking the fruit bowl. A recipe is only…
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Sometimes the Recipe Changes
Here’s how it started One of the things I enjoy most about cooking is that it doesn’t always go to plan. That’s not a failure—it’s often where you learn the most. This meal began with a tree full of persimmons. I had the idea of making a warm autumn salad of roasted persimmons, pumpkin, carrots…
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Not Every Steak is a Good Steak
Not my actual kitchen! Last night’s dinner was a reminder that even after years of cooking, and years of raising good beef cattle, it’s still possible to get it wrong. The meal itself was simple enough: steak with creamy mashed potato and asparagus, blanched and finished with butter and a squeeze of lemon juice. The…
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Leftovers Don’t Have to Look Like Leftovers
One of the pleasures of cooking at home is discovering that yesterday’s dinner can become something entirely different today. After a roast chicken dinner, I found myself with half a chicken still sitting in the fridge. There was plenty of meat left on it, but not really enough for another roast meal. The obvious answer…
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Eat Fresh. Eat Simply.
One of the things that struck me most during our time in France was not the sophistication of the food, but its simplicity. Before travelling, it is easy to imagine that French dining is all white tablecloths, elaborate sauces and chefs performing culinary magic behind kitchen doors. Certainly, those places exist, but what we found…
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From Passata to Pantry
One of the challenges of making things from scratch is that you occasionally make more than you know what to do with. A little while ago I found myself with a substantial quantity of roasted tomato passata sitting in the refrigerator. The passata itself had come from an excess of tomatoes that had been roasted…