Category: Recipes
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Learning to Slow Down in Saint-Étienne-de-Lescattes
After a week aboard the Canal du Midi, we traded our floating home for a stone farmhouse near the tiny hamlet of Saint-Étienne-de-Lescattes in the hills of Occitanie. If you’ve never heard of Saint-Étienne-de-Lescattes, don’t worry. Neither had I. It’s one of those places that barely registers on a map, surrounded by vineyards, rolling countryside…
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Lunch and Art at Château La Coste
Today at Château La Coste in Provence felt like one of those places where food, landscape and art all become part of the same experience. Before lunch we spent time walking through the grounds looking at the outdoor artworks integrated into the vineyards and hillsides. The standout for me was the Oak Room by Andy…
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Duck, Eggplant and the Landscape of Southern France
Lunch at Château Capitoul felt like the food equivalent of the surrounding gardens – restrained, highly regional and completely confident in its ingredients . The opening dish was a carpaccio of Mediterranean fish dressed simply with olive oil, lemon, apple and radish. Clean, bright flavours with just enough sharpness and texture to remind you how…
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Tortilla for Two
1. The Situation The potatoes are ready and sitting there. If you leave them, they go soft or start sprouting. The hens are laying steadily, so eggs aren’t scarce. This is one of those moments where doing nothing wastes both. 2. The Approach This is a holding dish as much as a meal. You’re turning…
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Mackerel Fillet
Lunch in Marseille today and this handwritten board pretty much summed up the Mediterranean for me: Flame-seared mackerel glazed with orange, cumin sweet potato mash, and a sweet-sour ginger emulsion. Simple idea, but a really interesting combination to think about back home in Australia. You could easily do this with local mackerel, kingfish, salmon or…
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Couscous & Roast Chicken Croquettes
8 1. The Situation Leftover roast chicken that’s already been picked over once.Cooked couscous sitting in the fridge – dry, not something you want to just reheat. Both need using. Neither is appealing on its own. 2. The Approach You’re not trying to “improve” couscous – you’re using it as structure. Chicken brings flavour and…
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Travelling in Provence
For the next couple of weeks, Rough Cut Kitchen is turning into a bit of a travel food diary. I’m currently in the south of France and, as you’d expect, the food culture here is impossible to ignore. Yesterday was Avignon. Today, Marseille. We’re now based in Aix-en-Provence for a few days while I wander…
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Beef Satay-Style Curry
There was rump steak in the fridge that needed using, along with green beans that wouldn’t hold much longer. Onions, garlic and ginger were already there. A jar of peanut butter in the cupboard. Coconut milk on hand. The Malaysian curry powder from earlier. Enough to build something solid without going anywhere else. This wasn’t…
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Pork Medallions with Gravy and Garden Vegetables
There were pork medallions to use, but more importantly there was a container of roast chicken gravy sitting in the fridge from earlier in the week. That’s not something to throw away. It’s already done work. It just needs a way back in. There were also beans still coming through, potatoes on hand, and the…
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Lamb Backstrap with Eggplant and Tomato
This started with a lamb backstrap and a fridge that needed clearing out. There was still eggplant from earlier in the week, already turned into escabeche, along with a run of heritage tomatoes that all came in together — different colours, all ripe at once — and some spring onions that needed using. Enough there…