The main Christmas protein dish this year was inspired by Donna Hay magazine. The minute I spied the recipe in the Dec/Jan 07 issue, I knew I just had to give it a whirl. Once again, I have tweaked the recipe somewhat.

Baked Almond Ocean Trout
125g flaked almonds
2 tbs lemon rind
1/4 cup chopped chives
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 1/2 cups panko crumbs
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
2kg ocean trout (ask the monger to fillet into sides)
1/4 cup olive oil, and extra for drizzling

Preheat the oven to 210 degrees Celsius.

Place the almonds, panko, lemon rind, herbs, eggs, seasoning and oil into a bowl and stir to combine. Place the mixture over one of the trout sides and sandwich with the other (skin to the outside). Secure the two sides together with kitchen string; an extra pair of hands here will be extremely useful. Place onto a baking paper lined tray and drizzle with olive oil. Season again with sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper.

Roast for 30 minutes or until the fish is golden and cooked through. Remove from oven and leave to settle for a few minutes before slicing.

Serves 10.

This was then served along with the following Christmas feast items:

It was a wonderful feast made all the more palatable by good champagne/wine, great conversation and my lovely family. But dang…we’ll be eating the leftovers for days!

A joyous season to all.

I absolutely adore Christmas pudding. I yearn for a hunk of that dense fruity spicy booziness, licked with brandy butter and swimming in a pool of anglaise. Unfortunately those closest to me don’t share my love - so an alternative dessert is pretty much called for.

This year I decided on “the ultimate fruit meringue with vanilla cream, hazelnuts and caramel” as created by Jamie Oliver for delicious. Of course, my version is a little different. The original one can be found on page 34 of the November 2006 issue.

Basic Meringue
6 large free-range egg whites
300g caster sugar
Pinch of salt

The stuff that goes on top
400ml double cream
2 tbs icing sugar
1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways, seeds only
1 punnet raspberries
1 punnet blueberries
2 small mangoes
200g caster sugar
200ml water

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

For the meringue, put egg whites into a clean bowl and whisk on medium until firm peaks form. With mixer still running, slowly pour in sugar and a pinch of salt. Turn the mixer up to its highest setting and mix for 5-7 minutes until white and glossy. To test whether the mixture is right, dip your finger in and rub between your thumb and index finger. If it feels gritty, mix for another minute or so.

Using a spatula, spread meringue over the paper into your desired shape. The original recipe calls for a long 25cm x 7cm ish size. I made mine a round. Bake in the preheated oven for an hour until crisp on the outside. Take out of the oven and leave to cool on the tray. When cool, move to a serving dish (gently!!).

Whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla pod seeds until it forms soft peaks. Spoon it on to the meringue, and then top with the berries and sliced mango.

Put the caster sugar and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Cook until it reduces to a caramel colour (which is one step before a burnt colour), and then drizzle onto the meringue/cream/fruit.

Now go and enjoy the fabulousness that is not Christmas pudding. It’s just lucky that I also love a good meringue

Happened upon a groovy little coffee spot in Elsternwick today that absolutely oozed a comfy funky vibe. But I don’t know whether I was lured in by the wonderful aroma of good coffee floating out the door, or the fact that a “devonshire coffee” was a delicious $5.

Serving and selling jasper coffee and small snacks, they also sell cacao chocolates (and we all know how good they are!). One can choose to sit inside on antique furniture and admire the wares for sale, including espresso machines, coffee (in huge sacks), chocolate, teas and other paraphernalia. Or you can move it outside onto the street and watch the passing parade.

Either way, this organic fairtrade coffee is a damn fine brew.

Hairy Canary is a place where some of the too cool for school set go to eat, drink and be merry. Don’t let this put you off though. The food is pretty darn tasty, despite the fact you may have to wait a wee while to get it. And don’t mind the surly vacant icemaiden waitress either. Like the atmosphere, it offers one something of interest to look at and experience

EG went the Spanish omelette with chorizo, olives, capsicum and manchego cheese. Cooked in a teeny paella pan, the filling was generous and bursting with flavour - almost juicy with it. His verdict = very good indeed.

I went the corn fritters with roasted roma tomatoes and spicy avocado, with an added side of goats cheese. The corn fritters were good, although upping the corn ratio would have seen them spectacular (nb. for uber “roasted” corn fritters try Mart 130). The spicy avo, rocket and tomatoes sat high atop the stack - a good picquant compliment to the fritters.

Verdict: worth it for the food, but not so good if you’re in a hurry.

Further to our culinary adventures in Mildura, EG and I decided to hop aboard the Avoca Paddleboat for a three course banquet and two hour cruise. For $49 we thought it was an absolute bargain, especially since Stefano would be cooking for us - again :-).

The Paddleboat started its days hauling cargo up and down the Mighty Murray in the 1870’s. Recently refurbished, it now acts as an informal riverfront cafe for lunches and dinners. It also plays host to weddings, parties, anything.

Set up on long communal tables, you are somewhat at the mercy of good placement whether your leisurely lunch will be pleasure or pain. To one side of us we had a group of local ladies out for a luncheon, who were great value and a fount of local knowledge. On our other side we almost had the couple from hell - retiree caravanning QLDers who couldn’t help but complain about EVERYTHING. Luckily we were saved by a young couple out to trial the boat for their wedding reception (they took up the space between us). Phew.

Now, I must admit I thought the meal would be “cooked in front of you by Stefano de Pieri as you sit at a communal table”. Well, it wasn’t cooked in front of us. Perhaps he was somewhat forlorn at being unsuccessful in running for an independent upper house seat in Government only the week before. Hmm. A pity. But we did spy him coming aboard to cook.

Ever since I saw Stefano de Pieri riding his trusty old pushbike around the Mildura district in A Gondola On The Murray, I have wanted to experience the culinary delights of his restaurant, Stefano’s. And this weekend, I finally did! As a fellow paesani, I felt a certain kinship with him as he visited Italian households that made their own salami, bread, or stuffed olives. I have never met the man personally, but I love his passion for both his heritage and his new home in Australia.

The restaurant itself is a real little gem. Tucked away in the cellar basement of the old Mildura Grand Hotel, it is a steep descent down a curved stairway to a cavernous entrance. It is a rather intimate space; closed-in, dark, exposed brick, lit only by a single lamp on each table. But it is perfect for that romantic dinner date that we should all experience at least once in our lives.

Service was tight, friendly and professional - although my one qualm was that one had to retain the cutlery between some of the courses (?!). But apart from that, everything flowed superbly.

Stefano’s operates as degustation only - five or six courses with the cheeky caveat “subject to the whim of the chef…”. As the menu is a surprise, picking a wine can be somewhat of a challenge. Therefore we went with the sommeliers wine match for each dish - which I think is their intention.

To whet the appetite we were given warm chewy little triangles of ciabatta rolls, olive oil, goats chevre and olives. The bread was seriously THE best restaurant bread I’ve had in quite some time - made onsite in their own bakery. We also spied it for sale later on at 27Deakin.

First course was an antipasto; thinly shaved prosciutto, salad of calamari, battered and deep fried zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and sweet juicy roma tomatoes. The calamari salad was a cold dish of thinly sliced calamari dressed in a mild olive oil, lemon and herbs. My first impression was that it needed more salt and lemon. But as I kept eating it, I realised how this would have perhaps obliterated the subtle sweetness of the calamari. The stuffed zucchini flowers were a work of art - a whole baton of baby zucchini with flower still attached, stuffed with a lemony/parmesany ricotta. It was battered and deep fried in a crisp yeasty batter that practically crunched on each mouthful. A light sprinkling of Murray River Pink Salt Flakes also added an extra crunch. The antipasto was matched with a 2005 Pra Soave Classico, a delightful little drop that was quite tropical and limey - a great partner for the citrus tones in the antipasto.

Our second dish was the char grilled quail with cos lettuce & tallegio and red capsicum. The quail is possibly the best I have ever eaten in my life. Spatchcocked and generously seasoned, the meat was pink and succulent and the skin crispy and smokey. It arrived with a crisp cos lettuce salad garnished with shavings of tallegio, and sweet roasted peppers licked with a glug of olive oil, the extra virgin kind. The plate was sprinkled with ruby red pomegranate arils, or seeds. The dish was matched with a 2004 Chanson Bourgogne Rouge, a pinot noir style that partnered really well with the sweetness of the quail and pomegranates.

Third dish was a fresh gnocchetti with asparagus and blue swimmer crab. The gnocchetti were little potato/herb slithers that I think were extruded through a bronze die as they had that rough artisnal look about them. The sauce was disgustingly good - flakes of blue swimmer crab, discs of asparagus and the gnochetti were coated in a nutty beurre noisette. It was matched with a 2005 Cullen Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, which was also a limey little number. It was a perfect partner to the crab.

The fourth, or main dish of the night, was slow roasted Loxton beef with turned potatoes, dutch carrots and green beans. The beef had been slow roasted at an extremely low temperature for about three hours, and was a lovely medium rare piece of fillet that was oh so tender. Some poor little apprentice chef probably sat in the galley hand turning (carving) the potatoes for days, but they did look lovely on the plate. This dish was matched with 2004 Cape Mentelle Cabernet Merlot, a rather smooth drop with good tannins and lots of berry flavour.

Our last course of the night was a caramel panna cotta with strawberries in Grand Marnier. This was the only dish that didn’t impress. The taste was marvellous - creamy, pure, light with an almost toffee caramel taste. But there was too much gelatine in the mix, and it had lost its necessary languid wobbliness. I was heartbroken. I so wanted the dessert to be as exemplary as the previous dishes. We didn’t go the matched wine for this course (an Iced Riesling), as were already quite sloshed after the rather generous serves of the other wines.

All in all though, the experience was just beautiful. Perfect company, wonderfully amazing food, fine service, and ambience in spades. Time to start planning a return visit :-).

A trip to Mildura is not complete without a visit to the Mildura Brewery. Established in 2004 by Don Carrazza (of Mildura Grand Hotel fame), the microbrewery is housed in the old Astor Theatre, right next door to the Grand. The refurbed Brewery is a rather fine looking establishment. Whilst retaining many of the original art deco features, it has been updated in a very smart/slick way. Lots of polished steel, shiny black finishes, dark wood and natural stone work in good combination. What I love best are the three huge stainless steel brewing vats and bottling line you are privy to at the back of the space. It is nice to kick back with a bevy and appreciate how it actually came to be.

EG and I decided on the Tasting Tray (pictured above and half gone by the time I got the camera out). Ordinarily the brewery produces four standard beers; Mallee Bull, Murray Honey Wheat, Desert Premium Lager and Sun Light. But the Brewery also likes to experiment, and the Beer of the Month keeps things interesting. So on our tray we also got to sample the standard four plus Storm Cloudy Ale and the Oktoberfest.

As far as tasting goes - well I think there is a beer there that would cater for most palates. Most of them are fairly light in the hops department though. But they do get a lil’ heavy in some brews - just nothing too dark or stouty.

My vote went to the Murray Honey Wheat beer, which I figure is a cross between a Hoegaarden and a Beez Neez. It had an amazingly clean/crisp quality with a heady honey aroma. It was light on in the malt - and apparently appeals to “the younger crowd, women of all ages and those with a sweet tooth”. Got it in three

EG loved the Storm Cloudy Ale, which was surprisingly citrusy and hoppy. On tap it really was a cloudy storm - quite opaque. But it loses this in the transfer to the bottle. This one is certainly a masculine type beer, being both full bodied and full-on.

The Brewery also does lunch and dinner Tuesday to Sundays. All your usual pub fare is available, although it is probably one step better than regular pub grub. But think chicken parma, beef burger, salt and pepper calamari using qual ingredients etc. We did dine late on a Sunday (didn’t take a photo though), and I can attest that the calamari was lip smackingly good. EG went the burger, which looked non too shabby either.