I meant to measure, I really really did.

Jochem (who is from Switzerland and a winemaker so into measurements) puts his head in the kitchen and asks what I am making with the big piles of chillis and tomatoes on the bench.

“Relish”

“How will you do that?”

“I don’t know yet”

Jochem gives a long look which enquires whether this is Aussie piss take or something lost in translation. The truth is his English is better than my recipe skills.

So best I can tell you is that Jen bought in the last of her tomato crop, I reckon about 5kgs.

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“Why 20 wines?”  asks Lowie

A: It’s an arbitrary figure that we made up last year.

“Why 10 courses?” asks Lowie

A: It’s an arbitrary figure that we made up the year before last.

“Is that sensible?” asks Lowie.

A: No. 

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Ingredients:

1 packet squid ink pasta (from delis or specialty food shops)

250 grams AC Butchery speck or Putta Bucca free range bacon

1 small packet baby peas

150 grams sugar snap peas

Two heaped tablespoons olive tapenade*

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This is my attempt to recreate a dish at a restaurant in Alba (we squeezed it in between the white truffle pasta). Liam was doing a vintage in Piedmont, we were visiting Slow Cheese in Bra and Liam’s hosts took us all to a great regional restaurant. This salad was one of the most memorable meals I’ve ever eaten.

Can’t say this will be as good but with local ingredients like these at our disposal it should be pretty close.

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It is the ‘new’ tradition to prepare 10 courses to accompany 20 wines for the annual Vintage Birthday Party Lunch on April 27.

I’m looking at last year’s menu, held at precisely the same time of year but the season is so much later. 

The crabapples we used with pork to accompany Zinfandel in the last menu are long gone, so too the figs which have stopped ripening even though they hang from the trees looking good. Even the ants have lost interest.

Last year I put a crop of radishes in specially, this year the ones in the garden are woody and past it. 

We have five young Frenchmen staying while I’m pondering this. Tonight they are hosting a fundraiser for their Children’s Heart Nation foundation. The kitchen is full of reducing onion, duck, Cassoulet  and other preparations for Tartiflette and Tarte Tatin.

Even dairy loving Kim is horrified to discover that the standard portion of cheese in a Tartiflette is 200grams per person, the cream the same!  Still, there are five Frenchmen in my kitchen, who am I to complain?

And I am thinking Cassoulet should taste pretty good with Zinfandel on the 27th. 

I’ll let you know when I resolve the other nine courses.

One of the creative things about cooking from what grows in your garden is the challenge to use things you wouldn’t normally.

Crab-apples for example. They look pretty but would you ever buy them? Have you ever cooked with them?

They’re ripe right now and apart from looking pretty out the front of the winery I learnt last year that they do for pork what normal apples do only better.

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What happens if you put on an event to create good will and everyone ends up wanting to kill each other?

That question did cross my mind a couple of times in the lead up to Heroes & Icons on Saturday night. 

The end result was a successful love in, great food, renewed and new friendships and significantly a reminder of just how great the wines from this region can be.

I’ve always known Dave Cox is a great chef and seeing him post Eltons minus the drugged rock star looks is a delight. Watching him break down a Mudgee Lamb with boners precision and create a gorgous ragout I’m reminded again of his competence.

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