My first workshop for 2019 at my home in Eaglehawk Neck today with a small group of lovely ladies, not that it bothered them at all being a small group more individual time for each person and of course… more food! I have switched my workshop date from a extremely popular Sunday to Friday. I will be flat out on Sunday’s at Little Norfolk Bay Events and Chalets cooking breakfast for my indulgence weekend guests, cleaning chalets and tidying up after events. I will still teach the workshop or class with just one booking, and I would still offer the variety. With three kids no food goes to waste at my house, and anyway, Maggie would not be happy if she arrived home from school and I hadn’t saved her a quail and some Tongola cheese!

I plan many different cooking techniques into the workshop and a variety of local food, I actually grew ALL the veggies for todays workshop, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, silverbeet, garlic, sage, thyme, bayleaf, basil, oregano, radishes, rosemary and carrots. That may only happen once or twice a year, I LOVE gardening and I can grow nice food I am still learning how to organise the garden to produce food all year. My friends George and Hilary from “grown for taste” at saltwater river are consulting on the development of my big veggie patch at Little Norfolk Bay Events and chalets. Speaking of Little Norfolk Bay events and Chalets, if you’ve been wondering what the 7 course degustation dinner included in the weekend indulgence packages it is going to be like, it will be similar to what we cooked today. Although this seems like a lot of food one attendee commented today it is not actually a excessive amount of food, she said she didn’t  leave feeling full and uncomfortable. Generally  I find when dining out it is the “cheap fillers” that make you feel full and uncomfortable, eg big portions of cheap bread, cheap pasta, fried chips fried in bad oil. What we cooked today, and what will be on the 7 course dinners, is multiple ‘tasting size portions’ of fresh, local, delicious, nutrient rich food!

So today, first we made bread that we served with Ashbolt olive oil then we made pasta. Some of pasta for fettuccine for our squid and some into ravioli. The ravioli was plump pockets of Tongola Goats cheese sautéed in brown butter and sage, delicious. We made venison carpaccio and Tassal’s one pot Salmon, both recipes are from the Tasmania Pantry. We shucked Fullham oysters and made the tangy shallot dressing recipe again from The Tasmania Pantry. And we grilled Rannoch Farm  quail with King Island endeavour blue and honey and mustard. I tried a new dish today, rather than my own sautéed squid pasta dish from my cookbooks, I decided to cook a dish inspired by what Rodney Dunn cooked at the Wooden Boat festival kitchen theatre. I have not cooked squid like this before but have done a similar tomato braise with occy dish, the squid today was delicious! Brendan had caught the squid and it had been vac packed frozen, unlike some proteins that lose quality with freezing there is nothing wrong with freezing cephalopods before cooking,  in fact it actually helps tenderise them. I also served a green tomato sweet pickle with a sea lettuce and cauliflower kimchi i made a few weeks ago. The green tomatoes were from a branch I accidentally pulled from the garden yesterday and the leaves made a beautiful table decoration with some purple potato flowers and thyme and oregano flowers. We finished with a apple pie using the recipe from The Tasmania Pantry cookbook, everyone loves this simple delicious pastry recipe and you can use loads of different fruit combinations.

The beautiful side plate is by Lisa Britzman of Campo de flori.

I had fresh baked scones with my jams ready for the attendees with tea and coffee on arrival.

Doo town (I can see the paddocks from my home!!) venison carpaccio recipe in The Tasmania Pantry cookbook.

We made this baguette and served it with Ashbolt olive oil

Fulham Oysters and a tangy shallot sauce.

Rannoch Farm Quail and King Island endeavour blue, apple, honey & mustard on gorgeous Ridgeline pottery.

Plump pockets of tongola curdy, brown butter, garlic and sage simple perfection!

Tassal Salmon one pot salmon from the Tasmania pantry easy enough for a weeknight meal delicious for a special occasion, beautiful rosemary and garlic flavours.

green tomato pickle with oscars radishes he grew himself and sea lettuce and cauliflower kimchi

Squid braised in tomato and garlic with fresh basil and oregano

apple pie and Valhalla Ice-cream.

The next workshop is on the 29th of March go to my workshop page to read about it and book a spot!