At the Market

cooking melbourne

Discovering Melbourne's Artisan Foods and Produce

The World Of Oysters

In France it is illegal to sell an oyster which has not been opened to order. Think about that for a minute and what it could possibly mean. The oyster is a living thing, clinging to rocks in its secure rock-like shell as the ocean tides surge and retreat. Once collected from its natural home…

White Strawberries

You might be tempted to think that white strawberries are a modern monstrosity but they are in fact a hybrid variety created from a natural white strawberry indigenous to Chile. Why all the excitement about a white version of strawberry? Attributes of the white strawberry include an amazing perfume, a small berry size with a…

Winter Transformations – Potato, Pumpkin & Spinach

Potatoes, pumpkin and spinach are winter market staples. Each can be used to good effect independently but I’ve brought them together in one delicious dish: sautéed potato gnocchi with roast pumpkin and spinach. Potato gnocchi are easy to make and sautéing the cooked gnocchi in olive oil with a little knob of butter for taste…

Andean Sunrise Potatoes

Andean Sunrise are a new variety of potato great for roasting and mashing and with exceptional buttery flavour. These yellow fleshed potatoes have a high carotene level. Often spruiked as an heirloom variety, Andean Sunrise or Sunside was actually selectively cross bred from a different potato family called Phureja, originally from the Andean valleys of…

Lion’s Mane

Would you put something called lion’s mane on your dinner menu? It may look like a large ball of fluff or a lion’s mane but in reality it is quite a meaty textured mushroom. Lion’s mane is one of the new gourmet mushroom varieties available around Melbourne farmers’ markets, along with coloured oyster mushrooms, nameko,…