meat Archives - cooking melbourne

Small Bites Make A Big Impression

I like serving interesting small bites with drinks. I guess I have been influenced by my Austrian mother who always made little open sandwiches with pretty garnishes no matter what the occasion and for whoever dropped in unexpectedly. Somehow she always managed to rustle up something that looked appetizing and that’s what an appetizer should…

Beef Tongue

Poaching meat and eating it cold is a great dinner solution for hot summer days and feeding groups of people. Matched with a tasty sauce, home made aioli or herb mayonnaise and a salad, poached meat makes a very enjoyable meal. Recently I poached some veal girello for vitello tonnato to eat at a beach house…

Vitello Tonnato For Hot Summer Days

Vitello Tonnato is a lovely dish of thin slices of poached veal served cold with a tuna sauce. It is one of those classic Italian dishes that sadly I haven’t encountered very much in Australia. However, Gertrude Street Enoteca routinely has it on their menu and it goes perfectly with a glass of white wine,…

Quail – the boned and the beautiful

I enjoy eating quail; those little packages of tender, dark meat that are not quite chicken and not quite a game bird, somewhere in between, much like the middle child of the poultry family. I often want to serve them to dinner guests, split, marinated in olive oil, lemon and garlic and quickly barbecued but…

Persian Fesenjan With Duck

Duck, walnuts, pomegranates – what’s not to like about this rich, nutty and sweet combination. Persian fesenjan is a gorgeous, slow-cooked sauce of ground walnuts finished with tangy pomegranate molasses to which you add pieces of chicken or duck. With time the walnuts release their natural oils and, when cooked further with the duck, the…