Gourmet Traveller December 2015

SEAFOOD LUNCH Lobster, peach and mint salad with smoked almonds (RECIPE P122) Sri Lankan crab curry with pol sambol (RECIPE P136) Vicky Pollard sundae (PICTURED; RECIPE P46) Normally I wouldn’t dream of suggesting you drink the same thing all the way through a meal, but I honestly can’t think of many better matches with all these dishes than riesling in all its glorious diversity: young, dry Clare riesling to start; off-dry, grapy Tasmanian riesling with the curry; and sweet, late-harvest riesling with dessert. DO-AHEAD CHRISTMAS Cured salmon with Bloody Mary salad (RECIPE P118) Roast turkey with sour-cherry stuffing and pickled cherries (PICTURED; RECIPE P153) Nectarine, muscat and yoghurt trifle (RECIPE P160) Vodka-cured salmon? Perfect excuse for a vodka and lime if you ask me (Christmas isn’t Christmas without a stiff…

Spit-roasted gyros will be the centrepiece of my family’s Christmas lunch this year. Cousin John has taken on the mantle and responsibility of spit master and will take great pleasure in marinating the meat, preparing the coals, and all the other secret men’s business that goes with this age-old Greek tradition. Ours will not only be a large gathering this year (there will be 41 of us), but also a culturally diverse one. John was born in Sri Lanka and other members of the clan hail from Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Croatia, Canada, Lebanon and Cyprus, where my parents, aunties and uncles were born – a slice of multicultural Australia in suburban Melbourne. It’s a special day for our family and I hope this Christmas issue of Gourmet Traveller goes some…

RHIANNE CONTRERAS Rhianne Contreras began her styling career when she moved to Sydney from the United Kingdom in 2010. This issue she has styled our Christmas gift guide (see page 102), and says she likes looking for treasures off the beaten track. “I’m always wandering down side streets and seeing where it takes me,” she says. What’s top of her wish list? “The Leica camera would capture special travel moments beautifully.” LORRAINE GODSMARK One of Australia’s most respected pâtissières, Lorraine Godsmark has polished her craft over the years in Sydney at Rockpool, Six Seven Ate and Yellow, and now wows the city’s pastry aficionados with her work at Lorraine’s Pâtisserie. In this issue she shares her secrets to perfecting Christmas cake, a dish she says is as much of a…

THE MAR-TINNY Of all the things Elvis Abrahanowicz and his cohorts can at their new deli (peas, fish, T-shirts), nothing comes close to eliciting quite the same squeals of delight as barman Mikey Nicolian’s simple but effective Martini in a tin. A Martini in a tin! Continental, 210 Australia St, Newtown, NSW, (02) 8624 3131 PAT NOURSE SNACKS Andrew McConnell’s latest venture is a wine bar named Marion. The smart décor (white-washed bricks, marble, copper) and wine list are well matched with the daily changing menu. Standout snacks include sea urchin on a squid-ink cracker with finger lime – much goodness in two bites – and ox tongue mortadella with grated horseradish and chive flowers: pretty and powerful. Marion, 51-53 Gertrude St, Fitzroy, Vic, (03) 9419 6262 MICHAEL HARDEN TUNA…

The 2016 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival line-up revealed. Melbourne is no stranger to being flocked with top-flight international talent at the beginning of each year and, if the programming for the 2016 instalment of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is any guide, March will be no exception. For starters there’s a double-dose of exciting young talent on the Chinese food front. May Chow, chef and proprietor of Hong Kong hotspot Little Bao, is on board, maximising fun in a bun, and she’s joined by none other than Danny Bowien, the Oklahoma-raised chef whose spicy-food-without-borders approach has made Mission Chinese the talk of both US coasts. From a more classical background, but offering every bit as much star power, comes the mighty Pierre Koffmann, master of the stuffed pig’s…

BEACH BANANAS Don’t bother trawling your plate in search of anything fruity or yellow if beach bananas wash up on a menu near you. These tiny green banana-shaped succulent leaves are plucked from a purple pink-flowered coastal groundcover plant called beach banana (Carpobrotus rossii) or karkalla or pigface. They’re crisp, juicy, and slightly salty – a natural fit with most seafood. Peter Moon, head chef of Brisbane’s Anise, likes to team beach bananas with scampi. “They’re a unique garnish and have a nice, salty astringency which goes well with sweet seafood,” he says. “I also like to use them in salads – pearl barley with pickled carrot and blanched karkalla is a nourishing alternative to a leaf salad.” If he’s out beach fishing on Moreton Island, Moon forages for larger…