Allan Campion & Michele Curtis photo by Lisa Cohen

Campion & Curtis Food and Wine Newsletter
February 2005

 Welcome to summer 2005 and the first Campion and Curtis newsletter for the year. We trust readers had a relaxing break and an enjoyable time with family and friends, good food and plenty of great wines to enjoy. It seems everyone has hit the ground running this year and there's plenty of news in this month's edition, everything from fundraisers to food and wine festival news, book reviews, recipes and cooking classes galore. We trust you'll enjoy the news.

Click here to visit the Campion and Curtis website

Summer produce
This is a terrific time of year for food lovers. Warm weather means most of us are keen to enjoy light breakfasts using fresh fruit and lots of cooling salads for main meals. We've certainly been enjoying beautiful fruits such as grapes, pineapple, apricots, berries, melons, nectarines and peaches each morning, it seems to have been a particularly good year for stonefruit. We've included a recipe from our up-coming book for breakfast couscous with poached fruit, honey yoghurt and pistachios to provide inspiration for your early morning meals. Fresh produce also extends to vegetables with excellent asparagus, avocadoes, cucumbers, sweetcorn, capsicums and salad greens on hand. In our own garden we're looking forward to a bumper crop of cumquats, olives, lemons and oranges in coming weeks.

New Books
January holidays often provide an opportunity to get through the stack of books that pile up on the bedside table. The standout read this summer has been Gay Bilson's Plenty, Digressions on Food. It is in essence a memoir of her life in food, a journey which begins in 1972 with Bon Gout restaurant with then husband Tony Bilson and moves through the kitchens of Berowra Waters Inn and Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House. The story telling however is placed in the hear and now, which for this author is a small farmhouse near Willunga in South Australia, with a feeling of sitting at the kitchen table discussing friends, books, meals, gardens and travels of years past. Chapters jump from the pleasures of tea to a meeting with Stan Menz, charcoal creator extraordinaire, maintaining an edible garden and her ideas on making a blood sausage from her own blood for a festival dinner. Recipes are peppered through here and there. This is also a very beautiful book to hold in your hands with slightly jagged pages giving the impression of a book which has passed through many hands. A highly recommended, thoughtful read. Published by Lantern RRP $49.95

Melbourne and Wine Festival 2005
The Melbourne and Wine Festival has just released news of their program for 2005. Many old favourites return including 22 'longest lunches' around the state, delicious double acts at the BMW Edge, the very successful Spice Bazaar held in Victoria Harbour, a wine masterclass at the Sofitel, the QVM hawkers' market, Breakfast around the Tan and a producers market at Federation Square. Over 300,000 food and wine lovers are expected to attend a whopping 130+ events over the two weeks, which shows this event has really hit its straps.

Local and international food and wine names on this years program include Stefano De Pieri, Tobie Puttock (Fifteen, UK), Andrew McConnell (Circa), Janet De Neefe (Bali), Neil Perry (Rockpool), Shane Osborn (Pied a Terre, London), Guillaume Brahimi (Guillaume at Bennelong, Sydney), Raymond Capaldi (Fenix,) Anthony Mussara (Radii), Philippe Mouchel (The Brasserie by Philippe Mouchel) and chocolate man of the moment, Max Brenner. Our festival appearance will be on March 19th as part of the "Kids Food at ArtPlay" program organised by The Children's Food Education Foundation. We'll be donning our aprons and cooking up a storm with around 20 children aged 9 - 12 years of age. If you fancy yourself as a brilliant barista you won't want to miss the finals of the Australian Barista Championships in Celebrate the Bean - Coffee & Chocolate on Sunday 20 March at Federation Square. Competitors are looking to stake a place at the World Championships, which will be held later in the year in Seattle. The complete Food & Wine festival program is officially released on February 15th, however early birds can have a sneak preview at the festival website on www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/.

ChefsUnite- Tsunami Fundraising
This event will bring together many of Australia’s top chefs in support of rebuilding affected communities in Sri Lanka’s North East. They are all part of a special fund raising dinner and auction on Friday 18 February at the Park Hyatt Melbourne, 1 Parliament Square, East Melbourne, Victoria. 7.00pm for cocktails, then 7.30pm for a three course dinner prepared by the likes of Martin Boetz (Longrain), Cath Claringbold (Mecca), Karen Martini (Melbourne Wine Room), Greg Malouf (Momo), Geoff Lindsay (Pearl), George Calombaris (Reserve), Andrew McConnell (Circa, The Prince), Teague Ezard (Ezard at Adelphi) and many more besides. Food and wine is $200 per person and there will be many auction items on the night. This event is virtually a sell-out, so be quick if you're keen to attend. Bookings Liquid Ideas on 03 9866 4211. More information at www.sct.com.au/seed

The Sustainable Living Festival 2005
The Sustainable Living Festival is on again soon at Federation Square. The festival showcases and celebrates leading examples of sustainable living in Australia and draws together a wide variety of displays, exhibits, artworks, performances and demonstrations on the topic. The event runs from February 18th - 20th. On Saturday 19th February at 2pm nutritionist Samantha Gowing will deliver The Sustainable Table a presentation focusing on organic, biodynamic and sustainable agricultural techniques for the future. The discussion will celebrate seasonal wholefoods and their individual healing properties and how they can assist the mounting epidemic of diet related diseases such as diabetes and obesity. The event is to provide consumers with information on choosing food responsibly and developing a stronger awareness of the origin of food, its economic and environmental impacts; and encouraging support for a sustainable future. Samantha also has an interesting look at the soy bean industry on her website and explores the effect of big businesses on soy milk production. As she says in her intro 'sit back, buckle up and get ready to ditch those cardboard containers full of over processed chalky fluid masquerading as milk.' Crying over Soy Milk

Pinot lovers
Lover of pinot noir will be flocking to The Mornington Peninsula on February 5th - 6th for presentations, tutored tastings and meals showcasing over 60 pinot noir wines from the Old and New world- and of course, from the Mornington Peninsula. The program will feature guest wineries from Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States. Keynote Speaker will be Matt Kramer who will be joined by a panel of passionate pinot noir experts from around the world including Tony Rynders of Domaine Serene (Oregon), Merry Edwards creator of her eponymous Californian label, Pascal Marchand of Domaine de la Vougeraie, Burgundy and prominent Kiwi winemakers – Grant Taylor from Gibston Valley, Phyll Pattie from Ata Rangi and Belinda Gould of Muddy Water fame. The local contingent will be represented by Tasmania’s Andrew Hood, Clare Halloran from Tarrawarra Estate and Robin Brockett from Scotchmans Hill. Booking details are available here.

The Gertude Street Enoteca team Out and about
The January holidays gave us a great opportunity to get out and visit a few new food spots and re-visit a few favourites. On the new side we had a chance to drop in to the Gertrude Street Enoteca which has been opened by Brigitte Hafner (chef and food writer for The Age Epicure), her partner and wine importer James Broadway along with Rosa Mitchell. As the name suggests this is the type of place to drop into for excellent coffee, perhaps a toasted panini at lunch and an antipasto place in the evening, with a glass of wine virtually anytime. They also offer a well chosen selection of wines, plus a smattering of food books and food-lovers ingredients. 229 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy 3065 (03) 9415 8262. Tim at Books for Cooks
As we were in Gertrude Street we could not pass up an opportunity to visit Books for Cooks. We love the fact you're welcome to sit in a comfy chair here and browse to your hearts content, also the level of knowledge of Tim, Amanda and the staff here is outstanding. Of course we left with more books than planned, but hey, isn't that what holidays are for? Books for Cooks 233-235 Gertrude St, Fitzroy VIC 3065 Tel 03 8415 1415. www.booksforcooks

Out of town we enjoyed exploring wineries and eateries of the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula. In the first we were particularly impressed with the service and food at Rochford Wines. A few glasses of pinot gris went down very nicely with what they call a Pinot Platter (rare eye fillet beef, blue Tasmanian Brie, fig jam, duck liver pâté, game sausage, marinated olives, and char grilled vegetables) and a Chardonnay Platter (pork rillettes, green olives, ash goat's cheese, Yarra Valley salmon gravlax, marinated New Zealand mussels, duck liver pâté and Spanish anchovies). rochfordwines.com.au/.

On the peninsula the outstanding stop was T'Gallant Winemakers where again it was the mix of food and service which we loved. Interestingly enough we'd purposely visited a few 'new' wineries on the way here, but for sheer class they beat the others hands down. Love the Spuntino Bar which is a small courtyard serving up wood fired pizzas, antipasto'ish plates to share, 'crash-hot’ potatoes with crisp herbs, and the best grilled sausages with tomato jam. The wines were particularly good too, especially the whites. Loved the moscato, the 'Juliet' Pinot Grigio and the 'Imogen' Pinot Gris. 1385 Mornington - Flinders Road, Main Ridge Victoria, (03) 5989-6565. T'Gallant Winemakers

Food with Friends
Our big news is the imminent release of our new cookbook, Food with Friends. This one has been a long time in the making as we really wanted to follow up Campion and Curtis in the Kitchen (released as Every Day in the Kitchen in paperback) with something special and quite different. As with all of our publications it also had to be on a topic in which we had a lot of personal experience. As the title suggests Food with Friends centers around the task of entertaining, and in the Campion-Curtis household enjoying good food with friends is a common occurrence. Rarely a week goes by without an evening or two where the table is set for more than our usual four family members. As people who love good food, we always put quite a bit of thought into what we'll have to eat. Considerations include which seasonal ingredients are at their best, the time of year to match with hot or cool weather and thinking about the guests who are joining us. Find out more here. Food with Friends will be launched on Wednesday March 2nd 2005. Published by Hardie Grant Books. RRP $39.95.

Cooking classes and food tours
Following the success of her residential cooking school last year, Stephanie Alexander will once again host a fabulous week from 24th March to March 31st 2005 at La Combe in Périgord Noir, in southwest France. An intimate eight students only will visit farms and artisans' workshops, enjoy fabulous meals in some out-of-the-way spots and shop and cook with Stephanie in the country markets and in the purpose-built teaching kitchen. More details on www.lacombe-perigord.com

Convivial Times Bookings now open for April tours to Orange with Armando Percuoco and Southern Tasmania with Graeme Phillips.
Queen Victoria Market Cooking School Frank Camorra on Spanish pastries, Moroccan seafood with Paul Le Noury and Seafood BBQ with yours truly on February 24th.
Cooking Co-ordinates, Canberra - Complimentary class on Feb 5th using Love Apples & Pasta plus Low-Carb Low-Fat Cooking with Pamela Clark on February 12th.
Sydney Seafood School Greek Seafood with John Mangos, South East Asian daytime class and a Summer Dinner Party with Kathy Snowball.
Simon Johnson Talk+Eat+Drink Anthony Puharich (Vic's Meats) on the BBQ, John Susman cooking shell fish and crustaceans plus Peter Gilmour (Quay) on summer food.
Gourmet Safaris Seasonal Banquet lunch at Elios, World in a Day Southern Suburbs bus tour and a 3 Day Mudgee Weekend.

Click here to visit the Campion and Curtis website. and find out about up-coming cooking classes, food tours and festival appearances including a panel session titled eating Melbourne 2 with Iain Hewitson at the Writers at Como Festival on Sunday 27th February at 2pm.

Cheers until next month, Allan and Michele

Breakfast couscous with poached fruit, honey yoghurt and pistachios
If you were having a big brunch this dish is great as a small starter; in which case it will serve 6-8 depending on the size of portion and what else you're having.

500 ml (2 cups) water
110-220 g (1/2-1 cup) caster sugar, to taste
30 ml lemon juice
500 g fruit, such as rhubarb, plums, apricots, peaches or berries
125 g (1/2 cup) natural yoghurt
2 tbsp honey
250 ml (1 cup) orange juice
125 ml ( 1/2 cup) water 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp caster sugar
250 g (2 ¼ cups) instant couscous
2 tbsp butter 60 g pistachios, chopped

Prep Place water, sugar and lemon juice in a large heavy-based saucepan over medium heat.
Stir until sugar dissolves and bring to the boil.
Cut fruit if needed, place in poaching syrup and cook until just softened.
Taste syrup, to ensure it is sweet enough, and add more sugar if necessary.
Allow fruit to cool in the syrup.
Mix yoghurt and honey together and refrigerate until required.

Cook Place orange juice, water, cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 teaspoons sugar in a large saucepan.
Heat until almost boiling. Remove from the heat, stir in the couscous, cover and allow to rest for 2 minutes.
Place saucepan over a low heat, add butter and stir with a fork to break up the grains.

Serve Heap couscous into bowls, top with poached fruit and scatter pistachios over the top.
Serve with honey yoghurt.

Feeds 4-6
Chef's Tip The amount of sugar you'll need in the poaching syrup will depend on the sweetness of the fruit. Tart fruit will need quite a lot and sweet fruit will need only a little. We recommend tasting the poaching syrup as the fruit is cooking.

Recipe from Food with Friends by Allan Campion and Michele Curtis - (Hardie Grant Books RRP $39.95).