Campion & Curtis Food and Wine Newsletter
November 2004
Welcome to the November Campion and Curtis newsletter. Since our last edition we've been lucky enough to have spent a
month overseas in Europe (hence no October newsletter) and have returned to find spring in full flight. Our garden is looking
greener than ever, market stalls are filled with beautiful ingredients and the publishing world has gone into overdrive with
recipe books and food guides galore. It's great to be home again.
Click here to visit the Campion and Curtis website
In-season
This is a brilliant time for food lovers with a huge array of great ingredients to choose from. On the vegetable side of things look for asparagus, artichokes and
avocadoes along with fresh salad greens, spinach, early tomatoes and sweetcorn. Fruit lovers have plenty to indulge in too with
raspberries, valencia oranges, pineapples, and fragrant mangoes. Later in the month it'll be cherry season, so plenty of
great ingredients to get cooking with. To get you started we've included a Mango and orange blossom trifle recipe at the end of the newsletter.
Street Smart Australia
We're really pleased to see the Street Smart fundraising efforts continue this year. Again the idea is that participating restaurants will ask
customers to donate $2.00 each time they dine which will go directly to Street Smart. Funds are then distributed to to charities and
not-for-profit organisations that support the homeless via the StreetSmart Australia Advisory Committee. Last year this included
Stopover Youth Refuge, Family Access Network and The Matthew Talbot Soup Van amongst others. Administration costs of Street smart
are generated via sponsorship to allow 100% of donations to be used for this important work. Participating restaurants include
Bistro 1, Eat Drink Bento, Il Solito Posto, La Luna Bistro, Livebait, Mrs Jones, Punch Lane and many more. The fundraising kicks
off November 15th and runs until December 24th. Find out more about this great iniatitive at
Street Smart
Wine Australia
Australian wine lovers will be counting down the days until Wine Australia kicks off later this month in Sydney.
This massive event is expected to attract thousands to Darling Harbour where over 400 exhibitors will offer tastings to all comers.
Also on offer is 'The Cellar' where wine writers Peter Bourne and Huon Hooke will give enthusiasts the chance to get up close
and personal with some of their favourite wines and winemakers. If you want to learn about wine is a slightly diffrent manner then
join Matt Skinner at The Lab. Here Jamie Oliver's 'wine guy' will present sessions in a bar rather than a traditional classroom
style theatre. An extra fee applies the these two areas of Wine Australia. All in all it should be quite a weekend. More information and
booking details at Wine Australia 2004
The Yarra Valley Rocks
Following on a fine tradition of bringing music events to wineries 'A Day on the Green' concert will feature local and overseas
acts later this month. The line up includes Joe Camilleri, Diesel, Stephen Cummings and has Elvis Costello & The Imposters as
the headline act. The concert will be held at Rochford Wines on Saturday November 27th. More details and bookings at
Rochford Wines.
Talbot Farmer's Market
We've been hearing good things about the Talbot Farmers' Market in the central Victorian goldfields, the next market is
on Sunday 21st November and will be just the day to get along for a look. They offer a great local selection of wines, cheese, freshly
baked bread, preserves, honey, seedlings, organic eggs and home-grown fruit and vegetables. You can also explore this delightful old town while you there.
Talbot is between Clunes and Maryborough around two hours drive from Melbourne and 40 minutes from Ballarat. The market
operates between 10 am and 2 pm.
Foodie Highlights from Paris
Food, food and more beautiful food that's what Paris has to offer on every street corner it seems. These are just a few snaps from our
visit - there are so many to choose from. The local markets were stunning, you could shop there every Saturday morning and never get bored.
The Eric Kayser bakeries were a real hit with perfect croissants and coffee for breakfast. We also loved the fact that you could grab a quick crepe
from a street vendor and it would be of amazing quality. Cheese, chocolates, macaroons, pate, omelettes, rilettes, terrines, olives, olive oil,
pastries, steak frits, red wine, ice cream and beers. We savoured every mouthful for 4 glorious days. Hopefully it won't be another 15 years
before we return again.
Food tours and classes in November
Convivial Times
Food tours to Cabramatta and Marrickville, dinner with Shannon Bennet at Hugo's Lounge and Chefs Table at Lotus.
Queen Victoria Market Cooking School
Lots of activities options here including an outdoor Christmas buffet class, risotto with Tony Bizzarri, birthday cakes with
Loretta Sartori and desserts of champions with Stephen Mercer.
Cooking Co-ordinates - Elizabeth Chong swings in with a stir-fry masterclass, then it's on to Christmas classes on all aspects of food preperation and
presentation on November 13th and 20th with local presenters.
The Essential Ingredient
Allan will be here on Saturday Nov 17th with a class titles The Great Outdoors (yes, BBQing), then the month follows on with
Healthy Eating from Ben Kim Un, A Middle East dinner with Greg Malouf and Alla Wolf Tasker introduces Summer fresh.
Sydney Seafood School
Great options here include classes the Mediterranean BBQ, seafood and bubbles with Lyndey Milan, Stefano Manfredi showcases
Italian seafood recipes and Chris Manfield flys in for sexy Summer seafood.
Tony Tan
Tony Tan classes includes festive seafood, a spice box workshop and Asian salads.
Gourmet Safaris
Join pizza making at Napoli in Bocca, have a Sri Lankan feast at Sunli's or grab the last two remaining places on a
gourmet safari to Tasmania leaving on Nov 13th.
The Age Good Food Guide 2005
Our comments in the September newsletter on some of the award choices made in the Age Good Food Guide 2005 created considerable
feedback and discussion. Some felt we'd been too harsh, others too gentle in our views and we welcome all feedback.
Having spent the past few weeks in a number of European cities we feel there is much to celebrate in the Australian dining scene.
Our restaurants are welcoming, affordable and generally offer a good all-round package of food, wine and ambience. However the hype
and PR built around a restaurant can sometimes lead to the sense of "the emperors new clothes' where we all believe we see something
because everyone else says they can see it. We also feel that awards for certain restaurant categories do not have to be given each year if
the judges do not feel a certain standard has not been reached, as happens in wine shows where a required level of points is not
achieved. (And let's not get started on wine shows okay). This can only encourage those setting up new restaurants and running
established businesses to aim for best practice and always look to ensure they are really providing quality across the board.
The Age Good Food Guide 2005 (RRP $24.00).
Ludo The Good Food Store
We've been involved in the establishment of a new food store in Melbourne with John and Rose Hudson for some time. We're pleased to announce that Ludo The Good Food Store is now officially open. Situated in the bayside suburb of Sandringham
the store is a mix of deli, grocery store, homewares, books, cafe and to-go food. Our job has been to choose what goes on the shelves, so
basically all our favourites. Anyhow we'd love to see you if you're in this part of town. 5 Waltham Street, Sandringham. Tel 03 9598 5488.
Open 7 days a week.
In the December edition we'll review new books by Gay Bilson, Maurizio Trezini and Oz Clarke, include a few foodie highlights from our recent travels
and indulge in a little pre-Christmas planning with our ideas for what to cook on the big day in December.
Bye for now - Allan Campion & Michele Curtis
Mango and orange blossom trifle
This beautiful combination of tart mangoes in a citrus jelly, topped with almond flavoured biscuits is hard to beat.
Once the jelly is made the rest of the preparation is plain sailing. The pistachio praline is an additional extra, but it's like air-conditioning in the heat of summer- you've just got to have it.
110 g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
250 ml (1 cup) water
Zest of 2 oranges
Zest of 2 lemons
250 ml (1 cup) orange juice
80 ml (1/3 cup) lemon juice
250 ml (1 cup) apple juice
15 g gelatine sheets
2 tbsp orange blossom water
2 mangoes, peeled and diced 1 cm
110 g (1/2 cup) caster sugar, additional
80 ml (1/3 cup) water
75 g ( 1/2 cup) shelled pistachios
200 g amaretti biscuits, crushed
2 tbsp orange blossom water, additional
250 g (1 cup) marscapone
Icing sugar to taste
Place sugar and water in a saucepan and heat gently until sugar dissolves.
Add zest and fruit juices and bring to the boil.
Remove from heat, add gelatine sheets and stir until dissolved.
Strain, discarding zest. Cool slightly, add orange blossom water and stir to combine.
Pour into a large glass bowl, or 8 individual glasses.
Place in refrigerator until almost set, then add diced mango.
If you add the mango before this it will sink to the bottom. Refrigerate jelly until set.
To make the caramel place additional sugar and water in a saucepan.
Cook over a low heat until sugar dissolves. Raise heat and boil liquid.
Cook for 12-15 minutes, or until liquid begins to colour.
The desired colour is a lovely mix of gold and caramel, not dark brown.
If needed, carefully swirl the saucepan to mix the caramel.
Remove from the heat, add pistachios and tip onto a baking paper lined tray.
Allow to cool, then chop roughly.
Lightly crush arametti biscuits and spoon onto the jelly.
Sprinkle with additional orange blossom water.
Beat marscapone until smooth and add icing sugar to taste if desired.
Spoon mascarpone onto top of the biscuits. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Add chopped praline and serve.
Serves 8.
Wine match
A really great trifle demands a great accompaniment and there's few things better suited than a glass of impressive sweet wine. De Bortoli Noble One set the benchmark for locally made sweet wines over 20 years ago and continues that quality today. You can often find older vintages at auction; these would be amazing to serve with this dessert.
Easier to find are other dessert wines such as Mount Horricks Cordon Cut, Brown Brothers Orange Muscat and Flora or a bottle of Mitchelton's Blackwood Park Late Harvested Riesling.
Recipe and wine match from The Seasonal Produce Diary 2005 by Allan Campion and Michele Curtis - (Hardie Grant Books RRP $29.95).