NEWS 2008

Although the festive season of 2007 is a long way behind us I wanted to share the story of the suckling pig we cooked on the spit for our Christmas lunch. Although seafood is often the main choice for our family we decided to have a complete change and try a festive suckling pig. While on my travels in Spain last year and at Pilau Restaurant at Freshwater, Sydney I had eaten lots of delicious suckling pig so we decided to take the challenge and set the barbecue up with a spit and to prepare the beast for the feast!.

We prepared him carefully and stuffed him with all sorts of aromatics such as slices of oranges, onions, garlic, herbs, and virgin olive oils and then salted the skin with sea salt. Fixing onto the skewers was not my favourite task (this I left to my sister) and then onto the barbecue to be turned for the next few hours to cook to perfection. Unfortunately in the haste of getting the skewers through the body the balance was incorrect for the rotisserie and in fact the electric motor for the rotisseries didn’t seem quite strong enough, with the pig out of balance, to do the turning. It meant we had to turn it manually. In between more family arriving, festive champagne and other excitements the turning of the pig did not happen according to plan. However when it was decided lunch was ready our festive beast was carved for the table and everyone enjoyed the slightly charred, sweet tasting aromatically flavoured meat.

I don’t think this culinary repertoire of cooking a suckling pig on a spit would be repeated again next Christmas. Maybe Giovanni from Pilau’s advice of taking the head off and roasting the carcass in the oven might be the best way of cooking it next time. It is always fun to move outside of what you would normally cook on the holiday occasions. This Easter I think we will stick to local sustainable fish and lots of lovely oysters!

I am involved this year with Slow Food Sydney (www.slowfood.com.au ) and plan to be more involved with the promotion of local growers and sustainable producers from around Australia and the world. I joined a local community garden in Chatswood and we have grown some amazing produce and I have learnt a lot which I now can add into my own vegetable garden practice. The garden hens are still helping with their fertilizing and production of eggs. I hatched out some very lovely Aracuna hens and unfortunately as the law of nature has it - two cockerels! The boys will be off to the country soon I will miss their attempt at crowing in the early morning!

This year’s classes I know will be fun and there are lots of new things to learn and see. I have been running the tours to the Growers Markets for 6 years now and I still get new stories from the Producers. Nick from La Tartine Bakery engaged in a lively conversation a guest from Sweden on the tour about the price or organic wheat and the difficulty of getting the correct milling from the growers. The story of the humble loaf of bread is more than it looks and the patience and passion of the bakers is an always inspiring and a celebration of passion to their craft.

Eat well and sustainable
Syd