Pat Churchill

Come on. I'm a Kiwi. It would have to be a sheep's eyeball :-) I also have a very scary picture of goat stew. (shudder)

In my own kitchen, when I redesigned it, I installed a separate refrigerator and matching freezer, side by side. Plenty of room in each and they are brilliant. Same height, width, depth etc. We moved to Australia two years ago, renting out our NZ house. (sob - I miss my kitchen...) In our first rental property we had a side by side arrangement with an icemaker and cold water dispenser. Pretty good. The Spouse loved the ice and water dispenser. I thought the (filtered) water tasted inferior to the tap water though the ice was handy for chilling down par-boiled vegetables to refresh them etc. Always heaps of ice when required. Our current rental property had no fridge but a large recess for one so we bought a pretty huge fridge with a separate freezer at the bottom. We'd had a similar model before in another house we'd owned during an interim job. It was fine. I like the fridge at the bottom rather than the top because I access it less frequently. However, the two sons have moved back home for a while and while the freezer section is OK for two of us, it's not really enough for four. But I have learned to be more disciplined, which isn't a bad thing. But sometimes when I see a bargain, I know I don;t have the freezer space. My choice is for the separate standalone fridge and freezer. I liked the capacity of the fridge - heaps of room for fruit and vegetables, all the stuff that says "refrigerate after opening", hibernating sourdough starters, plus plenty of space for wine bottles, verjuice, milk, water, beer, mixers, buttermilk and other 'essentials'. Don't ever buy a dive-in freezer! My mother had one and had stuff down in the bottom that was a relic of the Ice Age - "Stewed plums 1976", "steak 1984". I gave her my old upright freezer when I redesigned kitchen and she still stored it like a museum. Thank goodness there was a power failure and the insurance company paid out on her antique food. Fortunately my freezer has a high turnover rate, forced on me by its capacity. I rarely dump stuff except for refugees from the bbq season that miss the grill. In writing this, I guess I have come to realise a week's worth of meat is about right for my current freezer needs. I just need to make space for the odd spare loaf of bread - though our mini-mart is only about 200 metres down the road and I could use the exercise. Oh... thank God I haven't had to move 38 times like Jaymes!!!! My biggest problem in various relocations has been my very large cookbook collection. It comes a close second to my family.

I've got one book The Book of Garnishes by June Bugden (1988) which you can pick up cheap on Amazon. Some of it is a little dated but there are some usable ideas in there. My latest acquisition is Working the Plate by Christopher Styler which has plenty of ideas.

I sometimes make a batch of mint sauce (mint, sugar, vinegar, hot water) and store it in the fridge for our next lamb roast. I regularly buy fresh mint at the market and just roll it up in a plastic bag and put it in the vegetable crisper in the fridge. That often works with the coriander/cilantro though I find the stuff with the roots still on tends to last longer. Someone mentioned coriander pesto - well worth the effort. It tastes gorgeous. I prefer it to the ubiquitous basil version. It's great with roasted hazelnuts instead of pinenuts. I make a great salad with broad beans and mint that I first encountered in a tapas bar. You can use frozen broad beans if you can't find fresh.

Casseroles and stews are hard to make look attractive, specially when the family is anxious to eat. Now you know why we say "garnish with chopped parsley" - it takes your eye away from the mess underneath. Never did get to the parsley stage with the anaemic Coq au Vin, though it tasted delicious. Sometimes I just use a photo of the casserole before it goes into the oven. The meat doesn't look so bad with an assortment of raw chopped vegetables and herbs.

Be assured, you won't starve. I'm a food writer and I've moved from New Zealand to Melbourne and I've found you need to get out there, find your local market gardens or farmers' markets, ask about on forums like this, read your local newspapers and just drink in the local culture. Kiwis and Australian are more than happy to blow their own trumpets - and make you feel at home. Welcome Down Under!

My Larousse Gastronomique shows a chart of beef cuts which identifies where your "onglet" comes from. Best bet would be to take the butcher the map. My Aussie beef cuts chart doesn't show hanger or onglet. In fact, there's a bit of a no man's land in there which makes me wonder if your cut is being ignored totally as you suspect. Without knowing what it is you want to cook, would flank or skirt steak be a suitable substitute? This Hormel link may be useful.

There's a good place opposite the South Melbourne market - the Chef's Hat, I think it's called. They had a fire recently but are open again. But tell us more about the truffle shells...

Here's the link for the tuna tataki with Szechuan pepper. Thinking about it, Dale, the Szechuan pepper I bought when I was living in NZ was almost black and had a lot of twiggy bits in it. There's a pic of my current lot at the top of the tuna recipe page. According to Ian Hemphill in his book Spice Notes, the seeds have little discernible flavour and should be discarded because they are gritty. My lot are mainly open pods and no seeds. Aren't spices fascinating! If anyone wants a good spice website, Gernot Katzer's pages are first class.

I'm just writing about them at the moment for my newspaper columns this week. My jar of them is here on the desk. I took the lid off and they smell reasonably pungent. I grind them in a mortar. I would say the sensation on the tongue is numbing - but also fizzy, something like a spritzy wine. Woody but also lemony. They are a nice reddy-brown and only a nibble on part of a dried pod did the business. I've used them ground, along with toasted sesame seeds, to coat some fresh tuna for a tuna tataki. I will post the link when the article goes up on my website later in the week. I've got a very good lot which I bought mail order from Herbie's recently but I have also had very stalky ones from another source, completely lacking in oomph.

If I were twiddling with the recipe I might just add some ground ginger or maybe even some really finely chopped crystallised ginger. I can see I have to bake another batch before Anzac Day (April 25). Elder son was watching over my shoulder today as I did a little Photoshop work on a picture of an apple pie. "Is that somewhere in the house?" he asked, optimistically. Had to break the news that I'd made it for his grandmothers back in New Zealand over Easter

White sugar is my choice. I believe Lyle's golden syrup works fine in this recipe - there's so little golden syrup in there anyway. Combined with the baking soda, it acts as a leavening agent, as well as contributing some flavour. Brown sugar has more moisture in it and biscuits made from it can soften on standing. Mind you, my resident vultures ensure a batch of biscuits doesn't stand round for long... If you want to use brown sugar, pack it down in the cup when measuring it. Good luck.

Here's the recipe I use: Anzac Biscuits 1 cup flour 1 cup rolled oats 1 cup coconut 3/4 cup sugar 120g butter 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 tablespoons boiling water 1 tablespoon golden syrup Mix dry ingredients. Pour boiling water over soda and add melted butter and golden syrup. Form into mounds on a soup spoon and place on baking paper on a baking sheet. Cook about 15 minutes at 170C. Yes, I photographed them quickly before the spouse and sons found them!

A fellow food writer friend of mine does food tours out of Wellington - Zest Tours. Weather can be unpredictable at Christmas so don't be surprised if it's chilly...

A friend in Belgium wants to make Anzac biscuits but is finding rolled oats sourced from the Brit supermarket there are rather expensive. Can anyone suggest a possible alternative? I am not familar with what other rolled cereals might be available in Europe. I think a half wholemeal/half rolled cereal would probably work, given that the rolled oats mainly contribute texture and visual interest.

A friend in Belgium wants to try my Anzac biscuit recipe. What might be a possible substitute for rolled oats in Europe?

Maybe the real problem is that maths isn't a strong point among people who run restaurants? Right brain left brain stuff.

So have you started taken the cholesterol lowering medication yet? It sounds fantastic. How do you rate US restaurants now you've tried all these wonderful places?

So often the web designers have these fantastic ideas that whizz along fine when all the stuff is cached on their computer. But log in to the site on a slow connection and you could have been to the restaurant and had dinner by the time you've found your way round. And I hate websites that play music! Specially when I am surfing at midnight and I've forgotten to turn the volume down.

I was lucky enough to attend the Mugaritz at Fenix dinner last weekend. Doubly good since I had been to Aduriz's master class the day before. The 10-course degustation prepared by him and his staff was a knock-out. I've posted a piece (with photos) on my website. Enjoy!

Well, I haven't been to Mugaritz, but I did have the good fortune to have Andoni Aduriz cook dinner for me last weekend. He was over here in Oz for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, bringing a couple of his staff with him and they cooked a special dinner for about 36 people at a local restaurant where a former member of his staff is head chef. I'd been fortunate enough to attend his master class the previous day. Even got the recipes for his "edible rocks" (potatoes) and his lovely "gnocchi". My report and photos of the 10-course degustation are here on my website.

Where do you source the lovely fresh soy beans??

Gourmet Traveller's website is also speculating on Keller: "Rumours are flying regarding the transformation of Melbourne's Crown complex into a world-class dining destination. With Rockpool bedded in and Nobu on the way, the smart money is on a brasserie from Sydney's Guillaume Brahimi by the end of the year. Crown may be talking to American superstar Thomas Keller as well as local (Icebergs, Bondi) guns Maurice Terzini and Robert Marchetti about a new Italian business down there, too."

You might also try giving Matt McConnell a call at his tapas restaurant, Bar Lourinha, and find out where he sources all his Spanish wine. Tel 9663 7890. Better still call in there for some of his great food and ask in person!!

There's Casa Iberica, 25 Johnston St, Fitzroy and Viva Spain in North Melbourne - which I haven't got to myself yet. Don't know if they sell wine but someone else no doubt will be able to tell you.