Roly Poly before and after!

Rhubarb (or apple for the 'rhubarb resister') Roly Poly is a little treat at home as the weather cools.  Comfort food in the classical English pudding tradition. Although I must say this family favourite has surfaced on a menu or two over the years, albeit with a few embellishments.To be served with lavishing's of cream for sure.

A simple scone dough of:

• 1 ½ cups SR flour
• 1 tbl butter
• ¼ tsp of salt
• Milk to mix

Rolled to a rectangle approx, ¾ cm thick. Covered in sliced rhubarb ( or apple or apple & rhubarb) and generously sprinkled with sugar (especially the rhubarb version). Rolled length ways, then cut into 6cm slices. Place in a baking dish. Combine the following ingredients:

• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ cup butter
• 1 cup boiling water

Cover the pudding with the sugar, butter, water mix and bake in moderate oven (approx. 175 C) for roughly an hour.

Enjoy

Art in the gallery and at the cafe

A trip to Heidi Museum of Modern Art provides food for the creative soul. Simple yet flavoursome and artistically presented dishes are to be found at Cafe Vue at Heidi - the food reflects the surroundings. Lunch times seem to be getting the best reviews (heard a few negative breakfast bleats! - mainly the service it seems). Although it's usually busy so advisable to book. The potato mash is fabulous. Whilst there its delightful to take advantage of  the short but often sunny days of May in Melbourne to wander through the gallery's or the surrounding gardens.

The current exhibition titled 'Sundays Kitchen' provides glimpses into the life of Sunday Reed who together with her husband John Reed where two of Australia's most significant art benefactors. Sunday, a passionate cook and gardener became well known for her communal tables harvesting food from the substantial kitchen garden and orchard and preparing fresh dairy products thus ensuring the artists she championed received sustenance for the body, not just the mind. Famous artists who spend time on their property included Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Joy Hester and Charles Blackman. A weekly column in the Age Epicure is currently featuring recipes from the recent published book 'Sundays Kitchen'.

Heidi Museum of Modern Art, 7 Templestowe Rd Bulleen, 3105

Autumn = earthy mushrooms.

Mushrooms simply sauteed in butter and garlic are wonderful with a brunch fry up or tossed through fresh pasta. Equally simple is baked whole field mushrooms drizzled with olive oil & crumbled feta (even better some Meredith's marinated goats feta). Growing up in the dairy farming heart of South Gippsland ensured that 'mushrooming' expeditions to neighboring paddocks during April and May was a regular occurrence. Although stewed mushrooms thickened with white sauce day after day is not one of my best childhood food memories.

Even better if you have the opportunity head off with an expert into the damp Victorian undergrowth to forage for wild mushrooms. Not a good idea to try this on your own - too many deadly ones masquerading as something luscious!

Autumn is also the time to start cooking up the warming soups again. The pictured broth is a heady combination of Swiss browns & dried Italian porcini's slowly cooked with vegetables, stock, ham hocks and barley. You can find the recipe for this delicious soup in the April addition of Australian Gourmet Traveller in the Autumn mushroom feature. Happy cooking!

Cooking from the heart........

Moroccan marvelous! Delicious rich hearty food, perfect for Autumn dining.  Tagines (stews) of fish, lamb or goat, humongous legumes, cous cous and traditional bastilla (layered pie) all beautifully balanced. Food for sharing, a trusty trio of epicureans enriching the experience (plus the unborn child already expanding her culinary repertoire!).

We couldn't manage dessert but the sweet Moroccan mint tea was fabulous. As we were leaving the Chef , wandered past, we chatted about the beautiful flavours of the meal - he shared his passion with a story of a simple tomato dish his mother prepared, 'I cook from the heart' he concluded. Pierre Khodja's food resonates with love.

Canvas, Level 1 302-320 Burwood Rd Hawthorn

Just the way my Grandmother made it...

...if only she was still here to share all her tips. It seems the art of preserving has skipped a generation in our family and so despite 30 years of professional cooking experience and a plethora of 'original' recipes I am but a beginner. I know only too well that its what's not written into a recipe that is so valuable! Its taken 4 years to repeat the wonderful fig jam I made in 2006, the 2007 version was too runny and went mouldy, the 2008 version overcooked and became toffee, 2009 I chickened out and made fig paste which has been wonderful with soft cheese and 2010 took two attempts - the first one I burnt (it seems as bad in print as it felt! and my pot scrubber will attest to the nightmare of cleaning the pot - although burnt fig jam isn't something unique to me, another tip my grandmother could have shared if she wasn't in the 'big vegie patch'). Despite all this a second batch was a success and I can now add fig jam to my growing list of preserves that I consider I have mastered. Help save your culinary past, cook with the wise!

Hainanese chicken

I have so many Malaysian favourites its always so hard to choose.

• Laksa, coconut or Asam
• Mee goreng
• Char kway teow
• Rendang
• Nasi lemak

and of course the delicious Hainanese chicken rice, also 'claimed' as a Singaporean dish as well as its Chinese heritage from Hainan in China. The whole chicken gently poached in rich stock (master stock in China) and the rice cooked in stock enriched with chicken fat, the stock served as a broth with the final dish together with a chilli, ginger sauce and sliced cucumber. It seems a bit like a 'deconstructed' chicken soup, with a twist! And despite my Western culinary background I think I have adopted this dish as 'comfort food'.

Straits Cafe, 694 Doncaster Road Doncaster

Food marriages...

Duck and figs

The culinary world is full of great food combinations, like:

• tomato & basil
• beef & horseradish
• salmon & dill
• egg & bacon
• ginger & garlic
• chilli & lime
• apple and cinnamon
• sweet and sour

 The Caringbush offers a dish (in the restaurant) of rich plump duck and juicy sweet figs which could hold its own alongside many on this list.

The Carringbush Hotel, 228 Langridge St Collingwood