Meat and three veg – one being Dennis Hopper.
The vegetable you see is a cathedral broccoli which, frankly, scares the hell out of me – it's the chameleon eye, a martian bosom, and the fractal shapes are too close to comfort to a couple of particularly nasty lysergic adventures of years past. Had not David at BARISTA set the tone , I may have missed the inspiration. It joins three regulars and a first attempt at bernaise sauce .
Cathedral Broccoli
Sliced carefully into horizontal thirds so I could cook it without boiling or roasting. Cooked on a stove-top grill with a little olive oil. When the grill marks were dark it went into the oven to slowly keep cooking.
Jerusalem Artichoke
Better than potatoes – only a little difficult to peel due to their knobbliness and you should peel them in water with the juice of half a lemon in it as it discolours quickly. Sliced into 5mm sliced and cooked the same way as the broccoli.
Field Mushroom
Two, stem removed and done very simply, just a sprinkle of pepper and salt and then cooked on the stovetop grill until soft and the put into the oven with the others.
Scotch Steak
Done until the red of the juices weeping out started to change colour.
Bernaise Sauce
2/3 cup of white vinegar, small handful of tarragon, the whites of two chopped spring onions, salt and pepper
Heat these over a medium flame until it reduces to a few tablespoons of liquid -finely strain, pressing out the liquids and toss out the solids
4 egg yolks, 4 tablespoons of water
This part I enjoyed. Just put them in a saucepan and whisk them for under a minute and then put the saucepan over a medium heat. I kept whisking waiting for the precise moment for the sauce to "lose volume". Three minutes and I thought I'd missed it and then suddenly it goes from frothy to creamy. Magical. Quickly off the heat, stir a bit longer and then add the reduced vinegar to taste.
Together
Very happy. Jerusalem artichokes have a gorgeous chewy texture – like bean paste. The bernaise sauce worked and the cathedral broccoli was no monster after all – a grillable green.
Synchronic Update What is it with these Melbournians – scaring the b'jezus out of me again.
Further Update Just…whimper…furgin…sob…stobbit. Don't click on photos