Welcome to Yes, Chef! A monthly newsletter in which food writer Sophie Hansen shines a light on our regional chefs. This week she talks with Annie Smithers.
“When we cook for others, or ourselves, the deepest hunger we feed is love.” Isn't that just the best line?
These words belong to Victorian chef Annie Smithers and come from her new book, Kitchen Sentimental. They underpin so much of what this incredible woman does and is all about.
Annie is a good friend of Galah Press. We featured Annie, her Trentham restaurant, Du Fermier, and her home, Babbington Park, in issue 07 of the magazine, and her previous book, Recipes for a Kinder Life, is one of our favourites.
While her cooking, gardening and food are all, always, of the highest quality, Annie has a simple, pure approach to cooking that's all about love for the people eating the meal, the produce on the plate and the place it's from. Perhaps this is why she leans towards and loves French farmhouse cooking so much.
We hope you enjoy this glimpse into Annie’s world – her memories and foods of love.
Sophie xx
Roast lamb. It was always my favourite birthday dinner when I was a child. In fact, in Kitchen Sentimental I have a clutch of recipes dedicated to “a birthday party for eight-year-old Annie”: avocado vinaigrette, roast lamb, and chocolate mousse. All these recipes remind me of home and my childhood.
Celebrations are a little different in our house, as a family of mixed dietary choices. This means that Christmas now looks a little different for us. I’ve been searching for a while for a great celebratory Christmas dish for the vegans in my family – I’ve settled on a hasselback pumpkin dish that I glaze in the marmalade glaze I traditionally use for my Christmas ham. Decorated with pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds, parsley and currants and nestled in a lovely green salad, it makes a wonderful presentation piece for the table and brings special joy to my vegans and vegetarians.
I cook predominantly French peasant food, but my favourite thing to cook for myself is a simple stir-fry of green vegetables, Japanese rice, chilli oil and soy.
I have lived in Victoria's Daylesford/Macedon ranges area for more than 30 years. It is a place of hills and forests broadening out to open plains. The seasons are very marked, and the soil is rich – a beautiful place to put down roots. In the 30 years I've been here I've cooked in the spa country of Daylesford and on the river flat at Shepherds Flat, in a grand old bluestone building in Kyneton and a small weatherboard shop in Trentham. The soil I first tilled was the black plug of Malmsbury and now the chocolate volcanic loam of Lyonville.
This winter has been a cold one, and the thing I’m most excited about is the crop of asparagus crowns my garden will yield this year.
The Köln Concert - Keith Jarrett.
Both.
A perfect vanilla slice.
Japanese whisky on the rocks.
Buttered Weetbix with hundreds and thousands.
2 ripe avocados
25 ml sherry vinegar
25 ml extra virgin olive oil
50 ml grape seed oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
flaked salt
chopped curly parsley, to garnish (optional)
Cut the avocados in half lengthways and remove the pips. Cut a crosshatch pattern into the hollows, then place each half in an avocado dish.
Whisk together the remaining ingredients (except the parsley) to make a dressing. Fill the hollows with the dressing and garnish with chopped curly parsley, if desired.
Cut the avocados in half lengthways and remove the pips. Cut a crosshatch pattern into the hollows, then place each half in an avocado dish.
Whisk together the remaining ingredients (except the parsley) to make a dressing. Fill the hollows with the dressing and garnish with chopped curly parsley, if desired.
1 x 2 kg leg of lamb
3 rosemary sprigs
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
olive oil, for drizzling
flaked salt
4 roasting potatoes, sebago or pontiac
200 g green beans, trimmed
2 teaspoons caster sugar
60 ml boiling water
125 ml white wine vinegar
1 bunch of mint, leaves picked, washed and finely chopped
Preheat the oven to 220°C (fan-forced).
Make small incisions in the lamb, stud with small pieces of rosemary and garlic, then place in a baking dish large enough to accommodate both the lamb and the potatoes. Anoint the lamb with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper. Transfer to the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
While this is happening, peel and chop the potatoes into sixths. Take the lamb out of the oven. Carefully baste with the fat in the bottom of the dish and then scatter the potatoes around the lamb. Reduce the heat to 180°C and roast for another hour or so until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 55°C. Remove from the oven and rest while you cook the beans.
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, add the beans and cook for 5 minutes. Drain.
Meanwhile, to make the mint sauce, place the sugar in a heatproof jug, pour in the boiling water and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the vinegar and chopped mint.
Carve the lamb, then divide among four plates with the potatoes and beans. Take the mint sauce to the table so everyone can help themselves.
120 g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
4 eggs, separated
pinch of cream of tartar
whipped cream and dark chocolate curls, to serve
Half-fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil, then reduce to a low simmer. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl that fits nicely over the pan and let it gently melt, stirring gently once or twice. Once melted, remove from the heat.
Place the egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl and whip until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg yolks into the chocolate, then gently add the whipped whites, one third at a time. Pour the mixture into four ramekins or one larger bowl and set in the fridge overnight.
Garnish with whipped cream and chocolate curls.
Thank you, Annie. See you all next month for the next installment of Yes, Chef!
Over and out,
Sophie
