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 Cathy Armstrong.
Cathy Armstrong is regional food royalty. She has been cooking for more than 35 years and has catered black-tie dinners in woolsheds (a recent collaboration between the two of us and Windy Station), at weddings, and everything in between. She started out in Sydney and worked with luminaries such as Sean Moran, Anders Ousback, and Tim Pak Poy before founding restaurants and cafes that became huge favourites – Boca and Greens among them.
And then, the country called.
These days, Cathy caters from the New England property just beyond Armidale that she shares with her husband, abstract landscape painter Dr Rowen Matthews.
Her cookbook Coming Home remains a nostalgic favourite of mine. Mum gave me a copy when I moved overseas and I took it with me and turned to it whenever I craved a taste of home. Her latest business, Kinship Kitchen, was a beloved Armidale eatery until it closed just recently, much to the dismay of her regulars.
Cathy has a regular spot on ABC New England North, where she shares recipes and ideas for seasonal cooking, and she's just joined our friends You Found Reggie as their regular food columnist. She has a lot to share and she’s generous with her recipes and experience – see her Instagram feed, which is full of “keeper” recipes.
When I called Cathy to ask if she'd be a Yes, Chef! guest, she was en route to visit a freshly baked granddaughter. "My daughter and I play food memory games whenever we're together, so this is perfect timing," she said. I love imagining the two women reminiscing about recipes and dishes, selecting which ones to share with us while that beautiful newborn sleeps under a blanket that Cathy probably knitted (she's also an incredible crafter).
To me, Cathy is a uniquely thoughtful cook. Everything she makes and shares is bound up with meaning and nostalgia, and she takes seasonality seriously; for many years she also had an award-winning line of preserves called Princess Pantry.
And while she's no longer in a commercial kitchen (more catering these days), Cathy has a unique perspective on what it takes to run a food business in the country. Spoiler: wherewithal!
Sophie x
Some kitchen shortcuts are really worth taking. Good all-butter pastry is one of them. But the only brand that does it properly in Australia is Carême Pastry. All its pastries are preservative free and made with proper butter, not vegetable or palm oils which you see in lots of pastries in the frozen section of the supermarkets.
If this sounds like an ad, well, it is! Galah approached Carême to come on as an advertising partner because we love its products so much. It is a family-run business based in the Barossa Valley – 100 per cent Australian made and owned – making high-quality, delicious pastry sheets that taste as if you'd made them yourself.
Together with Sophie Hansen, we’ve got some fab recipe ideas for you, including this Rhubarb and Ricotta Crostata, which can be baked using Carême’s All Butter Shortcrust Pastry or Sour Cream Shortcrust Pastry.
If you’re wondering where you can buy Carême pastry, just head here to find your closest stockist.
Rigatoni cheese is my play on one of the most comforting dishes: the classic mac 'n' cheese. I make a couple of changes to the classic by using a gutsy rigatoni instead of macaroni.
I also love adding smoked cheddar to the mix, and the crumbs are a generous, earthy chunk rather than a fine crumb. They give the whole thing a super crunchy topping that contrasts well with creamy, cheesy, melty pasta.
This recipe takes me home, twice. The first homecoming is to my childhood when it was part of Sunday night’s easy repertoire, eaten as a treat in the lounge room on the card table covered in a dobby gingham cloth while watching The World of Disney.
I was reacquainted with mac'n'cheese when I lived in America, where it's a hugely popular side dish. I had a subscription to Saveur magazine, and they published the best version of it I'd ever tasted. The recipe below is a version of that. The secret is masses of cheese. Serve it with a green salad, including some bitter leaves, and dress with a spicy, mustardy vinaigrette.
Is there anything nicer than a roasted chicken with leek, pine nut, and sour cherry stuffing, crunchy rosemary potatoes, little crisp parsnips and baby carrots, and a pile of steamed greens?
My other favourite celebratory dish would have to be Elena's Lamb. Elena is one of my best friends; she's from Cyprus, and she definitely has a way with lamb. I make fig jam, which Elena rubs all over a lamb shoulder with yoghurt, garlic, and strands of thyme. It’s slowly roasted for eight hours and served with chunky grain salad with loads of fresh herbs and toasted seeds, and a leafy salad.
A fruit crumble made with local apples and blackberries is my favourite comforting food. It has to be served warm, and the topping must have almond flour, threads of coconut, lots of butter, and not be too sweet. Double cream on top, please.
We moved to Armidale almost four years ago from our farm, Little Kickerbell, near Quirindi. We wanted to be closer to people after living on the Liverpool Plains. That was a powerful experience, but I found it quite tough in terms of isolation.
Rowen and I each had our connections to Armidale; he'd lived here previously, teaching at the university, and he had his art practice. I have an aunty and uncle here, and I loved my childhood visits to their farm. So we both had very warm memories of Armidale.
Our kitchen is spacious, with big windows that overlook a meadow with a dam. Closer to the house is a little pond covered in pink and white water lilies and water iris. It's home to hundreds of the tiniest bright green frogs that croak and hum all the time. This sound lulls us to sleep. We call it the froggy orchestra. We love this about our place.
Having Kinship Kitchen helped get my name out into the community; I've catered for a very long time, but you almost start again each time you relocate. The venues vary and can be very charming, like the darling little Nundle Hall where I did a wedding for a friend's daughter earlier this year. It was a garden-to-table adventure with home-raised lamb, freshly picked vegetables, herbs and fruits arriving in baskets for me to play with in the morning; so much room for creativity.
Woolsheds are also magnificent, atmospheric venues. I've worked in many. They do require a bit of wherewithal and flexibility – the kitchen facilities often need improvisation but the events are always beautifully memorable.
Yellow peaches. They just sing summertime to me. I like to roast them and, for a simple canapé, I wrap Serrano ham around half of the roasted peach and then serve it with a glass of prosecco.
For dessert, I love homemade strawberry jelly with roasted peaches and shortbread fingers.
To get the energy up for a big catering gig, I'd go for Sister Sledge. Everything But the Girl's album Eden would be my choice for a gentle afternoon of kitchen tinkering.
Coffee: a double-shot long black. And ginger tea in the afternoon.
Greta Anna's Danish prune and apple cake is buttery, juicy and sweet, as all cakes should be. Greta Anna is a hero of mine. I've also made this cake just with quinces. Heaven. I also have an almond, coconut and raspberry cake recipe that I love and share often, it's so lovely for afternoon tea.
The Farmer's Wife (Summer Spritz), aka gin and tonic with a squeeze of lemon.
Rutabaga, zucchini and pink peppercorn fritters, and scrambled eggs with tomato kasundi.
500 g rigatoni pasta
150 g salted butter
75g plain flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 litre milk, gently heated to skin temperature
250 g grated cheddar
250 g grated smoked cheddar
1/2 cup pouring cream
1.5 cups fresh bread chunks, fried in the remaining 25 g butter
Preheat oven to 180°C and butter a large casserole dish.
Cook the pasta in a big saucepan of salted, boiling water until al dente, drain and set aside.
Melt 125 g of the butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Add the flour and stir for four minutes.
Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne, then gradually add the warm milk, stirring constantly until the mixture is smooth and thick.
Reduce heat and add half of the cheese. Cook on low until the cheese has melted, then remove from heat.
Add the rigatoni to the pot, stir through the sauce and check and adjust the seasoning to taste.
Pour half the mixture into the casserole dish and top with half of the remaining cheese. Repeat, pouring the cream over the top of the mixture.
Heat the remaining 25 g butter in a frying pan. Add the roughly torn bread and fry until golden. Scatter this over the top of your cheesy rigatoni and bake for 25-30 minutes.
This Rhubarb and Ricotta Crostata is the perfect treat to take to a friend's house. It travels well, is just as good with a coffee for breakfast as a dollop of cream for afternoon tea, or served warm with a scoop of ice cream for dessert. Sophie x
See you all next month for the next instalment of Yes, Chef! Over and out,
Sophie
