ODonoghue - At Home With Ben: Great Family Food for Every Occasion

at
home
with ben

great family food for every occasion

Ben ODonoghue

Published in 2010 by Hardie Grant Books

Hardie Grant Books (Australia)
85 High Street
Prahran, Victoria 3181
www.hardiegrant.com.au

Hardie Grant Books (UK)
Second Floor, North Suite
Dudley House
Southampton Street
London WC2E 7HF
www.hardiegrant.co.uk

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Copyright text Ben ODonoghue 2010
Copyright photography Mark Roper 2010

Cataloguing-in-Publication data is available from the
National Library of Australia.

ISBN: 978 1 74066 870 5

Design by Gayna Murphy, Greendot Design
Photography by Mark Roper
Edited by Jean Kingett
Styling by Georgia Young
Colour reproduction by Splitting Image Colour Studio
Printed and bound in China by C & C Offset Printing

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The publisher would like to thank the following for their
generosity in supplying props for the book: Market Imports,
Safari Living, Made in Japan, House of Orange, 4M, Angelucci,
North Carlton Ceramics and Altamira.

To Rose Gray

You had faith in me and inspired me and evoked
passion in everyone. You will be missed and
always remembered.

contents

Cooking, eating and sharing the experience of food is such a beautiful thing.

Throughout my life, food has always been a source of pleasure. From the time I spent helping and watching my grandmother make cakes, both in the UK and here in Australia, to my early youth and Tom Sawyerlike adventures of fishing, camping and cooking outdoors in the north-west of Australia, followed by my professional discoveries through travels in Europe and Asia, cooking and eating has never failed to excite and inspire me.

Ive always been overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the world of food the information, recipes, techniques and cultural diversity. When I was a young apprentice I felt inadequate and hopelessly naive. I thought I could never possibly know it all, or remember everything I had learnt so far or would learn in the future. Thankfully, this is still true. It is this feeling of discovery that drives me and most chefs onwards in the search for new and wonderful flavours, and it is these discoveries that are our reward.

The greatest reward, though, is the ability to share these discoveries and experiences with the people you love. Food brings people together; it breaks down barriers, and communicates across language and culture. It is the greatest diplomat, romantic and seductress.

My first standalone book, Outdoor, embraced this concept across the global world of the barbecue. With this book, I wanted to share a snapshot of my life in food so far. The sheer enormity of this task was overwhelming how could I decide which recipes to include from a professional career of twenty-three years of cooking and eating?

Stepping back and looking at things objectively, I decided to focus on the recipes that represent the concept of shared experience. Dishes that have brought me pleasure and whose memory I treasure. The dishes that have been cooked for me by friends, my favourites from the many I have cooked in restaurants I have run or worked in, the ones I have eaten at other restaurants, those I have cooked in various cooking shows that have not yet been published, and also the dishes I cook in my current restaurant in Brisbane, the South Bank Surf Club.

I also wanted to look at different occasions in which to share these experiences and recipes. Since I have moved back to Australia from the UK, my life has changed incredibly and become more rich in terms of lifestyle. The ability to entertain in more space and in better weather drives us outside into our backyards or decks, bringing the outside in! We tend to do breakfast and brunch more often. We eat lighter and also eat more Asian-influenced dishes, as the freshness, spiciness and availability of produce is suited to those cuisines.

Importantly, eating well costs money! As a father of three, I wanted to share recipes that are everyday and family-oriented, while also practising something we seem to have forgotten or do little about these days home economics! Making use of leftovers is something previous generations lived with, especially after the war and into the 1950s and 60s.

We need to move away from our disposable culture. By cooking larger cuts of meat and poultry, we can use the leftovers to create dishes over the next two or three days. For example, cook up a lovely roast beef, chicken or pork on the Sunday, and then use the leftovers in a rice dish the next night, and make stocks and soups with the meat bones.

I also encourage you to spend a little more on produce that is free range, rare breed, organic or slow. It is better in terms of animal husbandry and welfare, while also being less intensively grown. It means you throw less away, which in turn reduces what goes into landfill. If we are to enjoy this world we live in, we need to respect and use its fruits well.

I hope these recipes bring you pleasure when cooking, eating and sharing food!

love Ben

breakfast,
l u n c h
& i n b e t w e e n

Bloody Mary!

I first made these in the UK on the TV show Saturday Kitchen with my mate Curtis Stone as part of an Aussie Hangover Cure segment it was Australia Day. That segment got Curtis and me the job doing Surfing the Menu, so this recipe has a special place in my heart. Serves 46

220 ml bottle HP Sauce

60 ml bottle Tabasco sauce

2 litres tomato juice

juice of 4 limes

2 tablespoons celery salt (see )

1 head celery

ice

vodka (optional)

Combine the HP Sauce, Tabasco, tomato juice, lime juice and celery salt in a large bowl and whisk together. Check the seasoning and add more tomato juice if needed. I like my bloody Mary quite seasoned and spicy.

Trim and wash several celery sticks to use as stirrers. Fill two jugs with ice and pour over the virgin Mary mix. Add the celery stick stirrers to the jug. If required, add vodka to desired strength.