Cooking Your Calendar De Bortoli 2010

Cooking December

2010-12-06T21:34:00.016+11:00

The final Cooking Your Calendar dinner party arrived amidst the avalanche of social events that make every December simultaneously enjoyable and exhausting. Hot on the heels of last month's beachside BBQ came a tricky little fried fowl dish that was to be our very last, and arguably most delicious De Bortoli dinner for 2010. For December, Tim Keenan took our taste buds to Italy with his recipe for Quail Saltimbocca and Sicilian Eggplant Caponata. We couldn't quite get to Sicily ourselves, but as it turned out, Camperdown was a perfectly acceptable alternative.

Quail choreography

Our hosts for December were the artist couple Robyn Backen and Ian Hobbs. Acclaimed curator of Aboriginal art Djon Mundine and his partner, theatre producer Annemaree Dalziel, also attended, along with Ian's young daughter Olivia. And let's not forget Max the dog.

Annemaree & Robyn lock in dates with the DeBo calendar

We made our way over to Robyn and Ian's home by cab, armed with bags of food and wine. In the taxi, Rachel began quizzing Drew and Daniel about whether all the key ingredients were on board. Quail? Check. Pinot? Check. Camera? Check. Etc? Check. What about the eggplants? Drew and Daniel, who had done the shopping for this event, couldn't recall buying those. Given the quail is served with Sicilian Eggplant Caponata, there seemed to be a problem. The cabdriver dropped Daniel off in search for eggplants, while Drew and Rachel headed to our host's home. Easily rectified, we hoped this would be the only mild crisis bearing in mind Rach's dramatic fall from grace with last month's "cretatta" meltdown.

Djon, Robyn & gratuitous product placement

A good half hour later Daniel arrived with three eggplants, drenched in sweat and with a mild case of cranky pants. But there's something about Robyn Backen's gorgeous laugh that melts the darkest of moods. There's also something to be said for a healing glass of bubbles! Rach and Drew got busy with the food preparation, while Daniel snapped away with the camera. Robyn augmented the wine supplies with a vodka punch, so the festive cheer was free flowing right from the get-go. When Djon and Annemarie arrived they were already totally blissed-out, having just had a massage nearby in Newtown. Daniel took that opportunity to shock everyone by showing his 'cupping' bruises on his back from a recent massage - truly horrible. Ian hastily tried to explain 'cupping' to a very bewildered Olivia.

Gorgeous Robyn poses with Gorgeous Us

Back in the kitchen there was still work to be done. Loaded with bones, but lean on meat, we feared the quail wouldn't satisfy everyone's appetites on their own. So Rachel came up with a side dish of Baked Tomatoes Stuffed with Caramelized Leek Risotto, teamed with a green salad and crusty bread. Drew had the job of cooking the quail, which was no mean feat, given there were eight delicate birds to took cook, each wrapped in prosciutto and a single sage leaf. Negotiating the fry pan with Max the dog trying to sniff his crotch, Drew managed to pull off the quail with style, grace and dignity intact!

Quail Saltimbocca and Sicilian Eggplant Caponata

At the table, conversation revolved around art world gossip and various art shows coming up - such as Robyn's participation in The Ghost Show, which Daniel curated for Hazelhurst Regional Gallery. We also had a laugh recounting to our guests tales from our year of cooking the De Bortoli calendar, along with all the general dinner party banter that is hard to recall the next day.

Food's up!

At midnight, Cinderella style, we took our leave. But we ended up back at Drew and Daniel's apartment, chatting about the highlights of the year we have spent and looking back over the blog. It was 2am till when the party finally ended. But the party never really ends.

Daniel, Drew & Rachel sign off from a year of wine, food, friends and hangovers

Announcing December... And the Rosé Revolution

2010-11-30T17:54:00.011+11:00

We source only the freshest poultry

This evening we are not just announcing our final December cook-up, we're also getting aboard the De Bortoli Rosé Revolution. Which means the good folk at De Bortoli mailed us a Rosé Trio Trail Pack and we agreed to get on Twitter and spruik the hell out of it. We all know social networking and drinking go hand in hand. How many times have we tweeted or status-updated fascinating insights into the human condition, that in the cold sober light of the day after are, in reality, embarrassing reminders never to mix alcohol and technology. "Don't text and drive", as they say. (And if you do, quickly delete the evidence the next day).

Meanwhile, as we spend the evening drinking complimentary rosé and discussing life and love in 140 characters or less, we'd also like to announce that, just around the corner, is our final dinner party for our Cooking Your Calendar project. Yes, December will be Magic Again, as Kate Bush once said. And that "magic" will be in the guise of what promises to be a delicious dish by Tim Keenan called Quail Saltimbocca with Sicilian Eggplant Caponata. Stay tuned as we hail quail in the coming week, and meanwhile strike a rosé.

If Kate says "December will be Magic Again", you better believe it.

Cooking November

2010-11-14T07:38:00.030+11:00

Calm before the storm

Yesterday, down in beautiful coastal Coledale, we held our second last Cooking Your Calendar event of the year with Margot De Bortoli's Salmon, Mascarpone & Dill Crepes and Spinach & Filo Tarts on the menu. To take advantage of the summer sunshine, we decided to host a classic long leisurely lunch, kicking off with the crepes and tarts as starters, then progressing into a relaxed BBQ later in the afternoon. Our guest list included graphic designer David Corbet, Art in Australia's Managing Editor Michael Fitzgerald, interior designer Sean Morris, art teacher Iain Wallace, architect Craig Casey, artist Michael Keighery and his partner Vic, Wollongong City Gallery public program coordinator Vivian Vidulich and Memphis the dog. Most of our guest list are, what Vivian describes as, "art casualties" living on the south coast, as well as a couple of Sydney friends who'd made the drive down from the city.

The wheels fall off!

Trashing the "cretattas"

With our guests arriving at 1pm, we began our preparations mid morning. All we had to do was whip up a batch of crepes, make a few filo tarts, then knock together a few salads for the barbie. How hard could it be? Well, thanks to Rachel's vagueness, very difficult as it turns out. At about 11am, Rachel started on both Margot's appetizers. Dutifully following the two separate recipes, Rachel first prepared a batter for the crepes, then set that mixture aside for the required half an hour to allow the batter to bind. In the meantime, she started on the filo tarts. After placing the filo pastry into muffin trays, she mixed the eggs, spinach and two cheeses for the tart filling. Everything was going to plan. Still an hour till our guests arrived... easy. But that's when things went very badly wrong. Instead of pouring the eggy-cheesey tart filling into the filo cases, Rachel inadvertently used the crepe batter instead. She protests it was a simple enough mistake. After all, both mixtures looked much the same, sitting there side-by-side on the kitchen bench. Happily unaware of her mistake, Rachel popped the "crepe-tarts" into the oven and watched them cook. Then she turned her attention to Step Two of the crepe recipe: frying lovely thin crepes that any French cook would be proud of. And that's when, with horror, she realised her error. No more crepe mixture, a batch of wasted filo tarts, and all she had left was a bowl full of raw egg, spinach and cheese. But, as Daniel pointed out, she had invented a totally new recipe: "cretattas". Panic set in and with only one hour to go, we had to cook another batch of tartlets, another batch of crepe mixture and still finish all our side dishes for the BBQ. Yes, Rachel does get the prize for being the biggest space cadet in Coledale, and perhaps the entire eastern seaboard of Australia.

Spinach and Filo Tarts

Salmon Mascarpone & Dill Crepes

Amazingly, everything came together quite literally at the last minute. When our guests arrived we had elegant salmon crepes and delicious warm tartlets plated-up, with chilled De Bortoli's Rococo Blanc de Blanc ready to pour. We were certainly in need of a glass of bubbles by that stage. After catching up with friends over drinks, we headed to the table for a BBQ feast where we lingered for hours. Very generously, our guests had brought with them a mouthwatering selection of cakes. So dessert was a "cake off" of a beautiful custardy fruit flan, a dense banana and mango gateaux and the most spectacular white chocolate mousse cake that looked like some sort of sculpture. Lunch turned into dinner as we kept grazing and drinking well into the evening.

Salad Days

BBQ King

"Art Casualties"

Piss-Elegant

Food's Up

Calculating the calorie damage

More Piss-Elegance

Michael contemplates cake

Walking Memphis

Announcing November

2010-11-04T14:17:00.029+11:00

Will pumpkin be served at the next DeBo?

We can’t believe it, but on Saturday 13th November we will be hosting our penultimate Cooking Your Calendar dinner party. Is it just us, or has 2010 just evaporated before our eyes? We know that time flies when you are having fun, but this is downright spooky (or was that Halloween, which we celebrated at the end of October - see pic attached). It's officially "silly season" again. To usher in the pre-Christmas partying madness (that we all know starts on Melbourne Cup Day…) we are heading down to Daniel’s dad’s beach house on the South Coast to make the most of its beautiful beachside location.

This month we are cooking two of Margot De Bortoli's recipes, Salmon Mascarpone & Dill Crepes and Spinach and Filo Tarts which we will serve as appetizers alongside De Bortoli’s Rococo Blanc de Blanc. Both recipes look delicious and thankfully easy to prepare so we aren’t predicting any major stumbles this month. After that, we’ll be cooking a big eclectic BBQ with a variety of different side-dishes and salads. Joining us will be an equally eclectic group of friends who we'll introduce you to in the wash-up for next Saturday's big event. If the weather is sunny it might just turn into a beach party so don't forget the board shorts and bikinis. Oh, and fake tan. See you next week!

Cooking October

2010-10-17T07:56:00.047+11:00

Ferghal the Masterchef

Little Hughie meets the meat

Well, a day ago we faced the most daunting of our Cooking Your Calendar recipes - the suckling pig. Pulling off a whole beast is something that none of us have ever done in our lives and we approached the task with justifiable trepidation. 24 hours on and we can say without hesitation that Locale's head chef Tim Keenan's suckling pig recipe served with spiced apple puree is one of the most delicious dishes on the 2010 De Bortoli calendar. And we can also say with confidence that our BBQ'ed version of this dish would rival any that Tim Keenan has done in the past. Unfortunately, none of the Cooking Your Calendar team can take any credit for last nights' runaway success. Instead we have to throw bouquets to Rachel's brother-in-law Ferghal for taking the reins.

Rachel makes a fist of seasoning the pig

Babe on the barbie

But let's just rewind a bit. This month's Cooking Your Calendar dinner party took place at Rachel's beautiful old family home in the Blue Mountains. We were joined by Rachel's sister Meg, Meg's husband Ferghal and their kids and a collection of close old school friends, most of which made the drive up from the city.

Karen balances the baby and the booze

Daniel shows Meg how much he needs botox

Nervous of the task before us, the day started early. Daniel did a phone interview about the anticipation around the night's dinner party with Melbourne radio station Joy FM on Pete Dillon's foodie segment Cravings. Meanwhile, Rachel went to the butcher to collect our pre-ordered suckling pig. When the butcher hauled the pig out of the coolroom, Rachel, her sister Meg and other fellow shoppers took a collective gasp. Here was a much bigger pig than we'd anticipated. It certainly wasn't Babe. It certainly wasn't pretty. And it most certainly wasn't going to fit in the oven. What had we been thinking? Worrying that we couldn't find Sardinian myrtle was suddenly the least of our problems.

20 year reunion for Campbell and Karen

Finnian's tango in the night

Thank god, once we got the pig home, Ferghal took over. He cranked up the BBQ, put the pig on a spitroast rack and even scored the meat for us. We helped seasoned the skin, but otherwise the suckling pig was Ferg's show.

You wouldn't think Jane just had twins a few weeks ago

Justin shows off one of the twins

Once the pig was on the BBQ, it was time to do the side dishes. And those, at least, we can take some responsibility for. Rachel got started on the apple sauce spiced with cloves, cinnamon and star anise. Drew prepared a mountain of roasted pumpkin, chickpea and cous cous salad. Meg helped out with one of life's favourite comfort foods, a sexed-up version of cauliflower au gratin. Daniel played with the kids.

A crackling success

Rip it to shreds

Get some pork on your fork

By the time our guests had arrived, things had really come together. It was time to enjoy a few glasses of wine, wander around the garden and catch-up on old times. And there was a lot of catching up to do. Jane had recently had twins, Karen and Campbell hadn't seen each other for twenty years and we'd all seen and done a lot since school. But before long conversations had to come to a pause, because it was time to take the pig off the BBQ and serve dinner. All we can say is that it's a pity Jane is vegetarian because the standout was Ferghal's succulent sweet pork. After gorging on our main meal, we still managed to demolish our dessert which was an Armenian spice cake, made by Drew and Daniel's neighbour Jennifer Cufar.

Seconds anyone?

But the night didn't end after coffee and cake. No. We all gathered around Meg's fire and spent the evening drinking more wine and talking until 3.30am in the morning. By that stage, Meg had given Campbell, Drew, Daniel and Don each a facial. Ferghal had sensibly gone to bed by that time. We hadn't planned this at all. We've all woken up feeling a little on the delicate side this morning but at least the guys have radiant complexions.

8 Little Pigs

Anouncing October

2010-10-05T13:12:00.006+11:00

Suckling Miss Piggy fighting against the rotisserie

Well, October is suddenly upon us and, with it, brings our hardest challenge yet: cooking Tim Keenan's suckling pig served with spiced apple puree and De Bortoli's Yarra Valley Reserve Release Chardonnay. We're confident we can manage spiced apple puree (even Daniel could be trusted with that part) but cooking a whole beast? We're nervous. Really nervous. It's a first for all of us, so we're going to need a few glasses of the Chardonnay just for courage alone! The much anticipated "Day of the Piglet" is scheduled for Saturday 16 October, and preparations have already commenced. Rachel has ordered the pig which is coming from a farm in Bathurst. Sourcing the Sardinian myrtle is proving to be harder, so we are now wondering about possible alternatives? Maybe a quick email to Tim Keenan is in order?

For a change of scene, we'll be heading up to Rachel's beautiful family home in the Blue Mountains where we will be joined by Rachel's sister Meg Roberts and her young family, as well as a collection of friends, including Sydney personal trainer extraordinaire Campbell Bannerman, film and ad man Don Cameron, and old school buddy Karen Muir. We're also hoping for a special guest appearance of another of our "nearest and dearests", Jane Renneberg, who has recently just had twin boys. We'd love it if Jane dropped in for a well deserved glass of bubbles so we could all celebrate her new additions! Pity Rachel's dad Gary is away because he's a dab hand at cooking full beasts. Oh well, we're just going to have to wing it. One way or another, being surrounded by family and old friends is bound to be a good thing. If we stuff things up they're more likely to be forgive us!

Media Tarts

2010-09-23T07:56:00.006+10:00

The Area News, Monday 20 September 2010. p.3

We're in the media again... This time for local paper for the Griffith region called The Area News. Journalist Alexis Carey interviewed Rachel about our modest project, which you can read above. (Alexis forgot to mention how much Pete has been missed from the project since he moved to Melbourne - but he's moving back to Sydney soon, so we hope to have him back as a very special guest).

Cooking September

2010-09-13T15:36:00.019+10:00

The Divine Miss White gets the party started

So the year is steamrolling on and here we are, well into September. With 9 months of De Bortoli dinners under our belt now, we have a pretty good formula for getting each night right in terms of guests, locations and working out who will do what in and around the kitchen.

This kitchen ain't big enough for two egos

As usual it was going to be a bit of a joint effort, but Rachel had set herself a slippery and smelly individual task that no one else was keen to challenge her for. Tim Keenan is Head Chef at the De Bortoli's Yarra Valley Estate and this month he took us into our first fishy feast with his delicious recipe, Pan Fried Trout Fillets with Fennel, Potatoes, Marjoram & Capers.

Rachel toasts her creation

Alcohol may well kill brain cells, but fortunately, fish is brain food. So we figure that everyone was a winner this month as we indulged in generous helpings of both. The De Bortoli Emeri Sparkling Pinot Grigio was the weapon of choice in the assault on our grey matter, but on the defensive was a frontline of succulent Trout fillets, each one more Omega-rich and bursting with essential oils than the last. Now I'm no neurolgist, but I can still competently compose a semi-logical blog entry, so I think it's safe to say that our friend the fish was the victor on this occasion.

Diva central

With brains largely intact we enjoyed a kind of celebratory evening, toasting our guests; artist and performer Liam Benson who is currently gracing the cover of runway magazine, and social media Queen, Catherine White (aka The Divine Miss White), returning from 3 months in New York. Starting with some drinks on the roof overlooking Potts Point, we indulged in a quick photo shoot. Despite the warm Spring day, once the sun was lost behind Sydney's skyline we had to retreat to the warmth of the apartment where, conveniently, the rest of the grog was.

Daniel and Liam swap hair

(Photo: Catherine White)

But it was pretty much straight into the kitchen for trout-wrangler Rachel, who had already spent the afternoon engaging in the masochistic labour of pin-boning every fillet of fish. Tim's recipe may be to die for in the culinary sense, but certainly not literally. So with almost an obsessive-compulsive fervor Rachel delicately removed every tiny bone, brandishing only a set of tweezers and the mouth of a wharfie. Then with the choking hazards taken care of it was on to the actual cooking, a much more pleasurable part of the process. From here on in Rach was salting lemons, frying fennel and blanching potatoes to make a wonderfully tasty combination of flavours. The trout came up deliciously crispy and we all cleaned our plates feeling a little bit smarter.

Rachel pretends Heath is Leo Sayer

Armed with her fancy camera, Catherine earned honours as guest photographer when Daniel and Heath weren't snapping away. Rachel revealed her secret passion for Leo Sayer. Liam dazzled with a gift of homemade lemon butter (a family recipe). Heath did the dishes like a good boy. As the night went on, the bubbles kept doing the rounds despite the fact that it was a school night. The recycling bin was quite healthy come morning, as was the lingering scent of trout in the apartment.

Liam poses with his artwork Bleeding Glitter from Daniel & Drew's collection (Photo: Catherine White)

Announcing September

2010-09-06T10:48:00.007+10:00

Artist Liam Benson as featured on the cover of the magazine runway

Spring has finally arrived - the kind of climate change we don't mind. Already Sydneysiders are coming out of hibernation, shaking off the winter chills and getting primed for another long Aussie summer. With the onset of longer days and warmer weather, it's the perfect time to head outdoors for drinks and dinner with friends - not that we don't spend the whole year 'round basically eating together and getting pissed! So, on Sunday night, we are hosting September's De Bortoli dinner on the roof top of Drew and Daniel's Potts Point apartment with social networking Queen, the Divine Miss White (AKA Daniel's mum Catherine, who we've been angling to invite since she returned in August from months of living in New York) and the equally divine performance/photo artist Liam Benson. Daniel, Drew and Liam go way back together; the most recent evidence of their artistic alliance is that Daniel wrote the cover feature essay on Liam's work in an art mag called runway (pictured above).

The recipe this month is Jim Keenan's elegant dish Pan Fried Trout Fillets with Fennel, Potatoes, Marjoram and Capers served with De Bortoli's Emeri Sparkling Pinot Grigio. Tim Keenan is the Executive Chef at De Bortoli's Yarra Valley restuarant Locale, so not surprisingly, the level of difficulty has just gone all Masterchef on us! There are a number of steps involved with this recipe, not least of all pin-boning six fillets of trout. Rachel and Drew are going to tackle it together so that they can blame one another if they stuff things up. In which case, it will be... um, ordering a trout pizza?

Cooking August

2010-08-22T09:09:00.029+10:00

Drew's "Labour" pains result in a rash

"Repay the debt, turn back the boats, end the waste and stop the big new taxes. And make mine a shandy with light beer and 70% lemonade" - Tony Abbott

"Let's move this country forward. I'm for jobs. Don't risk waking up with Tony Abbott as PM. Yes we will. I'll have a schooner of stout, ta" - Julia Gillard

Last night’s Cooking Your Calendar dinner party coincided with Election Night 2010, so as we walked down to our host Christie Cooper’s beautiful Rushcutters Bay apartment, we had these catchphrases (and a jumble of other well-worn and now annoying pre-election slogans or "Tweets") ringing like bells in our heads. And even though we’re pretty cynical when it comes to politics, there’s still something exciting about a federal election. It’s a bit like watching a sporting match, and in Sydney there was definitely a buzz in the air. Like so many other Aussies around the country, it was time to get together to watch the election over dinner and a few glasses of wine.

Tiga for PM!

In our case, last night’s dinner party was also to celebrate Sydney artist Kendal Murray’s birthday. So when we arrived at Christie’s apartment, we were greeted by our bubbly host Christie, birthday girl Kendal, a bunch of friends including Julia, Ash, Juliana, Susanna, Matt, Paul, Alison and Julia’s fluffy dog Tiga.

Tiga on quality control

After wishing Kendal happy birthday and catching up over a glass of bubbles, we couldn’t resist turning the TV on. From that moment on, the conversation was dominated by politics. And we were asking the big questions too. For instance, would 20 year old parliamentarian Wyatt Roy's first post-election initiative be to install a skate park in his hometown of Coochin Creek? Why does Senator John Faulkner insist on wearing eye-glasses that make him resemble a seventies porn star? Is Bob Brown healthy enough to spend another three years in Canberra, and why doesn’t he eat a big steak now and then? Will Bronwyn Bishop go to the grave wearing that "helmet-head" hairstyle? Why wasn’t Channel Nine’s broadcast in 3D? Surely that would have given them an edge over the other networks? How does ABC election analyst Anthony Green earn a crust between federal elections? Daniel and Ash amused themselves by adding silly election commentary to Daniel's Twitter and Facebook feed. The "well hung" double entendre never got tired!

Julia with birthday girl Kendal (right)

These and more questions were relocated to the dinner table when our election feast was served. It was a truly awe-inspiring array of dishes that included Julia’s amazing baked chicken with rustic gravy (special nod to her inspired use of a tea strainer), Christie’s homemade meatballs done “two-ways”, barbequed gourmet sausages, a selection of delicious salads and a mountain of freshly baked bread from the Blue Mountains.

After our main meal, we took a break while Rachel cooked Jen De Bortoli’s Pudding Chômeur. As the recipe says, it is a very simple dessert to make. It’s just a matter of preparing the cake batter, then separately melting butter, brown sugar and vanilla in a pan. Simply pour that sweet liquid over the top of the batter in a large dish and you are ready to go. Rachel was a bit alarmed when she saw the amount of liquid that goes onto the pudding mixture but the cooking process does the trick. Forty-five minutes in the oven, and hey presto, a delicious self-sauced caramel pudding emerges. All the liquid had dropped to the bottom of the pudding, and thickened into a gorgeous sticky hot syrup. Perfect with ice cream and a glass of De Bortoli’s dessert wine, Noble One, which is a dessert in its own right.

The proof is in the pudding (to quote a fine cliché!)

But dessert didn’t stop with the Pudding Chômeur and Noble One. Like in the federal election, we had a choice of candidates with Christie putting forward an equally delightful pavlova with rose-water flavoured cream and strawberries. Paul offered a box of artisan chocolates. Every dessert received votes, including Tiga's who normally only supports meat.

No, not a hat for the Melbourne cup, but Christie's epic pavlova

Unfortunately we have to wait to find out how Australia voted, since the election was too close to call on Saturday night. In the words of Julia Gillard, we are now “moving forward” to September’s Cooking Your Calendar dinner party. See you then!

Daniel takes Julia Gillard's "moving forward" slogan literally

Announcing August

2010-08-03T16:11:00.017+10:00

For more reasons than one, this month's Cooking Your Calendar event on Saturday 21st August is going to be a bigger night than usual. To begin with, we are cooking August's recipe - Pudding Chômeur served with De Bortoli's Noble One dessert wine - at a BBQ to celebrate the birthday of Sydney-based artist Kendal Murray. Our mutual friend, Christie Cooper, is hosting Kendal's birthday bash at her apartment in Rushcutters Bay and, so far, there is quite a crowd coming along. The guest list includes an assortment of designers, artists and academics including Julia Park, Juliana Swatko, Freida Riggs and said host Christie.We might make two puddings to feed the crowd, one nicknamed "Julia" and the other "Tony". And that of course leads to the next reason this month's Cooking Your Calendar event is special. Yes, it's Election night when Australia decides. So while we celebrate Kendal's birthday, we'll also have our eyes and ears on the TV to see whether Julia "Kath Day-Knight" Gillard or Tony "The Budgie Smuggler" Abbott wins the top job. Interestingly, the word "Chômeur" means "unemployed". Is that some sort of warning? Is it a cooking prophecy? Will Prime Minister Gillard be out of a job within a matter of days? See you on the 21st when everybody finds out.

Kendal Murray

Camper Van Game Plan, 2009

11 x 13 x 13.5 cm

Courtesy of the artist & Arthouse Galler y

Cooking Christmas in July

2010-08-01T09:59:00.013+10:00

Rachel's prosciutto wrapped cranberry stuffing balls

Last night we converged once again on our friend Holly Williams' gorgeous home for a Christmas in July dinner party. Being the final evening in July, Saturday the 31st, we made it just in the nick of time. A ‘Christmas in August’ party just wouldn’t have had the same ring. Our guests included our host Holly, artists Aseem Pereira and Jonathan James, Daniel’s brother Sean Mudie, and the three of us. Oh, and of course, Mr Smoochy, Holly’s beautiful cat.

Part of our reason for hosting a ‘Christmas in July’ dinner was to try our hand at making mulled wine, something that none of us had prepared before. Luckily before arriving at Holly’s house, Rachel had a very helpful conversation with her lovely uncle and aunt, Harley and Dee Roberts, who are very experienced mulled wine makers. Their advice was simple. Basically there are countless different ways to make mulled wine. So, like sangria, you can pretty much add as much sugar and whatever citrus, fruits and spices as you like. The key is to taste the mulled wine as you go along, so that you make it to your own liking. As easy as falling off a log.

Rachel mulls up

We knew mulled wine was definitely on the menu, but what would we do for our main course? In the end, we decided to bake turkey drumsticks. The rationale behind cooking turkey legs, rather than a whole turkey, was to save cooking time. And a wise decision too when we saw the size of the turkey legs in the supermarket. Gargantuan things! The birds themselves must have been Pterodactyls!

As soon as we arrived at Holly’s house, the turkey legs needed to go straight into the oven. Then it was time to make the mulled wine and relax with our friends for a while. Our version of mulled wine was 250 grams of castor sugar, about ten cloves, a cinnamon stick, nutmeg, the rind and juice of an orange, the rind of a lemon and a lime and two bottles of De Bortoli Sacred Hill Cabernet Merlot. The result was utterly delicious - sweet, spicy and warming. Daniel said it was like Christmas cake in a glass, only with a whole lot more punch. With a few glasses of that stuff under our belts, we were definitely feeling the Christmas spirit.

Terror-dactyl!

Alongside the turkey drumsticks, we had decided serve an array of side dishes, including prosciutto-wrapped cranberry stuffing balls, mashed pumpkin with roasted pine nuts, pan-fried brussel sprouts with bacon and steamed broccoli. Every bit the Christmas feast that we had imagined but perhaps we had drunk a bit too much mulled wine by that stage because we almost started a fire in Holly’s wooden kitchen while we were cooking. Thanks go to Sean for noticing that Drew had accidently set a tea towel alight. Preparing a Christmas in July dinner was quickly becoming a high risk activity.

Tea towel flambé

Our dinner thankfully didn't burn. Every dish turned out to be an unqualified success. Given the size of the turkey drumsticks, the meal was a bit ‘Flintstone-esque’ but what it lacked in grace, it made up for in taste. Drew’s turkey was a particular triumph - moist, delicious and cooked to perfection. After dinner it was time for a hilarious game of Articulate, which we interrupted briefly for Holly’s delightful dessert of rhubarb crumble and cream. Some more mulled wine and we found it was well past midnight. Turns out we were having a ‘Christmas in August’ party after all!

Playing (in)Articulate

Announcing Christmas in July

2010-07-23T13:58:00.012+10:00

The perfect Christmas in July soundtrack:

Jan Terri's "Rock and Roll Santa"

It's almost the end of July already, and we are well and truly in winter's icy grip. Given that the cold weather is perfect for open fires, hearty roasts and red wine, we thought we'd take yet another detour from our usual format by holding a "Christmas in July" dinner before the month is up.

And so, on July 31st, we are heading back to our friend Holly Williams' cozy inner west home to cook up a Yuletide feast, complete with traditional mulled wine. Now, mulled wine is something we haven't prepared before. In fact, no one can remember even trying it, since it is naturally never on the menu during our sweaty 30 degrees-plus Aussie Christmas lunches. But Holly assures us that mulled wine is delightful and that she has the perfect recipe. All we need to do is bring a bottle of red, ideally either a shiraz, cabernet or some sort of easy-drinking blend. At this stage we think we'll use De Bortoli's Windy Peak Cabernet Merlot because it has balanced berry and plum flavours that should be just the thing for spicing up.

Now we just have to decide whether:
a) to roast a stuffed turkey or do delicious pork with crackling?
b) to have a Secret Santa gift system?
c) get some mistletoe and have a "kiss in"?

Tough decisions. See you next week!

Cooking July

2010-07-19T09:42:00.067+10:00

Potts Point is a relaxed sort of place on a Sunday morning. Cafes brim with city-dwellers lingering over brunch. People sun themselves for hours in Fitzroy Gardens while they read the newspapers. Others just mindlessly dawdle and daydream around the boutiques and shops.

Daniel and Natasha crack open the Rococo

But this Sunday morning, relaxation, dawdling and daydreaming were definitely not on the agenda for the Cooking Your Calendar team. For one, we were tackling our cooking nemesis, polenta, a dish we have failed to impress with so far this year. Even though Melissa De Bortoli’s Roasted Rosemary Polenta Chips recipe seems simple enough, in our experience you can never underestimate polenta. So we were already a bit nervous about whether we could do justice to Melissa's dish. We also had a series of “small plate” tapas-style starters to prepare by mid afternoon to accompany the polenta chips. Unexpectedly, however, it turned out we had a few crises to deal with first. To start with, Drew couldn’t find any fresh sardines fillets which he planned to lightly crumb, pan fry and then serve with a homemade gribiche sauce. After much pacing and deliberation at the fishmongers, Drew decided to make the recipe using fresh flathead fillets instead, and simply forge ahead.

Rachel re-enacts the meatball meltdown

Rachel had decided to bake a full round of Camembert cheese. But, in addition, she bought some pre-made gourmet meatballs from a local butcher to cook ahead of time, as a way of quite literally “beefing up” the meal. Oh dear, bad idea. After an hour of watching the meatballs disintegrate in the fry pan into nothing more than saucy mince (which, mind you, Daniel happily ate for lunch) Rachel was in an apoplectic rage. Livid and running out of time, she gathered up the remaining uncooked meatballs and marched back to the butcher to demand a refund. Witnesses later said they had spotted a furious Medusa storming down Macleay street with a Tupperware container of mince in her hands at about 1.20pm. So it was back to the drawing board for Rachel too.

Special guests arrive

With our menu plan hastily re-jigged, we arrived at the glorious Art Deco apartment of our friends Natasha, Michael and their adorable daughter Saskia in desperate need of a glass of wine. First stop was Natasha and Michael's roof top terrace for a glass of bubbles to unwind, catch-up and have a laugh about Rachel's meatball meltdown. Two rainbow lorikeets joined us to watch the sun set over the city from what surely must be one of the best vantage points in Sydney.

The baked camembert moments before its annihilation

Back in Natasha and Michael's apartment, Drew and Rachel then got down to business, turning out each tapas dish in turn. First we served the baked Camembert cheese with some warmed marinated olives. This was the first time Rachel had tried baked Camembert cheese, but it certainly won't be the last. It is essentially a fail safe and utterly decadent fondue that is worth every single calorie.

Drew rates his flathead fillets a perfect 10

Next came Drew’s delicious crumbed flat fillets with the gribiche sauce. Technically speaking, fish isn’t a dish you would serve with red wine, but since there are no rules when it comes to wine and food Drew wasn't worried about serving his dish alongside De Bortoli's Will's Hill Shiraz.

Saskia minds the bar while the grown-ups toast

For our third course, in lieu of meatballs, we served slices of panfried chorizo speared with warmed dates together with the crispy Roasted Rosemary Polenta Chips. And this time, hurrah, our polenta was a success. We all agreed that the herby flavour of the chips went particularly well with the soft and rounded Will's Hill Shiraz.

The Roasted Rosemary Polenta Chips are served

But it didn't stop there because Natasha and Michael had very kindly prepared dessert. This was beautifully sweet marinated strawberries served with rich vanilla ice cream, as well as a cheese plate of gorgonzola cheese and crackers. Our humble night of wine and tapas had turned out to be quite a feast.

Saskia presents her playlist of cabaret showtunes

By the end of the evening we had been treated to some Liza Minnelli cabaret classics and collectively tried to revive John Farnham's career, thanks to two-year old Saskia's very mature taste in music. After tucking Saskia into bed, the grown-ups debated the merits of the current "Paths to Abstraction" exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW and pondered that age-old question - can a good book ever be made into an equally good film? Drew's suggestion that The Exorcist was a better movie than it was a book, was perhaps the only example that didn't warrant debate.

But waking up this morning, another question loomed large in our minds. And that is: Where is Will's Hill? Does it have nice view? Can it cure our shiraz hangovers?

Announcing July

2010-07-08T08:42:00.011+10:00

Bring it on!

So July is here and we can't believe we're now half way through the calendar! To mark the midway point De Bortoli kindly sent us another shipment of wine, as you can see in the picture above. This month we are keeping things close to home. Definitely no more trips to the Wild Wild Inner West for us. Instead, on Sunday 18th July, we are simply sauntering across Darlinghurst Road to the beautiful apartment of fellow "Potts Pointilists" and art-lovers, Natasha Nadj, Michael Scheib and their gorgeous two year old daughter Saskia. And for a change we have decided to meet in the late afternoon so we can enjoy the simply jawdropping city view from Natasha and Michael's rooftop terrace. The recipe this month is Melissa De Bortoli's Roasted Rosemary Polenta Chips teamed with the De Bortoli Hunter Valley "Will's Hill" Shiraz. So far, we've had very little success cooking polenta, so the pressure is really on to deliver something impressive. We're also planning to throw in a variety of other "small plate" tapas-style dishes suitable for afternoon drinks. We're not sure what though and are currently workshoppping some ideas. Drew thinks he might try cooking sardine fillets, while Rachel is keen to try baking a full round of baked camembert cheese. Feel free to leave a recipe suggestion because we're still definitely open to ideas. See you on the 18th of July!

Just Desserts

2010-07-02T16:37:00.016+10:00

Well, we promised we would post the recipe for the Deconstructed Baklava, Poached Pears and Walnut Praline dessert which Todd Robinson prepared at our last dinner party, so here it is. It's an absolutely superb dish but not as easy to prepare as we first thought. Don't be put off though. If you have a sweet tooth, you are going to be in heaven when you knock this recipe together. All we can say is "Masterchef, eat your heart out!"

Actually, given how delightful Todd's dessert is, we couldn't resist recreating it ourselves tonight. So, in a deviation from the usual format, we've added this non-scheduled, "just because we felt like it" blog entry to document this impromptu dinner amongst just us, the Cooking Your Calendar team.

We thought long and hard about what De Bortoli wine we should team with Todd's dessert, and ultimately decided that the lovely, slightly sweet bubbles of De Bortoli's Pink Moscato would be perfect. The Pink Moscato is a beautiful celebratory wine too, making it a good choice to congratulate ourselves for getting halfway through the De Bortoli calendar without any major cooking disasters!

Like before, Todd's dessert was a mouthwatering mountain of flaky pastry, sweet crunchy praline, warm pears and drippy icecream. And while we're embarrassed to admit it, just like last time, we fought over the last serve. Good thing it was just us this time. As it turns out, it was great to get together amongst ourselves to make plans for the next six months, and have a laugh about the year so far. And, all we want to know, is what happened? Weren't we just celebrating New Years Eve a few weeks ago? Basically, we need to start shopping for Christmas again. A trip to the Hunter Valley anyone?

Crushed Nuts anyone? Stay tuned... in a few days we will announce July's dinner party.

Cooking June

2010-06-14T15:45:00.013+10:00

Punch drunk

This month’s Cooking Your Calendar Challenge was the old favourite Shepherd’s Pie. We took ourselves over to Erskineville to the beautiful home of artist couple Cherine Fahd and Todd Robinson for a wintery feast of this simple but satisfying classic dish.

Daniel, Cherine and the kids catch up

There are really two steps to making Shepherd's Pie. The first step is preparing and cooking it. The second, somewhat more challenging part, is sexing it up. After it all, it’s a homely looking dish. Not much to look at. You’ve got your beef and you’ve got your potatoes and... well, it's sloppy. It’s a meal that has relinquished the glory associated with refined culinary style, to fulfil its civic duty as an economical, functional and tasty belly-filler. The Shepherd’s Pie has no airs and graces. It doesn’t even bother with the discretion of a pastry shell, preferring to bare all. It’s meaty bits plopped onto the plate in a proud display of delicious vulgarity. Making this look good could be tricky.

If looks could kill

Drew was Chef this time and from the outset he wanted to jazz up the common approach to the pie. Forgoing the recipe’s use of the traditional beef mince, he decided to whip out the crock-pot for a slow-cooked variation, using diced lean beef with vegetables and red wine. The beef cooked all day at his apartment and the delicious aroma soon hinted that the flavour was going to compensate for any aesthetic shortfall. Perhaps blindfolding our guests during dinner was looking to be an option?

Bring on the Winter carbs!

When we arrived in Erskineville with crock-pot in hand, Drew and Rachel immediately took to the kitchen. Rachel shelled fresh peas and Drew worked on the mashed potato that would crown the beef filling. Meanwhile Cherine and Todd’s gorgeous 2 year-old daughter Rei entertained us with a contemporary and very conceptual ballet performance. A couple of bottles of De Bortoli’s Petit Verdot were cracked open as we all relished the impending sleep-in that this long weekend would provide (World Cup 4.30am wake-up call notwithstanding).

Rei puts her best food forward

Twenty minutes in the oven and the pie came out looking pretty good. Let’s face it, this is a hard meal to stuff up too drastically. The slow cooking had tenderised the meat perfectly and the creamy mash had browned to create a crisp lid of carbs. Served simply with steamed green beans and crusty bread, this was definitely a recession-buster meal.

Todd begins the autopsy

So ultimately what the pie lacked in the looks department it made up for in taste. It ended up being the perfect meal for a cold winter's night and Petit Verdot was giving us all a rosy glow. But then Todd surprised us all with his killer "deconstructed" baklava-style dessert of oven baked filo pastry layered with sugar and honey topped with a praline crumble, and served with ice cream. Absolutely amazing. We're definitely putting his recipe on the blog as soon as we get it, so stay tuned.

Dinner is served

All in all, the Shepherd's Pie, De Bortoli Petit Verdot and Todd's dessert was a complete winner of a meal. Just a pity we can't say the same thing about the Socceroos. Good thing we ended up sleeping right through the game.

Thanks to Todd and Cherine for hosting!

Announcing June

2010-06-02T14:16:00.015+10:00

Cherine Fahd

Day 8 from Hiding: Self Portraits, 2009-10

Courtesy of the artist

Are we sad about summer coming to an end? Of course we are. Are we happy about coming into June? Absolutely! We might be whinging about the colder weather but June gives us an excuse to:

a) see as many films as humanly possible at the Sydney Film Festival
b) wear Ugg boots outside the house with impunity
c) cozy-up indoors and cook delicious comfort food
d) drink plenty of red wine

Certainly on Sunday 13th June we will be practicing (c) and (d) with great gusto. The calendar's recipe this month is that old family favourite, Shepherd's Pie served with De Bortoli Deen Vat Series Petit Verdot. Once again we are venturing westward to join the very talented artist couple, Cherine Fahd and Todd Robinson with their two children, at their home in Erskineville. If you were gallery hopping in Sydney in January you would have encountered Cherine's wonderful photo series at MOP Projects, where she presented 100 self-portraits of herself "hiding" her face, shot over 100 days. On day 28, her second child was born making the series a poignant record of domestic life.

Once again Drew and Rachel will be joining forces in the kitchen to cook. Daniel is not sure how he will contribute but he did once curate a survey exhibition of Cherine's work, so perhaps he will spontaneously curate their house on the night. Maybe he will take on the all-important job of opening the wine. It's anyone's guess and we'll find out on the 13th. See you then!

Remembering May

2010-06-01T20:28:00.004+10:00

May's recipe was such a hit with our fans that we were compelled to cook it again. And as we did, we had to acknowledge the passing of rabbits gone before. Bon appetite. Cue tissues.

Cooking May

2010-05-17T12:14:00.023+10:00

Photo: Anne Zahalka

If you are vegetarian, own a pet rabbit or loved Watership Down, please don’t read this month’s entry of our blog because last night we sharpened up our incisors and feasted on two of your beloved bunny friends. And boy, were they good! In fact, after cooking up May’s recipe Coniglio al Vino Rosse (Rabbit in Red Wine) we’ve come up with the solution to Australia’s rabbit plague. Forget calicivirus. Let’s just get rabbits on the menu, in the oven and on the barbeque. Delicious, especially shared with friends on a chilly autumn evening over a bottle of De Bortoli Melba Reserve. But perhaps we should go back to the beginning.

Last night we descended on the beautiful Australia Street Guesthouse owned by our hosts, acclaimed photo artist Anne Zahalka, her TV producer husband Ian Collie and daughter Alice. Drew and Rachel were in the kitchen together, each slightly daunted because neither had cooked rabbit before. Thankfully the process was not at all like the rabbit boiling scene in Fatal Attraction. Far from it. With Drew taking the reigns as Head Chef and Rachel taking the supporting role of Sous Chef, things went surprisingly well. After frying bacon, onion and garlic, then browning the pieces of rabbit, Drew deglazed the pan and left the bunnies simmering in red wine and herbs for an hour. Meanwhile Rachel busily prepared side dishes of baked carrots, green beans and polenta. Daniel poured some wine and watched.

Photo: Anne Zahalka

With dinner underway, we had the opportunity to get a bit sauced up too with our hosts. And there certainly was a lot to talk about, from Anne’s latest exhibition HOMEGROUND!, to Ian’s new television series Rake and of course the Biennale of Sydney that just opened last week. Amidst all of this, the very talented young Alice performed a haunting piano piece she had composed herself, then an interpretive dance of a Greek myth. Clearly talent runs in the family. Soon dinner was ready and it was time for us to pull our rabbit out of the hat, so to speak. And we think we did that with aplomb. Drew’s dish was rich, succulent and had everyone asking for more. Rachel’s polenta ,which alarmingly resembled ectoplasm, was rather less popular. But hey, you can’t win them all…

Photo: Anne Zahalka

After dinner, we were joined by two of Anne and Ian's American relatives, Lauren and Nate, who were staying in their popular in-house Bed and Breakfast. And that’s when the wigs came out. How did we end up here? Not your typical Sunday night dinner but then we weren’t dining with a typical family. In the spirit of Anne’s art practice, we’ll let the photos, taken mostly this time by a famous guest photographer, tell the whole story.

Don't forget to check out Anne's fantastic show HOMEGROUND! and join her for an artist walk and talk on 22 May at 3pm at the Zanzi Bar and ending at the Union Hotel at 4pm in Newtown. That will sure be a pub crawl to remember.

Announcing May

2010-04-29T16:28:00.020+10:00

ANNE ZAHALKA

from the series HOMEGROUND 2010

Courtesy the artist & Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

So, wow, May has hit us already - and it hit us in a big way since we are all busy juggling one art opening after the other, as well as running this way and that to a silly number of dinners, engagement parties and other do's. Oh, and there’s also that thing known as “paid employment” that gets in the way of our social life. Amongst all of the madness, we are extremely excited about our next De Bortoli dinner on Sunday May 16th. And that’s because this month our guests are the amazingly talented and renowned photographic artist, Anne Zahalka and her equally talented film and television producer husband Ian Collie, together with two of their glamorous friends. For a change of scene, Anne and Ian have kindly offered to host our dinner party at their bed & breakfast in Newtown called Australia Street Guesthouse. Anne tells us she is a big lover of rabbit, so she is very enthusiastic about this month’s recipe Coniglio al Vino Rosse (Rabbit in Red Wine) which Drew and Rachel will be cooking together. In fact, we are turning this month’s dinner into a bit of a special occasion for Anne to celebrate her latest exhibition HOMEGROUND that is being held in a number of different Newtown pubs throughout May. Drew and Daniel even appear in one of Anne's photos set at Newtown pub Zanzi Bar (pictured above). On top of all that, this month's dinner is also an opportunity for Daniel to celebrate his curatorship of a major exhibition of the work of the late Australian artist Arthur McIntyre (1945-2003) at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre and Macquarie University Art Gallery. With these achievements there will certainly be toasts all round with the De Bortoli Melba Reserve. See you on the 16th!

Cooking April

2010-04-18T08:21:00.018+10:00

Master chef Rachel is on soup detail

This month's Cooking Your Calendar event took us to Sydney's Inner West where our excellent hostess was artist and curator Holly Williams. April's recipe was Leanne De Bortoli's hearty Zucchini and Potato Soup matched with Windy Peak Sauvignon Blanc Semillon.

Despite the simplicity of the recipe Rachel was nervous being head chef this month, but Holly's well-equipped kitchen made for smooth sailing. As the sun set over Sydney, Rachel took over Holly's kitchen like a tornado - chopping, mashing and blending like a woman possessed. Ever helpful (read control freak) Drew couldn't resist hovering around the sidelines offering constructive criticism and generally being a pest.

Drinking on the job as usual

By the time our guests all arrived, the soup was ready which was the go-ahead for everyone to enjoy a round of pre-dinner drinks. Our guests included Holly of course, as well as children's book author Tristan Bancks and artists Aseem Pereira and Cash Brown. Holly's cat Mr Smoochy was the night's official mascot. As we all got to know one another, Aseem asked Daniel what role he plays in the Cooking Your Calendar project, to which Daniel replied "I stand around and drink wine". Daniel was certainly in good company with Cash, who needed the hair of the dog to get over her Friday night debauchery.

Kids in the Kitchen

Before long Rachel rang the dinner bell, serving the soup with a salad of greens and baked vegetables, and hunks of crusty sourdough. Everyone agreed the soup was superb - rich, flavoursome and warming. Definitely a recipe to keep on file.

Friends from way back, Tristan, Drew and Rachel rehashed old times while the beautiful bawdy Cash Brown discussed a range of topics not suitable for publication. Holly, Aseem and Daniel caught up on artworld gossip. A contentious debate flared up about the Archibald Prize and Sam Leach's controversial win for an "appropriation" of an old Dutch masterpiece. Tristan defended the Archibald to Daniel's unmitigated horror. Drew was appalled that anybody would pay good money to see a gargantuan portrait of Glenn A Baker. Speaking of art, Cash plugged her upcoming exhibition at Robin Gibson Gallery; if last year's Cash Brown art controversy is anything to go by, it should be a great show. We also chatted about the upcoming Sydney Writers Festival where Tristan will be one of the guest speakers.

Cash Brown - the Queen of Controversy

Ten or so bottles of wine later, Holly suggested we play a boozy game of Balderdash, where players bluff each other with bogus definitions of various words or things. Rachel blitzed the game but suspected that Holly was scoring under the influence. After we gorged ourselves on a cheese platter, we made our way back to Kings Cross - not that we remember much of the ride home.

Mr Smoochy - designated driver

At Home with the De Bortoli's

2010-04-06T16:17:00.013+10:00

Drew and Daniel meet Leanne and Steve

Against the backdrop of the Easter long weekend, Daniel and Drew hit the road for a Cooking Your Calendar excursion to the De Bortoli winery and family home in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley. After spending some time at the Cellar Door and cheese tasting station, we made our way to meet Leanne De Bortoli and husband Steve Webber at their home on the grounds. We instantly hit it off, knocking back white wine on their gorgeous back deck, which overlooks Leanne’s organic veggie patch. Steve (in hoon-style Grand Prix mode) later took us on a hair-raising ride around the vineyard on his Moke. Drew fed their three big pigs a bucket of acorns while Leanne explained how the oinkers had a date with a smoke house and a salami knife come June. By sunset we met Leanne’s brother Kevin and wife Jennifer (who penned two of the calendar’s recipes) along with a bunch of their friends from the region. All up it was a great night of food, music, conversation and of course wine. Leanne and Steve’s hospitality was awesome!

We’ll let the pictures do the talking...

The vineyard after vintage

Daniel wondering where the bottles are

Drew and the Moke

Pigs before

Pigs after

Dining with the De Bortoli's

Jennifer and Leanne De Bortoli with the calendar

Steve shows us around the next day... Is that contemporary sculpture or what?

Barrels of love

Announcing April

2010-03-26T09:23:00.026+11:00

Rachel caught shopping for soup "supplies" at the Woolies Soup Shelf

This month we have an extra thing to announce. Drew and Daniel are excited to be visiting the De Bortoli family for dinner at the Yarra Valley in Victoria on Easter Monday (4 April). They will report back next week after their wine country encounter with the De Bortoli dynasty.

This April for Cooking your Calendar we are all taking our pots and pans on the road again to our friend, Holly Williams's place in Annandale. Even though Eastern Suburbs dwellers are notorious for refusing to leave their hood, we love the Inner West and are really looking forward to taking over Holly's kitchen.

We have upped the numbers again this month, inviting five guests to Holly's pad for a cosy autumn night of soup and shenanigans. Two of our guests, children's book author Tristan Bancks and partner creative director Amber Melody-Bancks, are old school friends of Drew's and Rachel's who have just moved down to Balmain from Bangalow in northern NSW. Luckily the recipe is vegetarian because, like most hippies from the Byron Bay region, Tristan and Amber are both vego. Then, of course, there is our fun hostess Holly and her plus-one. Holly is an artist and works at UTS as Assistant Curator. Last but certainly not least, is Cash Brown, artist and curator of Artereal Gallery in Rozelle.

Rachel is in the kitchen on her own this time, but the recipe Zucchini and Potato Soup is a straightforward one, so she is feeling pretty confident. So long as she doesn't get stuck into De Bortoli's Windy Peak before dinner, then things should be fine. Lock in the date: Saturday 17 April...

Today's Good Living article proves that we're onto something!

2010-03-23T12:15:00.012+11:00

Now Here's a Recipe - Media Tarts

Well, it's good to know that we're not the only people that think our project is cool. Today the Good Living section of the Sydney Morning Herald featured an article on our Cooking Your Calendar project which is worth a look if you can get your hands on a copy. Drew's twin-brother, a longtime chef, read the article and promptly sent Drew a text, joking "I have been chef for 16 years and never got reviewed in the Herald... Stuff the lot of ya!!" That's brotherly support for you. Maybe we can make amends by inviting him to the May 2010 De Bortoli dinner when Drew is in the kitchen with Rachel?

Hmm, being judged by a chef. Now that could be interesting...

Cooking March

2010-03-14T11:08:00.010+11:00

Look up dumplings in a cookbook and it probably describes them as small balls of bread, egg, and meat; and broth as water, stock and chopped vegies. So the task seemed simple enough. Pete was expecting to knock March's recipe, Canederli Di Pancetta in Brodo (Dumplings in Soup), over single-handedly and in no time at all. Well you know what they say about best-laid plans. Before too long he had Rachel and Drew furiously hand shredding sourdough, chopping herbs and overseeing the delicate alchemy of broth making. Daniel assisted by having a lie down.

We had envisioned this month’s De Bortoli dinner to be a cakewalk; small meal, small guest list, but it was fast becoming a precision operation. Pete was sweating over his broth, testing the prototype dumplings to see if they really would float to the top when cooked, just like Emeri De Bortoli says in her recipe. The issue of using pancetta in the dumplings and chicken stock in the broth when catering for a vegetarian was cause for minor debate. To improvise, we made a vegetarian option with sun-dried tomato and basil. But we were now faced with both a culinary and ethical dilemma; could both dumpling types be cooked simultaneously in the same broth? What would happen if a rogue pancetta chunk hitched a ride on a vego dumpling during their little swim in the broth? Some of life’s questions are just too big for a Saturday afternoon.

We had to then carry the large pot of scalding broth through the streets of Kings Cross, to Rachel’s place nearby. An afternoon rainstorm had provided a dangerously greasy path underfoot and negotiating the four flights of stairs up to Rachel’s door was a potential OH&S apocalypse. Visions of months in an intensive care burns unit were eventually allayed as we set about tackling the evening’s simplest of tasks once our guests Katie Dyer and Daniel Joyce had arrived: cracking open a bottle of Windy Peak Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay.

We sat around for an hour or so, while Pete tinkered away in the kitchen, preparing the dumplings and a few simple side dishes of bocconcini salad and cooked asparagus and baby carrots, to be served with the recommended De Bortoli Gulf Station Pinot Grigio. We all surmised that the dumplings may not have been filling on their own. How wrong we were! Small parcels of big fun, a few dumplings later and we were all bursting at the seams.

After dinner, Rachel attempted a rather lame game of film-themed Charades. Drew humoured her for about five minutes because it was an opportunity to pay homage to eighties teen star Corey Haim, who overdosed a few days ago, and not on dumplings. You can just imagine how The Lost Boys was acted out. Later Rachel was more successful at group participation when she turned on Fleetwood Mac's greatest hits CD and turned her lounge room into a makeshift dancefloor. Daniel went off to the kitchen to sneak a few more cold dumplings, while Pete explained to Katie and the other Daniel how without seeing Fleetwood Mac at the Hunter Valley last December we wouldn't have dreamed up Cooking your Calendar. Pop culture references kept being amplified throughout the evening as everyone got more and more tipsy while outdoing one another with 'broth' puns. Among them were David Lee Broth, Philip Seymour Brothman, Broth Whitlam, and The Brothman Prophesies. Rachel even suggested Broth as the new name for the eighties pop group Bros. But the hands-down winner and perhaps a new name for our project, should we need a more glamorous stage name: New Kids on the Broth.

Announcing March

2010-03-03T13:40:00.014+11:00

What image to use this time?

Type Dumplings into Google Images ... and presto!

Difficult to believe that it's March already, but all of a sudden we are planning our third De Bortoli dinner with Pete in the kitchen once again. The recipe this month is Canederli Di Pancetta in Brodo (or Dumplings in Soup which is a lot easier to pronounce...) Sensibly we are holding our March dinner party on a Saturday night this time which means we won't have to front up to work, half asleep the following morning. No more Sunday nights for us, if we can help it! So, the date is set for Saturday 13th March and the venue is Rachel's apartment. Thankfully Rachel has finally had an electrician over to fix the lights in her kitchen and loungeroom, otherwise things would have been really interesting. While we all support Earth Hour and love candlelit dinners, cooking by candlelight for two years is frankly stupid, Rachel. So, thanks go out to sparkies everywhere for making this month possible.

For a change, we have decided to host a smaller, more intimate dinner party inviting Katie Dyer who is Curator and Gallery Manager at the National Art School Gallery and Daniel Joyce who is a Lecturer in International Human Rights Law at the University of New South Wales. As well as her regular gig at the National Art School Gallery, Katie is also curating Primavera this year at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art so she is really going to be earbashed by us wanting to know all about how it is coming along. As Katie is vegetarian Pete will be preparing special vegetarian dumplings for her. But for us carnivores, the pancetta stays. And what a relief for Daniel - all he needs to do again is pick the music and pour the wine! Roll on Saturday 13th March...

Cooking February

2010-02-15T11:57:00.027+11:00

Ahhh, love

On Sunday night we hosted our second De Bortoli cook-in with Daniel taking the reigns as 'Chef' on that special once-a-year night for lovers and florists (not to mention all rampant Capitalists) everywhere, Valentine’s Day. On the subject of love, while Daniel is a great lover of eating, he's never been fussed on cooking. In fact, this was the first time he had cooked for a group of people in years. Even though Spaghetti Puttanesca is a simple dish, Daniel was having night terrors at the thought of having to cook for so many people. Such pressure.

Daniel shows how good he is at cooking

Pasta really is a 'more the merrier' sort of food, perfect for extended Italian families or, in our case, the extended so-called 'urban family' of good mates. And by Sunday night our group of guests had grown. The two artists and founding directors of artist-run gallery MOP Projects, Ron Adams and George Adams were also joining us for dinner, as well as another friend Phoebe Arcus. Daniel had prepared the spaghetti sauce the day before, so that the flavours of the tomatoes, anchovies, olives and herbs could deepen and develop overnight. (Really though, he cooked the day before so no one could watch him stumbling around a kitchen that increasingly resembled a car accident!)

Drew the kitchen control freak can't help but stir the pot

Friend and dinner guest, Elizabeth Stanton had offered to let us host our dinner party at her beautiful Potts Point apartment. On Elizabeth’s veranda, overlooking Fitzroy Gardens and King Cross’ famous El Alamein fountain, we toasted our second Cooking Your Calendar dinner party while torrential rain fell in sheets outside.

Proud Italian Elizabeth take over the spaghetti

By the time dinner was served, everyone was getting along famously. And it was a culinary success for Daniel because the meal was an unqualified homey hit. A delightfully messy affair of ropey spaghetti in the rich puttanesca sauce, Daniel topped the pasta with bitey Parmesan cheese. Elizabeth made a simple rocket salad and Daniel showed how good he is with a knife by cutting a crusty bread stick. (Though secretly he hadn't cut bread ever since sliced bread was invented so on the inside he was sweating bullets). The fruity flavour of De Bortoli’s Windy Peak Classic White was a perfect accompaniment to the meal. However, Ron and George broke the rules by following the white with a bottle of red they'd brought themselves - apparently white wine en masse doesn't agree with their tender constitutions.

Triumph

Over dinner we shared some hilarious stories about the 'dark' side of Valentine’s Day - perfect considering we were eating a spaghetti dish named after prostitution (a fairly unromanticised career path). These included tales of anonymous flowers sent to James by a suspicious ex-girlfriend trying to entrap him, as well as frightening love letters written to Rachel by a mentally unstable stalker to which she replied by filing a police report. On a more pleasant note, Elizabeth recounted a 'bodice-ripper' moment she’d had in Venice last year where she had been swept off her feet by a Venetian motorbike-riding maitre d'.

Cheers

Daniel had prepared an iPod playlist the day before, showing he's easily distracted by more curatorial activities than cooking. Basically he searched 'love' into his iTunes library and came up with songs like 'Computer Love' by Kraftwerk, 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' by Joy Division and 'Love is a Stranger' by the Eurythmics. Perfect ironic sentiments for Valentine's Day, he reasoned.

Sauced

The empty bottles were piling up by now and everyone was well and truly 'sauced'. Elizabeth had promised to supply dessert - which turned out to be a simple no fuss dish of store bought chocolate. Needless to say, desserts is 'stressed' spelled backwards so hats off to Elizabeth for being such a clever, gorgeous, stress free co-host.

See you in March lovers!

Announcing February

2010-01-27T18:14:00.006+11:00

Daniel thinks he is probably better at pouring wine than cooking

January's inaugural Cooking Your Calendar event was loads of fun, and we've been inundated with 'offers' from friends to fill chairs at the dinner table for February's do. To keep each dinner interesting and varied we long debated how to approach it and who to invite. Daniel suggested we tie it in with his 35th birthday on the 25th but then got greedy thinking he'd never be able to cater for each of his 670 Facebook friends.

Our dear friend and neighbour, Elizabeth Stanton, offered her apartment for the event and suggested we link it with Valentine's Day. An inspired decision we thought, knowing deep down Liz was single and probably hoping we'd invite her future husband. That remains to be seen, but we can announce our invitees for February as reality television producer Jackie Martin, advertising & design director James Hossack, filmmaker Heath Davis, and of course curator and arts writer Elizabeth Stanton - our already mentioned hostess with the... you know how it goes.

Our Cooking Your Calendar team has three excellent cooks, as you saw with Pete's stellar effort this month. None of us, however, can claim professional chef status - despite Drew thinking he's professional by bloodline because his chef twin brother has cooked for big name international superstars. Daniel is the exception, freely admitting he'd rather organise an iTunes playlist, re-hang the art collection, set the table or pour the wine than have to ever cook. He last cooked something in say 1990-something-or-other. So to prove his opposable thumbs aren't entirely primate in the kitchen, he volunteered to cook February's recipe, which is Spaghetti Puttanesca by Leanne De Bortoli.

Speaking of Leanne De Bortoli, she actually emailed during the week to say "Great to see this project up and running. Even better that we didn't think of it ourselves". Leanne also mentioned that the history of the dish is quite amusing and worth Googling. Curiosity got the better of us and we learned via Wikipedia that spaghetti a la puttanesca is a "whore's dish"! Well, not exactly today. But the three potential origins for the dish claim it is made from the "odds and ends found in the larder... any kind of garbage". It also derives from the Italian word for whore puttana, and according to one chef quoted on Wikipedia, it was a quick cheap meal that prostitutes could prepare between customers.

Sounds delicious and mind the pun, pretty 'easy', which suits amateur chef Daniel to a T.

We promise not to take it this far with the "whore's spaghetti"

(image found thanks to Google Images)

Cooking January

2010-01-18T14:43:00.021+11:00

Rachel and Julia chat over a glass of

De Bortoli Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay

Sunday night was our inaugural Cooking Your Calendar dinner party – a raging success as far as we were concerned. Our guests, Kate Murphy, Vincent Sheehan, Don Cameron and Julia Park arrived to the delicious aroma of Emeri De Bortoli's recipe Pollo in Tecia (pan cooked chicken), at our dinner party venue in Kings Cross.

Our slow-cooking king, Pete, asked to be head chef this month, which worked well as the tiny kitchen is only built for one. He used two organic chickens sectioned by our local butcher and herbs picked fresh from Rachel’s Dad’s vegetable garden in the Blue Mountains. Pete can never be trusted to follow a recipe to a T, and true to form he freestyled it a bit.

Pollo in Tecia (pan cooked chicken)

With the chook doing its own thing, simmering in the tomatoes and wine, we headed upstairs to the rooftop terrace to kick off the evening with a cheeky glass of bubbles - De Bortoli’s Windy Peak Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay. With fruit bats flying overhead we toasted the start of our year-long project. Our guests were genuinely excited to be inaugural invitees to our project as we talked about some approaches we’re workshopping for future dinner parties. Julia shamelessly angled for a February invite when she caught wind that our next dinner party is scheduled for Valentine’s Day.

By the time Pete served dinner on the roof, the lights of Sydney had come to life and everyone was deep in conversation amid the sounds of the street below. There was definitely a creative vibe to the evening, with a filmmaker, film producer, curator, designer and several artists around the table. So conversation flowed easily as we all made connections and exchanged banter. When the discussion turned to recent films we’d seen, Daniel was disgraced for being the only one not to like Avatar (though Drew did chime in that he'd read a review about how it was seemingly ‘racist’ in tone).

Keeping the film theme alive, an idea was voiced about famous food scenes from movies making a great recipe book. Vincent thought the ‘french toast’ scene from Kramer vs Kramer could work; Drew proposed the ‘offal and human flesh’ scene from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as an edgier option (though only Pete agreed); while Rachel dreamed of cooking every food ever mentioned in Enid Blyton's books. Clearly our ideas are a bit half-baked (no pun intended).

January's chef, Pete, in a product placement moment

The De Bortoli calendar recommended teaming the Pollo in Tecia with the Sero Chardonnay Pinot Grigio. Several glasses later, we were all in very cheery agreement that this combo was well matched. With this, Drew hoofed it to the local bottle shop for replenishments.

Risking sore heads on a ‘school night’, the party dispersed around midnight as a Chardonnay eclipse enveloped the apartment. Already today in the ‘wash up’, Drew and Rachel have been fiercely debating the guest list for February (which we will announce in a week). Do we play Valentine’s Day cupids and matchmake our single friends over glasses of love potion 12.1% proof?

Post-dinner chatting back in the apartment

On the radio

2010-01-09T09:10:00.003+11:00

The De Bortoli Wine Arrives

On Wednesday a De Bortoli truck arrived with the wine, making the Cooking Your Calender project a reality. That same day we were contacted through the blog by radio personality Pete Dillon, inviting us to chat on his 94.9 Joy FM (Melbourne) food and beverage show. Daniel contacted Pete to lock in the time, which is today (Saturday) at 1:30pm. If you're in Melbourne at that time, make sure you tune in!

Only 8 more sleeps now until we host our inaugural Cooking Your Calendar event.

Welcome to Cooking Your Calendar

2010-01-03T19:59:00.009+11:00

In December 2009, the four of us went to see the Fleetwood Mac concert at the Hunter Valley. We visited several wineries and De Bortoli's cellar door was by far the stand out.

After spending big from doing our Christmas shopping at De Bortoli's, we were all given complimentary 2010 calendars. Each month of the calendar features delicious recipes written by the De Bortoli family paired with a particular wine.

While drinking the presents we bought for other people and talking about how much we loved Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia, we made a pact to cook De Bortoli's calendar. Month by month we would host a dinner party featuring the dish and of course the wine.

We approached De Bortoli with our project and to see whether they'd provide the wine. They fell in love with the idea and the rest is history. As 30-somethings involved in the arts, we plan on inviting pretty hot guests.

Pete is cooking the first recipe Pollo in Tecia (Pan Cooked Chicken) on Sunday 17th January. We are inviting video artist Kate Murphy, film producer Vincent Sheehan, filmmaker Don Cameron, and designer Julia Park.

Stay tuned...