⏱️ Enjoy with your favourite beverage | 7 min readIt was May 2024 in La Spezia, at a trattoria on the waterfront where the tables spilled out toward the water, I ordered Ligurian Sea bass dish. What arrived sat in a pan sauce of Taggiasca olives, pine nuts, thyme, and orange – not lemon, which I hadn’t expected. That detail stopped me as all…
⏱️ Enjoy with your favourite beverage | 5 min readAt a Miele masterclass, I watched Ōra King salmon cooked at 55°C for forty-five minutes and came out the other side with something I’d never produced in a pan. The texture was silky in a way that high heat doesn’t permit – almost custard-like, the natural oils coating the palate rather than being driven out….
⏱️ Enjoy with your favourite beverage | 4 min readFive o’clock in the morning on Rottnest. Everything you needed for the day went on your bike – bait, rope, gloves, a hessian bag for the catch. The ride to Parker Point was five kilometres in pre-dawn dark. The Scott’s ute or Des Sullivan’s station wagon had already dropped the cane crayfish pots earlier –…
⏱️ Enjoy with your favourite beverage | 5 min readI’ve always thought baking gets overlooked when people talk about cooking fish. Everyone rushes to the pan-sear, chasing that restaurant-style crust and the drama of high heat. But here’s what I’ve learnt: baking is actually the most versatile way to cook fish, especially when you’re feeding more than two people or want to try different…
⏱️ Enjoy with your favourite beverage | 5 min readAfter discovering the transformative power of temperature control in Part One, I found myself drawn deeper into how different fish species respond to heat. Each variety seemed to have its own personality – some delicate and forgiving, others robust and demanding specific treatment. What started as temperature awareness evolved into a deeper appreciation of species-specific…
⏱️ Enjoy with your favourite beverage | 6 min readThere’s a pattern I’ve noticed in the people who consistently cook fish well at home they stop following the clock and start watching the fish. That shift, from recipe-follower to attentive cook, is where weeknight pan searing goes from inconsistent to reliable. It’s not about technique complexity. It’s about understanding what’s actually happening in the…
⏱️ Enjoy with your favourite beverage | 6 min readAt a cooking demonstration at the Adelaide Central Market, I asked the audience a simple question: how many of you prefer the fish you eat in a good restaurant to the fish you cook at home? Most hands went up. The audience was seated directly opposite the community kitchen, the noise and movement of the…
⏱️ Enjoy with your favourite beverage | 3 min readThere is a debate that has persisted for decades about whether a glass is half empty or half full. It is meant to reveal character – optimist or pessimist, grateful or ungrateful. I’ve never found it particularly useful. The framing assumes the glass is the right size. Most of the time, it isn’t. Wine people…
⏱️ Enjoy with your favourite beverage | 5 min readI was eleven or twelve, standing at the Rotto ferry jetty in mid-to late afternoon with half dozen bags of freshly filleted herring and a separate bag of ice to keep them cold. The day trippers were loading up for the crossing back to Perth, and we’d worked out early that departing visitors were reliably…
⏱️ Enjoy with your favourite beverage | 5 min readI’ve been thinking about how the French approach a fish market. Not the romanticised version you see on cooking shows, but the practical reality: at a good Marché, you don’t just buy fish – you have a conversation first. The vendor wants to know what you’re planning. Baking or grilling? A soup, or something to…
