Stefano Manfredi's Kitchen Garden at Bells, Killcare

It's a hot, humid Sunday morning and Steve Manfredi is taking me on a personal tour of his wonderful kitchen garden at his highly-acclaimed Bells restaurant at Killcare, on the New South Wales Central Coast. (Yes - I'm very spoilt!)

Stefano Manfredi is one of Australia's most important chefs and food educators.

His passion for Italian ingredients and authentic Italian cooking has led to him grow his own favourite hard-to-get Italian herbs and vegetables.

In a few square metres he is now supplying about 15 % of the produce for his restauarant.

And ,no, that is not Steve but a scarecrow dressed in chef's whites - an effective device for keeping some of the marauding birds away.

A corn crop

red onions

big flavoursome purple bulbs

A huge patch of sorrel.

Steve says he loves throwing some chopped sorrel over baked potatoes for their lemony tang.

Steve also loves cooking with bitter Italian greens.

A white turnip. It might find its way onto today's lunch menu.

Yellow zucchini flowers

beans, beans and more beans...

They're just starting to fruit..

Damn... some of those birds have feasted on the tomatoes.

Juicy lemons

And a persimmon tree...

Dense with fruit.

Steve has just put in a new veggie plot.

It's well-fenced to keep out the rabbits and wild deer that were let loose after a nearby deer farm closed.

Steve loves this basil variety and no wonder. It has large billowing serated-edged leaves with a wildly pungent minty flavour.

A big patch of heirloom black radishes.

dark skin and white peppery crunchy flesh.

Chicory

Steve's favourite chard

 variety

A new crop of tomatoes will be ready in early autumn

a watermelon patch

This is Steve's dog who protects the nearby chook house from attacks by wild dogs.

The brown hens get a nutritious pellet feed supplemented by scraps from the kitchen garden and lay beautiful deep, yellow-yolked eggs that guests are given as part of their breakfast hamper.

Steve's last lot of chooks were killed by a wild dog attack so these ones have Fort Knox-like protection.

...and in return happy chooks lay happy eggs...

look at these beauties!

Steve very generously gave me a basket of goodies from his garden containing garlic, zucchini, basil, tomatoes, radish, bitter lettuce and some of those delicious eggs....

...which I threw together for a light Sunday evening dinner of Frittata alla Stefano.

It included chopped garlic, onion, tomato, basil, and zucchini fried in a little olive oil with some lightly beaten eggs with a little milk...

... a sprinkling of cheese...

.... all topped off with some zucchini  flowers.

Stefano it was delizioso!

What an inspiring day.

Slow Food lunch at Becasse

Canape: Goat's curd, olive and thyme biscotti sandwich

Becasse Restaurant's Producers Lunch Forum today was dedicated to all things slow - slow raised wagyu cattle, slow grown vegetables and slow seafood.

The lunch honoured Slow Food Founder Italian Carlo Petrini who was in Sydney for the Sydney Food Festival. The Guardian newspaper named Carlo one of the 50 people who could save the planet and Carlo is living up to those expectations. Encouraging people to take time to eat properly and care about how their food is grown is part of his mantra. Here in Australia Carlo weighed into the fight over the ban on raw milk cheese production saying if we could import Italian and French raw milk cheeses does this mean 'their bacteria is safer than Australia's?' Stupido! Here, here, Carlo!

Freshly baked Becasse Bread: Pumpkin brioche, stout epi and garlic rosemary Auvergne

Olive oil spread with black sea salt

olive oil on a piece of stout epi

2008 Freeman Rondo rose

Spring Bay Scallop with organic radish stems, green chilli and balck pepper

Sping Bay mussels, abalone with braised periwinkles, bouillabaisse mousseline and sea urchin jelly

Roast rib of Gundooee organic grass fed wagyu beef with osso bucco of shin, broad bean puree, and crushed Bauer organic Dutch cream potatoes

accompanying wine

Sutton Grange Organic Farm Holy Goat la Luna with caper and raisin puree, baby beets and fresh almonds

Becasse deconstructed orange carrot cake

2007 Vinden Estate Botrytis Semillon

Slow Food Founder Carlo Petrini with a pathetic fan

Recipe: Lamb in Yellow Curry (from Arun Thai Restaurant, Sydney)

Khamtane Signavong is listed on my Channel 10 'Celebrity MasterChef' profile (  http://www.masterchef.com.au/indira-naidoo-q-and-a.htm ) as my favourite chef. Many of you would not have heard of him.He's not a 'celebrity' chef but he should be. Kham is talented, generous and gifted with a wine palate few restaurateurs possess. His Arun Thai Restaurant on Macleay St, in Potts Point, Sydney, is a pebble's throw from our place and has become our second home. This is authentic Thai food without fanfare but sublime in its freshness and exquisite execution.

This recipe is from Kham's first cookbook 'Lemongrass and Sweet Basil'(published by New Holland). The red curry paste in this recipe has many ingredients but can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a month and used for other curries. Don't be tempted to use a store bought paste if you really want to experience my favourite yellow curry.

Set aside about 3 1/2 hours.

Recipe - Lamb in Yellow Curry (gaeng khari gae)

200ml (7 fl oz) coconut cream ( I use the Ayam brand)

2 tablespoons Red Curry Paste (recipe below)

800g lean leg of lamb, boned and cut into chunks

800 ml (1 1/4 pint ) coconut milk

100g (3 1/2 oz) onions, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon ground tumeric

1 tablespoon medium or hot yellow curry powder with a high tumeric content

6 tablespoons fish sauce

3 tablespoons palm sugar

12 small potatoes

4 samll onions

Coriander leaves, sliced, fresh chilli and fried shallots to garnish

Red Curry Paste (nam prik gaeng phet)

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

15 big dried red chillies, soaked in hot water, then drained and deseeded

1 stalk lemongrass

2 teaspoons chopped shallots

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon grated galangal

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

2 Kaffir lime leaves, sliced

1/2 teaspoon Kaffir lime zest, finely chopped

First make the curry paste. Wrap the shrimp paste in foil and grill for 5 minutes. Toast and grind the dry seeds. Blend all the ingredients together to form a paste using either a pestle and mortar or a food processor.

Then heat the coconut cream in a large saucepan over low heat, add the red curry paste and cook, stirring until the coconut oil separates and rises to the surface.

Add the chunks of lamb and mix together well , add the coconut milk, and bring to a boil, then add the chopped onion and simmer (uncovered) for 3 hours, until the meat in tender.

Add the tumeric, curry powder, fish sauce, palm sugar, potatoes and small onions and cook until the potatoes are tender. Garnish and serve with steamed jasmine rice.

North by North-West

Justin North's hard-earned reputation as one of Australia's best young chefs may have a lot to do with his surname - he just keeps on heading in new compass directions. He makes unexpected U-Turns, reverse parks and then suddenly steps on the accelerator leaving your heart in your stomach - literally. He does suspense better than Hitchcock.

Yesterday, during the Winter Forum of his now highly-anticipated 'Producer's Lunch' at his Becasse restaurant, he showcased his growing passion for sustainable produce and the army of devoted farmers and growers who bring that food from their farmgate to our fork.

Producers featured included Kinkawooka seafood from Port Lincoln, Cornucopia poultry, Lakes Folly Chardonnay from the Hunter Valley and Redoak Organic Pale Ale - a microbrewery just up the road on Clarence St in Sydney.

There were some exquisite matchings - the coffin bay oysters with the 2007 Lakes Folly Chardonnay, the roast duck breast with a spiced ale jus and the salted caramel in the chocolate dessert with a nip of Hennessy XO Cognac. Lakes Folly's reputation is immense and sampling their '07 chardonnay was a highlight. The other unusual discovery was how drinkable the Redoak pale ale was with food.

Best of all, seated at our table was a wonderful selection of foodies and producers - Sandra and Rodney Kempe from Lakes Folly winery, food journalists Lisa and Myffy and Mr So-You-Think-You-Can-Dance Andrew Cam who elicited as many shrieks of delight as the food did!

Here's what we ate.....

Canapes: Coffin Bay Pacific oyster, sable of goats cheese, compressed melon with local proscuitto, Woodbridge smoked trout

Entree: Raviolo of scallops and prawns, shellfish vinaigrette and prawn bisque

Main: Roast duck breast and ballotine of leg with pumpkin and mandarin puree, candied ginger and spiced ale jus

This was an exquisite dish of delicately balanced flavours, set off by the spicy notes in the beer

Redoak organic pale ale

Dessert: Coffee mousse, salted caramel, chestnut Mont Blanc, chocolatte Cognac sorbet, spiced chocolate mousseline, honeycomb and cocoa dentelle with a Single Origin 'Bundja' coffee

MC Simon Marnie and Justin North through a glass of Hennessy XO Cognac