Today we’re sharing a braised lamb, fig & clove tagine as Melbourne’s cold weather kicks in.  It’s a throwback to one of our classes with chef Dylan Roberts.  It’s packed with flavour & ready to warm your table.

Dylan has been presenting classes with us since 2008 when he was head chef of ezard. Now heading the kitchen in South Yarra’s Charlie Dumpling, his thoughtful cooking has always led to spot-on flavour matches, interesting textures & flavour-packed recipes. This dish is no exception. The lamb is marinated for 24 hours in harissa & ras-el-hanout for maximum flavour & the finished terrine is punctuated with the sweetness of our Iranian dried figs.  Dylan served this with yoghurt & a rose-scented cous cous.

Notes on cooking in a traditional Graupera tagine:

This dish is perfect to prepare in a traditional tagine. The unique conical shape of the tagine lid collects the moisture coming from the ingredients during cooking & this moisture then falls back into the centre of the dish throughout the cooking time. When working with a terracotta tagine, there are two important things to be aware of:
• Your tagine should be soaked it in cold water overnight (or for at least 6 hours) prior to first use, & then regularly afterwards depending on how much use it gets. As the terracotta dries out, you need to give it back some moisture to avoid cracking.
• Terracotta tagines can be used on the stovetop or in the oven, but should only ever be used with a gentle heat. Extreme temperatures (too cold or too hot) will make the tagine prone to cracking.

If you do not have a tagine for this recipe, you can learn more about them here, or  use a quality cast iron pot (such as Le Creuset or Staub).

Dylan Roberts’ Braised lamb, fig & clove tagine
Serves: 5

For this recipe, it is ideal to marinate the lamb shoulder for 24 hours to enhance the flavour of the finished dish. However, if you do not have time you can still proceed, & just marinate for as long as your time allows. The cooking process is very slow and, as with all tagines, should not be rushed.

Ingredients
1.2kg lamb shoulder, sinew removed & diced
1rcpe Ras el Hanout
3Tbl red harissa paste
1 orange, zest only, grated
200ml olive oil
2 onions, large, peeled & diced
½bnch thyme, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tomatoes, diced
1 red chilli, sliced
2ltr brown chicken or lamb stock
80gm sultanas
150gm Iranian dried figs
15 cloves, tied in a muslin cloth
1 preserved lemon, finely chopped
pistachios, roasted & chopped to serve
oregano, to serve

Coat the lamb in the ras el hanout, red harissa paste, orange zest & leave to marinate for 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to 150°C. Warm the tagine slowly on an open flame, add half the olive oil & seal the lamb. Season with a little salt. Once all the lamb is sealed, take out the lamb & reserve on a plate for later.

Add some more oil then cook the onions, garlic, thyme & chilli. Add the lamb back to the onions & cover with stock. Add the tomatoes, muslin cloth of cloves, preserved lemon & sultanas. Bring the stock to the boil, put on the lid & place in the oven to braise for 2 hours.

After 2 hours take off the lid & add half the dried figs. Cover again & cook for at least another hour or until the lamb is tender. Take off the lid, sprinkle with chopped pistachios, oregano & the remaining figs.

Dylan serves this with rose scented cous cous & yoghurt. To make the rose scented couscous, prepare your couscous as per the instructions on the packet but add a few dried rose buds (available from The Essential Ingredient) while steaming to impart a beautiful scent.

We would love to hear what’s keeping your table warm this winter.   Connect with us online at Twitter @PrahranEsntl or Instagram & Facebook.

Thanks to Hardie Grant Books, we have three copies of Sharing Puglia to give away.

To enter, simply email win@essentialingredient.com.au and tell us your favourite Italian recipe.

Use the subject line ‘Sharing Puglia’ and be sure to include your full name, phone number and postal address.

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Featuring the traditional recipes of the sun-kissed Puglia region, and dazzling on-location photography, Sharing Puglia will transport you to the sapphire waters of the southern coast of Italy.

With this collection of the quintessential culinary delights of Puglia, you’ll be able to imagine you are sitting by the shores of the Mediterranean, listening to the soothing sounds of the sea lapping against limestone cliffs, all the while savouring kingfish crudo with fresh fava beans, lemon & Cacio Cavallo (cheese) or devouring scampi with fresh chicory and pomegranate.

This collection of recipes focuses on delectable dishes perfect for sharing with friends and family– Gallipoli-style fish stew; fava, broccoli and chicory soup; baked snapper with skewered prawns; and veal broth with pasta.

Celebrate seasonal produce with dinner party menus for entertaining through the four seasons, or prepare a few simple antipasto dishes such as pickled artichokes, bruschetta with olives, and taralli (savoury crackers).

There are scrumptious, vegetable-packed comfort foods like eggplant parmigiana, artichokes with fried potatoes, and smoked scamorza cheese salad with mushrooms; recipes for making the best artisanal pizzas; and of course, the region’s standout pasta dishes, such as conchiglioni with vongole and cauliflower, and tagliatelle with fava beans, ricotta, parsley and mint.

Find Sharing Puglia and many other incredible culinary books at your nearest The Essential Ingredient store.

Terms and Conditions:

Winners will be drawn randomly from correctly submitted entries. Only one entry per individual will be entered into the draw. Entries must be submitted by 12:01am on Monday 28 June 2015. Winner will be selected by The Essential Ingredient and will be notified via email or telephone. If winner does not respond to notification within 5 business days, a substitute winner will be drawn. All selections are final and correspondence will not be entered into. Entrants must be residents of Australia and must be 18 years of age or older. Entry is not open to employees of The Essential Ingredient or their families. Prize is valued at AUD$49.95. The Essential Ingredient retains the right to publish the winner’s name. Prize is not transferrable or exchangeable. Prize will be posted to winner by Hardie Grant Books and any issues of postage are not the responsibility of The Essential Ingredient.

Sometimes the best flavours come from things that are straight from the earth. Or, as in this case, carefully selected and then dried to maintain integrity & intensify flavour. As with all dry products, convenient year-round access is key, but dried mushrooms also offer an intensity of flavour that can rarely be achieved by their fresh counterparts.

So this week, as we all go to ground to escape the cold, take some of these beauties to the kitchen with you & guarantee yourself hearty, warming meals with a maximum of flavour.

Three of our favourites to get you started…

Our Forestiere Garniture:
These have been part of our range for over 15 years and are our most popular dried mushroom product.  Made from a combination of forest mushrooms sourced from France, they are a very special addition to sauces, pastas, fillings, braises and and any number of hearty winter dishes.

Our Morels:
The most highly prized and, unfortunately, the most expensive of all the mushrooms, morels grow on meadow clearings or pine heaths, particularly in France, Sweden and Finland. Their rich, smoky flavour works well in omelettes and cream sauces with chicken, fish or pasta, and their spectacular appearance means they are better left whole.  They do need careful washing as grit is often hiding in the heads, but require only a couple of minutes soaking.

Our porcini:
Boletus edulis, a close relation to the French cepes, is probably the best-known and most widely used funghi in Europe, with an intense meaty aroma ideal for pasta and rice dishes. In Italy they are often prepared in large, flat slices. They require 30 minutes’ soaking before use, or are also available powdered. Take a look here for some of our favourite recipes, including Philippe Mouchel’s Chestnut & Porcini Soup and how Joseph Vargetto’s Porcini Risotto with Red Wine & Thyme.

Connect with us online to hear more of our #oftheearth Essentials.

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This week at the Prahran store we’re sharing #whatwearebaking & we’re featuring citrus, honeys & nuts.

One of our finest citrus products is our own The Essential Ingredient Lemon Agrumato Oil - a local extra virgin olive oil produced with crushed lemons.  Unlike many ‘agrumato’ products on the market, The Essential Ingredient Lemon Agrumato is produced from whole crushed lemons rather than essential oils or essences.  It has the complex buttery & peppery characteristics of a quality olive oil as well powerful zesty notes of lemon.  It has many many savoury applications – over pastas, with seafood, in dressings – but this week we’ve applied it to one of our favourite sweet recipes – an olive oil cake.
Take a look here for more on our Lemon Agrumato Oil or scroll down for more on our olive oil cake…

We have long been admirers of Californian chef Joanne Weir for her interesting & flavour packed recipes. She is fanatical about recipe testing, which shows in the results her recipes give.  Joanne joined us for a special event in 2010 when she was in Melbourne for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.

This is Joanne’s Olive Oil Cake with Orange, one of our favourite recipes.  We added our Lemon Agrumato Oil to replace the standard olive oil & we adjusted the recipe to include lemon zest instead of orange zest.  We replaced the orange blossom water with a little lemon juice, but either would be fine in this.  The result was a beautiful light-textured olive oil cake with beeautiful lemony flavours up front & a lasting flavour of olive oil to finish.  Click here for Joanne’s full recipe.

We finished the cake by topping with some mandarin marmalade from our Cunliffe & Waters range (this would work equally well to sandwich between layers, too) and served it with a good dollop of Greek yoghurt & an extra little drizzle of Lemon Agrumato.

Share how you’re using our Lemon Agrumato or tag us in a post & share what you’ve been baking. 

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This week at the Prahran store we’re sharing #whatwearebaking & we’re featuring nuts, honeys & citrus.

Our Danish marzipan, by Odense, is made with real almonds combined with sugar and glucose for a rich, full-flavoured marzipan.  With a high percentage of almonds, Odense marzipan has a nutty, creamy finish reflecting a true almond flavour without the harsh astringent flavour often associated with bitter almond.

The superior flavour of Odense has seen them become the official supplier of marzipan to the Royal Danish Court.

Marzipan can be rolled out as a filling between layers of cake, it can be beaten until smooth to incorporate into a cake batter, or it can be shaped to create your own decadent confectioneries & chocolates.

We’ve been baking with marzipan to create these Scandinavian Almond & Poppyseed Scrolls from Danish Chef Trine Hahnemann. They are a beautiful bun made from a simple yeasted dough that is not overly ‘bready’ in its finish and not overly sweet. Take a look here for the recipe for these buns.  For more of Trine’s baking we’re loving her book Scandiavian Baking.

We finished these with a good licking of lemon glaze made from intensely-flavoured freeze dried lemon powder. Simply combine 1Tbls lemon powder with 4Tbls pure icing sugar & add water to create a glaze consistency, ready to brush onto your just-baked buns.

You can buy our 28% marzipan online here for those who like a sweeter finish, or visit our store or phone us on 03 9827 9047 for our 60% almond marzipan.

Connect with us online to share what you’ve been baking.
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Hot chocolate in Vista Alegre Cobalt Blue Breakfast Cup

A short & sweet post from us today, sharing our favourite way to make a hot chocolate.  It’s from Thomas Schnetzler, Maitre Chocolatier at Lindt, & is (we think) a perfect balance of sweet, rich & warming. Plunging one of our Ceylon cinnamon quills in to stir with adds a nice complexity too…

For 4 decadent hot chocolates…

100ml full cream milk
100g Lindt Piccoli Bittersweet 58%
60g Lindt Piccoli Milk extra au lait 37%
500ml full cream milk

Place the first measure of milk (100ml) into a saucepan & heat gently until the chocolate is molten & the mixture is smooth.  Portion the hot chocolate base into warmed mugs.
Steam the second measure of milk to heat through & then top up the mugs, giving a quick stir to combine.
Smother with whipped cream if desired, or sprinkle with cocoa or a sprinkling of grated chocolate. Serve immediately.

If you want something a little different, we also stock a traditional Mexican hot chocolate. Chocolate Ibarra is a solid, grainy chocolate made specifically for drinking. It is gently spiced with cinnamon & just needs to be blended into hot milk for a traditional Mexican treat.

Connect with us online to hear more of what we’re up to.  

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Nigella Lawson famously claims:

“It’s the best fat for roasting potatoes in the whole world… nothing beats goose fat for crunchy, sweet roast potatoes.”

Goose fat roasted potatoes are sublime- golden and crunchy without being greasy- because of the high smoke point of the fat, allowing the use of a really hot oven. Best of all, the potatoes are given a rich complexity of flavour due to goose fat’s umami, the distinguishable savoury taste found in soy sauce and Parmesan.

Use a spoonful of goose fat instead of butter when making soups, risottos and when frying an egg, for a touch of luxury and amazing flavour. Stir fry cabbage in goose fat to accompany roast pork, or use as a substitute for duck fat when making confit or basting roast poultry.

Fry onions in plenty of goose fat, then stir into flageolet beans or lentils to serve with roast lamb.

Don’t limit yourself to roasting only potatoes; all root vegetables are exceptional when roasted with goose fat, especially parsnips lightly sprinkled with salt flakes.

Goose fat is also a key ingredient in light and fragile, melt-in-the-mouth pastries, perfect for homemade pork pies.

Connect with us online for more cooking inspiration
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Enric Rovira is one the most innovating of Barcelona’s growing tribe of chocolate makers. Each of his unique creations is not only a work of art in form, but in taste as well.

Having grown up surrounded by sweets in his father’s pastry shop, today Enric uses chocolate as his artistic medium to portray the tradition and character of his city, Barcelona.

For more on why we love Enric Rovira take a look here…

We have just received the new XOCO collection from Enric Rovira. This range is all about flavour and these creative parings will captivate your senses.

The new products include:

Enric Rovira Xoco Dark Chocolate (70%) with Yuzu 50g

Enric Rovira Xoco Milk Chocolate (40%) with Pepper 50g

As well as the new addition Dark Chocolate Pistachio within our Bombola range.

Other favourites you should know about…

To create The Perfume Collection, Enric worked closely with renowned aroma expert Dario Sirerol, resulting in remarkable dark chocolate combined with Bulgarian rose, Egyptian Jasmine & French Lavender.

Enric Rovira is an innovator of flavour and this is not just any chocolate. For more on our range phone us on 03 9827 9047.

Connect with us online for more.
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Mineral B DeBuyer Pans

Selecting your next frypan:  DeBuyer #MineralBee cookware with #organic bee wax finish

Bees produce by-products that are well known in nature.

DeBuyer discovered that bee wax is an excellent option to protect their pans against oxidation.  Bee Wax helps in the seasoning process & improves the non stick quality.
These iron pans are made 100% natural mineral material.  They are produced through guaranteed environmentally safe production with no chemicals added.

When it comes to cooking quality, these pans allow for allow for high temperature cooking for perfect sealing, browning, and grilling which we all know equals improved flavour.  And when it comes to seasoning, the more the pan is used the better its performance becomes: the darker it becomes, the better its natural non-stick properties.

Their authentic Lyonnaise design, shape & curved handle is indicative of traditional French gastronomy.You’ll find these #DeBuyerMineralBee pans suitable for all cook tops, including induction.

For expert advice on the type of fry pan that is going to suit your cooking, come in and speak with us about our extensive range of non-stick, copper or steel cookware.

Connect with us online at

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Premium Dark Muscovado Sugar

This rich & unrefined brown sugar from Mauritius gains its dark colour & strong flavour from the naturally high molasses content. With robust notes of bittersweet treacle & an aromatic liquorice & toffee character, this moist sugar adds depth to rich fruit cakes, brownies, gingerbreads, crumbles & puddings.

We having been using it in braises, in spice mixes & within winter baking – its earthiness has proven perfect for adding depth to a chocolate beetroot cake & it has made some seriously good brownies. It will be making its way into Christmas puddings too, when the time comes.

Try it in brown sugar ice-cream or your favourite barbeque sauce recipe. Take a look here at two of our favourites so far in these Armenian Muscovado & Tahini biscuits  & Brown Sugar Meringues.

Store your Dark Muscovado in an air-tight container. If the sugar hardens, place it in a bowl & cover with a wet cloth until the sugar softens again.

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Goan Cuisine represents everything that is important to us here at The Essential Ingredient Prahran:  their family-run business focuses on quality ingredients, traditional & authentic methods & care at each step in order to ensure the end result is consistent & uncompromising in flavour.

After being established in Perth in 1994, Goan Cuisine products have been on our shelves now for more than 20 years.  With a range that includes more curry pastes, chutneys, relishes & pickles as well as a distinctive cucumber oil, the range reflects the unique Indo-European flavours of the Indian state of Goa.

Goa was under Portuguese rule until 1961 and, as a result, is a melting pot of flavours & influences.  Goan cuisine often features more spice than fire, with the heat having been tempered over the years to suit European tastes. What remains is a beautifully balanced array of rich heady spices perfect for the Australian palate.

Here are the reasons why the quality of Goan Cuisine is second to none:

– At Goan Cuisine, time-honoured family recipes are paired with quality Australian produce.
– Their focus is on all natural product.
– All ingredients are hand cut – no machines are used
– All recipes are hand stirred & then bottled by hand
– Spices are always used within 3-6 months of sourcing, meaning a full flavoured, fragrant end result
– The focus is on the spice profiles & careful combinations, meaning the spice is the hero, not chilli or salt.  The result is a cleaner, true spice flavour, which is particularly relevant for Australian palates.

Their Buffad Curry Paste has strong fennel & spice and is perfect for chicken while the Xacuti Curry Paste has strong flavours of roasted coriander, cinnamon & clove which work beautifully with stronger flavours like duck, rabbit or seafood (we love it with crab).  For more flavour matches follow us online to see what we’re cooking this week.

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Peter Watson

We think 25 years of The Essential Ingredient is worth celebrating & what better way to do that than to celebrate the producers, suppliers & industry stalwarts who have been a part of our range over the decades.  Peter Watson products have been a significant part of our range since the early 1990s.

Peter understood the importance of good packaging to keep spices & dried herbs fresh & flavourful so he developed his paint-tin style package with a tight fitting lid. Genius.

His extensive range is unique not only for its quality but for its diversity.  Covering many food regions of the world it includes the likes of beautiful English mustard, Worcestershire sauce, Italian dressings & Australian tomato sauces alongside carefully-crafted Thai curries, North African Chermoulas & Japanese vinaigrette. What is significant about this is that all are perfectly balanced & flavour-packed, demonstrating an expert understanding of the flavours involved in each cuisine.

We now stock over one hundred Peter Watson products & they are cherished by our customers for their high quality & resulting intense flavours.  There are too many exciting products in the range for us summarise here, but here’s a quick look at some of our favourites & their applications:

Vadouvan (French/Indian Pondicherry curry mix): Onion, garlic, spices, perfect as a dry rub or in a coconut based curry.

Argentine Chimi Churi:  Perfect on roasted chicken.  Serve with wedges of lemon. It’s hard to describe how good this tastes.

Watson Family Vinaigrette:  We love it because its the perfect balance of good French red wine vinegar, garlic and mustard with a  touch of Worcestershire sauce. Over butter lettuce or over asparagus in Spring.

Sage Chardonnay Jam:  Apple-based jam perfect with roasted meats.  Try it with your Christmas turkey this year, or just alongside your next roast pork.

We recommend following Peter Watson on Facebook – he regularly shares his wealth of food knowledge, recipes & cooking inspiration. Take a look here…

For more on other products that have been inspiring our cooking for the past 25 years, take a look here…

To connect with us online you’ll find us at

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Our team is driven by a love of cooking. What we do each day is shaped by respect for time-honoured traditions as well as a constant curiosity for quality ingredients, new trends, new techniques & new ways to enjoy food. For our customers, our chefs, our fellow market traders & our staff, sharing that love of cooking is one of the most enjoyable things about The Essential Ingredient. We’re taking a moment today to celebrate the people who share that enthusiasm for food every day.

Maria, who swears she has the best job in the world, & Susan (who incidentally also swears the same thing) have been running The Essential Ingredient Prahran together now for twelve years. (See more on our history here…) They share a great respect for the industry we’re in & the customers we get to serve & together they inspire, teach & encourage our team. Susan does it from the office liasing with customers, managing accounts, & all the while sharing what she’s been cooking, reviewing the cookbooks she’s loving & by baking. She bakes a cake, without fail, for every staff member’s birthday. Maria does it through a love of cooking that shapes her vision for the store & for the experience we want our customers to have when they visit.  Both make sure that it’s a wonderful place to be.

Here are a few photos from our recent 25^th birthday celebrations.  Zoi made an extraordinary sacher torte (using a recipe from pastry doyenne Loretta Sartori) & we all shared in a glass of champagne…

Many members of our team have been part of The Essential Ingredient for a long time now. We chatted to Delwyn & Cindy about what they do & why they love it…

Delwyn Anderson leads our constant search for high quality cookware, tableware & products that inspire in both form & function. She scours Australia uncovering our best producers – Tasmanian woodworkers, Victorian ceramicists, Melbourne-based linen studios – & she travels the world visiting trade fairs each year meeting with artisan producers, some of whom have been creating for generations.

It’s as glamourous & fun as it sounds. But if you ask her what she loves about The Essential Ingredient, she says “It’s the people. The staff. It’s that passion they have for the customers & the products. And I love that we bring something new to the market that people haven’t seen before. Our customers are here because they’re passionate about cooking, but I love our staff because they’re always just as excited about sharing in that.”

Delwyn joined The Essential Ingredient twelve years ago as Cookware Manager & she now oversees all of our cookware (nationally) as well as the daily running of our Prahran retail store. It’s a big job, & she does it not just with great expertise but with a good dose of fun every day.

Cindy has been part of our retail team now for 15 years. “I came in with the GST”, she says. She has helped so many people find the equipment, ingredient or book to inspire them that she now bumps in to customers down the street & they know her for the help she’s given them: “I bumped into a customer on the train & he showed me photos of the dinner he’d cooked in his new Le Creuset because I had helped him choose it”. When a new staff member joins us Cindy helps them learn the ropes because she knows everything there is to know about our products.

“I’ve been here 15 years now & people ask me what it is about The Essential Ingredient. But it’s simple. There’s no other place in the country that allows me the freedom to do what I love, at the level that we do it. I like food & I like talking about food. I get to spend my day having conversation about what people are cooking. I get to help people find the equipment or ingredient that is going to help them in the kitchen.  And they’re all products that I know & love because I use them myself”.

Asked about her favourite ingredient or piece of cookware she says “Today? It changes all the time! But actually I think it’s one of the first purchases I made – the Matfer silicone fish turner. I used it this morning for mushrooms. It been used every day for the past 15 years. It’s inexpensive – it’s not glamorous – but it’s the perfect tool.”

We’re proud to be celebrating 25 years of The Essential Ingredient in Melbourne. For more on our history & the products that have inspired our cooking over the years take a look here…

For more on the history of the Franchise & our other stores, take a look here…

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**This competition has now closed**

As owner of Sydney’s acclaimed Red Lantern restaurant, Luke Nguyen has gained many admirers. His five previous books also have found enormous popularity, particularly ‘The Food of Vietnam’, which is considered by many the ultimate guide to that cuisine.

Now, in the SBS TV program and this companion book (released October 2015), Luke turns his attention to the food of France, exploring its rich traditions and, uniquely, discovering how these classic recipes have influenced the Vietnamese cuisine.

This recipe, featured in Luke Nguyen’s France, epitomizes the unique marriage between traditional French recipes and Vietnamese flavours that the TV program and book both explore.

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RECIPE: Luke Nguyen’s Kaffir Lime & Lemongrass Crème Brulee
(Recipe taken from Luke Nguyen’s France, published by Hardie Grant Books RRP$ 59.95, available October 2015)

Serves 8

Ingredients:
750ml (3 cups) pouring (single/light) cream
1 vanilla bean
8 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
3 lemongrass stems, white part only, finely chopped
115g (1/2 cup) caster (superfine) sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
12 free-range egg yolks

Pour the cream into a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthways using a small sharp knife, then scrape the seeds into the cream. Add the lime leaves and lemongrass and bring to the boil, then turn off the heat. Cover the pan and allow the flavours to infuse for 10 minutes.

Beat the sugar and egg yolks together in a mixing bowl until creamy. Pour the infused cream over the egg mixture, whisking constantly until combined. Strain the mixture into a large jug, discarding the solids, then pour into eight 125ml (1/2 cup) Asian teacups, filling each about two-thirds full.

Bring a wok or saucepan of water to a rapid boil. Place the teacups in a metal or bamboo steamer and cover with the lid.

Reduce the heat to low, then sit the steamer over the wok and steam for 25-30 minutes, or until the custards are just set; they will still be slightly wobbly in the middle. Allow them to cool to room temperature, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours, or until set.

Just before serving, evenly distribute a teaspoon of caster sugar over each custard, and then caramelise with a kitchen blowtorch or under a hot grill for a few minutes.

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Terms and Conditions:
The winner will be chosen randomly from correctly submitted entries. Only one entry per individual will be entered into the drawer. Entries must be submitted by 12:01am on Monday 5 October 2015. Winner will be selected by The Essential Ingredient and will be notified via email. Entrants must be residents of Australia and must be 18 years of age or older. Entry is not open to employees of The Essential Ingredient or their families. Each prize is valued at AUD$59.95. The Essential Ingredient retains the right to publish the winner’s name. Prize is not transferrable or exchangeable. Prize will be posted to winner by Hardie Grant Books and any issues of postage are not the responsibility of The Essential Ingredient.

In 2001 Maggie Beer was presenting classes in our Cooking School sharing not just her pot-roasted artichokes & her quinces poached in verjuice but also her infectious passion for cooking. Since that time, she has won awards as a food writer, presented television shows & of course further developed her extraordinary range of Australian made pantry staples. She compromises on nothing to ensure that each & every item in her range is carefully produced for full flavoured & delicious results.

“My food philosophy will always remain; to cook from the heart, making the most of each & every ingredient I have to hand. Taste & quality are paramount in the creation of my range.  My aim is to make the very best products available to everyone, regardless of cooking skills or the time restrictions of a busy lifestyle.”        Maggie Beer

Her range includes verjuices, quince pastes, stocks & vino cottos. Here are some of our favourites:

Sangiovese Verjuice:

Made from the juice of unfermented grapes this Sangiovese is slightly sweeter than a classic verjuice. Maggie recommends using it to poach fruits or as a cracking addition to a gin & tonic.

If you’d prefer a classic verjuice our Essential Ingredient Verjuice is pressed from unripened Australian Semillon grapes & is a perfect substitute for vinegar in dressings or to deglaze a pan.

Here’s more on verjuice & how to use it… The Essential Ingredient Verjuice And here’s one of our favourite recipes – perfect for Christmas – Karen Martini’s Twice Cooked Duck with Verjuice Baked Chestnuts

Quality stocks that are pantry-stable & ready to use

Chicken Stock:

You always have home made chicken stock in the freezer, right? But sometimes you get caught out. This stock is what you use when you want home made quality & flavour but need it instantly. Rich & meaty, it hasn’t got any nasties added & isn’t over salted, meaning you can reduce it down for a sauce or cook it out in a soup or risotto while maintaining a balanced flavour.

Game Stock:

A rich dark stock, this is made with kangaroo & venison bones, vegetables & herbs & is all you need for braises, soups, risottos or to deglaze a pan for a rich sauce. The unmistakable game flavour with transform your cooking & make you feel as though you’d made the stock yourself.

And for something sweet…

Brandy  Butter Caramel

With Christmas around the corner we’re already anticipating the rich spicy aromas of steamed Christmas puddings wafting through the kitchen & this rich brandy butter is all you need for the perfect finish. And if you can’t wait ‘till Christmas, slather it through the middle of a cake or mix it into your brownies for a decadent treat.

Dark Chocolate & Vino Cotto Caramel

This is a disarming combination or rich flavours, perfectly balanced to create a striking & delicious flavour. It’s a velvety caramel rich with cocoa & anise & Maggie recommends swirling it through a pavlova just before baking, or served it simply alongside fresh strawberries.

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Zoi’s Christmas Pudding

Making this Christmas pudding from Zoi Condos will become your new family tradition. It is simple to prepare and, like all good cooking, hinges on quality ingredients.

Key ingredients & why they matter:

Tabletop sultanas, currants & raisins:  Based in Mildura, Tabletop is an Australian company growing & drying their fruit with a 100% chemical free process, meaning the fruit maintains it true & natural flavour.

Premium dark muscovado sugar from Mauritius:  A rich & unrefined sugar with a naturally high molasses content. It has robust notes of bittersweet treacle & an aromatic liquorice & toffee character. Take a look here for more on our muscovado sugar.

Our new Ceylon cinnamon: Ceylon cinnamon has long been prized for its mild, delicate, sweet flavours.  More subtle & complex than the spicy cassia cinnamon varieties it holds floral & clove notes. Take a look here for more on our cinnamon.

Zoi Condos’ Christmas Pudding

Makes 2 x 1.5kg puddings. Each pudding will serve up to 16 people.

These are the things I wish I’d known the first time I made my Christmas pudding:

• Using butter instead of suet makes for a not-so-heavy pudding: it’s rich without being too firm.
• Resting your uncooked mixture overnight means the flavors soak into the breadcrumbs & the end result is more moist & flavourful.
• Adding some extra brandy as soon as your pudding comes out of the oven means that it will soak in really well.

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice & menus of cooks present, & the wisdom of cookbook writers.”   Laurie Colwin

It’s the time for new inspiration in the kitchen & this week we’re giving you the lowdown on the highlight culinary books that are hitting our shelves from around the world.  Stay tuned – we’ll be sharing a new favourite on Instagram at midday every day this week.

Tuesday’s Pick:  Mexico from the Inside Out By Enrique Olvera Published by Phaidon $74.95 Who best to learn true Mexican cooking from than Mexico’s best chef? Enrique Olvera is a pioneer of authentic Mexican food, his restaurant Pujol was ranked 1st in Mexico and 20th in the world at the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards. Mexico From the Inside Out holds both refined dishes from his restaurants & fuss-free street style fare for midweek dinners – a true reflection of the diversity within Mexican cuisine.  We love the Corn Silk Infusion (with lime & star anise) & can’t wait to try the Parsnip Ice Cream with Amaranth, Queso Anejo & Sweet Tomatillo.

Monday’s pick:   LIMA The Cookbook 

By Virgilio Martinez & Luciana Bianchi

from Hachette Publishing   $39.95

If you’re discovering the vibrancy of Peruvian cuisine then you’ll already have fallen in love with Gaston Acurio.  Now it’s time to fall in love with the food of Virgilio Martinez too.  Through Lima – The Cookbook this Michelin-starred chef shares Peruvian home cooking creating a book that is a perfect combination of inspirational & achievable.

The drinks & snacks section offers us lemon verbena & annatto seed cocktails or smoothies like quinoa milk & berry.  Your entertaining won’t be the same this year with the snacks section including recipes for Sweet Potato with Chamomile Honey or Grilled Hearts of Palm with Amaranth.

Vegetarian dishes like Courget & Baby Carrot Ceviche will revolutionize your Meat -free Mondays, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of Peruvian chilli pastes & a recipe for Aji Panca Glazed Turkey Legs will make you rethink your Christmas plans…

Add to that a dessert of quinoa ice cream & potato crisps, Brazil nut parfait or star anise caramelized bananas.  We’re in love.

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Cherry Christmas Pudding Roulade

Christmas Pudding Cherry Meringue with Mulled Wine Drizzle

A summer alternative that will still have your guests satisfied that they’ve had their Christmas Pudding fix…

Key ingredients & why they matter:

Egg White Powder: This shelf stable product avoids wastage & allows you to mix up exactly the amount of eggwhite you need.  With no yolks to waste or store.  Made from free range eggs, of course.

Ice Cream Flavours:  Developed by Melbourne Food Depot these have inspired creativity since hitting our shelves. Available in Hot Buttered Popcorn, Christmas Pudding & Rum & Raisin these liquids these make extraordinary ice creams.  Add a little to your classic anglaise base or make up combinations like buttered popcorn & caramel.  We also love adding them to whipped creams or, as in this case, into a meringue base for a hidden Christmas Pudding surprise that your guests won’t see coming.

Pellorce & Jullien Sour Cherries:  Quality sour cherries are pitted & preserved in a light syrup that enhances the fruit’s natural flavour rather than overpowering it.  Perfect for tarts, sorbets & ice creams.  For this weekend’s Cherry Festival Zoi has made it into a compote with a little rosewater & sweetened with pomegranate molasses to serve over yoghurt with pistachios.  We’ve also used the syrup in this recipe to create or Mulled Wine Drizzle.

Ceylon Cinnamon: Ceylon is the source of the world’s finest cinnamon, long prized for the quality & intensity of its flavour & aroma. These extra-long sticks are highly fragrant & warm when freshly ground or when infused, & are essential in sweet & savoury dishes from around the world. We’ve used them here to add depth to our Mulled Wine Drizzle & to add more of that classic Christmas pudding flavour to this dessert.

Muscovado Sugar:  A rich unrefined sugar with a high molasses content & distinct liquorice & toffee notes. Perfect for fruit cakes, brownies, crumbles & puddings.  Take a look here at our brown sugar meringues & our tahini muscovado biscuits.

Zoi’s Christmas Pudding Cherry Meringue with Mulled Wine Drizzle

6 -8 generous serves

Ingredients:

250g egg whites made up using our egg white powder (see here how easy it is)

1Tbl Christmas Pudding Ice Cream Flavour

200g Muscovado Sugar

175g castor sugar, plus a little extra for dredging

1tsp white vinegar

2tsp cornflour

500mls cream, softly whipped

½ jar Sour Cherries, thoroughly drained (reserve liquid for Mulled Wine Drizzle, see below)

1rcpe Mulled Wine Drizzle, see below

fresh cherries to finish, if desired

Preheat oven to 160˚C.

Line a 4 cm deep Swiss Roll baking tin with baking paper (ours was 24cm x 32cm)

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form then, still whisking, gradually add the sugars (starting with the castor) until thick & glossy. Fold in the Christmas Pudding Ice Cream Flavour, vinegar & cornflour.

Spread the meringue into the prepared tin & bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. Allow the meringue to cool slightly in the tin for just a couple of minutes before inverting onto a sheet of baking paper that has been dusted with a little extra caster sugar. Peel off the top sheet of baking paper & leave the meringue to cool for a further 15 minutes.

Spread the softly whipped cream evenly over the meringue to make a thin layer (you won’t need all of it  – you’ll have plenty to serve alongside your finished roulade).

Sprinkle as many of your well drained sour cherries over the cream as you like, reserving some for decoration on top.

With the longest side of meringue closest to you, roll the meringue over on itself keeping it secure as you go using the paper.

We decorated using some of the extra cream & cherries as well as some fresh cherries & a drizzle of the cooled mulled wine syrup at the last minute.

To make the Mulled Wine Drizzle:

500ml reserved cherry liquid

200mls Shiraz (we love our Mount Langhi Ghiran Shiraz that we serve in the Cooking School)

1 Ceylon cinnamon stick

2 cloves

1star anise

Place the wine in a small pot & carefully light to burn off the alcohol.  Add the reserved cherry syrup together with the aromats & cook gently to a syrup consistency.  Cool completely then drizzle a couple of tablespoons over our roulade just before serving.

 What you need to know about our non-stick pans

Non-stick cookware has improved considerably over the years.  There are two main types: 1.  Pans with a heavy gauge aluminium base and internal non-stick. The non stick coating does not affect the metal’s heat conduction and allows cooking with little fat. Our De Buyer non stick cookware range is sprayed with 5 layers of Witford Non-Stick coating.  The layers, as well as the heavy gauge aluminium base, means that this is a high quality durable pan that, if treated correctly, will last a long long time.

2.   Cast aluminium with a titanium surface, ensuring a hard and durable surface suitable for all temperatures and no chemical interaction with food. Excellent for crisping and browning at high temperatures.Our Essential Ingredient non-stick frypan & sauté range is within this category. Here’s why we love them so much:

The base is a heavy-duty pressure cast aluminium, cast into a 8mm thick thermophore base literally under tons of pressure. This ensures no warping no matter how hot the pans get. It delivers uniform fast heat distribution for even cooking temperatures.The non-stick surface is a combination of titanium and ceramic compounds that are heated into a molten, liquefied plasma state & then blasted into the pan’s surface. This creates tiny pores so the non stick compound is in the pores not just sitting on top of the surface.The removable handles Our entire range comes with removable handles ergonomically designed for ease of use.  Stove to oven with no messing around.  The attach/detach mechanism is cleverly designed to be away from the hot pan allowing for ease of use and of course safety.Durable Pyrex glass lids  Pyrex heat resistant tempered glass lids are available, made to withstand high heat they also allow you to see what is cooking without lifting the lid. They are ovenproof up to 230°C. Our Essential Ingredient Non-Stick pans are available in 20/24/26/28/32cm & they also come in a range suitable for induction.  Ask our staff for details.

Cookware Care All of our non-stick cookware is high quality.  The heavy cast bases are ideal for conducting & retaining heat.  This means that when it comes to using them, you don’t need to be working over a high heat:  allow them to heat through gently rather than blasting over a high flame. The De Buyer coated non-stick cookware will not benefit from high heats – you will get maximum durability and longevity by using over a moderate heat.  Again, the quality & thickness of the aluminium base means that a high heat is not required.  Always use wooden or non-abrasive utensils with these spray-coated pans.  Take a look here for our range of specially developed wooden utensils.  Only clean using warm soapy water and never apply abrasive cleaners. Our Essential Ingredient Non-Stick range will not deteriorate if used over a high heat however we always recommend using a moderate heat simply because these pans conducts & hold heat so well your cooking will benefit from gentle heat.  Because of the hardness of the surface, you can use any utensils or cleaning materials safely on these pans.

There’s candied fruit and there’s candied fruit.

Our range is carefully sourced from Italy & Australia, made with fine fruits that have been carefully & slowly candied to preserve their natural characteristics.  Our range includes our prized candied cedro, candied figs, candied clementines, orange (quarters and zest), candied apricots, glace ginger and glace cherries.

Glace cherries

The first thing that will hit you as you open a pack of our beautiful candied cherries is the aroma.  They smell of summer, just like cherries should.  A vibrant red, these are nothing like their tough, poorly-made counterparts you might be familiar with.  Instead they are soft and luscious.  They pop when bitten into just like a fresh cherry.  Add sweetness, colour and flavour to your baking, including the Florentines below…

Why do we love cedro & what do we use it for? Cedro is prized in the Mediterranean for its fragrance and flavour.  It has a beautiful floral fragrance unlike anything else. We love using it in baking or in nougat but it is equally delicious simply folded through a beautiful vanilla ice cream.   Available in halves, you can finely shave it to create a sweet, soft addition to desserts or use the diced option to add colour and flavour to cake & dessert recipes.

Fig, cherry & pistachio florentines

You can really substitute any of our candied fruits into this recipe.  Our candied apricots or clementines would be delicious.  You can omit the pistachios if you want something more traditional but they do make for a lovely finish.  We’ve used Wellington Apiary Prickly Box Honey for its beautiful almond notes.

300g flaked almonds

30g pistachio slivers

150g candied orange peel, diced

150g candied figs, diced

140g glace cherries, chopped

60g butter

300ml cream

140g Wellington Apiary Prickly Box Honey

140g sugar

dark couverture chocolate – as dark as desired, melted

Heat your oven to 160°C and prepare 2 trays with baking paper.

In a small pot combine the sugar, honey, cream and butter.  Gently heat until it reaches 115°C.  Remove from heat and add the nuts, peel, figs and cherries.

Spoon onto trays with room to spread & bake for 10 minutes.  Set aside to cool completely before brushing the back with just-melted chocolate.

Take a look here at a fantastic recipe for White Christmas from The Essential Ingredient Orange store too…

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