food
The food editors of The Saturday Paper are among the country's leading chefs. Since the paper's launch, they have worked with renowned photographer Earl Carter to produce its food pages. Unlike at other newspapers, all recipes are cooked and styled by the chefs who developed them. The shoots are done at chefs' homes or in their restaurants. The outcome is work that directly articulates each chef's vision and Carter's singular eye.
side dish
side dish October 28, 2023
Calamari with garlic, chilli, lemon and tomato
As the weather rapidly warms, thoughts turn to outdoors, beaches, quick and easy dishes and Aperol spritzes. Instead of spending hours in the kitchen sweating over a hot stove, it’s wonderful to have something that’s easy and delicious that can be...
side dish September 14, 2023
Steamed clams with black bean sauce
Black soybeans are a useful ingredient originating in China, where they are fermented and used in cooking and also medicinally. The beans are fermented with salt and the result is not a sauce or a paste but a firm, small, soft bean coated in salt...
side dish August 11, 2023
Cured venison basturma with blueberry buttermilk dressing
Basturma, pastirma, pastourma, basterma – whatever you call it – is a staple in Ottoman cuisine. It is a cured and air-dried cut, commonly of beef from various parts of the animal, but it can be produced from other red meat animals. On a recent trip...
side dish January 7, 2023
There is great beauty in cooking traditionally, learning about the flavours and techniques of countries and their dishes, how they came about and their origins. This can be a never-ending process, once you get into it and learn the ways, but it will...
side dish September 17, 2022
Trawling as a fishing method has been heavily scrutinised of late. For quite some time, after seeing the effects of huge factory ships and large-scale practice, I refused to cook with anything that had been caught in nets. Squid, specifically...
side dish August 27, 2022
Thistles, nettles, chestnuts and prickly pear/cactus have formidable defence systems. Hard shells and sharp spines act as a deterrent to food-gatherers. The harsh climates and more difficult growing conditions that these plants can endure thus tend...
side dish August 6, 2022
Not all junk food needs to be junky. At its essence KFC’s mashed potato and gravy could be a thing of beauty if it wasn’t for questionable provenance and process. After all, we are just talking about a dish with essentially the same ingredients –...
side dish July 16, 2022
Octopus cooking techniques are rarely delicate. Most I have come across centred on braising. And the vision of octopuses in a cement mixer, or the common practice of bashing them on the rocks after being caught, hardly helps its profile as a...
side dish May 14, 2022
In a stroke of pure marketing genius for the meat industry, someone developed the name “sweetbreads” to apply to what would otherwise stay in the drab collective of offal/organ meat. The terms “organ meat” or “offal” rarely get a positive response...
side dish May 7, 2022
Roasted pumpkin with taleggio cream, sage and curry leaves
The idea of seasons is so important, they indicate change and movement yet are cyclic and are constantly returning. Here in Australia, though, they are somewhat curious, as we live by a European notion of them that has never really correlated with...
side dish March 26, 2022
If you don’t know what a mallung is then please allow me to introduce you. Also known as mallum, it’s a Sri Lankan side dish that is usually purely vegetarian. Like a salad, which can be anything really, so too is a mallung. And like a refreshing...
