Trends Spotting

Take note: frogs mate only during the rainy seasons

The definitive cookbook in Australia has to be Stephanie Alexander's "The Cook's Companion". And it's encyclopedic proportions out rival Julia Child's first recipes-and-tips laden two volumes: the endearingly renown  Australian chef has included a section much in line with the idea of wine pairings. In her case, it was the ingenious inclusion of an exhaustive list of ingredients known to pair up well with a specific produce.

And this innovative idea actually liberates the novice cook to daringly modify Stephanie's suggested recipes to better suit her family's special food preferences. So if parsley severely disagrees with little Tom, you can confidently replace this herb, as used in her pan-fried fish with browned butter sauce, with another in the list - say dill, oregano or rosemary - without compromising on the flavours promised with this dish.

Now is this the only way in which a home cook can pick up the fine art of pairing ingredients? Well, that's a definite "no"; and I'm not about to suggest attending a cooking course. Instead, just take your time testing out new recipes created by a wide variation of chefs, over an equally diverse range of cuisines. Then, it will dawn on you that it is this particular set of  ingredients that are usually preferred by celebrity chefs to form a delightfully close and successful matrimony with, say, salmon.  

So you'll confidently liberally spread tangy sour cream and fresh cream cheese over rye bread to balance it with the intense flavours offered by a topping of smoked salmon and brine-soaked capers. For dinner, you'll drizzle a sauce with mashed peas as the base onto sizzling pan seared ocean-fresh salmon fillets. Or chuck out the peas, and sear the cut of pink salmon with potent sage instead. Just remember to juice it with a slice of zesty lemon.