Move over Masterchef

Melbourne ought to be on the itinerary of any self-respecting food lover travelling Down Under. You will never eat so well as you will in Melbourne — I guarantee it! The city of Melbourne is home to many ‘precincts’, each with a recognisable identity. Little Bourke Street in the heart of the city is home to the historic Chinatown, where you can sample Chinese, Malaysian, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese and Vietnamese cuisines.

Unsuspecting gastronomes looking for Italian food are usually directed to the overpriced and occasionally disappointing outdoor restaurants on Lygon Street but nearby Carlton has more viable options. Fitzroy and Acland Streets in St Kilda are home to continental cake shops, wine bars and funky restaurants. Victoria Street in the suburb of Richmond is the hub for Vietnamese food and Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, where you will find Asian, Turkish, Mediterranean, and vegetarian food and Dandenong has grown into a great area for Indian food.  

One of my favourite things to do when I visit Melbourne is to shop at the local markets and then cook fabulous meals with the ingredients. On my last trip we visited the Prahran Market on Commercial Road, one of Melbourne’s premier fresh food markets. It has existed for over 100 years and has a great variety of stalls and shops offering fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, deli foods and cafes.  We also stopped at Damian Pike’s specialist stall that showcases the astonishing diversity of mushrooms now available in Australia. His stall is where you will find every possible mushroom that is in season, plus some others in dried and frozen forms. I picked up Portabella mushrooms and Australian finger limes. That night I cooked up a memorable meal with all the wonderful new ingredients I had found!

Rushina heads the APB Cook Studio, Mumbai, and has authored A Pinch of This, A Handful of That

Grilled Portabella Mushrooms

Is there anything better than a big, fat, juicy cooked mushroom? And mushrooms cannot get bigger than these sexy portabellas we bought from Damian Pike’s stall at Prahran market. Mushrooms being so full of flavour and meatiness, I rarely mess with them too much, preferring to grill them with rock salt and pepper.

Ingredients

• 8 portabella mushrooms
• 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp black pepper, freshly ground
• Olive oil to drizzle

Method

Rinse mushrooms and pat dry, then cut off and chop the stems. Mix chopped stems with garlic and pepper. Reserve. Place mushrooms on grill and cook till done. Deglaze pan with some wine and transfer to a small saucepan. Add mushrooms stems and simmer till reduced to half. Drizzle over mushrooms and serve.

Sweet Corn with Finger lime

Finger limes look more like gherkins or parvals, elongated with a thin skin that can range from light green to purplish or greenish black or even rusty red. But the pulp is made of hundreds of tiny bead-like balls of juice — round and firm, they pop between the teeth just like caviar. I wanted to keep the beads intact so I decided to stick to a simple recipe that would not do too much damage.

Ingredients

• 4 ears fresh corn, husked
• 100 gm butter, room temperature
• 1-2 tsp spicy green chillies, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Pulp of 1 finger lime
• Salt to taste

Method
Cut corncobs into 2-3 chunks each and boil in salt water or roast.
While the corn is cooking, combine butter with the chilli, garlic, finger lime pulp and salt. Mix gently so the lime ‘caviar’ does not burst.
When corn is done, toss gently with butter. Serve hot!

Zingy Pork Chops

Because of its pleasant, mild flavour, pork is versatile enough to go with everything from sweet to stronger flavours like vinegar, chillies, garlic, soy and ginger. If you cannot get Sichuan peppercorns, use Indian triphala (the spice, not the medicine) that is available in Goa and along the Konkan coast. It lends the same flavour as Sichuan peppercorns.

Ingredients

4 pork loin boneless chops, about 1½ inch thick
½ cup zest of orange or more of milder citrus
½ cup fresh citrus juice
4-6 red chillies chopped coarsely
1½ tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
Coarse salt

Method

Toast the Sichuan peppercorns in a pan briefly and leave to cool. Pound coarsely in mortar and pestle. Combine crushed Sichuan peppercorns, citrus zest, juice, chillies and salt and coat both sides of the chops. Place the chops in a resealable freezer bag and refrigerate up to 4 hours.
Heat gas grill or grill pan, to medium hot and place chops on grill ensuring lots of the chunky marinade gets under them. Cook the chops until nicely browned, about 2-3 minutes on one side, then turn, ensuring bits of the marinade get on other side as well and grill 2-3 minutes more.
Ensure you baste chops regularly with leftover marinade on both sides. Grill until the chops are just cooked through, about 10-15 minutes more. Serve hot.