A couple of new stalls selling game have appeared at the Otago Farmers Market at the Dunedin Railway Station on Saturdays. Great for those who don't hunt but like the flavour and lean healthiness of wild meat.
Callum Hughes of Fare Game was selling various cuts of venison, hare, rabbit and sometimes goat and pork.
Much of it he shoots himself, in locations from Wanaka to Fiordland, with a few other operators working from helicopters. The game is processed in Invercargill and is mostly fresh and aged rather than frozen.
Brian Hemsley of Otago Game Services was selling pheasant and guinea fowl, which he breeds in Springvale Rd at Alexandra.
Gourmet on Birch (formerly Gourmet Ice Cream), which now also makes fine chocolates, is back at the market after an absence of several years. Must remember to take a chilly bin with a slicker pad to the market so their luscious ice cream gets home intact.
A good idea anyway to keep meat, fish and other products chilled in the car on the way home as summer comes on.
Labour weekend wine release
The Alexandra Basin Winegrowers are releasing their new wines en masse at Labour Weekend. There will be 40 or more wines to taste at Oliver's Garden in Clyde on Sunday afternoon, October 25.
Tickets are $15 and available from Ash (021) 242-4408, Tracy (027) 500-9500, or Judy (027) 450- 5666.
Central cooking classes, tours
Debbi Crompton, chef lecturer at the Cromwell campus of Otago Polytechnic, is offering hands-on cooking classes and culinary tours of Central Otago, with other top local chefs, including Mark Sycamore from Blanket Bay and Jason Innes from Amisfield. For more information visit www.otagopolytechnic.ac.nz/gourmetcentral/
Food guru's wisdom online
Harold McGee's magisterial book, On Food and Cooking (2004), is my reference for everything about the science (and alchemy) of cooking, so I was delighted to find he has a website, www.curiouscook.com, where you can find three years worth of a monthly column he writes on the subject for the New York Times.
There are articles on making yoghurt, different types of pots and pans, how to slow berries going mouldy, how much water you really need to cook pasta, the best way to use heat and why garlic and onion go blue when you cook them! Well worth browsing through.
