As the weather gets warmer, I find the appeal of fresh and crunchy vegetables with citrus flavours gets just that little bit higher. This dish is really easy, quite cheap to prepare if you shop at an asian grocer and you can adapt as you wish. Ingredients: For the poached chicken: 1 chicken breast 1 tin of coconut milk 1 small piece of fresh ginger or 1 tsp of minced ginger from a jar 1 kaffir lime leaf 1 tbspn soy 1 tsp fish sauce 1 birds eye chilli (optional) For the salad: A handful of roughly chopped coriander, mint, Vietnamese mint and bean sprouts Chopped spring onions 1/2 of one Chinese cabbage (wombok), finely chopped 1 red capsicum chopped in thin strips 1 red onion finely sliced Toasted onions (you can buy these in a plastic container from most asian grocers..) For thet dressing: (Equal parts lime juice, sugar and fish sauce) 2 tbspn lime juice 2 tbspn caster sugar/palm sugar 2 tbspn fish sauce *Chopped chilli, garlic,

Classy number from some blokes called George Calombaris & Gary Mehigan - you've probably never heard of them.

Ingredients

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main 2 star anise 2 teaspoons fennel seeds 1 teaspoon white peppercorns 55g table salt 55g caster sugar finely grated zest of 1 lemon 1 × 500 g kingfish fillet, skin-on, pin-boned olive oil, for cooking 1 tablespoon chervil leaves micro herbs to serve Mussel Vinaigrette 2 vine-ripened tomatoes boiling water 60 ml extra virgin olive oil 1 large shallot, finely chopped 2 sprigs thyme 1 small clove garlic, chopped 500g small black mussels (sold as cocktail mussels from Tasmania), bearded 2 tablespoons dry white wine squeeze of lemon juice

Method

1. Crush the star anise with a mortar and pestle, then add the fennel seeds and peppercorns and pound lightly together. Reserve 1 teaspoon of this spice mixture. Mix the remainder in a small bowl with the salt, sugar and lemon

As the weather gets warmer, I find the appeal of fresh and crunchy vegetables with citrus flavours gets just that little bit higher. This dish is really easy, quite cheap to prepare if you shop at an asian grocer and you can adapt as you wish. Ingredients: For the poached chicken: 1 chicken breast 1 tin of coconut milk 1 small piece of fresh ginger or 1 tsp of minced ginger from a jar 1 kaffir lime leaf 1 tbspn soy 1 tsp fish sauce 1 birds eye chilli (optional) For the salad: A handful of roughly chopped coriander, mint, Vietnamese mint and bean sprouts Chopped spring onions 1/2 of one Chinese cabbage (wombok), finely chopped 1 red capsicum chopped in thin strips 1 red onion finely sliced Toasted onions (you can buy these in a plastic container from most asian grocers..) For thet dressing: (Equal parts lime juice, sugar and fish sauce) 2 tbspn lime juice 2 tbspn caster sugar/palm sugar 2 tbspn fish sauce *Chopped chilli, garlic,

Chardonnay sits on the fence of many a wine enthusiast. Versatile, kind in nature and oh so compliant, however for most it's still dressed in attire that's so distinctly... 90s. Shoulder pads, overalls and bike shorts saw this particular version of white wine with such a wooded vengeance, we were practically asking the chefs to take the butter out of the meals to make way for it. Thankfully however, times are a changin'. Underneath all that 90s getup reveals elegance and sophistication and Australia is doing its bit to make Chardy interesting again.