Make Your Own Extravagant Peninsula Picnic Food at Home

One big ol’ picnic party is coming to the Mornington Peninsula, with a day-long luncheon filled with great food, wine and music this Sunday, March 29. The Peninsula Picnic will see tasting plates and dishes from some of Melbourne’s best chefs roaming Mornington Racecourse, including The European’s Ian Curley, Terminus at Flinders Hotel’s Pierre Khodja, and Pope Joan’s Matt Wilkinson. But the local culinary wizards are fronting up too — so you can match autumnal nosh with peninsula wines from vineyards such as Terre, Montalto, Circe and Crittenden Estate.

But perhaps you're keen to get picnicking early, or want to learn the secrets behind those peninsula nosh offerings? We've coerced the kitchens of Montalto and Terre into handing over their specially created recipes for Peninsula Picnic, so you can make your own delectable picnic food at home. Some of them might seem a bit tricky, but you'll get there. Consider it a culinary challenge. They've even paired a playlist for each cook-up. And if it doesn't all go to plan, at least there'll be plenty of wine.

MONTALTO

ENTREE
Tomato tart with main ridge goat cheese
Serves 4

200g of homemade or good quality store-bought butter puff pastry
1kg pulp heirloom tomatoes
250g main ridge goat chevre
80g sugar
80ml red wine vinegar
4 cloves of garlic
10 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 130 degrees. Cut tomatoes into halves and remove seeds. Place tomatoes in a bowl and toss with salt, pepper, chopped thyme and sliced garlic, then cover and place in fridge. Heat sugar in a pan over a medium flame until sugar is dissolved and starts to turn golden caramel, then take the pan off the heat and pour in the vinegar. Return back to the heat and stir until all combined. Add your caramel to tomatoes then place on baking tray place in oven for 1.5 to 2 hours.

When tomatoes are cooked, grab a baking dish and olive oil the bottom. Place tomatoes on the bottom, arranging them close together. Discard any thyme stalks or big pieces of garlic. Set aside until cool. This can be done up to a day ahead and left in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cut puff pastry to cover tomatoes and then bake in oven till pastry has risen and turned golden brown and 15 to 20 min, let cool for about 5 min then turn out onto a plate crumb over goats cheese and garnish with fresh garden roquette.

MAIN
Cocotte of free range chicken with cider tarragon jus and autumn vegetables

Serves 4
2 x 1kg free range chickens or 1 1.6kg chicken

Cider and tarragon jus:
200g unsalted butter
1 bunch French tarragon — picked and chopped
750ml good quality apple cider
30 ml sherry vinegar
500ml veal glaze
200ml chicken stock
1 tsp tarragon mustard
1 carrot
1 celery
1 onion
1 head garlic
1/2 bunch thyme

Autumn vegetables:
100g green beans
12 baby carrots
12 baby turnips
6 baby leeks (cut in half lengthways)
12 baby squash
12 baby zucchini
Salt

To prep the chicken:
Remove the breasts from the bone. Remove leg and thigh, remove knuckle from leg then separate leg and thigh at the joint. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Season pieces with salt, then in a hot cocotte, brown off leg and thigh. Once golden, add breast, brown skin side down. Place in oven with 2 crushed garlic cloves and half a bunch of thyme for 8-10 minutes (or until just cooked). Remove, add nob of butter and cover set aside. Important note: chicken is to be cooked after the jus is made.

To prep jus:
Chop remaining bones into small pieces. Place into hot pan with small amount of oil. Cook until browned and remove excess fat. Place 50g butter into pan and brown until nutty. Add chopped onion, carrot, celery and 2 crushed cloves of garlic, and lightly brown. Deglaze with apple cider, reduce by half. Add tarragon stalks and quarter bunch of thyme, add veal glaze and chicken stock, reduce by half. When reduced, strain through fine sieve and set aside. Before serving bring sauce to boil and add tarragon mustard, sherry vinegar and freshly chopped tarragon.

To prep vegetables:
Cook each vegetable separately in salted boiling water and warm through with a nob of butter and a splash of jus before serving.

To serve:
Serve chicken in cocotte, garnish with vegetables and pour over jus. Serve with a side of baby chat potatoes with fresh parsley.

DESSERT
Lemon and blackcurrant gratin chiboust with green apple sorbet

Italienne meringue:
12g sugar
25g glucose
50g water
185g egg whites

Cream powder mixture:
60g Flour
30g Corn flour
10g Rice flour
190g lemon juice
125g double cream
7 egg yolks
5 gelatin leaves

Blackcurrant jam:
500g blackcurrants
100g sugar
50g water

Apple sorbet:
500g Granny Smith apples
90g glucose powder
250g sugar
400ml water
10g sorbet stabiliser mix

To prep jam:
Put all ingredients in a pot. Cook till you've got a jam consistency.

To make cream mixture:
Bring cream and lemon juice to the boil. Whisk eggs, sugar and cream powder together. Pour hot cream and lemon juice into egg mix, make into paste, return to pot and cook out until thick. Soak gelatin and add to cream pat mixture, then place mix into large bowl, cover with clear wrap and let cool.

To prep Italian meringue:
Mix water, glucose and sugar together and bring to 121 degrees. Whisk egg whites in mixer till soft peak and slowly add the hot sugar. Whisk till cool. Fold egg whites into cream, pat mix and fill moulds halfway. Add blackcurrant jam and then fill the rest of the moulds.

To make apple sorbet:
Mix and boil glucose, water, sugar and stabiliser. Let cool. Blend apples together, then pass through strain and churn.

Wine suggestion: late harvest Riesling.

MONTALTO'S PLAYLIST

Montalto from PeninsularPicnic on 8tracks Radio.

TERRE

ENTREE
Barbecued whole garfish with heirloom tomato, white anchovy and parsley salad

To prep garfish:
Ensure cleaned well — wipe out belly cavity with paper towel. Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt, especially in the belly cavity. Barbecue over high heat until just cooked through.

To prep tomato salad:
Chop tomatoes roughly. Tear flat leaf parsley. Cut anchovy fillets in half. Toss together in large bowl with sherry vinegar, sea salt and olive oil.

MAIN
Slow roasted lamb shoulder with minted yoghurt

To prep lamb shoulder:
If there's a bone, you'll get better flavour, but if the bone's out that's ok — it's just a shorter cooking time. Trim any large pieces of sinew. Cut a shallow cris-cross pattern into lamb to allow marinade to better infuse.

To prep marinade:
3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 sprigs finely chopped rosemary
2 cloves garlic, grated
80ml canola oil
Sea salt

Combine marinade ingredients with a whisk and massage into lamb. Marinate overnight, or at least three hours prior to cooking. Preheat oven to 240 degrees. Place on roasting rack and place in oven for 20 mins. Turn oven down to 120 degrees and continue to roast till meat is falling off the bone (roughly three hours). The outside should be dark and caramelised, but the flesh should still be moist and tender. Cover loosely with foil and allow to rest at least 20 minutes before serving.

To prep carrots:
If the carrots are very young and fresh — don’t peel them — just give them a good wash to remove any dirt (especially around the tops)

To prep dressing:
150g honey
150 whole almonds – roughly chopped
100ml cider vinegar
40ml orange blossom water
150ml extra virgin olive oil
1/2 green chilli — deseeded and finely sliced

Combine almonds and honey in heavy based pan over a gentle heat. Cook until the honey is lightly caramelised and the almonds are toasted (roughly 5 minutes stirring constantly). Add the cider vinegar, the orange blossom and the chilli and stir to combine.

Allow to cool before seasoning with salt and pepper and then add the olive oil.

To prep freekeh:
Soak 150g freekeh in 400ml cold water for an hour before cooking. Bring to boil and then gently simmer adding more water as needed. Season towards the end of the cooking process. Cook until al dente and then drain and place on a tray to cool in the fridge.

Place the carrots in generously salted cold water and slowly bring to the boil. When the carrots are al dente, remove from water and while warm, toss in the honey dressing. Mix the freekeh with the remaining honey dressing. Place carrots on top and garnish with torn coriander to serve.

To prep minted yoghurt:
200ml natural yoghurt
1 lebanese cucumber, diced
Mint leaves — chopped

Combine ingredients with a good pinch of salt. Allow flavours to mellow at least 1 hour before serving.

DESSERT
Apple, rhubarb and blackberry pie

To make sweet pastry:
250g unsalted butter, softened
250g pure icing sugar, sifted
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 egg
60ml milk
500g plain flour, sifted

Beat butter, zest and icing sugar until pale. Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition until well amalgamated. Add milk and finally flour, beating until combined, do not overwork the pastry. Wrap in cling film and chill for 1-2 hours, or overnight.

Roll pastry to 3mm thickness, cut in circles and place in pie tins or on baking tray lined with parchment. Fill as desired, cover with pastry or lattice strips, or alternatively pull the edges of the pastry roughly to centre for a more rustic pie. Sprinkle pastry generously with demerara sugar and bake in a preheated oven at 200° for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Dust with icing sugar if desired when cold.

Left over dough can be refrigerated for one week or frozen for two months — tart filling can be frozen for two months.

To make tart filling, roast rhubarb and apple:
1 bunch rhubarb
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled
200g brown sugar
Juice and rind of 1 orange
200g blackberries

Slice rhubarb and apples into batons and toss with juice, rind and brown sugar until sugar dissolved. Spread onto parchment paper and bake 160° until just tender, approximately 20-25 minutes. When cool mix with blackberries. If fruit mixture is too wet strain off excess liquid. Serve with clotted cream, mascarpone or good quality vanilla bean ice cream.

TERRE'S PLAYLIST:

Terre from PeninsularPicnic on 8tracks Radio.

Peninsula Picnic is happening this Sunday, March 29 at Mornington Racecourse. More info over here.

Words by Hannah Valmadre and Shannon Connellan. Recipes by Montalto and Terre.