Penguin Books Australia

Q&A: Carol George interviews Belinda Jeffery, author of The Country Cookbook.

Tell us about your new book, The Country Cookbook and how it came about?
It came out of a journal I was writing. I had this idea that I could extend it and add some recipes and really, it grew from there.
This book is very special to me. I loved doing it, not only for the food and the recipes but because it is such a wonderful record of our life here in the country in northern NSW.

Have you always kept a journal?
No, it's really only been since we've moved here (northern NSW). I just so-o loved it, I started writing about it. I'm a 'word' person and I wanted to put it down, to write about the small, everyday things that give me so much pleasure - and I love cooking.

Apart from the food and the recipes, the photographs of the countryside and the local bird-life in your book are simply spectacular - especially that photograph of a scarlet honey-eater?
Ah, the elusive scarlet honey-eater . . . it took months to get a photograph of one, and now, of course, all our grevilleas are out and they're back in spades. They're the most exquisite little birds.

Sounds like bird heaven up there?
We live on what I think of as a bird super-highway. We've planted the garden with lots of native shrubs to encourage the birds. We get a lot of little birds because we have plenty of bushes for them to hide in and we make sure there's always fresh water in the birdbaths which they love. I think we've counted about 45 different species of birds here including sacred kingfishers and azure kingfishers. They are exquisite, impossibly beautiful.

You couldn't have a cat?
We don't have a cat and we discourage them. Most of the neighbours are really aware of the wildlife so if they have cats they have bells on their collars, and also mirrored collars so if they're moving silently, the collar catches the light and gives the birds a warning that they are around.
The biggest problem for the birds at the moment is snakes, as they're on the move again now the weather is warmer.

What kind of snakes and have you ever seen one?
We see them all the time. We've had to get very used to them, and believe me, it's taken a bit of getting used to! From now on in through summer we're very mindful. We occasionally get brown snakes which I'm really wary of. However, I've sort of got used to the whip snakes that live in the garden - they're very shy.

Are they venomous?
The whip snakes can give you a nasty bite but unless you corner them, as with most snakes, they'll rush off in the other direction. We have beautiful green tree snakes, and occasionally we see red-bellied blacks - we've even had one on the doorstep.

On the DOOR-STEP! What did you do?
Shut the door very quickly (laughing). It's my one big fear that a snake will get into the house. We have two numbers we can ring if this happens - one's for WIRES, and the other is for George The Snakeman, and everybody keeps those numbers close by as snakes do get into houses regularly. We've had to get two snakes removed that had decided to mate and nest by our back door. That was a bit scary. You could walk towards them and they'd just stay put and look at you when all you wanted them to do was run away!

I guess there has to be a downside to living in paradise?
We try to be mindful - you wear boots in the garden and I'm careful in the veggie garden, it's quite easy to be bitten in those sorts of environments. I can't say I'm used to it but I try to be a lot more sensible about it. From a distance if I see them in the garden, I mean they're just extraordinary . . . you can't help but be fascinated by them. Of course I'd rather be inside looking out (laughing) when I see them.

How long you been living there?
Eight years.

A Country Cook Book is almost two books in one?
Yes it is. I know it's unusual to find a cookbook that talks about birds and frogs and snakes and lizards, as The Country Cookbook does. They're just so much a part of our life here and fitted in with everything that I was writing about, including the cooking and the food. Those who have seen the book say they really enjoy reading the journal entries about life, and the wildlife, up here and looking at the beautiful photographs, as much as they enjoy reading the recipes.

In the book you mention your diagnosis with breast cancer in 2002, you were lucky as it was at a very early stage?
I was very lucky that it hadn't progressed into the lymph system. I had two lots of surgery and radiation treatment but didn't have chemotherapy and I'm very grateful for that.

How did it impact on your approach to life?
I think those things do stop you in your tracks. If they don't, there's something wrong with you. It's not a diagnosis anyone wants to hear or to have. We'd talked for quite some time about leaving the city but it made us say 'we've just got to do this.' Interestingly everything flowed after that. We sold our house privately. My husband's work finished up, we packed up everything. I was diagnosed in May and we moved on the second day of December. It was extraordinary; everything just fell into place as though it was meant to be, and suddenly we were on our way here. In that regard it was a catalyst to make the change we'd been talking about.

In The Country Cookbook you retreat to the kitchen to cook to help you through a time of grieving when a close friend died - so is cooking healing for you?
Definitely. I think there's all sorts of aspects to cooking. There's day-to-day, got to eat, got-to-get-dinner on the table sort of cooking. There's cooking for friends when you want spoil them and bring people together. And for me, if I'm upset or worried about anything, there's something very soothing and calming about all that chopping and measuring. It's a bit like meditation, or gardening. You lose yourself in it. You have to focus and you can drift along, not really thinking, in the lovely rhythm of it -it's very gentle.
It allows you to process that grief or sadness in a very quiet way.

The recipes in The Country Cookbook are divided into months, is that because you believe the seasonality of produce is important to good cooking?
Yes, I do and it's obviously amplified here because we have wonderful farmer's markets.

Is it true you have a neighbouring farmer who plays classical music to his tomatoes?
It's true - isn't it wonderful? He pipes music through to his crop and he reckons that's what makes his tomatoes the best.

Apart from seasonality, what other criteria did you use to choose the recipes in The Country Cookbook?
More than anything, it is the food I love, the food we like to eat. Ideas for recipes come from all sorts of places - I might try a dish in a restaurant or read about one and I think 'oh, yes, I could try that.'
Or, a bit of serendipity happens - last week I was given some lovely rhubarb and then bought some really fragrant strawberries at the market which inspired a strawberry/rhubarb crumble dessert. It was divine and the recipe will go into my next cookbook. So sometimes it just happens.

If you had to nominate a favourite recipe from The Country Cookbook, what would it be?
Can I have two?

Yes.
If the weather is cold, the lamb shanks with harissa and soft polenta, that's a wonderful winter dish. In summer, probably the maple syrup roasted plums with the brown sugar yoghurt. It's very simple. You can do it in a few minutes, but it's so delicious.

You grow lots of fresh herbs in your garden - how important are fresh herbs for flavour in cooking?
Very important to me, as I use a lot of herbs in my cooking. It's a wonderful thing to be able to go out into the garden and pick off a sprig of rosemary or thyme or basil. It adds that freshness and intense herby flavour that you rarely get with dried herbs. And they're not hard things to grow, they tend to be fairly hardy and look after themselves.

If there was one rule for good cooking, what would it be?
I'd have to say first, good ingredients - that doesn't mean expensive - and secondly, to taste as you go. Ingredients change all the time, for example, one week tomatoes are sweet and ripe, the next they may be greener/ So you are always having to adjust a little bit. Recipes aren't written in stone, it's just not possible, but I love that this allows for more creativity. Recipes are great guides - it's a good idea to make a dish once following the recipe, so you get the hang of it, and then you can start adding your own touches - that's what makes cooking so much fun and so interesting.

When you hear someone say 'I can't cook,' do you believe that to be true?
I think some people aren't interested in cooking, to them food is fuel. If you're interested, you can cook. Cooking is not hard or complicated (depending on how complicated you want to be). You can make a beautiful salad out of a handful of ingredients.

Are you tidy and organised in the kitchen and is it important?
Umm, I'm organised. I've worked in restaurants for many years so I tend to get everything chopped and have it ready. I can't say my kitchen always looks tidy, but I can't work in mess. I tend to clean up as I go.

Have you got a good tip for cooking for a dinner party?
If I've got people for dinner I rarely do many dishes that need last minute work. I try to cook food that's made ahead, because the last thing you want are benches full of pots, pans and dishes as you're trying to serve up. It's too hard. I'll mainly do one slow cooked dish, a salad and a dessert I've made ahead.

Who or what inspired you to become a cook?
My Mum was a really lovely home cook. From when I was little I loved cooking with her, I'd stand on a stool beside her asking for my own bits of ingredients from whatever she was making so I could mix and bake my very own dish . . . and she really encouraged me to do that. In my early teens Mum went to Greta Anna's cooking classes. All of a sudden she started cooking baklava and pates and bread and Middle Eastern dishes, it was fantastic!
As a little girl I'd read recipe books in bed. I remember sitting up in bed with Margaret Fulton's cookbook and reading it cover to cover. I became the family baker fairly early on.

You had a Northern Beaches upbringing?
Yes, I was a little surfer girl, and basically grew up on the beach.

Siblings?
A sister and brother, I'm the baby.

What did your father do for a living?
Many things. I don't actually know everything my father did. He was fairly eccentric and always had a finger in many pies. He did everything from working on drill rigs to being a watchmaker to having a building centre . . . lots of things. He was a very unusual person.

Not conventional?
Not at all. My father was anything but conventional.

Your mother was more conventional?
Yes, she was wonderful, she was the stabilising element in our family and we needed that because Dad was very volatile and always off and away with some project. Life with him could be fabulous and it could be challenging.

Married to Clive for how long?
Thirty-six years.

Where did you meet?
Sydney. It was a whirlwind romance. A mutual friend introduced us. I was 19, we met on his birthday and we were married 9 months later.
I remember the first time I saw him, he walked into the house and opened his mouth and out came this beautiful voice, and he had the most piercing blue eyes . . . I remember thinking 'oh, oh . . . ' There was a very strong attraction there.
I feel very fortunate that I'm married to such a lovely, kind man.

Do you have children?
No, we don't, lots of god-children though - 7 in fact - and nephews and nieces.

Do you have a dog?
We have a surrogate dog called Gus who is in The Country Cookbook and we won't have another dog while Gus is around. Gus the Wonder Dog is what we call him. He appeared on our second day here and he's been with us ever since. He walks in the back door and lies at my feet while I work. He's wonderful. I had a very bad accident one Christmas - I severed a tendon in my ankle and finished up in plaster. I'll never forget when I got back from hospital, I was lying on the bed with my leg up and I heard a noise, the next second, Gus slid open our door, saw me on the bed and took a flying leap onto it and then he wouldn't move. He'd been worried. He's the dearest dog . . . and a Leo, he does rather like to be the centre of attention.

What star sign are you?
I'm a Leo on the cusp of Cancer. The little Leo side definitely comes out but I'm also very much a Cancer - a real homebody, you have to prise me out of my shell at times, and I'm a nervous Nelly when I travel.