Watch The Cook and the Chef online: Episode 5 Herbs + Pearls

On tonight’s early autumn menu, Maggie and Simon make salad magic with baby herbs. They maybe small, but they pack all the punch of their parent’s, as well as being a lot more cute. After salads its seafood, as Simon introduces Maggie to the ‘foie gras’ of the ocean, pearl meat, a sweet and delicate jewel of the sea, which they both lightly fry to perfection. To finish Maggie serves one of her favourite ocean treats, oysters with eschalots and chervil, while Simon bakes his with ‘citrus roe’, our very own native finger lime. Maggie loves her herbs and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit Rob Foster who grows baby, or micro herbs which are “early” versions of greens or herbs that are intensely flavoured and beautiful to look at. They are usually harvested after seven to fourteen days and though small in size “micros” are packed with flavour and nutrients. With plenty to go around, both Maggie & Simon are inspired by make their own micro salads. Maggie combines beetroot and goat’s cheese and Simon, pumpkin seeds, garlic chips and smoky lemon pieces, two culinary delights that taste and look fantastic. The superb quality & size of South sea cultured pearls is well known, but the pearl oyster also produces another rare and unique product, pearl meat. To find out more about this sweet, succulent stuff, Simon travelled to a pearl farm on Northern Australia’s magnificent Coburg peninsula where he met Pearling advisor Richard McClean who revealed some of the mysteries of the pearl oyster. This ‘foie gras’ of the ocean is delicate and needs to be cooked hot and fast, so a stir fry with ginger, chilli & spring onion is Simon’s stimulating solution, while Maggie goes for a sensational pan fry with shitake mushrooms, fresh ginger,chervil and verjuice. Australian native finger limes feature in Simons final dish. These uniquely Australian citrus are being snapped up by overseas customers, but are still not widely known at home. For Simon they are perfect with baked oysters, while Maggie goes ‘au naturale’ and serves her osyters with eschalote and chervil, a sumptious end to todays Autumn feast. Recipes: - Oyster with eschallots and verjuice - Micro Herb Salad - Pan Fried Pearl Meat - Baby Leaf Salad - Stir Fried Pearl Meat - Oyster, Baked with Native Finger Lime

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