It was a dark and freezing night as we trundled through the bush to the warm and inviting country farmhouse that is home to Poachers Pantry, about 25 kilometres from Canberra and across the border in Hall, New South Wales.

Poachers has been a pioneer in putting the Canberra region on the map for its tremendous food and wine. We were at Poachers’ Smokehouse Cafe to try the 100 mile dinner, a five course degustation crafted from food sourced no more than 100 miles away, as part of the Fireside Festival which runs for the month of August.

To be honest, as I was reading through the degustation menu placed in front of us, I didn’t really excite me. The reality is that, in our modern world we are so divorced from what actually grows in the ground where we live, what is seasonal and what isn’t. I just couldn’t really see how a lot of the flavours coming up on the menu it would all meld together.

But meld it did. Each dish was a perfect balance of intricate and distinct flavours woven together. Many of these flavours were subtle, and not obvious combinations. It wasn’t punchy food dominated by strong flavours. It was subtle flavours from local ingredients crafted together in a happy marriage, often complemented by products direct from Poachers own smokehouse. More than anything else, the menu is perfect for winter, and to enjoy in a cosy, rustic atmosphere with a glass of wine or two.

Read on for the whole delicious experience…

[imagebrowser id=9]

Our first dish was the leek and potato soup with Mt Majura truffles (potatoes from Brayton, leeks from Hall, celery from Thirimere). Potato and leek soup isn’t anything special, but this was a densely flavoured and perfectly complimented by the richness of the truffle. I had never conceived of leek and truffle as a combination, but it was just perfect. The fact that the soup was served ‘amouse bouche’ in cute espresso cups turned a marvellous dish into a full blown experience. Soup, as I learnt, can be a bit tricky to sip from a cup, especially when it is so thick, but it turned what might have appeared to be dreary winter soup into a unique experience.

Next was the De Copi chestnut and mashrom raviolo with sage buerre noisette and Poachers smoked lamb prosciutto crackling (Batlow chestuts, Chakola onions, Majestic mushrooms Hall, Chef Mel’s thyme and sage, Pepe Saya butter from Picton). It was the chestnuts here that I couldn’t quite work out. But my goodness, this dish was a marvel. Definitely my favourite of the night, I would have happily eaten a few more servings. The mushrooms and the chestnuts were a rich and meaty filling for the raviolo, and the lamb prosciutto crackling was a pang of salty flavour that cut through the richness of the butter sauce.

The pan-fried silver dory fillet and smoked trout sausage with cavolo nero, caramelised parsnips and buerre blanc was a an unexpectedly creative seafood dish, where the silver dory melted in your mouth and the trout was the flavour punch in small sausage pieces that looked a bit like sushi on the plate. It isn’t a dish that screams winter, but the texture of the parsnips coupled with the cavolo nero and the butter made the fish as hearty as fish could ever be on a cold winter’s night.

The wine selection is relatively limited – but not in quality. Poachers only served its own Wily Trout wines on its menu, which are pleasing drops that play to the strengths of local wines.

The desserts were an excellent example of what can be created with unlikely ingredients. The lemon, fennel and chilli sorbet (lemons and fennel from the Poachers’ homestead garden and chilli from Middle Durai) cleansed the palate after a rich dinner and invigorated the senses with both zest and spice.

The Sussex Pond mandarin pudding with whipped honey cream and lavender sugar (Mandarins from Moruya, honey from Tomerong, cream and milk from Picton, Pepe Saya butter from Picton, lavender foraged from Poachers’ homestead garden) was fabulously constructed, with the pudding carefully encasing a whole, tender mandarin which had been sliced and laid carefully in a pile. The lavender sugar with the mandarin was a perfect combination and the honey cream added some sweetness to the mix. It was deliciously syrupy but not too sweet with a distinctive, balancing bitter edge to each bite provided by the mandarin rind. Again, mandarin and lavender is not a combination I have ever thought of but it worked exceedingly well.

The dinner set us back $80 each which I think is reasonable considering the quality of the ingredients and the high calibre, diversity and creativity of each dish. It’s great to see Poachers retain the excellent quality many have ascribed it over the years, as an old hand in the development of Canberra’s food scene. It’s also nice to see that no matter how successful it has become over the years, the kitchen doesn’t shy away from innovation.

Poachers is a fine dining restaurant without pretentious airs and graces. It’s a diverse venue that works equally well for an intimate dinner or a large group of family and friends. And it’s such a refreshing experience, whether it’s the actual trip out of Canberra to country New South Wales or that it sets itself apart from every other restaurant with its traditional country smokehouse and focus on locally sourced food. It somehow makes you feel as if you’ve been taken back to your roots as a Canberran, that this is the food we’re meant to be eating here. And you just want more of it.