This is one of those photos that only does slight justice to the visual impact the setting had when I took the shot. These evocative towers of earth no longer attached to mainland Australia are a few of the Twelve Apostles, one of the most popular stops on the Great Ocean Road in southwest Victoria. I've seen my share of beautiful, breathtaking ocean shoreline in my life, but this takes the cake. The three or four hours we spent on the coastal drive reminded me at different moments of everything from the Pacific Northwest coastline, the tropics and even the English countryside, complete with sheep dotting emerald green pastures in full view of the ocean vista.

Home base for this early October 9-day trip was Melbourne, Australia. I was travelling with fellow members of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, a most memorable and delicious week exploring the markets, restaurants, history, wineries and food shops of the Melbourne area. And me being me, I made a special point of tracking down some noteworthy cocktail experiences as well. A bartender pal had directed me to the Gin Palace, a hard-to-find speakeasy serving a few dozen gins from around the world. Another highlight was watching the finals of the Australia rules football. The match was being played just a quarter mile from the friend's home where we gathered, a nexus for pre- and post-function festivities that made the experience even more culturally interesting. As important as the Super Bowl, but with so much more civility and just a fraction of the hype.

The trip came and went so fast. For a couple of weeks after returning, I added slivers of amazing dried mango to my morning Grape Nuts. And I still have some Murray River salt, big pale pink crystals of crunchy salt. But photos do the best job bringing the experience back to life. I only wish I could share dozens with you here.

I’ve got a lot of olive oil in the house these days. Not only do I buy it by the gallon at Big John’s PFI, but there have been holiday gifts of olive oil and some remnant samples from research I did for a December article on high-end olive oils for the Seattle Post Intelligencer. One evening recently, with two lovely swordfish steaks in hand, I decided to play around with a slightly decadent preparation: shallow-poaching the fish in extra virgin olive oil.

First, I grated some lemon zest on my finest Microplane grater, which releases a maximum of the zest’s highly aromatic and flavor-packed essential oils. I rubbed the lemon zest over both sides of the fillets and lightly seasoned them with sea salt and freshly ground white pepper. They sat a spell in the refrigerator so flavors could nicely meld.

Ready to cook, I filled a medium skillet—just large enough to hold both steaks—with olive oil to a depth of about 1/2 inch. This is the decadent part, this could be an expensive proposition with a super-elegant $30-a-bottle olive oil. It makes much more sense with good oil bought in volume.

I preheated the oil slowly over medium-low heat, since I didn’t want to risk it hitting its smoke point and messing with the delicate flavor. After maybe 3 or 4 minutes, I gently slipped the swordfish fillets into the oil. There’s no browning that occurs, only the slightest bubbly-sizzly effect around the perimeter of the fish pieces. The whole cooking time was maybe eight minutes, which certainly varies with your rare-medium-well preference and the thickness of the fillets. The oil swaths the fish in a glistening thin coat, but doesn’t permeate the meat.

The flavor and texture results were pure, simple, delicious. And stood in stark, yin-yang contrast to my usual routine of searing swordfish over high heat to create a deeply browned surface and just-barely-cooked center. I’d play around with the olive oil method again in a heartbeat.

I've got crab on the brain lately. 'Tis the season, after all. I taught a fun class Monday night at Sur la Table in Kirkland, and head to Portland to teach a different batch of crab recipes next week (see Datebook below). So I thought I'd share with you this recipe from my Crab cookbook, though it could just as well have landed in my Wild Mushroom book.

It's a little late in the season for fresh chanterelles, particularly given the deep freeze the Northwest has had lately. But any mushroom will do here: hedgehog, yellowfoot chanterelles (not a true chanterelle, small mushrooms that hold up better in late-season conditions), dried porcini or other dried mushrooms. Even standard button mushrooms in a pinch.

Fresh on the heels of this week's class I taught in Kirkland, I'm going to Portland next week to teach a couple of classes at In Good Taste, one featuring crab, another devoted to wild mushrooms.

You were just dying to hear about yet another auction you could attend, right? Of course, I think this one is a little more special than the rest. My local chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier is holding its bi-annual auction on Tuesday March 27 at the Women’s University Club in downtown Seattle. Proceeds from the auction go to fund endowments, scholarships and other programs that support women in careers within the worlds of food, wine, hospitality and other gastronomic pursuits.

The theme of our auction is “Our Favorite Things” so the menu will feature dishes we love (the Salmon and Sunchoke Chowder I created for my Salmon cookbook is one of the dishes) and auction packages will have a special emphasis on experiences, products, restaurants and other things we love. It promises to be not only a very fun evening with plenty of delicious food and wine, but you’ll also find some out-of-the-ordinary offerings. Check out the ever-growing list of items on our auction site, where you can also register online to attend the auction.

One recent update on my site is a new "Consulting" page which focuses on the types of random--often book-related--project work I've been doing more and more of lately. One recent book I helped out with, Brothers in the Kitchen, won "Best French Cookbook" (I'm pretty sure that was the category name) as a U.S. finalist in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Next stop Beijing, to compete against other national finalists in April.

Now, you can also go to my web site to see archived back issues of this enewsletter. The links are available on the "Recipes" page.