Mulga Room
Kitchen

Marron joins the card

A new dish has arrived on the card at the Mulga Room, and it has come a long way to reach it. Trevor Rossi explains why marron was worth the journey.

Kitchen

A dish that crosses the state

A golden omelette topped with cheese and crumbled nuts

For several seasons, Trevor Rossi resisted the idea of putting a seafood dish on a menu in the middle of the Murchison. His argument was plain: a kitchen hundreds of kilometres from the coast has no business pretending otherwise. What changed his mind was not the sea but a freshwater crustacean, the marron, which is farmed in dams in the south-west and travels well in a chilled crate.

The first delivery arrived on a Tuesday, packed in damp cloth and ice, and Trevor spent the afternoon with a pot of boiling water and a sharp knife. By five o'clock he had settled the dish: tails split and grilled, brushed with garlic butter, finished with a squeeze of lemon and set beside a green salad dressed with nothing more than oil and salt.

The kitchen staff tasted it standing up, in silence, which Trevor takes to be the highest possible compliment. Tanya Hunter asked whether it could be served every night. The answer was yes, so long as the crates continued to arrive in good condition, and the grower promised that they would.

How the dish works

Keeping it simple

Marron have a sweet, delicate flavour, easily lost under a heavy sauce. Trevor therefore uses butter, garlic and lemon only, and cooks the tails for just long enough to turn them opaque. Anything more would be an apology rather than a recipe, in his view.

Where it sits on the card

The dish appears among the small plates, but several guests have ordered it as a main course with a side of chips, and the kitchen is happy to oblige. It is served with a fork, a finger bowl and a stack of napkins, because the only way to eat marron properly is with enthusiasm.

A note about supply

Supply depends on the season and the weather, and on a long road. On the rare evenings when the crate is late, the dish is replaced by another and the card is updated at the door. Guests who have come specially are advised to telephone first, and we shall do our best to keep a portion aside.