Chef Matt Stone wants to you to make a bar out of your own backyard. Really. Melbourne's young gun head chef of Victoria's Oakridge winery, Stone made his industry name as head chef of Joost Bakker's Greenhouse, Silo and Brothl, then as the culinary brains behind IconPark's Sydney pop-up Stanley Street Merchants and a MasterChef regular. At his core, Stone's a stickler for ethical and sustainable cooking, so he's just released his first cookbook The Natural Cook to help fuel some of that philosophy in everyday Aussie kitchens.

The (extremely well photographed) cookbook's brimming with recipes meant to make you rethink food, bring you back to basics, try traditional techniques, adopt new sustainable cooking habits and make the best of the bounty of native ingredients Australia's got going on (one of the most sustainable ways Australians can cook). Of course, the book champions Stone's infamous 'zero-waste' philosophy, whether you're making yoghurt, pickling things or making a Bloody Mary.

We've taken a couple of recipes out of of Stone's book, to show you how easy it is to incorporate native Australian ingredients into your everyday — well, into your cocktails in particular. Here's a little humdinger of a recipe for an Aussie South Side, topped with, y'know, a small serving of ants.

Once you've crafted this gem, try making Stone's Native Spiced Bloody Mary (recipe's over here).

MATT STONE'S AUSSIE SOUTH SIDE

"A refreshing taste of Australia for a spring afternoon."

INGREDIENTS

Serves one

ice

60 ml (2 fl oz/¼ cup) white spirit

(gin, vodka or white rum)

30 ml (1 fl oz) freshly squeezed lime juice

10 ml (2 teaspoons) basic sugar syrup

(see page 209)

7 Australian river mint (or regular mint) leaves

small plate of ants and 1 lime wedge (optional)

Fill a serving glass with ice and let it stand. Put the spirit, lime juice and sugar syrup, and all but one of the mint leaves, into a shaker, giving the mint a clap between your hands to excite its flavour before throwing it in. Fill the shaker to the top with ice, seal and shake vigorously for around 15 seconds.

Discard the ice from the serving glass. If using ants, rub a wedge of lime around the rim of the glass. Gently press the rim onto your ants, twisting the glass so they stick all the way around the circumference.

Put three to four cubes of fresh ice in the glass. Double-strain the liquid from the shaker into the glass using your Hawthorne and fine strainers. Stick the reserved mint leaf on top and serve.

Note: There are specialist online shops where you can buy ants and other edible insects.

Recipe and image from The Natural Cook by Matt Stone (Murdoch Books). Photography by Mark Roper RRP $39.99 available now in all good bookstores and online.

Published on September 22, 2016 by Shannon Connellan