Bush Tucker Dinner

It's Friday, the restaurant closes for the night! These days dining out to practise the palate on somebody else's cooking becomes a real stretch. After surfing the internet for a restaurant which serves Australian bush foods, it is obvious there is no bush tucker restaurant in Perth. The closest is in Adelaide, that is, unless, Noodle Cook does something with the fresh bush herbs recently acquired from Tumbeela.

Cooking with unfamiliar herbs seems easy after Paper Chef #11 experience where Noodle ended up with menu design and cooking on the spot when John the "secret reviewer" (the villain in "An Electronic Restaurant") pulled out at the start of the challenge! Will Noodle Cook succeed in creating a bush tucker dinner in time? Drum rolls again, a pause for the unfolding drama and then ....

Luck seems to be working in Noodle's favour again, as within 1.5 hours, using a few short cuts, such as leftover potato chips and beef glace from the soup dumpling, Noodle produces a 2-course bush tucker dinner:

Entree
Lemon myrtle potato and leek soup served with soy sauce, white truffle oil, chilli flakes and freshly ground black peper. Garnished with peas and strips of leek.



Mains
Sesame crusted smoked aniseed myrtle kangaroo steak, served with a stir fry of fresh mountain pepper leaves, bean sprouts, carrot and julienned snowpea, over a bed of shiitake red rice risotto with akudjura and mountain pepper berry glace.



The kangaroo steak derives its impressive flavours from toasted sesame seeds, mesquite smoking chips, soy sauce and an olive oil infusion made by gently heating Extra Virgin olive oil with fresh aniseed myrtle leaves, ginger and shallot onion. The succulent texture is achieved by smoking at a low temperature of 130-150 degrees celsius for about 15-20 minutes and resting in a warm oven at 75 degrees celsius for 10-15 minutes.



The complex layers of flavours work really together to produce a great oriental tasting meal. The bush herbs transformed what is actually a simple meal of leftovers into a dinner party!

Half an hour before serve up, John the "secret reviewer" prods his finger into the resting kangaroo steak proclaims "It's raw!" There's no time to waste, as Noodle swings into auto pilot to rescue the meal by resmoking for 15 minutes at 130-150 degrees celsius. In the meantime, the soup gets served up with shrieks of "wow". By the time the kangaroo reaches the table, the steak looks perfect like "any other restaurant meal".

With halo floating over the head after yet another rare cooking success, Noodle goes off to bed dreaming of breakfast in bed: an omelette with chopped mountain pepper leaves, akudjura, fresh tomatoes and cheddar, follow by sesame melba toast drizzled with aniseed myrtle olive oil infusion and honey, and a good strong cuppa. A dream is a dream: Noodle wakes up early and finds the fridge in need of stocking up!