Quandong

Quandong Pudding
Adapted from A Taste of the Bush

A bush tucker version of the quintessential self-saucing sponge pudding with native Australian peach, quandong.

1/2 c dried quandong (40 g)
1 c fresh red grape juice
225 g sugar
150 g butter
2 eggs, beaten
150 g SR flour, sifted
1 t ground lemon myrtle, optional

1. Soak the quandong in grape juice until double in size or overnight
2. Drain the quandong.
3. Bring the grape juice to boil.
4. Add 50 g of the sugar. Boil until syrupy.
5. Add the quandong and boil for 5 minutes.
6. Place quandong and syrup in the bottom of 4 ramekins.
7. Make a cake batter by creaming the butter with remaining sugar. Slowly add the eggs. Fold in flour.
8. Pour batter over the quandong in the ramekins.
9. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30-40 minutes.

Serve with fresh cream.





Quandong and Grape Clafoutis (pronounced klah-foo-tee)
Adapted from Cherry Clafoutis recipe by Joanne Harris & Fran Warde, The French Kitchen

A classic French dessert of soft custard like pudding loaded with delicious juicy fruit.

250 g red grapes
60 g sugar
20 g dried quandong
10 g butter, melted
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
200 mL milk
85 g flour, sifted
icing for dusting
1 t cornstarch

1. Mash 200 g of the grapes. Microwave for 2 minutes. Strain the juice. Discard the pulp.
2. Add half the sugar to the juice.
3. Soak quandong in the grape juice until double. Microwave for 2 minutes. Drain. Reserve the juice.
4. Cut remaining grapes in half. Remove pits.
5. Grease a shallow dish with the butter.
6. Place the fruit in a neat layer in the buttered dish.
7. Whisk the eggs, with remaining sugar and milk.
8. Add the mixture to the flour and mix to a smooth batter.
9. Pour batter over the fruit.
10. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes until the custard batter is firm and golden.
11. Sprinkle with icing.



To make sauce, add water (or more grape juice) to the reserved juice to make 1 cup. Add cornstarch. Microwave for 2 minutes. Serve the clafoutis immediately while well risen, with the grape juice sauce.

Read more...

Bush Tucker Macaroons

Piquant lemon myrtle imparts an intense lemon aroma to this macaroon made with LSA, a mixture of linseed, sunflower seeds and almond meal.




The beautiful, mild flavour of quandong, Australian native peach, pairs well with the aroma of oriental almond (apricot kernel) and peach scented osmanthus flowers.




Together, these ingredients create this exquisite quandong macaroon. The amaretto-like aroma from apricot kernel and peach flavours work wonderfully together. There is a subtle hint of sourness from quandong to balance the sweetness of the meringue. The lovely colour comes from quandong and red fermented rice (ang kak). This macaroon is truly for the connoisseur.




Wattleseeds give these macaroons their hazelnut-coffee-chocolate flavour. The perfect pairing for wattleseed is vanilla cream, chocolate, and fruit like pears, peaches or berries.

Read more...

Chef's Special: Wattleseed and Date Millet Bread

A gluten-free treat featuring bush tucker wattleseeds and dates in a moist, fluffy, flexible red millet bread. This lovely bread makes an excellent substitute for raisin toast. The bread contains no xanthan, GFG or guar gum.

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Masterchef Victory

The high standard commanded by Masterchef Australia judges means an Australian bush tucker dish titled "Secrets" with a theme of "Black and White in Harmony", a technically challenging lemon myrtle scented self saucing ravioli with a liquid soup filling, gives way to dishes like lamb and mash. Self saucing ravioli like the ones designed by Noodle Cook for this blog are perfect with Campbell soup as a filling.

In the aftermath of a Masterchef victory for John the villain, who celebrates with a gleeful "You can't cook!", Noodle Cook blogs away, dreaming of the great dishes that could have been...

aniseed myrtle...



wattleseed...



mountain pepperberries....



bush tomatoes...



quandong...



lemon myrtle....

Read more...

Midyim Berries - Austromyrtus dulcis

Delicious sweet white berries with purple flecks. Ready to eat straight off the shrub. Traditionally eaten by indigenous Australians in the Eastern parts of Australia where the berries grow naturally. The shrub grows well in a pot. The berries are produced twice a year in January and April.

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Lunch Special: Lemon Myrtle Wheat Berry Risotto

Plump al dente wheat berries in a creamy lemon myrtle and chicken risotto, served with a sprinkle of freshly cracked black pepper, parmesan and finely chiffonade lemon myrtle. A superb bush tucker dish accented by the aroma of lemon. The simplicity turns the dish into fine dining experience.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4-5 cups chicken stock
400 g terigu (soft white wheat berries), cooked to instructions
4 fresh lemon myrtle leaves
2 teaspoon finely chiffonade lemon myrtle
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
cracked pepper

Saute the onions in olive oil until yellow. Add the stock. Add the cooked wheat berries and simmer gently for 30 minute until most of the stock is absorbed and the risotto looks creamy. Add lemon myrtle leaves in the last 5 minutes of cooking. Remove the lemon myrtle leaves. Place risotto into 4 serving dishes. Sprinkle with parmesan, chiffonade lemon myrtle and freshly cracked pepper. Serve immediately.

Read more...

Chilling Secrets

A successful self saucing ravioli starts with great tasting stocks and sauces. To enable the soup (or sauce) to hold inside the ravioli, the filling must be well chilled with the accompanying sauce stablized with gelatinous stock or gelatin. The principle behind the soup in the ravioli is the same as for Shanghai soup dumplings, xiao long bao.

The ORIGINAL recipe presented below is for a ravioli with a buttery French style sauce with a hint of Japanese ginger, lemon and green onion. The lemon myrtle is used in place of yuzu (native Japanese citrus) zest. Lemon myrtle is an Australian bush herb which you can obtain fresh by mail order from Tumbeela. In Perth, Zanthorrea Nursery stocks plants which grow well in pots. This recipe is a beautiful "fusion" dish which relies on sauces that take time to perfect. There should not be any overpowering garlic from the stock.

Lemon Myrtle Scented Self Saucing Ravioli

Wrappers
Dumpling skins, from oriental stores or make your own, or use homemade pasta sheets
Fresh herbs for decorating such as coriander, parsley, basil or oregano

Filling
1 chicken breast
1/4 cup julienned soaked black cloud ear fungus
1/4 cup enoki mushroom
1/4 cup julienned spring onion
1 tablespoon chiffonade fresh lemon myrtle leaves (finely slivered with leaf spine removed)
1/2 cup chicken veloute, chilled (recipe follows)
1/2 strong gelatinous chicken stock or white glace, chilled (recipe presented previously)
salt and pepper to taste

Poaching stock
chicken stock
shallot slices
ginger slices
garlic and fried shallot olive oil infusions, optional
salt to taste
handful of fresh lemon myrtle sprigs (or substitute with strips of lemon zest)

Accompanying Dressings
Peppercorn sauce or pepper jus flavoured with mountain pepperleaf and green onion
Olive oil infusions
Lemon myrtle white wine vinaigrette

Suggested side vegetables
Blanched asparagus, spring onion or beans

Garnish
Mustard sprouts
Spring onions
Shallots, thinly slices



To make the dish:

1. Moisten 2 dumpling skins with a damp tea towel. Place herb in a decorative pattern on one skin before covering with the second skin. Roll the assembled skins on a pasta machine (or with rolling pin) until single thickness again. Trim to shape with a pastry cutter. Cover with a dry tea towel and refrigerate until needed. If using fresh pasta sheets, check out Chef Chopper Dave's version with cheese, pear and duck glace.

2. Bring the stock for poaching to boil, then add the shallot and ginger. Season with salt and olive oil infusions of choice. Simmer for 5 minutes until aromatic. Add the lemon myrtle sprigs. Dip the chicken breast in the poaching liquid briefly and remove. Bring the liquid back to boil. Drop in the chicken breast and cover. Remove the pot from heat immediately. Let the chicken sit in the pot for 10 minutes. Remove the chicken and chill in the freezer immediately for a juicy tender texture. Do not worry if the the chicken is slightly under cook.

3. When the chicken is well chilled, dice or shred and add to the remaining filling ingredients. The veloute and gelatinous chicken stock must be stiff enough to cut with a knife. The ratio of veloute to chicken stock can be adjusted to allow for a more soupy or saucy dish depending on whether the dish is for starter or main course. Chill for 30 minutes until needed.

4. To assemble the ravioli, place tablespoons of chilled filling in rounded mounts in the centre of a wrapper. Moisten the edges and cover with another wrapper, carefully pressing out all the air. Keep refrigerated. May be stored frozen.

5. Bring the poaching liquid to boil. Carefully lower a ravioli into the pot using a skimmer. Boil for about 5 minutes until the ravioli starts floating off the skimmer. Cook until the sauce is heated through by which time, the ravioli skin will puff slightly with an air pouch showing. Remove to a warm plate.

6. To serve as a main course, arrange 3 ravioli in a stack like pancakes, or a single layer around a plate. Tuck side vegetables under the ravioli. Drizzle with dressing of choice around the plate. For a soup course, place one ravioli in each soup dish. Spoon in enough poaching liquid without immersing the ravioli. Drizzle dressing of choice over the ravioli. Garnish as desired.

Chicken Veloute (pronounced veh-loo-TAY)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 cup strong gelatinous chicken stock made with pork rind as a booster
1 teaspoon gelatin, optional
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Cook the flour in butter without browning until a roux (thickened paste) forms.
2. Bring chicken stock to the boil.
3. Add the gelatin.
4. Add the boiling stock to the roux while rapidly beating with a wooden spoon or whisk.
5. Simmer for 15 minutes for the flour to cook through for a smooth glossy sauce.
6. Adjust seasoning.

Note if the sauce is lumpy or grainy just add a bit more stock and simmer longer, or strain the sauce.

Read more...

Masterchef Audition Day

The big day arrives. The dish cooks to perfection. Noodle Cook feels like the winner with the Masterchef hat already. What do the judges think of a platter which explores new tastes while showcasing Australian bush spices and herbs? Would the judges accept melding of opposite tastes as implied by colours of black with white, or red with green? What about the European and oriental tastes crafted by adjusting aniseed myrtle?

The platter demonstrates Noodle Cook's low temperature cooking skills such as slow roasting at 75 degrees Celsius to achieve a tender juicy pink texture for beef shin. Also featured are olive oil infusions and flavoursome sauces from chicken stock and veal glace.

Salad of black fungus and enoki mushroom with deep fried salt bush, dressed with onion, ginger and garlic olive oil infusions:



Beef shin two ways: slow roasted with mountain pepperberry bush spice crust, and confit in lemon myrtle, aniseed myrtle and mountain pepper leaf infused oil:



Two sauces to compliment the beef - quandong gastrique with red wine, and a mildly spiced pepper jus flavoured with mountain pepperleaf and green onion.

Glazed wattleseed figs in red grape juice reduction with aromatic herbs:




.... amazingly, the judges want Noodle Cook back for the Day 2 audition!

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Masterchef Dreaming

The mobile phone rings at midday while Noodle Cook, the self proclaimed electronically qualified "Masterchef", with geologist boots on instead of chef hat, looks down a microscope for evidence of the next diamond mine.

"Congratulations, you have won one of 100 places out of 6000 applications to audition for Masterchef!"

Stunned, Noodle Cook tongue twists into a knot while the brain races excitedly. Maybe it's no more running a restaurant electronically through a blog: Pinocchio getting a chance to become real???

"You need to impress the judges with a dish on 16 January. Please bring 2 plates. There's no refrigeration..... You'll get an email shortly with details."

Noodle Cook, the dreamer, starts visualizing the dishes created for Paper Chef challenges. The euphoria of winning the Paper Chef's hat for the month with Bush Tucker Lamb starts coming back. The winning dish features Australian bush herbs and spice in a beautiful green marbled lamb parfait with orange basil seed champagne jelly.



By the time the caller says good-bye, Noodle Cook has forgotten to ask for the name of the caller, the time to show up, and the location of the audition, or in this instance, the place where dreams potentially become real....

Read more...

Salt Bush

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Lemon Myrtle Plant

Read more...

Quandong Plant

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Paper Chef #15 A Love Story with a Twist

Paper Chef #15, the cooking challenge invented by Owen at Tomatilla, celebrates Valentine Day with the four secret ingredients of beets, pears, lime and aphrodisiacs. For this month, hosts and judges MagicTofu and Fufu at Slurp and Burp offer several fun categories: Super Saver, Indiana Jones, Picasso and Home Cook.



There was no love lost when Noodle Cook's computer went down just before the clock struck 12 midnight at the start of the New Year. The digital camera responded simultaneously in sympathy, with the battery dying....

This Paper Chef entry is an artistic representation of forging a bond, removing the nitty gritty problems and tying a knot in a relationship with a new computer, a Mac Mini, an unwanted baby with umpteen teething problems.

So here is the creation which words do no justice:

Lime jelly and oyster avocado mousse fused together as united hearts, and garnished with onion hearts (flowering stalks with buds) twisted in a knot. A chilled appetizer or cheese course served with a beet root fruit sauce and an oyster flavoured cream.



This is a French style dish which utilises Chinese ingredients like dried oysters, onion hearts, and Chinese celery. Perhaps these Chinese characters (extracted from AltaVista Babel Fish translater) closely describe the message in the dish:



General instructions follow, but please read the tasting notes before trying out the recipe.

Australian Desert Lime Jelly
125 g Australian Desert Limes in syrup
1 teaspoon gelatine

Drain the limes and reserve the syrup. Slice the limes in half. Pick over to remove the gritty seeds. Place the cut halves, cut side down, into ramekins or muffin tins. A flexible silicon try makes unmoulding easier. Warm the reserved syrup (about 1/3 cup). Add the gelatine and stir until dissolved. Gently spoon a little of the gelatine mixture over the lime halves. Tap out the air bubbles. Chill for 15 minutes to ensure the limes stay at the bottom. Add the remaining gelatine mixture to cover the lime halves. Chill until set.

Note: Glaced Australian Desert Limes can be found in selected Dewsons Supermarket or online. These specialty sweetened limes give a fruity, lime and pear aroma.



Avocado Mousse
1 avocado pear, pureed
1 cup yoghurt, drained overnight
1 tablespoon chopped Chinese onion heart stalks
3 tablespoon chopped Chinese celery
2 tablespoon whipping cream
2 tablespoon oyster essence (see below)
2 teaspoon gelatine

Combine pureed avocado, yoghurt and cream. Squeeze the juice from the chopped onion heart stalks and Chinese celery. Save the pulp. Add the juice to the avocado mixture.

Make the oyster essence using the residual herbs following the instruction below.

Add the gelatine to the hot oyster essence and stir till dissolved. Combine the dissolved gelatine with the avocado mixture. Adjust seasoning. Pour over the desert lime jelly, tapping to remove air bubbles. Refrigerate overnight or until set.

Note: For this challenge, the avocado pear acts as a twist to the required pear. Willow (http://www.willow.com.au) supplies the heart-shaped silicon muffin tray.



Oyster Essence
8 dried Chinese oysters
1/2 cup fish aspic (homemade using fish bones, celery, onion, parsley, thyme, lemon myrtle)
Residual herbs from the avocado mousse
1 teaspoon ground lemon myrtle (or kaffir lime leaves)

Soak the oysters in cold water for 1 hour, or until softened. Drain and rinse well. Gently poach the oysters in the fish aspic for 1/2 hour until tender. Top up with water as needed. Add the residual herbs and simmer for 2 minutes. Reduce to 3-4 tablespoon. Add the lemon myrtle. Remove from heat and cool. Strain the liquid for use in the mousse and the oyster cream. Save the oysters for another dish such as pasta with a low fat yoghurt and avocado sauce.

Note: Dried Chinese oysters, the aphrodisiac ingredient for this challenge, makes a cheap alternative to freshly shucked oysters. The amazing dried oysters enlarge to about 5 cm after cooking unlike fresh oysters.



Beetroot Fruit Sauce
1 small beet root (60 g)
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1 fresh aniseed myrtle leaf (or pinch of aniseed, crushed)
5 mountain pepper berries, crushed (or juniper berries)
1 tablespoon Australian Desert Lime syrup
1/2 cup water or fruit juice, such as pear
1-2 teaspoon white wine vinegar to taste
1-2 teaspoon baby food thickener, optional (Paper Chef #14)

Pulverise everything except the last 2 ingredients in a blender and let stand for at least 15 minutes. Strain through muslin or coffee filter. Adjust with white wine vinegar to taste. Thicken if desired. Chill until ready to serve.

Oyster Cream
1 teaspoon oyster essence
2 tablespoon whipping cream, whipped

Mix well and chill until needed.

Serving
To assemble the dish, carefully remove the mousse and jelly from the mould and place on a serving plate. Pour beet root fruit sauce around. Add drops of oyster cream and run a tooth pick through to create trails of hearts in the sauce. Garnish with knotted onion hearts.



The Taste Test

After many hours of hard work designing the dish, the time has come for tasting. The lime jelly, although a bit stiff, smells and tastes like a combination of pomela, grapefruit and pear. There is a slight bitterness with the sweet and sour taste. The oyster aroma, which is overpowering in the essence, tastes wonderfully subtle in the mousse and works really well with the Chinese celery and onion hearts. The beet root sauce with its earthy taste when freshly made up, mellows on chilling, taking on a fruity quality with a good balance of sweetness and sourness.

With the usual "wow" factor, Noodle Cook's plated up Picasso masterpiece attracted no shortage of guinea pig taster. It was love at first sight, until the first bite.

The first taster enjoyed the mousse and the sauce, but felt the lingering tingling after-taste of the glacé lime, which is a bit like the cooling effect of cumquat and licorice, not pleasant. The next taster launched into the dish expecting a sweet dessert only to be disappointed by the strong oyster flavour of the mousse, although the sauce was enjoyed thoroughly.

It was up to John the Secret Reviewer to deliver the coup de grâce. John thought the dish tasted "quite good" overall, with jelly, mousse and sauce tasting great on their own, without the need for adjustments. However the combined flavours of the whole dish proved too complex and the discordance was really apparent, even after the effort to unify the tastes with the citrus flavours of lime and lemon myrtle. The suggestion was to serve the mousse and the jelly separately.

Needless to say, unlike Indiana Jones' adventure movies on the big screen, Noodle Cook's Paper Chef #15 cooking adventure in the home kitchen stadium did not end romantically. The oysters, the chosen aphrodisiac, did not have any effect on the finally outcome.

Read more...

Paper Chef #13 - Recipe for Success

Join the fun celebrations with your Paper Chef entry...

A G'day to all participating home cooks, professional chefs, dreamers, and would be TV/movie stars from the Paper Chef #13 Australian judging panel headed by Noodle Cook, the newly hatted Paper Chef. Unknown to himself, John the "Secret Reviewer" makes it to the panel as the tie breaker. There's more about the fun below...

Return to this page often to check announcements on judges, success criteria and categories for the upcoming Paper Chef which starts on December 2, 2005. For ingredients nominations, head over to Tomatilla, where Kaga Owen Linderholm, the creator of Paper Chef, maintains the current ingredients. The upcoming challenge carries a celebratory theme for the holidays and the beginning of the second year of Paper Chef. Paper Chef has started! Head over to Tomatilla for the secret ingredients!

Paper Chef categories...

Do you have the recipe for success to become the Paper Chef #13 champion? It's time to plan your action to conquer one of five categories:

Paper Chef Personality - creative, clever or witty writer
Paper Chef Super Saver - budget meals or crowd pleaser specialist
Paper Chef Prestige - food styling, presentation or plating up expert
Paper Chef Nutrition Genie - magician for getting fussy diners to eat vegies, less salt, less fat
Paper Chef Supreme - the champion for Paper Chef #13

To help the judges decide, nominate your category or categories by tagging "Finalist for Paper Chef [category name] together with a reason. Example "Finalist for Paper Chef Super Saver. This dish, which utilizes free ice, feeds the entire Australian population in the Antarctica for a mere $1.00 per head."

Paper Chef has started...
Head over to Tomatilla for the secret ingredients!

The Judging Panel

• Noodle Cook (Perth) of "An Electronic Restaurant", has more than 40 years of experience in gluttony, and possesses an excellent knowledge of "bush foods" as eaten in field camps as a geologist.
  
• Saffron (Sydney), of "The Food Palate" which hosts Omnivoribus, is a writer and foodblogger with a palate for cakes and spices, especially saffron.
  
• E (Melbourne) , who sees the world as a tomato, is an English born foodblogger, publisher and journalist who has worked in London, Sydney and Melbourne.
  
• Anthony Georgeff (Perth), aka Spicey of "Man That Cooks", needs no introduction after starring in "Spice Magazine". Anthony's profile took up two full pages compared to 1 page for top chefs.
  
• and John the "Secret Reviewer" of "An Electronic Restaurant" as the tie breaker. John, an excellent cook and discerning diner, who also stars as the villain in this blog, keeps no secret on how bad everybody else's cooking tastes!
  

So what are the judges looking for?

The entry that best articulate the theme and the 4 secret ingredients while demonstrating creativity. Borrowing from Timber Belly for last month's Paper Chef:

"We love dishes that are original, inventive, and make use of the chosen ingredients in unexpected ways. We love dishes that sound like we'd want to gobble them up in a heartbeat. We appreciate traditional dishes as well, but we love them even more when they come with a twist. Dishes can be extraordinarily complicated or beautifully simple, but it's the perceived flavour that will count the most. We hope to choose not just one winner, but runners up in additional categories." In short, knock our socks off convince all the judges to take off from the computer screen into your dining room by hopping, flying, swimming, surfing or whatever to join the festivities with you.

How to score "Bonus" points to get ahead of the other challengers....

The television Iron Chefs use many tactics to appeal to the judges, so too can you! As extra fun for everyone "Bonus" points go to...

• dishes which are a lot of fun to make


• a festive atmosphere to eat the dish/dishes. So bring out the candles, napkins, antique (but chipped) crockery, banana leaves, incense or what ever
  


• recipes that reflect knowledge of festive celebrations in 45 degrees celsius heat


• use of beer or wine: since Australians like beer, we expect it's liberal use! At least tell us about the drinks that go with your meal as eaten in your part of the world!
  


• wiping off splashes on serving dishes for Paper Chef Prestige as done in restaurants


• use (or mention) of genuine maple syrup in the event Canadian-raised John needs to break the tie for Paper Chef Supreme
  

Gifts up for grab...

Friendship Gifts

As a good will gesture from Australia, bush spice packs are up for grabs for the winners of the five categories or their runner ups if the participant is already in receipt of a gift. Plus the first 10 or so non-awarded participants (and hopefully everyone else) ends up with a spice pack each. The spice packs come in the following configurations:

1. Ground Australian bush spice sampler pack consisting of 10g each of Lemon Myrtle, Aniseed Myrtle, Wattleseed, Dorrigo Pepper and Rainforest Blend, including a small recipe book with about 20 recipes.

2. Wattleseed and quandong for use with recipes found in Perth's new Spice Magazine, together with the magazine itself. Recipes to try are Sandalwood Nut and Wattleseed Biscotti by sandalwood grower, Aaron Edmonds, and Wattleseed Creamed Meringue with Quandong Dessert Sauce by Chef Mark Olive (indigenous TV personality). For the biscotti, it is recommended that you use hazelnut as a substitute as sandalwood nuts are not currently available.

3. Ground Australian bush spices in 30-50 gram packs. Select one from Lemon Myrtle, Mountain Pepper Leaf, Cinnamon myrtle, or Aniseed myrtle. Some of these spices can be used in tea, soaps and candles. Lemon myrtle and aniseed myrtle work well in seafood and Asian dishes, while Mountain Pepper Leaf makes a great pepper substitute.

As there are only a limited number of gifts, it is important that:

- You send an email to Owen (owenl1998 at yahoo dot com) to indicate you can accept a gift, otherwise, the gift is re-allocated.

- Select the preferred gift, and we will try our best to accommodate.

- Get your entries in quickly as, other than category winners, gifts are offered on a first come basis

Of course the judges and host Owen get thank-you gifts as well! Don't forget you can also submit a hypothetical entry for a chance with the left over gifts.

Suppliers for the Gifts
Red Ochre Grill - a modern Australian restaurant in Cairns (Queensland) where you can experience a unique new cuisine utilizing Australia's indigenous foods
Tumbeela - grower and supplier of fine culinary bush herbs, fresh, frozen or dried, to top restaurants and gourmet cooks
Barbushco - grower and supplier of dried bush herbs, pasta, tea and other bush food products
Spice Magazine - the new magazine for the foodies of Western Australia

For online spice orders, visit the above suppliers, Bush Tucker Shop or Vic Cherikoff Online Store. For Perth shoppers, Action Supermarkets, The Grocer of Nedlands and the Re Store offer a range of bush spices.

Recipes for Bush Spices
Chef Benjamin Christie
Chef Vic Cherikoff

Note: South Park style cartoon characters created using "South Park Studio 2".

Read more...

Paper Chef #12 - Orange Basil Seed Champagne Jelly

An exquisite licorice tasting orange juice and champagne jelly. The jelly comprises 2 layers: a honey layer with basil seeds, and a herbed layer with sprigs of fresh fennel and finely chopped fresh lavender leaves. Compared to basil leaves, basil seeds on their own taste bland. The black seeds swell up on soaking in water to white gelatinous balls with black crunchy centres. After soaking, the seeds readily take on the flavours of the jelly. The intense licorice taste of the jelly comes from a combination of fennel seed, aniseed and aniseed myrtle.

This jelly forms the top of the bush tucker lamb parfait for Paper Chef #12. General instructions follow.

Ingredients

2 teaspoon basil seed (from the oriental shops)
2 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon honey
1/2-3/4 cup orange juice (freshly squeeze from 1 large orange)
4-6 aniseed myrtle leaves, ground (or 1 teaspoon ground aniseed/fennel seed)
1/2 -1 teaspoon aniseed, ground
1/2 -1 teaspoon fennel seeds, ground
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
3 teaspoon gelatine
3/4-1 cup sparkling white wine
sprigs of fresh fennel leaves
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped lavender leaves

Soak the basil seeds water until they expand into white gelatinised balls resembling tadpoles. Add the honey.

Warm the orange juice. Soak the aniseed myrtle, ground aniseed, fennel seed and orange zest in the juice for 10 minutes to infuse. Adjust the liquorice taste to liking with ground aniseed or fennel seed. Strain the juice and make up 100 mL with more orange juice. Warm lightly and then add the gelatine. When the gelatine dissolves, divide into half.

To one half of the gelatine mix, top up with champagne to make 1/2 a cup of jelly. Add the chopped lavender. Place sprigs of fennel leaves over the the lamb in the mould. Pour 1/2 the jelly over enough to cover the fennel. Refrigerate for 10 minutes until the jelly is partly set. Add more fennel leaves and pour over the rest of the jelly. Refrigerate another 10 minutes.

To the remaing half gelatine mix, add the soaked basil seed and top up to 1/2 cup with sparkling white wine. Pour into the mould. Refrigerate until set.

Champagne Jelly for Dessert:
The champagne jelly makes a wonderful dessert as part of a cheese course. To complete Paper Chef #12 ingredients, cubed sourdough pain perdu (French toast), sprinkled with sesame seeds to resemble lamington, substitutes for lamb ("lamb-ington"), and whitebait tapenade paste as a spread makes up the fish sauce component. Below is a serving suggestion for the jelly:



Related Articles:

Paper Chef #9 - Glazed Wattleseed Figs
Akudjura Tapenade
Australian Bush Herbs - lemon and aniseed myrtle
Paper Chef #12 - On a Budget
Paper Chef #12 - Ingredients
Paper Chef #12 - Bush Tucker Lamb
Paper Chef #12 - Orange Basil Seed Champagne Jelly
Paper Chef #12 - Sauces

Read more...

Paper Chef #12 - Bush Tucker Lamb

A beautiful green marbled lamb parfait with orange basil seed champagne jelly. The dish features Australian bush herbs and spices. The aroma is intensely pernod/anise and citrus with hints of nuts and coffee from the wattleseeds. The dish goes with the whitebait tapenade sauce as part of Paper Chef #12. The recipe follows.

Ingredients

2 kg meaty lamb bones or thick forequarter pieces (shanks are a better choice if budget permits)
1 tablespoon ground roasted wattleseed (or substitute coffee grounds)
1 teaspoon mountain pepper berries (or substitute juniper berries)
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic, chopped
1 strip of orange zest (or orange blossom essence at end of cooking)
2 lemon myrtle leaves (or substitute lime leaves, lemon zest, lemon grass)
2-4 aniseed myrtle leaves (or pinch of ground aniseed or fennel seed)
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley (strong tasting basil is not recommended)
2 tablespoon finely chopped chives
2 tablespoon orange juice
4 tablespoon dry white wine

Blanch the lamb in boiling water and rinse. Place the blanched lamb in a pot of fresh water together with the wattleseed, mountain pepper berries, onion and garlic. Simmer for 2 hours until tender.

Remove the lamb and let cool before picking off the meat. Strain the cooking liquid and discard the pulp. Return the liquid to the pan and boil until the liquid reduces to about 1 cup and looks thick. Add the orange zest, lemon myrtle and aniseed myrtle. Boil for another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stand for 15 minutes. Discard the zest and leaves. Skim off the fat when cool.

Combine the remaining ingredients with the lamb meat. Season to taste. Press into a lined loaf tin. Refrigerate at least 5 hours or overnight until set. Pour over the champagne jelly and basil seeds mixture and refrigerate until the jelly sets.

To serve, turn out from the tin and slice. Pipe a spiral of whitebait tapenade sauce on a plate. Neatly arrange a lamb slice over the sauce. Serve with melba toasts and a side sauce dish of yoghurt cream. Recommended with glazed wattleseed figs from Paper Chef #9.



Related Articles:

Paper Chef #9 - Glazed Wattleseed Figs
Akudjura Tapenade
Australian Bush Herbs - lemon and aniseed myrtle
Paper Chef #12 - On a Budget
Paper Chef #12 - Ingredients
Paper Chef #12 - Bush Tucker Lamb
Paper Chef #12 - Orange Basil Seed Champagne Jelly
Paper Chef #12 - Sauces

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Paper Chef #12 - Sauces

Whitebait Tapenade Sauce

A very aromatic sauce (with hints of citrus and licorice) carried in olive oil instead of butter, perhaps better called Cafe de Perth EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), as an analogue of Cafe de Paris Butter.

4 tablespoon dried baby whitebait (anchovies)
4 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra
1 strip orange peel
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1 aniseed myrtle leaf, slivered (or substitute 1/2 teaspoon aniseed)
1 lemon myrtle leaf, slivered (or substitute lime leaves, lemon zest, lemon grass)
4 tablespoon akudjura tapenade (a vegan bush tomato tapenade described in a previous post)

Rinse the whitebait to remove excess salt and dry well. Gently fry the fish in the olive oil until crispy. Strain the oil and top up to 1/2 cup with fresh olive oil. Add the herbs and spices and gently heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 30 minutes for the herbs and spices to infuse.

Mill the fried fish to a fine paste. Add the tapenade and mill. Press the paste through a sieve. Remove 1 tablespoon and adjust with infused olive oil to a smooth flowing consistency for piping. Put the remaining in a sauce dish for use as a dip.



Yoghurt Cream
Drain 1 1/2 cup of low fat yoghurt in a strainer overnight to thicken. Add 1 tablespoon chopped dill gherkins, 1 tablespoon chopped chives, 1 tablespoon fresh fennel leaves, 1 teaspoon tarragon, 1 chopped lemon myrtle leaf. Place in a sauce dish or egg cup.

Melba Toast
Thinly slice (0.5 cm) a sesame crusted French stick and bake at 180 degrees celsius for 10-15 minutes. Brush with aniseed myrtle, ginger and onion olive oil infusion.

Glazed Wattleseed Figs
See Paper Chef #9


Related Articles:

Paper Chef #9 - Glazed Wattleseed Figs
Akudjura Tapenade
Australian Bush Herbs - lemon and aniseed myrtle
Paper Chef #12 - On a Budget
Paper Chef #12 - Ingredients
Paper Chef #12 - Bush Tucker Lamb
Paper Chef #12 - Orange Basil Seed Champagne Jelly
Paper Chef #12 - Sauces

Read more...

Paper Chef #12 - On a Budget

The Paper Chef challenge is invented by Owen at Tomatilla. The secret ingredients for this month's gruelling challenge for internet home cooks, professionals and dreamers, as announced by previous month's winners, Mrs D and Chopper Dave at Belly Timber:
Fish sauce, basil, orange, and lamb

Ingredients Selection
Whitebait tapenade for fish sauce...



Basil seeds for texture in place of basil...



B-grade oranges, and finally cheap lamb bones and forequarter pieces at AUD$1.99 per kilo ....



... for a budget of AUD$5.00, together with a bit of imagination becomes what??

Charcuterie, French for pate, sausages, preserved meats and terrine, which makes Russell Blaikie's "Must Winebar Restaurant" in Perth famous, is a great choice for a budget dish. The proposed dish transformed a frugal cut of lamb into a restaurant meal easily costing 5 times more. Although the end result looks simple, cooking took 2 days.

Here it is:

Bush Tucker Lamb Parfait with Orange Basil Seed Champagne Jelly and Whitebait Tapenade Sauce



A pernod/anise and citrus tasting lamb equivalent of the French jambon persille, which is a ham terrine with parsley. The lamb is accentuated by nutty and coffee tasting wattleseed. The dish, which features Australian bush herbs and spices, pairs well with the honey glazed wattleseed figs from Paper Chef #9.
See recipe >>

An exquisite licorice tasting orange juice and champagne jelly tops the lamb parfait. The jelly comprises 2 layers: a honey layer with basil seeds, and a herbed layer with sprigs of fresh fennel and finely chopped fresh lavender leaves. Compared to basil leaves, basil seeds on their own taste bland. The black seeds swell up on soaking in water to white gelatinous balls with black crunchy centres. After soaking, the seeds readily take on the flavours of the jelly. The intense licorice taste of the jelly comes from a combination of fennel seed, aniseed and aniseed myrtle.
See recipe >>



The whitebait tapenade sauce, with subtle fennel and citrus flavours, complements the lamb. The tapenade itself acts as dip for the accompanients to the lamb parfait. The sauce is considered an olive oil variant of Cafe de Paris Butter Sauce, where butter carries a complex range of herbs and spices.
See recipe >>



The lamb parfait is intended as part of a charcuterie ensemble consisting:

Pickled gerkins (cornichons)
Radishes
Fried fish (goujon) or whitebait fritters (mix fish with tempura batter and deep fry)
Pate (mushroom or chicken liver)
Camembert or other cheeses
Toasted bread (French bread or lavash)
Glazed wattleseed figs from Paper Chef #9



The Taste Test
The jellied stock tasted really beautiful, like a cross between a Chinese red braising sauce and a spiced Middle Eastern coffee. The sweet, cooling licorice effect was barely detectable even though overall, in the lamb, the aroma was pernod like. The hints of nuts and coffee from the wattleseeds worked really well with the citrus.

However the parsley in the lamb was a bit too much. The beautiful green marble look could be produced using less parsley and adding ground pepitas (pumpkin seeds) or green pistachio nuts.

The champagne jelly not only look sensational, but the licorice, citrus and honey aromas can only be described as WOW! The refreshing taste nicely balanced the more earthy taste of the lamb. Although, the jelly could be a bit sweeter to balance the salt in the lamb.

The whitebait tapenade sauce on its own tasted delicious like a highly seasoned Thai fish cake with olives and lemongrass (from the lemon myrtle leaves). The sauce sort of removed the gamey taste of the lamb. The citrus and subtle anise flavours also worked well with the lamb.

Overall, thumbs up to a very pleasant combination of flavours. Perhaps this is Noodle Cook's best Paper Chef effort yet, despite another "fusion" mishap with the jelly falling off the lamb. Not bad, for a budget of AUD$5.00!

Note: The quantity of lamb was doubled to make full use of the long cooking time. The budget was for the secret ingredients only.

Related Articles:

Paper Chef #9 - Glazed Wattleseed Figs
Akudjura Tapenade
Australian Bush Herbs - lemon and aniseed myrtle
Paper Chef #12 - On a Budget
Paper Chef #12 - Ingredients
Paper Chef #12 - Bush Tucker Lamb
Paper Chef #12 - Orange Basil Seed Champagne Jelly
Paper Chef #12 - Sauces

Read more...