Category Archives for "Recipes"

White bean cassoulet

White bean cassoulet

Serves: 4

Difficulty:1hat
Ingredients
Yarras Grove olive oil for frying
a tablespoon butter
100g diced carrot
100g diced turnip
100g diced potato
100g diced sweet potato
100g diced Spanish onion
100g diced celery
200g white beans
½ teaspoon Alpine Pepper
2 litres vegetable stock
a generous pinch salt
Continental parsley

Method

1. In a large pot, drizzle in the olive oil and butter and sauté the celery, carrot and onion
2. allow the vegetables to caramelise and season with salt, if desired
3. add the vegetable stock, then the remaining vegetables
4. bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes or until the potatoes are soft

Styling

1. Serve in a traditional cassoulet dish with a lid or a individual soup bowls
2. garnish with chopped parsley
3. serve with Riberry and blue cheese damper

Notes

A cassoulet is traditionally a rich, hearty stew of various meat and or beans with a mix of starchy and aromatic vegetables and herbs.

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Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of White bean cassoulet is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbookwhich can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.

Episode: Hydro Majestic Hotel in the Blue Mountains

Recipe By: Benjamin Christie

Benjamin ChristieA cassoulet is traditionally a rich, hearty stew of various meats and or beans with a mix of starchy and aromatic vegetables and herbs. Use any root vegetables you can get including parsnips, swedes, yams or even beetroot. You can obviously add other flavourings too but remember, the damper has plenty of complexity of taste.

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Wattleseed crocodile with riberry confit

Wattleseed crocodile with riberry confit

Serves: 4

Difficulty:1hat
Ingredients

1 kg crocodile tail fillet (bone out and trimmed)
60g Wattleseed
Outback Salt
1 piece damp paperbark, appropriately thinned
string or cooking twine
80g Riberry Confit

Method

1. In a bowl, sprinkle the crocodile with the wattle to evenly coat the meat and lightly season with salt
2. roll the meat to form a log shape and set in the middle of the paperbark sheet; wrap well and tie securely
3. place in a microwave dish and cook on high (750W) for 5 minutes; rest for 5 minutes, invert the roll and cook a further 5 minutes on high; alternatively, poach in a steam oven until firm to touch, although this will give a drier result as the juices tend to run with prolonged cooking
4. chill overnight then remove the bark from the required amount of crocodile (re-wrap and chill the remainder)
5. machine slice the crocodile to 2mm thickness

Styling

Fan out 35 to 40g portions around the plate. Serve with the Riberry Confit garnish.
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Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of Wattleseed crocodile with riberry confit is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbook which can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.

Episode: Lillipilli in the Rocks

Recipe By: Vic Cherikoff

Vic CherikoffThere is a satisfaction in eating something that wouldn’t think twice about eating you, given half the chance! And harvesting crocodiles for meat is part of good resource management. One of the few flavours which enhances rather than overwhelms the very subtle, fishy-chicken flavour of crocodile is wattle. This is one occasion that wattle is used dry as a seasoning rather than more commonly being boiled first to soften the grounds and extract its characteristic flavour.

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Twice baked goats cheese soufflé

Twice baked goats cheese soufflé

Serves: 4

Difficulty:Twice baked goats cheese soufflé title=
Ingredients

40g butter
225ml milk
1 bay leaf
1 pinch grated nutmeg
½ onion, sliced
40g flour
175g ripe goat’s cheese
4×60g eggs separated
½ teaspoon Alpine Pepper
150ml cream

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. using a thick bottomed pan melt the butter slowly
3. in a separate pan warm the milk, bay leaf, nutmeg and onion gently
4. add the flour to the butter and cook out for about 1 minute, stirring
5. add the soft goats cheese and stir until it combines
6. add the egg yolks
7. whip the egg whites in an electric mixer, a good tip when working with egg whites is to wipe the bowl out with a lemon half, and start the egg whites off slowly; this helps them to take in more air, then turn the speed to full until the whites are firm and you could upturn the bowl above your head without wearing egg on your face
8. add the milk to the cheese mixture and cook out, stirring until all the lumps have gone; season with the Alpine Pepper and then take the pan off the heat so that it cools down
9. butter and flour six moulds
10. fold in one spoonful of the whipped egg whites at a time, so that you don’t lose the aeration, be gentle and the result will be great
11. spoon the mixture into the moulds and place in a deep tray; add boiling water ¾ way up the sides of the moulds
12. put them in the pre heated oven for about twenty minutes; remove and allow to cool

Styling

When it is time to serve the soufflés, pour the cream over them and place them back in the oven until warm. I like to serve these soufflés with a really peppery, rocket (choose the older leaves rather than baby rocket which is too mild for this dish) and dress it with a balsamic reduction and some diced fresh chilli.
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Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of Twice baked goats cheese soufflé is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbook which can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.

Episode: The Cowrie Restaurant Terrigal Beach

Recipe By: Mark McCluskey

Mark McCluskeyExperiment with this dish; add what ever you want to the soufflé, sweet or savory it doesn’t matter. And try the more ripen cheeses which can handle other strong flavours Unlike a conventional souffle which is light and fluffy, this twice cooked version is a little more substantial and well as being delicious.

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Three cheese corn fritters with a paperbark smoked beetroot jam

Three cheese corn fritters with a paperbark smoked beetroot jam

Serves: 4

Difficulty:Three cheese corn fritters with a paperbark smoked beetroot jam title=

Three cheese corn fritters with a paperbark smoked beetroot jam
If you have trouble finding the Australian flavoured cheeses in your local supermarket, try adding a selection of Australian Herbs and Seasonings to ordinary cheddar.

Ingredients

For the fritters (corn cakes)

500g self raising flour
150ml milk
1 egg
60g Akudjura cheddar
60g Australian mint cheddar
60g Mountain pepper cheddar
1 cob fresh corn

For the beetroot jam

1 large beetroot (beets)
Paperbark roll
100ml white balsamic vinegar
100ml dark balsamic vinegar
80g sugar
Garnish
30g rocket (arugula)

Method

Beetroot jam

1. In a camp oven lined with damp paperbark, place the diced beetroot, fit the lid and set over medium heat for 40-50 minutes of until the beetroot is soft and fully smoked
2. in a saucepan combine both vinegars and the sugar and begin to reduce the volume by half
2. add the paperbark smoked beetroot and continue cooking to make a thick jam; stir as needed

Corn fritters

1. Peel the corn and poach in hot water until done.
2. in a mixing bowl combine the flour, milk and eggs to make a pancake batter consistency
3. chop or grate the cheeses and add into the mix
4. in a lightly oiled hot pan make pancake sized fritters
5. place on a grease proof sheet until ready to serve

Styling

Stack three fritters using some beetroot jam as the ‘food glue’. Garnish the plate with dobs of jam and top the fritters with the rocket

 

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Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of Three cheese corn fritters with a paperbark smoked beetroot jam is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbook which can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.

Episode: Alberts Lakeside Restaurant Norwest Sydney

Recipe By: Benjamin Christie

Benjamin ChristieThere are a growing number of Australian companies now making cheeses flavoured with Australian herbs and spices. These include fetta, soft cheeses, cheddars and club cheese made from milk from cows, ewes and goats (rather than wallabies, wallaroos and wombats, which are all pretty hard to milk since none of them like to stand still long enough). However, a substitute for the ready-made, flavoured cheeses would be to use your choice of light flavoured cheddar and add Australian seasonings to the fritters, say, a heaped teaspoon of Akudjura or of any of Vic’s savoury seasonings.

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Sydney Salad

Sydney Salad

Serves: 4

Difficulty: 1hat
Ingredients

For the salad

500g mesclun salad mix including rocket, radicchio, coral, coz, cresses,
100g snow pea sprouts and edible petals
6 Boiled quail eggs
12 cocktail tomatoes
1 avocado, sliced
50g pomegranate seeds
15g Riberry Confit
5 slices of prosciutto – try to find emu or roo proscuitto
50g croutons

For the dressing

1 punnet of strawberries
½ teaspoon Fruit Spice
1 teaspoon Alpine Pepper

Method

1. Prepare the dressing by blending the strawberries to a purée
2. microwave about 3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl or cup until it is quite hot but not boiling and steep the seasonings in it; allow to cool a little and add this mix to the strawberry
purée (if the strawberries were chilled you can combine it all together right off)
3. cut the carrot lengthwise carefully and fashion a long spear which you pass through appropriately cut holes in the bases of carefully separated witlof leaves which you arrange to make like the Opera House sails; store this garnish in cold water until you need it

Styling

Arrange your salad on a platter and set the garnish in place. Scatter the accompaniments around the salad including the slices of proscuitto and pour on the dressing generously before finishing with the croutons. Obviously leave these and possibly the garnish as well if you are preparing the salad way ahead of time, although if you carefully plastic wrap the all-but-croutoned salad, it will be fine; just add the croutons prior to serving.
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Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of Sydney Salad is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbook which can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.

Salt and pepper yabbie skewers

Salt and pepper yabbie skewers

Serves: 4

Difficulty:1hat
Ingredients

20 yabbies (prawns, shrimp or squid)
100g rice flour or breadcrumb
5g salt
10g Alpine Pepper
80g rocket (arugula) or mizuna leaves
2-3 litres vegetable oil
skewers

Method

Start out by freezing your catch for 2 hours immediately before the preparation.

Begin by heating up vegetable oil in a deep pot on the stove. Take a lot of care when deep frying and watch the protruding handle on some pots since bumping it can splash the oil and lead to a fire. I like to use vegetable or peanut oil as the plain flavours don’t over-power the subtle flavours of the seafood. (Vic tells me that they also have a higher smoke point than olive or other nut oils so you reduce the oxidation of the fats and this makes them better for deep frying.)

Remove the head from each yabby and peel off the shell by snipping the edges of the shells with kitchen scissors. You can reserve the shells and heads, roast them and make a delicious stock or bisque (not needed for this recipe) so freeze everything but the tail meat for up to a few weeks until
you need it.

Depending on the size of each yabbie, you may need 5-6 smaller tails per skewer or 2 – 3 larger ones. Mix the salt & pepper with the rice flour and coat the skewered yabbies generously.

Before you cook the yabbies, you’ll need to test the heat of the oil. As we demonstrated on the show, you can do this by placing a skewer in the heated oil. If bubbles come out of the end of the
skewer, the oil is hot enough. Lower the yabbies into the hot oil, they will need only 2-3 minutes to cook and the coating should be golden brown. Drain on paper toweling to soak up any excess oil.

Styling

Arrange the skewers as shown or simply stack them and serve with a small salad.

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Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of Salt and pepper yabbie skewers is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbook which can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.

Episode: Margaret River and restaurant Vat 107

Recipe By: Benjamin Christie

Benjamin ChristieLate at night down in Chinatown, many restaurants serve up this treat using either fresh prawns or squid in their own unique salt and Szechwan pepper blends. I thought yabbies would bring sweetness to the dish giving it a further dimension. Nowadays, most fish shops and seafood markets in Australia have live yabbies available or you can catch your own in farm dams and most of our larger inland rivers. Try this recipe with chicken strips as well.

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Riberry and Blue Cheese Damper

Riberry and Blue Cheese Damper

Serves: 6

Difficulty: 1hat

Ingredients

800g self raising flour
250ml milk (approximately – this changes with the humidity so plus or minus 50 ml)
a pinch of salt
50g Riberry Confit
100g blue cheese

Method

1. pre-heat the oven (and the camp oven, if you’re using one)
2. Sift the self raising flour and salt into a bowl
3. add milk to the flour and salt to make a soft dough without over-working the mix, it should be just incorporated and as airy as possible
4. add the riberries and coarsely broken up blue cheese to the dough
5. shape into a round loaf
6. sprinkle a little flour to the camp oven to check the heat and lessen the damper sticking or use a floured, shallow, 25cm round, cake tin if just oven baking
7. bake at 180°C for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the loaf makes a hollow sound when tapped or put the heated lid on the camp oven and either bake in the oven or place the camp oven onto hot coals and add more hot coals onto the lid; if there’s a wind blowing replace the coals regularly and pile up some extra hot coals on the lee side as this will cool off and make the baking un-even; also turn the camp oven to help distribute the heat

Styling

Serve hot or warm with or without butter and either pull apart to rough chunks for dunking or slice it up for spreading.

Notes
Damper was the mainstay of the early settlers in Australia. They used water, bi-carb and a coarse flour occasionally ‘stretched’ with flour milled from wild seeds or nuts. But Aborigines have been cooking this way for tens of thousands of years before them and they tool to wheat flour damper readily instead of collecting and milling the far more nutritious wild seeds (it was back-breaking, laborious work). To cook in, the settlers carried heavy, cast iron camp ovens* whereas the Aborigines had developed quite sophisticated baking methods using nothing more than an open fire, hot coals and the heated ground under the fire.

  • Cast iron camp ovens also often broke on the rough roads and to address this, a ringer from Bedourie Station developed a much lighter, pressed steel one, now known as a Bedourie oven.

 

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Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of Riberry and Blue Cheese Damper is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbook which can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.

Kangaroo striploin tartlet with sweet potato and bush tomato jus

Kangaroo striploin tartlet with sweet potato and bush tomato jus

Serves: 8

Difficulty:Kangaroo striploin tartlet with sweet potato and bush tomato jus title=
Ingredients

1 kangaroo striploin
200g sweet potato
20g akudjura
80ml game jus
20g Wildfire Spice
20 pastry cases
2g Outback Salt
2g pepper
20g butter
50ml cream

Method

1. Peel and roughly chop the kumara, then place into a small pot together with cold water and a little salt; bring to the boil, then simmer for 35 minutes
2. season the kangaroo fillet with salt and pepper, then sear on a hot grill or BBQ and cook on the hot plate or in an oven until medium rare; season with Wildfire Spice while it rests for as long as it took to cook
3. in a sauce pan combine the ground akudjura with game jus; bring to the boil and simmer, allowing the bush tomato flavour to infuse
4. strain the kumara, then mash and combine with butter and cream

Styling

To serve, place a little sweet potato mash in the base of the tart shell, then place a slice of kangaroo on top and
finish with a drizzle of bush tomato jus.

 

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Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of Kangaroo striploin tartlet with sweet potato and bush tomato jus is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbook which can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.

Japanese pumpkin frittata served with bush tomato chutney

Japanese pumpkin frittata served with bush tomato chutney

Serves: 4

Difficulty: 
Ingredients

1 large Japanese pumpkin
3 large zucchini
1 large eggplant
3 large red capsicums
6 eggs
250ml cream
1 bunch wild rocket
1 pkt bush tomato chutney
1 set Cherikoff herbs and spices

Method

1. rub the pumpkin with oil and sprinkle with salt; place in the oven 180°C for 30-40 minutes
2. while it is cooking slice the vegetables and char grill them until soft, turning often
3. whisk the eggs and add the cream and Alpine Pepper
4. scoop the seeds from the pumpkin and season the inside flesh with Fruit Spice – this really brings up the fruity notes of pumpkin and adds a lot to the finished dish
5. begin layering the vegetables using a different spice on each layer – I used Australian Wildfire SpiceRed Desert DustLemon Myrtle and Rainforest Rub on the layers
6. pour in your egg mixture and place in the oven at 180°C for about 20-30 minutes
7. test if it is cooked by lightly shaking the tray; if the centre doesn’t wobble it is ready or you could use the old trick of sticking a skewer in the centre if it comes out clean it’s done
8. wash the rocket in cold water and shake dry
9. Cut a slice of the Fritta and serve with bush tomato chutney on the side.

Notes

Check the pumpkin every 15 minutes and if it starts to crack turn the oven down because if it springs too many leeks the egg mix will just form an omelette all over the baking tray. I’ve had it
happen

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Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of Japanese pumpkin frittata served with bush tomato chutney is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbook which can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.

Ginger prawn and noodle salad

Ginger prawn and noodle salad

Serves: 4

Difficulty:Ginger prawn and noodle salad title=
Ingredients:

Salad:

1 packet vermicelli glass noodles (rice or mung bean)
20 green prawns or shrimp, no heads or tails, peeled and de-veined
10ml olive oil
15ml light soy sauce
200g snow peas shoots, chopped
100g bean sprouts
80g snow peas, coarsely chopped
50g macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
50g shiitake mushrooms, coarsely chopped

Dressing

80ml lemon aspen syrup
15ml white wine vinegar
2 to 6 chillies (depending on their heat and size), de-seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon Buderim minced ginger
¼ teaspoon Lemon Myrtle

Method:

Salad

1. Place the vermicelli noodles into boil hot water; turn the heat off and allow them to sit for 3 to 4 minutes then strain and cool with cold water
2. marinate the prawns with olive oil and light soy sauce
3. place the prawns on to a hot char-grill for about 3 to 4 minutes, turning once done
4. roast the macadamia nut pieces in a dry pan on the barbecue while constantly tossing them until the fines begin to darken; transfer them to a large mixing bowl to cool

Dressing

1. To the lemon aspen syrup, add enough of the vinegar to lessen the sweetness and give a suggestion of tartness
2. add some of the chopped chilli
3. grate a knuckle of ginger on a slab grater and squeeze a teaspoonful of the juice into the dressing
4. allow the mix to stand for the flavours to infuse

Styling:

1. Once all the prawns are cooked, combine all of the ingredients, including the dressing in the bowl with the toasted macadamia nuts
2. toss well and place on to a large serving plate and dust with Lemon Myrtle to finish.

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Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of Ginger prawn and noodle salad is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbook which can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.