Tuesday, May 25, 2010

TASMANIAN PEPPERBERRIES

I've just got a new lot of pepperberries in, please let me know if you need any as they are a seasonal thing. Pepperberries can be used just like you would your normal pepper in a grinder.

They are fairly hot so use with a little care at first. They have a faint eucalyptus aroma which reminds your of the Australian bush, I use the berries and the leaf all the time in my cooking and absolutely love it.

Mountain pepperleaf comes from the same bush, it's just the leaf that is ground to a fine power, sprinkle onto food or as you're cooking, perhaps not so strong as the berries, but still with it's own unique flavour.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Exciting Bushfood workshops - 15th May

CERES Nursery in Brunswick in Melbourne is holding a workshop on growing indigenous plants. I have been to CERES community environment part many times and enjoyed the odd cup of coffee there. It's a wonderful place to visit. CERES holds a huge range of workshops and this one in particular, I think, is well-worth attending.

Interested in growing indigenous plants and edible bush food plants?

This is an inspiring and informative workshop in which you will be immersed in the taste, texture and tantalising variety of our native food plants.

The teacher, Justin Caverley, is a landscape designer with 15 years experience in the horticulture industry. He has taught regular CERES workshops in organic gardening, fruit tree pruning, indigenous plants and Permaculture. Justin has extensive property design experience
and has also worked at the CERES Nursery. Justin is a regular broadcaster on 3RRR's "Dirty
Deeds", and presenter on Ch 31's "The Garden Tap".

FOR MORE INFO go to their website www.ceres.org.au

Friday, April 23, 2010

ROSELLAS

My friend, Marie, rang me the other day to come and collect some rosellas, they were ready to be picked.  She had a good crop and they looked great, bright red fruit against the green leaves.

She planted the seeds in January, they grow quickly and are now ready to harvest.  I'm putting some in this year from the seeds that come from these rosellas.    They grow to a nice thick bush... I did see some some elswhere that where very leafy, but no fruit, maybe too much nitrogen was added!!

Anyway, I duly picked and then seperated the calix from the seed pod, that's a job in itself, then settled down in front of the telly with a glass of wine and a bucket of rosellas,.... the red calix (the part to be cooked) is now in the freezer to be cooked at a later date!!  The bright green seed pods are being dried...I post pics as they come to hand.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

PEREGIAN MARKET, SUNSHINE COAST

Yes, It's nearly Easter, just days away now....remember to support the Bilby when you think of Easter treats....I know that the bunny has developed into quite a character over the years and the silver foiled chocolate images with bright smiling faces and 2 big teeth do look cute....but the Bilby is one of our native animals and does need your support and protection. Keep it in mind.

I'll be at the Peregian Market, on the Sunshine Coast, this Sunday with a lot of Outback Chef products, if you're around please stop buy and say hello.

Have a safe and happy Easter break
Jude

Sunday, March 21, 2010

COOKING IN PAPERBARK



It's Sunday afternoon, and here on the Sunshine Coast we've had wind, rain, heat and humidity and now it's quiet, the birds are out and the hum of the lawnmovers are trying to make an overgrown paddock into a lawn again...... and we'v decided to go for a BBQ with my favourite fish, coral trout, cooked in paperbark.

Paperbark gives a wonderful smokey flavour to the fish, very Aussie bush type stuff and it's simple to do.....the paperbark trees are shedding now, so go find some, peel off the tree, give it a wash and soak in water, then put around your favourite fish and vegetables....I usually lay a few pieces around it (make sure the paperbark is wet) and then instead of tying with string wrap the whole thing up in foil....on the BBQ in the oven it's all good. Potatoes, or any vegetables also have a great flavour with paperbark.

If you click on the link about you'll go to my Making Tracks site and I've done a bit of a pictorial show bit by bit of the cook.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Cooking with Quandongs


The flavour of Quandongs is quite subtle so don't cook them with other strong flavoured ingrediants, eg bush tomatoes, lemon myrtle etc., but you can incorporate them with spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and wattleseed.

You can also cook them with plums, apricots, peaches, apples and pears if you want to do a little fruit compote, chop in a few bananas if you wish......I've put chopped bananas in a pan with some brown sugar and cinnamon and just cooked them until the brown sugar has dissolved a bit and the bananas are soft then added them to the stewed quandongs...add some ice cream and drizzle some of the red quandong juice over...tastes pretty good, a great addition to that is some chopped walnuts not only for flavour, but also texture, otherwise it's all squish...if you know what I mean.

For stir frys etc where you might add the usual garlic, ginger, soy combo, you could also toss in a few quandongs there.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

ABOUT QUANDONGS


I love the name Quandongs and it seems to get everyone in.......I've had a lot of people ask me how to cook them .....they're a bit like cooking rubarb, you need to add a fair bit of sugar as they are fairly sour if you want to stew them to eat over cereal or as a desert with ice-cream.

Often known as the desert or native peach, although they're not a bit like them in look or flavour the name goes back to the days of the European settlers. It's a tart fruit with a large pitted kernel.

The Quandong is now grown as a commercial crop and the CSIRO have been studying it since 1973 to find out the ideal growing conditions...the quandong moth is a bit of a problem and when you buy them in dried version keep them in a cool and dry place.

The fruit itself is very high in Vitamin C (twice that of oranges) and has been a staple food in the outback for the Aboriginal people.

The best way to store Quandongs is in the dried form and to reconstitute put into cold water...approx 1 cup quandong to 1 ltre of water, simmer for a few minutes then leave to soak a few hours, or ideally in the fridge overnight. They will plump up to over twice their size and weight.

The liquid used for this can be boiled up with equal parts sugar to create a syrup and used over ice-cream or other deserts...."waste not want not" it's a fantastic bright red and so looks great drizzeled around the plate.

more on Quandongs and cooking tomorrow......

Saturday, January 30, 2010

What happened to last week??


Hi,

Australia Day came and went so fast as did last week, I think having a public holiday on Tuesday confused everyone. I've been spending a lot of time upgrading the Outback Chef site, it's starting to look good, although it's a bit like house-keeping, the job is never done, you always see something new. But if you do have any ideas or suggestions for improvement, please let me know.

I got a heap of Mountain Pepper leaf in a few days back, the fantastic smell seems to overpower everything else. The pic in this blog is mountain pepper leaf growing in Tasmania.

There won't be any more pepperberries available until next season now, which will be towards the end of April. If you need any let me know and I'll put it on back order.

Have a great week,
Jude

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

AUSTRALIA DAY

I hope that you all have a great Australia Day today and stay safe on the roads.

We are going to celebrate very simply with a BBQ and cook some Spanish Mackeral that a friend just caught on the beautiful Coolum coast. I'm going to cook it in foil with some lemon myrtle and mountain pepper plus plus, I'll take some pics and let you know how it goes.


Have a great day
Jude

Saturday, January 23, 2010

MOUNTAIN PEPPER LEAF



Here's a simple bush food idea to try..........

I had a customer tell me the other day he had tried Outback Chef's mountain pepper leaf on a mash of sweet potato and it was fantastic.

Mountain Pepper is a shrub that grows in the wet areas of SE Australia. The pepper leaf is dried and can be used in the same way as any other pepper would be used. The pepper berries from this plant can be added to a pepper mill and again used in the same way as you'd grind the black pepper. It's really hot and also has a slight eucalyptus flavour which adds to the enjoyment.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Growing Bush tomatoes and smokey water


An "old bushie" told me the other day that if you smoke some water and put it on your bush tomatoes they grow well. Bush tomatoes, as we know, grow in the heat of the desert and need a good bushfire to propogate. Now if you take your billy-can and put it over a fire and allow the smoke of the fire to get in the water then when its cold water your bush tomatoes, they will love it and prosper!

The bush tomatoes pictured opposite are the dried version, you can buy them from www.makingtracks.com.au. When using grind them first.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Coral Trout cooked in paperbark


If you want to try some bush food, why not get yourself a fish, vegetable, peel some paperbark off a tree and cook it over the BBQ.....this recipe is delicious and simple to prepare......if you go to www.makingtracks.com.au (or click on Outback Chef logo opposite) for a full pictorial step by step guide. Let me know what you think.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Bush Tomatoes




I've just got some new bush tomatoes in, they were a little hard to get last year due to climatic conditions. Bush Tomatoes are still native harvested and most of the time are dried in the sun.


Bush tomatoes grow in the desert areas of Australia they are an important crop and one of the Aboriginal people's most precious fruit.

The plants will grow in force for a few seasons and then dry off waiting for the next bushfire to regenerate. Aboriginal women collect these fruits when dried in their coolamuns (a carved wooden dish) grind them to a fine powder add water to form a paste, roll them into balls to be dried again and stored in the trees for use later, this way they would keep for many months.

The fruit, after drying in the sun, looks like a raisin and is a reddish/brown colour. They can make you ill if you eat too many of them when they are fresh, the drying process reduces the level of alkaloids in the fruit.

The bush tomato has a spicy flavour and can be used in many recipes. For recipe ideas go to www.bushfoodrecipes.com.au