All posts by Christina Soong

The Adelaide Food & Wine Festival is back – hip, hip, hooray!!

Following the success of last year’s inaugural festival, Amanda Jane Pritchard (Kooki, Ducks in a Row) is back once again steering South Australia’s (SA) newest community food and wine festival into unchartered waters.

This year, she’s pulled together a massive team of board, committee and volunteers to help share the work load, as well as bringing on board two creative directors, Gill Gordon-Smith (Fall from Grace) and Rebecca Sullivan (Dirty Girl Kitchen), who have helped to plan and program the nine-day festival.

Now regular readers will know that I don’t usually do event previews. But in this case I had to make an exception because:

1. I attended some of the festival’s events last year and they were really fun and different;
2. Amanda asked me to be on the committee this year and I need to start pulling my weight; and
3. I’m actually doing an event in the festival, which I hope some of you will be able to come to.

The festival was launched on Tuesday night in the not-yet-open East End Cellars and although I couldn’t stay too late it was a really lovely night. Everyone in the room was somehow connected to the SA food and wine industry, whether they were a producer, a wine maker, a chef, a journalist or a blogger, and everyone was there to throw their support behind Amanda and the grassroots festival she had conceived and developed. The excitement, passion and energy in the room was palpable – it’s this kind of enthusiasm and desire not to settle for the status quo that makes me so glad to be living in my hometown again.

The 2014 Festival

To get the lowdown on this year’s festival, I chatted with Amanda this morning.

Billed as a festival “by the people, for the people,” last year’s inaugural festival impressed a lot of people with the quality, diversity and size of its program. Were you expecting things to turn out as well as it did?

“Last year I thought if everything went to plan it would be OK,” says Amanda.

“There were so many different things that held us up along the way but in the end persistence paid off.”

What are the major changes between last year’s festival and this year’s?

“Having events that worked in the first year (has made things easier). When you’re doing things for the first time you have no idea how it’s going to work  out! This year, we knew we had an audience for events like The Market Feast, #EastEndWineDown, The Bacon Trail, the Coffee Crawl and the Don Dunstan Tribute. We could have run double the number of Coffee Crawls we did last year, actually. Pretty much any ticketed event that could sell out did so.

“One of the major differences  is also that we’ve been selling tickets since last year for this year’s festival whereas last year tickets went on sale only three weeks before the festival started. Also, the Pozible campaign was so good on so many levels. It was a risk in some ways but its reach alone has been amazing – it’s reached millions of people all over the world! We offered discounted tickets as a reward for pledging so it meant that we’ve already sold tickets to many festival events.”

This year you have an army of volunteers on board. 

“Yes. The board is the same as last year and the committee is pretty much the same, too, although it’s grown a bit. The real difference this year has been the volunteers – these young people, so talented, have put their hands up. I’m so fortunate – they’re  super talented, they’ve clever and they deliver. Volunteer effort and input is basically 100 times more than last year.”

Who manages all the volunteers?

“I personally manage all of them. I’m discovering new skills! I never considered myself a very good manager because I want to be a friend rather than a boss but that’s how I approach it. I sit down with each of them and I go through their resume. I ask them what do you want and why are you doing this? I give them tickets to things so they can go to some events, project manage some events and work at others.”

Which new events are you most excited about?

“Definitely the Baudin and Flinders Breakfast – the level of detail that we’re going into to make it informed and inspired by history is amazing, from the menu to the table settings to the entertainment. There’s this guy, Lance, who is 0f Head of Physics at Adelaide University. He created the Flinders’ Investigator Garden based on the work done by Robert Brown, Matthew Flinders’ botanist, who was the first person to catalogue the flora and fauna of this area. Lance is helping us to do the table settings and so on to make sure they’re all appropriate and of the era.”

“The menu will also include bacon from heritage pigs,  smoked tommy ruff, foraged and found food and a scurvy preventative!”

“The other event I’m really excited about is the Town Picnic. I’m basically trying to recreate all of my favourite memories — memories that I know other people share — of childhood.”  

Highlights of the Festival

Now I know I might annoy some people by naming favourites so let me preface this list by saying that all of the events in the program are inspired. Whether you’re crazy about food or mad about wine, you’re going to find a whole lot of things to love in this festival. Disclaimer out of the way, here are my picks – click the event name for the official info:

1) Fork on the Road 

Any self-respecting food lover in SA who hasn’t made it down to a Fork on the Road event cannot afford to miss this one. The monthly food truck meet ups are a great place to try different street food, catch up with friends and enjoy a buzzing atmosphere. No bookings necessary – simply turn up on the day and purchase food and drinks as your taste buds dictate.

2) The Bacon Trail

Richard Gunner’s passion for meat is infectious so I can’t think of a better person to lead the Bacon Trail through the Adelaide Central Market. If you love bacon, you won’t want to miss this one.  I’ve already bought tickets for my brother and his wife, actually. Book tickets.

3) Don Dunstan Tribute

For those unfamiliar with Don Dunstan, he was a pioneering Premier of SA in the 60s and 70s, and did many, many good things. For this dinner, his former apprentice, Sam Smith, now at Fino, will create a menu inspired by Don’s cookbook to be accompanied by Seppeltsfield wines. Yep, we had a premier who released a cookbook and later opened a restaurant. How awesome is that? Book tickets.

4) The Market Feast

I went to The Market Feast dinner held in the Adelaide Central Market last year and it was great fun. This year the irrepressible The Happy Motel with chef Duncan Welgemoed (Bistro Dom) are taking the reigns so it promises to be an amazing event. Go with a partner or group of friends and make a big night of it. PS Don’t forget your dancing shoes. Book tickets.

5) Think. Talk. Food>Wine

I’m really intrigued by this whole day networking/workshop/talk/debate event that Amanda & co have dreamed up. A whole line up of speakers including Stephen Yarwood, James Erskine, Festival Baron Warren Randall (Seppeltsfield), Amanda Daniel, Paul Wood and Chloe Reschke-Maguire will be debating the topic of ‘Collaboration or Competition’. I can’t wait to listen to, learn from and contribute to the discussion. This is a must-do for anyone who works in the food, wine or media industries (or who aspires to). Book tickets.

6) Town Picnic

Rymill Park. Egg and spoon races. Apple bobbing. Picnic hampers. Peter Combe and the Crunch Munch VERY Sticky Band. Classes by wine writer Max Allen and chefs Jimmy Shu (Hanuman) and Salvatore Pepe (Cibos). Dogs. Kids running around. Need I say more? I’m going take my kids — they know all the words to Newspaper Mama — and a picnic rug and make a day of it. The event is free but you can book a cooking class, reserve your wine glasses, pre-order a picnic hamper or register your dog for the dog area.

7) Eating Their Words

A few months ago Amanda asked me if I’d be interested in doing an event on blogging for the festival. So I’m excited to let you know that food writer David Sly (Gourmet Traveller, SA Life), I and chef Phil Whitmarsh will be debating food writing ethics, responsibilities and disclosure over dinner at the Daniel O’Connell. My friend George Ujvary, who has both the longest-running food blog in SA, The Foodologist, and an MA in Gastronomy from Adelaide University/Le Cordon Bleu, will be the moderator for the evening. Come along for a night of fantastic food and spirited debate about restaurant reviewing, food bloggers, social media, and the often complicated relationship between food writers, food bloggers and chefs. Book tickets.

8) Dessert Degustation

When Chantelle from Steven ter Horst told me about the dessert degustation she and Steven were planning for the festival the other night, my heart started beating faster. Now we South Australians love our desserts — we have more dessert bars in this state than ANY other state in Australia — so I’m expecting this dessert degustation to sell out quickly. Book tickets.

9) Sips in the Sticks

Popular wine writer Max Allen and 12 leading ladies of wine (Kerri Thompson, Corrina Wright, Louise Hemlsy-Smith, Sam Connew, Kate Goodman, Fran Austrin, Anna Hooper, Kim Chalmers, Rebecca Wilson, Louise Rose, Amanda James-Prichard and host Sue Bell) join together with the local Afghan community for a lunch celebrating friendship, rural life and our immigrant past. Each of the ladies will be bringing along a homemade dessert to be judged by Penola CWA President Kate Spencer and special guest Senator Penny Wong. Book tickets.

10) Porchetta Party

Back by popular demand, the Porchetta Party features food by local chef Todd Steel (see my write up of his food at last year’s Sea and Vines Festival) matched with wines from Oliver’s Taranga down in the McLaren Vale. Personally, I can’t think of a nicer way to spend a Sunday arvo. Book tickets on tel: (08) 8323 8498 or email: nicky@oliverstaringa.com.au.

There are lots of other fantastic events I didn’t have room to list here but you can check out the full program online.

So which events will you be attending? :D

 Useful information

• The Adelaide Food & Wine Festival runs from 4-13th April, 2014 in various location in the CBD and in the regions.
• The Festival program can be found around Adelaide at selected outlets or online. Tickets can be booked through EventBrite.
• The Festival is managed by a creator/director along with a board, two creative directors, a committee and team of amazing volunteers. It is run on a not-for-profit basis.

Other event posts

• Discovering Queensland’s Food Producers at the South Bank Regional Flavours Festival
• Arabian Nights Cooking Class, Chapel Hill Winery, McLaren Vale
• Dinner Under the Stars: Dubai Desert Safari
• The Breakfast Rave, Barossa Valley

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new post? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE!!

Following the Yakitori Sugar Pie dinner with chefs Adam Liston from Borrowed Space and Quang Nguyen from Devour Dessert Bar, I was back at Lola’s Pergola last Thursday for another First Fruits degustation.

Held on the banks of the Torrens River behind the Convention Centre, the dinners with the constantly changing chefs and menus have been an enormous success for curator Duncan Welgemoed and the Adelaide Festival, selling out every night.

US expat chef Gavin Baker is at the helm tonight. Gavin is the ‘Baker’ in the Walker Evans Baker Restaurant Group, a company responsible for a series of Melbourne restaurants including Bar Nacional. He was previously sous-chef at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck and also worked at La Cote Basque in New York (one of the settings in Truman Capote’s unfinished Answered Prayers) and at Justin Timberlake’s restaurant, Chi, in LA.

Tonight’s dinner forms part of Gavin’s The Mist Project, described as a “guerrilla restaurant that produces incredible food and an incredible experience as it travels across the globe.”

My dining companions tonight are Natasha, Celeste and Kevin. The setting sun is bathing the tables in its bewitching light.

These are some of the wines we’ll be drinking tonight. Wines —  the 2013 Ochota Barrels Surfer Rosa, the 2013 Jauma Blewitt Springs Chenin Blanc, the 2013 Jauma Chardonnay, the 2013 Ochota Barrels ‘A Forest’ Pinot Noir and a fresh pressed Basket Ranges cider — have been matched to each course and other wines are available for purchase.

First up, we enjoy a Welcome Cocktail by Andy Cameron.

The cocktail is an enchanting mix of Hills Hoist charred fig wine, apple juice, West Winds Sabre gin, toasted wattleseed syrup, apple cider vinegar, bitters  and Pedro Ximenez sherry garnished with a piece of dried fig and a fresh fennel flower. Simply gorgeous.

Next, some drama: to create the smell of a winery our server pours tea onto dry ice.

Watching the dry ice ‘fog’ spread across the table brings out the little kid in all of us.

To accompany the welcome cocktail we are served two dishes. First is an excellent Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho with Sour Cherry Crumbs.

Interestingly, this reminds me of Indian butter chicken rather than a traditional Italian gazpacho – I’m picking up the same spices that are commonly used in that particular curry.

The other dish is Fried Salt (and Vinegar) Bush. Do you know what saltbush is? Here it has been soaked with vinegar and then deep-fried and salted: these brittle morsels taste exactly like salt and vinegar chips. Everybody loves this dish.

The sun is setting. Time to bump up the ISO on my DSLR and adopt the awkward looking, ‘steady hands’ grip.

We’re next presented with some fresh sourdough with whipped lard and virgin butter in onion ash. The hand whipped and cultured butter has been rolled into a log and resembles goat’s chèvre.

The taste? Creamy, salty, and oh-so-moreish.

The robustly crusted sourdough roll is accompanied by a quenelle of whipped lard sprinkled with crumbs of pork crackling.

This dish blows my mind. The whipped lard has a sensational, groan-worthy texture and mouth-feel while the sweet and salty flavours tease and delight; it’s a bit like eating salted caramel with pork crackling.

Next up, Zucchini Toast consists of raw zucchini slices with chicken liver parfait, a fried zucchini disc and dressed chives.

The buttery richness of the chicken liver parfait works nicely with the mild zucchini flavours, the astringent dressing and the grassy EVOO(?) drizzled over the top.

By now it’s completely dark. It’s also freezing — I’ve unfortunately dressed for a warm Summer’s evening — so I go for a walk to try to get some circulation going in my legs.

Regardless of the cold, everyone is having a great time.

Every second male at this dinner has a beard. Is that because they are hipsters or because they can’t be bothered shaving?

I make my way over the smokehouse and barbecue pit when Duncan and the team are hard at work prepping other courses.

I love that the barbecued food is cooked right next to us. It feels like we’re having a party at someone’s house.

I make it back to my table in time for the Pigs’ Head Salad that comprises a deep-fried patty served with carrot and nasturtium, wild rocket, sorrel and fennel foraged from The Basket Ranges.

The pig’s head patty is fantastic – the richness of the head meat is balanced beautifully by the sourness and acidity in the baby pickles and capers. Deep sighs of satisfaction are heard from around the table.

The next course is Barramundi in Paper with smoked eggplant, celery, sea vegetables and liquorice root butter. Individually wrapped portions  arrive at our table for us to untie ourselves.

Once we manage to open our packages they release an incredible smell: the barramundi has been deeply infused with the flavours and fragrance of the herbs and vegetables.

The eggplant lends the barramundi a pleasant smoky flavour, the celery provides a solid flavour base and the sea vegetables and liquorice root butter are delightfully salty. This may be the best tasting fish dish I’ve eaten out lately.

As it gets later the temperature continues to drop so Tash and I make our way over to the barbecue area again in the hope that some residual warmth remains. We end up stacking some more wood into the burner and are soon warming our hands on a small fire with a small group of fellow diners. Note the napkin-cum-scarf the gentleman on the right has adopted to keep warm.

We chat and drink some more wine to stay warm.

I sneak a peek into the pop-up kitchen where the chefs are preparing a boozy frozen dessert called Frozen Ochota Barrels ‘I am the Owl’ with Aromatics. 

I love boozy desserts, as regular readers will know, and this is a lovely little palate cleanser based on red wine.

After a short break a half-log long displaying three leaf-wrapped parcels is brought out to the table. We’re advised to unwrap the parcels and do so with great enthusiasm. 

Inside we find Chicken Baked in the Earth – spicy chicken pieces and sweet potatoes have been baked with preserved garlic. The chicken is excellent – succulent, chilli-hot and well seasoned. My only note is that it’s a touch dry but I think that’s because our server accidentally tipped the juices out when she placed the heavy log onto the table.

And just when we think life can’t get any better our server returns with some grilled corn topped with grated cheese and chicken skin crumbs. Oh yeah…

Celeste likes the corn so much she declares her willingness to have the Chef’s baby if he’ll make it for her every day. Sorry, Kevin!

It’s finally time for dessert. First up, Heaven’s Bacon – pork fat gel with salted maize caramel.

For me food has to appeal in a number of ways. First, appearance. Is it visually appealing? Does it look attractive, desirable? Then there’s its smell and finally, its taste.

Now in the unlikely event that I had seen a picture of this dish on a menu I probably wouldn’t have ordered it. And in doing so I’d have missed out on a remarkable dessert. In this dessert corn has been prepared three ways – as gigantic flakes (an upmarket version of Kellogs’ Cork Flakes), as a toasted powder and as candied corn husks. Held together with a pork fat gel that resembles a salted caramel sauce it’s a masterpiece of complementary flavours and contrasting textures. This dish also feels quite Asian to me as sweet corn is used a lot in Asian desserts but not so much in Western ones.

The only downside? It’s a little too sweet for my tastebuds and I can’t finish my plate. I know I’ll regret this tomorrow. 

Finally we arrive at the last dessert course. Isn’t it beautiful?

I’m smitten with these bamboo cups although they make photographing the dessert inside them near impossible: underneath the berries and dried fruit are two perfectly ripe fig halves atop a silky fig leaf milk custard.

I really like this dessert although Celeste is not so impressed. But I like that the other dessert — Heaven’s Bacon — had lots of elements and was quite complicated while this dessert is much simpler. The milk custard has a gorgeous, silk sheet texture and the fresh fruit on top could not be more beautiful.

Tonight’s dinner has been an exceptional experience. Apart from the evident creativity and rock-solid execution we’ve witnessed I like the fact that many of the dishes demanded more from us than simply swallowing the food. We had to unwrap two of our dishes. We had to jab another with a bamboo stick that doubled as a spoon. We had to use our fingers for the salt and vinegar saltbush flakes, the bread and the sweetcorn. Little kids know that food is always more fun if you can play with it first and tonight’s dinner has been a very playful, sensory experience.

Tash and I decide to visit the popup kitchen so we can tell chef how much we enjoyed his food. But when Gavin Baker hears that we’re food bloggers he reacts like this:

Just kidding!! Gavin is very polite and professional.

As we leave, we’re given a boxed petit four to take home. I eat it the next morning and am charmed all over again.

What an inspiring evening. Well done to all involved.

Useful Links

• The Misty Makers dinner was part of the Adelaide Festival’s First Fruits degustation dinner programme. The cost was $130 per person and included matched wine. Extra wine was available to purchase. There are more dinners this week but I think they are all sold out. You could try calling Bass.
• I’ll be attending the Duncan’s Dungeon degustation on Saturday night. Catch the real-time action by following me on Instagram or Twitter.
• More about Gavin Baker and his The Mist Project. You can also like him on Facebook.
• More about Duncan Welgemoed. You can also follow him on Twitter.
• More about Ochota Barrels and Jauma.
• More about Andy Cameron. You can also follow him on Twitter.

More Exceptional Dining Experiences

• Kylie Kwong lunch and Shannon Bennet (Vue de Monde) ’30 dinner, Hamilton Island
• Wild Oats lunch with Adriano Zumbo, Hamilton Island
• High tea at Raffles Dubai and lunch at Pavilion Downtown Dubai
• The Breakfast Rave, Barossa Valley
• Aquacaf, Goolwa, and the Port Elliot Bakery
• Saffire Freycinet and Freycinet Marine Farm, Tasmania

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe, dining experience or travel story? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

Freshly picked, beautifully ripe, crimson-hued figs. Is there anything better? 

Picking Figs

Regular readers may remember that I went fig picking at Kate’s house last year. Kate is a fellow food blogger and a cousin of my sister in law. There is exactly 0.03 degrees of separation in Adelaide – sometimes it’s delightful and sometimes it’s a horror movie. This is one of the former occasions.

Kate invited us to pick figs again this year and after three aborted attempts due to torrential rain, no ripe figs due to the rain and a dodgy knee, we finally made it last Thursday afternoon.

The kids quickly put the plastic gloves on and began searching for figs. The old tree is dotted with fat, plump figs hanging low enough for the kids to reach them on their tippy toes.

After the kids find all the low hanging fruit they get bored and run off to play. Kate then uses a ladder to reach the fruit further up the tree.

We leave with around two kilograms of beautiful purple and green figs. Thank you, Kate!

Fig and Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Balsamic Glaze

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on figs that are this ripe, sweet and fresh, the less done to them, the better. So the next day I decide that I will make two dishes using uncooked figs leaving some of the figs to use in a cake that I’ll bake in a couple of days time.

I think about using the figs to decorate a multi-layered chocolate cake, a classic sponge cake or pavlova before deciding to use them on a cheese cake – the first cheese cake on this blog, actually.

Cheese cakes are really simple and there’s no baking involved with this one either. You simply blitz some biscuits to make the base, beat some cream cheese with vanilla, lemon, sugar, cream and gelatine and refrigerate. Easy, right?

In this recipe the balsamic glaze is key for me; I love how the acidic tang of the glaze contrasts with the rich honey tones of the figs so beautifully. However, my kids didn’t like the balsamic glaze so if you have little ones eating this you could substitute a strongly-flavoured honey (or rice malt syrup, treacle or maple syrup) for the glaze. Or you could try a mixture of both, actually.

If your budget stretches to whole vanilla bean pods then by all means use them as the mellow flavour will really shine through. Alternatively, use a top quality vanilla bean paste or essence (I buy organic ones from Foodland that are actually cheaper than the regular ones from Coles).

So tell me, how do you like to eat figs?

PS Thanks to Ms E, who agreed to be my hand model in exchange for the first slice of cake. Isn’t she great at pointing? “The fig cake is… right here.”

Fig Cheesecake with Balsamic Glaze

INGREDIENTS

• 250 grams chocolate biscuits
• 80 grams butter or margarine
• 500 grams cream cheese
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup cream
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 teaspoons gelatine powder dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water
• Seeds from 1 vanilla bean pod or 1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract or essence
• 8-10 ripe figs
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar glaze

METHOD

1. Spray a 20cm springform cake tin with baking oil or grease with margarine/butter. Line the bottom with a disc of baking paper.
2. Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until they are sand-like and place into a medium bowl.
3. Heat up the butter in a small saucepan (or in the microwave) and then mix into biscuit crumbs with a spoon until thoroughly combined.
4. Press the biscuit mixture firmly into the base of the cake tin evenly and then refrigerate.
5. With a stand or hand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar for 2-3 minutes until smooth, then add cream, lemon juice, gelatine mixture and vanilla.
6. Beat for another minute or so until completely combined and then turn out into the cake tin, using an offset spatula (or the back of a spoon) to smooth and spread the mixture evenly.
7. Refrigerate the cake for three hours or overnight.
8. Once cake is ready, gently turn out onto serving plate or cake stand.
9. Wash and gently dry figs (once you wash them they will start to spoil so don’t wash them too soon) and slice or leave whole as desired.
10. Arrange the figs over the cake — I prefer a more natural, non-symmetrical design — and dribble balsamic glaze (or alternative) over the top.

More Fig Recipes and Other Desserts

• Grilled Figs with Vanilla Ice Cream and Strawberry Sauce
• Duck with Plum Sauce and Figs
• Sponge Cake with Berries and Cherries
• Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Bundt Cake
• Floating Islands

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

Cruising is one of the fastest growing holiday markets in Australia at the moment. While it’s popular with greying nomads who are keen to see the world while retaining their creature comforts it’s proving to be popular with younger couples, families and groups of friends, too.

Regular readers will know that I went on a family cruise to the Pacific islands last year. It was an easy way to holiday although I could have done with a touch more ‘me’ time.

So when an invitation to join the Queen Mary 2, on the Sydney-Brisbane leg of her world voyage dropped into my inbox I didn’t need much convincing. Unlike the family atmosphere of my last cruise, the Queen Mary 2 caters more or less exclusively to adults.

Here’s what happened.

Queen Mary 2

At 345 meters long and 62 meters high (above water) the award-winning Queen Mary 2 is the largest ship ever to visit Australia. She can accommodate 2,620 guests in 10 different stateroom types plus 1,253 crew over 17 decks. Her maximum speed is 30 knots or 55 kmh and she features the largest ballroom and library at sea, as well as the first ever planetarium at sea.

After checking in at the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay — check in can be a lengthy process so time your arrival carefully — I arrive at my balcony suite in the mid afternoon.

I’m feeling tired and hungry, having been up since 4:30am to catch my flight from Adelaide to Sydney for a morning meeting. I’d noticed a number of the eating outlets open on my way up here but I want to rest my dodgy knee so I order a cheeseburger and Caesar salad from room service (available 24 hours).

The food arrives twenty minutes later. With the addition of tomato sauce, mustard and mayonnaise from the provided sachets the burger tastes remarkably similar to a Hungry Jacks’ Whopper while the Caesar salad is basic but refreshing.

I take my food out onto the balcony so I can eat while I look out onto the Harbour and the Sydney Opera House.

Even though the day is overcast, hazy and humid you can’t really beat that view, can you?

My plus one, G, soon arrives. G lives in Sydney and is my oldest friend. She is very conscientious; within minutes of arriving she had tidied up all the items I’d flung carelessly around the place. “This is just like when we were kids and I’d tidy up your room for you,” she laughs. 

We don’t have a lot of time before we’re due to meet the group of media we’re travelling with so we quickly dress and head out.

Drinks at The Commodore Club

Pre-dinner drinks have been arranged in the boardroom at The Commodore Club, one of many bars and lounges scattered around the ship. I order a swoon-worthy rhubarb Bellini — see above — and G orders a rhubarb daiquiri. Our friendly host from Cunard, Pete, introduces us to the other journalists and bloggers (Melissa, Annabel, Kerry and Lee) and their plus ones and we chat and sample an appetiser or two.

Dinner at Britannia

Following drinks, dinner has been booked at Britannia, the main restaurant on the ship. A double-story restaurant, Britannia serves an astonishing 2,400 meals for dinner over two sessions at 6pm and 8pm. The above photo was taken during the day when the restaurant was closed.

We’re presented with menus by our affable waiter and order entrees and mains from six different options for each course.

For entree I order the Coconut Crusted Shrimp with Mango Chili Dip (note the American terms and spelling).

I’m a little taken back when my appetiser arrives and it comprises a mere two prawns on a plate on a small bed of coleslaw. Dipped into the mildly spiced mango sauce the crumbed prawns are tasty enough but the serve is a trifle small to my way of thinking.

But the next day I chat to some of the other passengers and discover that they love the small serves at Britannia because it means they can eat three to four courses without being ridiculously over-full. Having witnessed some of the food waste caused by over-ordering on my previous cruise — easily done when the food is included in the cost of your ticket — I can’t help revising my opinion.

G orders the Brussels Pâté with Warm Baby Brioche Fig and Pear Compote and it’s extremely good. The pâté is airy in texture and full of porky goodness while the warm brioche has a pleasant but not overpowering figgy flavour.

For main course, G orders the Grilled Basa with Green Tomato Relish and Grits Cake. This dish is part of the daily Canyon Ranch Spa Selection designed for those watching their weight.

I try some of G’s dish. The tanginess of the tomato relish contrasts nicely with the richness of the fried fish.

I’ve ordered the Grilled Paillard of Steak Diane with Pont Neuf Potatoes and Cognac Mushroom Sauce.

The steak is tender and flavoursome while the Parisian-style fried potatoes are fantastic dipped into the delicate mushroom sauce. I love my veggies so am glad that the dish comes with a few steamed ones.

For dessert G orders the Strawberry and Champagne Parfait while I order the Chocolate Truffle Cake. Again the portions are small but by this stage I am glad that they are.

The parfait misses the mark for me – I can taste the strawberry but any champagne flavour is negligible. However, the chocolate truffle cake is better, being delightfully mousse-y and velvety in texture. I would have preferred a stronger chocolate flavour but then I’m a dark chocolate girl.

We finish with a sample of marshmallows and chocolate brownies. The vanilla marshmallows are fairly forgettable but the pleasingly chewy brownies are all that a good brownie should be.

Talking it over later I decide our dinner tonight was on par with a decent pub meal. I don’t mean a cool inner-city pub that attracts hipsters with coiffed beads and Instagram accounts to its nose-to-tail-eating menu but your average suburban pub that manages to survive year after year because it’s consistent.

It’s worth noting that there are two other restaurants on the Queen Mary 2 are set aside for the exclusive use of guests in the Princess and Queen suites. In these restaurants — the Princess Grill and the Queens Grill — the decor is a little nicer and the food is a little fancier and, presumably, better. So if you are the type of person who collects business cards from posh restaurants you might want to consider upgrading your accomodation for access to the nicer dining options without further surcharges (diners pay a surcharge to eat at the fine dining restaurant, Todd English).

Regardless of where you dine, however, the service on the Queen Mary 2 is excellent. Nearly every interaction we have with a staff member is pleasant, professional and unhurried. Sure, some of them know that we are in the media group but most of them don’t.

After a fun stint in the nightclub, G32, we plan our schedule for the rest of our stay with particular emphasis on the 10 dining options. This is our plan:

1. Breakfast at Britannia;
2. Explore the ship;
3. Caviar at the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bar;
4. Lunch at the British-style pub, Golden Lion;
5. Explore the ship;
6. Afternoon tea in the Queens Room;
7. Treatment at the Grand Canyon spa;
8. Rest;
9. Pre-dinner drinks at the Commodore Club;
10. Dinner at Todd English; and
11. Breakfast at King’s Court buffet.

I hope I will still be able to fit into my clothes by the end of our trip…

Breakfast at Britannia

The next morning we rise at 8am. Breakfast time at Britannia is a busy affair – we join the lengthy queue and are quickly seated. We want a window seat so we opt to share a table by the window with two other couples. I always love chatting with fellow travellers – everyone has a different story and I always learn something new.

From a lengthy breakfast menu offering European, British and American-style breakfast options, I order coffee and the Fresh Fruit Salad to start.

Our mains then arrive. Most people on our table have ordered some variation of a big breakfast although an English woman has happily ordered kippers.

I would have loved some fresh herbs but my poached eggs with bacon, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans and grilled tomato is otherwise fine.

Exploring the Ship

The lofty floral arrangement in the main foyer on deck 2 – it is changed every single day.

We head up to the top of the vessel to have a look.

It’s early so there’s not too many people around.

We take lots of photos.

See more of G’s photos on her blog.

Terrace Pool and Bar

It’s a little early for a drink – we must remember to come back later.

I like the way Cunard reference a lot of its historic imagery in their on-board printed material and posters.

Plenty of bottles to keep your whistle wet.

It’s warm but very windy outside so there’s not too many people outside yet.

G pops upstairs to take this shot of the wake.

Commodore Club & Cigar Room

Looking for a quiet spot to read your book? Some of the other public bars are quite noisy so the Commodore Club becomes a great place to enjoy a book or quiet drink during the day.

Didn’t bring a book? No problem – the Queen Mary 2 boasts an extensive library with over 8,000 hardbacks, 500 paperbacks and 200 audio books.

Next door to the Commodore Club is the Cigar Room. It’s empty at the moment but at night time the air is thick with expensive cigar smoke.

G and I are bemused to read a sign stating “cigars and pipes only: no cigarettes allowed.” How deliciously politically incorrect! I haven’t smoked a cigar in years but I do enjoy them.

Perhaps you’re the active type? With my dodgy knee exercise is out of the question atm but if I were so inclined I’d have my pick of 4 outdoor swimming pools, 8 spas, a gym, daily exercise classes, two golf simulators, a half court basketball court, putting green, quoits, shuffleboard, and paddle tennis court.

Tour of the Galley

At 11am, we join our media group for a tour of the ship’s galley with the QM2’s Executive Chef, Nicholas Oldroyd. Originally from East Yorkshire, Nicholas has been working for Cunard for 14+ years and has a twin brother who is Executive Chef of the Queen Victoria.

The QM2 has 163 chefs on board. Each of the restaurant galleys has its own Chef de Cuisine and the whole operation is supported by 85 dishwashers, pot-washers and cleaners and two sanitation officers who work around the clock.

We watch two chefs preparing multiple plates of an appetiser being prepared for tonight’s dinner.

And here’s the final dish — Prosciutto with Tri-Colour Grilled Capsicum and Asparagus — as it would be served tonight.

Nicholas explains that he buys fresh produce whenever the ship docks, and then themes his menus for the following period around the country of purchase. In Sydney, he bought pink ling, blue swimmer crabs, barramundi, banana prawns and oysters from the Sydney Fish Market.

This chef below is responsible for all of the stocks and sauces served in all of the restaurants today.

All sauces and stocks are cooked fresh each day; he makes 60 litres of each sauce or stock in  one of these enormous cookers.

It’s hard to get my head around the quantities of food, staff, kitchen space, equipment and organisation required to deliver almost 16,000 meals each day (including crew) on the Queen Mary 2. I think about the days I can barely manage to scratch up dinner for myself and the kids due to the work/family juggling act and I hang my head in shame.

Nicholas explains that there’s another crew to look after the Cunard staff, cooking what he describes as ‘comfort food’; there are 50 nationalities amongst the crew so on the daily menu are favourite dishes from all of their different countries. They also have regular special menu nights for the crew like international chicken wing night, which I want in on.

Crew contracts tend to be 6-9 months long, which is a long time to be away. I know that when I’ve been homesick I’ve found much comfort in cooking and eating dishes from home; those familiar smells and tastes act as a balm, soothing and nourishing the body and soul. So I’m glad to know that Cunard are taking care of their crew’s daily fare, just as they are taking care of ours.

Queen Mary 2

• My Sydney – Brisbane trip aboard the QM2 was part of a longer, 23-night Sydney to Sydney voyage (February 19 – March 14, 2014) that was priced from $8,599 per person twin share for a balcony cabin and $15,499 per person twin share for a Princess Suite (fares from the World Voyage 2014 brochure). Interested in learning more? Search and book current cruises.
• Stay tuned for my final post on the QM2, which will cover the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bar, lunch at the Golden Lion pub, afternoon tea at the Queens Room, my seaweed wrap at the Grand Canyon Spa (sans photos in case you’re wondering), dinner at the fine dining restaurant, Todd English, and breakfast at King’s Court buffet. Plus a shot of a random life buoy. Because you’re worth it.

More Travel Posts

• Family cruise to the Pacific Islands
• Fleurieu Peninsula Mini-Break: Narnu Farm, Aquacaf and Port Elliot Bakery
• Discovering Tasmania: Kate’s Berry Farm, Palate at Saffire Freycinet, Freycinet Lodge, Freycinet National Park and Freycinet Marine Farm
• Audi Hamilton Island Race Week: Kylie Kwong (Billy Kwong) Lunch and Shannon Bennet (Vue de Monde) ’30’ Dinner
• Meet the Food Producers at South Bank’s Regional Flavours Festival, Brisbane
• Exploring Dubai: Spices, Diamonds, Gold and Fruit & Vegetables

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new recipe and travel posts twice a week – it’s FREE!!

Disclosure

G and I travelled on the Queen Mary 2 as guests of Cunard. As always, all opinions are my own.

So I was going to blog these amazing Spicy Cumin Lamb Sliders for your eating and viewing pleasure this week but then I messed up my knee in yoga class. Because exercise is actually bad for you and should be avoided at all costs.

OK, that last sentence is not actually true and I probably just have dodgy knees. I’m just a little peeved that my continuing love affair with yoga is on hold until the partial tear in my medial collateral ligament repairs itself. If you could see the amazing definition in my upper arms from a mere three weeks of downward dogging, planking and warrior posing, or how much nicer I have been lately, you’d understand why I am hoping for a speedy recovery.

So instead of cooking, styling and shooting recipes for clients and this blog, the last two days have been spent resting, icing and elevating my knee, and hobbling around to various medical appointments. Yay. Not.

While there’s no good time to have an accident this week is important because today I have a media trip I don’t want to miss: the Sydney to Brisbane leg of the the Queen Mary 2 worldwide voyage. My oldest friend in the world, G, is my plus one and the two of us have already agreed that we are going to have an awesome time exploring the cruise ship and sampling all of the dining and bar options. The phrase, “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” may have been solemnly intoned once or twice. Hey, I’m just kidding, loved ones!

Luckily, my knee injury is manageable. It is a bit sore but as long as I wear my unsexy blue knee brace with flat shoes and take it easy, I’ll be fine. I’m a little disappointed that I won’t be able to wear heels with my black fishtail dress to the Black and White Ball on our final cruise night but really, that’s a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things, right?

So I’m sorry I don’t have a new recipe post for you this week. But I’m going to be taking it a bit easy activity-wise over the next few weeks so I’ll make it up to you with some extra recipe and travel posts then, OK?

Have a delicious week. And if you want to catch the cruise action in real-time, come say hi to me on Twitter (@HungryAustralia), Instagram (@thehungryaustralian) or Facebook (The Hungry Australian).

Christina xx

More Travel Posts

• Fleurieu Peninsula Mini-Break: Narnu Farm, Aquacaf and Port Elliot Bakery
• Discovering Tasmania: Kate’s Berry Farm, Palate at Saffire Freycinet, Freycinet Lodge, Freycinet National Park and Freycinet Marine Farm
• Audi Hamilton Island Race Week: Kylie Kwong (Billy Kwong) Lunch and Shannon Bennet (Vue de Monde) ’30’ Dinner
• Meet the Food Producers at South Bank’s Regional Flavours Festival, Brisbane
• Exploring Dubai: Spices, Diamonds, Gold and Fruit & Vegetables

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts each week – it’s FREE.

In case I’d forgotten that it’s Valentine’s Day on Friday my Inbox is filling up with media releases from restaurants keen to promote their Valentine’s Day menus.

Now I’ve had good Valentine’s Day restaurant dates and one that was an absolute shocker – if you’re crying in the car on the way to the restaurant that’s not a good sign, is it?

Generally, though, a date at a good restaurant can be a very romantic way to spend an evening. There’s no shopping, prepping, cooking or washing up, for starters. Plus you can hold hands across the table, play footies under the table and whisper sweet nothings to each over dessert.

However, if you like to cook there’s nothing more romantic than cooking a meal for someone.  It’s even better if you actually cook some of the food together; accompanied by a glass of wine, cooking is a great way to relax before dinner. 

Last Valentine’s Day I suggested cooking Duck with Plum Sauce and Fresh Figs. This year, however, I’m on a health kick so my menu is focused on food that is light and fresh. So for those of you planning a romantic night in this Friday, may I suggest a combination of the following dishes previously blogged on The Hungry Australian?

Entree Options

1. Oysters Four Ways
2. Quail Egg, Asparagus & Truffle Bruschetta 
3. Crab Avocado and Sweet Chilli Sauce Bites
4. My Mother’s Chicken Liver Pate
5. Seductive Caviar

Main Course Options

1. Thai Beef Salad
2. Vietnamese Pork Balls on Rice Vermicelli
3. Duck Orange and Pomegranate Salad
4. Moules Marinieres
5. Thai Prawn Salad

Dessert Options

1. Rosewater and Lychee Sorbet
2. Bellini Sorbet
3. Strawberry Soup
4. Grilled Figs with Vanilla Ice Cream and Strawberry Sauce
5. Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

The most important thing to remember when cooking with someone else is to relax and enjoy yourself. Don’t try anything too fancy or complicated and I’d also caution against cooking anything that requires precision timing. I’ve very easily distracted so prefer cooking dishes with a bit of ‘give’ when cooking with guests. 

I also recommend prepping as much as possible before your guest arrives so your kitchen bench is as clean and uncluttered as possible. By the way, all the desserts bar the grilled figs can be made up the day/night before. The grilled figs do need to be done on the spot but that’s not difficult – just make sure your grill pan is really hot and smoking. 

Good luck! If all goes well bacon and eggs for breakfast is always a great way to start the day.  Check out this post for more easy breakfast ideas.

Photo Credits and Recipe Links

1. Raspberry and Pomegranate Layered Pavlova
2. Raspberry Rose Gin and Tonic
3. Quail Egg, Asparagus & Truffle Bruschetta 
4. Oysters Four Ways
5. Duck Orange and Pomegranate Salad
6. Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
7. A Father’s Day Brunch

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

I was at a dinner party many years ago when a friend of a friend said, “it’s better to have low expectations. That way you’ll never be disappointed.”

I was speechless. All I could think was here was a person whose heart had been broken at some point. She’d lived whole-heartedly once but things hadn’t work out for her. Maybe someone she loved hadn’t loved her back. Maybe she had been sidelined at work or received knock-back after knock-back. Maybe someone close to her had gotten sick or passed away.

Whatever the reason, instead of taking a deep breath and brushing herself off, she’d decided she wasn’t going to try anymore. So she went through the motions of living, insulated and protected from failure and getting hurt by living in her bubble wrap of low expectations.

Everyone has a breaking point. I knew next to nothing about this woman’s life and what other challenges she may have faced that had contributed to her apathy. But I knew that her mind was a jailer, stopping her from fully living the life she could have been living.

Our world-view can be heavily influenced by other people, too. Well-meaning family members and friends will often unintentionally help you create a limited view of yourself. They’ll encourage you towards the safe option or the easy choice. The safe corporate job instead of the entrepreneurial path. The resort holiday instead of the three months backpacking trip around Asia. 

Don’t become other people’s expectations of you. They are projecting their own experiences, secret dreams and conflicted thoughts about themselves onto you. Know that you’re capable of so much more than they can imagine.

When I moved to London and was looking a job a friend advised me to look at jobs at a certain level and salary range. I did apply for those jobs but I also applied for jobs above and beyond her suggested range and I ended up doing some of them. My eyes were opened – every few years I moved somewhere new where I had an opportunity to reinvent myself and to do things I’d never dreamed I would. It was awesome fun.

My 4YO is fearless. Every day he tells me about the things he’s going to do when he is older – apparently he will wrestle crocodiles, lift up cars with his bare hands and climb the tallest mountains in the world.

Enthusiasm and certainty are easy when we are young. As we grow older we can forget to be fearless explorers, ready to leap tall buildings in a single bound. We encounter setbacks, disappointments and grief and so we learn to protect ourselves. To be sensible and practical. To set aside our dreams and go through the motions. We tread water in the shallows where its safe instead of taking a deep breath and diving into the deep unknown.

Ultimately, life has a way of living up to your expectations. So forget about having low ones. Be brave. Take a chance. Dream big. You will be disappointed at times, but the highs will definitely be worth it.

Kangaroo Satays with Spicy Peanut Sauce

I made these Kangaroo Satays with Spicy Peanut Sauce for a project a little while ago and they’re awesome. The list of ingredients isn’t short but I had most of them in my pantry and one trip to the market provided the rest. If you eat meat you should definitely try making them.

INGREDIENTS

Satays

• 700 grams kangaroo, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoons sesame oil

Sauce

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 onions
• 5 garlic cloves
• 3 Birds Eye chillies
• ½ tablespoon terasi/belechan (dried shrimp paste)
• 200 grams roasted peanuts
• ½ tablespoon petis udang (dark shrimp paste)
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons palm sugar, grated
• 1 ¼ cups hot water
• 1 tablespoon kepap manis
• 2 tablespoon lime juice

Basting Mixture

• 2 tablespoons cooked peanut sauce
• 1 tablespoon kecap manis (sweet Indonesian soy sauce)
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Condiments

• 1 cucumber, peeled and cut into small wedges
• 1 shallot, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 lime, cut into quarters
• 1 tablespoon sambal

Other

• Skewers soaked in water for at least 30 minutes
• Banana Leaf (optional)

METHOD

Sauce

1. Heat up a fry pan and add oil.
2. Fry onion, garlic, chillies and terasi/belechan and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
3. In a processor, blend fried mixture with peanuts, petis udang, salt and palm sugar.
4. Put mixture into a pot and add water. Cook over medium heat until smooth and thickened.
5. Remove two tablespoons for basting mixture and then add kepap manis and lime juice to the remaining sauce. Cover and keep warm.

Basting Mixture

1. Mix peanut sauce with kepap manis, lime juice and cooking oil on small plate.

Satays

1. Cut kangaroo into bite sized pieces and place into a bowl.
2. Add soy sauce and sesame oil and mix to combine.
3. Cover and leave for at least 1 hour or overnight.
4. Drain liquid and thread meat onto pre-soaked skewers.
5. Heat up a barbecue or griller.
6. Grill the skewers for about 3 minutes, then baste with basting mixture and turn over. Baste other side and cook for another 3 minutes or until crispy and brown. I like my skewers medium – kangaroo is tough if you overcook it.

To serve

• Place satays on a plate (covered with banana leaf if desired) and serve with warm peanut sauce, cucumber pieces, lime slices and sambal.
• Sprinkle some shallot slices over the satay.

NOTES

• Gluten and dairy free
• Serves 4.

More Meat Recipes

• Duck, Orange and Pomegranate Salad
• Thai Beef Salad
• Vietnamese Pork Balls on Rice Vermicelli
• Lamb with Pomegranate, Mint and Broad Beans
• My mother’s chicken liver pate
• Steak with Asian Dressing
• Addictive Mouth Numbing Xinjiang Lamb Skewers

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

I’m feeling good. A new yoga studio has opened up two minutes from my house and I am loving downward dogging it regularly again. I’ve been swimming at least every other day and on Wednesdays I practise Pilates with a friendly group of mums while our sons have soccer coaching next to us. I’m even getting to bed before midnight some nights.

Regular readers will know that I’m not usually a huge fan of exercising. My last gym visit ended up being my one and only gym visit for the year so this sudden emphasis on exercise is highly unusual for me. But I was tired of feeling tired and grumpy. Sure, I had good reason to be feeling low for a while — going through a divorce with kids is never fun no matter how amicable it is — but it’s time to move on and that means re-prioritising.

For the past 18 months my focus has been on my kids and my work, as it needed to be. But now it’s time to focus a little on myself, too, because I’ve realised that if I’m not feeling strong, happy and healthy, then we’re all in trouble.

So I’m making exercise a priority. I’m trying hard to go to bed at a reasonable hour a few nights a week. And I’m accepting invitations instead of turning them down.

I’m eating healthy, too. When I’m stressed I tend to reach for junk food but now I’m eating lots of salads, lots of protein, and lots of vegetables. This salad — Thai Beef Salad — is one of my ultimate healthy Summer meals, combining my loves of a good steak, salad and Thai flavours. Serve it alone as a light meal or with a tofu or seafood tom yum soup, a green curry and steamed rice for a more substantial Thai-themed meal.

Enjoy!

Christina xx

Thai Beef Salad

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bunch coriander, washed and separated into roots and leaves
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 inch fresh ginger (or 1 generous teaspoon minced ginger)
• 3 chillies (e.g. Birds Eyes chillies)
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• Juice of 1/2 lime or 1 generous tablespoon lime juice
• 500 grams top quality porterhouse steak, trimmed and cut into slices.
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 100 grams mixed lettuce leaves
• 1 bunch mint
• 1 red (Spanish) onion
• 2 Lebanese cucumbers, seeds removed and sliced
• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes

METHOD

1. Use a blender to chop coriander roots, garlic, ginger, chillies, sugar, fish sauce and lime juice until well combined.
2. Reserve half of this mixture to use as dressing and use the other half to marinade the beef strips for 30 minutes.
3. After 30 minutes heat up a large fry pan and add one tablespoon of vegetable oil. Fry the beef strips for a few minutes and then turn off the heat just before the meat is done to your liking – I like mine medium. Remove the pan from the heat and let the beef cool in the pan. Reserve the pan juices.
4. Arrange the reserved coriander leaves, lettuce leaves, mint, cucumber, onion, tomatoes and beef on a large platter.
5. Mix the pan juices into the dressing and then spoon the dressing over the salad and mix well.

NOTES

1. Gluten, nut and dairy-free.
2. Serves 2-3 as main, 4-6 as a side dish and 8-10 as part of a banquet.

More Easy Summer Recipes

• Duck, Orange and Pomegranate Salad
• Lamb with Pomegranate, Mint and Broad Beans
• Thai Prawn Salad
• Two Spring Salads: Radish  Salad / Beetroot, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
• Blood Orange and Pomegranate Salad
• Tomato and Bocconcini Salad
• Fig, Prosciutto and Pear Salad
• Beetroot, Walnut and Mint Salad
• Fiery Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

I’m still in semi-holiday mode at the moment, hence my recent lack of posting, commenting and interaction on social media. Between the hot weather, making the most of the school holidays, and my current obsession with reading film and TV scripts late into the night (try here, here and here) I’ve been happily achieving some kind of work-life balance for a change. I’ve even been swimming or walking most days, which is nothing short of a miracle.

This idyllic state of affairs will end next week when my 7YO starts second grade, my 4YO begins kindergarten and my work commitments ramp up again. But that’s OK because we’ve had a great Summer break.

One thing I love about Summer is all the fresh seafood that’s on this menu. This Crab, Avocado and Sweet Chilli Sauce Bites dish came about when my dad’s friend, Uncle T, turned up with some freshly caught Blue Swimmer crabs.

Now I love crab cooked Singapore chilli style, or sprinkled through pasta with lots of fresh parsley, chilli and lemon juice but both dishes felt too heavy for this weather.

So I decided to rework my dad’s great fresh picked crab dip. It’s an incredible dip but it can be a little tricky to get all the dip onto the cracker elegantly. So I decided to plate up individual bites – you can either offer them to your guests on one large serving platter or plate up a few on smaller side plates as I have here.

Served with bubbles, beer or cider, these crab bites would be great as nibbles for an Australia Day gathering or as a luxurious appetizer for a dinner party. I’d count on three biscuits per guest for a party and six per guest for an appetizer. Alternatively, and thinking ahead,  you could serve this as part of a romantic Valentine Day’s meal for two. Because if someone goes to the trouble of making this for you he or she is definitely a keeper. 

Enjoy!

Crab, Avocado and Sweet Chilli Sauce Bites

INGREDIENTS

• 3 crabs, steamed (I used Blue Swimmer crabs)
• 1 large avocado
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 packet water crackers (a thin, light cracker suits this dish)
• 1 tub cream cheese
• Sweet chilli sauce
• Salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper (optional)

METHOD

1. Remove crab meat from shells (see my previous posts on catching and cooking crabs).
2. Peel avocado, remove stone and cut into two. Cut each half into two lengthways and then slice across the avocado to create small triangles.
3. Brush avocado pieces gently with lemon juice (a silicon brush is perfect for this). This adds flavour and also helps prevent the avocado from discolouring.
4. Place water crackers on a plate or plates.
5. Spread with cream cheese and top with avocado and crab meat. Spoon over sweet chilli sauce.

NOTES

1. Best served immediately otherwise the crackers will get soft.
2. Makes around 30 crackers.
3. Serves 4-6 as an appetizer.
4. If you don’t like crab you could substitute freshly cooked prawns. I’d buy King Prawns and allow one per cracker.

More appetizer recipes

• Eye of the Tiger
• My Mother’s Pate
• Prawn Lettuce Cups with Thai Dressing
• Tomato Bocconcini Salad
• Chilled Cucumber Soup
• Fried Wontons
• Bruschetta with Quail Egg, Mini Asparagus and Truffle Paste
• Mini Vietnamese Pork Buns

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a recipe or travel post? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

It’s still crazy hot in Adelaide so I’ve been experimenting with home-made ice blocks and sorbets. I can’t stop eating the beetroot, carrot and berry flavoured ice blocks I made recently but my kids won’t eat them because they’re not that sweet. 

You know I mean the ice blocks, right? My kids can be sweet but they can also throw a tantrum with the best of them. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing – it’s fairly normal, actually. Apparently the fact that my kids are comfortable melting down in front of me is a sign that they feel secure and loved. So that’s fortunate, isn’t it? *insert uncomfortable silence.*

Anyway, I went back to the drawing board and came up with this pretty Lychee and Rosewater Sorbet, which combines two of my current food obsessions — rosewater and coconut water — with lychees, which I adore.

One of the things I really like about this recipe is that you don’t have to faff around with sugar syrups because I use the canned lychees that come in a sugar syrup. So it’s just a matter of blending up the handful of ingredients and then freezing them. Easy right? 

This sorbet is a perfect treat to cool you down in this hot weather. Consider it a delightful defuser of meltdowns. Both kinds, that is. 

Lychee Rose Sorbet

INGREDIENTS

• 2 x 20 ounce (567 grams) cans lychees in syrup
• 2 raspberries
• 500 msl 100% coconut water
• 1/2 teaspoon rosewater
• 1 tablespoon dried rose petals (food grade)

METHOD

1. Blend lychees in syrup and raspberries until as smooth as possible. You can strain it if you like but I don’t think it’s necessary
2. Add coconut water and rosewater and mix to combine.
3. Place mixture into an ice cream maker and follow directions before pouring into a freezer-proof container and freezing for 5-6 hours. Alternatively, pour mixture into freezer proof container and freeze. After 30 minutes use a fork to scrape the frozen edges into the middle and then put back into the freezer. Repeat the fork action twice more at 30 minute intervals before leaving to freeze 5-6 hours or overnight.
4. To serve, scoop into small bowls or sturdy cupcake wrappers and garnish with rose petals.  

NOTES

1. Gluten, nut and dairy-free
2. Makes about 1.5 litres.
3. To get the beautiful pink colour I used two raspberries. I used fresh raspberries but frozen ones — available all year around — would be fine, too.

And now for some other bits and bobs…

South African love

I know that there’s this thing called the Internets that this blog lives on but I’m still quietly thrilled when I receive positive feedback from The Hungry Australian readers living in places I’ve never visited.  So I’m honoured to be featured in an article in Food and Home Entertaining Magazine, South Africa’s premier food magazine this month.

Here’s a link to the featured Fig, Prosciutto and Pear recipe.

Barossa Valley Love

A few months ago I was chuffed to be interviewed by Rose and Matthew from Urtext Films about the Barossa Valley for SA Tourism’s Through Local Eyes project.

Now regular readers will know how much I love the Barossa Valley, Australia’s most famous wine region, which is a mere hour’s drive from my house. Previously I’ve blogged my experiences at Maggie Beer’s Farmhouse, Appellation at The Louise, Rockford, Collingrove Homestead and The Breakfast Rave, the Barossa’s pop-up community event.

Rose and Matthew’s short film called ‘You Gotta Try II: Barossa edition’ was recently released so you can watch me chatting about some of my must-visit places in the Barossa and why I love shopping at farmers’ markets here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ZHgl600qg

Hmmm. Now I’m all inspired to visit the Barossa again. See you there next weekend?

More Sorbet and Ice Cream Recipes

• Mimosa Sorbet made with Blood Oranges
• Bellini Sorbet
• Strawberry Granita
• Easy Honey Ice Cream with Burnt Toffee Popcorn

More Rosewater Recipes

• Raspberry Rose Gin and Tonic
• Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Bundt Cake
• Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Lassi

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

It’s crazy hot in Adelaide, South Australia, at the moment. This week it’s going to hit 40+ degrees Celsius (104+ degrees Fahrenheit) five days in a row. That’s five days of sweltering sun, plants crisping in the garden and hot, steamy nights.

When it’s this hot I don’t feel like eating or cooking very much. So it makes sense to make something easy, light and cooling. Enter this healthy and satisfying Vietnamese inspired Pork Balls on Rice Vermicelli.

This dish is quick and simple to make and would be perfect for a casual dinner with family or friends. I’ve made it while chatting with a friend in the kitchen before serving it up for our lunch.

Don’t be scared of the long list of ingredients – you probably have most of these in your pantry like me and then it’s just one visit to the Asian store or market to get the fresh ingredients.

Serve the noodles and pork balls at the table with a plate of fresh vegetables (carrots, cucumber, bean sprouts, chillies), herbs (coriander, peppermint and Vietnamese mint), fruit (lime or lemons) and dressing and let people make up their own bowl. Food is always more fun when you get to play with it, don’t you think?

I’m off for another swim now. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS – DISH

• 400 grams minced pork
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1.5 teaspoons sugar
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced or chopped very finely
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 packet rice vermicelli noodles
• 1 carrot
• 1 cucumber
• 1 small bag bean sprouts
• Bunch mint
• Bunch coriander
• Bunch Vietnamese mint (laksa leaves)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons fried shallots (from Asian store)
• 4 tablespoons crushed, roasted peanuts (optional)

INGREDIENTS – DRESSING

• 2/3 cup water
• 1.5 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1.5 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
• 1 Birds Eye chilli, slice finely
• Pinch finely shredded carrot (optional)

METHOD

1. Mix pork, fish sauce, sugar, 1 clove garlic and white pepper until combined and then use your hands to form into 16 small balls and place on a plate.
2. Refrigerate pork balls while you prep the other ingredients. The longer you refrigerate them, the better they will keep their shape.
3. Cook noodles to pack instructions.
4. Peel and cut cucumber and carrots into matchsticks, and wash and drain bean sprouts and fresh herbs. Arrange on a large plate and refrigerate
5. Heat up a large fry pan and add vegetable oil. Add pork balls and cook for a few minutes on all sides until outer is caramelised and inside is cooked through.
6. While the pork balls are cooking make up the dressing by adding water, fish sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, lime juice, sweet chilli sauce, chilli, 1 clove garlic and carrot to a medium bowl and stirring to combine. Taste and adjust flavour as desired, adding more lime for sourness, fish sauce for saltiness and sugar for sweetness etc. Divide into 4 small serving bowls.
7. To serve, divide noodles between four bowls and top with four balls each. Garnish with fried shallots and peanuts (if desired) and serve with vegetable platter and dressing.

NOTES

• Gluten and dairy free
• Serves 4.

More Easy Summer Recipes

• Duck, Orange and Pomegranate Salad
• Lamb with Pomegranate, Mint and Broad Beans
• Thai Prawn Salad
• Moules Marinieres
• Penang Assam Laksa

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a lovely and relaxing holiday.

My ideal (adults-only) holiday involves travelling to somewhere new, lots of lazing around on the beach or by a pool with a good book, shopping until my shoes give out, dining out, lots of sight-seeing, getting lost in markets, taking lots of photos, spa treatments, yoga, late dinners, no particular schedule, time for writing, and smooches with a special someone. 

Family holidays, however, are a little different as my kids’ idea of a good time involves swimming, playgrounds, ice cream, bunk beds, chips and animals. Simple, huh? Kids are easier to please.

So for a mini-break last weekend I took my kids and my parents to the Fleurieu Peninsula to visit Narnu Farm on Hindmarsh Island, Aquacaf restaurant in Goolwa and the Port Elliot Bakery.

Narnu Farm, Hindmarsh Island

After stopping at Victor Harbour for a walk and lunch we arrive at Narnu Farm on Hindmarsh Island around 2pm.

Narnu provides award-winning and family-friendly accommodation. Our 5-person cabin, The Milkmaid’s Cottage, is clean, basic, old-fashioned and costs only $150 a night (plus an extra $10/person for linen). No, it’s not fancy but then Narnu aims to provide a real ‘farm experience.’

The Milkmaid’s Cottage features two bedrooms (one double bed and one bunk bed + pull out trundle), a bathroom (with laundry sink), a kitchen,a dining area, a pot-belly stove and air-conditioning. My 3YO is thrilled to discover there are TVs in both the small lounge area and in the main bedroom.

After we unpack we walk over the hill to the Animal Feeding, which happens every day at 3pm. Narnua has a variety of animals on the farm (chickens, cows, sheep, horses, goats, emu, peacocks, rabbits and guinea pigs) and the twice-daily feedings give the kids the opportunity to interact with them.

First up, the kids feed the calves…

… while a very chilled out goat looks on.

Next, we feed the piglets. They are very cute but they are very noisy, too!

Then it’s time to visit the chickens and look for some eggs.

Most of the kids manage to find an egg in the laying shed or hidden under some vines.

Once the eggs are collected some are taken to the hatchery while the rest are sorted into cartons to be sold to farm visitors.

Next, we visit the hatchery to meet some recently hatched chicks. These are silkie chicks – aren’t they gorgeous?

Silkies are such beautiful birds – they look like powder puffs on legs to me.

My mum buys a dozen freshly laid eggs including a peacock’s egg – see the large one on the left.

The feeding runs for about an hour. Afterwards, the kids play on the playground and swings while I sneak a few moments with a good book. There is also a hidden fort on the farm grounds that proves enormously popular with the kids.

Aquacaf, Goolwa

Situated on the banks of the Murray River in Goolwa, Aquacaf has been on my hit-list for some time now. So I was thrilled when we were able to book an early table there for dinner that night.

Our friendly host brings my kids some pencils and paper for the kids to draw on while we wait for our meal and asks if she should bring their food out straight away. Now that’s smart service.

To start, my dad and I order some Apple and Pear Cider ($8) by The Hills Cider Company. I’m a sucker for a good cider in summer and their Pear Cider is lovely – not too sweet, slightly tart and very refreshing.

For the kids, we order Kids Meals – Chicken ‘n’ Chips and Fish ‘n’ Chips. It is the holidays after all and I know they’ll end up picking off our plates anyway.

The kids’ food arrives quickly and it looks good. The Fish ‘n’ Chips ($12) is two pieces of battered garfish on a mound of chips, which are very good indeed.

The Chicken ‘n’ Chips ($12) is served on an equally large mound of chips. The single chicken strip is prepared and cooked on site – no nasty frozen chicken nuggets here.

We order three mains that all happen to be specials of the day. First up, some Goolwa cockles (pippies) with Port Lincoln mussels, chorizo and tomato in a cider broth served with thick slices of bread ($28).

Regular readers will know that cockling at Goolwa Beach is a cherished family tradition and that I love mussels so this dish wins lots of points from me. My mother, however, thinks the broth is a tad too salty. Personally, I like the taste of the sea you get with shellfish dishes and think the balance of savoury, salty and acidic flavours is just about right. Perhaps it could have done with just a touch of sweetness but this is just a personal preference.

Next, Coorong mullet served with pickled red onions, basil, lettuce leaves, croutons and lemon wedges ($34).

This is my mum’s favourite dish. It’s full of flavour and so light and fresh – perfect for a hot Summer’s Day. I like the pickled onions a lot — they have a more mellow and sweeter taste than raw onion — and resolve to make my own.

Lastly, slow braised South Australian lamb rump served with spiced chickpeas, peas, minted labne and tomatoes ($36).

I really like the subtle, mellow flavours in this dish – the lamb is fall-apart tender, the chickpeas are caramelised and the minted labne and fresh parsley cuts through the richness of the meat. This is a protein-heavy dish so those wanting extra greens will need to order a side salad.

All in all, I’m impressed. It’s not easy finding a restaurant with great food that caters for kids so well but Aquacaf has delivered a friendly and satisfying dining experience for all of us.

Narnu Farm, Hindmarsh Island

The next morning my kids wake up early — no surprises there — so we have cereal and farm-fresh boiled eggs for breakfast before joining a large group of children and their bleary-eyed parents for the 8am animal feeding.

It’s much the same as yesterday and the kids are equally excited except today they also get to cuddle some bunnies and guinea pigs.

Afterwards, I’ve booked a 30 minute horse ride through the forest ($30/person) for myself and the kids.

As we enter the large shed to be fitted for helmets and boots (my daughter’s shoes are too flimsy) my 3YO asks me if the horses are ‘pretend horses’, which is what he’s more used to. His face breaks into the biggest grin when he spots the real horses and he can’t stop giggling when he is helped onto his ride, a good natured Shetland pony.

After a few tips on how to communicate with our horses — mine is a tall black horse called Blaze who is thankfully very docile — we set off on a slow walk around the property through a pine tree forest. My kids’ horses are led by one of the staff members while mine just follows the three other horses in front.

Narnu has 20 horses on the property and offers forest rides and horse riding lessons year-around except for the month of February, when the horses take a break. If you visit Narnu do try to fit in a horse ride – it’s fantastic fun and no experience is necessary.

It’s been a short visit at Narnu Farm but a fun one. The kids have had a great time and I’ve even managed to squeeze in some reading. I call that a win/win.

Port Elliot Bakery, Port Elliot

It’s always a good sign when there’s a line of people outside a bakery, isn’t it? I’d heard good things about the Port Elliot Bakery but I had no idea it was quite so popular.

After a short wait in the queue, my dad and I order a Steak Pie for him, a Beef Pie for my 7YO, a Mushroom & Spinach Pocket for me, a Sausage Roll for my 3YO and a Lamington to share (my dad got it confused with a vanilla slice somehow?). The custard buns look amazing but I resist.

My Mushroom and Spinach Pocket is generously-sized, flavourful, rich and hearty. In fact, it’s so good I decide I’m going to try cooking something similar at home. We eat all the food — I forget to take any photos — and then I insist on returning to buy more food with my mum, who I’ve lured by the promise of delectable cream buns.

This time I ask the girl behind the counter what their most popular savoury product is. She recommends their Vegetable Pasty so I order one with tomato sauce and share it with my dad. This time I remember to Instagram my food before I eat it.

The Vegetable Pasty is justifiably famous – the pastry is beautifully flaky while the carrot, potato and parsnip filling is perfectly cooked and seasoned.

My mum chooses a regular Honey Stick (an eclair-shaped bun filled with cream and strawberry jam) and a Chocolate Honey Stick (an eclair-shaped bun filled with chocolate custard filling and topped with chocolate icing).

I would never usually choose something like Honey Sticks but both are astonishingly good – the regular honey stick is light as a feather and filled with real whipped cream while the chocolate version is like a chocolate donut filled with chocolate custard. I’m in chocolate heaven.

If you liked baked goods you owe it yourself to check out the Port Elliot Bakery. Seriously. Go at the first available opportunity and try as many things as possible. And don’t forget to bring back a Chocolate Honey Stick for me, OK?

Address Book

• Narnu Farm: Monument Road, Hindmarsh Island, South Australia. Tel: Sarah on 0438 060 585 or email: narnu@narnufarm.com.au. Cottages sleep between 5-12 and cost between $150 and $210. Linen is an extra $10/person and must be booked in advance. Horse rides through the forest are for persons aged 4+ and are $30/30 minutes. Book online.
• Aquacaf: 94 Barrage Road, Goolwa, South Australia. Tel:+618 8555 1235. Open from Wednesday to Saturday for breakfast, lunch and dinner (the restaurant closes briefly between dining sessions) and on Sundays for breakfast and lunch.
• Port Elliot Bakery: 31 North Terrace, Port Elliot, South Australia. Tel: +618 8554 2475. Open everyday from 7:00am until 5:30pm. Closed: Xmas Day, Proclamation Day, New Year’s Day and Good Friday.

More Family Trips

• Family cruise to the Pacific islands
• The Breakfast Rave, Barossa Valley
• Family wedding at Garden House, Melbourne
• Cockling at Goolwa Beach
• Lunch at Collingrove Homestead

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

Most home-cooked dessert should be simple – some fruit and yoghurt pots. An easy upside down cake. A boozy sorbet for the grown ups. It’s the no-stress, no-fuss type of dessert you can put together with cupboard ingredients and only a few minutes to spare.

But sometimes dessert should be fussed over. Sometimes dessert should be an extravagant spectacle that elicits spontaneous oohs and ahhs from your guests. So for our Christmas Day lunch yesterday I decided to bake a three-layer pavlova.

Pavlova — that brilliant Australian dessert comprising a meringue and marshmallow base  topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit — is pretty darn near perfect as it is. But of course I had to fiddle with the original recipe, making a deconstructed pavlova and a Messy Pavlova or Eton Mess Down Under Style.

This time I decided to make my pavlova fantasy – a stack of three pavlovas with only red fruit and rose petals. I just love how festive and celebratory this looks.

I’d never made a layered pavlova before and was a little concerned that it might collapse under its own weight so made sure to whip the cream a little thicker than usual to help with stability.  I also baked the pavs the night before so they had plenty of time to cool and dry out a little bit.

As it turned out apart from a little cracking and compressing of the middle layer the pavlova held firm. In any case, I like the cracking and slight unevenness of a home-made pav – it’s the antithesis of the always ‘perfect’ pavs you can buy from Coles.

Decorated with fresh fruit and dried rose petals, this layered pavlova is something of a show-stopper. So next time you have something to celebrate why not give it a go?

Raspberry Pomegranate Layered Pavlova

INGREDIENTS

• 10 egg whites
• Large pinch salt
• 2.5 cups sugar
• 5 teaspoons corn flour
• 2.5 teaspoons white or red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean extract
• 725 mls thickened cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract
• 2-3 punnets raspberries (I used 2)
• 1 large pomegranate or 2 small ones
• 2 teaspoons dried rose petals (food grade, organic if possible)

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Line three baking trays with baking paper or tin foil and draw a 20cm circle on each.
3. Wipe mixing bowl with vinegar and then beat egg whites with salt until soft peaks form.
4. Add sugar in five batches (1/2 cup at a team), beating thoroughly between each addition until meringue is thick and shiny. Try holding the bowl upside down – if the meringue doesn’t move, it’s thick enough!
5. Add cornflour, vinegar and vanilla extract and gently fold in.
6. Divide mixture equally between three baking trays and spread gently to fill in the circle shape (an offset spatula is great for this). Smooth the top and the sides.
7. Place the trays in the oven and immediately reduce heat to 120 degrees Celsius. Bake pavlovas for 90 minutes and then turn off heat, leaving them to cool in the oven.
8. When ready to assemble, whip cream with 1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract.
9. Take one pavlova and spread with a third of the cream, leaving a 2 cm gap around the edge. Decorate with a handful of berries and pomegranate seeds, concentrating the berries at the sides and the pomegranate seeds in the middle). Repeat with two other layers.
10. Add a few extra raspberries and pomegranate seeds on the sides and then sprinkle rose petals over the whole thing, letting some fall over the berries and pomegranate seeds and some on the sides.

NOTES

• Serves 16-18.
• Gluten and nut free.
• I assembled the pavlova on a dinner plate that I then placed on a cake stand because I wanted to photograph it and then refrigerate it until it was time for dessert (the cake stand plus pavlova wouldn’t have fit in the fridge). Usually I’d assemble the pavlova directly onto a cake stand.
• You can substitute any kind of fresh fruit you can get your hands on for the raspberries and pomegranates.  I also love mango and passionfruit together, and peaches and blueberries. Just keep in mind that the lighter the fruit, the more likely that the pavlova will keep its shape.
• To de-seed a pomegranate, wear an apron and place a deep bowl in the kitchen sink. Cut the pomegranate in half and then use a heavy wooden spoon to  bash the seeds out of the pomegranate and into the bowl. Doing this in the sink reduces the clean up job as the juice tends to spurt everywhere.
• If the pav does collapse simply scoop up sections of it and serve them in individual bowls with added fruit as Eton Mess. No one will notice.

More Show-Stopping Desserts

• Sponge Cake with Berries and Cherries
• Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Bundt Cake
• Floating Islands

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

Summer is my favourite season and an Australian summer takes some beating.

I love the longer days and warm nights, the brilliant blue sky, the steady hum of happy insects in the garden, the endless drone of the cricket commentary on the radio and taking my kids to the beach. It’s a carefree and relaxed time of year, and my regular Summer menu — barbecues, salads, sorbets and juices — is suitably simple and unfussy.

So when Sensology challenged me to come up with a new recipe using Bacardi Rum for its recipe site I knew I wanted to create something stylish but simple. I wanted to make a cocktail people could throw together easily at the end of the day in a few minutes with ingredients often found in the fridge and pantry.

For me, mojitos are a perfect summer cocktail because the simple rum, lime and mint combination is so refreshing and clean tasting. During Summer I always have watermelon in my fridge — there’s nothing like a fat wedge of chilled melon to cool you down quickly — so I added watermelon to my recipe, along with blueberries for extra flavour and colour.

I love the pretty, gelato-esque colour of this drink. And the taste? Well, it’s Summer in a glass!

This Watermelon and Blueberry Mojitos would be perfect for pre-dinner drinks accompanied by some spiced nuts, or served at a Mexican-inspired feast or cocktail party accompanied by smoked salmon canapés and gourmet dips. But you could definitely serve it at a casual barbecue, too.

Try it yourself and let me know what you think. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Watermelon and Blueberry Mojitos

INGREDIENTS – COCKTAIL

• Watermelon (2kgs), skin removed and flesh diced to make approx. 1.2kgs cubes
• Bunch mint
• 1 x 125 gram punnet blueberries
• 3 limes (2 quartered + 1 sliced)
• 1 quantity sugar syrup – see recipe below
• 180 mls Bacardi Original Rum
• Ice
• 1 litre soda water, chilled

METHOD – COCKTAIL

1. Puree watermelon flesh in a blender and blend until liquid then strain through a sieve into a  jug to make approximately 4 cups (1,000 mls) watermelon juice. (If you’re in a hurry you can skip the sieving but it does result in a clearer looking mojito.)
2. Place a small handful of mint leaves and five blueberries in a tall (Collins) glass and squeeze over the juice from one lime quarter.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar syrup and then use a large wooden stick (the bottom of a wooden spoon for example) to ‘muddle’ or bash the mint, lime and syrup together.
4. Top with 5 tablespoons (75 mls) watermelon juice and add 45 mls Bacardi Original Rum.
5. Add ice and then fill glass with soda water.
6. Garnish with extra mint leaves, lime slices and extra blueberries.
7. Repeat for three other glasses.

INGREDIENTS – SUGAR SYRUP

• 4 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1/4 cup water

METHOD – SUGAR SYRUP

1. In a small saucepan bring the sugar and water to a gentle simmer.
2. Stir until sugar has completely dissolved and then remove from heat and leave to cool.

NOTES

1. Makes 4 drinks. This recipe can easily be multiplied to make sufficient quantities for a cocktail party or barbecue.
2. I’ve specified a large amount of watermelon because it makes sense to have extra for seconds or additional guests (the amount of watermelon will make 12+ cocktails). So if you want to make 12 drinks keep the watermelon quantity as is and multiply the other ingredients by three.
3. Conversely, if you only want to make four drinks and don’t want extra watermelon juice, I would buy a 625 gram piece of watermelon to make 375 grams of watermelon cubes / 300 mls watermelon juice.
4. Do drink responsibly, won’t you?

More Drinks and Boozy Sorbet Recipes

• Raspberry Rose Gin and Tonic
• Mimosa Sorbet made with Blood Oranges
• Bellini Sorbet
• Watermelon Daiquiri
• Rosewater Cardamon Pistachio Lassi
• Sparkling Lemonade

Disclosure

This recipe and sponsored post were developed for Sensology. As always, all opinions are my own.

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

It’s less than a week until Christmas and as usual at this time of year, I am feeling tired, unprepared and over-full.

I’m tired because I’m doing my usual work/family juggling act while also trying to go out as much as possible. It’s totally self-inflicted so I’m not asking for any sympathy. Just a strong cup of coffee.

I’m feeling unprepared because I haven’t done any Christmas present shopping or making yet. So I’ve set aside this weekend to go shopping and to make this Chilli Sauce and this Sweet and Salty Chocolate Bark.

And I’m overfull because going out and spending time with friends inevitably involves eating a lot. I’m baking all the time at the moment, too. Apparently my inner cake slut has finally emerged and seized control of my brain and willpower.

So on those rare occasions when I’m not dining out or eating yet another slice of cake I’m trying to eat as healthy as possible. Because life is all about balance, y’all.

This salad is my kind of healthy food. OK, the roast duck is rich and not exactly low fat but I have never been one to sacrifice flavour in favour of my thighs. Incidentally, what is the male equivalent of a thigh gap? Oh, that’s right – there isn’t one. *shakes head*

But back to the salad. This salad is so pretty you could definitely serve it up for Christmas Day lunch. Duck is always a special treat for us and if you live in Australia this salad is far more appropriate for our hot Christmas Day weather than the usual roasted meats. Plus, this dish is super easy because I bought the roasted duck from a Chinese restaurant. So it’s really just a matter of assembling the salad and spooning over the dressing.

Of course if you’d prefer to cook your own duck, you can. Buy three duck breasts from your butcher and see my earlier Duck with Plum Sauce and Figs recipe for instructions on how to cook them. 

Either way, making a delicious duck salad couldn’t be much easier. This is a good thing at any time of the year but especially so during this silly season.

Enjoy! xx

Duck, Orange and Pomegranate Salad

INGREDIENTS

• 200 grams baby spinach leaves, washed and spun dry
• 2 oranges, peeled, sliced and halved
• 1 small red onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 roasted duck from a Chinese restaurant (ask them to chop it up for you)
• 1 pomegranate, seeds only
• 1 punnet red currants, gently washed
• 1 small bunch mint (optional), washed
• 80 grams roasted hazelnuts (optional)
• 1 tablespoon top quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/2 teaspoons honey
• Salt flakes and freshly ground pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Arrange spinach leaves on a large platter and arrange orange slices and onion on top.
2. Arrange duck pieces on top.
3. Sprinkle over pomegranate seeds, plus mint and hazelnuts if using.
4. Make dressing by whisking olive oil, vinegar, juice and honey in a small cup and spooning it over the salad.
5. Season to taste and serve. Mix the salad up at the table.

NOTES

1. Serves 6.
2. Gluten, dairy and nut-free (this was made without nuts but you can add optional nuts).

More Salad Recipes

• Two Spring Salads: Radish  Salad / Beetroot, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
• Thai Prawn Salad
• Tomato and Bocconcini Salad
• Fig, Prosciutto and Pear Salad
• Beetroot, Walnut and Mint Salad
• Fiery Vietnamese Chicken Salad
• Blood Orange and Pomegranate Salad

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a new recipe or food & travel experience? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

Another year is almost over and I’m feeling sentimental. So if you’ll indulge me, here’s a look at some of the highlights of the year.

Better pinch myself, yes, it’s really happening…

The year’s biggest surprise was winning the Outstanding Use of Photography award at the Best Australian Blogs 2013 competition for my post Exploring Dubai: Spices, Diamonds, Gold, Fruit & Vegetables. The shock of winning this award — with so many brilliant photographers/bloggers out there — had me pinching my arms until I was black and blue. Big love to the Australian Writers’ Centre.

Coming a close second was being one of only five finalists in the Lifestyle category of the Best Australian Blogs 2013 competition. I started this blog because I was a writer who had lost her confidence and couldn’t finish anything so this nomination that was especially dear to my heart. Thanks again to the Australian Writers’ Centre for this honour.

Pick of the posts

These were my favourite posts on The Hungry Australian in 2013. I wouldn’t mind re-doing some of the photographs but these are the ones that most meaningful to me.

1. Messy Pavlova or Eton Mess Down Under Style – nationality, Twitter and baking
2. Anne of Green Gables and an Upside Down Plum Cake – my beloved childhood heroine
3. Bloggers and brands: why we’re (mostly) doing it wrong – the blogger/brand relationship
4. Penang Assam Laksa for Father’s Day – I finally re-blog my grandmother’s beloved recipe
5. Top 5 Meals I Wish I’d Never Eaten – pretty self-explanatory, no?
6. Prawn Lettuce Cups with Thai Dressing – a memorable argument with my ex husband
7. Cockling at Goolwa Beach + 4 cockle (pippi) recipes – a beloved family ritual
8. Moscato Stewed Quinces – a funeral and a gathering of friends
9. Steak with Asian Dressing – documents my one gym visit of the year
10. Thai Prawn Salad – the photo of my dad always makes me smile

Cool stuff

I worked on a lot of great projects this year for my amazing clients. Highlights include the Custard Apples 2013 media campaign, working with the Almond Board of Australia on an ongoing basis, and the Go Behind the Scenery campaign for Tourism Tasmania. I also did the food styling for two Wok in a Box shoots, one of which was a TV commercial that is due to air soon.

I took quite a few trips this year, which made me really happy because I love travelling and exploring new places. I visited Tasmania, Brisbane, Hamilton Island, Sydney and Perth for this blog, went on a family cruise and to a family wedding, and did numerous day trips around South Australia.

In early 2013 I  joined the Servved advertising network, home to some of my favourite Australian food bloggers. I have also just signed on with StockFood, the premier food image agency.

Thank you for reading The Hungry Australian and being part of this delicious adventure. Looking forward to sharing lots more recipes and travel experiences with you in 2014!

Christina xx

PS new recipe up on Friday :-)

Sponge cake is like my favourite pair of skinny blue jeans.

Worn with a fitted t-shirt and ballet flats, my blue jeans are my everyday wardrobe staple, suitable for the school run, cooking in, writing in and shooting in. But dressed up with a pair of heels, a sheer top and sharply tailored jacket, my blue jeans are equally appropriate attire for dinner or drinks with friends.

Like my blue jeans, sponge cake is a great, everyday kind of cake; it can be whipped up without fuss using pantry and fridge staples. But dressed up with fresh berries and flowers sponge cake can also be served at a fancy afternoon tea or dinner party.

I’d never made sponge cake before I got my KitchenAid stand mixer because I’m an impatient person and the thought of mixing something with a hand mixer for ten minutes made me feel faint. I know, I know – totally #1stworldproblems, right?

So sponge cake is a brilliant cake for lazy bakers because it’s the stand mixer that does the heavy lifting.

A word of advice: sift all the dry ingredients. Usually, I ignore these types of instructions but it would be fatal to do so here. If you don’t sift the cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda you’ll end up with bitter little lumps baked into the cake here and there and it will totally ruin the experience for you. Trust me on this.

But sifting dry ingredients is a small price to pay for a cake that is otherwise so simple and straightforward.

To decorate this cake I’ve used a mixture of strawberries, dark cherries and blueberries. But use whatever berries you can find – raspberries and blackberries are equally good. The white flowers are from a coriander plant gone to seed at a friend’s house.

If you’re taking this cake to a friend’s house, take the baked cakes, a bowl of whipped cream and the berries with you and assemble it on the spot. The beauty of this fruit and flower decoration is that it should look natural and haphazard so you don’t have to worry about things like symmetry and perfect icing. Just start with the largest fruit first and then fill in the spaces with the second largest and so on.

Too easy, right? Perfect for so many different occasions, too. Just like my blue jeans.

Sponge Cake with Berries and Cherries

This recipe is adapted from the Pinch of Salt Sponge Cake recipe by Margret Green in Liz Harfull’s delightful Blue Ribbon Cookbook about prize-winning country show cooks by Wakefield Press.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar (caster sugar, regular sugar or raw sugar)
• 3/4 cup cornflour
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
• 500 mls thickened cream
• 1/3 cup icing (powdered) sugar
• 1 punnet strawberries
• 1/2 punnet blueberries
• 120 grams cherries (2 handfuls)
• Coriander flowers or other similar flower (optional) to garnish

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
2. Spray two 20cm cake tins with baking spray or grease with butter or margarine.
3. Beat eggs and sugar for 10 minutes.
4. Sift cornflour, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda and flour into a medium bowl at least once but preferably thrice. The more times you sift the better the rise of the cake will be.
5. Use the beater(s) to fold the sifted, dry ingredients into the egg and sugar mixture gently, trying to retain as much of the air in the mixture as possible.
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Top should be springy and sides should be coming away with the pan.
7. Let cakes cool for 10 minutes and then remove cakes from tin and place on a tea towel on the kitchen bench. Cover cakes with the cake tins and leave them to cool completely.
8. To assemble, whip cream with powdered sugar until desired consistency.
9. Place one of the cakes  on a serving plate or cake stand. Using a spatula spread half the cream on the cake and use an offset spatula to smooth and tidy up. Place the other cake half on top and repeat.
10. Decorate with berries and herb flowers or similar (optional).

NOTES

• I used 2 x 20cms cake tins. Margret’s original recipe specifies 2 x 18cm cake tins so if you use these your cakes will be higher than mine (and more impressive!). If you do use 2 x 18 cms cake tins, you’ll need to increase the cooking time to 20-25 minutes.
• If you have a real sweet tooth you could spread a layer of berry jam on top of the bottom cake before adding the cream.
• This cake is best eaten on the day it’s baked.
• Serves 8-10.

More Cake Recipes

• Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Cake
• Strawberry and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
• J’s Chocolate Banana Cake (egg and dairy free)
• Upside Down Plum Cake
• Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Disclosure

I was gifted both the KitchenAid mixer and The Blue Ribbon Cookbook in 2012. Also, I ate 3 pieces of this cake yesterday and my blue jeans are now tight.

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts twice a week – it’s FREE.

Friday night is movie night at my house and on movie night we often eat pizza. Sometimes I make it and other times I buy it – it all depends on how tired or lazy I feel. Either way, pizza and movies are a great way to unwind at the end of the working week.

My kids only ever eat one type of pizza – Hawaiian or Ham and Cheese. I’ve tried extending their pizza preferences but they turn up their nose at every other type of pizza. But that’s OK because it means that I can indulge my taste for ingredients like chilli, capers, anchovies, salami and Kalamata olives on my own pizza.

But yesterday my friend gave me a bag of home grown cherry tomatoes.

So today I decided to make myself a pizza using the tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil leaves.

Isn’t it pretty?

This type of cooking is almost effortless – a quick trip to the shops for the bases (I won’t faff around with yeast on movie night) and the pizzas can be prepared in all of 5 minutes. 15-18 minutes in the oven and dinner is ready.

Delicious food, fast. Too easy. The only problem? I’m not sure I can wait until next Friday to make this again.

Cherry Tomato, Mozzarella and Fresh Basil Pizza

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pizza base (uncooked pre-made base or Phoenician bread)
• 5 tablespoons pizza paste or tomato paste
• 60 grams Parmesan, shredded
• 80 grams whole Mozzarella in water
• 13-15 baby or cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• Handful fresh basil leaves to garnish

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Ladle the pizza sauce on the base and then use the back of the spoon to spread it evenly.
3. Sprinkle over Parmesan and then roughly tear Mozzarella into small pieces and arrange it on the pizza base.
4. Arrange tomatoes over the cheese cut side up and then bake in the oven on a pizza tray or stone for 12-18 minutes (an uncooked base will need longer – check packet directions) or until cooked through.
5. Garnish with fresh basil leaves and tuck in. No cutlery required.

NOTES

• Quantities can easily be multiplied.
• Best eaten immediately.

More pizza recipes

• Backyard Wood Oven Pizza Party
• Chinese Sausage and Spinach Pizza

More fast meals

• Beef Stir Fry
• Mini Vietnamese Pork Buns
• My Grandmother’s Prawn Sambal
• Chinese Sausage Stir Fry

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE.

Some things don’t make sense to me.

Home laser hair removal kits. Hipster beards. Trying to give new parents advice when you’ve never had kids yourself. Caring what people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Caring what other people think of you. Most reality TV shows. Nearly everything I read in the Daily Mail.

And then there are some things that make perfect sense.

Freshly washed bed linen. Reading for pleasure every day. Cocktails just because. Bubble baths in the middle of the day. A push-the-boat-out dinner with your best friend. Planning trips to new places. Raspberries and dark chocolate.

Raspberries and dark chocolate? Oh yes, please.

The combination of dark chocolate and raspberries is a classic one for good reason – the sweet tartness of the berries goes so beautifully with the rich and slightly bitter cocoa flavour of the chocolate.

These moist and flavoursome cupcakes are adapted from this Nigella Lawson recipe – I changed the morello cherry jam to raspberry jam and the cherries to raspberries. These cupcakes have a full 300 gram jar of jam in them, which works out to about 180 grams of sugar in the jam itself. I thought that was plenty of sweetness so left out most of the caster sugar in Nigella’s recipe and you’d never know.

If you’re not a very confident baker, don’t worry. This recipe is super easy – all you need is a saucepan, a bowl and a whisk. Simple, right?

The ganache (icing) is made of cream and dark chocolate so its rich but not overly sweet. If you have a real sweet tooth, use a mixture of milk and dark chocolate or only milk chocolate instead. You could also make these cupcakes with a white chocolate ganache for a Christmas-appropriate cupcake.

Either way, I can’t guarantee you’ll have any leftovers.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

• 125 grams unsalted butter
• 100 grams dark chocolate (70% cocoa minimum), broken into pieces
• 300 grams raspberry jam (I used Beerenberg)
• 2 large eggs at room temperature, beaten
• 40 grams sugar
• Pinch salt
• 150 grams self-raising flour
• 100 grams dark chocolate, broken into little pieces
• 100 mls double or thickened cream
• 1 punnet raspberries, red currants or strawberries

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a 12-serve muffin tray with muffin cups.
2. Melt butter in a small saucepan and then add chocolate. Take off the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until chocolate has completely melted.
3. Add jam, sugar, salt and eggs and mix until combined.
4. Add flour and then mix until fully combined.
5. Spoon mixture evenly into 12 muffin containers  and bake for 25 minutes.
6. Leave in tin for ten minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. To make ganache, add cream and chocolate to a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from heat then whisk until thick and smooth.
8. Let ganache cool slightly, re-whisk and then ice the cupcakes with a dessert spoon, smoothing the tops with the back of the spoon.
9. Decorate cupcakes with berries.
10. Store in an air-tight container. You can refrigerate these but make sure you take them out 30 minutes before eating so they return to room temperature. Best eaten within 2-3 days.

More chocolate and berry recipes

• Strawberry and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
• Blueberry and Apple Bake
• J’s Chocolate Banana Cake
• Strawberry Granita
• Chocolate Bundt Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce
• Fig, Raspberry and Ginger Ice Cream Cake
• Blood Oranges with Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt
• Strawberry Soup

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE.

Can you believe it’s almost December? Yes, it’s that time of year when the calendar fills up, you try to catch up with everyone you’ve ever met in the space of a few weeks, you eat your body weight in food and you spend most of your time sorting out Christmas gifts for friends and family.

It’s also the time of year when you’re likely to be invited to gatherings and asked to ‘bring a plate’ to share. That’s where this colourful plate — Eye of the Tiger — comes in. It’s beyond easy, super quick and tastes amazing. There’s no cooking involved; all you need is some vegetables and herbs and a blender. Even the most domestically challenged amongst us can manage that, right?

The idea for this dip comes by way of my mother who looks after my 3YO during the week while I’m working. Last week she told me one of the mothers had brought the most marvellous dip to the Wednesday playgroup. She described the taste of it and it sounded so good I immediately got to work in the kitchen and came up with this.

I call this super healthy dish the Eye of the Tiger for two reasons. One, it looks so innocuous — the dip looks rather like a salsa verde or pesto — yet it packs a fiery punch to high-five your tastebuds and get the blood flowing in your veins. Two, my 7YO is learning a gymnastic routine to Katy Perry’s Roar* and if I have to have that song permanently in my head you should have it in yours, too.

Because sharing is caring.

Eye of the Tiger

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bunch coriander (about 80 grams) – roots, stems and leaves
• 1 bunch mint (about 80 grams) – leaves only
• 1 inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped roughly (or 1 teaspoon minced ginger)
• Juice of 1 lime (about 1 tablespoon)
• 5 tablespoons desiccated or shredded coconut
• 1 Birds Eye Chilli (hot) or 1/2 Birds Eye Chilli (medium hot)
• 2-3 tablespoons water

METHOD

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth.
2. Serve with fresh vegetables and crackers.

NOTES

1. To accompany the dip I chose crackers, mini cucumbers, mini asparagus, mini carrots and yellow and red capsicum (peppers). Mini vegetables are super-sweet and crunchy.
2. One Birds Eye chilli is a perfect heat for me but my mum found it too hot so if you’re catering for a mixed crowd of chilli addicts and unbelievers try only half a Birds Eye chilli first. Remember that you can always add half a chilli first, taste it and then add more if you like.
3. Gluten, nut, dairy, soy and refined-sugar free. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
4. This would also be great on toast and in sandwiches. You could also serve it with pan-fried salmon or grilled prawns.
5. This dip is best eaten on the day it’s made.

* Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here’s the video.

More appetizer recipes

• My Mother’s Pate
• Prawn Lettuce Cups with Thai Dressing
• Tomato Bocconcini Salad
• Chilled Cucumber Soup
• Fried Wontons
• Bruschetta with Quail Egg, Mini Asparagus and Truffle Paste
• Mini Vietnamese Pork Buns

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE.

One of the things I love about being a recipe developer and food blogger is that there is always one more dish to cook; I will never, ever be done in the kitchen and that makes me happy.

Still, there are times when inspiration can flag and it’s then I look outside for stimulation. So a couple of weeks ago I was excited to be invited to attend an Electrolux cooking class for media with legendary Sydney chef Tetsuya Wakuda at Sticky Rice Cooking School in the Adelaide Hills.

Here’s what happened.

A Tête-à-Tête with Tetsuya

I’ve attended a great Thai seafood banquet cooking class at Sticky Rice before in its main building but today we are shown to one of the three, new luxury villas built behind the main building. Each villa is outfitted with striking Electrolux appliances including induction cook tops, fridges, and ovens. I never knew an induction stove top could be so sexy.

For the first dish, Tetsuya stuffed a Barramundi with fennel, aniseed and garlic, and then sprinkled over salt, pepper and EVOO. Wrapped in tinfoil the fish was placed into a hot oven (200 degrees Celsius) to cook.

Next, he fried two amazing looking pieces of wagyu steak in white sesame oil and then put them in the oven at a low temperature (120 degrees Celsius) to finish.

Tetsuya then prepared a lovely crab dish with sweet chilli sauce, fish sauce, garlic ginger, soy sauce, coriander stalks, Thai basil leaves, kaffir lime leaves, coriander and coconut milk. You could do a version of this Thai-inspired dish at home using prawns or firm white fish if you didn’t have crab.

The crab dish was plated up and served to us at the table by two friendly staff members.

Next Tetsuya demonstrated his recipe for scrambled eggs.

Cooked over the lowest heat possible and constantly stirred, this pan of eggs took around 10 minutes to cook. Unlike gas cooking, induction cooking heats evenly so you don’t need to keeping dragging the cooked edges of egg into the middle of the pan.

Tetsuya’s scrambled eggs were marvellous – just set, delicately flavoured and with a wonderful creamy texture. The secret ingredient? Creamed sweet corn! It may sound a little odd but the sweetness of the creamed corn goes really well with the eggs, parmesan and ricotta. Wanna try it yourself? Here’s the recipe.

It was then time to unwrap the barramundi.

Tetsuya sprinkled fresh herbs and his signature Truffle Salt on the fish and the room was filled with the most incredible fragrance. This was such a simple but special dish – I am definitely making this at home.

Next up, it was time to plate up the wagyu steak with some oven roasted field mushrooms he’d prepared earlier.

I can’t tell you how good this was. But I’m a writer so let me try… I’m not saying it was better than the days I had my kids but it’s definitely hovering in the vicinity. Imagine Christmas Day times about ten. Or the feeling you’d get as a 30-something when you discover you can still fit into your high school formal outfit.

Buttery, tender, perfectly cooked wagyu steak. Fleshy, roasted mushrooms topped with a garlic, ginger, parsley, chicken stock and soy sauce that made my heart skip a beat. It was this dish that prompted me to blurt out, ‘Tetsuya, are you married?’ to much laughter from my fellow guest.

Next up, Tetsuya prepared a dish with ocean trout. I’ve eaten a few memorable dishes with ocean trout in restaurants lately but this one was simply stunning.

First, the raw ocean trout was fanned out on a plate. Then he topped the ocean trout with a soy, ginger, dried black bean, sesame oil and mirin dressing, grated orange zest and a crisp spring onions nest.

Tetsuya then poured hot grape seed oil on the top of the spring onions, effectively cooking them and infusing the flavours of the onions throughout the dish.

Micro herbs and salad leaves and finely shredded leek followed to create a dish as pretty as a picture and a highlight of the day.

Next up, Tetsuya prepared a quick tagine with chicken, eggplant, olives, capsicum and preserved lemon. Usually this Middle Eastern inspired dish would take at least a couple of hours to cook in a proper tagine vessel but Tetsuya’s recipe was designed to be cooked in a large fry pan and took only 20+ minutes from start to finish.

Throughout the afternoon, Tetsuya was affable and relaxed, happily answering questions and sharing humorous anecdotes about his life.

“Cooking is very personal,” he says at one point. “It’s about giving.”

It’s true. By the end of the day I feel like the cat that has got the cream.

Address Book

• Sticky Rice Cooking School: 96 Old Mount Baker Road, Stirling, SA. Tel: +618 8339 1314 or email: admin@stickyricecookingschool.com.au.
• Tetsuyas: 529 Kent Street, Sydney. The restaurant is open for dinner Tuesday to Friday, and on Saturday for both lunch and dinner .Bookings can be made by phoning: +61 2 9267 2900.

Disclosure

I attended the class as a guest of Electrolux and Sticky Rice Cooking School. As always, all opinions are my own.

More posts on food classes

• Arabian Nights Cooking Class at Chapel Hill Winery, McLaren Vale
• Thai Seafood Banquet Class at Sticky Rice Cooking School, Adelaide Hills
• The Smelly Cheese Shop’s Cheese Appreciation Class

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE.

In early 1999, I moved to London from Adelaide. I’d been working for a few years by then and I told my family and friends the move was necessary for a broader work and life experience. Secretly, I was really moving to meet boys, have fun and re-invent myself as a sophisticated global citizen. 

At the time, my CD collection (remember those?) was full of British indie pop and rock bands (Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Oasis, Blur, Pulp), my book shelves were groaning with British novels (Agatha Christie,  W. Somerset Maugham, Georgette Heyer), and I loved nothing better than watching quality British drama and comedy on the telly. So I was already half in love with England before I’d arrived.

It was when I was living in London that I discovered Gin & Tonics and G&Ts quickly become my signature drink. So when Sensology recently approached me to develop some new cocktail recipes for their recipe site I was delighted to find that the first recipe I’d be doing would be a re-imagined G&T with Bombay Sapphire. 

The original G&T — gin, tonic and a slice of fresh lemon or lime — is pretty close to perfection in my book, immediately evoking hot Summer days, and long and hilarious conversations with girlfriends. How could I top that?

Well, after much experimentation I’ve come up with this recipe –  Raspberry Rose Gin & Tonic.

Regular readers will know how much I love rosewater – it’s popped up before in this Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Bundt Cake and this Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Lassi. Well, rosewater is absolutely divine with fresh raspberries, too. One sip of this cocktail and I’m instantly in the mood for fun and frivolity.

This Raspberry Rose Gin and Tonic would be fantastic served with barbecued meat, fish or halloumi, or with my Lamb with Pomegranate, Mint, Broad Beans and Couscous.

Here’s to a great Summer – cheers!

Raspberry Rose Gin & Tonic

INGREDIENTS

• 2/3 punnet raspberries (approximately 2/3 cup)
• 1/3 cup Bombay Sapphire gin (approximately 80 mls)
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons lime juice (approximately 1.5 limes, juiced)
• 1/4 teaspoon rosewater
• Crushed ice
• Tonic water
• 1/2 lime for garnishing
• 1 teaspoon dried rose petals (food grade, available at speciality food shops)

METHOD

1. Place first five ingredients into a jug and muddle (semi-crush) raspberries with the end of a wooden spoon. You can leave it to infuse for up to an hour but if you’re in a hurry, simply skip on to the next step.
2. Add spoonfuls of crushed ice to two tumblers (or highballs if you prefer more tonic water) and pour over berry mixture, diving equally.
3. Top with chilled tonic water, garnish with a lime slice and scatter over dried rose petals.

Serves 2. This recipe can easily be doubled or multiplied to whatever quantities you require.

Do drink responsibility, won’t you? 

Disclosure

This recipe and sponsored post were developed for Sensology. My recipe and photographs will also be licensed to the Sensology recipe site. As always, all opinions are my own.

This is not one of my usual recipe or travel posts.  If you’d rather read one of those please click on the links or check out my archives. 

The session that sparked the liveliest discussion at the 4th Australian Food Bloggers Conference (Eat Drink Blog 4) last weekend in Perth was a panel on ethics and working with PRs. It seems that there’s nothing more divisive in the blogging world than a discussion about bloggers and money and commercial vs non-commercial blogging.

On one side, we had Cyn aka The Food Pornographer (disclosure: Cyn is a close friend and member of the Servved advertising network I am part of), who selectively works with food and travel companies on her blog. On the other, there was Phil from The Last Appetite, who does not accept any form of sponsorship or advertising on his blog.

In a nutshell, Cyn’s take on it was that if you can work with brands and maintain your integrity if you are extremely selective, completely transparent and maintain 100% editorial control.

On the other hand, Phil felt strongly that any form of sponsorship or gifted products, services or experiences is potentially a corrupting influence. He was also concerned that a gifted product or trip is not a ‘true’ experience or one that bloggers would actually pay for. Part of Phil’s hardline approach is due to a conflict of interest between his blog and his day job working for a state tourism company.

Before I share my response, please note that I currently freelance for food, media and tourism companies (brands). Previously I worked in general management, marketing, fundraising and PR. I’ve been paid to write for 15+ years and I’ve been blogging for 2.5 years.

Let’s start with some definitions, shall we? These are mine; they may be different to yours.

Definitions

1. Gifted – this is when a brand supplies a blogger with a free product, experience, meal or service so they can experience it and perhaps review it. Or perhaps the brand provides a product for a giveaway or invites the blogger to a dinner, launch or event. There is no contract between them.
2. Famil – this is when a brand supplies a blogger/journalist with a free travel experience so that they can familiarise themselves with the destination and hopefully blog/write about it. Typically this includes flights, transfers, accomodation, meals and entertainment. There is no contract between them. 
3. Sponsored – this is when a brand pays a blogger to blog, tweet or share information about the brand. There is a contract between them. The content is delivered through the blogger’s own blog and social media channels. 
4. Commission – this is when a brand pays a blogger to develop content about the brand. There is a contract between them. The content is delivered through the brand’s own website, marketing material and social media channels. 
5. Advertising – when a brand pays for ad space on a blog. Typically in the form of banners, squares/tiles or leader boards, ads are a paid promotion of a brand and covered by a contract.

I’ve worked with brands in all of the above ways. 

Why do some bloggers choose to be commercial vs non-commercial?

Bloggers who choose not to engage with brands usually do so because of one or more of the following reasons:

1. Blogger has a full-time job that pays the bills and is unrelated to their blog. Blogging is a hobby and he/she wants to keep it fun.
2. Blogger is a writer/photographer/stylist and wants to keep their blog somewhere to ‘play.’
3. Blogger wants to be able to blog about anything and does not want to feel restricted in any way.
4. Blogger believes it’s impossible to work with brands without ‘selling out.’
5. Blogger believes doing things on his/her own dime is a more genuine experience.
6. It would conflict with blogger’s day job in the food, tourism or PR industries.

In October 2012 I spoke at the Adelaide Beauty Bloggers Conference on a panel called ‘Blogging for Fun and Profit.’ I can’t speak for all commercial bloggers but the video sums up why I’ve gone down the path I have pretty well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayOEhgmmFCw

Common criticisms of bloggers who work with brands

Phil touched on some of these during the Eat Drink Blog 4 session. Other bloggers will no doubt have different views but my personal response is as follows.

#1: Bloggers have no integrity; they’ll blog anything for a freebie.

No. I turn down 95% of invitations and offers. I am extremely selective about the brands I do work with. Integrity and professionalism have nothing to do with a job title — in this case, ‘blogger’ — and everything to do with a person’s character.

#2: Bloggers don’t do their own research; they take the press release as fact and don’t bother looking beyond it

Before I agree to work with a brand I Google the company and spend some time reading through anything that might tell me more about the company and/or product or destination. Because, as with any job, I’m interviewing them as much as they are interviewing me. And I only want to work with people and companies that are a good fit with me and who will do the right thing by me.

#3: Bloggers promote or blog products or experience that they would never pay their own money for

No. I only blog things I would recommend to my family and friends. With regards to famils and sponsored travel, I think Cyn said it best during the Eat Drink Blog 4 panel discussion when she said she has a bucket list of hundreds of places she’d like to visit but the reality is she’s unlikely to be able to visit them all on her own coin. So if the right opportunity to visit a place on her list came up she would consider it. I would, too, because a trip could be a great fit for my food & travel blog. On the flip-side, I’ve turned down countless free meals because I only write about restaurants in the context of a story or a travel experience. So I won’t accept free meals I know I would never blog. For me (and Cyn) it’s all about it being a good fit.

#4: Even if the blogger is not being paid, there is an implied reciprocity in any gifted product or service i.e. you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

Yes and no. If a company supplies me with a gifted product or experience they are enabling me to experience it but they are not paying for my time or my expenses. There is no contract between us so I don’t feel obliged to them and won’t be pressured by them. Having said that, I rarely accept gifted products, invitations or services nowadays because I find it easier to manage expectations this way.

#5: Bloggers blog or tweet about products and places and you never know if they’re being paid to do so or not.

I disclose any commercial or personal relationships that may influence something I’ve posted on my blog. I usually work a statement explaining the relationship into the beginning of a blog post and end with an explicit disclaimer outlining any freebies or compensation. At the conference one speaker mentioned that he’s seen some bloggers tagging certain Tweets or Instagram posts with hashtags like #gifted, #sponsored, #clientwork, and #mywork. I think this is an excellent idea and will do so with all relevant posts on these channels from now on.

Now let’s look at some examples of bloggers and brands working together successfully and unsuccessfully. I’ll start with the unsuccessful ones.

Brand & blogger fails

The ‘Machine Gun’ Approach

The brand/PR agency/blogger agency sends out a media release, invitation or giveaway offer to every blogger they can find an email address for. The email is not personally addressed and the sender has not bothered to determine whether the release is in fact a good fit for the blogger.

I call this the Machine Gun approach because the brand/PR agency/blogger agency is basically scattering a group of bloggers with their release and hoping some of it hits their target.

In my opinion, this is a lousy way to do business. Unlike journalists, bloggers are not always on the lookout for a new story. So you might get some bloggers picking up your story — especially if you offer free product — but more experienced bloggers  won’t touch these types of ‘opportunities’. Why would they want to blog the same story as everybody else? It’s not interesting, it doesn’t make good content and readers get put off.

The ‘But We Love You!’ Approach

The brand/PR agency approaches an individual blogger or group of bloggers with a pitch that goes something like this: “We love you, we love your blog, and we think you’re awesome. We want to develop a great relationship with you so we have this UH-MAZING opportunity for you where you promote our brand for us. We want you to blog a recipe using X product or write a story about X on your blog that we can also publish on our brand website. Unfortunately we have no money to actually pay you but we will link back to you and fully credit you.”

As a full-time freelancer, pitches like this make me cross because the agency is essentially commissioning a story/blog post and leveraging the blogger’s skills and influence but saying they have no budget for it. I never do these stories because I won’t work for free for profit-making companies. Check out Catherine Deveny’s post on why she won’t work for free.

I know we all have to start out somewhere and I’m not saying you should never work or write for free. In the mid 90s I spent my university holidays volunteering at a local arts festival and my free time volunteering for a local singing group and both gigs led to to my first job in marketing & PR.  I also wrote for the Adelaide University newspaper for two years as a volunteer contributor before becoming the paid co-editor in ’96. So I do get it.

But if you’re a blogger be strategic and selective about the companies you do work with. Ask yourself how much your time, skills and influence are worth and don’t be scared to say no to ‘opportunities’ that aren’t a good fit. As time goes on and your skills and experience grow, saying no to the little opportunities may help you land the big ones.

How brands & bloggers can work together

In my biased opinion — and we are all biased in some way — sponsoring, commissioning and advertising with bloggers (3, 4 and 5 on the list above) are by far the most effective way bloggers and brands can work together.

Unlike gifted products, event invitations or famils, the expectations and deliverables on both sides can be clearly communicated and explicitly stated in a written contract. This way, brands don’t feel let-down and bloggers don’t feel pressured to post.

Commissions

A commission is very straightforward and effective way for brands to work with a blogger. A brand like what the blogger does (recipes, writing, photography, styling, blogging, social media etc) and hires him or her to do it for them. This content is then promoted via the brand’s usual marketing channels. The brand gets the custom content they were after as well as the positive association of working with the blogger, regardless of whether the blogger blogs about the project or not.

Sponsored Content

Sponsored content is a little trickier. Because it’s going out on the blogger’s blog and social media channels the effectiveness of sponsored content depends entirely on whether or not it’s a good fit and the authenticity of the message.

I read blogs because I love the little window they give me into another person’s world. I read blogs to be inspired, to learn something new, to be entertained and to be moved: I don’t read blogs for a re-worded media release (and I’ve written plenty of those in a former life).

Brands are used to telling their story in their own words. When they engage with bloggers they are passing the conch to the blogger so that the blogger can tell the brand’s story in his or her own words. That can be scary for a brand but smart brands understand that they do not fully control their image anymore. True authenticity requires the sharing of warts and all and consumers are more likely to trust brands that are comfortable with this approach.

Personally, I believe sponsored content works and is credible when it’s written in the blogger’s own voice without any external interference from the brand. That means no approval by the brand before publication or any editing done after publication because the brand is unhappy with the way their brand or product is portrayed.

The blogger also needs to be comfortable with what they they’ve agreed to do: if they’re not, a certain self-consciousness or over-perkiness can creep into their posts, making them less genuine.

Advertising

Blogs are free to read but can be costly to maintain. Apart from the thousands of (mostly unpaid) hours I’ve devoted to this blog I have a whole book of receipts related to blog expenses like hosting, camera equipment and accessories, external hard drives, card readers, props (painted wood, table linens, flat ware, crockery etc), kitchen ware, food costs and so on.

Some bloggers like to offset their blog expenses by running advertisements on their blogs. Some, like me, join an ad network, while others sell ad space directly to brands themselves via their blogs.

For brands, the ability to tap into a blogger’s influence and audience through advertising can be very attractive. Advertising is a good choice for brands who want to align with bloggers while retaining more control of how they are presented.

6 tips for brands who want to work with bloggers

1. Don’t just send a suggested story idea to every blogger in your database and say ‘please consider using.’ This is lazy and ineffective and it completely devalues the brand in my eyes.
2. Do your research. Only approach bloggers that have blogged similar stories to the one you are going to pitch them and reference these posts in your customised approach.
3. If you are sending out event information or invitations, make sure the bloggers you approach live in the same state and might actually be able to attend your event (or send them a plane ticket).
4. Ask yourself, what’s in it for the blogger? Why would he/she care about my brand?
5. If you’re sponsoring or hosting a blogger event, think about ways to really make your brand experience special and immersive. The extraordinary always gets talked about.
6. If you’re promoting a product remember that bloggers love experiencing things for themselves. So don’t just send them a media release and say you can supply high-res images. Offer them a trial or sample so they can try it for themselves.

6 tips for bloggers who want to work with brands

1. Treat your blog as a portfolio. Create blog posts that showcase the breadth of your skills.
2. Create an About page with a photo that helps to establish your credibility and authority. Don’t write about the time you woke up half-naked out in the middle of nowhere and definitely don’t display a photo of said event. Instead, talk about the work and life experiences that you’re most proud of. Better yet, create a separate portfolio site and list your services, clients and testimonials. Here’s mine as an example.
3. Make sure you make it easy for people to get in touch with you. I’m amazed at the number of blogs that still don’t include an email address or contact form.
4. Don’t respond to unpaid pitches with: “Are you out of your freaking mind?” Instead, try: “Thanks for your email and for thinking of me. Unfortunately I don’t work for free so this particular project is not a good fit for me. However, if you  have a project with a budget I do hope you’ll consider me.” This way you make your position clear but still leave the door open. 
5. Know your worth. Work out how long it takes you to write a post, develop, cook and style a dish (if you do recipes), and shoot and edit photos. Work out your hourly rate and how much your time and skills are worth. Research going rates in the industry and chat to fellow bloggers. Don’t be afraid to negotiate an offer or to go back to them with suggestions of other ways to work together. And put everything in writing – I have lengthy Terms & Conditions that I send out with every requested quotation. Protect your own interests just as the brand is protecting theirs.
6. Maintain 100% editorial control of your blog. Never give this up.

Let’s do it better

If you’re a blogger and you want to work with brands, make it easy for brands to find you and assess whether you’d be a good person to work with. Be strategic about everything you post, remembering that you never know who is out there reading your blog; while most of my work happens off my blog nearly all of my current clients have found me via my blog. 

In terms of accepting freebies or payment, ultimately only you can decide what you feel comfortable with; I’m blogging to continue the conversation, not to lay down the law.

For brands, please do your homework before you approach bloggers. Right now I’m deleting 95% of your pitches because they are simply a poor fit.

I believe that it is entirely possible for brands and bloggers to work together in a way that is effective, mutually beneficial, respectful and collaborative. Unfortunately, this is far from the norm.

Let’s do it better.

Thanks to Cyn, Phil, Erin, Ed, Ai-Ling and Matt for the conversations at Eat Drink Blog 4 that inspired this post. 

More posts about blogging

• How to blog about food: useful tips for new, emerging and aspiring food bloggers
• Where to next for the Australian Food Bloggers Conference?
• What I Learned at the 2nd Australian Food Bloggers Conference
• The Complete List of Adelaide Food & Wine Blogs

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE.

Disclosure

Eat Drink Blog 4 was free for delegates to attend. All conference meals and drinks were sponsored and gift bags were also provided for delegates. I paid for my own travel, accommodation and additional meals/expenses.

Thank You

Grateful thanks to the EDB4 committee members for their hard work in organising the event, the speakers for sharing their knowledge and expertise, and the  sponsors, without whom EDB4 would not have been possible.

Comments? Questions?

Are you a blogger, a PR agency or a brand? What’s your approach? Share your thoughts below.

The other day I was at the beautician for a once-in-a-blue-moon appointment. A blonde lady in her 40s was examining my skin when she said, “of course people from your country always have an issue with pigmentation.”

She then went on about my skin but I didn’t hear what she said because I was too busy processing her words.

My country? But I thought Australia was my country.

I mentioned my experience on Twitter and it sparked an interesting discussion about nationality, identity and racism.

I was born in Adelaide. I wanted to eat tuna mornay and be Oliva Newton John in Grease when I was growing up. As a high school student studying in Adelaide my Hong-Kong born mother was taught to cook by her kind Australian/German landlady. One of my happiest childhood memories is digging for cockles (pippies) at the beach with my family and friends.

But you don’t have to be born in a country to identify with it.

The beautician didn’t see any of this. She saw my olive skin, my black hair and my almond eyes and she saw someone from a different country.

The lady wasn’t being malicious or unkind. She would probably be surprised to hear that her words had such an effect on me. But when you grow up in a country when you don’t look like anyone in the mainstream media you can be painfully conscious of your differences. During high school I remember a popular girl asking me “so what do you eat at home?” in the same tone she would have used if I were a martian who had crash-landed on the school oval.

It’s funny how times have changed. Well,  the times have changed, and I’ve changed, too.

After university I worked in London, Leeds, London, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Shanghai. I’ve never identified so strongly as an Australian, or been more proud to be Australian, than when I was working overseas. Because when you live amongst foreigners and have to try to decode foreign words, meanings and symbols every day maintaining your individual identity becomes tremendously important.

It was when I was working in Asia in my mid twenties that I  heard someone (jokingly) describe me as a banana – that is, yellow on the outside but white in the middle. It was then that I realised it’s not up to other people to tell me who I am; it’s up to me to define myself.

I will always feel both Australian and Chinese. As an Australian Born Chinese (ABC) I don’t fit neatly into either culture and I’m OK with that. 

It was also in Asia that I finally became comfortable in my own skin. Living and working amongst people that looked like me meant that I finally started to like how I looked. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was also when my looks improved; confidence will always trump the most expensive beauty product on the market. 

The times have changed as well. Nowadays when people ask me what I eat at home I know they’re asking because they’re genuinely interested. Their question is about creating a bond with me, not a divide.

Similarly, nowadays I’m bemused rather than offended when someone I have just met tells me how much he or she likes to cook stir fries or noodles (without knowing that I work as a recipe developer). On one hand, it’s an indication that they probably don’t know many Asian people, but on the other, it’s a signal of their willingness to be friendly. And so I respond in a similarly positive spirt.

Change always starts from within.

Food can be such a powerful symbol. We can use it as a way to make a friendly overture. We break bread with our families and friends as a way of reinforcing the relationships between us. We cook for those we love and the bonds between us grow stronger with each bite.

I’ve always liked Eton Mess, that traditional English dessert made from cream, meringue and berries, but I’ve always thought it would be so much better made with the marshmallow meringue miracle that is pavlova. So I created this hybrid: Messy Pavlova. You’re welcome.

If you want to make a single regular pavlova then simply leave the pavlova whole and decorate as usual. But Messy Pavlovas are a great dessert for less-than-amazing bakers – you don’t have to worry about the pav cracking because you’re going to bash it to bits anyway.

Either way you serve it, it’ll taste just fine. Or, as we Aussies like to say, she’ll be right, mate. 

Messy Pavlova or Eton Mess Down Under Style

Messy Pavlova is a Pavlova and Eton Mess hybrid adapted from a pavlova recipe in Stephanie’s Alexander’s wonderful book, The Cook’s Companion.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 large eggs at room temperature
• Pinch salt
• 250 grams (1 cup) caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons corn flour
• 1 teaspoon red or white wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean extract or essence
• 450 mls cream
• 1 punnet blueberries
• 8 passion fruit

METHOD

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Draw a 20cm circle on some baking paper (use a plate) and line a baking tray.
3. Seperate eggs and reserve yolks for another dish (custard, creme caramel, creme brulee)
4. Beat egg whites and salt with a stand mixer or hand mixer until mixture holds in soft peaks.
5. Add sugar in four batches, scraping down the sides and beating well after each addition, until meringue is thick, firm and shiny.
6. Sprinkle over corn flour, vinegar and vanilla and then gently fold in, trying to retain as much volume in the meringue as possible.
7. Place in oven and reduce temperature to 150 degrees Celsius. Bake for 30 minutes and then reduce temperature to 120 degrees Celsius and bake for another 45 minutes.
8. Turn off oven and leave pavlova to cool completely inside oven.
9. To serve, break up the pavlova into small pieces and place pieces into 8 small bowls. Whip cream until soft peaks form and then spoon over the pavlova pieces, and top with fruit. Best eaten immediately.

Serves 8. Gluten and Nut Free.

More Gluten and Nut Free Recipes

• Blueberry and Apple Bake
• Passionfruit Sago Puddings
• Rhubarb Apple Yoghurt Pots
• Bellini Sorbet
• Grilled Figs
• Blood Oranges with Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE.

In September I visited Tasmania as a guest of Tourism Tasmania. The first 36 hours of my trip were spent exploring the capital, Hobart where I ate an extraordinary amount of food. This next 36 hours were spent exploring Swansea and Freycinet on the East coast of Tasmania, where I ate even more food. This post covers the last 24 hours of my trip visiting Binalong Bay, Pyengana and Launceston. 

After a fantastic seafood lunch at Freycinet Marine Farm it’s time to hit the road to Bed in the Treetops at Binalong Bay, where I’ll be staying tonight. Binalong Bay is a scenic, 90 minute drive along the coast through paddocks dotted with sheep and cows and seaside towns. Driving always makes me sleepy so halfway there I stop for a soy latte and caramel slice at Bicheno. The sugar and caffeine revive me and I drive on.

Bed in the Treetops

I arrive at Bed in the Treetops in the late afternoon. The aptly named B&B is situated in 80 acres of bush at the top of a steep 1 km dirt driveway that makes my heart skip a beat as I’m ascending. 

Peering down the hill I can just make out the sea through the fog.

I meet my friendly hosts, Mary Ann and Rod, who have been managing the award-winning property for 12 years. Bed in the Treetops has only three rooms so it feels extremely private. Tonight I’m in the Deluxe Spa Suite. Rates for the rooms range from $210 for a single person up to $490 for 4 people.

Inside it’s warm and comfortable. Bed in the Treetops is not hip or modern. But it is charming, cosy and completely secluded. So if you’re after somewhere peaceful and quiet, it’s a perfect place to stay. 

Outside a verandah is the perfect spot to read and enjoy a cup of tea. Someone here is a keen gardener and an extraordinary number of succulents have been grown in old pots, tins and even shoes.

If you’re thinking about bringing kids here please note that teenagers are welcome but under 12s are not allowed. Given the location and setup I’d have to agree that it’s not the most suitable accommodation for little ones.

Bed in the Treetops offers free wifi and free DVDs are also available at reception to borrow.

After freshening up and checking my email, it’s time to head out to dinner.   

Blue Shed

Night has completely fallen by the time I reach Blue Shed. 

Situated on the edge of the marina, Blue Shed resembles an 80s style bistro. The room is dimly lit, the furniture is functional and solid and the tables are bare of any linen.  The view during the daytime, however, would be tremendous. Through the floor to ceiling windows I can just make out boats neatly moored and bobbing gently up and down on the water.

Tonight  the restaurant is only a third full however it is a Wednesday in winter so this isn’t altogether surprising.

The very nice hostess, Irena shows me to my table and I have a look through the seafood-heavy menu. Prices are in line with a good restaurant in a major city — entrees are around $18 while mains are $33-38 — which surprises me a little considering the rather basic decor.

I order a Bay of Fires Pinot Grigio and it hits the spot nicely.

After discussing the menu with Irena she suggests a mixed entree plate to start.

From left to right we have a freshly shucked Georges Bay natural  oyster, a Tempura oyster on a bed of wakame (seaweed), Blue Shed’s signature Bass Strait squid and Macquarie Harbour Salmon.

Like all the Tassie oysters I’ve enjoyed on my trip, the natural oyster ($17.90 for a half dozen; $35.80 for a dozen) is magnificent. I could eat a dozen every day. The Tempura oyster on wakame  ($18.90 for a half dozen; $37.80 for a dozen) is crisp and crunchy on the outside and deliciously soft inside and topped with trout ‘pearls’ that add a burst of salty flavour.

Irenas has told me how everybody loves the squid so I have high expectations. The rice flour batter provides a crisp and crunchy shell for the tender squid within but I find the chilli spice salt way too subtle for my chilli-loving tastebuds. It’s only when I eat the squid with the coriander, chilli and fried shallot garnish that the dish comes alive for me. Now I can see what all the fuss is about! Perhaps it’s the small serving size as part of a tasting plate that’s the problem here – served in a regular portion ($17.90) with the usual amount of  herbs and garnishes this dish is probably be just fine.

The final dish — Macquarie Harbour  Salmon ($17.90 for a usual serve) — consists of beetroot cured Tasmanian salmon with black olive ‘paint’, mild pickled Spanish onion and spectacular crispy fried salmon skin. It’s extremely good. 

For my main I’ve chosen the Hook Caught Blue Eye ($32.90).

On a bed of black rice perches a sizeable portion of the freshest Blue Eye I’ve eaten in a while. The salad of cucumber, mint and pea tendrils is dressed with a Thai style dressing of palm sugar, chilli and rice wine vinegar, which goes beautifully with the butter and lemon poached fish. Top marks.

After dinner I chat with Irena and Rod, the couple behind Blue Shed. Rod has a wealth of experience in the seafood industry and also runs the seafood shop next door. Hence, the emphasis on top quality seafood at Blue Shed.

Unprompted, Irena explains that they used to dress the dining tables with table cloths and napkins but the locals thought it was too fancy so they did away with all of that. It just goes to show that you should never make assumptions, doesn’t it?

Right now it’s the low season so dinner bookings are down. During the high season — December to late March  — they turn away 50-100 people each night. So if you’re visiting then please do book ahead. Don’t be like the group of people who turned up two nights in a row without booking, couldn’t be accommodated and then wrote an angry blog post. Book ahead to avoid disappointment. Yes, Blue Shed is a little pricey but top quality seafood isn’t cheap. And if you love seafood you’ll find a lot to like here.

The next morning I wake up early and head to Pyengana. Along the way I stop at the beach. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Pyengana Dairy Company

Pyengana Dairy Company (PDC) is found at the end of a road that twists through idyllic paddocks full of contented cows. I arrive at the shop and fully–licensed cafe around 9am. Right now the only people around are staff but during the day this place gets really busy.

I meet Greg Gibson, the general manager, who explains that PDC is a fourth generation, family-owned and operated company. Unlike most cheese companies, PDC only use their only milk to produce their cheese, thus maintaining 100% control over quality and consistency.

We wander outside to check out the cows. Look at this place. Imagine this being the view outside of your office window.

Greg introduces me to John Healey, whose great grandfather founded the company.

The Healey family have been producing cheddar in the region for over 100 years but it was John who started the company in 1992 as a way to value-add to his family’s dairy farm.

Numerous awards followed and nowadays the company sells twelve varieties of cheeses,  full–cream and low fat non–homogenised milk, and hand–made ice cream.

Back inside, it’s time to taste some cheese. Check out this magnificent wheel of vintage cheddar. Phwoar!

I taste a number of different cheddars and am struck by how differently they all taste. The young cheddars are mild in taste and smooth and creamy in texture. The older the cheese, the more pronounced the flavours and the more crumbly the texture. Youngish cheddars are perfect for potato bakes, lasagnes and sprinkling over mornays while I’d save the vintage cheddars for sandwiches and cheese plates.

If you love cheese, Pyengana Dairy Farm is well worth a visit. The shop also sells a number of their cheddars that you won’t find anywhere else.

It’s time to stock up on coffee and hop back into the car – I have a two-hour drive ahead of me to Launceston.

Blue Cafe

My first stop in Launceston is Blue Cafe. Situated next door to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery and UTAS Academy of Arts, the cafe is bustling with activity – nearly every indoor table is taken.

A converted tram pay station, the feel at Blue Cafe is stylish but relaxed – there’s lots of natural wood and stone as well as fantastic eye-candy like this geometric neon installation.

Outside I find a table in the sun next to a group of eight old friends.

Scanning the menu — and conscious that I will be visiting two more restaurants after this one —  I decide to order the duck salad. As I’m waiting for my food the table next to me is served and all eight of them are given identical plates of the duck salad! Bemused, I ask them if the duck salad is Blue’s signature dish? Why have they all ordered it? Did it get a great write-up recently or something?

No, they cheerfully reply. They just all thought it sounded good so they all decided to order it.

Just then my duck salad arrives and everyone bursts out laughing.

Blue Cafe’s duck salad consists of shredded roasted duck tossed with cashews,  baby tomatoes, fresh pineapple,  bean sprouts, cucumber, mint, spring onions, and coriander and a mild rice wine vinegar dressing. It’s pretty darn near perfect – for my tastebuds the only thing missing is some chilli and maybe some dried anchovies. But still, this is a fantastic dish.

Judging by the satisfied nods and happy noises coming from the table next to me, I’m not the only one who thinks so either.

Fresh on Charles

No matter how good the food is, ultimately my enjoyment of a meal is a sum of the total experience; the most incredible degustation can be a disaster if I’m on a bad date. Similarly a meal at a so-hot-right-now restaurant can be far from enchanting if the wait staff treat you like you’re barely hip enough to be dining there.

Luckily, when I stroll into Fresh on Charles I’m immediately charmed. The fit out is retro, welcoming and unpretentious.

Art by local artists lines the walls and in the evenings, Fresh hosts all sorts of community arts events including live music, poetry slams, plays, and CD launches. Some are programmed by the Fresh staff while others are suggested by people within the community.

Fresh changed hands in July but Andrea, the original owner, is staying on for six months to ensure a smooth transition for new owner, Nina (below right). 

For Nina, buying Fresh on Charles is a labour of love.

“I really love the philosophy and community feel of this place. I want to make sure we continue that here.”

This is my second lunch of the day so I scan the menu carefully. I’d love to try the shared mezze plate for 2 ($38) my neighbours are enjoying…

… but I know there’s no way I’d be able to finish it. Instead I order the Pot-Sticker Dumplings ($20), which arrive after a short while.

On a bed of shredded lettuce, cucumber and red capsicum and bean sprouts sit four tofu and ginger dumplings drizzled with a sweet chilli sauce. The dumplings are full of flavour and the fresh lime juice adds a lovely tang to this vegan dish.

Next time I visit Fresh I’m definitely coming with friends so I can try the shared platters.

Garden of Vegan

Whenever I am visiting somewhere new I always ask the locals where to eat. In this case, Nina from Fresh suggests that I check out Garden of Vegan, which is only three doors down from Fresh.

Inside the fit out is totally adorable. One of the owners, Catherine, was a graphic designer — note the stencilled cardboard menu boards — and she has sourced the most delightful array of boxes, pots, jars and plants.

After eating at both Fresh and Blue I’m not at all hungry but when I take a look at the menu, which features vegan versions of both Vietnames phở (beef noodle soup) and curry laksa I have to order something. How on earth do they mimic the flavour of the beef in the phở and the pungent shrimp paste in the laksa? I’m totally intrigued.

Unfortunately they only offer 3-4 different dishes each day and today (Thursday) both phở and laksa are not on the menu. So I order a tamarind and mushroom noodle soup ($15) instead and sit at one of the handful of outdoor tables to enjoy the sunshine.

Soon my soup arrives and it’s impressive. Fresh, shredded basil and red cabbage garnish an intensely flavoured broth in which nestles lovely soba noodles, bean sprouts, okra (ladies fingers), nori sheets and slices of firm and deep fried tofu. The broth has a strong mushroom flavour and is beautifully sour with tamarind juice. This is a wonderful dish, with beautifully balanced flavours and textures.

After my meal, I ask to speak to one of the owners and Catherine joins me at the table. Originally from Sydney, Catherine moved to Hobart where she worked in graphic design and illustration. Along the way she met Hoang, her partner. Both Hoang and Catherine have been vegan for around eight years, and vegetarian before that as well. Hoang had previously worked as a chef in vegetarian cafes  so in 2012 they decided to open a stall selling vegan pho and laksa at the Harvest Market, the local farmers market held every Saturday.

Running the stall allowed Catherine and Hoang to experiment with new recipes, gain instant feedback and build a following without too much risk. After about a year of running the stall successfully, they decided to expand to a cafe and opened Garden of Vegan a mere two months ago.

The couple at the next table notice me taking photos and ask me (nicely) what I’m doing. I explain and the woman tells me that she eats at Garden of Vegan a few times each week.

“It’s so hard to get good vegan food in Launceston,” she says. “The food here is so good and it’s reasonably priced, too.”

I agree. At these prices — $12-15 for a main — I’d be eating here regularly, too, if I could. In fact, I’m wondering how I can extend my trip so I can stay another night to try Hoang’s vegan phở tomorrow. Because if the man can pull off a vegan version of phở with the style he’s demonstrated today, I may just have to move here.

Address Book

• Bed in the Treetops: 701 Binalong Bay Road, Binalong Bay, Tasmania. Tel: +61 (0) 3 6376 1318 or email: bedinthetreetopsbnb@bigpond.com
• Blue Shed: Marina Parade, St Helens, Tasmania. Tel: +61 (0) 3 6376 1170.
• Pyengana Dairy Farm: St Columba Falls Road, Pyengana,Tasmania. Tel: + 61 (0) 3 6373 6157 or email: shop@pyenganadairy.com.au. 
  
• Blue Cafe: Inveresk Railyards, Launceston, Tasmania. Tel +61 (0) 3 6334 3133.
• Fresh on Charles: 178 Charles Street, Launceston, Tasmania. Tel: +61 (0) 3 6331 4299 or email: hello@freshoncharles.com.au.
  
• Garden of Vegan: 3/166 Charles Street, Launceston, Tasmania. Tel: +61 (0) 421 928 041.

More on Tasmania

• My first Tasmanian post covered my time in Hobart where I visited Wursthaus, A Common Ground, Tricycle Cafe, The Source at the Museum of Old and New Art, The Museum of Old and New Art, Smolt, Jackson and McRoss and Sweet Envy.
• My second Tasmanian 2 post covered my time in Swansea and Freycinet where I visited Kate’s Berry Farm, Freycinet National Park, Freycinet Lodge, Saffire Freycinet, the Wineglass Bay Lookout Walk and Freycinet Marine Farm.

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE!!

Disclosure

I visited Tasmania as a guest of Tourism Tasmania. Some meals and products were provided while I paid for others. Tourism Tasmania are compensating me for the licence to display my content on Go Behind the Scenery and its magazine. As always, all opinions are my own.

This time last year I was in Dubai on a media trip (one part of my job that definitely does not suck).

So following on from the Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Bundt Cake I made last week, here is another recipe inspired by my time there. I love the sweet and tart berry flavours of pomegranates but in Australia they’re considered quite exotic. In Dubai pomegranates were so readily available one could buy freshly squeezed pomegranate juice at street food stalls, which I did.

Here are some pomegranates I photographed at the Dubai fruit and vegetable market.

Aren’t they gorgeous?

So when I spotted some pomegranates on sale this week I decided to make a dish I’ve been meaning to make for a while: Lamb with Pomegranates, Mint and Broad Beans on a Bed of Couscous.

One of my old Nigella Lawson cookbooks contains a recipe for shredded lamb with pomegranate and mint. Taking this intriguing combination as a starting point, I added some fresh broad beans, pine nuts and couscous to make a colourful, one-dish meal.

Broad beans are wonderful just now, and they lend such a lovely texture and flavour to this dish. If you’ve never cooked fresh broad beans before, it’s really simple. You just shell the broad beans, place them in boiling water for 3 minutes, refresh them in cold water and then slip the skins off the individual beans.

With striking red and green tones this dish looks so cheerful and festive. Actually, Christmas is only eight weeks away. Yikes! How on earth did that happen?

Lamb with Pomegranate, Mint and Broad Beans on a Bed of Couscous

INGREDIENTS

• 1 kg lamb (I used a 1/2 leg with bone in)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 kg fresh broad beans (unshelled)
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup couscous
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 pomegranate
• 30 grams toasted pine nuts
• 6-8 sprigs mint, leaves picked
• 1 tablespoon garlic infused extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• Juice of 1 lemon

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a baking tray with tinfoil.
2. Rub washed and dried lamb with olive oil and then rub in salt and pepper.
3. Roast leg until medium or well-done, depending on preferences. For medium roast for around 1 hour (30 minutes per 500 grams). For well done roast for around 1 hour 10 minutes (35 minutes per 500 grams).
4. Whilst lamb is cooking, prepare the beans. Bring a small saucepan of water (3 cups) to the boil. While this is happening shell the beans and then place them in the boiling water for three minutes.
5. Drain the beans from the boiling water and then refresh them with cold water. Gently remove the skins from the individual beans and set the beans aside.
6. Make the couscous by boiling 1 cup water with 1 tablespoon oil and 2 teaspoons salt in a small saucepan. Once boiling, turn off the heat and drop 1 cup couscous in. Cover and let sit for two minutes. Turn heat back onto low and add one tablespoon butter. Cook, stirring constantly with a fork, for 3 minutes. Once done, set aside to cool.
7. Once lamb is done, remove from over, cover with tinfoil and leave to sit for 10 minutes. Then cut or shred lamb into small pieces, put it in a covered, oven-proof container and keep warm.
8. To make dressing whisk garlic oil with lemon juice.
9. To assemble, on a large plate or platter spread a layer of couscous. Top with lamb (lamb should be warm so reheat if necessary), broad beans and pomegranate seeds (arils) and garnish with pine nuts and mint. Sprinkle over dressing and then toss to combine at the table.

Recipes with Lamb, Pomegranate or Broad Beans

• Blood Orange and Pomegranate Salad
• Broad Beans with Bacon and Onion
• Addictive Mouth Numbing Xinjiang Lamb Skewers

Recipes Inspired by Dubai

• Bruschetta with Quail Egg and Truffle Paste
• Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Bundt Cake

Dubai posts

• Exploring Dubai: Spice Souk, Gold Souk and the Fruit & Vegetable Market
• High Tea at Raffles Dubai and The Pavillion Downtown Dubai
• Dinner Under the Stars: Dubai Desert Safari
• Dubai by Instagram

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE!!

I’ve been on a organisational binge lately. It’s not nearly as exciting as a romantic binge or even a chocolate binge but I don’t think my home has ever been so sorted. My study, studio, styling kit, props cupboard and kitchen have been completely reorganised. I’ve even cleaned up and organised the hard drives on both my desk top computer and my laptop.

I’m sure it won’t last and my home will slowly return to its usual state of ‘organised chaos.’ But that’s OK because according to recent research, people who have messy desks are more creative. See, mum? My desk is supposed to be messy.

Anyway, it was when I was going through my kitchen cupboards I came across some cardamon pods and dried rose buds that I bought at Dubai’s famous spice souk last year — see below — and had yet to use.

So I thought I’d make good use of my finds and bake a cake. So here it is: a gloriously fragrant cake scented with rosewater and cardamon topped with an incredibly more-ish butter and honey cream and garnished with freshly shelled and chopped roasted pistachios.

Now this cake is not exactly diet food. But then, who wants to be good all the time? Not me, that’s for sure. I did keep the sugar content relatively low if that makes you feel any better.

Regular readers will know I like to free-form in the kitchen but baking is an area where precision is required. So do make sure that your butter and eggs are at room temperature, sift the dry ingredients and measure all the ingredients with standard cups and measuring spoons and/or an electric scale.

None of this attention to detail stops me from licking the beater when the cake is in the oven though. That’s a childhood habit I will never grow out of. When you bake this cake may you enjoy this simple yet satisfying pleasure, too.

Rosewater and Cardamon Bundt Cake with Honey Pistachio Icing

INGREDIENTS FOR CAKE

• 125 grams butter at room temperature (unsalted preferably)
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean essence
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 2 cups flour (level off with finger)
• 1 generous tablespoon baking powder
• 1 level teaspoon ground cardamon
• A pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons rosewater (available at Asian and Middle Eastern grocers)

INGREDIENTS FOR TOPPING

• 125 grams butter at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons honey (I like Blue Gum honey)
• 4 tablespoon boiling water
• 100 grams unshelled roasted pistachios
• 50 grams food quality dried rosebuds (optional)

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and thoroughly grease a Bundt tin (I like to use a soya cooking spray)
2. Cream butter with a stand or hand mixer and then gradually add the sugar and vanilla, beating until the mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Add each egg one at a time, beating well after each egg so everything is fully combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula if required.
4. Mix the milk and rosewater together.
5. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, cardamon and salt and then add to the mixing bowl in three batches, alternating with the milk mixture. Do not overwork – mix just until everything is combined.
6. Spoon into the Bundt tin and even out with a spatula (you can also tap it gently against the kitchen bench top – this will also help to reduce air bubbles).
7. Bake for around 40-45 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. Cool in tin for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Or leave it in the tin to cool completely.
9. To make topping, cream butter until light and airy and then add the honey in two batches, beating well after each addition. Add the water one tablespoon at a time and continue beating until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
10. Trim Bundt base to level if necessary, ice cake with an offset spatula and then decorate with shelled and chopped pistachios and rosebuds (optional).
11. Substitution: you can substitute a regular vanilla buttercream or vanilla icing for the honey butter if preferred.

Serves 10-12.

More Cake Recipes

• Strawberry and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
• Chocolate Banana Cake (dairy and egg free)
• Impossible Pie
• Fig, Raspberry and Ginger Ice Cream Cake
• Chocolate Bundt Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce
• Upside Down Plum Cake

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE!!

I’ve previously blogged about my love for oysters.

In my eyes, they are a perfect food. Eaten natural (raw) they need only a spritz of lemon to bring out their gorgeous, briny taste.

The other day I spotted these gorgeous looking Pacific oysters at my local fishmonger. (Btw if you still lucky enough to have a local fishmonger please shop there for your seafood – the quality is superior and if we don’t support these specialty shops they will disappear.)

I hadn’t planned on buying oysters but now that I spend the money I used to spend on shoes on food, I decided I should spoil myself.

When I got home I called my dad.

“What are you guys doing for dinner tonight?” I asked. “Wanna come over? I’ve just bought some oysters.”

“Um, your mum has a cold so better not. And… er… I just bought some oysters myself, actually.”

Ha! The apple doesn’t fall far from that tree, does it?

So the kids and I had to eat them all myself. Now I knew the kids wouldn’t eat them with chilli or just with lemon so I made some Oysters Kilpatrick and Oysters with Ginger and Soy for them to try.

Here are the four different kinds. First up, natural oysters served simply with lemon.

Next, oysters grilled with a soy, ginger and spring onions.

Oysters with a Thai dressing (fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, palm sugar, lime juice and chilli)

Oysters Kilpatrick – traditionally made with Worcestershire Sauce and bacon pieces. I had prosciutto in the house so I used that instead.

So tell me, how do you like your oysters?

Oysters Four Ways

INGREDIENTS

• 1 dozen natural (raw) oysters, shucked (or unopen if you wish to shuck them yourself – see my previous post on oysters)
• 2 lemons, quartered
• 1 small piece ginger, grated to make 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
• 2 spring onions, sliced finely
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 1/2 slice prosciutto
• 1.5 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon grated palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 0.5 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 – 1/3 Birds Eye chilli, diced as small as you can (remove seeds for less heat)
• 0.5 teaspoon lime juice
• 1 spring onion, sliced finely to garnish

METHOD

1. For all oysters, be careful to keep all the liquid present naturally in the oyster.
2. For natural, serve 3 oysters on a bed of rock salt with lemon
3. For Chinese style, mix ginger, spring onions and soy sauce in a small bowl and then dribble over 3 oysters. Place under a hot grill — watch like a hawke, do not walk away — and grill until top of oyster is browning nicely.
4. For Kiplatrick, dice prosciutto and then share amongst 3 oysters. Dribble Worcestershire sauce on top and then place under a hot grill — watch like a hawke, do not walk away — until prosciutto is crisp and oyster is browning nicely.
5. For Thai style, mix palm sugar, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, chilli and lime juice in a small bowl. Dribble over 3 natural oysters and then garnish with spring onions and/or coriander. Re: the chilli. Start with a tiny amount first — even just a few teensy diced pieces — and then add more if you need to.

More Seafood Recipes

• Penang Assam Laksa
• Prawn Lettuce Cups with Thai Dressing
• Moules Marinieres (Mussels with Thyme and Verjuice)
• Spaghetti Al Nero Di Seppia (Squid Ink Spaghetti)
• Thai Prawn Salad
• Fish and Eggplant Curry
• Sambal Prawns
• Cockling at Goolwa Beach and 4 cockle (pippi) recipes
• Lobster Noodle Stir Fry

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE!!

After the success of my Plum Upside Down Cake in honour of my literary heroine, Anne of Green Gables, I knew I had to continue down this topsy turvy path.

So when I spotted some gorgeous rhubarb and strawberries at my local greengrocer I knew just what to cook: Strawberry and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake.

The great thing about upside down cakes is that they need no added decoration or icing – they come out of the oven ready to serve.

This cake is really simple to make, it’s enchantingly pretty and it tastes great, too. This is a perfect cake to keep covered on your kitchen bench for morning and afternoon tea as it’s not too sweet, heavy or rich.

I like serving this with thick cream but it would be equally good with vanilla bean ice cream or even vanilla yoghurt. Enjoy!

Strawberry & Rhubarb Upside Down Cake (Dairy and Refined Sugar Free)

INGREDIENTS

• 50mls agave syrup, plus another 50 mls
• 10 grams butter or margarine (I used Nuttlex)
• 1 punnet strawberries (approx. 250 grams) hulled and halved
• 1 bunch rhubarb stalks, trimmed of leaves (approx. 380 grams) cut into 1cm pieces
• 125 grams butter or margarine, room temperature (I used Nuttlex)
• 1.5 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 3/4 cup sugar (I replaced the sugar with a 1:1 granular Stevia)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract or essence
• 1/2 cup milk (I used rice milk)

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease a 20cm cake tin with a removable base. I like to use a soya baking spray.
3. Heat up 50msl agave syrup and 10 grams butter in a small saucepan.
4. Pour syrup and butter mixture into the cake tin and tilt tin so bottom is completely covered.
5. Arrange strawberries and rhubarb attractively in cake in. Drizzle over remaining (50mls) agave syrup.
6. Put flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a small bowl and combine with a spoon.
7. Using a stand or hand mixer, beat 125 grams butter and sugar  in a large bowl until light and creamy (about 4 minutes).
8. Add vanilla extract or essence and then add eggs, one at a time, being sure to beat the mixture well after each egg.
9. Add half flour mixture and half milk and then beat again for another minute.
10. Add remaining flour and milk and beat again for another 2-3 minutes until mixture is well combined and airy.
11. Pour over fruit mixture in cake tin and even out top with an offset spatula (or  tap the tin a few times on the kitchen bench).
12. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 190 degrees Celsius and then reduce heat to 180 degrees Celsius and bake for another 35 minutes. Check with a skewer to see if the cake is cooked – if it’s not give it a few more minutes and try again.
13. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely.
14. Run a spatula around the edge of the cake tin and then gently turn the cake out onto a cake platter or plate.

Serves 8-10.

More Rhubarb and Strawberry Recipes

• Rhubarb Apple Yoghurt Pots
• Strawberry Granita
• Strawberry Soup
• Strawberry Sorbet

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE!!

Last month I visited Tasmania as a guest of Tourism Tasmania. The first 36 hours of my Tasmanian trip were spent exploring Hobart where I ate an extraordinary amount of food. This post covers the next part of my trip. 

After my last stop in Hobart — Sweet Envy — I jump into my hire car and hit the highway. My next stop is Swansea on the East Coast of Tasmania. It’s there I’m going to stop for afternoon tea before heading onwards to Freycinet National Park.

Kate’s Berry Farm

Kate’s Berry Farm is situated up a long dirt road in Swansea. Set high on a hill it has enviable views across Great Oyster Bay to the Freycinet National Park where I’ll be staying tonight.

This is Kate.

I’m surprised to find only a small number of vines; it turns out that the majority of Kate’s berries are actually grown up North where there is more rain. Kate’s berries are grown using only organic fertilisers and she also has a range of sugar-free jams for those watching their sugar intake.

After a quick tour, Kate and I sit down for a pot of tea and a slice of her signature Humbleberry Pie made from blackberries, boysenberries and apples. The thick wedge of fruit filling is firm and not too sweet — just the way I like it —  while the vanilla bean ice cream is rich and creamy.

Kate started the business 20+ years ago after moving to Swansea from Victoria in the late 80s. A conversation with a local berry farmer who was having trouble selling his berries sparked her interest and she decided to create her own berry farm. A true pioneer, she took a hands-on approach to building the farm, turning the soil and even laying the original floor in what is now the cafe and shop.

The original shop was about a tenth the size of her current shop. Back then she sold only jams and ice creams.

Nowadays she sells home-made jams — mingleberry comprising raspberries, strawberries and blackberries is a best seller — as well as sauces, jellies, chocolates and of course berries when they are in season. Her cafe, Just Desserts, offers berry pie, berry ice cream, regular and gluten-free scones and Belgian waffles, as well as all the usual tea and coffees.

As someone from Victoria, Kate was originally viewed with suspicion by the close-knit local community. She was advised to ‘get involved’ so she threw herself into local activities, heading up the local Emergency Services for 20 years.

“We did everything from car crashes to fire – you never knew what to expect when you got the call,” she says sombrely.

That kind of commitment no doubt won her friends and respect within the local community and today she talks about the local food and wine scene with the ease of someone who is part of the establishment.

For Kate, her sea change has brought her much satisfaction.

“I won’t ever retire,” she says. “I love what I do here.”

Palate, Saffire Freycinet

There are some restaurants that are smart, some that are hip, and there are some that are just downright sexy.

From the entrance it’s clear that Palate, possibly the most exclusive restaurant in Tasmania, is one of the latter.

As the fine dining restaurant at Saffire Freycinet, Tasmania’s only six star luxury boutique resort, Palate is usually for hotel guests only. I’m staying up the road tonight at the Freycinet Lodge but had heard so much about Saffire I called to see if I could dine at Palate. The guests services manager graciously agreed and now here I am.

Inside the dining room is immaculate. The fit out is luxurious and designed for privacy – there’s ample room between the tables and the discreet lighting provides intimacy while still providing plenty of light. It’s a shame I can just barely make out the sea through the floor to ceiling views – I imagine having drinks here at sunset would be spectacular.

The five-course tasting menu is $150 for visitors. I’m offered the choice of à la carte as well but I am keen to try the tasting menu.

To begin I enjoy a glass of Clover Hill Tasmania Cuvee. It’s delicate and elegant, with luscious strawberry notes.

The complimentary bread is an excellent corn and basil roll. Finely chopped basil gives the bread a wonderful taste and aroma. I eat way too much of it considering I have five courses ahead of me.

The first course is sugar cured ocean trout with avocado, ruby grapefruit, spanner cab and wasabi leaf.

This is one of the prettiest savoury dishes I’ve seen in a while. Fresh avocado has been painstakingly sliced and wrapped around meticulously diced smoked trout which in turn is topped with either salmon roe, picked spanner crab or pickled cucumber.

This dish delivers on taste, too, as the intensity of the smoked trout is beautifully balanced by the mellow sweetness of the avocado. Topping-wise, the crab is incredibly fresh and firm, the salmon roe explodes saltily in the mouth and the pickled cucumber lends a welcome sweet and sourness to the dish.

The next course is simply stunning. Roasted heirloom carrots and labneh swirls encased with ethereally thin and fragile Tunisian brick pastry sit on a bed of cloud-like pureed carrots. The carrots are sprinkled with crunchy quinoa and crispy nuts and seeds and the contrast in textures and flavours is exquisite.

The next course ventures back into familiar territory for me. Pan fried hapuka sits atop braised oxtail, shiitake mushrooms and snow peas in a soya sauce, ginger and star anise flavoured sauce. Forbidden black rice and just cooked wintermelon lend some style and flair. I’d happily eat this dish any night of the week.

The meat course features Robbins Island pure grass fed wagyu beef, roasted broccoli, Yorkshire pudding and brassica puree with Bercy sauce. The wagyu is perfectly cooked and buttery soft and the dish is topped a piece of smoked bone marrow that simply melts away in the mouth. I have a soft spot for Yorkshire pudding from my time in England and broccoli is my favourite green vegetable so this dish is a winner on all fronts.

The final course — the dessert course — is a white chocolate ice cream covered with a disc of strawberry sorbet, white chocolate mousse and sliced strawberries in rosewater.

In this age of deconstructed desserts it’s almost a shock to see a dessert served defiantly intact. Add the chocolate shards and you have a dessert that feels decidedly retro. Eating it, I discover there is a distinct advantage to deconstructed desserts – you don’t have to destroy them to eat them; I feel slightly guilty as I slice, spoon and bash. However, it tastes wonderful – I particularly love the combination of rosewater and strawberries.

It’s been an impressive dinner. Next time I visit I’ll be coming to stay.

Freycinet Lodge

Yesterday when I arrived it was getting dark so I didn’t bother taking any photos. But this is where I spent last night – at Freycinet Lodge situated within Freycinet National Park.

Behind all those trees is my cabin. Can you see it?

Inside it’s nicely furnished and comfortable. There is a CD by a local Tasmanian guitarist playing on the stereo when I arrive which is a lovely touch – the music is so relaxing I buy a CD to take home to my dad. It’s quiet and secluded here – actually, it’s almost too quiet for one person. There is no TV either, which is a little odd – one of my great travelling pleasures is staying up late watching shows I never usually watch at home.

The next morning I rise at 8am and make my way down to breakfast at The Lodge. Inside people are milling around the buffet and eating their breakfast but I grab some food and sit outside. It’s not everyday I get to enjoy my breakfast with a sea view.

Wouldn’t it  be lovely to breakfast like this every day?

Freycinet National Park

Freycinet National Park has some great walks and hikes. With limited time I decide to do the Wineglass Bay Lookout Walk, a short but energetic climb on a track between Mt Amos and Mt Mayson that usually takes around 90 minutes.

I buy a metal drink bottle at the Park Shop and fill it with water before I start. It’s not a hot day but there is no permanent water supply in the park so the park rangers recommend carrying at least one litre of water per person for any walk.

The Wineglass Bay Lookout Walk is extremely steep at parts and the path is covered in fine stones. You definitely want to wear decent sneakers or walking shoes for this one – do not attempt to do this walk in casual shoes or heels.

I spend the time to the top puffing and panting and wishing I exercised more. But the view when I reach the top is worth it.

When I reach the car park again, I’m pleasantly surprised to see that I’ve done the walk in just over an hour. Bazinga!

Freycinet Marine Farm

Can you guess what this is? Why, it’s a lobster pot. Don’t you think it would make a great lampshade?

I arrive at Freycinet Marine Farm not knowing what to expect. But then I see all the scallop shells on the ground and groups of happy people eating seafood with their fingers.

I’m definitely in the right spot.

The Freycinet Marine Farm is basically a no-frills outdoors cafe serving fresh Tasmanian seafood. After studying the short menu I order a selection of dishes.

First up is half a dozen Oysters Grilled with Ginger, Soy and Spring Onions ($12).

I adore oysters and these are so fresh and plump. I’m loving the Asian dressing, too.

Next up the half lobster or crayfish ($38) arrives.

We usually have lobster with mayonnaise or in my dad’s Lobster Noodle Stir Fry. Here it it served simply grilled with garlic, butter and parsley. The quality of the seafood is what counts here and the lobster is firm and sweet. Delicious.

Next the wild-caught Tasmanian abalone ($25) arrives. Like many Asians, I love the subtle taste and delicate texture of abalone. Unfortunately today the pan-fried abalone is a little overcooked and subsequently chewy.

However, the natural oysters ($15 for a dozen), which are sent out to my table, are superb. A sprinkle of fresh lemon and down they go.

After lunch, I chat with Julia and Giles Fisher (I’m not making up their last name), the friendly and relaxed couple behind Freycinet Marine Farm.

Originally salmon farmers on the West Coast of Tasmania, they moved to the East Coast some years ago and set up their oyster farm. Nowadays they produce 3.5 million oysters and a good amount of mussels each year, with 20% of the oysters and 100% of the mussels they produce sold through the cafe.

It’s not always easy working with your spouse but Julia and Giles have found a way that works for them: Giles manages the farm while Julia looks after the cafe. The cafe used to be open only during the Summer but they kept it open last Winter and it was so successful that they’ve decided to keep the cafe open year around from now on. This means more opportunities for visitors to experience the sheer joy of eating fresh Tasmania seafood.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Address Book

• Kate’s Berry Farm: 12 Addison Street, Swansea, Tasmania. Tel: + 61 3 62578 428 or email. Open daily from 9:30am to 4:30pm 7 days a week. Closed Christmas Day.
• Saffire Freycinet: 2353 Coles Bay Rd, Coles Bay, Tasmania. Tel: +61 3 6256 7888 or email: stay@saffire-freycinet.com.au.
• Freycinet Lodge: Freycinet National Park, Freycinet Drive, Coles Bay, Tasmania. Tel: +61 3 6257 0101.
• Freycinet National Park: Download fact sheet here.
• Wineglass Bay: Information about the Winelgass Bay Lookout Walk here.
• Freycinet Marine Farm: 1784 Coles Bay Rd  Coles Bay, Tasmania. Tel: +61 3 6257 0140 or email. Opening hours are July and August: 11am to 4pm from Sunday to Thursday; September: 10am to 4pm, 7 days a week; and October to May: 9am to 5pm, 7 days a week.

The Tasmanian adventure continues

• My first Tasmanian post covered my time in Hobart where I visited Wursthaus, A Common Ground, Tricycle Cafe, The Source at the Museum of Old and New Art, The Museum of Old and New Art, Smolt, Jackson and McRoss and Sweet Envy.
• My final Tasmanian post in a couple of weeks will cover Bed in the Treetops, Blue Shed Restaurant, Pyengana Dairy Farm, Blue Cafe, Fresh on Charles and Garden of Vegan.

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new posts 2-3 times a week – it’s FREE!!

Disclosure

I visited Tasmania as a guest of Tourism Tasmania. Some meals and products were provided while I paid for others. Tourism Tasmania are compensating me for the licence to display my content on Go Behind the Scenery and its magazine. As always, all opinions are my own.