Australian Recipes, Australian Cooking, Bush Tucker Recipes & Australian Menu Ideas | Vic Cherikoff Food Services formerly Bush Tucker Supply Australia.

Akudjura crusted blackened salmon cutlets

4 salmon cutlets
4 tablespoons Akudjura
1 egg, beaten
butter for frying

Brush one surface of the cutlets with the egg and coat thickly with the akudjura. Heat the butter in a frying pan to smoking and fry the unseasoned side of each cutlet until cooked half way through. Turn the cutlets over and finish frying, blackening the akudjura. Using tongs, remove the backbone and long bones and serve the cutlets with a native pepperberry potato cake or prepared lemon myrtle fettuccine and drizzle the plate with a thin lemon aspen honey soy sauce.

Akudjura rosti

4 medium potatoes, peeled and finely grated
25g Akujura
1 x 65g egg, lightly beaten
a generous pinch of salt
30g corn flour
oil for shallow frying

Soak the grated potatoes in cold water for 20 minutes, drain and pat-dry with paper towelling. Mix in the akudjura, egg, salt and corn flour adding extra corn flour if the mix is too wet. Heat the oil in a small heavy frying pan over moderate heat and fry potato cakes until crisp and golden on both sides.

Akudjura tapinade and bush tomato oil

200g Bush tomatoes
400ml water
1 teaspoon salt
500ml polyunsaturated oil
½teaspoon crushed garlic
¼teaspoon ground Mountain pepper
½teaspoon ground oregano
200g oil marinated mix of olives, mushrooms, eggplant and capsicum

Coarsely chop the bush tomatoes and bring them to a boil in the salted water. Drain, reserving the water for use in stocks or sauces. Pat dry the bush tomatoes on absorbent paper and transfer to an appropriately sized glass jar. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Seal and leave stand for at least 3 days. Use the oil as a flavouring for pasta, pesto or dressings and use the marinated vegetables as a garnish for salads, char-grilled vegetables, meats or seafoods. The preserved bush tomatoes can also be made into a tapinade, blending to smoothness with a little of the flavoured oil. Use to top a tuna, swordfish or salmon cutlet, a slice of toasted Alpine pepper bread or even a grilled slice of conventional tomato.

Aniseed myrtle fetta

This method can be applied to all of the native Australian herbs to make flavoured oils for use as butter substitutes or as marinating oils for vegetables or meats. They are so useful that they could best be considered as 'mise en bush items'. The less salty the fetta the better the aniseed myrtle flavour. Other items can also be marinated in this oil, for example, eggplant, capsicum, mushrooms, even olives. The oil is an excellent dipping oil for bread as a substitute for butter. Use light or unflavoured oils since it is the herbs which add the distinctive flavour profile.

1 litre polyunsaturated oil eg. canola oil
2 tablespoons ground Aniseed myrtle
500g Australian fetta (low salt fetta or soak the fetta in warm water before use)

Heat 100ml of the oil to 40ºC. Remove from heat and add the aniseed myrtle allowing it to infuse as the oil cools. Dice the fetta and place into a clean glass jar. Cover the fetta with the flavoured oil and the remaining oil. Seal the jar and leave stand for at least two days. The fetta should keep for at least 2 months but 500g of aniseed fetta is easy to eat, adding it to salads, stuffing chicken or pork fillets before baking or simply add the fetta to your favourite antipasti dish.

The above process can also be used for chargrilled vegetables such as capsicum, eggplant, artichokes and mushrooms. Consider your names for this accompaniment. It could simply be called wild herb fetta or fetta and forest anise rather than as above.

Aniseed myrtle ice cream

500ml milk
6 egg yolks
250g caster sugar
1 heaped tablespoon (10g) ground Aniseed myrtle
600ml thickened cream

Bring the milk to the boil. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar and pour on the boiling milk, stirring all the time. Return to the saucepan and cook while stirring until the mixture coats the back of the spoon. Remove from the heat and add the aniseed myrtle. Leave to cool and add the cream. Churn in an ice cream machine.

Austro-Asian style roast pork, chicken or beef

1kg pork, chicken or beef fillet

Marinade
15ml Lemon aspen juice
40ml light soy sauce
30ml sweet sherry
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
½tablespoon grated ginger
½tablespoon Mountain pepper
6 Native pepperberries
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 teaspoon Bush tomato oil (see marinated bush tomaotes) (or sesame oil)
40ml honey
½teaspoon five spice powder
garnish of coloured capsicum, leek, carrot

Combine all the marinade ingredients, lightly crushing the native pepperberries and brush over the meat. Leave in a dish to marinate for at least 1 hour before baking at 200ºC for 50 minutes or until done, depending on the thickness of the fillets. Slice thinly and arrange on a platter around a mound of lemon myrtle rice. Garnish with shredded mixed vegetables.

Balmain bugs and whiting

8 large Balmain bugs (shovel-nosed sand lobsters)
4 whiting fillets or ocean perch or equivalent
200g kumara (orange sweet potato)
1 piece of paperbark
5g Mountain pepper
leek and capsicum julienne or other garnishing

If the bugs are alive, place them into the freezer for 30 minutes and then plunge them briefly in boiling salted water. Refresh in iced water and peel the tails reserving four heads as garnishing. Char-grill the tail meat and whiting fillets until just done and arrange 2 bug tails and a fish fillet on each of 4 warm plates garnishing with a bug head per plate and shredded coloured vegetables. Season the fried kumara with the Alpine pepper and plate up. Serve at once with a lemon myrtle butter sauce.

Refried bunya nut pastry

100g Bunya bunya nuts (halves)
25ml cream
1 tablespoon wholemeal flour

Bring the halved bunya nuts to the boil in just enough water to cover them and allow to cool to warm. Pour off the water into a food processor. Remove the shells from the nuts and add the nuts to the processor with their cooled boiling water. Reserve the shells for use when smoking meat or use them as moulds for the refried bunya nut (see below). Process the nuts to make a just-pourable purée and then fold in the cream and flour. Transfer the purée to a large heated pan and stir the mixture while heating to both tan the mixture and cook it to a roux stage. The fat in the cream should be sufficient to grease the pan and the cooking time will be around 15 minutes to completion when the mixture reaches a roux stage and begins to come away from the sides of the pan. Cool. Put the refried bunya pastry into a pie tin or cake tray as appropriate and using baking paper, push out to form the pastry base leaving the paper in place once done. Use dry rice or beans to hold down the pastry and cook blind at 220ºC for 20 minutes. If filling with vegetables which need extended baking it is not necessary to pre-bake this pastry.

To make bunya nut marbles, ball spoonfuls of the refried pastry and serve or roll in bread or biscuit crumbs, shredded coconut or crumbed muesli. Fry in heated butter or oil to brown. Serve hot or cold. To refashion the nuts into halves for a garnish, cover neat half shells with plastic wrap and fill the shell with the refried bunya nut using a pallette knife. Remove from the mould and use immediately or freeze for storage in an air-tight wrap. These bunya nut halves can be chocolate dipped or caramel coated to make petit fours.

Bunya nut slivers

Boiled and shelled bunya nuts can be slivered briefly toasted and used as a garnish if very finely sliced with a meat slicer, mandolin or very sharp knife. Bunya nuts are composed of starch and water and if the slices are cut too thickly the toasting dries out the starch to an almost unchewable texture. This characteristic also makes boiling the preferred cooking method for bunya nuts with some hardening inevitably occurring if the nuts are roasted. Boiled bunya nut straws can be grilled to just harden the surface leaving the inside still chewy.

Bunya nut vegetarian pie

200g prepared refried bunya nut pastry
50g munthari
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 large mushrooms, sliced
2 shiitake or Chinese mushrooms, sliced
1 medium carrot, grated
1 small kumara, thinly sliced and paperbark baked
½ teaspoon Alpine pepper
1 red capsicum, chopped
1 medium potato, sliced and steamed
75g warrigal greens, blanched
1 large tomato, blanched and peeled
½ teaspoon native thyme
oil for frying
100ml cream
1 medium sized head of broccoli, steamed
100g mature cheddar cheese, grated
2 teaspoons akudjura

Press the prepared refried bunya nut pastry into an oiled, loose bottomed pie plate appropriate for 4 serves. Make the sides about 1cm thick. In a frying pan the same size as the pie plate, stir-fry the munthari with the onions until the onions are translucent but not brown and lightly season with salt. Add the garlic, stir briefly and then add the mushrooms. Sauté until mushrooms soften and spread the mix over the prepared pie base reserving a small amount for the topping. Next fry the grated carrot, spread it on top of the mushroom mix and season with the Alpine pepper. Add the steamed slices of kumara. Fry the capsicum and the sliced tomato until relatively dry and reserve for the topping. Chop the blanched warrigal greens and squeeze out the moisture. Spread as the next layer followed by the potato, seasoned with native thyme. To prepare the topping reduce the cream by half , together with the broccoli arranged with the flowers set for the top. Add in the reserved mushrooms, capsicum and tomato scattering them around the broccoli and sprinkle the lot with the cheese seasoned with akudjura. Place the pan under the grill to melt the cheese and slip the topping into place to finish the pie. Cover with foil ensuring that the aluminium stands proud and is not in contact with the food (aluminium foil reacts with food fats; the plastic coating is carcinogenic while the metal may contribute to Alzheimer's disease). Bake the covered pie at 250ºC for 50 minutes uncovering it for the final 15 minutes. Cool a little before slicing. Serve slices with a native flavoured chutney and a scatter of fine diced Roma tomatoes drizzled with aniseed myrtle oil.

Bushetta

This cross-cultural speciality can also be based upon oil marinated vegetables, for example, coloured capsicums, eggplant, artichokes and mushrooms.

8 slices of High Country bread (Mountain pepper bread)
1 x 260g jar bush tomato chutney
2 ripe Roma tomatoes
8 basil leaves
2 tablespoons akudjura
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

Halve the tomatoes and squeeze out the juice. Finely chop the tomato flesh leaving the skin on and combine with the bush tomato chutney. Tear the basil leaves into small pieces and also mix through. In a separate bowl mix the akudjura and cheese. Toast the High Country bread, spread on the chutney mix and sprinkle with the akudjura topping. Cut into appropriately sized pieces and serve as an appetiser.

An embellishment could be the addition of meats, for example, a beef knuckle medallion making the dish, Knuckled Bushetta.

Smoked Australian grain-fed pork fillet and bushetta

1 pork fillet
a handful of warrigal greens (frozen or fresh)
4 slices of kumara (about 7-8mm thick)
10 ml macadamia nut oil
1 piece of paperbark thinned from a roll
twine (not plastic or nylon)

Trim the pork fillet and rub with macadamia nut oil then place it onto a piece of appropriately thinned and trimmed paperbark. Lay out the warrigal leaves onto the prepared paperbark, place the kumara rounds on the warrigals and set the fillet on the kumara. Roll and fold the paperbark to make a neat parcel and tie it up with twine. Cook on high heat on a BBQ or in a pan with the lid on, turning regularly after the bark starts to smoke. Paperbark must smoke to impart its delicate flavour. Cook and test press to feel the firmness of the kumara. It should take 15-20 minutes and the pork will be cooked once the kumara is soft. To serve, unwrap the paperbark and slice fillet on the angle.

With the compliments of Australian Pork Corporation.

Bush tomato dressing

Blanch 100g bush tomatoes and puree. Mix with 75ml extra virgin olive oil then whisk in slowly 10ml tarragon vinegar, season and serve over antipasto platter with toasted focaccia bruschetta.

Above recipe from Executive chef Michael Warren at the Bough House restaurant at the Ayers Rock Resort

Cheesefruit cream on game wrapped figs

The juice from cheesefruit makes a delicious flavouring for sauces, cream cheese dips and spreads and the flavour of over-ripe pineapple and blue-vein cheese compliments a considerable range of dishes. This recipe was inspired by Chef Armando from Sydney's Buon Ricardo restaurant. A less rich sauce could be made using a Béchamel sauce base.

4 large fresh figs and 4 smaller ones (alternatively use pears)
200ml port
1 tablespoon Wattleseed (optional)
100g fine sliced emu prosciutto (best sliced while frozen)
300ml thickened cream
25ml Cheesefruit juice
8 Wild rosella flowers
2 tablespoons sugar
½ cup roasted macadamia nut pieces

Poach the figs in the port basting often until just soft. (If using pears, peel and core them leaving the stems intact as a garnish. Trim the bases so the fruits will stand squarely upright. Steam the cored pears in the port until cooked but still firm, basting often. An interesting flavouring for the pears in port is wattle. Boil 1 tablespoon of wattle, in the port, strain the grounds and use the liquid to poach the pears.) Cool the cooked fruit. Meanwhile, dissolve the sugar in sufficient water to cover the rosellas and soak the flowers to sweeten them. Wrap each fig (or pear) with the paper-thin slices of emu prosciutto. Reduce the cream to half until it forms a thick sauce. Flavour the cream with the cheesefruit juice. Place one large and one small prepared fig (or a single pear) on each of four plates and pour the cheesefruit sauce over and around the fruits. Serve before the sauce skins. Garnish with a sugared rosella flower and roasted nuts.

Crepes

The flavours of many native herbs and spices and some fruits, for example, muntharies, are well utilised incorporated into crepes or bread dishes and bread sauces. All these soak up flavour and are economic uses of these bushfoods. The mixture of akudjura, wattle and Alpine pepper is Australia's answer to a Cajun spice mix. Alternatively, use the ready-made, Cherikoff Wildfire spice mix.

400g self-raising wholemeal flour
1 egg
1 litre water, approx.
a generous pinch of salt
1 tablespoons wattle
½ teaspoon native thyme
1 tablespoon akudjura
½ teaspoon ground Alpine pepper
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

In a food processor, mix the flour and salt. Add the egg and 200ml of the water. Pulse blend to completely wet the flour taking up all the dry mix. Add half the remaining water blend until smooth. Pour the mixture evenly into three bowls. To one add the native thyme and set aside for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, boil the wattle in 60ml of the water (conveniently done in a bowl in a microwave). Add two thirds of the wattle including some of the grounds to the second bowl and leave stand 20 minutes. Add the remaining wattle to the third bowl as well as the rest of the spices and also set aside. Before beginning to cook the crepes adjust the thickness of each batter with extra water to pouring consistency so that as the batter is added to the hot pan, it can be spread simply by tilting the pan with a circular motion to create round crepes of even thickness of 3 to 4mm and 6 to 8cm diameter. Cook off all the crepes using an oil spray to grease the crepe pan and with the heat at medium intensity. As each crepe is made add it to one of three flavoured piles under a clean towel.

Creped Crustaceans

This dish requires the crepes to be made beforehand and then some skill and timing to serve six. Single serves prepared on order with pre-prepared crepes is easier. The sousing mixture of white wine, white wine vinegar and water is ideal for all seafoods which should be just cooked to rare. An alternative mix, particularly for stronger flavoured seafoods, for example, prawns is a mix of a dark beer eg. Tooheys Old, and thickened with nut butter, beurre manié or cream.

6 of each of the preceeding crepes
200ml white wine
200ml white wine vinegar
200ml water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
6 large king prawns
6 large yabbies or 12 small ones
6 large Balmain or Moreton Bay bugs or 12 small ones
1 tablespoon cold butter
2 teaspoons lemon aspen juice
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon quandong nut and almond butter
decorative salad vegetables and fine sliced blanched coloured capsicum for garnish

Onto 6 warmed plates lay out one of each of the three crepes; native thyme, wattle and Australian Cajun, folded in half in an arc. Cover the plates with a hot wet towel. In a medium saucepan bring the white wine, white wine vinegar and water to the boil. Sweeten with the honey and add the salt. Add the seafoods, prawns first, bugs next and quickly followed by the yabbies. Cook briefly until just creamy white and then 30 seconds longer. Remove and drain. Plate out the prawns under the flap of the Australian Cajun crepes, the yabbies on the wattle crepes and the bugs on the Native thyme crepes. Re-cover and keep warm under the hot wet towel. To each of three small pans on medium heat add about 100ml of the sousing broth. Reboil one and reduce to half. While this first pan is reducing, take the second pan of broth add 2 teaspoons of lemon aspen juice and whisk in one egg yolk. Place onto a very low heat and continue whisking until thick and frothy. Uncover the plates and pour the lemon aspen sabayon over the bugs. Remove the first pan from the heat and add the cold butter. Stir in and use to garnish the Cajun prawns. Boil the third pan of broth. Add 1 tablespoon of the quandong nut and almond butter. Stir to thicken and use to garnish the yabbies. Finish garnishing the plates with the salad and serve.

Pork fillet rolled in wattle seed and macadamia nuts, served with mango sauce

6 pork fillets
200g crushed macadamia nuts
200g wattleseed
500g mango puree
a pinch of native mint
50g butter
salt
pepper

· Cut the pork fillet into two
· Roll one half into the macadamia nuts and the other half into the wattle seed
· Place the fillet into a hot oven and roast the fillet until the nuts are just browned
· Place the mango puree, native mint, butter, salt and pepper into a saucepan
· Warm for a few minutes on a medium heat
· Cut the two halves of pork fillet into three diagonal pieces
· Arrange them on each side of the plate and place the mango sauce down the middle

Bushetta

Halve ripe tomatoes and scoop out the seeds. Dice the tomato flesh leaving the skin on and combine with an equal volume of Cherikoff's Bush tomato chutney. Tear basil leaves into small pieces and also mix through. Toast bread slices, spread with butter and sprinkle on Alpine pepper, top with chutney and serve. Alternatively, make your own Mountain pepper bread by adding one half teaspoon of Alpine pepper to a standard 500g bread mix and bake.

Grain-fed Pork Loin with Pepperberry Zinger Sauce

2kg pork striploin (cut into medallions)
5g Alpine pepper, ground
10g native pepperberries (ground)
1lt brown sauce
600ml red wine
½ bunch shallots
cream (pouring cream for serving)

· season loin medallions with ground Alpine pepper
· lightly pan fry on a low heat so as not to overcook the medallions

Sauce

· place pepperberries and red wine with shallots and reduce by half
· after reducing liquid, combine with prepared brown sauce and reduce by half again
· serve medallions masked with pepperberry sauce and dribble cream across the sauce

With the compliments of Australian Pork Corporation

Wild rosella glazed grain-fed pork rump

1 pork rump (Australian grain-fed)
100g Wild rosella spreadable fruit
a pinch of Fruit spice

· Place Rosella spread into a small pot with a small amount of water to thin and heat until it becomes a glace then add the Fruit spice
· Place pork rump into a high oven for 10 minutes and reduce heat to moderate
· After heat has been reduced, use a pastry brush to cover rump with glace and continue to brush until rump is cooked to your requirements
· Serve

This dish will serve 2 people and would be great as a buffet carvery dish. With the compliments of Australian Pork Corporation

Bushman's Silverside

1 silverside (Denver Leg)
1tbsp wattleseed
2tbsp akudjura (ground bush tomato)
50g munthari
2 cups stock
1 Spanish onion (diced finely)
200g shittaki mushrooms (sliced)
½ cup oil

· Roll silverside in wattle seed and Akudjura to form a crust
· Seal in hot oil and season
· Place in oven until crust is black and cook until medium
· Sauté munthari, diced onion, add stock and reduce
· Add mushrooms and season if required. Thicken with arrowroot if necessary
· Slice and serve on top of sauce
· Riberry jus would also be suitable for a sauce with this dish

With the compliments of Rod Andrews, Executive Chef, Blacktown Worker's Club

Pork Pasties with a Bunya Pastry and Quandong Chutney

Bunya Nut Pastry

400g bunya nut meal (approx. 700g bunya nuts with shell on)
250ml water
10g butter
120g fresh cream
120g wheat flour

Filling for Pastry

150g pork mince
50g water chestnuts (diced)
2 shallots (small/diced)
2tbsp Alpine pepper
1 cup pork jus
100g tomatoes (chopped/seedless)
salt to taste

Quandong Chutney (30 portions)

250g quandong (quarters)
100ml mirin
500g cranberry sauce
50g brown sugar
100ml vegetable oil
20ml rice vinegar
juice from 2 large wild limes
chilli to taste

Method

· Prepare pastry as for choux pastry, roll out with flour
· Filling for pastries - sauté all ingredients, cool before using
· Quandong chutney - boil up all ingredients adding quandong for the last 5 minutes only
· Roll out bunya nut pastry 3mm high, cut put into 10cm round discs, fill with 20g of pork and water chestnut filling. Close into half moon shape and deep fry in vegetable oil
· Serve 2 pieces with 30ml of Quandong chutney as appetiser size. (Cut into 8cm round discs, for cocktail size).

With the compliments of Robert Fuchs, Executive Chef Holiday Inn Coogee Beach

Pork Fillet Smoked in Paperbark with Munthari Berry compote

180g pork fillet (trimmed)
20g diced pork
10g onion (diced)
20g Munthari
10ml white wine
¼ g Native mint, ground
10g honey dew melon (diced)
a generous sprinkle Oz lemon, ground
20g baby spinach (pousse)
1 cos lettuce leaf
1 piece of thinned paperbark
oil for frying

Method

· Sweat onions and munthari berries in some oil
· Add wine and native mint and reduce until no liquid is left
· Add honeydew melon, remove from heat and season with lemon myrtle
· Cut open pork fillet and flatten out to one large escalope
· Layer diced pork, compote and baby spinach and season with salt
· Roll up fillet and wrap in cos leaf and paper bark and cook on flat top (or dry pan)
· Suggested vegetables to serve - pomme roast, small turned carrot, beetroot, zucchini or chicken jus

With the compliments of Robert Fuchs, Executive Chef Holiday Inn Coogee Beach

Pork Medallions wrapped in Paperbark

1 pork fillet
1 apple
3 pineapple rings (canned)
¼ cup pineapple juice
150g spreadableKakadu plum
10g roasted macadamia nuts
1 sheet paperbark
5-6g cornflour
10g warrigal greens (blanched)

Method

· Trim the fillet and cut into medallions, seal off the medallions in a pan and place to one side
· Peel and core apple, then cut into large dices 1-2cm
· Cut the pineapple rings in half
· Lay out the paperbark and place the blanched warrigal greens on it
· Place the medallions on top with the apple and pineapple between each one, sprinkle the macadamia nuts over this, then wrap the medallions in the paperbark. Place in the oven at 180ºC for approximately 30 minutes.

Sauce

· Heat the Kakadu jam in a small pan with half the pineapple juice, then thicken this using the cornflour and the remainder of the pineapple juice, add the pan juices
· Cut open the paper bark and pour the sauce over the medallions, then serve

With the compliments of Steve Pullen, Executive Chef - The Barn Restaurant, Campbelltown

Glazed Pineapple Ham

1 x 6kg leg ham
½- ¾ pineapple (fresh & thinly sliced)
100g de-seeded prunes
150g honey mustard
100g Ironbark honey
50ml Lemon ironwood syrup
30g brown sugar
a few cloves

Method

· Trim the skin and nearly all the fat from the leg
· Smear a layer of honey mustard over the ham and decorate with thinly sliced pineapple and prunes, using the cloves to hold them in place.
· Cover the leg with aluminium foil (ensuring foil does not touch the food) and bake in a moderate to hot oven for approximately 2 hours
· Remove the foil and baste the leg with the mixture of honey, lemon ironwood syrup and brown sugar. Bake for a further ½ to 1 hour

With the compliments of Steve Pullen, Executive Chef - The Barn Restaurant, Campbelltown

Illawarra Plum Spare Ribs

2-3 pork spare ribs
75ml Illawarra plum sauce
40ml Rosella syrup
50g Illawarra plums
10g Ironbark honey
40ml port wine
10ml raspberry vinegar
20g eggplant, zucchini & chilli chutney

Method

· In a hot pan seal the ribs, then lower the heat and continue to cook the ribs till they are ready, remove and keep them war
· De-glaze pan with the port wine and raspberry vinegar and reduce by half. Add the Illawarra plum sauce, rosella syrup and honey
· Bring to the boil and add the whole Illawarra plums, simmer for approximately 5 minutes
· Pour the sauce onto the plate, place the ribs on the sauce and then place the plums on the ribs
· Serve with a dollop of eggplant, zucchini and chilli chutney

With the compliments of Steve Pullen, Executive Chef - The Barn Restaurant, Campbelltown

Salted Scaloppini with Warrigal Greens

1 sheet nori
25g sea salt flakes
20g fresh Vietnamese mint
3 x 50g pork scallopini from the leg
freshly milled black pepper
50g Warrigal greens

Method

· Place nori and salt in a blender and pulse blend until mixed together.
· Blanch Warrigal greens and toss in a pan and leave warming.
· Coat scallopini with salt and nori mixture very lightly and pan-fry in butter.
· When cooked serve on warrigal greens accompanied by a sweetened soy and chilli mix.

With the compliments of Graham Terry, Executive Chef - Ozenergy

Pork Kassler with Oz lemon pancakes and Maple & ironwood syrup

Pancake Ingredients

150g flour
1 Eeg
pinch salt
500-600ml milk
¼ tspn bicarbonate of soda
1 tbspn ground Oz lemon, or Lemon aspen juice

Method

· Make up the batter adding the milk gradually to achieve the consistency required and allow to stand for 20 minutes.
· Adjust the consistency and fry the pancakes to the desired thickness.

Pork Kassler Ingredients

small lemon myrtle pancakes
150g smoked pork Kassler julienne (no fat)
4 small spring onions julienne
50g crispy bacon rind julienne
50mls Lemon ironwood syrup
50g sour cream or marscapone

Method

· Panfry onions and Kassler until just sweated off.
· Arrange in layers with pancakes to form a stack.
· Serve with marscapone and crispy bacon rind on top and drizzle with lemon ironwood syrup.

With the compliments of Graham Terry, Executive Chef Harbord Diggers Memorial Club.

Pork cutlet duet with hollandaise sauce

1 rack of pork, cut into 4 cutlets
¼ cup plain flour
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup Macadamia futs, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Wildfire spice
½ tablespoons Wattleseed
Macadamia oil for frying
1tablespoonsunsalted butter

Hollandaise sauce

3 egg yolks
2 tspn white wine
250g clarified butter
¼ tspn ground Oz lemon

Alternative to hollandaise - Wild Lime Dressing

Method

· Dust cutlets in seasoned flour.
· Dip in egg and then coat two with either macadamia nuts & wildfire spice or wattle seed.
· Panfry in hot oil and butter until the macadamia cutlets are golden brown.
· Finish in a hot oven at 250ºC for 5 - 8 minutes.
· Make the hollandaise by whipping egg yolks and wine in a double boiler. Continue whipping while adding clarified butter and the lemon myrtle.
· Serve one of each cutlet and a little of Hollandaise sauce with a variety of seasonal vegetables.

Pork fillet

4 pork fillets
200g warrigal greens
16 bunya nut halves, boiled, shelled and sliced
150g spreadable Kakadu plum
20g munthari or riberry
pinch salt
pinch pepper
225ml Kakadu plum and port wine sauce
1 lt pork stock

Sauce

150ml demi glace
50ml port wine
30g spreadable Kakadu plum

Method

- Butterfly the pork fillet length wise and flatten with a meat mallet.
· Place warrigal greens, spreadable Kakadu plum, muntharies and unya nuts slices on the pork. Season with salt and pepper.
· Roll the fillet and secure it with tooth picks.
· Place in a tray and cover with the stock and poach for approximately 20 minutes.
· Heat demi glace, port wine and Kakadu plum spread in a pot and simmer.

Serve sliced pork fillet on some of the sauce.

Crusted Rack

4 cutlet pork lamb or beef rack
100g macadamia nut pieces
50g breadcrumbs
1g native mint
25g soft butter
pinch salt
pinch pepper
50ml Cherikoff Mountain pepper BBQ sauce
150ml demi glace
50ml red wine
5g native pepperberries

Method

· Trim the rack and cut the bone at the base.
· In a processor, blend the macadamia nuts, breadcrumbs, native mint and the soft butter. Season with salt and pepper.
· Press this mixture all over the outside of the rack.
· Bake in a medium oven for approximately 40 minutes or till the rack is just medium.
· In a pan, put the demi, Mountain pepper BBQ sauce, red wine and native pepperberries, bring to the boil.
· Carve the rack (1 cutlet per person) and serve with the Pepperberry and red wine sauce.

P.S. A nice accompaniment to this dish is a Mango and Illawarra Plum Chutney.

Braised pork hocks

4 pork hocks
200g carrots
200g onions
100g mushrooms
2g Aniseed myrtle
2g Oz lemon
2g Mountain pepper
2 ltr demi glace
500ml port wine
100ml soy sauce
pinch salt
pinch pepper
butchers twine

Method

· Trim and tie the hocks.
· Finely dice all the vegetables (brunoise) and place in a braising dish, with the demi , port wine, soy sauce and all the native herbs.
· Place the hocks in the dish and cook for approximately 1½ - 2 hours or until the meat is tender.
· Place a hock on a plate with some of the sauce. Serve with your favourite wild food chutney.

Seared emu with an Illawarra plum and munthari compote

4 x 120g emu fillets (primals from any muscle group)
2g Mountain pepper
salt
50ml canola oil
8 large Illawarra plums
50g Munthari
20ml Lemon aspen juice
other fruits are optional eg. blueberries, blackberries, Cape gooseberries
20ml Sugarbag or maple & ironwood syrup

Season the emu fillets with the Alpine pepper and salt and pour the oil over the meat. Leave to sit for two hours. Chop the Illawarra plums into munthari-sized pieces, add the munthari and the lemon aspen juice and briefly heat in a pan for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the remaining conventional fruits. Set the compote aside to cool and finish with the sugarbag or syrup.

To cook the fillets, drain them of extra oil and quickly sear both sides on a very hot pan or char-grill. Cook to rare by placing in a hot oven for 3 to 4 minutes or move to a cooler heat on the cooktop. Finally, rest the meat in a warm place for 8 to 10 minutes. Serve on hot plates with the fruit compote in 4 small pots or simply spooned next to the cooked emu.

Fillet of Beef with Native Pepperberries

800g butt fillet of beef, well trimmed
1 tablespoon akudjura (ground bush tomato)
1 tablespoon black poppy seeds
½tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh Native pepperberries
1 piece of paperbark, thinned and trimmed
natural string or twine

Make sure the fillet is well trimmed of fat. Crush native pepperberries roughly and place in a bowl with rest of raw ingredients. Mix well. Coat the fillet on all sides with the spice mix. Wrap the fillet in paperbark, tie up and place in refrigerator to 'set'. When ready to cook, heat a heavy based pan or grill until very hot. Place parcel of meat into pan or grill and cook without turning for 4 minutes. Turn and keep turning every few minutes for 10-15 minutes, this will give a rare result. For medium, cook a further 5-10 minutes, turning until roast feels firmer. Remove from pan and allow to cool in wrap. Refrigerate if not using within 1 hour. At time of serving, unwrap parcel and slice. Serve with chutneys and salads.

This recipe was modified from Family Living Magazine - June / July 1997.

Gumleaf bavarois

Alternative flavourings for this bavarois include lemon myrtle, native aniseed myrtle, Native peppermint and lemon aspen juice or syrups of wild lime, riberry or wattle.

20ml Macadamia nut oil
600ml milk
5 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
salt
1 teaspoon corn flour
10g gelatine
100ml water
4 drops Gumleaf oil
300ml thickened cream
1 x 290g jar Spreadable Kakadu plum
12 small Wild limes
2 tablespoons sugar

Oil 6 individual moulds with the macadamia nut oil. Heat the milk in a saucepan but do not boil it. In a bowl combine the egg yolks, sugar and a pinch of salt and whisk vigorously for about 5 minutes or until smooth and pale yellow in colour. At this point, in another bowl, soak the gelatine in the water for 10 minutes. Back to the eggs, gradually add the hot milk then return to the saucepan over a low heat stirring gently for 6 to 10 minutes just below simmering. All the froth will disappear and the custard will be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and stir in the corn flour, gelatine and gumleaf oil. If necessary, rub the custard through a sieve to remove any lumps. Set aside to cool. Whip the cream to stiffness and gently fold into the custard until well mixed but still airy. Spoon the mixture into the prepared moulds making sure no large bubbles are trapped in the mix. Warm the spreadable Kakadu plum until it just softens and spoon enough spread to top each bavarois with a 5mm thick layer. Refrigerate the bavarois overnight or until set. Dissolve the sugar and a teaspoon of salt in sufficient water to cover the small wild limes. Soak the limes for 20 to 30 minutes. To serve the bavarois, dip the moulds into hot water or if rings were used as moulds run a sharp knife around the outer edge of the bavarois and unmould onto a dessert plate. Garnish with the sweetened wild limes.

Gumleaf smoked salmon and salmon paté

Gumleaf oil is an excellent flavouring for smoked salmon. Dilute the gumleaf oil in salad oil at the rate of 1 drop gumleaf oil in 100ml oil (be careful as gumleaf oil is very strong). Dab sparingly onto the sliced salmon and serve. Alternatively, gumleaf salmon paté can be piped into curls of smoked salmon garnished with several fine slices of lightly stewed quandong fruit and served.

Prep. time 2 mins

1 to 3 drops of Gumleaf oil
250ml smoked salmon paté

Simply flavour the salmon paté with gumleaf oil adding a drop at a time ensuring that the gumleaf is an after-taste.

Gumleaf salmon sushi

Prep. time 10 mins

2 cups cooked vinegar rice (see Oz lemon sushi recipe)
100g smoked salmon, sliced thinly and in strips
2 drops Gumleaf oil
200ml salad oil
6 sheets toasted nori

On a bamboo stick sushi mat, lay a piece of nori and spread enough rice to make a cm layer. Lay out a strip of smoked salmon. Mix the gumleaf and salad oils and brush a small amount over the smoked salmon. Using water for sealing the edges of the nori, roll into 2 to 3cm diameter rolls. Taste test a slice (cut with a sharp, wet knife) to check gumleaf after-taste and adjust amount of oil if necessary.

Beef with garlic and gumleaf

4 x 200g beef striploin
15ml oil
30g butter
30g fine diced onion
1 clove finely chopped garlic
150ml veal or beef stock
100ml cream
10ml wattleseed extract
2 to 3 drops Gumleaf oil

seasonings
250g blanched Rainforest herb fettuccine
300g finely sliced and blanched red and green capsicums, zucchini
100g finely sliced and blanched spring onions
25ml macadamia nut oil

Season the striploin and sear all over in a pan with hot oil then bake at 180ºC for 15 minutes and set aside to rest. Drain the fat from the pan, add butter, onion and garlic and sauté until clear and not browned. Deglaze with stock and reduce to half. Add cream and reduce by half again. Add the wattle extract. Finish with the gumleaf oil adding one drop at a time and test tasting between each addition. The gumleaf should be an after taste. Sauté the blanched vegetables and fettuccine in the macadamia nut oil and turn four serves on a fork to make a pasta nest. Slice the meat and plate up into four serves. Garnish each serve with the pasta nest and sauce the meat to finish.

Oz lemon rum baba

For the babas:
25g fresh yeast (or 15g dry yeast)
6 tablespoons warm milk
225g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons melted butter
½ teaspoon ground lemon myrtle

For the syrup:
250ml water
150g caster sugar
4 tablespoons rum
1-2 drops lemon myrtle oil

For the Alpine pepper sabayon sauce:
1 teaspoon Alpine pepper
2 tablespoons butter
6 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
100ml water
40ml glucose syrup
200ml thickened cream whipped to soft peaks

Blend the yeast and milk together with 2 tablespoons of the flour and leave to stand in a warm place. In a bowl, combine the remaining flour, salt and sugar and make a well in the middle of the mix. Pour in the yeast, mix and knead for a few minutes. Knead in the eggs, one at a time, then the melted butter. Knead well for about 10 minutes until the dough is soft, elastic and sticky. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes or until doubled in size. Lightly oil a ring mould or 8 individual moulds. Punch down the dough and place it in the ring mould or divide between the single moulds to fill to half way. Leave in a warm place for 40 minutes. Place in a pre-heated oven at 200ºC for 15 to 25 minutes depending on the size of the mould used. Leave to cool for a few minutes then unmould and allow to come to room temperature.

To make the syrup, boil the water and sugar for 3 minutes or until thick. Leave to cool for 5 minutes then add the rum. Light the vapours to burn off the esters and after 5 seconds extinguish the flame. Cool completely and add the lemon myrtle oil one drop at a time to taste. Prick the top of the baba or savarins with a skewer and spoon the syrup over it until fully moist but not soggy. Make the sabayon sauce by first melting the butter in the top saucepan of a double boiler but on direct heat. Add the Alpine pepper and heat while stirring for several minutes. This extracts the base flavour from the pepper but destroys the peppery zing. Cool until warm. Stir in the sugar and egg yolks, water and syrup and whisk over the double boiler at gentle heat for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is frothy and creamy. Remove from heat and continue to whisk until cool. Fold in the whipped cream. Serve the ring baba in slices or the savarins separately over the sabayon sauce garnished with skinned segments of orange or mandarin and a scattering of muntharies.

Oz Lemon sushi

Other herbs and herb combinations include native peppermint and Alpine pepper, native peppermint and native mint, aniseed myrtle, native thyme. Plain boiled rice can be made a feature component by the simple addition of native herbs. Asian practice is to wash rice in cold water before cooking which is a prerequisite considering the fertilisers commonly used in the region. In Australia, washing rice is unnecessary and removes many of the vitamins contained in the outer coating of the rice grains. As a functional technique, washing rice can improve the stickiness of the cooked product and in nori rolls or sushi this characteristic is often desirable.

Sushi
1 cup Australian grown rice
1 umeboshi plum or teaspoon rock salt
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 strip kombu
1 teaspoon Oz lemon
½ teaspoon Alpine pepper
toasted nori
stewed quandong or rosella fruit, finely sliced
flying fish roe
water

Put the washed rice into a saucepan and cover with two volumes of cold water. Add the umeboshi plum, vinegar and kombu and cover with a well fitting lid. Heat to boiling then set over low heat for 12 to 15 minutes or until the water has all been absorbed and the rice is cooked. Remove the plum seed and kombu. Stir the herbs through the rice and leave covered for several minutes. Remove the lid and allow the rice to cool. Using a bamboo stick sushi mat and water for sealing the edges of the nori, roll enough rice in pieces of toasted nori to make 2 to 3cm diameter rolls. Include strips of stewed quandong fruit placed onto the rice before rolling. Slice into small sections with a sharp wet knife and top with the roe. Serve with the quandong dipping sauce.

Native peppermint poached mullet with munthari butter sauce

1kg mullet fillets
200ml white wine vinegar
200ml white wine
200ml water
100g brown sugar
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
¼ teaspoon Native peppermint
50g butter
100g Munthari
1 leek, finely sliced and deep fried as garnishing

Bring the vinegar, wine and water to the boil. Dissolve the sugar and add the coriander seeds and half of the munthari. Poach the fillets in the boiling mix until only just done in the thickest part. Remove from the liquid, drain and sprinkle with native peppermint. Set aside in a warm place. To make the sauce, strain out the muntharies from the poaching liquid and with 100ml of the liquid boil vigorously until reduced to 30ml. Add the butter and remaining muntharies and spoon over the plated fillets. Serve immediately.

Native pepperberry potato cake

6 native pepperberries (count the double berries as one)
5g lemon myrtle
60g melted butter
4 large potatoes, peeled, boiled but firm and very thinly sliced
60g parmesan, flaked

Squash the native pepperberries into the melted butter and add the lemon myrtle. On an oiled tray, arrange 4 piles of potato slices brushing each layer with the flavoured butter. Finish the top with the parmesan and bake at 180ºC for 15 minutes and if desired, further grill the top to brown.

Native herbed lamb saddle

500g lamb saddle
1 tablespoon canola oil
¼ teaspoon Native mint
½ teaspoon Native thyme
1 tablespoon Lemon aspen juice
pan liquids from cooked lamb
6 black peppercorns
1 egg yolk
60g butter, chopped

Trim any excess fat from the lamb saddle. Combine oil, herbs and juice and rub into lamb. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Heat a baking dish, add lamb and cook over a high heat until browned all over. Bake at 200ºC for about 35 minutes or until medium rare in the centre. Allow to stand in a warm place for 15 minutes while preparing the hollandaise: Combine pan juices and peppercorns, boil and reduce to half. Strain and reserve liquid. Whisk the egg yolk and reserved reduction over boiling water until it thickens. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter.

Native thyme crusted kangaroo

4 x 150g loin or tenderloin fillets or rump
5g Native thyme
salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
250ml canola oil

Lightly season the roo with the native thyme and salt and place into a stainless steel or glass bowl. Add the crushed garlic and cover the meat with oil. Leave to marinate at chill temperature for at least two hours although the roo will improve in gaminess and texture over the next three months when stored in this manner.

To cook, remove the meat from the oil and allow to drain. Sear both sides of the meat in a hot frying pan cooking each side for 60 seconds and finish to doneness (still rare in the middle) by turning the meat once more each side . Leave to rest in a warm place before serving.

Outback pizza

500g bread mix
10g wattleseed
5g dry yeast
300ml water
2 tablespoons Bush tomato chutney
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
75g munthari
250g oyster blade, sliced
100ml wattle and red wine sauce
each of red and yellow capsicum
2 shallots (white and green parts), chopped

Mix the bread mix and wattle with the yeast and add the water at 30ºC. Mix in a spiral arm mixer for 2 minutes on slow and then 7 - 9 minutes on fast or for 10 minutes in a slow cake mixer. Rest for 20 minutes. Proofing time is 45 minutes at 29 to 31ºC. Spread out onto a floured pizza tray and push finger-tips to dimple the pizza base. Set aside at proofing temperature while topping is prepared. Marinate the sliced oyster blade steak in the wattle and red wine sauce while the pizza base is being prepared. Blend the bush tomato chutney with the tomato sauce. In a pan, fry the white part of the shallots reserving the green tips for garnishing. Grill the capsicums, wrap in a towel to steam and remove the skins. Slice the capsicums into strips. To assemble the pizza, spread the tomato sauce on first and scatter the onion. Place the drained meat slices and scatter the munthari, capsicum strips and the chopped green shallot tips. Bake at 220ºC for 25 minutes or until meat no longer bleeds. Rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Oyster medley

This collection of named oyster dishes can be further regionalised by oyster source, for example, Nambucca River, Sydney Rock, Jervis Bay etc. Perhaps soon , Oysters Van Diemen, Oysters Outback and Rainforest Oysters will be as familiar as the now passée Oysters Kilpatrick and mornay.

Oysters Van Diemen:

12 oysters in the shell
12 slices Tasmanian brie
1 tablespoon ground Mountain pepper
12 Native pepperberries, fresh frozen

Freshly shuck the oysters and top each with a sliver of Tasmanian brie, seasoned with a pinch of ground Alpine pepper and garnish each with a native pepperberry.

Oysters Outback

12 oysters in the shell
2 heaped tablespoons Akudjura (ground bush tomatoes)
1 heaped tablespoon grated cheddar cheese
rock salt, medium ground

Mix the akudjura with the grated cheddar cheese and top each freshly shucked oyster with two teaspoonfuls of the Outback mixture. Sprinkle with a little salt. Heat under a salamander to melt the cheese and serve.

Rainforest oysters

12 oysters in the shell
1 teaspoon Lemon aspen juice
an avocado
a pinch of salt
edible flowers eg. native violets

Mix the lemon aspen juice, avocado and salt to smoothness. Pipe about teaspoon of the lemon aspen avocado onto each freshly shucked oyster and garnish with a small edible flower or a single petal. Alternatively, serve the oysters with a lemon aspen mayonnaise, a small lime or a slice of a large lime.

Paperbark Chicken

Paperbark is a natural product which is used for its visual appeal as a platter liner and for service or when used as a cooking wrap, imparts a delicate smokey flavour from oils in the paperbark. This technique is the easiest way to smoke and cook meats in bark on a hot plate, char-grill or in a pan. Paperbark is also low in tannins and while indigestible, is harmless if consumed accidentally.

2 chicken thigh fillets per person
a generous pinch of lemon myrtle
1 piece of damp paperbark, appropriately thinned
salt
oil for frying
natural fibre string

Sear the smooth skinned outer side of the fillets in a hot oiled pan, on a hot plate or char-grill browning one side only. Remove from heat. Cut a long pocket working from the thicker end and spoon in the sauce or chutney. Place the fillet, browned side up, onto the paperbark and wrap it lengthwise then folding the ends over the browned top side of the fillet. Tie up with the string. (Note: Preparation to this stage can be done even several days in advance of service, if necessary.) Place the paperbark parcel into a very hot dry pan, onto a hot plate or over a char-grill and heat to smoking. Continue cooking to completely blacken all sides of the parcel. Test for doneness by feel then leave to rest for five minutes. For a cold dish, chill overnight at this stage, fully unwrap and fine slice to 2mm thick slices to be served cold. To serve hot, after the resting, remove any remaining string and unfold the paperbark ends. Cut these close to the fillet which will now sit browned side up. Unfold the bark further and fold back and under the fillet. Slice, plate up and serve with appropriate accompaniments.

Sydney Salad

400g mesclun lettuce mix
50ml light lemon myrtle mayonnaise
1 avocado, sliced
4 red cherry and 4 yellow pear tomatoes
100g emu prosciutto
15ml akudjura
50g shaved parmesan
75g Alpine pepper croutons
whitlof leaves for garnish
1 small carrot

Prepare the 4 Opera House garnishes by selecting 4 x 5 whitlof leaves of decreasing size. Make a hole at the base of the leaves with a paring knife and pass a spear cut from the carrot through the hole to make the 4 forward pointing sails and one small reversed sail of the Opera House. Store in iced water until required, if necessary. Arrange four serves of salad in the middle of appropriate plates. Garnish with the avocado slices, quartered tomatoes and smoked quail egg halves. (See following note). Drizzle the salads with the mayonnaise, add the emu prosciutto, akudjura and parmesan. Set the Opera House garnish in place using extra lettuce leaves to secure them and finish the salad with the croutons. Serve at once.

Note: To smoke hard-boiled, shelled eggs simply place them on a rack in a covered wok containing bunya nut shells with some sawdust (optional) and heat the shells to smoking. Eggs will take from 2 to 14 hours to smoke depending upon how much smoke is generated and the size of the eggs.

Lemon aspen ricotta filling

100g ricotta cheese
10ml Lemon aspen juice
salt

Blend the cheese to smoothness, add the lemon aspen and season lightly with the salt. Chill and use to garnish oysters, top pizzas or as a filling for finger foods.

Sauces

By far the most common usage for bushfoods is in the flavouring of sweet and savoury sauces. All the conventional considerations of the relationship between sauces and the foods they dress in terms of complementation not domination still apply. Developing native food recipes requires some knowledge of our sense of taste and the balance between them. These tastes are sour, sweet, salt, bitter, aromatic and pungent. The best dishes always include all these tastes in a relatively narrow concentration band as well as all the textures, from smooth to crunchy. Some consideration of the onset of taste is also important and it is possible to have highlights of fast flavours under-pinned by slower ones. Analyse a Caesar salad (the world's most popular hotel restaurant dish) in terms of the above tastes and textures. The tastes of sweet and sour balance each other - a sweet dessert is best served with a sour coulis. Salt is balanced by bitter and vice versa. If eggplant is old and bitter it is salted to mask the bitterness. If a native food dish is too bitter (eg. from too many bush tomatoes or intrinsically bitter as with the wild limes) then salting will retrieve it. Aromatic flavours and pungency also tend to balance and either one to excess is usually over-powering.

Fruits

Generally, bush fruits are added as garnishings and flavourings, occasionally being cooked down completely or puréed and reduced to extract their full characteristics but losing the visual appeal unless additional whole fruits are added to finish. Some fruits are best not served whole, for example:

bush tomatoes are too strongly flavoured and are better chopped or used in their powdered form (Akudjura):
Illawarra plums do not tend to soften on cooking and occasional astringent fruits make blending Illawarra plums their best application. Dark cherries in equal volume to the plums can be added as an extender with minimal effect to the interesting yet subtle plum taste:
Kakadu plums are also rarely used whole due to their fibrous seed. Spreadable Kakadu plum is the preferred starting material for glazes, sauces and as the base for chilli or garlic and onion confit etc.
Large wild limes, rosella and Davidsons plums can be cooked down to meat jams whereas the small wild limes are ideal for garnishes, particularly sugar-soaked and set in the centre of a similarly soaked rosella flower with its petals spread.
Lemon aspen is more economical in juice form as is the Top End cheesefruit.
Munthari and riberry can be cooked hard and will not cook down nor lose their flavour while quandong and pepperberries are better gently simmered.

Herbs

Australian herbs are better added as finishing seasonings to sauces so that the flavours can infuse rather than being cooked in (which destroys most of the volatile oils responsible for the flavours). This is also true for gumleaf oil and lemon myrtle oil which are both commonly used as cold flavours. However, gumleaf oil is less volatile than lemon myrtle oil and can be used as a finishing baste to cooked meat, if diluted appropriately.

One herb which can take some heat is Alpine pepper which loses its zing on heating but will impart its bushy base flavour into meat stocks and soups. To add back the zing, a finishing seasoning allows Alpine pepper to mix with mixed conventional pepper in steak sauces etc.

An important consideration when using native foods is that the flavours typically exhibit an effective concentration range: Adding too little of a herb will contribute no perceptable taste. Add enough within a usually narrow concentration range and the flavour is obviously present, distinctive and appealing. Too much and over-kill is UN-economic and usually unpalatable. Experience and using incremental increases are better than overdosing. Within their effective concentration ranges all the native herbs currently available are cost effective in use and delicious alternatives to conventional herbs and spices if well-balanced with other flavours.

We have a range of 30g (1 oz) sachets of herbs and spices available for ordering over our secure site and each comes with more recipe ideas on the packet. Additional information is also available in our product glossary.

1. Mountain Pepper - ground is a fine light-green powder with a bushy character. Suitable for addition to both red and white meat. Suggested use rate is around 0.5%.

2. Native Mint - ground is a fine dark-green powder with a very strong savoury taste that is closer to peppermint than garden mint in flavour and is suited to all meats particularly lamb. Suggested use rate is around 0.1 to 0.2%.

3. Aniseed Myrtle - ground is a fine light-green powder with an aniseed/pernod flavour and a sweet aftertaste. Suitable for addition to all meats particularly white meat and seafood. Suggested use rate is around 0.5%.

4. Wattleseed is a roasted, dark-brown powder. Its coffee-chocolate-hazelnut flavour will accompany red and white meats and enhances the subtle flavour of crocodile. Suggested use rate is around 3%.

5. Akudjura is a light brown powder with a sweet savoury taste of tamarillo/caramel that will accompany all meats particularly game. Suggested use rate is around 3%.

6. Gumleaf oil is a transparent pale yellow oil with a eucalyptus flavour. Particularly good in combination with garlic, this uniquely Australian oil will go with all meats. This flavour is very strong and is meant as a subtle aftertaste, the suggested use rate is around 6 drops /1kg.

7. Lemon Aspen juice is pale-yellow in colour, pasteurised and packed frozen. Its tart citrus flavour (like a blend of grapefruit and lime with a unique aromatic character) suits red and white meat sausages. Suggested addition rate is around 2 - 5%.

8. The Cherikoff range of sauces are also good accompaniments and fillers for sausages.

Other flavours

Wattle, roasted quandong kernels and akudjura could be considered as spices and used to flavour rich stocks and sauces.
Wattle needs to be boiled and is not sensitive to heat.
Roasted Quandong kernels need to infuse at an addition rate of 3 - 4 kernels per finished serve of sauce
Akudjura sauces or stocks need the addition of salt as an enhancer and to balance the inherent bitterness of the fruit.
Macadamia nuts, roasted and blended to a nut butter also make an ideal sauce flavouring with its smooth richness and enduring effect on the palate. Aromatic and pungent flavours can be effectively underpinned with macadamia nut butter.

Aniseed myrtle butter sauce see Oz lemon butter sauce

Aniseed myrtle curd

This curd can also be flavoured with lemon myrtle, native peppermint, native mint, lemon aspen or even Alpine pepper.

4 eggs, beaten
250g sugar or 375ml apple juice concentrate
60ml water (if using sugar)
60g butter, chopped
5g ground Aniseed myrtle

Combine the eggs, sugar and water or the juice concentrate and butter in a double boiler and heat to boiling while stirring. Simmer until thick and the curd coats the back of the spoon. Cool while stirring.

Davidson's plum chutney

500g Spanish onions, sliced
1 garlic clove
butter for frying
200g Davidson's plums, de-seeded and chopped
200g brown sugar
100g sultanas
100ml dry white wine
100ml white wine vinegar
a pinch of curry powder
1 clove

Sweat the onions and chopped garlic in a little butter until transparent. Add the remaining ingredients and boil for 1 to 2 hours or until thick stirring occasionally.

Illawarra plum chilli sauce

The original of this recipe was developed by Hubert Amann from Canberra Institute of Technology. This is an ideal accompaniment to any red meats or poultry or as a dipping sauce for finger foods. Important points to note are to only cook the plums in stainless steel and the use of blended fruit. Both are common to most uses of Illawarra plums.

fine diced onion
crushed garlic
fine diced chilli
1 tablespoon butter
250ml port wine
250ml red wine vinegar
500ml meat stock
300g Illawarra plums
440g tin of dark cherries

Sweat the onion, garlic and chilli in the butter in a heavy bottomed stainless steel saucepan. Add the wine and vinegar and reduce to a syrup. Add the meat stock and syrup from the tinned cherries and reduce to 25% volume. Blend the Illawarra plums and pitted cherries to smoothness, add to the reduced stock and heat for 3 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

This sauce is available as a ready-made Cherikoff product.

Spicy Illawarra plum chutney

300g Illawarra plums, coarsely chopped
440g tin of whole dark plums in natural syrup
300g apple, diced
200g onion, finely diced
100g sultanas
75ml vinegar
350g brown sugar
10ml soy sauce
½teaspoon cracked black pepper
½teaspoon freshly chopped chilli
½teaspoon cloves
canola oil for frying

Discard the seeds of the tinned plums and purée the plums in their syrup. Sweat the onions until transparent in the oil. Add the apple and heat through and then the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil and simmer to reduce to a chutney consistency.

Garlic Kakadu plum dipping sauce

The garlic in this sauce can be substituted with freshly chopped chilli for a sweet Kakadu plum chilli sauce.

1 x 260g jar Australia's Own Spreadable Kakadu plum
1 clove garlic
oil for frying
75ml vinegar
water

Squash and finely chop the peeled garlic. Sauté in a little oil until browned and deglaze with the vinegar. Mix into the Kakadu plum spread to a sauce consistency adding water if necessary. Leave stand for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Lemon aspen anglais

250ml milk
20ml lemon aspen juice
7 egg yolks
45g castor sugar

Bring 500ml milk to the boil and remove from heat. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in the hot milk and pour into a clean saucepan. Add the lemon aspen juice and using a wooden spoon, stir over low heat until thick. Cool by standing the saucepan in cold water and stirring the anglais. Taste and adjust with extra lemon aspen juice if necessary. If using lemon myrtle or aniseed myrtle as a flavouring add 2 to 3g of ground herb (teaspoon) to the yolk, milk and sugar mixture after it has been cooked to thickness and before cooling.

Lemon Aspen Rainforest Punch

70ml lemon aspen juice (or to taste)
1 litre apple juice
1 .25 litre sparkling mineral water
Vodka (optional - to taste)

Mix all the ingredients together. Serves approx. 25 people. You can add vodka for a bit of a kick and garnish with some native mint, riberries and / or muntharies.

Lemon aspen honey soy

10ml lemon aspen juice
100ml chicken or lamb stock, reduced to appropriate thickness
1 tablespoon honey (Blue gum, Ironbark or similar)
15ml low salt soy sauce

Combine all the ingredients, heat gently to warm and stir to dissolve the honey.

Lemon aspen mayonnaise

1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
240ml polyunsaturated oil
15ml Lemon aspen juice
¼ teaspoon salt

Starting with all the ingredients at room temperature, whisk the egg yolk and mustard for a minute then slowly add the oil a few drops at a time until it is incorporated into the emulsion. Once the mayonnaise firms the oil can be added more quickly. Whisk in the lemon aspen juice and salt to finish.

Light Oz lemon mayonnaise

350g no fat or low fat ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
5g ground Oz lemon
¼ teaspoon salt
100ml polyunsaturated oil

Mix together the cheese, mustard, lemon myrtle and salt. Add the oil in a very thin stream whisking constantly until the sauce is smooth and thick. Leave stand 10 minutes for the flavours to infuse or else store chilled overnight.

Oz lemon butter sauce

This method is the same for native aniseed myrtle, native thyme or Alpine pepper and their applications are also identical. Pepperberries can also be used for butter sauces although the burgundy colour of the berries is better presented in a white or cream sauce or simply added as a garnish on their own, in combination with coloured peppercorns or with sweet corn kernels for colour contrast.

Reduce chicken, veal or fish stock as appropriate to a jus. Remove from heat and add lemon myrtle at the rate of 5g ground lemon myrtle per litre reduced stock (0.5%). Allow the herb flavour to infuse for half a minute, then finish the reduced stock with cold butter.

For lemon aspen butter, add lemon aspen juice to jus at about 3% (do not mix with any other citrus) and finish the reduced stock with cold butter.

Lemon aspen sabayon see Creped Crustaceans recipe

Mountain pepper and native thyme sauce

300ml full-bodied red wine
3 shallots, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons beef stock
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons ground native thyme
2 teaspoons ground Alpine pepper
pinch of cayenne peppersalt and ground black pepper
100g beef marrow bones (optional)
1 tablespoon brandy
3 tablespoons butter

Heat the wine then add the shallots, stock, garlic, half the native thyme, the Alpine pepper, and other seasonings. Boil and reduce to one third volume. Wrap the bones in muslin and simmer in boiling salted water for 15 minutes. Drain.

Add the brandy to the sauce and remove from heat. Swirl in the butter a little at a time then set back over a low heat, stirring for a few minutes. Remove the marrow from the bones and finely chop it. Stir into the sauce to finish.

Lemon aspen and ginger sauce with Atlantic salmon

This is an easy quick recipe to prepare. Add and mix together some lemon aspen juice (about 3% or to taste) with some honey, crushed ginger and Alpine pepper. Use this as a drizzle over Atlantic salmon for a very easy and delicious entree. Garnish with some greens and extra pepper. Alternatively, add 5% white wine vinegar to Cherikoff Lemon aspen syrup and ginger juice. Other flavour combinations include a few drops of soy, bruised basil, coriander (cilantro), wasabi, chilli or garlic.

Mountain pepper sabayon sauce see Oz lemon rum baba

Munthari and mushroom sauce

The longer this is cooked the more of the apple flavour of the muntharies imparted to the dish. A modification is to use the sauce to flavour slices of any native flavoured bread and then to set the resulting savoury bread pudding with an omelette mix of seasoned eggs and milk. Alternatively, bake into native mint flavoured pastry tartlets adding teaspoon potato flour mixed in a small quantity of water to the stock.

2 tablespoons butter
100g Munthari
1 Spanish onion, finely diced
200g mix of field mushrooms, shiitake, enoki, shimiji, ceps, morels, straw mushrooms
100ml chicken or mushroom stock
2 generous tablespoons Macadamia nut butter
seasoning

In a large stainless steel frying pan melt the butter. Add the muntharies and the onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Season with salt to enhance the sweetness of the onion. Slice the mushrooms add to the sauté with the stock and continue heating on a gentle simmer for 15 minutes. To finish, add the macadamia nut butter to the sauce and heat for a few minutes to thicken.

Native pepperberry cream

Thawed native pepperberries will bleed a burgundy juice into cream sauces and can be used for a feathering or 'comet' effect. They also make a versatile native pepperberry butter simply whipped into butter and left chill overnight for the flavour to infuse. Use native pepperberry cream or butter as an accompaniment to vegetables, savoury baked dishes or as a topping for meats or seafoods.

10 fresh frozen native pepperberries per serve, thawed
white wine meat stock reduction
cream for thickening

Thicken the stock reduction with the cream and add the native pepperberries. Stand briefly, plate up and serve.

Native pepperberry and strawberry juice dressing

2 punnets of strawberries, washed and de-stalked
6 native pepperberries
a generous twist of freshly ground black pepper

Blend all the ingredients until completely puréed. Use immediately as a salad dressing.

Chutney

1. Bush Tomato chutney combines the sweet savoury taste of tamarillo/caramel from akudjura in a tomato and apple base and makes an excellent flavouring for red meat.

2. Wild Rosella chutney (or salsa). This can easily be made from our Spreadable Rosella fruit by adding 10% red wine vinegar to the spread and mixing in lightly fried chopped Spanish onions. This chutney suits any meat, seafood and vegetables.

3. Illawarra plum salsa. Sauté diced capsicum and Spanish onion lightly, add chilli and garlic to taste. Remove from heat and finish the salsa with Cherikoff Illawarra plum sauce and serve.

Soused Scallops

Poach scallops in a boiling mix of equal parts of water, white wine and vinegar until just warm. Take care not to over cook them. Drain scallops and lightly dust with Australian peppermint and serve on lemon myrtle fettuccine.

Skinned & Boned Flathead Fillet in Paperbark

2 x 200g skinned & boned flat head fillet
1 tbspn of akudjura (ground bush tomato)
1 tbspn of wattleseed
2 tsp of ground Alpine pepper
salt, pepper,
paperbark

Generously season flathead fillet in the Australian cajun mix of wattle, akudjura, and Alpine pepper. Season with salt and pepper and wrap in paperbark, tying with natural fibre string. Cook on hot plate so that the paperbark smokes or until fish is tender (approx. 15 min for fillets). Serve in the bark trimming the ends and folding the charred paperbark in under the fish.

Wattle and red wine sauce

250ml meat stock
100ml red wine
15g wattle

Combine all the ingredients and bring to the boil. Simmer and reduce to thicken. Strain out the wattle grounds and freeze for other applications eg. as a crumb substitute over meats. Finish the sauce with cold butter or cook in a corn flour slurry for the required consistency.

Tom yum bush (Australian Thai-style corn and lime soup)

1 litre water
1 large onion, sliced
1 medium carrot, diagonal slices
1 medium zucchini, diagonal slices
corn kernels from 2 cobs
8 Chinese or shittake mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
250g packet of Oz lemon fettuccine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon ground Oz lemon
4 small Wild limes or 2 large limes finely sliced

Bring the water to a boil and add the onion and carrot slices. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the remaining vegetables and the coriander seeds and cook a further 5 minutes. Add the fettuccine, cover and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes until the pasta and the carrots are done. Finish with the remaining seasonings, adding the lemon myrtle and wild limes and removing the pot from the heat. Leave stand for a few minutes to allow the flavours to infuse and serve, allowing one small lime per serve. This soup can also be served chilled as a summer soup.

Sugarbag drizzle

The richness of sugarbag (native bee honey) made by the tiny, stingless native bees of Australia provides an excellent topping for any dessert. Make a simple ice-cream into a gourmet creation by simply pouring on as a drizzle. Also excellent for tarts, fruit compotes or to flavour any cold dish. The taste is like a blend of quality honey and a mellow port.

Cherikoff syrups

Use our prepared syrup and spread range to add the native Australian touch to sorbets, ice-cream, dessert coulis or sauces on pancakes and pastries. Our excellent flavours include lemon aspen syrup, rosella or Kakadu plum syrups (simply made by adding water to our Spreadable Rosella fruit or Spreadable Kakadu plum) and maple & ironwood syrup (made by adding our soluble lemon myrtle to maple syrup).

Wattle tiramisu

This dessert is best made the day before so that the flavours and syrups can fully soak the biscuits.

Cake
250g Italian sponge finger biscuits
30g Wattle
375ml water
30ml dry Marsala
60ml sugar syrup

Filling
2 x 55g eggs
60g castor sugar
15ml white rum
20ml dry Marsala
250g Australian mascapone cheese
180g chocolate, finely grated cocoa for the topping

Boil the wattle in the water and remove pan from heat. Add the Marsala and sugar syrup, mix and leave to cool. Line the bottom of an appropriate dish with half the biscuits to form an even base. Strain the wattle syrup and pour half over the biscuit base leaving stand to soak in. Alternatively, quickly dunk each biscuit before laying them out.

In a double boiler, cook the eggs, sugar, rum and Marsala until thick. Cool over ice until cold. Whisk the mascapone cheese until stiff and gently fold into egg mixture. Spoon half over the wattle soaked biscuits, sprinkle on some of the finely grated chocolate then spread out another biscuit layer and drizzle the remaining wattle syrup over the biscuits. Add more grated chocolate and the remaining cheese mixture and finish with powdered cocoa.

Wild lime and munthari meat jam

When cooking fruits there are two choices of boiling medium for each of two effects: . Some fruits with delicate flesh will cook down no matter what medium but as a rule, boiling fruits in water will tend to reduce the fruit flesh to a purée since the water will move into the fruits' cellular structures by the process of osmosis and rupture the cells, puréeing the fruit. Boiling fruits in sweetened water, stocks or in a jus will have the opposite effect and water will be lost from the fruits generally leaving them toughened.

100g large Wild limes
100g Muntharies
500ml water
¼ teaspoon salt
75g sugar

Fine slice the limes, skin and all. Boil and then simmer both fruits in the water until the lime skins soften (about 40 minutes). Add more water, if necessary. The muntharies will not break down and make a useful garnishing additive. Season with the salt to balance the bitterness of the limes and sweeten to taste. This recipe produces a very tart, powerful lime flavoured jam ideal for savoury applications.

Wattleseed ice-cream (including hints on using other bushfoods as flavourings)

2 litres of good quality vanilla ice-cream
10g of Wattleseed

This recipe is a very easy way to make good quality vanilla ice-cream into a bushfood sensation that every-one will rave about. Simply add the wattleseed into a microwavable container and add just enough water to just cover the grounds plus about 20% extra. Heat this mixture until it just boils in a microwave (or you can do this in a saucepan) so the wattleseed flavour is infused into the water. You can then either use the water (if you don't want any grounds in your ice-cream) or preferably add the whole mixture once cooled down into the semi-thawed ice-cream. Gently fold the wattleseed through the ice-cream and re-freeze. Serve with a Wattle Anzac biscuit for a unique chocolate-coffee-hazelnut flavoured ice-cream dessert. If you make your own ice-cream, add the wattleseed to the anglaise base, cook to thicken and churn to freeze once cool. Some flavour combinations with wattle are walnut (added once the ice cream is almost frozen or a good orange liqueur.

Wattleccino®

4 heaped teaspoons Cherikoff Wattleseed
3 cups boiling water
whipped cream

Bring the Wattleseed and water to the boil, then strain the liquid evenly into 4 mugs, top with whipped cream and garnish with chocolate powder or nutmeg. The leftover grounds can be frozen or used as needed in sweet or savoury crumbs, biscuits or muesli. (Serves 4)

Alternative method using a cappuccino machine

1 heaped teaspoonful of Cherikoff Wattleseed

In a cappuccino machine prepare a cappuccino replacing the coffee with the wattleseed. Do not pack down. The grounds expand with heat and can block the hot water flow if too much is used. In addition, if the wattleseed is made too strong it can curdle the milk. Express wattleseed extract to fill ¾ of the cup, top with frothed milk and garnish with chocolate powder or nutmeg. (serves 1). Try using our Wattleseed extract to simplify the process even further.

Wattle cream

Cream enhances the coffee, chocolate and hazelnut taste of wattle and is best unsweetened since sugar tends to over-power the flavour of wattle. Besides, the desserts that wattle cream garnishes are usually sufficiently sweet. In addition, an important use of unsweetened wattle cream is to thicken and flavour savoury sauces.

300ml thickened cream, whipped to firmness
1 tablespoon Wattle
50ml water

Boil the wattle and water in a microwave, watching to stop the mixture from boiling over. This slurry can be kept chilled for up to four days. Cool slightly and fold into the whipped cream.

Wattleseed Pavlova

4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon corn flour
100g fine sugar
300 ml Wattle cream (see recipe)
1 cup toasted muesli
2 teaspoons ground aniseed myrtle
100g spreadable rosella fruit
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Whip the egg whites to soft peaks. While still beating, add the vinegar, corn flour and slowly follow with the sugar. Stop once the stiff peak stage is reached and take care not to over-whip. Spread baking paper on an oven tray and lightly coat with oil spray. Spread out the pavlova mix to a thickness of 1.5cm and square off the edges. Bake at 150°C until just beginning to brown. Allow to cool. Meanwhile, blend or process the muesli and aniseed myrtle to a medium fine crumb. Sprinkle this topping over the pavlova and holding the baking paper by the edges flip the pavlova onto a clean teatowel and peel back the baking paper. If the paper sticks place a hot wet cloth onto the paper for a few minutes and the paper will come away easily. Spread the wattle cream and using the teatowel, roll up the pavlova lengthwise. Transfer to a platter, trim the ends obliquely and serve 4 to 5cm slices with a wild rosella coulis made from spreadable rosella fruit diluted with lemon juice and water or a slightly sour, Davidson plum syrup (make using a little less than half sugar to the quantity of plum).

Wattled Crocodile

One of the few flavours which enhances rather than overwhelms the very subtle, fishy-chicken flavour of crocodile is wattle. This is one occasion that wattle is used dry as a seasoning rather than more commonly being boiled first to soften the grounds and extract its characteristic flavour.

1 kg crocodile tail fillet (bone out and trimmed)
60g wattle
salt
1 piece damp paperbark, appropriately thinned
string or cooking twine

In a bowl, sprinkle the crocodile with the wattle to evenly coat the meat. Lightly season with salt. Roll the meat to form a log shape and set in the middle of the paperbark sheet. Wrap well and tie securely. Place in a microwave dish and cook on high (750W) for 5 minutes. Rest for 5 minutes, invert the roll and cook a further 5 minutes on high. Alternatively, poach in a steam oven until firm to touch, although this will give a drier result as the juices tend to run with prolonged cooking. Chill overnight then remove the bark from the required amount of crocodile (plastic wrap and chill the remainder). Machine slice the crocodile to 2mm thickness, fan out 35 to 40g portions around a tart, sweet relish eg. munthari and wild lime jam, or serve with a wild mushroom sauce and garnishing of greens. Alternatively, use wattled crocodile slices in a Top End Caesar salad.

Miner's wattled fruit bag

400g plain flour
100g castor sugar
100g softened butter
5g wattleseed
20ml water
2 eggs
360g wild fruit compote
30ml rum

Combine flour and sugar and beat in the butter. In a microwave, bring the wattle and water to a boil and cool in iced water. Add the eggs to the wattle slurry and then slowly add this mix to the flour being careful not to over-beat the pastry. If it is over-worked it will toughen and lose that delicious shortness of good pastry. Divide the pastry into four equal pieces, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour. Meanwhile, mix the rum into the compote and test-taste for sweetness. On a well floured surface, quickly roll out each piece of pastry into a rough square, add the compote and fold up the edges to form the miner's bag. Secure the bunched pastry at the top of the bags by wetting the pastry with water, melted butter or a little extra rum. Bake at 180° for 25 minutes or until pastry is brown. Serve with a native peppermint curd (see aniseed myrtle curd but use 2g of native peppermint).

Whole Baby Barramundi and Munthari Butter Sauce

400g whole baby barramundi
30ml vegetable oil
2 drops gumleaf oil (careful, this product is very strong)
1 tbspn butter
30g finely chopped leak
½cup munthari berries
pinch of lemon myrtle
seasonings.

Combine the vegetable oil and gumleaf oil and heat in a frypan to smoking temp. Pan fry fillets until skin is crispy (about 2 mins). Turn over and cook the other side (1 min. or less). Set aside in a warm dish. In the fry pan, melt butter, add leak, muntharies and seasonings. Plate up fish, garnish with leak and muntharies and finish with a generous sprinkle of ground lemon myrtle.

Wild fruit compote

100g Illawarra plums
50g small wild limes
100g munthari
50g wild rosella
1 tablespoon lemon aspen juice
2 tablespoons honey
icing sugar for dusting

Coarsely chop the Illawarra plums and toss them in the lemon aspen juice. Place the limes and rosella into separate bowls and add sufficient honey-sweetened water to cover them. Leave them soak for 15 minutes. Drain. Combine the prepared fruits with the munthari and serve, finished with a sprinkle of icing sugar.

Yabby ravioli with wild lime and shiitake

This recipe was developed by Gerhard Rist from the Hotel Nikko Bali. He is now featuring an Australian menu at Sydney's Manly Pacific Parkroyal Hotel.

Ravioli

30 yabbies (5 portions)
100g leeks, julienne cut
wine glass of Vermouth
salt and pepper
60 wonton skins
egg white

Drop the live yabbies into a large volume of boiling water to quickly kill them. Drain and transfer to iced water to chill totally. Remove the flesh from the tail and discard the alimentary canal. Sauté the julienne leek in a little butter, add the yabby tails and Vermouth. Toss frequently until all the liquid has evaporated and flavoured the yabbies which should be half cooked at this stage. Remove yabbies and leeks and set aside to cool. Place one yabby tail and a little of the leek onto a wonton wrapper. Brush the wrapper around the yabby with egg white and set another wonton skin on top of the yabby squeezing out any gaps. Using a round cutter, cut out a circle keeping the yabby in the centre or alternatively, leave square. Put aside under a damp tea towel until ready to cook.

Oz lemon cream sauce

50g onion fine diced
butter
70ml seafood stock
150ml Riesling
1 litre cream
1 teaspoons ground Oz lemon

Sauté the onion in a little butter until soft. Add the stock and wine and reduce until nearly dry. Add the cream and reduce by half. Strain through a fine strainer, return to the pan and season to taste. Remove from heat, add the lemon myrtle and whisk in a little cold butter before serving.

Garnish

15 small shiitake mushrooms
30 small Wild limes
butter
½ teaspoon sugar
a pinch of salt

Sauté the whole mushrooms and 6 small limes in a little butter. Add the sugar, salt and the remainder of the limes towards the end.

To finish the dish, drop the ravioli into boiling salted water for 1 to 2 minutes until the wonton skin edges are al denté. Drain and set in a ring on a plate. Pile sautéed mushrooms and limes in the centre of the ring and dress with the cream sauce. Top with a sprig of fresh herb.

Notes on using Australian foods

This recipe collection has been developed to provide the means for gaining experience with the peculiarities of effectively using native foods. Like most foods, these ingredients are very simple to use once an understanding of their properties is learned. The range of applications for each native food will probably never be saturated and as they enter the mainstream food industry trends of use will no doubt come and go as for all world foods. It is not intended that the recipes presented necessarily have wide usage as described but are more general guides to demonstrate the principles of each native food currently commercially available throughout Australia. Should any of the ingredients be seasonally unavailable, an alternative native food can usually be easily substituted. Email us for further assistance in this regard if necessary.

The recipes in this list are intended for use with the native food range established by Vic Cherikoff Food Services P/L and now the industry standard. These are highlighted with links to our product glossary. The quantities given are relative to the products in this range as distributed by us. Other companies' products which may have copied names may not have the same application efficiencies of the original Cherikoff product. Chefs will need to continue to experiment as in the past when new ingredients appeared to add flavour to the art of cooking.

The foraging chef should also be aware that native plants particularly, exhibit wide variation in their qualities and what may be an edible species in one part of this country may not be as high in its culinary quality (eg. strength of flavour) or even be harmful in another. Over the next few years there will no doubt be new companies marketing their versions of these same foods and many new foods. Even today, there are a few products promoted as food which may not be foods at all unless properly prepared. For example, quandong kernels HAVE to be well roasted to a chocolate brown colour before being used as a food flavouring otherwise the presence of santalbic acid can be carcinogenic. This is an on-going concern for the emerging native food industry since a well-publicised poisoning could have deleterious and far-reaching repercussions to a fledgling industry. Reputable and established companies dealing in these foods have a responsibility to ensure that their products are edible, of high quality and free of noxious components.

Vic Cherikoff Food Services Pty Ltd , formerly Bush Tucker Supply Australia was the first company to establish the post-Aboriginal native food industry following many years of scientific study and nutritional scrutiny.

Wherever you source the native foods you choose to use, please be conscious of the quality of the ingredients and the credentials of your suppliers.