Wild Food, Cuisine and Cooking
- Wild Foods – We Need More of Them
Lots of layers in this topic. There is no doubt that we should be eating more wild foods as they supply an enormous range of phytonutrients that are being bred out of our conventional produce. Read more about this at the Wild Foods website. But I’d like to cover a few items that are in short supply […] - Freeze-Dried (Lyophilized) Wild Fruits
We produce a range of freeze-dried (lyophilized) wild fruits for chocolate coating, snack foods, breakfast cereals etc. The range includes riberries, rainforest limes, Illawarra plums, finger limes, Davidson plums, wild rosellas and of course, our star product; the LIFE (Lyophilized Indigenous Food Essentials)™. Naturally, they are all pre-dipped in Fresher4Longer natural food rinse™ (industrially known as Herbal-Active®) to sanitize them […] - Defining an Australian Cuisine
Obviously there’s not much happening in hospitality at the moment, at least not much to write about. The trade rave, Hospitality Directory, regurgitated a rubbish piece on defining an Australian cuisine and dragged out the usual suspects for their comments. It is as if these chefs define what we cook at home. I have written on […] - Not a mention of Australian cuisine in popular World food trends
A recent research report on the food trends in the USA listed the usual suspects including Italian, Mexican and Chinese as the ‘Big 3’. Lower on the list were French, Spanish and Greek before Japanese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Caribbean, Peruvian and Cuban food. Some cuisines were further segmented by regionality or characterized by one or […] - Putting Australia on the Menu
Not a mention of Australian cuisine in popular World food trendsA recent research report on the food trends in the USA listed the usual suspects including Italian, Mexican and Chinese as the ‘Big 3’. Lower on the list were French, Spanish and Greek before Japanese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Caribbean, Peruvian and Cuban food. Some cuisines […] - Breeding the Nutrition out of our Food
Here is more grist for the mill on claims as to the falling nutritional value of our foods. Our food supply is being bred for the convenience of the distribution chains, that is, fruits that don’t bruise and can be picked green to ripen in transit or after prolonged storage. Vegetables that are large and succulent, even […] - The 12 Tastes in Food
The 12 Tastes in Food – Create appealing dishes from the ground upSo many chefs still seem to ignore the basic building blocks of food – the 12 basic tastes and taste-smells. French traditions are built on empirical trial and error and apprentice chefs are shown the way it’s always been done. Rarely is the […] - Where have all the Australian cuisine chefs gone?
My Facebook site is getting plenty of comments about Edna owners getting accolades for ‘inventing Australian food’ and denigrating the efforts of others “there was a small place in Hornsby…”. Lots of chefs have contributed to at least putting Australian cuisine on the culinary map even though it still has a long way to go […] - Wild foods now easier to find and forage
We have just re-designed our on-line store and welcome you in to browse around and tell us what you think. It’s a cleaner look and easier navigation and we have streamlined our wholesale section for our larger pack sizes for chefs. Please drop in and pick up something for Father’s Day or just because these are healthy, […] - Refried bunya nut pastry
We get lots of inquiries about bunya bunya nuts and I must admit that I love them and still harvest the odd cone around Xmas for my own use. It’s just that since supplies are so irregular that we can not afford to stock them anymore as a commercial ingredient. However, here is a fantastic way […] - Bunya bunya Nuts (halved)
Flavour – Similar to chestnut with a subtle pine overtone. Colour and Appearance – Starchy white flesh with yellow central stalk. Woody shell 50mm in length, 25mm wide. Typical Uses – Slice boiled nut meat and use as a garnish or flavouring. Re-fry boiled and nuts to make a pastry or use as a flavouring in desserts, sauces or garnishing. Helpful […] - Mike Daly’s Trans-Tasman cuisine
There are a few chefs around the world who stand up and recognize new foods and flavours and work with them until they are happy with the results. Sure, lots of chefs work with the same old ingredients and get famous – look at Jamie Oliver with his use of just 5 ingredients – garlic, […] - Lemon wedges – another job for Herbal-Active®
Here’s an interesting piece of research which initially took me aback and then made perfect sense. Out of a bunch of restaurants in which lemon wedges on drinks were microbiologically tested, 77% returned high populations of food borne disease organisms including faecal bacteria on the lemons in our drinks. For me, an easy solution would be for […] - Egg and bacon roll from FHM magazine
This was a recent recipe which was provided to Nine MSN’s FHM magazine (www.FHM.com) on their request for an interesting egg and bacon roll. For some reason the recipe never made it into FHM without significant changes so here is my original FHM egg & bacon roll recipe. For the story, check out FHM magazine’s, December […] - Australian fruits, herbs and spices for your own Best Backyard
Australian fruits are in the press again because of recent research by the CSIRO confirming work we conducted at Charles Sturt University last year. This showed that a range of red, crimson to purple Australian fruits have astronomic levels of antioxidants, particularly the nutritious anthocyanins and related polyphenols. However, Australian herbs and spices are equally valuable […] - Wild rosella glazed grain-fed pork rump
1 pork rump (Australian grain-fed)50g Wild Rosella confita pinch of Fruit Spice · Stab the pork rump with a sharp knife and insert a slice of garlic into each cut. Alternatively use a slice of ginger or even a wedge of apple, a few munthari berries or a combination of these. · Pour off the syrup from […] - Cooking with dried herbs vs fresh herbs
Many chefs discovering authentic Australian ingredients for the first time ask me for fresh herbs rather than dried herbs; pure leaves rather than blends; and freshly picked fruits rather than frozen fruits. In this blog, I’ll address just some of the issues of using dry herbs over fresh herbs and come back to the other questions […] - Lemon myrtle sprinkle by any other name …
This is a re-jig of my first product blog which was on my lemon myrtle sprinkle, way back in December 2005. I am re-working the article, largely to bring it up to date and mention some new applications and formulations and report back on some time-tested uses of this popular seasoning. Just as I did way back then, […] - Paperbark Smoked oil with Wattleseed and Fresh Bread
It seems every restaurant in Australia serves freshly sliced bread with olive oil and aged balsamic. You’d think we were in Italy. It was great the first time but now it’s boring and I tended to just ask for butter, that is, until I tried the combination of Paperbark Smoked oil with Wattleseed extract. 25ml Paperbark Smoke […] - Asparagus with Paperbark Smoke Hollandaise
Some people say that asparagus and hollandaise are really boring together but as Darryl Kerrigan says in the Australian movie, The Castle “but it’s what you do with it”. With that in mind, hollandaise is really just a base sauce and can easily be enhanced with a variety of native flavours. Various menus I have […] - Seeded Mustard with Paperbark Smoked Oil
Everyone loves a roast turkey, especially when cooked perfectly so the meat is succulent and tender. However, instead of turkey with cranberry sauce I usually serve it with rosella confit as it pairs very well. Recently, I had neither cranberry sauce nor rosella confit handy so I decided to experiment with seeded mustard and Paperbark Smoke Oil […] - Mashed Potato with Paperbark Smoke Oil
Many restaurants around the world these days serve Truffled Mash Potato on their menus mainly since mashed potato carries the truffle flavour elegantly. You’ll find this recipe just as interesting. Mashed Potato with Paperbark Smoke Oil is great served as a side dish or alternatively can be served under ocean trout, beef fillet, lamb loin […] - Kalamata Olives enhanced with Paperbark Smoke Oil
Kalamata Olives are available in most gourmet stores and supermarkets and are usually marinated in olive oil with garlic and fresh Italian herbs like rosemary, parsley and thyme. This recipe, imparts a subtle smokey flavour to the olives and are great eaten as is or used in pizzas, breads, salads and pastas. 100g of your favourite […]
