International Gourmet Rules: All participants are to share in the costs and preparation. All costs are divided by the number of participants and shared. The hostess provides water, tea, and coffee. If you drink wine, please bring your own. Please arrive on time and help the hostess whenever possible. Note: These Australian spices might be difficult to find but please try to find the appropriate spices and ingredients - only substitute when absolutely possible.

We will meet at the Sanchez home on May 21, Saturday, at 6:30 p.m. Please feel free to bring a partner or a friend.

Email rkrane@yahoo.com to chose your preparation item.

Menu and Recipes

Menu: · 
1)Appetizer: Smoked Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon and Egg Roll-Ups - Krane
2)Australian Damper - Sanchez
3)Wild Mushroom Soup with Horseradish Cream Singler
4)Spicy Beef Salad - DeVoe
5)Cornfed Chicken Breast Stuffed with Quandongs on Wild Mushrooms, Warrigal Greens and Native Thyme Broth- Lauper
6)Stockman's Pie with Mountain Pepper - Harkins
7)Sweet Baked Ricotta with Glazed Peaches- Harkins
8)Chocolate Nuts and Hot beverages Sanchez

Smoked Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon Egg Roll-Ups with Salad  

Appetizer:
Smoked Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon Egg Roll-Ups

Prep time: 10 mins; Cook time: 15 mins

Atlantic Salmon were first introduced into Tasmania in 1864 but they did not flourish. One-hundred-twenty years later, 115,000 Atlantic Salmon ova were shipped to a hatchery in Tasmania. This became the beginning of a new industry. Tasmania has a distinct quality advantage over competitors due to its pristine unpolluted farming waters, disease free environment and excellent all year round farming conditions. Tasmanian salmon justifiably command a price premium over all other Atlantic farmed salmon because of this quality, which is acknowledged in the most discerning seafood market of all, Japan.

Ingredients

  • 8 slices of smoked Tasmanian Atlantic salmon (approx 150gm)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tsp cornflour
  • 2 tsp water
  • 1 Tbsp finely chopped chives
  • Pinch salt
  • Light olive oil
  • Bunch of rocket, washed & trimmed
  • 1 large carrot, peeled & grated
  • 1/4 cup tartare sauce

Method

1. Whisk eggs together in a bowl.

2. Mix cornflour & water. Stir into eggs with chopped chives & salt.

3. Lightly oil a small non-stick frying pan over high heat and spoon in 2-3 tablespoons of egg mixture to thinly cover the base.

4. Cook over medium heat until set. Slide out & cook the rest of the mixture until you have 4 omelettes.

5. Spread tartare sauce over omelettes on one side.

6. Place slices of smoked salmon over a third of the omelette and place some grated carrot & stalks of rocket.

7. Roll up & serve. This is a small taste appetizer. Cut them into pieces to serve the number of people attending the dinner.

Tip If time isn't on your side, try using a flour tortilla for a quick rollup.

This recipe is courtesy of Tassal Group Ltd and Woolworth's, The Fresh Food People

  
 Bread: Australian Damper    

This bread made by bush settlers may be baked on the open fire or in a regular oven. As is typical of hand-me-down recipes, there are as many versions as there are bush babies. One recipe we read says to use beer instead of milk, then wrap the dough around a stick and cook over an open fire.

  • 2 cups self-rising flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tespoons sugar
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup milk

Mix the flour, salt and sugar together in a bowl. Cut in the butter until fine crumbs form. Add milk to make a soft dough. Knead lightly on floured board until smooth. Shape into round loaf, brush with milk, and bake at 375 degrees F. for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the loaf makes a hollow sound when tapped. Cut into small servings serve with the soup and salad.

Wild Mushroom Soup with Horseradish Cream

Epicurious  | August 1999 ; Recipe by Ralph Potter; Australian Food: In Celebration of the New Australian Cuisine

main ingredients Mushroom,  Dairy,  Horseradish,  Sour Cream

This classic regional dish is from Ralph Potter, chef at Darley's at Lilianfels in the Blue Ridge Mountains west of Sydney. "Wild mushrooms are..

3

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 leek, chopped
  • 1/2 clove garlic, chopped
  • 7oz. unsalted butter
  • 1 lb. morels, sliced
  • 6 cups chicken stock
  • 10 oz. potatoes, peeled
  • 2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish
  • 4 tablespoons sour cream
  • salt and freshly ground white pepper
  • 5 oz. porcini mushrooms
  • 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2

Preparation

In a frying pan or skillet, sweat the onion, celery, and leek in some of the butter over low heat until soft. Add the morels to the pan. Continue to cook over low heat for 5-6 minutes. Add the chicken stock and potatoes to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 45 minutes. Puree the soup in a food processor or blender. Don't be tempted to thin the liquid down too much, as the finished soup should be fairly thick. Keep hot.

Make the horseradish cream by mixing the horseradish with the sour cream and some pepper.

Melt a little butter in a frying pan and quickly fry the porcini mushrooms. Add the parsley, toss together and then strain through a fine-mesh sieve to drain off the butter.

To serve, adjust the soup's seasoning with salt and pepper and serve in deep bowls with some of the sauteed porcini mushrooms and a dollop of horseradish cream in the middle.

 

Spicy Beef Salad

Serves 8

At the restaurant we serve rare beef in this salad, but the beef can be cooked more if desired. The resting time allows the cooked beef to relax and ensures that it is tender. A vegetarian version can be made using deep-fried cubes of tofu.

Dressing:
2 garlic cloves
2 small fresh red chilli peppers
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
30 g (1 oz) palm sugar
Salad:
1 kg (2 lb) beef fillet
24 cherry tomatoes or 6 medium tomatoes
1 red capsicum (sweet pepper)
1 small red onion
1 cup fresh mint leaves
1 cup fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves
2/3 cup (100 g/3-1/2 oz) peanuts, roasted
1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil for cooking beef

Preparation

To make dressing, peel the garlic. Mince (grind) together the garlic and tlle chilli peppers. Place in a bowl with the rest of the dressing ingredients. Mix together until the sugar has dissolved.

To make salad cut the beef into eight portions. Halve the cherry tomatoes or chop the tomatoes. Seed and slice the capsicum. Peel and slice the red onion. Place all the salad ingredients except the beef and vegetable oil into a bowl.

Cook the beef in a lightly oiled pan over a high heat. The cooking time depends on how well done you like your beef (allow 2 minutes each side for rare, and 4 minutes each side for medium, but the cooking time will depend on tlle size of the beef pieces). Put the beef in a warm place to rest for 10 minutes.

To serve, thinly slice the beef and add it to the salad bowl. Ladle over just enough dressing to coat and toss well. Portion onto plates.




Cornfed Chicken Breast Stuffed with Quandongs on Wild Mushrooms, Warrigal Greens and Native Thyme Broth

Serves 4; Recipe: Medium Complexity; Raymond Kersh and Jennice Kersh chef and restaurateur

 

Ingredients
4 cornfed chicken breasts
200 g (7 oz) quandongs or peaches
75 g (2-1/2 oz) butter
8 cups warrigal greens or silverbeet (Swiss chard), blanched
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 pieces of pig's caul, about 20 cm (8 inch) square
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic
100 g (3-1/2 oz) Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
45 g (1 -1/2 oz) shiitake mushrooms, sliced
45 g (1-1/2 oz) shijemi mushrooms, sliced

Native Thyme Broth
3-1/4 cups (825 mL/26 fl oz) chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon native thyme
1 teaspoon ginger
1 stalk lemon grass, soft part only, chopped
2 teaspoons ground coriander
Fresh coriander (Chinese parsley) leaves to garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F). Butterfly the chicken breast into halves. Sauté the quandongs in a frying pan or skillet in half the butter. When soft, place a quarter of the cooked quandongs in the middle of each chicken breast. Place cup of the warrigal greens on top of each pile of quandongs and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Roll up each chicken breast and then wrap each one in a piece of the pig's caul. Pan-fry the chicken in the olive oil over medium heat until browned, then bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and keep warm.

Sauté the onion with the remaining butter, then add the garlic, three types of mushrooms and the remaining warrigal greens.

To make the thyme broth, place the chicken stock, native thyme, ginger, lemon grass and coriander in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce in volume by half over high heat, then strain through a fine sieve. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove the chicken from the pan and slice into 4 rounds. Place the mushroom mixture in the middle of each warmed serving bowl and place the chicken on top. Pour the broth around the outside until it reaches the mushrooms. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve immediately.



Stockman's Pie with Mountain Pepper  

Stockman's Pie with Mountain Pepper

Serves: 4-6; Prep time: 10 mins; Cook time: 30 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 1-1/4 Tbsp McCormick Bush Spices with Mountain Pepper
  • 1 potato, grated
  • 1 sweet potato, grated
  • 1 turnip, grated
  • 1 Swede, grated
  • 2 x sheets puff pastry
  • 50g Feta cheese

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C and heat a frying pan until hot and add butter.

2. Fry onion, bush spices, potato, sweet potato, turnip and swede for five minutes or until soft.

3. Allow to cool slightly while baking pastry.

4. On the bottom a greased pie dish place one sheet of pastry and bake for ten minutes or until pastry has risen and is slightly browned.

5. Crumble fetta into vegetable mixture and mix through. Place mixture into pie dish and top with the remaining sheet of pastry. Bake in oven for 20 minutes.

6. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Tip To save time, use premade uncooked pastry cases and blind bake for 10 minutes while your frying the other ingredients

This recipe is courtesy of McCormick Foods Australia and Woolworth's, The Fresh Food People.




Chocolate Macadamia Delights

Macadamia nuts, a part of Australian bush tucker, are easy to get in supermarkets in the U.S.A.

Melt your favourite chocolate in the microwave oven. When mixture is runny add nuts or fruit and nuts. Mix. Then spoon teaspoons of the mixture onto greased paper cups and cool. This is a recipe to play around with. The following can be used:

  • macadamia nuts and Buderim Ginger
  • whole unsalted macadamias
  • macadamia pieces and Australian sultanas

Sweet Baked Ricotta

Sweet Baked Ricotta with Glazed Peaches

Cut into small pieces to serve the number of people attending. Serve with the chocolate macademia nuts.

This ricotta is easier to turn out and slice when it is cold, so you can bake it the day before you wish to serve it, slice it when it is cold and then let it come to room temperature. It is best made in a nonstick loaf tin, 25 cm (10 in) long, 5 cm (2 in) wide and 7.5 cm (3 in) deep. The baked ricotta is also delicious served with fresh fruits.

Ingredients
3 cups (800 g/1-3/4 lb.) ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 vanilla bean
1-1/4 cups (225 g/7 oz) icing (confectioners) sugar
8 ripe freestone peaches
Icing (confectioners ) sugar extra

Preparation

To bake the ricotta, preheat the oven to 150 degrees C (300 degrees F). In a large bowl, whisk together the ricotta and the eggs. Split the vanilla bean and scrape in the seeds. Sift in the icing sugar and mix thoroughly. Spoon the ricotta mixture into the loaf tin and cover with aluminum kitchen foil. Place the tin into a slightly larger baking pan and pour in enough water to come about half-way up the side of the loaf tin. Carefully place the baking pan in the oven. Bake the ricotta for 40 minutes, or until firm.

When the ricotta is ready, remove the loaf tin from the water bath and remove the foil. Let the ricotta cool, then cover it with plastic wrap (cling film) and refrigerate. When it is thoroughly cold you can turn it out of the tin and slice it as required. It will have more flavour if you allow it to warm to room temperature before serving it.

To glaze the peaches, preheat the griller (broiler) to hot. Halve the peaches and remove the skins if desired. Sprinkle with the extra icing sugar and place under the griller until the sugar is caramelised, about 2-5 minutes.

To serve, arrange ricotta slices and two peach halves on each plate.




Read more: Australian Bush Tucker Recipe: Damper http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0597/damper.html#ixzz1JqGGkRXp