Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Bush Tucker

This stuff is expensive! Not that I begrudge anyone making a living, and a little goes a long way but this is locally produced (grower, processor, distributor, retail) as opposed to imported (grower, processor, distributor, export agent, import agent, distributor, retail). I hope the grower is getting a good price and the cost to the consumer isn't being swallowed up by the middle men and their profit margins!

Anyway, today was cooking day and, after much thought and a few days of sourcing information, I settled on my Australian menu:

  • Pumpkin Soup with El Questro Station's Damper
  • Nutty Kangaroo Rolls (with macadamias and bush seasonings)
  • Braised Chicken with Bush Tomatoes, Native Basil and Native Pepperberry
  • Steamed Broccoli with Macadamia and Burnt Butter Sauce
  • Smashed Potato with Tasmanian Mountain Pepper
  • Carrots with a Tasmania Leatherwood Honey Glaze
  • Peas with Native River Mint

and for dessert

  • Mini Pavlova's with whipped cream, banana, macadamias and toffee nests

I was making toffee nests so I didn't actually eat any of it (doh!), and for the same reason there are no photos but apparently it was a success. And yes I will actually post some recipes on Yummy Tucker tomorrow and Friday - including those Indian one's I still have outstanding :-)

7 comments:

Chelsea + Shiloh said...

I loved the broccoli, but why are macadamias so damn expensive? I think its one of those foods they keep inflated...

Unknown said...

I bought a 500g bag for $5 which is very competitive when it comes to nuts (and the cheapest of the bush tucker foods) - will bring some in for you on Saturday and keep you in constant supply if you want to :-) Do you want raw or honey roasted?

Unknown said...

BTW for that price I regularly have macs around the house :-)

infoaddict said...

Newness and a high level of processing tend to affect bushtucker prices, I think. And for the bushfoods in the gourmet area, there's the whole "gourmet and therefore expensive" thing.

Many bushtucker foods are still sourced from wild or semi-wild plantings, which takes more work than nice neat cultivations where machines can do the work, for eg ...

Unknown said...

Thanks for the info infoaddict - and welcome aboard :-)

Unknown said...

all i know is it tasted delicious! and btw i snuck a pav home to a certain plumber i know and he says thank you very much! i'm looking forward to the recipes for this lot so i can make them at home :) except for the wooden spoon toffee gig, that looked far too complicated for me!

Chelsea + Shiloh said...

I fried up the last of it this morning to make bubble and squeak...

wonder if thats a native thing..looked bloody tribal...