Date I made these recipes:
April 24, 2016 for my late friend, Carol
A Taste of Australian
Food and Wine by Sally Marden. Photos by Ian Baker
Published by: Chanel
Publishers LTD Chanel
Publishers LTD
ISBN: 0-958208-44-1; © 2001
Purchased at Arc's Value
Village , Richfield , MN
Recipe: Warm King Prawn, Baby Beetroot, Roast Carrot
and Rocket Salad (with Cardamom and Orange
Dressing) – p. 134
A Taste of the Past –
Early Australian Cooking by Joyce Allen & Valerie McKenzie
Published by: Reed
© 1977
Purchased at Arc's Value
Village , Richfield , MN
Recipe: Meat Ball
Soup – p. 80
Well, today, April 24, would have been my late friend,
Carol's, 58th birthday and it's always a sad day for me as it's hard
to believe she's gone.
And so every year, I try to make something to pay tribute to
my fine friend, normally one the day she died – St. Patrick's Day – but this
year came and went and so I was on the search for birthday food and/or a
birthday dinner theme.
Then quite by happenstance, I was inspired by a trip that a
mutual friend, Bonnie, took to Australia .
Carol was always a world traveler and often hit the trail
with family and friends on a "course for adventure...(your mind for a new
romance." Theme from The Love
Boat.) She visited Russia twice, Hong Kong once, much of Europe
including a trip to Scandinavia, and good chunks of the U.S. She was inspired, in part, by the need to get
out and explore, especially since her family trips growing up were only to Florida and back from her home state of Michigan .
Toward the end of her life, she and another friend took a
trip to Alaska (after cancelling once when she wasn't feeling well—she had
cancer) and even after that successful trip, was practically planning her next
one to Australia. Alas, she never made
it there but another mutual friend, Bonnie, did and no doubt thought about our
friend while visiting Australian woolen mills; Carol and Bonnie shared a love
of knitting. I did not!
So Australia
never happened but then lo and behold, all of a sudden Bonnie started posting
marvelous photos from Australia
on her Facebook page. I missed the details
of the how and the why she went except it looked like she was travelling with
friends and enjoying every minute of it.
And I'm so glad she went even though she did so without our friend.
And so that is how I came to decide to make something from a
couple of Australian cookbooks I had laying around. Let's discuss!
Book number one, A
Taste of Australian Food and Wine is
a beautiful book with lots of photos by Ian Barker. This book provides a broad-brush view of
Australian food that encompasses a lot more ethnic groups than just the Brits
who founded the place (as a penal colony) and thank the lord for that! As I wrote in my last blog for the Queen's
birthday, British food is somewhat suspect to me and the rest of the
non-British world.
But these recipes folks – these – are pretty awesome, making
great use of all the lovely seafood that's available to all the coastal areas
as well as fresh vegetables and of course, Australian wines. Recipes are divided by region and so you will
be treated to dishes from: Tasmania ; Victoria ; New South Wales ; Queensland ;
South Australia ; Northern
Territory and Western
Australia . The
map in the front of the book shows the whole of Australia and it is one large
continent such that when my parents visited it years ago, they decided to take
a tour so as to experience as much of the terraine as possible. My parents are not tour people but they loved
their visit.
It is also important to note that there was a decided
absence of "rude food," stuff that I wouldn't eat for any reason,
even fear of impending loss of life! I
think you'll be quite pleased with this cookbook for the variety and modernity
of the recipes.
And then there's book number two – A Taste of the Past – Early Australian Cooking – written in 1977
and let me just say that yes, this was a "taste" of the past and this
past reflects more of Australia's British heritage than the newer A Taste of Australian Food and Wine
which is to say we sort of revert back to rude food: "Kangaroo Jugged." I almost couldn't finish typing this as it
just sounds so very, very, very awful.
Very.
Happily (?) the above recipe (I cannot type it again. I cannot) appears to be the one and only
awful-sounding thing before we revert back to British staples: "Bubble and Squeak" (p. 90-91);
"Scottish Oat Cakes" (p. 58) and "Welsh Rabbit" (p. 32) to
name a few.
This is likely the only time I will ever be relieved to see
British food in a cookbook (with apologies to the Queen.)
Since Carol loved salads and grew a small garden every year,
I made Baby Beetroot, Roast Carrot and
Rocket Salad (with Cardamom and Orange
Dressing) to go with the Meat Ball
Soup (courtesy of the Australian Meat Board). Both recipes were easy to make although I
much preferred the salad over the meat ball soup; the salad had great flavor
but the soup was somewhat bland and could have used more spices to offset the
sherry (which I loved but was almost overpowering).
The Meat Ball Soup
recipe is accompanied by a little story as are all the recipes in the book. If I had more time, I'd love to read through
it as I'm sure I would learn a lot more about Australia the "right"
way. Right now, my limited knowledge has been gained from
watching cooking shows featuring Australian, Curtis Stone and House Hunters International! Okay, slight exaggeration: I actually know more about Australia than
just the information provided by TV shows. That said, one of my favorite
Australian movies is A Town Like Alice
that takes place in Australia
during WWII. Fabulous movie, that, and I
need to go on a hunt for the DVD to replace my VHS. You can also read the book by Nevil Shute if
you fancy a reading rather than viewing.
And if you want to read a humorous read about Australia (A Town Like Alice is decidedly not humorous), check out Bill
Bryson's In a Sunburned Country
where he points out that practically everything in that country is venomous and
therefore deadly. That said, he survived
his trip and lived to write a book about it and for this we thank him.
At any rate, turning our attention to the recipes and these
cookbooks, you'll need to carve out a bit of time to roast the veggies, but
otherwise these dishes are quick to make and in the case of the salad, healthy
to eat. Carol would have liked that.
Warm King Prawn (shrimp),
Baby Beetroot, Roast Carrot and Rocket Salad With Cardamom and Orange Dressing – serves 4 – from A Taste of Australian
Food and Wine
Vegetables
20 baby beetroot
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 carrots
1 tablespoon brown sugar
½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar
100g (1/2 pound) rocket [lettuce] Ann's Note: you can
substitute arugula for rocket but I don't recommend it as it is tough to chew
and too peppery. Just use mixed greens
and you'll be fine.
12 cherry tomatoes
Dressing
3 oranges
6 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 tablespoon caster sugar (a/k/a "Baker's sugar;"
"Superfine sugar" or Quick-Dissolve/Fast-melting" sugar)
1 tablespoon white vinegar
300ml 10 ounces) olive oil
Salt and pepper
Prawns/Shrimp
20 green prawns (shrimp), peeled and de-veined
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon each ground cumin and paprika
1 ¼ teaspoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil for cooking
Ann's Note: This seasoning was great and I think you
could use it on all kinds of fish and seafood (like scallops).
For the vegetables:
Roast baby beetroot in their skins with the olive oil until tender. Peel the carrots and cut into four. Dust carrots with brown sugar and roast at
400F until just tender. (Ann's Note: about 20-30 minutes) Deglaze the pan with balsamic
vinegar.
To make the dressing:
Combine zest of 1 orange and the juice of 3 oranges with cardamom, sugar
and vinegar. Bring to the boil then
simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.
Strain and while warm whisk in the oil and season.
To make the prawns/shrimp:
Mix dry ingredients and lightly dust over prawns. In a heavy-based pan, heat vegetable oil
until nearly smoking. Add prawns and
cook until just firm. Remove from the
pan.
To assemble: lightly
dress the rocket and arrange on plates with beetroot, cherry tomatoes and
carrots on top. Then add prawns and
drizzle the dressing around the outside of the stack.
Ann's Note: my attempt at stacking the salad ingredients
was abysmal and not at all like the photo – wonder why?!
Meat Ball Soup –
serves 4 to 6 – from A Taste of the Past
– Early Australian Cooking
Soup Stock
3 T butter or margarine
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 C chopped carrots
3 T flour
5 C water
3 beef stock cubes
Pinch cayenne pepper
Salt to taste
1 C cooked peas
2 T dry sherry (Ann's
Note: I would call this an optional
ingredient)
Meat Balls
500 g finely minced beef (Ann's Note: I used a pound
of ground beef)
3 T finely chopped parsley
2 tsp seasoned salt
Large pinch pepper
¼ C dried breadcrumbs
1 egg beaten
1 T sherry
Melt 2 tablespoons (out of 3) butter or margarine in a
saucepan. Sauté onion and carrot until
golden. Cook 1 minute. Add beef stock, stirring constantly until
thick. (Ann's Note: it does not say
anywhere to add the beef stock cubes to the water but that is what you
apparently must do to achieve beef stock! You've been warned.) Add salt and cayenne and simmer for 15 to 20
minutes.
Mix meatball ingredients.
Shape in walnut size balls. In
pan, fry meat balls in the remaining 1 T butter until brown, adding more oil if
necessary. Drain and add meat balls to
soup with peas and sherry. (Ann's
Note: I decided to poach the meatballs
in the simmering broth, just like I do for the meatballs for my Italian wedding
soup.)
Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley.
Ann's Note: I think you can play with the spice profile
in these meatballs as the "seasoned salt" just didn't do much for me
and my palate. And know too, that
seasoned salt + beef bouillon and salt to taste = a lot of salt so for those of
you who have to watch the salt intake, try to use reduced salt broth and skip
the seasoned salt in favor of something else.
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