Avoiding being average.

Well, it turns out that I am a liar - or at least have a misguided understanding of the diet of the average Australian.  I read an amusing, if alarming,  article by David Dale in his "The Tribal Mind" column in the Age newspaper on the weekend (April 2 2013).  He was rather bemused at the Aussie diet described by ACNielsen research.  According to them, the average Aussie drinks Berri juice, Nescafe Blend 43, Coca Cola or Jacob's Creek wine.   They eat Weet-Bix, Vegemite and Tip Top bread in the morning and snack on Cadbury's chocolate, Smiths chips and Tim Tam biscuits.  For dinner they have San Remo pasta with Leggo sauce and Bega cheese, with Peter's icecream on Gooulburn Valley canned fruit.  Then, they drink Milo before they go to bed.  I can quite see why he calls his column "The average Australian is a suburban Frankenstein" and why he thinks that statistical averages are totally misleading.  I much prefer my vision of a multicultural Australia with interesting, healthy and varied food to the idea of Australia as a boring, unhealthy set of clones, eating the same thing day in a day out. so, I'll continue describing the Australia I know rather than the one of the polls.

We haven't eaten out much lately.  Just fish, calamari and chips by the foreshore at Shorncliffe with an icecream for dessert (yes, I know that isn't fresh or healthy, but the fish was grilled and we had healthy for dinner that night!  Stop nagging!  It was an exception!  OK?).  And, we taste tested Maleny's dark chocolate, pomegranate and lychee icecream at Chermisde.  The unanimous vote was lychee - light, tasty, fruity.

My discovery of the week was Baska- Jon brand DryForest Mix mushrooms (Slippery Jack, Porcini, Bay Boletus, Chantarelle).  They were amazing.  The smell is almost edible when you soak them, and when I used them in a risotto, I was in food heaven.  I keep promising myself to go on a mucshroom gathering course in Victoria one autumn, after being amazed at the variety of muchrooms available in Europe, and Asia, and hearing from Swedish and Spanish friends about mushroom gathering excursions.  This experience has firmed my resolve.  I am a) going to experiment with mushrooms more, and b) book into an excursion next year.

I had to confess to Bob, after he found the shells in the bin, that I treated myself to a mudcrab for lunch after coming face to face with it at the local fishmonger.  I don't really feel guilty, he doesn't like crab, but it was very greedy of me!

He loves mussels so this is what I cooked one night:

Steamed mussels:

Ingredients:

1 kg live mussels
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 knob ginger, chopped
1knob galangal chopped
I each shallot chopped
 Handful of coriander chopped
 2 spring onions chopped
8 small tomatoes chopped
1 handful snow peas
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons ginger wine
Salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoon salmon xo sauce
Vegetable oil

Method:

Heat oil and sauté garlic, ginger, shallot and galangal till soft.  Add tomatoes, sauce, wine, sugar, fish sauce, xo sauce, spring onion, salt and pepper. Cook until softened.  Check taste.  Add mussels and snow peas and heat until mussels are just cooked but still juicy.  This only takes a minute or two.  Stir in coriander before serving.  Bob liked this so much that when we finished our servings, he drank all the extra broth. ( Note, mussels do not need to be open to be edible.  That is a myth.)

Another night, we had a nice piece of trevally from the fishmonger, so I cooked it in olive oil, Moscato wine and  lemon, with scallions, capers, green olives garlic and asparagus, and served it with mashed sweet potato and potato.  It was another winner with a beautiful sauce.

We had a snack  one evening of plantain chips, baked in the oven:

And another night we had this meal:

The carnivore's falafel.

 ( This is a really quick meal to prepare and is great for children to make, and those of your guests who are allergic to the idea of being vegetarians to eat.  I usually serve it with salad, but it is great with tzatziki in a wrap).

Ingredients:

500 g lamb mince
200 g falafel mix
200 ml water.

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Mix ingredients.
Wet hands and roll walnut sized balls.
Place on greased baking trays.
Bake for  15  minutes.

Or, deep fry.