Archive for August 2015

Home Archive for August 2015

I would of course be doing an injustice to myself, if, after a weeks interning with Orana, I were not to taste what I'd been foraging and prepping in the kitchen, even if I am on a backpackers budget. I was always going to eat at the end of the week, I'd be a fool not to. I'd tried to persuade the boys to join me, as I knew they'd love it (and I didn't want to be billy no mates in the corner), but after some umm-ing and ahh-ing at the start of the week they'd decided against it. Fair enough, we are on a tight budget and dinner is $180 excluding drinks.
The first three days I spent foraging, so it wasn't until my fourth day when I helped with evening service that I got to try some of the food at Orana. The boys picked me up from work afterwards and I was still so impressed with what I'd tasted that I said to them, in a nutshell, 'look, you just have to come, the food is unreal.' That was that, we booked a table for three on the Saturday night there and then. What's the point of travelling if you can't treat yourself once in a while anyway?!

Orana serve a 24 course tasting menu, with the option of a wine/juice pairing, though we just opted for a single bottle of red (the cheapest one!) to have throughout the meal - getting the wine pairing significantly increases the price of the meal, y'see. The 24 courses are broken down in to four sets of four snacks, getting progressively larger as the meal goes on. After the sixteen snacks the four mains are served, these are slightly larger again and come out as individual dishes, rater than getting four bitesize dishes at once. After the mains are over you then get three dessert snacks, followed by two larger deserts that are eaten as individual dishes. The whole meal took over three hours and was absolutely fantastic, there's something very satisfying about taking your time and eating lots of small, very different tasting dishes rather than a few large ones, particularly when the food is as good as it is here, I couldn't recommend it enough - a taste of Australia.

Potato damper with lamb butter

The first course of the evening, a terrible picture, I know. Damper is a traditional Australian bread made simply of flour, water and milk, cooked directly on hot coals, eaten by frontiersman, drovers and travellers when camping. These were made with a potato naan dough, served with tongs so we had to cook and turn them at the table - a nice touch. The lamb fat butter was charged through a whipped cream dispenser and silky smooth. A great start.

Emu, wild plum, mountain pepper // Smoked mussel,
granny smith apple and sea blight

Rolled emu carpaccio was good but the mussels stole the show, they were in fact my favourite dish of the night - hot smoked and covered in the reduced smoked mussel stock and a reduced apple juice 'syrup'. Oh so very good.

(Top L - R, Bottom L - R)
Saltbush, black garlic, buffalo curd // Prawn and Davidson plum
Roast beef and pumpkin // Mulloway, quandong & ruby saltbush berries

The two seafood snacks were my favourite here, the prawns were seasoned with dehydrated lacto Davidson plum powder which gave them a sour edge. The contrast of the crispy skins and raw flesh of the Mulloway, along with the sweetness of the quandong and ruby saltbush berries was a delight.

Prawns and Davidson plum

(Top to bottom)
Kangaroo tendon and mountain pepper //
Alexander play heart, native honey, green ants //
Lamb, kohlrabi & cumin eucalyptus

A scallop dish, which I forgot to photograph, also came with these snacks, and along with the kangaroo tendons were the two standouts for me. The scallops were cooked over coals until crispy, but on one side only, giving a lovely texture - both raw and cooked in one mouthful. The crispy, deep fried kangaroo tendons were delicious, made in the same way as you would crispy pig skin (slow cook, dehydrate, deep fry), the mountain pepper sauce was insanely good. The cumin eucalyptus oil on the pickled kohlrabi and lamb was a superb flavour also.

Alexander palm heart, native honey, green ants

The alexander palm inflorescence was interesting - just three raw ingredients in their natural state. The palm hearts had an almost coconut-y texture and paired well with the fragrant honey and sour ants. A truly Australian dish.

And now on to the fourth round of slightly larger snacks...

Squid, finger lime and black rice

Basically a squid (+ ink) risotto, cooked in a reduced chicken stock and topped with what looked like some kind of caviar but turned out to be tiny segments of finger lime, giving a citrus popping sensation the mouth. Delicious.

Crab and yoghurt sorbet, Neptune's pearls, sea purslane

A taste of the sea, this salty, briney dish did not enamour itself with the boys, but I loved it. The crab and yoghurt sorbet, although fishy itself, cut through the strong saltiness of the popping Neptune's pearls seaweed and accompanying sauce. Never have I had a seafood dish that tasted so strongly of the sea.

Davidson plum, white aspen, lilly silly & tea tree

Raw native fruits covered in a N20 charged Davidson plum lacto juice. The aerated lacto juice was fizzy, sour and delicious. A great palate cleanser.

Homemade sourdough and homemade butter

The sourdough was great, we had a second.

On to the mains...

(I forgot to photograph the first main - a spelt 'risotto' with lots of native greens - min min, water lily, mangrove seed, kutjera and saltbush)

George, myself and Hen

Charred kangaroo, beetroot, grasses and wild garlic

A piece of theatre. The smoke filled wine glass hid the dish beneath. The glasses were lifted by the waiters in unison and the smoke swirled round us, after which, the Prancing Pony india red ale was poured in the same glasses, taking on some of that smokiness. The beer was one of the most delicious I've ever had; a great accompaniment. The dish consisted of slices of kangaroo carpaccio topped with intensely rich, almost disintegrating, kangaroo tail meat, pickled three-cornered leek stems, crispy smooth sow thistle, wrapped in a long length of pickled beetroot, all with a hint of smokiness.

I shall have to hunt this beer down, it was that good

Coorong mullet, lentils, walnut and ice plant

Coorong mullet was steamed quickly over a geraldton wax infused water (the plant that tastes like kaffir lime leaf), served atop the richest, most delicious lentils I've ever had, garnished with ice plant, an incredibly crunchy and succulent beach herb, and finished with a gerladton wax oil - seriously good. See my previous post for info on geraldton wax and ice plant.

Coorong Angus beef, smoked potato and leek

The last of the mains. Sous vide beef, the creamiest ever smoked mash, soft, giving leeks garnished with native lilac flowers and sauced with a pandanus fruit 'soy' and fruit vinegar. Very nice.

Pocky sticks! Porcini, geraldton wax, quandong

Desert snacks...an Australian take on pocky sticks, my favourite were the geraldton wax, surprise, surprise - it's just such a great flavour.

Burnt damper and native currant // Blood lime marshmallows

Burnt dampers were carbon-y, soft and delicious, I don't have much of a sweet tooth so wasn't a fan of the blood lime marshmallows, they kind of reminded me of a fizzy Flump, however, George proclaimed them as his favourite of the evening.

(There was a desert of Bunya tubers and Davidson plum molasses in between these, which I forgot to photograph)

Set buttermilk, strawberry and eucalyptus

My favourite desert, and one of my favourite of the evening, this dish was subtle but so delicious - a take on strawberries and cream, or should that be cream and strawberries. The chilled set buttermilk was creamy with a great texture - like a panna cotta but with a quarter of the gelatine. The oil was made of the leaves of a type of gum called strawberry eucalyptus, no prizes for guessing what it smells like, the other component simply being juiced strawberries. This is my kind of dessert, lacking in sugar with subtle but delicious flavours. A great way to end a fantastic meal. Worth every penny.

My trip so far in Australia has been an unorganised one, with no real plans and full flexibility to do as I so wish should something interesting arise. That's how I wanted it to be, organised disorganisation, if that's not too oxymoronic. This internship was the exception though, I'd had this planned and confirmed long before I set off from the U.K.

A couple of the guys who I interned with at Noma work there, and so said I should get in touch with the head chef and pay them a visit. I did just that. Orana offer a 24 course tasting menu based on native Australian ingredients, with an emphasis on seasonal and foraged produce. Now I'm pretty clued up with my British wild plants, but, before this week, had very little idea as to what one can find down under. I'd bought a guide book in Sydney, but it's tough to ID a plant from one photo in a small book, particularly when from totally alien plant families and environments.
This last week has been perfect for correcting my aforementioned lack of knowledge, and aside from being fascinating and a lot of fun, it has given me a good starting point to being able to confidently chomp my way through Australia's flora.

Here's a round of up what I found;

Native Lilac (Hardenbergia violacea)

With only a very subtle sweet flavour, these flowers in the pea family are used as a garnish.

Ruby Saltbush (Enchylaena tomentosa)

Although the leaves are also edible, we were after the small fruits, which vary in colour from yellow to orange to red and everything in between, depending on the plant. The berries have an unusual sweet, fruity taste. Used mainly as a garnish, they have a hard central 'pip' that is somewhat unpleasant if eating the berries in profusion.

Blite (Suaeda spp.)

Similiar to the sea blite found in the U.K., though the different varieties of blite here can be found far inland. Leaves are succulent and can be salty depending on where they're growing.

Iceplant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum)

One of the most delicious wild greens I've ever tasted. Not native to Australia, it originates from Africa and southern Europe. It grows in coastal dune systems and has a fantastic crunch and subtle salinity, with not a hint of bitterness. This is due to the glistening bladder cells which give the plant the 'ice' part of the name. These cells, although not particularly visible on the picture below, can be the size of a ball bearing and function as a water reserve, giving it that incredible crunch and freshness.

Brush Cherries (Syzygium australe)

A rainforest tree native to eastern Australia, we found this cultivated in gardens around the Adelaide suburbs, in both hedge and tree form. The berries have an unpleasant soapy taste unless completely ripe, when they have interesting floral notes and a watery crunch. The large pip inside must be removed.

Tasmanian Mountain Pepper (Tasmania lanceolata)

Berries and leaves both have a pungent peppery taste, though there are no berries at this time of year. Found naturally in temperate rainforest of Tasmania and south east Australia. We picked this from a farm growing native Australian food plants.

Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora)

A strong lemon scent and flavour, used as a tea or flavouring in desserts, oils, with fish etc. Again picked at the same farm as the Tasmanian Mountain Pepper, though commonly found in front gardens and urban areas in Adelaide. Probably the most commonly used native food plant in Australia.

Blood Lime

Hybrid between the native Red Finger Lime (Citrus australasia var. sanguinea) and the Rangpur (lemandarin). Has been farmed commercially in Australia since 2004. They have a much sweeter flesh and skin than normal limes and can be eaten whole. So delicious.

Watercress (Nasturtium officinale)

Same as you find in the UK, almost certainly an introduced species. Much more peppery than the cultivated stuff.

Plum Pine / Illawarra Plum (Podocarpus elatus)

The fruit is the larger, darker part and the seed is the smaller, lighter blue part. The fruit tastes like a mucilaginous plum and the top like resinous pine bark. The seed is usually discarded. Native to the sub-tropical eastern New South Wales and Queensland, these had been planted along one road in central Adelaide.

Geraldton Wax (Chamelaucium uncinatum)

The leaves have the most incredible flavour, akin to kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass. Makes the most delicious oil. Endemic to Western Australia, this plant is found in gardens across Adelaide.

Samphire (Salicornia spp. and Tecticornia spp.)

The fronds are familiar in appearance to those found in the UK, but the plants themselves take on a different form here. Whereas each frond tends to grow individually and low to the ground in salt marshes in the UK, the Samphire here grows in bushes and is not strictly limited to wet, coastal areas. I've found it on clifftops and in great profusion near Lake Eyre due to the saline soil conditions.

Pigface / Karkalla (Carpobrotus rossii)

Native to Australia, this coastal plant was introduced to the UK, which we now call Hottentot Fig. You can find many different species here, with different colourations and flower types. Young leaves found by the coast have a delicious fresh and salty succulence, older leaves tend to be more bitter and mucilaginous.

Saffron Milkcaps (Lactarious deliciosus)

An introduced European species, these are now the most commonly eaten species of wild mushroom in Australia due to the large stands of pine that have been planted since European settlers first arrived. The latin epithet deliciousus shows that they've been regarded as a good edible for quite some time.