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Food for an Australian-themed Party


gfron1

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I'm throwing an Australian-themed cheese party next Saturday where everyone is asked to bring Australian or New Zealand traditional foods...problem is...I don't know quite what those foods might be. Thoughts?

I will be providing grilling foods - they are bringing sides and desserts.

Thanks

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I'm throwing an Australian-themed cheese party next Saturday where everyone is asked to bring Australian or New Zealand traditional foods...problem is...I don't know quite what those foods might be.  Thoughts? 

I will be providing grilling foods - they are bringing sides and desserts.

Thanks

Meat pies and pavlova! Or does it have to contain cheese???????????????

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Little lamb chops marinated in red wine and olive oil. Steaks. Sausages*. You said grilling food and that's what we had on the barbie. Maybe prawns. (Shrimp? Shrimp are the tiny things that come in tin cans ;) ) Skewers of stuff. We had lots of inventive skewers of stuff for grilling- meat or seafood and veg, and of course the ubiquitous scallops wrapped in bacon and skewered.

Pavlova would definitely be an awesome thing for someone to bring for dessert. Home made pavs are good. The store bought kind are awful which is why it's probably a blessing that you'd have to have one made from scratch. Other great Australian sweet treats include lots of "slices". This recipe might be in an English paper but it makes just about the best caramel slice (I don't care what he calls it, that's a caramel slice) I've tasted outside of a school canteen.

I would like to add that I never ate sprouts on my burger and I'm making a face at the very thought but fried egg and beetroot for sure. The tinned, sliced stuff, not fresh.

*Authenticity calls for the sausages to be burned on the outside and toothpaste textured on the inside.

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Damper!! A bread traditionally baked on the coals of a camp fire, it would go well with cheddar.

Biscuits (crackers) made with wattleseed or lemon myrtle would be more suitable for double- or triple-cream cheese. Lamb racks and prawns (shrimp) for the barbecue and pavlova with strawberries and pasionfruit is an imperative for dessert!! :raz: To finish, you need TimTam chocolate biscuits to do TimTamSlams with coffee or liqueur. :biggrin:

The secret of cooking is the release of fragrance and the art of imparting it. - Patience Gray

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:rolleyes: Um, to clarify TimTamSlam...

Firstly, take small bites off two diagonally opposite corners of the rectangle-shaped TimTam. Place one bitten corner into coffee, hot chocolate or liqueur (Frangelico or Kahlua is embarrassingly good), the other corner into your mouth. Suck up the beverage of choice through the TimTam and then eat the biscuit before it dissolves into a sodden, chocolate mess. :raz:

The secret of cooking is the release of fragrance and the art of imparting it. - Patience Gray

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Can I recommend that you use some native Australian ingredients. Sure everyone will say meat pies, pavlova etc....

But try some of these Australian recipes pages ;

http://www.benjaminchristie.com/recipes/

http://www.cherikoff.net/cherikoff/index.php?s=recipe_list

http://www.dining-downunder.com/index.php?s=recipes_list

If you are a professional chef, caterer or restaurant you might be interested in getting a copy of our Australian banqueting menus package see ;

http://www.dining-downunder.com/shop/index...&products_id=38

Cheers

Benjamin

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May I humbly suggest you look over the following websites?

Authentic Australian ingredients (www.cherikoff.net)

Dining Downunder TV cooking show (www.dining-downunder.com)

Australian herbs and spices (www.australian-herbs-and-spices.com)

Benjamin Christie - celebrity chef (www.benjaminchristie.com)

Vic Cherikoff - celebrity chef (www.cherikoff.blogspot.com)

There's even an online store which can get stuff into the USA in a few days.

To summarize, Australian cuisine is Pacific Rim fusion in style but made unique by using the authentic flavors only found in Australia and as were once only foods to Aborigines. These are now being commercialized and marketed all over the world and promoted - in fact, I am in Japan until July, show cooking and featuring an Australian menu at the Hilton hotels in Nagoya and Osaka with colleague and chef, Benjamin Christie.

Cheers,

Vic

PS. Oops. I just saw Benjamin's post on the same topic. Seems we read the same stuff, even from different hotel rooms.

Anyway. Make sure the pavlova you make is a rolled Wattleseed pav and you can't go wrong.

Edited by Vic Cherikoff (log)

Introducing innovative Australian ingredients to creative chefs, cooks and foodies.

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I wanted to let the dust settle before I stepped back in. These are all great suggestions - and thank you so much for the recipe links. I'm going to pass the info on to the guests and I'll be sure to post pics.

Thanks

Rob

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Great links Ben and Vic.

For the record, we don't have shrimp in Australia, they're too small to chuck on the barbie. We have prawns.

"Coffee and cigarettes... the breakfast of champions!"

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For an easy finger food dessert make "Matchsticks".

Cut puff pastry into rectangles roughly 2"x4". Bake in a very hot oven until lightly brown and cooked through. Cool and split. Fill bottom halves with strawberry or raspberry conserve and well whipped cream. Replace tops and dust with confectioners sugar. Don't believe any recipe that tells you to ice the top. Also, rectangles are traditional (hence the name) but they are actually easier to eat if made into 2" squares.

HTH

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Yabbies. Although you probably won't be able to get any.

http://www.nativefish.asn.au/yabby.html

You -could- mail order some Crawfish from Louisiana and pretend they are yabbies and prepare them the same way, though.

A book by Australian chef Peter Howard has a lot of Australian barbie recipes:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9123800/

http://www.ecookbooks.com/products.html?re...ic=simplesearch

Edited by Jason Perlow (log)

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

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Mixed grill of lamb chops and shrimp.. ahem Prawns ( :biggrin: PCL) with a mango-asian chilli salsa and a BIG can of Foster's.

Works for me Mate,

~ C

Edited by C_Ruark (log)
"There's something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic." - Bourdain; interviewed on dcist.com
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Mushy peas? Must be a NSW thing. I haven't really ever seen yabbies at a BBQ (which isn't to say you couldn't, but prawns are much more likely).

Apart from the presence of flies and European wasps, I'm not sure what an Australian themed BBQ would be. Regarding pacific-rim, much of Australia is outwith the Pacific and in terms of what I had as a kid is was either plain grilled lamb, beef, sausages, onions, tomato sauce, beetroot and salads (Anglo-side of the family) or whole spit roasted pig or lamb with salads (non-Anglo-side of the family). Salads were plain green salads or potato salads.

As we got older, we often had fish BBQ in Melbourne, but a combination of seafood, lamb, pork and beef was also common.

Can't speak for non-Victorians, but I would most like do a combination of SE-Asian and Mediterranean.

Most likely satay fish/pork and combination of plain and marinated lamb chops and some snags obviously. If you can get small pork sausages (snag = sausage), these are great to eat with fresh oysters.

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Not to beat a dead sheep, but lamb is certainly the first thing that comes to mind.

Don't neglect the fact that with an Australia/New Zealand theme the wine choices are numerous and very good. I'm a big fan of NZ Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and the Australian choices are obviously endless.

Hope you can assign a sommelier? :cool:

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Here is my pre-report from the party. The town is abuzz with anticipation (we're a small town, so this is big news). The party is in 2 hours. I'm marinating prawns in one of three things: lime juice, pineapple or coconut milk. All with have various seasonings added at the last minute. I am getting ready to put in my leg of lamb - rack was unavailable. I have lamb burgers using a recipe provided above. And tons of sausage which I'll do my best to burn on one side as recommended in this thread.

The 100+ guests will be bringing all sorts of things (unfortunatley I can expect lots and lots of Yellow Tail wine). I've heard of 3 people doing pavlovas!

I'm prepared to take many pics and will get them posted tomorrow (or late tonight if I have energy).

Thanks again for all of the suggestions and help!

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Here is my pre-report from the party.  The town is abuzz with anticipation (we're a small town, so this is big news). 

:biggrin:

That's such a great line. You're probably in the midst of it now. It sounds wonderful - I can't wait to see the reports.

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Here we go...I stayed up to do this report because I had at least 20 of the 110 guests say this was the best party they have been to in years.

The party was hosted by a local spa that has a courtyard between its styling space and massage space. There was a classical guitarist playing throughout. We started by lighting the grills. Here is our gracious host Mari starting with some sausages:

grillstart.jpg

And as stated in this thread, we were sure to burn half of each sausage...

halfburned.jpg

And then the guests started bringing their contributions. As expected there was lots of Yellow Tail wine and kiwi fruit (the party was billed as Aussie and Kiwi)...

aussieobvious.jpg

Some were a bit nicer. Here are some cream puffs with kiwi fruit...

creampuff.jpg

And then the parade of pavlovas began! First our German guest brought hers...

germanpavlova.jpg

Then the woman in our town with possibly the most impeccable tastes...

kathleenpavlova.jpg

Then our resident New Zealander's pavlova...

kiwipavlova.jpg

Here's a closeup for my EGullet friends who like details!

pavcloseup.jpg

Enough of the pavlova already! How about some more meat. We grilled four different sausages, lamb chops and lamb burgers. Rack was not available in town. We also did a leg of lamb in the oven prior to the party.

leglamb.jpg

There were a few odd surprises...

How about green chili wine (some New Mexican was bound to do it)...

greenwine.jpg

And then there was my creation to really capture the night! A kielbasa with guacamole and kiwi fruit...suprisingly...well...I did eat anyway.

kiwidog.jpg

And let's not forget the reason for the party - CHEESE. We had four cheeses. None were very special in my book. Roaring Forties Blue by King Island Dairy (the best of the lot). King Island Black Label Cloth Wrapped Cheddar. Superior 2 Year New Zealand Cheddar. And some other cheap cheese. I didn't care for any of them, but we ate around 40 pounds tonight. For the record my favorite Aussie cheese still is the Targo River Blue - great stuff.

cheesekiwi.jpg

So that was our evening. Absolutely perfect. Everyone had a great time. The food was perfect and while heavy on the kiwi fruit, was really nice on a hot summer night in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico.

A final thanks to all of you who made this happen by your suggestions.

Rob

Edited by gfron1 (log)
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Mixed grill of lamb chops and shrimp.. ahem Prawns ( :biggrin: PCL) with a mango-asian chilli salsa and a BIG can of Foster's.

Works for me Mate,

~ C

LMAO.. Australian's don't drink Fosters. We export it for a reason.

PCL.... I have never considered mushy peas to be an Australian or a NSW thing at all. You can get them from Harry's in a pie floater but other than that.. I cannot even think of where they would come in.

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