AUSSIE CUISINE?
Q The country club I just started work wants to put on a genuine
Aussie barbecue. They've asked me to come up with some recipes
and ideas for the chef. Could you please help?
Sue
San Francisco
USA
A Sue - pssst...there really isn't any such thing as an Aussie barbecue
cuisine.
In such a young country nearly all of our traditions are, by necessity,
derivative. 'Real' barbecue as practised in places such as Texas is
completely unknown in Australia. The chefs at your country club would
recognise what we call barbecuing as 'grilling'.
Sure, the Australian Aborigines have cooked meat over open fires outdoors
for around 60,000 years (or 47,000 depending on which carbon 14 dating
process you place your faith in) - but it is not cooking in the European
sense. Noted Aboriginal author Olga Miller told me that in the Butchulla
Nation (her people) it usually involved throwing freshly caught fauna
over
a roaring fire long enough to make it easy to remove the fur or
feathers. The flesh was very definitely at the 'bleu' end of the doneness
scale.
White settlement (or invasion depending on your POV) resulted in the spread
of some truly disgusting British traditions such as half rotten mutton chops impaled
on
a stick, blackened over flames and eaten with rock hard damper.
The fact is Sue that if you served any of these 'original' Aussie barbecue
delights at your country club you'd probably face litigation.
But what you can do is add some 'Australian' flavour to the barbecue - just
don't claim it's a cuisine in its own right.
So here are a few ideas:
*If you really want tradition - in Aussie bbq terms - then serve thin pork
sausages rolled up in slices of white bread with a big dollop of tomato
sauce (ketchup) or hamburgers with sliced beetroot (tinned) and pineapple
rings (also tinned). Call it a retro night and all may be forgiven.
*Many consider lamb to be Australia's national meat - so why not simply
serve roast lamb? Before you cook it in the usual manner, smear it thickly
with Vegemite. It gives a different (but intriguing flavour) and a real
boost to gravy made from pan drippings. Serve it with slices of thick
damper.
*If your chefs can lay their hands on some kangaroo meat, marinate it in
Aussie beer overnight then quickly panfry it and leave to rest for about
half an hour before slicing thinly. Treat it like venison and serve with
some berries (cranberries?) or jam (quince?). Just be very careful as
kangaroo becomes unbelievably tough if cooked through. I find other 'novelty
' meats such as crocodile and emu are best prepared as satays with peanut
and apricot based sauces. While satays are cooked in most Aussie backyards,
they really reflect modern Australasia - not traditonal Aussie barbecuing.
*You could always serve a good firm fleshed white fish and give it an Aussie
twist by rolling it in crushed macadamia nuts before frying/grilling. The
macadamia nut (or Queensland nut) is something Australia genuinely gave the
world (well Hawaii anyway). Serve it with a sauce made from pureed Kiwi
fruit (Chinese gooseberry).
*Dessert, Sue, is where it's at. Serve a big pavlova at the end of the meal
and it won't matter if the guests were served chicken-fried steak as an
entrée. They'll rave about Aussie cooking.
I have a recipe for this meringue/fruit/cream creation that can be cooked in
a Weber barbecue - but several practice runs are recommended. Let me
know
if you need it.
I hope this helps
BBQ Blue