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56 recipes

Aussie meat pie

Half-time at the MCG, a country-town bakery at 7 am, a servo on a long drive: the meat pie is Australia's everyday hand-held meal, eaten straight from its paper bag with a squirt of tomato sauce. A sturdy shortcrust base holds minced beef in thick, peppery gravy, and a flaky puff pastry lid shatters on the first bite. Making them at home takes a little time, but the filling can be cooked a day ahead. The mistake behind a soggy base is filling the pastry with hot mince; let the filling cool completely in the fridge first. Chef's tip: cook the filling until it is thicker than you think it needs to be; a loose gravy boils over and leaks through the base.

120 min

Australian Baking

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Hāngī-style roast

A true hāngī is cooked by Māori communities across Aotearoa New Zealand in a pit lined with stones heated in a wood fire, with baskets of meat and vegetables covered with damp cloths and earth and left for hours; it is made for tangihanga (funerals), weddings, marae gatherings and fundraisers, and the skill is passed down through whānau. An oven can't reproduce that earthy, smoky steam, and this recipe does not claim to. It borrows the idea: pork, chicken, kūmara, pumpkin and potato packed tightly, covered and steamed for hours until everything is meltingly soft. It contains pork. The mistake to avoid is loose foil; if steam escapes, the meat dries out instead of steaming. Chef's tip: sit the meat on top of the vegetables so its juices drip down and season them.

225 min

Australian Meat

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Afghan biscuits

Afghans are a New Zealand classic, found in the old home baking books passed down in Kiwi kitchens and in the glass cabinets of cafés and bakeries from Christchurch to Whangārei. Nobody is quite sure where the name came from. The dough is rich with butter and cocoa, and lightly crushed cornflakes give each biscuit a crunchy, slightly rugged texture. A swirl of soft chocolate icing and a walnut half finish them off. They're not too sweet underneath, which is why the icing works so well. Chef's tip: crush the cornflakes only lightly with your hand; fine crumbs disappear, but big flakes give the crunch an afghan is known for.

35 min

Australian Baking

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Flat white

Sydney and Wellington both claim the flat white, first poured in their cafés in the mid-1980s, and today it's the everyday coffee across Australia and New Zealand, from Melbourne's laneway cafés to a beach kiosk in Raglan. It's smaller and stronger than a latte: a double shot of espresso topped with milk steamed to a smooth, glossy microfoam with only a thin layer of froth on top, so the coffee stays at the front. It's velvety, rich and sweet-tasting without sugar. For a vegan version, use a barista-style oat milk. Chef's tip: stretch the milk only for the first few seconds, then sink the wand and let it spin; you want paint-like milk, not a hat of stiff foam.

5 min

Australian Drinks

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Lamingtons

Lamingtons are said to be named after Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland at the turn of the twentieth century, and they're the cake of Australian school fundraisers, Country Women's Association stalls and morning tea at work; there's even a National Lamington Day on 21 July. Cubes of light butter sponge are dunked in a thin, glossy chocolate icing and rolled in desiccated coconut, so each one has a soft, chocolate-soaked outside and a fluffy middle. Some bakeries split them and fill them with jam and cream. Chef's tip: bake the sponge a day ahead, or freeze the cut squares for an hour; fresh sponge crumbles in the icing, firm sponge dips cleanly.

75 min

Australian Baking

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Barramundi with lemon myrtle butter

Barramundi is the prize fish of Australia's tropical north, caught in the rivers and estuaries of the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland and served everywhere from Darwin's waterfront to Brisbane pubs. Its firm, sweet white flesh is best cooked simply, skin side down until crisp, then topped with a butter flavoured with lemon myrtle, a native rainforest leaf that tastes like lemon and lemongrass together. Eat it with a green salad, new potatoes or chips on a warm evening. The mistake to avoid is moving the fillets too soon: the skin tears and sticks; leave them until they release by themselves. Chef's tip: dry the skin very well with kitchen paper and salt it just before cooking, never earlier, or it draws out moisture and won't crisp.

20 min

Australian Fish

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Anzac biscuits

Anzac biscuits are baked in kitchens all over Australia and New Zealand in the days before 25 April, Anzac Day, when both countries remember the soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who landed at Gallipoli in 1915. Recipes appeared in fundraising cookbooks soon after the war, and they keep well because they contain no eggs: just oats, flour, coconut, sugar, butter and golden syrup, raised with bicarbonate of soda. Bake them short for chewy, longer for crunchy; every family has its side. Chef's tip: add the bicarbonate to the hot butter and syrup and wait for it to foam up before mixing; that froth is what makes them light and lacy.

25 min

Australian Baking

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Hokey pokey ice cream

Hokey pokey is what New Zealanders call honeycomb toffee, and vanilla ice cream full of crunchy little nuggets of it has been the country's best-loved flavour since the mid-twentieth century; it's scooped into cones at dairies and beaches from Auckland to Invercargill. The honeycomb is a bubbling golden syrup toffee that foams up when bicarbonate of soda goes in and sets glassy and light. Folded through a rich no-churn vanilla base, it stays crunchy at first and slowly turns chewy and toffee-like. Chef's tip: don't stir the sugar once it starts to melt; swirl the pan instead, or it will crystallise and turn grainy.

30 min

Australian Desserts

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Neenish tarts

Neenish tarts have sat in the windows of Australian country bakeries for more than a century, and they're also found across the Tasman in New Zealand. Where the name comes from is still argued over, with one story placing it in the small town of Grong Grong in New South Wales. A crisp sweet pastry case holds a thin layer of raspberry jam and a fluffy mock cream, a beaten mixture of butter, sugar and milk, and the top is iced in two halves: one white, one chocolate. Many bakery mock creams use gelatine; this one doesn't. Chef's tip: beat the mock cream for a long time, a full 8–10 minutes, until the sugar has dissolved and it is white and fluffy, not gritty.

80 min

Australian Baking

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Damper

Damper is the bread of the Australian bush: drovers, stockmen and swagmen carried flour and salt across the Outback and baked loaves in the ashes of the campfire, and it's still made in cast-iron camp ovens on camping trips from the Flinders Ranges to the Kimberley. Long before that, Aboriginal peoples ground native seeds into flour and baked seed cakes in the coals. Modern damper uses self-raising flour, a little butter and milk, so it rises into a craggy, golden round with a crisp crust and a soft, scone-like crumb. Tear it while warm and eat it with butter and golden syrup, which bush cooks called cocky's joy, or with soup. Chef's tip: mix with a knife and work quickly; the less you handle the dough, the lighter the damper.

40 min

Australian Breads & Parathas

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Vegetarian sausage rolls

Sausage rolls are the snack of Australian bakeries, school canteens and footy grounds, eaten from a paper bag with a squeeze of tomato sauce, and they're on the table at every kids' party from Perth to Hobart, and across the Tasman too. This vegetarian version wraps crisp, buttery puff pastry around a savoury filling of browned mushrooms, lentils, carrot, cheddar and sage, firm enough to slice and with the peppery, herby taste of a good bakery roll. The meat original uses raw seasoned pork or beef mince in place of the filling, as noted in the steps. Chef's tip: cook the mushrooms until they are dry and browned; any leftover liquid will turn the pastry soggy from the inside.

70 min

Australian Snacks & Starters

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Conkies

Conkies are made all over Barbados in late November for Independence Day on 30 November, when they're sold at roadside stalls and steamed in big pots at home; older Bajans remember them from Guy Fawkes Night, too. A spiced batter of grated pumpkin, sweet potato and coconut, cornmeal, sugar and raisins is folded into squares of banana leaf and steamed until it sets. Unwrapped, they're moist, dense, sweet and fragrant with nutmeg, almond and the faint green tea scent of the leaf. Chef's tip: pass the banana leaves briefly over a gas flame or dip them in hot water first; they turn glossy and supple and fold without splitting.

120 min

Bajan Desserts

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Bajan sweet bread

Sweet bread is what Barbadian families bake in December, wrapped in foil and handed over at Christmas visits around the island, and it's sold year round in bakeries from Bridgetown to Speightstown. It isn't a yeast bread but a dense, moist loaf packed with freshly grated coconut, sweet with brown sugar and scented with almond essence, with raisins, mixed peel and bright red glacé cherries in every slice. The top gets brushed with sugar syrup for a sticky shine. Chef's tip: use fresh or frozen grated coconut if you can; desiccated coconut makes a drier loaf unless you soak it first in the milk for 20 minutes.

80 min

Bajan Baking

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Pavlova

Australians and New Zealanders have argued for a century over who invented pavlova, named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova after her tours of both countries in the 1920s; both make it for Christmas lunch in the height of summer. A good pav has a thin, crisp shell that cracks under the knife and a soft, marshmallowy centre, piled with whipped cream and the sharp fruit of the season, above all passionfruit, kiwifruit and strawberries. Chef's tip: add the sugar one spoon at a time and keep whisking until you can't feel any grains when you rub a little meringue between your fingers.

115 min

Australian Desserts

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Pudding and souse

Saturday in Barbados means pudding and souse: rum shops and roadside cooks sell it from late morning, and families buy it by the container for lunch. Souse is boiled pork, traditionally from the head and trotters, served cold in a sharp, cucumber-studded pickle of lime, onion and hot pepper; the pudding is grated sweet potato seasoned with herbs and steamed. This is a pork dish. This home version uses trotters for the jelly-rich texture plus shoulder for meat, and steams the pudding in a basin instead of a casing; blood is left out (that darker version is black pudding). A common mistake is serving the souse as soon as it meets the pickle; it needs at least 2 hours in the fridge to turn sharp and cold. Chef's tip: grate the sweet potato on the fine side of the grater; coarse shreds make a crumbly pudding.

190 min

Bajan Meat

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Kūmara and feta salad

Kūmara, the sweet potato the Māori brought to Aotearoa centuries ago, is grown mostly around Dargaville in Northland, and a big bowl of roasted kūmara salad turns up at just about every New Zealand barbecue, 'bring a plate' gathering and Christmas lunch. Chunks of red-skinned kūmara roast until sticky and caramelised, then get tossed while warm with red onion, baby spinach, salty feta and toasted pumpkin seeds in a sweet-sharp honey and mustard dressing. Chef's tip: give the kūmara plenty of room on the tray and a hot oven; crowded pieces steam and go soft instead of browning at the edges.

50 min

Australian Salads

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Bajan fish cakes

Fish cakes are on every Bajan party table and in every rum-shop snack box, and on Friday nights at Oistins Fish Fry they are tucked into a split salt bread roll as 'bread and two'. These are not potato patties but spoonfuls of light, herby batter full of flaked salt cod, spring onion, thyme and Scotch bonnet, fried until puffed and golden. Serve them hot with Bajan pepper sauce or a squeeze of lime. The mistake that gives flat, greasy fish cakes is a thin batter; it should drop from the spoon in a soft blob, not pour. Chef's tip: taste a flake of the cooked cod before mixing; if it is still salty, don't add any more salt to the batter.

55 min

Bajan Snacks & Starters

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Fairy bread

No children's birthday party in Australia, and in New Zealand too, is complete without a plate of fairy bread, a tradition going back about a hundred years. Soft white bread is spread with butter and pressed face-down into a pile of hundreds and thousands, the tiny round coloured sprinkles, then cut into triangles. It's sweet, crunchy, buttery and gloriously bright, and children love making it as much as eating it. Many sprinkles are coloured with insect-based carmine (E120) or glazed with shellac (E904); for a vegetarian plate, choose a brand that uses neither. Chef's tip: use soft, spreadable butter right to the edges; it's the glue that holds every sprinkle.

10 min

Australian Snacks & Starters

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Cou-cou with Bajan vegetable stew

Cou-cou is Friday lunch in Barbados, and paired with flying fish it makes the island's national dish, served in homes and the fish fry stalls of Oistins. Fine cornmeal is stirred into okra and its cooking water with a flat wooden cou-cou stick until it is smooth, thick and pulls away from the pot, then shaped in a buttered bowl. It's soft, mild and comforting, made for soaking up the rich tomato gravy around it. Here the gravy is a stew of peppers, tomatoes, aubergine and butter beans cooked with Bajan seasoning; flying fish steamed in the same sauce is the classic for fish eaters. Chef's tip: whisk the cornmeal into cold water before it goes into the pot; adding it dry to boiling liquid is the fastest way to lumps.

65 min

Bajan Vegetarian

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Smashed avo on toast

Smashed avo became the signature breakfast of Sydney and Melbourne cafés in the 1990s and 2000s, and today it's on the menu of almost every café in Australia, from Bondi to Fitzroy, eaten on weekend mornings with a flat white. Ripe avocado is crushed roughly with lemon, salt and chilli and piled thickly onto toasted sourdough, then topped with salty crumbled feta and, often, a soft poached egg. It's creamy, sharp, crunchy and salty all at once. Chef's tip: smash the avocado with a fork, not a blender, and leave it chunky; the contrast between the rough avo and the crisp toast is the whole point.

15 min

Australian Breakfast & Brunch

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Bajan seasoning

Every cook in Barbados keeps a jar of Bajan seasoning, and families in Bridgetown and St Philip guard their own blend. It's a wet, coarse paste of spring onion, onion, garlic, fresh thyme, marjoram and parsley, sharpened with lime and given a backbone of clove, paprika and scotch bonnet. Bajans press it into slits in fish and meat; here it goes into stews, onto roasted vegetables, tofu and halloumi, and into the stew for cou-cou. It smells strongly herby and peppery, and keeps for weeks. Chef's tip: marjoram is the herb that makes it Bajan; don't skip it, and use fresh if you can find it.

20 min

Bajan Basics

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Mauby

Mauby is one of the oldest drinks of the Eastern Caribbean, and in Barbados it's sold ice-cold from vendors in Bridgetown and made at home on hot afternoons. It's brewed from the bark of the mauby tree, simmered with cinnamon, clove, star anise, bay and orange peel, then sweetened and diluted. The first sip is surprising: bitter like strong tea or tonic, then sweet, spicy and refreshing, with a liquorice note. Bark is sold in Caribbean shops and online. Chef's tip: brew a strong concentrate and dilute it to taste; mauby lovers like it bitter, newcomers should start with more water and more sugar.

25 min

Bajan Drinks

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Bajan pepper sauce

On every table in Barbados, from rum shops in Oistins to Sunday lunch at home, there's a bottle of yellow pepper sauce. Bajan pepper sauce is unlike the red sauces of other islands: scotch bonnets are blended with onion, yellow mustard, turmeric and vinegar, which give it its colour and a tangy, mellow edge under the fierce, fruity heat. A few drops lift fish cakes, cou-cou, macaroni pie and rice. Chef's tip: let it rest for a few days before using; the mustard and vinegar soften the raw onion and the heat becomes rounder.

25 min

Bajan Chutneys & Dips

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Mince on toast

Mince on toast is pure Kiwi comfort: a weeknight tea in homes from Invercargill to Auckland, and lately a proud fixture on café brunch menus, where it comes with a poached egg on top. Beef mince is browned hard, simmered with onion, grated carrot and a glug of Worcestershire sauce into a thick savoury gravy, then finished with peas and piled onto buttered toast. It's quick, cheap and kids love it. The usual mistake is stirring the mince constantly in a crowded pan, so it steams grey instead of browning; let it sit and catch colour. Chef's tip: grate the carrot instead of chopping it; it melts into the gravy and sweetens it without anyone noticing the vegetables.

30 min

Australian Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

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