The pepper chase

Sourcing Australian grown pepper is still simmering away on the back burner of my mind.  I have looked on line but as the words I use in the search engine define the result I get on the screen and it might be that I am not using exactly the right words to find the right results.  

What I did find today on the display shelves of the local library, was a wonderful book, Pepper by Christine McFadden.   

In this book there are chapters on the history of pepper, the pepper trade, another on the varieties of pepper and their origins and there are eleven chapters of recipes where pepper is always one of the ingredients.  The usual salads, soup, fish, poultry, meat and vegetable recipes are there together with the not-so-usual recipes which include pepper as an ingredient in drinks, desserts, cakes and biscuits. 

As intriguing as all the above might sound, I was on the lookout for any hint of the availability of Australian black pepper.  Looking in the index under A for Australia netted a zero result.  And then on pages 58 & 59 under the heading the great pepper family (there are 11 species listed here) I finally found an Australian related pepper.  Tasmannnia lanceolata is the common name for mountain pepper or Tasmanian pepper.   The description box informs me the leaves and berries can be used fresh or dried; the leaves have a lemony taste but care is needed as the flavour, although sweet at first, intensifies and becomes pungent and numbing.

 I will look for Tasmanian pepper berries at a later date, but it is not what I am looking for right at this moment. I want to find  Australian grown black peppercorns.   

At the very back of the book I find two possible sources here in Australia - Herbie's Spices and Vic Cherikoff Food Services. I put aside this brilliant book, full of pepper facts and figures, fantastic photographs and appealing recipes and turn to search the Internet. In a brief search I find one online source for Australian grown peppercorns and as might be expected cost is a significant factor here.  

Reluctantly I return Australian produced peppercorns to the back burner.

Setting the rules

When you undertake a task and you are the person in charge of, as well as the person as undertaking the task, it is always easy to set the rules. You set them to suit yourself and who is going to notice anyway if you don’t toe the line.

The business of toeing the line is one of the reasons I decided to set up the In Search of Ausfood blog. There is only a very, very slim chance that anyone will take me to task as that requires readers and as readers, at this point, are virtually non-existent this is something I’m not unduly concerned about right now.

Right now my main concern is the decision around the guidelines I will follow next year when the really serious business of eating Australian gets underway. To this end I've made the following decision; stringent measures will be set in place.

It will be 100% Australian or nothing.

There I've put it out there for everyone to see.

Already I hold the opinion that by the end of this year I will be well and truly fed up with looking at the trickier items that are marked product of Australia but may have, for example, palm oil in the ingredient list. Australian palm oil producers? Where?

Anything I eat will have to be clearly defined on the label whether it is a grocery shelf line or meat or vegetables and fruit. If there is no signage in the shop (or on the website) then I don’t buy the product. The statement often made to me about “all our meat or all our fruit and vegetables are Australian” when there is no clear evidence, won’t wash for me in 2014.

It should make for easier shopping if I have a list of stores where I can rely on Australian labelled food products. And as for the limitations imposed by my guidelines, I shall just have to live with them. It may mean repetition or it may mean I will have to be more creative in my approach to recipes and menus.

As far as I am concerned all of the above can only be a good thing.

Robert and the Aromatics

I’m not talking here about a band from the sixties. I am talking about a recipe book from the sixties.

I’ve scratched around among my collection of recipe books from the past thinking they might hold the answer to dishes with simple ingredients. Food wasn’t so fancy fifty years ago and I think my 2014 Ausfood Challenge might have a chance of getting over the finish line if I keep to a basic recipe plan.

Only those people over a certain age will remember Robert Carrier, who was the last word, in the early sixties, when it came to food and how it should be prepared and served. American–born and raised, he arrived in London via Paris and his cook book recipes are strewn with ingredients more easily found in England or the Continent than out here in the colonies.

I acquired two of Robert Carrier’s books in paperback; Great Dishes of the World and his second book, The Robert Carrier Cookbook many years ago. I found Great Dishes on a shelf, jammed into a row of recipe books and when I opened the book it fell into three sections; the spine is broken and the middle section is completely detached. This dislocation makes the book willful, difficult to manage and prone to dropping open at random pages. Pages with recipes for pheasant in red wine; partridge with lentils; Creole jambalaya and chilled watercress salad. Great dishes of the world in the sixties maybe: but far from basic and not what I am looking for today.

I turn to the front of the book and in section 1 I find the Aromatics: onions, shallots, leeks, chives and garlic. There are suggestions about ways to do simple things, which, according to Robert, will lift a dish out of the ordinary with the use of aromatics. The French lead the charge with their trick of browning finely chopped onions, shallots and garlic in olive oil and butter as a base for a casserole. Leeks, pureed with chicken stock and cream to make up a cream of leek soup, also get the French thumbs-up. More than a page is devoted to garlic and its versatility in both summer and winter dishes; cooks are encouraged to grow chives in their gardens and use them in omelettes, salad dressings and as a garnish for vegetables.

All of these are basic food stuffs and should be Australian grown and available in supermarkets. I foresee Robert and the aromatics getting a workout come winter; I hope the book, with all its frailties, is up to the challenge.