Impulse buying

I must be more careful in future when I spy some new item on the supermarket shelves.

Looking to expand the selection of oils in the Ausfood cupboard from its single current occupant, the bottle of olive oil, I set out in supermarket search mode for another oil product.

What excitement !! There sitting on the shelves at the Eastern IGA was a lovely bottle of Australian peanut oil. The map of Australia with the words 100% Australian hooked me right away; the ingredient description left me in no doubt about the contents of the bottle. It’s a smaller sized bottle which is good; small sizes are best when trying out something new.

This is just what I am looking for these days; it ticks all the Ausfood boxes.

The bottle is off the shelf, in the shopping basket and out through the register in the blink of an eye.

I’m about to put it in the Ausfood cupboard at home and it dawns on me that I have very hastily bought a bottle of oil most often used in Asian recipes. Ah, I see problems here with ingredients for an Asian recipe. I’m thinking soy sauce, Chinese rice wine and chilli paste just for starters.

A sober moment arrives in the Trash Palace kitchen as I contemplate how I will use up this lovely oil.

Billabong Apple Crunchy

One of the products I discovered yesterday while in Clementine’s, was a small packet of dried organic apple.

I found it on the bargain/reduction shelf and took advantage of the price to try it out. I liked it so much I went right back in my class break to get a couple more packets.

Dried apple is a good snack food although it's possible that some prospective buyers might think there is not enough quantity for the price paid.

The labelling gets the Big Tick from me, it states the apple is 100% Australian Made, Owned an Grown. These packets of dried apple come from Yarrawalla in Victoria. I had no idea where Yarrawalla was so what do you think I did?

Yes, I Googled the map. And this is what I found when I typed in Smiths Road, Yarrawalla and zoomed in using the Earth version.


Does this look like a bird’s eye view an apple orchard to you?

Clementine's

On the two midweek days when I make my way to the College for Seniors Wishing to Further Their Education, I pass by a wonderful shop in Degraves St. It is a short street, packed with outdoor cafes at one end and specialty shops at the other, and it has been home to Clementine’s for a couple of years now.

The shop is a show case for Victorian made products, both in the craft and produce line, and is a good starting point for anyone wanting to buy a truly local item to send overseas or interstate, or for that matter, simply to buy a gift for anyone - even yourself.

 I noticed in my brief visit today food products such as green tea, chickpeas and capers, to mention just a couple.I will now be visiting it from time to time to check out what other locally produced food items appear on the shelves.

More about Clementine’s as time passes and the blog progresses.

More reading about labelling laws and label reading

Because this is an area which is fraught with difficulty I am including this link which will take you to the ACCC page where you can read the ACCC definitions straight off your computer screen - or whatever happens to be your choice of screen.

It ties in with this previous post here and explains what the consumer's expectations should be when they read these words on a food product label.

When I am reading labels for country of origin, I look for "Grown In" and "Product Of" first of all; with fresh produce this should be a straight forward exercise. 

However, I am wary when reading labels where the words "Made In" appear and I check the ingredients to see whether they are likely to be grown in Australia or not.

 All products labelled with the words "Made In " are treated with great caution.

Refining salt

I have returned to the supermarkets take another look at ingredients listed on salt product labels.
You may think this a rather strange thing to do and you may be asking the question “Isn’t it just salt? What else can there be?”

I’m here to tell you there are other ingredients in with some of the salt products. I’m sure you will know about iodine and it is stated quite clearly on the label if the salt is iodised.

However there are anti-caking agents; the infamous numbers who make up part of our diet whether we are aware of it or not. The numbers here are 535/536, and 554. These will be found in the ‘pouring’ salts; the table variety and the cooking variety.

According to the information I found, when searching on the internet, 535 and 536 are sodium and potassium ferrocyanides respectively and are used as an anti-caking agent. Cyanides are found in some seeds and fruit stones and now you can have it in your salt. How good is that? The additive 554 sounds almost likeable – it is produced from a natural mineral making it almost acceptable. As I have lived a relatively salt-free life for some 30 years now none of this bothers me too much.

These additives are introduced to make our lives easier. Who wants lumpy cooking salt or a salt shaker that is clogged up every time you want to use it? We are very busy people these days; we want salt which pours instantly. Long gone are the days of solving the clogged shaker problem by putting a few grains of rice in the salt shaker.

Of course if you use the sea salt or rock salt varieties, without added iodine, there are no additives and the grinder in which most of this salt is packaged is free of any pouring problems.

And for all you people who have read to this point here is a link which will tell you a whole lot more about the history and use of salt in Australia.

I’m taking the easy road here and will be using Australian sea salt without any additives of any kind – my choice is McKenzie’s Australian natural sea salt. This way I don't have to concern myself about the country of origin for the additives - taking the additives out of the equation reduces the work load.

I’m off to the supermarket to get another addition to my Ausfood cupboard.

Bread

I previously posted about bread and its country of origin labelling exemption here. This labelling exemption places bread ingredients and their country of origin in the realm of the Great Unknown as far as this Ausfood blog is concerned.

In my naiveté and enthusiasm I considered making my own bread would be the next best and easiest thing to do. I’ve made bread on a small scale at the Trash Palace, an enterprise I’ve always enjoyed. I even know where my favoured bread recipes are - in the loose leaf piling system, of course. These are recipes which have always turned out a reliable result.

So, full of the business of getting down to the prospect of toast at breakfast time, I scurried off to the supermarket.

I came home a very disappointed person.

The item on the shopping list which caused me the greatest disappointment was yeast.

I searched in every supermarket in my locality, within walking distance of the Trash Palace, and drew a blank. Four blanks to be exact, one for every supermarket whose shelves I inspected.

The only yeast available, as you might expect, is the dried variety. The great disappointment was finding, of the three brands available, two were imported products and the third brand was disinclined to disclose the origins of their yeast product. To pass muster in the great Ausfood ingredient search the packaging must clearly state the country of origin, with Australia is the preferable country of origin; on all counts none of these products qualify.

Compressed, or fresh yeast, is an alternative, but in this 21st century, where speed and ease of preparation prevails in the kitchen, it is highly unlikely I will be able to find this product anywhere, let alone on supermarket shelves.

I see a big search project looming.

Random thoughts

It seems clear to me, even at this early stage in the search, there will be some items of food which will be crossed off the Ausfood list, as they are not likely to be produced in this country.

Curry, cranberry and chocolate for starters.

Chocolate is a disappointment.  I am quite partial to the taste of chocolate, whether it is in cakes, desserts or in the block. There are a few variations on the theme when it comes to chocolate and I will look at these as a separate issue in a later post.

Curry relies on imported spices, so spicing up dishes looks to be out of the question on Ausfood days.

Cranberries are not grown in Australia in commercial quantities and cranberry products in Australia are usually imported from the North American continent. These are the top 5 cranberry producing countries in the world according to this website – as you can see, no countries south of the equator make it into the top five.

There are however a few candidates for Ausfood days which seem to occur with monotonous regularity as I leaf through recipe books and my loose leaf piling system.

They are chicken and lemon and usually in combination. This time of the year salads are a favourite and as a fresh food product, the only limitation on salad is availability and creativity.

And let’s not overlook eggs in their many variations; all good, especially on the breakfast menu.

Going AWOL

No sooner has my first team invitee accepted the challenge of joining the Ausfood Search team than she announces she is off to distant lands.

Strictly speaking this holiday was arranged long before the team invite was issued and has been anticipated with great excitement.

The great attraction will be some time spent living and learning about elephants in a refuge for rescued elephants in northern Thailand.

This leave of absence has absolutely no connection to Australian food but I hear there is the possibility of enrolling in Thai cooking classes, most likely in Bangkok.

Let’s hope there is no unexpected stampede of elephants through the living quarters.

As sweet as

Honey was one of the ingredients listed on my first February Ausfood Day; I used it as a sweetener on my breakfast cereal.

This is a very special Tasmanian honey which I was lucky enough find when I was on holiday in Tasmania last November; it was on the counter in a small general store on the north-west coast.

 It is Tasmanian Manuka honey and I searched ‘you-know-where’ and found the following information on this website.

Here is the gist of it – I have put up the abbreviated version to spare you the details of the extra-ordinary number of disorders which Manuka honey may alleviate. However, if disorders are high on your daily agenda, please feel free to look at the website.

Manuka Honey is a premium product with a distinctive flavour and a dark amber colour. Manuka honey has a darker and richer taste than clover honey and has strong antibacterial and anti-fungal properties.
Manuka honey is a unique type of mono-floral honey produced by bees gathering nectar predominantly from flora found on the Tea Tree bush (Leptospermum scoparium), which is indigenous to New Zealand and the drier east coast of Australia. Manuka (from Māori 'mānuka') is the plant’s common name in New Zealand, also known as 'tea tree' in Australia.
Research has recognize that Manuka Honey contains very commanding antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral, antioxidant, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal properties, making it extremely effective and may assist with a wide variety of health issues.

There are vast tracts of tea-tree on the west coast of Tasmania and no doubt the bees have a busy time in the flowering season making this honey. The beekeeper is one Russell Kay; no other details were provided on the container label.

I am here to tell you this honey is wonderful; as described above it is a dark colour and it does have a distinctive flavour – maybe a little too strong for some tastes - but I found it the perfect topping over plain yoghurt on my breakfast muesli.

I intend to keep it for special occasions, and as honey has a long shelf life, it is my aim to make it last until my next visit to Arthur River.

Team Happening

A step in the right direction today.

We have a name and an image for one of the team.

The name of choice is lami, an abbreviation of that famous Australian cake, the lamington. If by some chance this is a cake about which you know nothing, there is always Wikipedia to give you the inside information.

Here is the image.

 This image will accompany the lami posts on the blog.

And now we will wait patiently and before too long lami will introduce us to her kitchen cupboard.

Med sensation.... or is it?

I recently discovered another variety of pear in my local Green supermarket.

The label description - hand written - read Med Sensation; it is a well formed pear with a red blush.

A day or so later I see this fruit in the local Green supermarket again. This time it is labelled Red Sensation. Aha, a labelling error.

I search on the internet for more information and I learn it is a medium size pear with a distinct red and gold colour and is available from February to the end of May.

It is also possible it is only new to me. This variety, according to some sources, is part of the Bartlett pear family and has been around nearly as long as I have!!

Further along in the fruit display at the supermarket, I am highly amused to find a pack of William Bartlett pears with what appears to be a interloper nestled in among all the other small golden pears.

 

It looks suspiciously like a Red Sensation. What scallywags these new arrivals are – cosying up to some of the forty-second cousins.

Look out for this logo

This is a logo I have come across in my early searches for Australian grown produce.  It is an image to keep in mind when looking for Australian produced food, especially in supermarkets where it is often seen in the fruit and vegetable sections.

Here it is - the Australian Grown logo.

For further reading about the history and application of the Australian Grown logo have a look at this website, suited to students, but good reading for anyone interested in Australian products and labelling.

It is often linked with another logo of a similar design which uses the words Australian Made but for the purposes of this blog which revolves around food, I am specifically interested in Australian Grown. The lines between the words grown and made are sometimes blurred and close attention has to be paid when reading labels on food products.

Welcome to the challenges of label reading.

The ingredient page

The Plans have been back; not just the minions this time but the Master Plan and an offsider.

I didn't have to wait long to find out what was in store for me this time.

It seems the general consensus among the Plans is that I need to tidy up the Ausfood days.  I listen without commenting but I am thinking plenty.  I am thinking I have completed a total of three days and already they are not happy. -   they have ideas and they have sent along the Big Gun and another of the Plans.

I cannot say in all truth that I was happy with their comments. The Master Plan was at his diplomatic best but the underlying message is to have one template set up for the Ausfood day post and to not publish something that looks like the dog's breakfast.  My words, not theirs.

I'll feel better about being having my faults pointed out when a bit more time passes.  Perhaps.

And as for the offsider - this quiet, unassuming Plan is the Ingredient Plan  who wants me to set up a page whose title will come as no surprise.  It is to be the Ingredient Page where I will verify all the ingredients in case any of you out there doubted my veracity.

I am to put this into practice forthwith and they will be back to check up next month. Just as they took their leave the Master Plan paused and turned.

"There is one more thing Ms Blog Administrator, when I come back next month I will bring along the Recipe Plan to have a chat with you."

"I'll certainly be looking forward to your return." I said through clenched teeth.

And now I will go straight to the pages and head up the ingredient page. I can tell you now it will be blank and it will stay that way until I regain my equanimity and can settle down to some serious thinking and planning.

Setting up an ingredient page is not as simple as it might sound.

Another team member accepts the invitation.

I've pounced on another potential team member and they have accepted the invitation to join the Great Ausfood Search.

That makes the grand total of two team members.

They will now each choose an appropriate Australian food as their nom-de-plume, find a fitting image and the next step will be putting together their respective 'kitchen cupboard' stories.

I hope the Team Plan approves of all this and won't be lurking in the vicinity of the backburner, waiting to give even more advice and suggestions and doling out the criticism.

I could use a break from all that stuff.

Ausfood : February Day Two

The bare bones plus a small bonus and few words to finish off the day.

Breakfast

Juice : Nudie 5 1/2 oranges

Muesli
Oat bran                                                                                   milk - Physical reduced fat
Bran cereal                                                                              yoghurt  -  Shaw’s Buffalo Milk
Rolled oats                                                   with                    blueberries
Sunflower seeds
Sultanas

followed by

Tea – Nerada plus milk – Physical
______________________________________________________________



Snacks – Peanuts in shell.

_________________________________________________________________

Main meal

Chicken
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salad
Red onion
Mini Roma Tomatoes
Lettuce
Corn (off the cob)

Salad Dressing  - Olive oil  & lemon juice

followed by

 Nerada teabags  &  milk - Physical reduced fat

 Foot note.

My days are not as well structured as the days of many other people and thereby hangs the tale of what might appear to be a meagre food intake for a whole day; whether this meal format changes at all remains to be seen.

A word of caution here - don't hold your breath waiting for the meal format changes......

February Ausfood - Day One

The bare bones.......

Breakfast

Juice :
Nudie 5 1/2 oranges

Muesli:
Oat Bran                                                                                   Milk - Physical reduced fat

Rolled Oats                                                         with              Yoghurt - Shaw's Buffalo Milk

Sunflower seeds                                                                        Tasmanian honey
Sultanas                                                                                     Blueberries

followed by

Nerada tea & milk -  Physical reduced fat

_____________________________________________________________________________

Main Meal

Cold Chicken strips
Tomato
Cucumber
Lettuce
Red wine vinegar & olive oil

followed by

Nerada tea & Pura Light start milk

_________________________________________________________________________________


Other Meal

2 eggs - hard-boiled
Lettuce
Brown Onion
Red Wine vinegar & olive oil

followed by

Nerada tea & Pura Light start milk

 _________________________________________________________________________________

Last minute find

I doubt very much that finding a packet of Australian grown sunflower seeds in the supermarket would move too many people to a state of excitement.

So I can lay claim to being both surprised and delighted to find, after very careful searching for the umpteenth time, a packet of sunflower seeds with those all-important words Product of Australia printed on the packaging, in one of my local IGA supermarkets.

This will give a much needed boost to my breakfast cereal come the next Ausfood day, which is just around the corner.

As well as the sunflower seeds, sometime called kernels – and probably a more accurate description – I had another find in a Red Supermarket. I found Australian grown peanuts in their shells, packaged under the store label, and I promptly bought a packet.

These will serve me well as snacks throughout the day and although it may be seen as a time consuming and messy approach to snack food, the end result is 100% peanuts and no other ingredient to blur the issue.

Two new finds on one week. Good result eh?

Milk...................

Three ingredients make up my cup of tea.

Tea. Water. Milk.

I’ll get water out of the way immediately; as you might well guess, the water comes out of the tap and is supplied from nearby reservoirs. The word imported does not apply to any mention of the water in this blog.

Good. I’ve got that matter out of the way.

Now let’s move on to one of the other two ingredients. Milk.

Milk appears in supermarkets and other shops in many guises but today in the world of Ausfood the band is narrowed to the variety produced by cows; whole milk and reduced fat milk. The fat may be reduced slightly or it may be reduced altogether, though strictly speaking the words there should be removed altogether. Or fat free.






In the Green Supermarket, my first research area, I find four major brands of milk; Pura, Pauls, a2 and the store brand. Within those four brands there is a multiplicity of varieties – Tone No Fat, Light Start, Smarter White, Rev, and lactose free, just to name a few.





The list could go on but I am interested only in milk which is a product of Australia and to which nothing has been added. No vitamins, for example. Where do the vitamins come from? In drums or are they freeze dried and arrive as air cargo on freight planes from distant parts of the world?

 I am only interested in the ingredient milk, whose components may be milk and milk solids.

I find the Green Supermarket sets the standard for the other three supermarkets in my research area; the only changes being the brand names for the store brands, according to whichever supermarket I am researching. I do notice that an overwhelming amount of milk on the shelves in the Red Supermarket is the store brand. It is invariably cheaper and is the dominant presence on the shelves. In addition the Red Supermarket has Great Ocean Road milk, produced at Warrnambool; this brand is also cheaper than the regular brands.

At the IGA supermarkets the milk shelves follow the same general pattern as the duopoly but with the usual variations in the store affiliated milk products.

Happily, as might be expected, all milk bears the stamp Product of Australia.

..................... with your tea?

Researching the tea shelves was an exercise in learning that a tea may be produced in one country but it can be packed somewhere else entirely. And not all tea comes from China, though Mr Twining’s special selection teas seem to favour China.

There are quite a few varieties of black teas stocked on the shelves of my four local supermarkets, most of which would be recognised by any respectable tea drinker. In no particular order I found Bushells, Dilmah, Tetley, Lipton, Madura, Taylor’s of Harrogate and Billy Tea.

Tea-bags are most popular but for those die-hards tea drinkers who maintain loose leaf is best, most brands carry a loose leaf range. The tea may be a blend and it may be grown in India or Sri Lanka and it may be packed in Indonesia or the United Arab Emirates.

And an Australian grown black tea? Only one 100% Australian grown tea. Nerada. I  found this variety in January when I wrote this post and this current closer look at the shelves stocking tea in the supermarkets hasn’t revealed anything new. Those readers who might be interested in the history of Nerada Australian tea can find out more here.

Madura also grows tea here in Australia but it is packaged and sold as a blend of local and imported teas. Close, but no cigar.

As for Billy Tea and its Campfire Brew and the claim it has been traditionally Australian since 1885? Close examination of the label shows it is an imported tea with very clever labelling which might lead people to think it is an Australian tea. Not so.

Ah well, one Australian produced tea is better than none at all.

Another source of information

As I browse through the Epicure section of the Age this morning, while enjoying a coffee at my local coffee hang-out, I make two Ausfood discoveries.

I find two Victorian products which might well qualify for the Ausfood Challenge.

The first is Long Lane Capers, who are located near Mansfield in country Victoria. Capers are not high on the list of essential ingredients to be found in my kitchen cupboard but as time passes I may find them a useful addition. As spices produced in this country appear to be virtually non-existent, I may need to resort to capers now and then to add a bit of zing to a recipe.

I look at their web page and find a recipe for Caponata. I have never heard of this dish so I will be searching for more information. The caponata recipe looks to tick all the Ausfood boxes so I will file it away for future reference.

Next on the discovery list is Just Go Nuts, who have pistachios. They don’t appear to have a web page so I scroll through all the Google offerings to see what I can find. As well as pistachios and in-season avocados, they also have blood oranges. I will have to get along to a farmers market where they sell their wares and find out more. I also find their produce is available on-line through Farmers Direct – but that old problem rears its head – I can’t read the label before I buy the product.

I'm rather partial to pistachios and would be very happy to find a local supply.

And finally a more fanciful idea – that of a coffee farm. An at-home coffee farm, either in the back yard or on the deck, patio or balcony.   The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is on soon and The Urban Coffee Farm and Brew Bar will have coffee trees for sale at $25 per tree. The idea is amusing and they would maybe make an interesting deck or patio plant but as for waiting for the first harvest. I wouldn’t be holding my breath.

I will, however, be looking at each week’s edition of Epicure to learn the latest on what produce is available and where it is available.