Tag Archives: Australia Day

Australia Day and other thoughts

9 Replies

Yesterday was Australia Day. It’s a day that most Australians celebrate to remember the landing of the first fleet in what would become Sydney in 1788. When I say most Australians there are many Indigenous Australians who refer to 26 January as Invasion Day. Australia Day is a national day and a public holiday is always gazetted. Given this year 26 January falls on a Saturday all the celebrations occurred yesterday yet we get Monday as a public holiday. I love Australia. We get so many public holidays and everyone receives four weeks of recreation leave a year as a basic employment entitlement. That said, statistics show that Australians work longer hours per week than most member countries of the OECD so while we get plenty of holidays, we also know how to work hard.

English: Dick Smith

English: Dick Smith (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Australia Day, I always think about how fortunate I am to have been born in Australia and to be Australian. For many Australians the celebration revolves around food and alcohol. As a non-drinker (which is pretty uncommon in Australia), I focus on food. In recent years the lamb industry has invested significantly in advertising that real Australians eat lamb on Australia Day. While I don’t believe it’s unpatriotic not to eat lamb on Australia Day, I do like lamb so that’s what I had.

There was also a very cheeky YouTube and television video played this Australia Day by Dick Smith who is an entrepreneur, business man and advocate for buying Australian made.

WARNING It’s a little rude.
YouTube video http://youtu.be/VHP-znJv9ps

—————————————-

So for my Australia Day lunch I had some very nice Maggie Beer products, viz., some pâté and quince paste.

#AustraliaDay #Lunch Yummy pâté, quince paste and Gorgonzola

For dinner I pan fried some lamb cutlets and served them with a salad.

Of course I'm enjoying lamb for #AustraliaDay #Dinner #yummy

I’m taking a break from work soon and a book I plan to read is Food Photography for Bloggers. David Lebovitz did a nice blog post on it with the author.

I have a new book to read :-) Thanks to @davidlebovitz for blogging about it

—————————————-

English: Maggie Beer at the Australia Day citi...

English: Maggie Beer at the Australia Day citizenship ceremony at Commonwealth Park in Canberra. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Roast lamb and smashed potatoes

13 Replies

Some time ago I had the best roast lamb at a friend’s house. It was an awesome dinner party. This week I’ve eaten a good share of lamb (Australia Day dinner. Yes it’s lamb again. and Lamb cutlets with mint sauce and radish salad) and just feel the need for more. I didn’t feel the need to buy a shoulder, rather Coles had cheap lamb bones on sale which I thought would be good enough since they were ribs. Intercostal muscle is always tasty although it can be tough, so it needs long slow cooking.

Following my friend’s advice I laid down a bed of garlic and rosemary and overlaid that with lamb. On top I put in more garlic and rosemary and then covered snugly with aluminium foil. I placed the tray in a hot oven 240 °C for 30 minutes and then turned it down to 150 °C for a few hours. When it was ready I pulled the tray out and allowed the meat to cool enough for me to pick the meat from the bones and then put on my dinner plate.

These were cheap as at Coles.

There was lots of garlic. I pity friends who sit near me tomorrow.

The smashed potatoes were made by boiling a few spuds until just tender, allowing them to cool, ‘smashing’ them with your hand and then covering with salt, pepper, herbs and butter.

After boiling and smashing, in the tray.

The spuds should be boiled to just soft enough to smash with the heel of your hand.

Cover with salt, pepper and your herbs of choice. I chose oregano.

The potatoes need to be seasoned well.

Butter is also important.

As I’ve said before butter (like bacon) makes everything taste better.

The bones came out with the meat soft enough to pull away.

It is always a feeling of accomplishment when meat is cooked the way you like.

Plated up lamb and potatoes.

I should have made some gravy, but in truth it wasn’t necessary.

Poh does a nice rendition of this which can be found at the ABC website.

For alternative guidance on smashed potatoes here’s a youtube video to assist.

The images were captured with Lumix point and shoot AVCHD Lite.

Related articles

Australia Day dinner. Yes it’s lamb again.

7 Replies

For the last few years an Australian personality, viz., Sam Kekovich has acted as a lambassador for the Australian lamb industry. It’s just as well I have a deep and abiding fondness for lamb as evidenced by last night’s blog (Lamb cutlets with mint sauce and radish salad).

Every Australia Day Sam gives an address to the Australian people and beyond.

Today while we enjoyed Australia Day cheesecake Bron had her slow cooker going with lamb shanks. Lamb shanks in red wine is one of my favourite meals.

In the slow cooker

The smell in the apartment was amazing.

Plated up

Look I had greens plus potatoes and a plate load of the best tasting meat around. It was so jelly like and amazing.

The remaining bones

I had fun sucking the marrow out of the bones.

Chocolate and peanut paste cheesecake

We finished with Australia Day Cheesecake.

Related articles

Australia Day cheesecake

6 Replies

For the past few weeks Bron has been talking about cheesecake since she made a white chocolate cheesecake some weeks ago. She has had her eye on a recipe from Nigella Lawson. To give it more interest, Bron chose Nigella’s Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake.

I need to digress and explain why this has more interest for me. I grew up in Queensland in the 1960s and 1970s. We only knew of peanut paste and Queensland nuts. We’d heard of peanut butter and Macadamia nuts but our impression was that only southerners used those terms. As Queenslanders we knew better. There are a few sites that mention the debate, e.g., Peanut Butter or Peanut Paste? and there is also a Facebook page. As far as I’m concerned, the edible species in the genus Macadamia found in Eastern Australia are Queensland nuts and that’s how I shall always know them. While it may be Australia Day, I am and always will be a proud convinced and convicted Queenslander.

Last night I also learned that 24 January is national peanut butter day in the USA from food blogger John-Bryan Hopkins also known as the Foodimentary Guy.

Back to the important stuff though. This is a baked cheesecake. Nigella describes it best, “This is not for the faint-hearted. Unashamed indulgence, wallowingly so, is what this recipe is all about: think reese’s Peanut Butter cup in cheesecake form. For that reason, I don’t bake this in a water-bath as I do the Banoffee cheesecake. The water-bath is excellent if you want a silky texture, but for me, the peanut butter constituent demands a certain amount of pleasurable, palate-cleaving clagginess. And baked like this, too, the top gets a slight crust when it’s cooked, making it all the easier to spread the chocolate topping.”

Baking in the oven

Straight out of the oven

Time for the chocolate topping.

Here comes the chocolate topping

It is good.

Smoothed over chocolate

Melted chocolate swirls.

Chocolate swirls

The finished product with the Queensland nut brittle similar to the cheesecake we had at Kingley’s steak and crab house.

A perfect slice of cheesecake with Queensland nut brittle

Related articles

Some of the preparation happened in a new blender.