GOURMET

Time for a foodie fix

WORDS: PHOTOGRAPHY

Gold Coasters love their food – the local dining scene is now better than ever, and increasingly people are looking for inspiration to dish up delights at home. ORM serves up some inspiration with a run down of new cookbooks, recipes to try, and even an Aussie culinary adventure DVD.

 

 

WILL AND STEVE, HOME COOK, ASPIRING CHEF

Will and Steve appeared on hit Australian cooking show My Kitchen Rules in 2015. They were the first all-male team to take out the title in the history of the show. Since their win, they
 have formed their own business, The Gourmet Pommies Pty Ltd.

Home Cook, Aspiring Chef contains more than 100 recipes inspired by Will and Steve’s passion for freshness, flavour, and damn good food!

A combination of their English heritage, their appreciation for Australian produce, and a desire to reinvent the classics are inspirational. Their innovative twists on traditional and time-honoured techniques also result in some spectacular recipes.

The book features five chapters: Brunch, Soups and Sarnies; Shared Plates; Home Cook, Aspiring Chef; Dinner, Sides and Salads; and Sweets or Treats. It’s brought to life with beautifully photographed dishes by William Meppem, who’s one of Australia’s premium food and lifestyle photographers. This is certainly one of the must-have cookbooks for aspiring chefs and home cooks alike.

 

 

This is certainly one of the must-have cookbooks this year for aspiring chefs and home cooks alike.

Two tasty recipes to try… 


 

CORN FRITTERS WITH AVOCADO, COFFEE AND MAPLE BACON

Prep and cooktime:  25 minutes   Serves: 2

1.  
To make the fritter batter, in a large bowl, mix the eggs and egg yolk with the salt and flour until combined and smooth. Fold in the corn, feta, fennel, spring onion, dill, lemon zest and juice and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

 2.  
To make the smashed avocado, spoon the avocado flesh onto a small plate. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, the coriander and lemon juice and mash roughly with a fork. Set aside.

 3.  
Turn your oven grill to maximum temperature.

 4.  
To make the coffee and maple bacon, combine the instant coffee with the boiling water and leave for a few minutes to allow the coffee to dissolve, then add the maple syrup. Place the bacon on a foil-covered baking tray and brush each side with the coffee and maple glaze. Grill the bacon on both sides until crispy.

 5.  
Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and spoon in four equal portions of the fritter batter. Shape into small rounds with the back of a spoon and cook for 3 minutes until golden brown on the underside. Flip and cook for 2-3 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

6.  
Serve 2-3 corn fritters per person with a large spoonful of the smashed avocado on top and a side of the coffee and maple bacon.

 

olive oil,  for frying

 

 

CORN FRITTER:

2 eggs, 1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon sea salt f lakes

4 tablespoons plain f lour

1 cup  corn kernels, cooked

100g feta, crumbled

1/2  fennel bulb, diced

2 spring onions, finely chopped

1 small handful of dill,  finely chopped

zest of 1 lemon juice of 1/2  lemon

sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

 

SMASHED AVOCADO:

1 avocado

1 small handful of coriander leaves

squeeze of lemon juice

 

Coffee and maple Bacon:

1 teaspoon instant coffee

2 tablespoons boiling water

2 tablespoons maple syrup

6 thick slices of middle bacon, rind removed

 

 

MASTERCLASS: THE SCOTCH EGG

Prep and cooktime:  2 1/2 hours   Makes: 8

1. 
Combine the pork, fennel seeds, thyme, sage, garlic, egg yolk and mustard in a large bowl and season heavily with salt and pepper. Using your hands, mix the ingredients thoroughly and then divide into eight balls. If the mixture is too wet, add a few spoonfuls of panko breadcrumbs to bring it together.

2. 
Place each ball of mince between two sheets of cling film and roll out into a disc shape about 4mm thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Make a water bath by putting the ice into a large bowl of cold water.

4. 
Put the eggs in a saucepan of cold water and bring to the boil on high heat. As soon as the water comes to the boil, reduce the heat so the water is just simmering and cook for a further 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Immediately remove the eggs and put them into the iced water bath to stop the cooking process. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes then very carefully remove each egg from its shell.

5. 
Wrap each egg in a layer of mince, moulding the meat tightly around the egg and making sure there are no trapped air bubbles. Place each wrapped egg in a piece of cling film, twist to tighten and evenly shape the mince around the egg. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

 7.    
Line up three shallow bowls from left to right. Fill the bowl on the left with the flour, season with salt and pepper. Place the beaten egg in the middle bowl and the breadcrumbs in the bowl on the right.

8. 
Take each pork-wrapped egg and, from left to right, dip in the flour, then in the egg and finally in the breadcrumbs. Repeat dipping the eggs in the egg and breadcrumbs to give a double coating.

9. 
Heat the vegetable oil to 180°C in a deep fryer or large saucepan. Deep fry the eggs in batches for 3-4 minutes until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon, season with salt and place on a wire rack. Place the rack in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately if you want to ensure the yolk of the egg is perfectly runny. Scotch eggs can also be enjoyed cold. Either way, they go perfectly with a few spoonfuls of our piccalilli.

 

700g pork mince (70:30 meat to fat ratio)

2 tablespoons fennel seeds, coarsely crushed

1 bunch of thyme, leaves picked

1 bunch of sage, leaves picked, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon dijon mustard sea salt f lakes 
and freshly ground black pepper

8 eggs

500g ice cubes, for ice-water bath

vegetable oil,  for deep frying piccalilli

 

COATING:

100g plain flour

4 eggs, lightly beaten and seasoned 
with salt and pepper

200g panko breadcrumbs, plus extra if needed

 

 

EAT LESS, LIVE LONG 

Why are we so tired, overweight and unwell?

A common belief is that most of the illnesses, weight problems, tiredness and disease we suffer in life are somehow ‘genetic’ or ‘bad luck’. Yes, your genes have an influence on your health and longevity, but most of your health profile (your body weight, energy, skin health and disease-risk) is triggered by the composition of your daily food and lifestyle choices.

The single most basic measure of human evolution and advancement is healthy life expectancy. There has never been a society that has had a long, healthy lifespan while smoking, heavily drinking, overeating, avoiding good food, avoiding sunlight, and not having daily outdoor movement of some sort. Super-Centenarians (aged 110 or older) do not usually depart this life from stroke, heart disease, Alzheimer’s or cancer. The centenarian secrets of longevity are not related to technology, synthetic vitamin pills, treadmills or good genes. They place a priority on good food and health and understand good lifestyle choices are the key. Centenarians (aged 100 or older) stay mentally sharp, happy, physically fit, unstressed, in touch with their diets and socially engaged.

So, what is the solution? A mixture of education and genuine sustainable behavioural change. Long-term education based on real foods and learning from human longevity throughout history – not sponsored by drug companies, weight loss companies, or any company with an agenda to keep you overweight, addicted and permanently hungry. Get yourself educated about what you eat, why you eat, and your daily lifestyle habits. This will change your life and quite possibly save it. I have seven very powerful and yet simple suggestions that have created health miracles for the thousands of people all over the world. When done well, these strategies make the biggest difference to your health, energy, body size and disease-free longevity.

1. 
Understand that you are NOT your genetics. Around 97% of your health is in your own hands. Most modern diseases are less than 3% genetic. 

2. 
Learn about which foods are daily (80% of your diet) and which foods are treats (20% of your diet). This always starts with a centenarian-inspired, plant-based wholefood diet, and builds from there, depending on what your own body needs (do not compare your body to others).

3. 
Be prepared and control your environment. Alter the environment you are in so that it serves you rather than poisons you. The key word here is ‘preparation’. Change what is in your shopping basket, cupboard and fridge so when you are hungry and in a rush, you only have good food all around you.

4. 
Change your behaviour and daily habits, slowly and sustainably, over time. This is the big one.

5. 
Introduce regular fasting into your life (this frees you from the tyranny of modern food, breaks food addictions, transforms your immune system and positively changes how your brain works).

6. 
Be part of a regular routine-based exercise programme (walking outside in the sunshine is still the number one exercise of all time).

7. 
Build rhythm, routine and regularity into your day. This includes sleep times, wake times, meal times and exercise times.

Although you do inherit your genes, the majority of your health is completely in your hands. Your health is the cumulative experience of your lifetime and it is the little things you do every day that have the biggest influence on your wellbeing.

SURFING THE MENU: NEXT GENERATION! 

Surfing the Menu launched the international careers of two of our favourite chefs Ben O’Donohue and Curtis Stone. The original Surfing The Menu has enjoyed global  success, selling in over 70 countries.

Series stars good mates Dan Churchill and Hayden Quinn and will be available on DVD and Digital Download from 17 August 2016. 

Dan and Hayden share a love of cooking, surfing, fresh food, travel and adventure, and that’s exactly what Surfing the Menu: Next Generation is all about.  

In this new 13 part TV series, Dan and Hayden head off on an adventure around Australia in their trusty, rusty 50-year-old VW Bug, nicknamed GiGi. On the journey they four-wheel drive in the desert, head to an outback cattle station, share a Tongan feast, learn to sail, snorkel on the Ningaloo and Great Barrier Reefs, catch mud crabs, swim with manta rays and prove that they’re perhaps the unluckiest fisherman in the country.

They share experiences with Indigenous communities such as searching underground for native bee nests and for bush foods and medicines. They also surf and go horse riding in some remarkable locations which makes for great viewing!

Along the way they meet passionate food producers of everything from heritage tomatoes, cheeses, beef, goats, mangoes and herbs, 
to exotic mushroom, shrimp, rum and salt. The boys successfully 
turn these fresh ingredients into simple, healthy and delightfully delicious recipes.

 

Jason Shon Bennett is the author of the best-selling books, Eat Less, Live 
Long ($29.99), and My 
20 Golden Rules ($39.99), 
now available at all good 
book stores and online at www.exceptionalhealth.com

 

 

Surfing the Menu, 13 part series, RRP $24.95.