My mouth was watering as I watched Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall collect fist sized walnuts fresh from a nut orchard in Devon and then bake them into a walnut and honey tart, accompanied by creamy celeriac ice cream! (Watch this space, I'm going to try that recipe!).
Drop net prawn fishing is next, the most sustainable way of catching prawns. The prawns are cooked on the wharf to capture that exquisite 'sea fresh sweetness' and then, back in the kitchen, tossed into fiercely hot oil, with a pinch of garlic and chilli, a dash of cider brandy and a knob of butter. Served in martini glasses, this makes for a delicious prawn cocktail no matter what the season or what part of the world you're in, methinks. Also on the menu, there's an array of bite sized canapés, including chestnut and sage soup, and tender free range wild boar with roasted Brussels sprouts, parsnip puree and boar stock gravy. And then those walnuts again. What a cracker of a Christmas get together! The River Cottage Christmas Special will screen on ABC1 on Saturday, 22 December at 6.00pm.
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If I had the opportunity to be reincarnated, I think I might like to come back as Maggie Beer. I've had the pleasure of meeting Maggie and bringing to her to Canberra some years ago. Her smile, her down to earth generosity and genuine warmth is so endearing. Not to mention she always looks so elegant, is modest... and one heck of a good cook! To celebrate the festive season Maggie invites some special guests to the ultimate Australian Christmas Feast in the beautiful surroundings of her own property in the Barossa Valley. 'I’m simply a country cook who lives in the Barossa where I’m surrounded by fantastic product. This gave me the idea for a feast where I would think of my special local food producers and link their products to my favourite dishes, and then have the producers come to the table underneath my gum trees to celebrate.' Maggie’s menu is inspired by her own family Christmas celebrations. There are two absolute traditions on the Beer family table. Yabbies from the dam, served outside and eaten using fingers, and a goose in the centre of the table. Maggie adds a perfectly glazed ham, slow-roasted lamb, pork, char-grilled beef, some fish and oysters, all accompanied by a variety of salads. Maggie's husband, Colin, also steps up to the plate! Top this off with a special surprise recital while three stunning desserts and a variety of local cheeses are served in the ‘top shed’ and this is a feast not to be missed. Maggie Beer's Christmas Feast will screen on ABC1 on Tuesday, 18 December at 8.00pm. To set the scene, here's a preview. Season's eatings! In Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong series two, the acclaimed chef ventures even deeper into the Mekong region visiting previously communities and food cultures in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The journey begins in Vientiane, Laos before crossing the Mekong into Cambodia. Book your seats on the sofa. The program commences on Thursday, 25 October at 8.00pm on SBS One.
If you happened to watch ABC's breathtaking series, Great Southern Land recently, you will have learned that Australia eats the most beetroot in the world, and exports 70,000 tonnes of rice per year. On a continent with just 6% of precious arable land, we support almost 23 million people, and 120,000 farms produce almost everything we eat!
In episode one, titled Great Australian Bite, Professor Steve Simpson, explored how we satisfy an appetite for two of life’s vital ingredients: food and power - as seen from above. Simpson set off on a journey to unravel the network of food production by tracing the ingredients of a humble Australian burger, travelling from Roma in Queensland to Adelaide; from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula and to Queensland’s Glass House Mountains. Viewers were taken from the stunning Snowy Mountains, to Tasmania, south west Victoria, Lake Macquarie in NSW, Burdekin in Queensland and the outback of Western Australia. Seen from above how a vast nation is fed and powered is an eye-opening adventure... this is Australia as you’ve never seen her before! The four-episode series of Great Southern Land is available on Blu-ray and DVD from 21 November and I have TWO copies of the DVD valued at $29.95 each to give away! ENTER THE COMPETITION HERE! To be in the running to win a copy of the Great Southern Land DVD, simply tell me about your favourite Farmers Market in the comment box below. What do you love about it? What makes you want to return again and again. If you tweet about this competition to me @bizzylizzycooks, you will have a greater chance of winning. The Great South Land DVD competition is open to residents across Australia. It closes at midnight on 12 December 2012. Winners will be notified by email and announced here. So make sure you enter and watch this space. In the event you don't win, perhaps you can ask the family to pop a copy in your Christmas stocking! Would you look differently at your roast lamb if you had to kill the lamb yourself? This is an interesting and thought provoking question, particularly in the light of the publicity given to recent incidents of animal cruelty in Australia and abroad.
Documentarian and meat-eater, Madeleine Parry, says she was taught how to kill, gut and cook a chicken by her grandmother. Now she wants to explore whether you can really eat meat and still care about the animals on the menu. So she enlists to become a meat-worker at a small abattoir, and works her way up the production line to the ‘killbox’. After a week of shovelling manure and hosing blood, plus all the other dirty work in between, Madeleine learns how to stun and then kill a sheep. The following day, a cow. And later, a pig, on which she says pigs don't let you forget that you are killing them. This is raw, totally down to earth reality TV that is likely to make viewers think long and hard about ethical eating. And that's a really good thing! Meatwork screens on ABC2 on Sunday, 11 November 2012 at 9.30pm and is part of an ABC TV and Screen Australia initiative called Opening Shot, where five young filmmakers were given the chance to make a documentary to be broadcast on ABC2. |
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