Australia Blaze
Australia Day strikes a bittersweet note on our calendar signalling the end of long summer holidays and heralding the return to work and school. Many Aussies honour the landing of white man onto this great southern land, while others prefer to label it Invasion Day. Whatever your beef, there’s no better way to get ready for the year ahead than with a big Aussie BBQ with all the trimmings.
Here’s a couple of faves to ignite your taste buds, celebrate our multicultural friends and match your choice of beer. The koftas are the perfect beach snack too – once cooked, just roll ‘em and fold ‘em up in a bit of foil or baking paper. The pav can be baked a day ahead and finished in time for the party.
Delicious recipes by Samantha Gowing, www.foodhealthwealth.com
Tasty little lamb or tofu koftas
500 grams ground organic lamb – or minced tofu if you’re of the vego variety
1 large onion, chopped fine
Salt and pepper to taste
¼  teaspoon ground allspice
¼  teaspoon ground cloves
½  teaspoon cinnamon
½  bunch finely chopped parsley
1-2 tablespoons macadamia nut oil
To serve
Hot chilli or tomato sauce
Lemon wedges
- Mix all ingredients together well. Roll into cigar shapes or make little burgers about the size of a lime
- Heat the BBQ and very lightly brush grill with a little macadamia oil which has a high flashpoint, meaning it can sustain high temperatures
- Grill koftas on each side so they brown up, about 10 minutes in total and serve with your favourite tomato or hot sauce and drizzle the lamb with a little lemon juice to serve, as this helps to make the heme iron in the meat more bio-available
- Wash down with cold beer
The Power of the Pav
No matter which side of the ditch you reckon this classic comes from, it’s a national dish here in Oz and one that is so easy to make. It’s a fabulous treat and gluten free, but does have a helluva lot of sugar so go easy.
6 egg whites
2 cups caster sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla essence
1 punnet berries – strawbs, raspberries, blueberries
1 cup thick cream
- Preheat your electric oven to 150 C. If you’re using a gas oven however, you’ll need to crank up the fire to 220 C so as to ensure the gas oven is hot when it’s time to bake
- Whisk the egg whites to a stiff peak, then slowly add the vinegar and the sugar about a large spoon at a time using a high speed hand mixer or the good ol’ Kenwood if you’re lucky enough to have one still. The vinegar helps to make a fluffier meringue
- When you’ve got a sexy, glossy mix going on, you can then fold in the vanilla essence. Quickly and carefully spoon your meringue into either a greased and lined spring-form cake tin or a porcelain flan dish – both work well but the flan version means you don’t have to get it out to serve it and makes it easier to travel to your mate’s BBQ or the beach
- Turn the gas oven right down to 150 C if using gas then bake the pav for 90 minutes. If using an electric oven, bake at 150 C for 45 minutes, then turn the oven off and continue cooking with no heat set for another hour – 105 minutes in total if using electric
- When cooked, allow to cool and either remove from spring-form or leave in the flan case while you whip the cream, but please don’t add any sugar ‘cos there’s plenty in the pav already
- When the pav’s cool, spoon over the cream and then add the berries. Or you can do this bit when you get to your destination
Enjoy !!