Bunya Pine Nuts: How to Prepare for Cooking

When bunyas are ready to harvest they fall to the ground. Forget about climbing up the tree to get them. The leaves are very sharp and the nuts are right at the top of the pine. When they start falling they continue for a couple of weeks in late summer. Before that you can see if a tree has many nuts by observing its crown.
Depending on the softness of the ground under the bunya tree the large cones may be intact after they drop down. If this is the case, take the whole cone home where you can get the nuts out cleanly. But usually the nuts are scattered when they hit the ground which makes it easy to get them out but they may be dirty and need washing when you get them home. They are also among sharp leaves so be careful with your hands.If your bunyas are in a cone still, break the cone open and separate the individual nuts into a container. Be careful of sharp edges.The nuts have a tough shell which is quite leathery. It needs to be cut and will not break like a walnut or almond as it is not woody. I cut them with secateurs, slicing a thin piece of the skin on the edge lengthwise. Then you can get the secateurs to grip and cut more until the kernel comes out.I have also had success with a serrated knife, but it is hard to keep the nut still while cutting.Other people use a cleaver to cut the whole nut into two pieces and then extract the two kernel halves. This may be a faster method but may also require practice and a good method for keeping the nut in place before you chop it.When you have extracted some nuts place them in water to remove the thin brown skin. This comes off easily after just a short dip in water leaving a white and brown kernel.
Bunya nuts come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Some are small, round and white, others are pointy and usually they are a little brownish. A little brown gives them more character. They should taste waxy and the little white ones tend to be a bit powdery.
You will need to cook the nuts for 30 to 45 minutes. If they are undercooked they are dry. When cooked in a sauce they adopt the flavour so be careful what you cook them with. They have a unique flavour which can be overwhelmed by other foods. Given the extensive preparation it is important to be able to taste them.
An alternative approach is to roast the nuts in their shells in hot coals as recommended by a friend. We have not tried this but are advised that the nuts are very tasty and the shell is easy to remove after being in the fire. This has been a traditional Aboriginal cooking method for millennia. The trees/forests have been cultured by Australian indigenous people in their management of abundant landscapes.
Storage
Bunyas are best eaten fresh. However, when you have found a lot of bunyas you can freeze the nuts in their shells. You need to prevent the nuts from sprouting if you want to eat them. If you keep intact cones, the nuts tend to sprout inside the cones so break them up and put the nuts in the fridge.
If your fridge is not big enough for all the nuts, store the remaining nuts in a well-aired, dry place out of the sun, for example in a string bag, to prevent fungus. A short blast of direct sunlight helps to prevent fungus growth beofre you put them in a cool place or in the fridge.

Recipes
Bunya Pine Nuts with Aubergine
Bunya Spaghetti Napolitana
Kumera Bunya Soup
Bunya Pine Nuts in Coconut Milk 
Bunya pine nuts in green tomato sauce 
Bunya Mushroom Ragout with Buckwheat noodles
Bunya Lima Bean Soup 
Bunya Nut and Macadamia Burgers
Bunya Pine Nuts with Sauerkraut and Pasta

Bunya Pine Nuts with Aubergine

GET
20 peeled Bunya Pine nuts, Araucaria bidwillii
2-3 large aubergines (eggplants)
3 leeks, the white parts only
2-3 skinned tomatoes
2 small carrots
olive oil
black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
salt
All organic & filtered water if possible

DO
Peal the aubergine partially
Cut into large pieces, salt and toss
Chop the leek finely, fry in olive oil.
Pour boiling water on the tomatoes. Stir, add chopped carrot
Skin the tomatoes, chop finely and add to pot
Cover let simmer, then add pepper & bay and a little boiling water to cover all.
Let simmer with closed lid. Add the bunya nuts, cover, let cook for approx. 30 min. After the aubergines have been drained of their dark and bitter juice a few times, wash them in filtered water and press the pieces with your hands thoroughly. Place on dry clean towel. Heat oil in frying pan and fry pieces golden.After the vegetables are nearly done add the fried aubergine pieces to the pot and simmer for another 5 – 10 minutes. The aubergine chunks should not disintegrate. The bunya should be waxy and soft. Serve hot with a green crispy salad.
See
Bunya Pine Nuts: How to Prepare for Cooking

Lemon apple compote

Get
5 medium granny smith apples
1 large juicy lemon
1 tbsp agave sirup
1/4 cup boiling water

Do
Peel and core the apples and slice into a saucepan.
Add lemon juice and flesh.
Add boiling water.
Cover the pot and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the apples break down.
Remove from the heat. Add the agave sirup and mix in.
Cool.
Serve with yoghurt.

This compote has a slightly sour character and tastes a little like lemon sago. It needs a lot of lemon juice.

Winter Banana with Macadamia Nuts

Get
Bananas (Cavendish bananas rather than Sugar bananas)
Macadamia (or any other) nuts
(Macadamia ) Oil
Agave nectar or Maple Syrup

Do
Coat flat baking dish with oil, cut up bananas lengthwise, arrange in dish, sprinkle a bit of syrup over the bananas. Put a few nuts on top and let stand on the winter oven to cook over a long period. When the room is filled with fragrant banana the dish is ready. Beware of letting it go black!
In the daytime watch the King-Parrots (Alisterus scapularis) in the banana plants.

Pilgrim biscuits

get
250 g unsalted butter
4 tbsp clear organic honey
2 eggs
100 - 200g organic macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
400g spelt flour

do
Beat the soft butter with a wooden spoon in a bowl. Add 2 tbsp honey while beating.
Use a whisk to beat in the eggs one at a time, alternating with the remaining honey.
When smooth, resume beating with the wooden spoon. Mix in half the flour gradually while beating, then the chopped macadamia nuts.
Add as much of the remaining flour to create a sticky mass (maybe all of it).
Cool in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Using 2 tablespoons. place heaped spoonfuls of the mixture on a buttered baking tray. They will spread out while baking. You can make them round or oblong according to the shape of your spoonfuls.
Bake for 25 minutes at 190°c on the second shelf from the bottom of the oven.
These soft biscuits are best served cut into slices. The biscuits are reminiscent of the twice baked almond biscotti from Tuscany. Also known as biscuits of Prato. As we would like to keep it local they are made from regional ingredients.

Pilgrimage, because the Way of St. James in Europe seems walkable and relative car-free. On the French section these nibbles would come in handy out of the backpack.

Garfish: a blog review

We were not present at the food bloggers’ night, but as we are the food blog nearest to Garfish and we do go there quite often, we will take this opportunity to review it.

Garfish is one of our preferred restaurants in Manly. There is always a good choice of fish and a range of interesting side dishes to go with it according to your taste. This is excellent flexibility. The chefs are very serious and visible and there is no question about the right of customers to send back food if they are not satisfied and have it corrected. But usually this is not necessary.

The staff are usually very pleasant. Occasionally we have experienced inadequately trained staff.
The main obstacle at Garfish is the traffic. It is better in winter or on a rainy day because the windows are closed. When it is fine, with the windows open, the car fumes can be very unpleasant, especially when they are jammed up at the lights as they usually are in Manly on a weekend at lunchtime. Motor bikes and vintage cars are the worst.
The second structural problem is the smoking area at the entrance. Again the windows are usually open when it is fine and the smoke fills the entire eating area. If you complain about the smoke the staff ask the smokers to stop, but complaining somehow spoils the ambience (am I the management?). In the interests of customers and staff if would be advisable to prevent smoke drift

It could also be informative to display information about fish and food on the plasma display panel instead of videocapture 'boat parking on the harbour'. Some customers would like to know where the fish/seafood is sourced from, aquaculture, place of origin etc.

UPDATE 14082011
After many disappointing meals we do not go there anymore...

Image: The roofed smoking area of Garfish, view of Wentworth St, Manly

Red Cabbage and Beetroot Stew

Get
Half a medium size red cabbage
A bunch of beetroot
3 small onions
3 bay leaves
Some agave syrup

Some Feta (Goat)
2 Tsp wholemeal flour
Marjoram
Olive oil

Do
Steam and peel the beets. Cut onions in wedges, fry in oil. Dice the cabbage finely. Fry, then add a little bit of boiling water. Add the bay, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes. Chop the beet in to large pieces, add a few drops of agave syrup, cover and simmer till all is heated.

Mix the flour and Marjoram on a large plate. Cut up the feta in 1 cm high wedges. Press them into the flour mixture a couple of times till it sticks. Oil a backing dish, place wedges gently on it and cook for 20 min at 200 °C or until the feta is golden and crisp.Serve with steamed potatoes, yogurt with a bit of chives and a green salad.

Sugar Banana Cake

We were fortunate to be able to harvest these bananas from a tree in the garden whilst in the Dorrigo/ Bellingen region. The recipe will work with any bananas of course. You can use more bananas mashed up and vary the amount of macadamia nuts. There is a fine balance between underbaking and leaving a soft uncooked centre and overbaking leaving the cake too brown.

Get
300g organic macadamias
10 fat ripe sugar bananas (more if small)
some lemon juice
6 tbsp honey
4 eggs separated
140g unsalted butter
half a vanilla pod
some grated lemon rind
about 150g flour
4 tsp baking powder (no aluminium or phosphate, quantity depends on the type of baking powder, do not use too much)

Do
Peel 4 bananas, cut them up and sprinkle with lemon juice. Set aside.
Beat the butter in a large bowl with a wooden spoon until it is soft. Beat in alternately the egg yolks and 5 tbsp honey. Beat well into a soft mixture.
Mash the remaining 6 bananas. Beat them into the mixture one at a time.
Cut the vanilla pod along one side and scrape the inside into the mixture. Grate a little lemon rind into it.
Grate the macadamias finely. Beat them into the mixture gradually.
Add the flour a tablespoon at a time while beating. Alternately add the baking powder so it mixes in evenly. Only use enough flour so that the mixture is thick but still falls slowly - “heavily” - from the spoon (maybe only 3-4 tbsps). Beat well.Whip the egg whites until stiff, then add the remaining honey and continue beating until stiff.
Lift the egg whites under the mixture.
Preheat the oven to 190°. Butter a baking ring (spring form) and dust it with a little flour.
Add 2/3 of the mixture to the form and spread it evenly to cover the whole bottom. Place the banana pieces on top and press in a little. Cover with the remaining mixture.
Bake on the 2nd shelf from the bottom for 35 minutes. If it starts to get too brown cover it with paper after 25 minutes. It should be golden. Test with a thin knife that it is cooked. The knife should come out clean. If it is not clean, return covered to the oven for another 10 minutes and test again.
Remove from form and cool.
Store in a linen cloth.

Another
Sugar banana almond cake

Macadamia-Lime Marzipan Macaroons with Honey

No eggs, no flour, no dairy, no sugar.

This recipe is quite simple to make and takes little time. You can vary the amount of honey and lime to taste. Use a local honey. Tallow wood is good in Australia, Linden in Europe.

Get
500 g organic macadamia nuts, raw
8 tbsp honey, e.g. tallow wood, or linden, lime flowers
3-4 limes

Do
Grate nuts finely with a hand grater. Add honey and mix in. Add enough of the lime juice to make a paste. It should hold all the gratings together. The paste is quite sticky.
Preheat the oven to 180°c. Oil 2 baking trays (use macadamia oil or butter).
Use 2 spoons to form the paste into almost oval shaped pieces and place them on the baking dishes.
Bake for 12 minutes on the second shelf from the bottom until slightly golden. Turn off oven. Leave in open oven for another 10 minutes.
Remove from baking trays onto plates.
Cool.
These macaroons are quite moist because of the lime juice. Store on a plate wrapped in a linen cloth to prevent them becoming soggy.
An alternative presentation is to spread the paste onto the baking trays and cut it into rectangles when it is baked.

Serve with herbal tea, such as Lemon-scented verbena, Lime flowers , Lemon Myrtle, (Backhousia citriodora) or any other drink you fancy
Alterations for the southern hemisphere could be to use Australian limes, such as Citrus glauca, C. australasica or C. australis

Lemon slices

This is a new recipe for lemon slices which we developed while living next to a few well-endowed lemon trees. The slices are very juicy and the filling is very thick. It is an alternative to the lemon slices recipe previously published, but more time consuming.

get
300 g light wholemeal flour
2 tbsp honey
1 egg
140 g butter

500 g almonds
5 tbsp honey
4 juicy lemons

7 tbsp icing sugar

do
Add honey then egg in the middle of the flour in a bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon into a paste and then into the flour. Add butter in flakes. Knead to a pastry. If it is sticky add more flour. If it is too dry, add more butter. Cool for 15 minutes covered with a linen cloth (tea towel).
Blanch almonds. Grate finely with a hand grater.
Grate the lemon peel into the almond meal. Add the juice of 3.5 lemons. Add the honey. Mix to a sticky paste.Sieve the icing sugar. Add lemon juice slowly until it is a thick liquid while mixing with a spoon. If there is too much lemon juice add the rest to the almond paste.
Preheat the oven at 190°c. Butter two baking trays.
Roll out half of the pastry on a linen tea towel. Turn it over from time to time and use the tea towel to fold over and straighten the the edges. Roll out a thin pastry, rectangular if your baking tray is rectangular. When it is as thin as possible, turn it again and cut into the pastry along the middle so two identical rectangles are mirrored by the cut.
Spread half of the almond paste on one side evenly, right to the edges. Use the tea towel to lift to other side onto the first so it fits exactly. Use the flat edge of a knife to press the almond paste inside the pastry, straightening the edges.
Place on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes on the second shelf from the bottom.
Remove from the oven and paint with half of the icing while hot. Allow to cool.
Repeat with the other half of the pastry and the rest of the almond paste.
When cool, or before serving, cut off edges for private use. Cut into slices about 2 x 6 cm for public presentation.Store on a plate wrapped in a fine linen cloth. Linen is highly absorbent so the biscuits will remain dry. Do not put in a tin or under a bowl or they will go soggy quickly. Use fine linen to prevent linen fibre getting on the biscuits.


Macadamia Lemon Slices without icing

Chilli Hot Bean Soup

"A world in which many worlds are possible."

Zapatista slogan, via Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Commonwealth, 2009

Chilli hot bean soup or
Bishops Crown Red (Barbados) capsicum soup with Pintos/ Barlottis - another Meso-american inspired mash-up from the garden.

GET
500 g Pintos/or Barlotti beans
Olive oil, organic
3 medium onions, chopped
6+ large cloves Russian Garlic (Allium Ampeloprasum) sliced or minced
500 g ripe Tomatoes, peeled, diced
350 g Bishops Crown Red peppers / any red Capsicum
4 fresh red hot chillies (know your variety!)
400 g Carrots
2 Zucchinis
500 ml hot vegetable stock/ water
Some Herbs: Bay leaves, Marjoram, Rosemary, Parsley
Ground black pepper

DO
Soak beans overnight. Boil with 3 bay leaves and some pepper corns.

Cut onion finely and sauté in a large pot. Add chopped carrots, fry. Add the diced tomatoes and some herbs. Cover and simmer for a short time.

Cut and seed capsicums and chillies, cut into thin strips. Keep a bit of the capsicum aside. Toss in most of the garlic. Add to vegetable pot. Pour in as much stock so that all vegetables are covered.

When the beans are cooked, remove bay leaves and pour contents into the other pot. Add the finely cubed zucchinis. Simmer, add more stock if required. Shortly before serving, add the remaining garlic, capsicum and chopped parsley for of a dash of colour.

Serve with corn bread, a crisp green salad and a good conversation about inspiring books. Black Sapote for a cooling dessert.

Asparagus with Parmesan

Get
1 kg of Asparagus ( Asparagus officinalis )
Some Parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano)
Some good Olive Oil
Some Parseley

Do
Wash the asparagus
Snap off the woody bits at the bottom
Peel with asparagus peeler
Keep peel and bottom bits for a vegetable stock (in fridge)
Boil water in steamer and add vegetables
Simmer at low heat for 15 minutes
Shave Parmesan finely

Arrange asparagus on warm platter. Dribble some of the olive oil on them.
Sprinkle with the Parmesan flakes. Add some chopped parseley around the edge of plate.

Serve with fresh potatoes or any other dish.

Should you have picked some wild green asparagus (Ornithogalum pyrenaicum), steam for a shorter time or serve raw.

Pear apple pie

Get organic
450g wholemeal spelt flour
1 heaped tbsp honey
2 eggs
125g butter

1 kg ripe yellow pears
500g apples
1 tbsp water
150g almonds

50g icing sugar
pear schnapps

Do
Put flour in a large bowl.
Add honey in the middle and eggs.
Mix together with some flour into a paste.
Cut in butter. Mix.
Knead together into a pastry. Add more flour if sticky, more butter if not smooth. Cool.

Peel pears and apples and core them. Slice into a large pot. Slice the apples very thinly, pears more chunky.
Add water and cook at a medium temperature on the stove with the lid on until soft. Use apples which break down into a mash quickly. The pears should keep their shape. Turn of heat.
Finely grate 100g almonds with a hand grater.
Blanch 50g whole almonds.
Add to the apples. Mix carefully.

Butter a 28 cm round spring form.
Cut pastry into 3 pieces for the pie (2 equal, one smaller).
Roll out one piece for the bottom, make 3 cm sides with the small piece. Save the other piece for the top.
Cover the bottom of the pie shell with greaseproof paper and put a few weights on it (e.g. nuts or metal spoons).
Bake on second shelf for 10 minutes at 190°.
Remove from oven, remove paper and weights.
Fill the pie with the pear-apple mixture.
Roll out the remaining pastry and cover the pie with it.
Press down the edges using a patterned object (e.g. knife tip, lemon zester) to seal the pie.
Bake a further 20 minutes.
Loosen the pie from the bottom and sides of the form with a knife after 30 minutes and remove from form . Cool.
Sieve icing sugar. Mix in pear schnapps until a sticky mass forms. Paint this on the pie with a spoon and smooth over. Use lemon juice as an alternative to alcohol.

This is more a pear pie than an apple pie so it is important to use apples that break down into a mash quickly when cooking them, e.g. rubinola. Pears give off quite a lot of juice when cooking so the ground almonds are necessary to soak it up. The whole almonds give a pleasant surprise.
>> Apple pie

Beetroot Soup

Get organic
8 medium beetroots
(Beta vulgaris)
4 medium potatoes
4 medium young parsley roots
4 medium onions
Some olive oil, a bay leaf, caraway seeds, lovage
1 l vegetable stock
1 TBS agave syrup/honey

Herbs, chopped: dill, chives, parsely
1 cup of kefir/ joghurt

DO
Boil cleaned beets, potatoes and parsnip till tender, peel them. Chop onions finely, fry in olive oil. When golden, add cubed vegetables. Cover with hot vegetable stock, add dry herbs and syrup. Simmer for 25 min. Add more stock so all is covered. Serve with the fresh herbs and dairy hot or cold.

This Borscht-like vegetarian soup comes in many varieties. ( Borscht, East Prussian, Lithuanian, Polish, etc.) Which ever way the beets are prepared, the B6 and B2 have many health benefits.