Dreamer2

Hi all!

This is my first time posting on the Australian board, although I'm a regular over on US, Europe, and Caribbean. A post on the US board inspired me to post here to help my daughter acquire an Australian recipe for a school project. (Not to worry, she and her partner are doing the project themselves (and in great depth!)

Does anyone have a "traditional" or uniquely AUSTRALIAN recipe? (Especially a "finger food" that would be convenient to bring to an international/culural event.)

Thanks in advance for any help!

lizF

Ok this might not classify as "finger food" but it sure goes done well if displayed nicely with say smoked salmon and can be used as an entree ( used in the Australian term entree ) or decorated with strawberries for desert.
Avocado and lime moose (sp??? ) caffeine has not kicked in and for the life of me I cannot think of the spelling.
Then there is Paw Paw ( papaya ) soufle'
Of course there is the Australian or NZ ( depending on who you are talking to ) Pavlova.
Gramma Pie
Caramel tarts ( similiar to 'Dulce con leche' in Latin America)
Anzac biscuits
Pumpkin scones
Meat pie floaters

So just tell me which one sounds good and I will do it write it up for you.

Dreamer2

Thanks, Liz! Both the Caramel Tarts and Pumpkin Scones sound great to my daughter. Either one you'd care to type up would be most appreciated!

And I have a question regarding the avocado and lime mouse... This is something that can be served with strawberries as a dessert OR with smoked salmon as an appetizer??? Cool! Could you give me that recipe as well? I hate to be too greedy asking for favors, but that would be such a unique addition to our Christmas party menu!

By the way, I have not been able to figure out our time differences yet. Could you state the date and time within your reply post, so I can compare it to the EST date stamp? (Thanks for humoring my stupidity!)

And thanks again in advance for your help with the recipe!

Neil_Oz

Liz - meat pie floaters? Are you trying to ruin American-Australian relations?

Dreamer2

LOL!!!

pat_woolford

Dreamer 2 - lamingtons might be the shot - they're easy to pack and transport. Schools here have "lamington drives" to raise money - they're just a plain sponge cake cut into indivual size slabs which are rolled in a chocolate mixture then covered with dessicated coconut. Fancier versions are sliced through the centre and feature jam (jelly) and whipped cream.

Dreamer2

Ooooh, sounds yummy! Is it like Ladies' Fingers (if you know what they are)? I wonder if a "Lamington Drive" is like what we call a "Bake Sale." That's actually interesting local info I'll pass on to my daughter. I doubt she'd find that in National Geographic!

margo_oz

Yes -I was going to say lamo's, but Pat beat me to it!

It's 1.38pm, on Tuesday 16 November, here. Just about lamington time!

Dreamer2

Okay, thanks, Margo! So that's 16 hours ahead, right?
I always try to imagine what's going on in other places, and I get so confused once it's more than a half day in either direction. Once I short-changed our hotel reservations by a day going in the other direction! Thanks for indulging my request. I am definitely time-zoned challenged. But I redeem myself with monetary conversions!

Dreamer2

test of posting problems

Dreamer2

Yikes, the above reply will probably repeat about 20 times once this thing starts working again... Sorry!

lizF

LIME AND AVOCADO MOUSSE
Yes this can be used as a desert with perhaps whipped cream and strawberries/rasberries etc or decorated with blood orange wedges or in fact anything that makes is look good against its lime colour! OR if using it as a starter then its absolutely delicious with smoked salmon or on a bed of lettuce with just about anything around it.
450 ml (3/4 pint) (2 cups) water
1 packet of line jelly ( jello)
1 large Avocado
70 ml (2 1/2 fl oz) (1/3 cup) double cream OR any really good whipping cream
15 ml (1 tablesp) lime juice or lemon if you have no lime

Heat water and dissolve the jelly in it and stir well. Mash the Avocado or pass it through a sieve. Whip the cream. Add the avo pulp to the cream and the jello and add the lime juice and whisk it again when it is almost set whisk it again until it is light and fluffy. Pour into a mould and leave to set. When set decorate however you want it and serve.
This is an absolute winner and so easy. When adding lime juice I would usually add more as I prefer it to be more limey than not.
Can't find the good Pumpkin Scone recipe as it was on a Tea Towel and I cannot find that.....sorry but someone else may have a really good recipe.
The caramel tarts are fun..... I used to use a can of condenced milk and heat it in a pressure cooker till it was like caramel but after blowing up the pressure cooker and having caramel dripping from the ceiling I stopped doing that. I would say that you could get "dulce con leche" already made without having to scrape it off the ceiling in the US from any store with Latin American groceries. Just fill a tart case and pipe with whipped cream.
However I am going to give you this Australian recipe for caramel dumplings which are devine - take no time at all and are very economical.
1 1/4 cups of self raising flour
pinch salt
1 oz of butter
1/3 cup sugar
teasp vanilla 1/3 cup milk
Sift flour add salt and sugar and rub in butter add combined vanilla and milk - this you make into little dumplings later
Sauce
1 oz butter
1 1/2 cups of the very brownest sugar you can get.
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of water

Put all the sauce ingredients into a saucepan and stir till boiling, reduce the hear and drop tablespoonfuls of the dumpling dough into the simmering sauce, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream and/or icecream and/or custard.

Not finger food.......sorry..... but nonetheless really nice!

pat_woolford

Good stuff Liz - I'll be doing that mousse today - will make a change from mashing the avos into guacamole.

Dreamer2 - not sure what you mean by "lady's fingers" in US, we do have such things but they in no way resemble a good old lamo. For recipe see www.aussie-info.com - you'll also see recipes there for damper, Anzac biscuits, pavlova. With pavlova, we rely heavily on fresh passionfruit as topping, something I don't think is available in US.

Dreamer2

Oh yum! THese all sound delightful. I'm very excited that the avocado mouse sounds so easy; I will definitely use it this holiday season.

Well, I am having a wonderful time talking with all you people half way around the world and upside down! I just think this is so cool. I have a really stupid question to ask you now. I've always wondered about how Australian children's books represent the seasons. I guess January just starts with summer? And when you get to June it shows snowmen? And how is Christmas represented as a "season?"

Thank you all for tolerating my silliness, and not responding with nasty comments. I hate to say, I don't think I could get away with it on the U.S. board!

lizF

Nasty? Never? well not since I went down and flattened Neil to keep him quiet. But now that he has promised to behave himself it will be fine.
Aussie kids know that they are "different" and that people in other parts of the world have "snow" and such at Xmas time so its not a problem.
Children's books come in both ways - summer starts about October in most of Australia - well kind of, and winter is mostly on TV except where Neil lives and they know all about COLD!
Pat: tell me what you think about the mousse, I used to make it for breakfasts in the B&B or as a lunch snack ( special ones ) and people would phone to make a booking and request it.

Daneille

You could do vegemite sandwiches. Liberally butter 2 slices of white bread, spread one slice with vegemite top with the other slice of bread, remove the crusts and cut into triangles.

For some reason a lot of butter with vegemite goes very well indeed.

Don't know if you can get vegemite readily in the US but for some reason this site seems to have it by mail order
www.britishdelights.com/marmite.htm

PS: Marmite is the British version but they have dinkum vegemite on this site as well.

Otherwise www.about-australia-shop.com

Neil_Oz

Liz, I hate to disappoint you, but my silence has been due more to the recent flakiness of the Fodors site than anything. On top of that I've been kept very busy swatting down a few of your right-wing mates on the Europe board. The job is never-ending. Sorry, luv, just haven't had the time. Plus, I think Fodors must have killed that thread after your last courageous defence of the small business community. (I wouldn't have, I thought it was pretty stirring stuff, but there you are.)

All that aside, I can't compete with Liz on the culinary front. Dreamer2, you need to know that Australia is a very big country with climates ranging from tropical through subtropical (where Liz lives) to cool temperate. And then there's the national capital, Canberra (where I live), which most Australians are convinced approximates Tierra del Fuego. Well, let 'em, we say. They're missing out on Australia's best-kept secret, and more fool them.

To the point: snow does fall in higher altitudes in the south-east of the continent, but few Australians have experienced it. Christmas in most of the country (Arctic Canberra excepted) can be baking hot. The weird thing is that we still buy Christmas cards showing snow-laden conifers, and many of us still sweat cooking a stuffed turkey. In my case last 25th December, quite severely stuffed, as I put too many heat beads in the Weber, but that's another story.

Dreamer2

Thanks for the info to satisfy my curiosity! Yes, Christmas in Florida or Texas is celebrated much the same way... Pictures of snow scenes abound ... but the residents buy their Christmas evergreen trees in lots surrounded by palm trees or cactus, while dressed in shorts! Just how cold does it get in Canberra, Neil?

lizF

Dreamer, I have it on good authority that last Christmas in Canberra was very cold ( or was that Wellington NZ ) as friends had to wear their trakkies.
As for cold - Canberra can be cold one day and hot the next. It bakes like an oven in summer and freezes over in winter - like the breath of the politicians ( who live there) when you ask them for tax reforms.

Neil_Oz

Actually, Liz, the pols don't live here - they breeze in for a few days a week while Parliament is in session, then out again. They're your pols, after all, not ours.

Canberra is a mostly pol-free zone. We have just 17 MLAs to cover all the stuff that state and local governments do elsewhere, plus on the federal level 2 MHRs and 2 senators. Compare that with Tasmania, which with 50% more people than Canberra has 5 MHRs, 12 senators, 35 (I think) state MPs and a swag of local councils. Imagine what the Tassie unemployment rate would look like if anyone ever got around to rationalising that lot.

Everyone seems to think that Canberra summers are extremely hot, but for most of the 20 years I've lived here most have been comfortable (the last 2-3 years have been hotter, though, and for the first time we're thinking of putting in air conditioning). Unlike Queensland's soggy summers it's a dry heat - much easier to deal with. And best of all, we have four seasons.

If we could afford to, though, we'd probably summer in Canberra and winter on the Sunshine Coast.