Australian Gourmet Food Traveller

I came across this magazine 18 years ago in a farmhouse coffee shop in the English countryside. It was at a time for me when my world was quite small and restricted and that magazine opened up my world; Images of beautiful places to dream about visiting, ingredients I'd never heard of and recipes that were completely new and fresh to me. It inspired me to think that there was a bigger world beyond my own and that I could visit it.

12 years later I subscribed to the magazine, I'm not sure why it took me so long. If felt like such a treat when it came through the door and I could spend my commute reading about recipes for hay smoked panacotta and wondering what pepperberry tasted like. Not long after I finally made it to Australia! The food blew me away, it was so much more sophisticated than I was expecting. Yes there were pies, and they were great, but there were also jaffles (toasted sandwiches) with a homemade Asian slaw in little coffee shops, roasted squash with whipped feta and sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts in brew pubs and that's before you even get to the restaurants. I loved the hearty creative salads I found in Freemantle and Sydney and was lucky enough to find a copy of the " Arthur Street Community" cookbook in a second hand book shop in Sydney, here is a selection of recipes.

So after reading the magazines for so long I became obsessed with finding out what wattleseeds tasted like and Meyer lemons so I made a pilgrimage to the Essential Ingredient store in Sydney and scored some wattleseeds.

I soaked a tsp of wattleseeds overnight in almond milk to make a panacotta and it gave the milk a lovely roasted coffee/Kahlua/chocolate flavour. Unfortunately I didn't get the gelatin/almond milk ratio right and ended up with a thick panacotta soup but the flavour was lovely and I'll try again.

I just couldn't track down any Meyer lemons, apparently a good substitute is a mix of lemon and mandarin juice. When I was in Tasmania I was talking to a vineyard owner about where I could buy Meyer lemons and musing that maybe I would just buy some seeds and take them home and grow them. He pointed out that they just wouldn't taste the same due to the local plants the bees were pollinating and the local soil and growing conditions. That said I'm still determined to grow a plant to taste them!! I've found this site and have ordered a small plant :)

The Australian Gourmet Food Traveller website has tonnes of free recipes and articles to access or you can subscribe to the magazine it isn't cheap but the inspiration and pleasure it gave me was priceless.