Red's Bush Tucker thread

[RedPhoenix]

I've been asked to put together a thread that shows a few bush-related foods that go well with fish.

I'll concentrate on the ones that are found commonly around the south-coast of NSW and the ACT, because that's the region I'm most familiar with, many of these plants can be found up and down the coast, potentially slightly different varieties.

Lets start with a nice & easy one.

Lilli Pilli



The Lilli Pilli is commonly found from north of Sydney, all the way down the south coast of NSW - typically around coastal regions, and often in areas of current or vestigial rain forest. The tree tends to be around 4 meters high at maturity, but may be dwarfed around regular wind areas.

During winter and spring (depending on the variety), the Lilli Pilli tree will erupt in masses of red, pink, white or blue fruit (around 1cm diameter per fruit, at their largest). Fruit will generally persist into summer in most areas.

Most varieties are fairly astringent - and generally have a somewhat lemon-ish taste. The fruit responds reasonably well to cooking once the single internal seed is removed, though the addition of sugar (preferably brown) is recommended.

The fruit can be eaten straight from the tree, but I'd recommend choosing the larger more ripe fruit, as they've had a chance to develop a bit of sugar internally. Eat around the seed (like an apple), or squeeze the seed out first.

Generally a good fruit to add in with foil-wrapped fish after removing the seeds, or ripe fruits can be added to a salad in small numbers.

Try flathead or pike, with lemon, honey-soaked lilli pilli, pre-browned/caramelised onion, and sliced apple.

Red.

[YakAtak]

Cool idea

[RedPhoenix]

Warragul Greens



One of the few Aussie/NZ natives that have been successfully exported overseas, Warragul Greens - otherwise known as new-zealand spinach, or botony spinach, is grown in the US, Brazil, and Costa Rica, amongst other places - but doesn't seem to be grown commercially in Australia or NZ.

Warragul greens can be found up and down the coast, usually in shady areas - look in the grassy areas around lakes and rivers, or nestled at the base of cliffs around the beach. The shadier the location, the bigger the leaves, in general.

The leaves have a slightly bitter taste when raw, comparible to some varieties of salad lettuce - and they can be used raw in a salad.

Microwaved in butter for around 15 seconds, they provide a good layer of greenery on which to pop a grilled fish. Popped inside a abdominal cavity with a bit of tomato, they'll help keep a fish moist while baking, and the bigger leaves are absolutely great for wrapping curried kangaroo strips (marinated in soy sauce) and rice, into balls for a side-dish to your fish.

Any recipe that calls for spinach, substitute warragul greens in equal amounts.

Responds well to cultivation - throw a few seeds, or a plant or two, in a shady corner of your garden, and you'll have fresh 'spinach' all year, without having to worry about fertaliser, snail bait or anything else. About all you'll need to do, is attack it with a big pair of clippers every six months or so.

Red.

[RedPhoenix]

Samphire



Samphire is a plant that is starting to be picked up by English restaurants. It's found around salt-water rivers and lakes, usually in the upper 'king' tidal areas. Pretty expensive if you get them in a restaurant. Pretty cheap if you pick a few on the way back from fishing.

Quite salty if eaten raw, it takes on a nearly bean-like character when boiled lightly in water (important: not salt water) for around 5 minutes. The centre of each stem contains a 'stringy' core. Try to take the top half-to-third of the stems, as the core is soft and edible.

Snapper with Samphire
Boil the samphire in unsalted water for approximately 5 minutes.

Ingredients: Snapper fillets, pipis to garnish, butter
Ingredients for the sauce: pinch of saffron, 1 Tbsp flour, 300ml milk, butter

Melt a bit of butter in a saucepan and fry the snapper 2/3 minutes each side.

In another small pan, prepare the sauce by melting a bit of butter. Add milk, flour, saffron and a pinch of salt. Bring to boil, then reduce for approximately 5 minutes until thick.

Lightly steam or boil the pipis in salty water (not too much, or they get very tough).

Serve the snapper with a bit of sauce, pipis, and the boiled samphire.

Red.

[RedPhoenix]

Bunya Nut



It's a pitty this tree isn't more wide-spread around Australia, but it makes up for it by being all over the place in south-east Queensland. During bunya-nut season, aboriginal groups from very far away, would converge on the bunya mountains in SE QLD near Toowoomba, to share in the bunya harvest.

The nut is a little flowery raw, and really should be cooked - either boiled lightly salted, and mixed with something like potato (or Yam, if you can find them!), or toasted in the coals of a fire.

Here's a recipe that recommends monk-fish, but you could probably replace any white-fleshed fish (Snapper, bream, etc). I'd recommend swapping the watercress for warragal greens, and you could use 'allspice' and a bit of finely chopped sundried tomato or tomato sauce, rather than 'rainforest rub':
Pan-fried monkfish with bunya nut hash, rocket and macadamia nut pesto


Red.

[YakAtak]

YYYYUUUUUUMMMMMMM

[Salty Dog]

Good on ya repheonix - good thread mate - very interesting. I had only read of samphire in some English recipes. didn't even know we had it!

[PeterJ]

Great thread .
bush tuka

[Mushi]

Excellent thread Red, much appreciated and opens the eyes to whats around us

[Mushi]

Excellent thread Red, much appreciated and opens the eyes to whats around us

[RedPhoenix]

Ta Guys. Very true Dave - after I started learning about bush foods, it's amazing how much more stuff you see on a bushwalk - it's like your eyes suddenly work out how to see in infra-red or something - plants that were previously part of the scenery, just seem to jump out at you.

Sea Celery



Sometimes known as 'Sea Parsley', this plant has a taste very much like celery, and can be used to spice up a salad, chopped up and used as part of a 'herbed grilled fish', or used in a stew. Quite nice raw - a fairly intense celery flavor. Responds pretty well to cultivation - I have a bunch growing on my window-sill at the moment in Canberra.

Generally found along the coastal foreshore, or along the upper tracts of salt-water rivers, sea celery is a light green plant, that can grow up to a meter in diameter from a central root, with runners radiating out. It doesn't grow very high, in general. Grows small white flowers in summer/autumn (star-shaped).

Currently under evaluation in SA as a small-scale commercial crop.

Here's a recipe for "Sea Parsley Marinated King Snapper and Hervey Bay Scallops, Strawberries, Teardrop Tomatoes and Mache Salad, with Pepperleaf and White Balsamic"


"Red Ochre" in north Adelaide also do a "Sea Parsley Crusted Chicken Breast" which looks pretty good. Red Ochre in Cairns also do a "Baked barramundi fillet with lemon aspen, herb and bunya nut crust-sea parsley burnt butter" also. Mmmm.

Red.

[Milt]

Jezz I thought i was the only one that dreamt about food all day.

You Red are the akkf busher tucker king!!!

Milt,

[RedPhoenix]

Acacia Seeds / Leaves

This is an interesting one. Although many species of wattle seed can be eaten, I won't concentrate on that aspect, because there's so many varieties out there, and I'm not sure all are edible.

However, one interesting thing about most wattles, is that the seed pods, and some leaves, usually contain a chemical under the 'Rotenone' family in varying quantities, and sometimes 'saponin'. Rotenones are harmless to humans, and saponins are fine unless they get into your blood-stream in high quantities (saponin's are used in soaps and toothpastes quite often, so don't worry about them too much).

Both chemical families however, draw the oxygen out of water very well. As such, although I wouldn't recommend using this in a non-life-threatening situation, if you ever desperately need to find something to eat, grab a good couple of handfulls of the wattle seed pods (preferably dried - the ones that curl up into tight spirals are usually the best) and leaves from a wattle tree nearby, take them down to a small pool of water (no larger than a kids wading pool) that is likely to have fish under ledges etc., and start rubbing the seed pods together in the water.

If you notice a light foam start to form, you've picked the right wattle. Keep rubbing, and try to mix the foam down into the water. After 5-10 mins or so (depending on the wattle, and the volume of water), fish will start to float to the surface - they won't have enough oxygen to breath. This might give you enough for a feed, or potentially some fish to use as bait.

Keep in mind that the pond is now practically dead - fish, frogs, most insects, etc - so don't try this unless you need to. It'll take a while to regenerate, unless this is a tidal pool.

Red.

[RedPhoenix]

Native Cherry



These trees are great - one of my favorites. Easy to identify, and produce a nice fruit. Around summer, they start pushing out small fruit that is almost, but not quite, exactly UNlike a cherry (except, on some varieties, the colour is somewhat similar). Just about every year, the fruits make their way into my christmas salads. You generally have to fight the birds for them though.

I haven't worked out a way to use them with fish yet, but they're great as part of a side-dish.

The tree is a saprophyte - it generally needs to grow next to a gum tree. I'm not sure exactly why, but you almost never see them far from the roots of a gum.

Pick the fruit when it turns a deepish red colour (though some species turn a clearish-pink/purple instead). The yellow or green fruits don't have enough sugar to be tasty. They have a dark green oval-shaped seed on the outside of the fruit (at the end).

The leaves of the tree can be thrown on the fire to keep the mozzies away.

Native cherries grow practically everywhere around Australia - they're not limited to the coast. The ones up north will have a slightly broader leaf (and are usually darker), but the fruit looks pretty much the same.

Red.

[RedPhoenix]

Paperbark Tree


Otherwise known as a 'tea tree' because of the way that they tend to stain rivers the colour of tea, paperbark trees tend to line waterways around Australia.

Although the paperbark doesn't provide much in the way of bush tucker directly (though the flower nectar can taste slightly honey-like in spring/summer), the bark is very useful for steaming, or even smoking, fish.

With a knife, cut off a section of the bark big enough to wrap your fish in (along the tree is better than around). Try not to take too much bark from a single tree - don't go deep enough to cause damage, and try to leave at least half of the radius of trees bark in place (ie: only take from one side). Although paperbark is very good at recovering from bark removal, it can reduce it's fire resistance, so if you need reasonable quantities, grab from several trees.

Wrap your fish in the paperbark, throw in a few other herbs, veges, or whatever takes your fancy, tie off the ends with a tough reed of some sort (eg: lamandra leaves), and throw the fish in under the coals of a fire for a few minutes.

Here's a link to a recipe for Paperbark smoked Barra:
http://www.dining-downunder.com/index.php?id=91

Red.