Australian Herbs & Spices
While we’re on the subject of Australian herbs and spices, we believe they deserve more attention than a once-a-year fanfare as an Australia Day recipe feature in a food magazine. We don’t believe in pigeon-holing native spices as exclusively Aussie ingredients just because they grow here, and we are happy to apply our local ingredients to the world palette of flavours. A few examples:
Lemon myrtle: Add a pinch of lemon myrtle to a stir-fry if there is no lemongrass handy. Sprinkle over fish fillets before cooking. We recently took advantage of a surfeit of home-grown rock melons to make a delicious rock melon and lemon myrtle sorbet. Our two-year-old grandson loves Native Lemon Pepper (a mixture of lemon myrtle, salt and native pepperleaf) on avocado.
Bush Tomato/Akudjura: Add to pickles and relishes for a delicious tang and just a small amount to tomato-based pasta sauce. This fruity spice has a distinctive and unusual flavour, and if you’re not too sure about it, you may find it best to have it already carefully balanced and blended in our Native Barbecue Spice mix.
Wattleseed: Whole wattleseeds are great for infusing to achieve flavour without texture. You can infuse in warmed milk, then strain away before making a subtle panna cotta or ice cream. Ground wattleseed marries superbly with chocolate, and gives a fabulous crunch to biscuits, cheesecake bases, and muffins. We use it in our Native Barbecue and Aussie Fish Seasoning mixes to add a warm, roasted note.
Native Pepperberry/Pepperleaf: Love a pepper hit? The leaves and berries of the Tasmannia lanceolata have a lively, slightly oily peppery heat, the leaf being milder than the berry. Sadly freeze-dried whole berries are currently unavailable, so you’ll find the air-dried substitute that we’re driven to at present will be more pungent.
We hope you’re now sufficiently confident to add these Australian herbs and spices to your repertoire. If you’re still not sure, stick to our blends (Aussie Fish Seasoning, Native BBQ, Ockkah and Bushman’s Pepperpot are made using only Australian-grown products) and you can’t go wrong.