On the show today, the tales of two Canadians & a hula queen.  The first Canadian is Juniper, who made such good Canadian style granola (it was invented just South of the border you know, in New York) that her friends kept asking for more.  She thought she’d make a few kilos a week to help finance her art, three years later she has a thriving organic business with fiance Adam.  Adam’s no. 1 tip for anyone thinking of starting an organic food processing business is: “Don’t do what we did, plan and research and get organised”.

It was refreshing to hear that the organic certification process gives producers a lot of information and support, as well as very tight rules to follow.  Did you know that a certified organic kitchen is even restricted in the types of cleaning materials they can use?

We also started a new series on favourite breakfasts – with muesli of course.  Another tip from Adam is make sure you check the ingredients in what we call ‘natural’ muesli, i.e. raw mueslis, as some have quite high amounts of sugar.

If you’d like to make you own toasted muesli, or just find out the method, there is a recipe as well as a review of 159 (!)  mueslis on the fabulous choice (consumer association) website here.

 

GRANUESLI [GRANOLA] BARS – by Juniper of  The Unexpected Guest

 

We recently made some chocolate Granuesli bars for us to enjoy and share with visitors to the office and passers-by. They seemed to be quite a hit, I think someone actually clapped.  Anyways, they are dangerously addictive and we thought it would be rude not to share.

 

1. 1/2 cup unsalted butter

2. 1/2 cup brown sugar (we use coconut palm sugar)

3. 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

4. 500g bag of Freestyle Granuesli

5. 1/2 cup dark chocolate

6. 2/3 cup Organic peanut butter

 

In a medium saucepan melt the butter and sugar together over low heat, add the vanilla and Granuesli and cook for 4 minutes. In a smaller saucepan melt the chocolate and peanut butter together over low heat. Set aside to cool. Line a square baking tray with baking paper. Add 1/2 of the Granusli mixture and press down. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture evenly over the top. Sprinkle remaining Granuesli mixture evenly over the chocolate layer and pop in the fridge to set

 

CONTACT/MORE INFO/STOCKISTS

http://www.theunexpectedguest.com/

https://www.facebook.com/theunexpectedguest

for 3 hours. Once the tray has set you can remove it from the fridge and cut

into bars. Or eat it directly from the tray. Apologies in advance if you cannot stop eating them.

 

Our second Canadian was Sister Deanna, who reported on her multiple North American Christmases, complete with exploding oven and surprisingly colourful language by her mother.  But  a woman is surely entitled to blow her top when the oven dies the day before the biggest meal of the year, and the neighbour burns her apple pie.

 

The very fabulous Lilith, who teaches hula and writes the stars in our local Echo and in the Sydney Morning Herald, and who has talked about food and astrology many times on belly – IS BACK, yei!  Our new series is inspired by that old phrase “bring a plate”.  Lilith’s party plates are bound to entice the birthday boys and girls, especially those of drinking age.  Every month we will have a cocktail (and a non-alcoholic drink too), and something small and delicious to go with.  And if it means we have to taste test a range of concoctions and odd liqueurs in the middle of the afternoon, so be it.

 

 

LILITH’S ASTROTIPPLES-ASTRONIBBLES: AQUARIUS

 

Well, here we are nattering about food again, and while it’s still party hearty season in Byron it’s of course more importantly the start of the Aquarian birthdays. When it’s your birthday you don’t want to be cooking, do you ­ no, you want everyone else to spoil you and rightly so. So this is your big chance to use that fave Byronic phrase: Bring a plate. And a drink as well.

So don’t be the guest who plonks down the packet of chips and plastic tub of dip ­ honor your birthday Aquarian, bring along some love on a plate, and a drink that might delight them.

As we all know by now, Aquarians are fans of the strange and curious, so you’ll want to consider some different kinds of taste sensations to surprise and tantalize the Uranian palate. For this hot weather I don’t think you can go past the cooling combination of watermelon, sheep feta and basil.

But can you do it as finger food? Why not? The melon’s sweet, the feta’s salty, the basil’s pungent, it doesn’t need seasoning. A toothpick, a cube of watermelon, a basil leaf, eh voila! Repeat till the plate’s full – what could be simpler? If the feta’s too crumbly and starts getting unaesthetic, then throw the whole thing into a dish and add a splash of olive oil.

To drink, you could continue the basil theme with Watermelon Basil Limoncello cocktails ­ I believe you can get locally made Limocello at the farmer’s markets. Or use your imagination and some other fruit: whatever you choose, this recipe involves basil leaves, watermelon or other sweet fruit, Limoncello, citron vodka, sparkling rose and crushed ice for a cooling, unusual summer cocktail.

 

RECIPE: WATERMELON BASIL LIMONCELLO COCKTAIL

 

12 fresh basil leaves, roughly torn small

watermelon or other sweet fruit

100 mls Limoncello

100 mls citron vodka

chilled sparkling rose wine

crushed ice

 

Combine crushed fruit and basil in a small pitcher and muddle. Add Limoncello and vodka, let chill in fridge for 30 minutes so flavors can

marry. Put crushed ice in glasses, add some of the fruit mix then top with rose.

 

For designated drivers, underage or non alcoholic Aquarians, you might like to try a DRAGON FRUIT MOCKTAIL made with

 

red dragon fruit

coconut water

Monin brand pomegranate syrup

lime juice

sugar

crushed ice

 

Peel dragon fruit and puree in blender. Add rest of ingredients one by one and adjust to taste. Garnish with fresh mint.

Or make up your own Aquarian food fantasy

 

BELLY BULLETIN

 

The UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers, according to their motto, has been “improving the world through engineering” for 160 years. They have turned their attention to the global food waste problem. Their recent report has attracted a lot of media attention, with claims that world food waste could be as high as 50% of all food produced. The already shocking figure of 30% that we have often discussed in the past is a minimum. They say among contributing factors there are Inefficient harvesting, inadequate local transportation and poor infrastructure in the developing world, and very limited visual and size requirements in the developed world, which result in much food being grown but not harvested, or not making it to market. And then consumers throw out much of what they buy because of excessive purchasing.

The good news, say the engineers, is that if we could only stop the waste, we have enough to feed not just the current population, but the expected increase in the near future. They recommend some engineering solutions, of course, improving harvesting, storage and transport in developing countries, and also government action in developed countries to help change our buying habits.

Good blog on food waste, which includes links to the study – www.wastedfood.com

 

Still in the UK, if we think England and horses we may think of Princess Anne, the hunt and Royal Ascot. Not a country where horse butchers are real common, horse meat was last sold legally there during the 2 World Wars. So the major supermarket chain Tesco was very embarassed when tests found about 30% horse meat in one of its beef burger brands. Small traces of horse DNA were also found in beef products from 3 other British and Irish companies.

In local news, there are fears that a black market in shark fins is growing after The discovery of the remains of a de-finned and decapitated shark on the beach at South Ballina last week. Shark fin can be legally sold in Australian restaurants, from imported product. According to the Australian Society for Marine Conservation, around 240,000 sharks are slaughtered daily to meet the global demand for shark fins to make soup. The fins are harvested by cutting them from live sharks, which are then tossed back into the ocean to die. Protesters are trying to have imports banned and illegal fin harvesting policed. To find out more or get involved have a look at the Facebook page of Andrew Archer, aka The Shark Guy.

And finally, good news for those of us who love a carb, no matter what time of day it is. You must know somebody who has stopped even looking at carbohydrates in the evening to try to lose weight. Last year, after finding interesting hormonal changes in Muslims who only eat in the evening during Ramadan, Israeli scientists have done a study of 78 fat policemen and women. They found that subjects who ate carbs only in the evening were actually doing better than those who ate them through the day, not just with weight loss but with their blood sugars and hormonal balance. A reasonable amount of whole grains, sourdough bread, or low GI carbs in the evening help boost the hormones that stop you feeling hungry, so you are more likely to stick with a healthy diet, and help us get a good night’s sleep.

 

We finished the show with a quick look at some quick You Tube videos, The Hidden Cost  series.

We discussed bottled water and soft drinks, but there are many others online, good summaries.  Done for the USA, but as we know many of these products/problems are much the same here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/thehiddencosts

 

Do try Sister T’s (well actually my old friend Helen’s) refreshing ginger alternative.

Peel and cut some fresh ginger into rough chunks.  Freeze, then turn into frozen powder in a food processor, re-freeze.  You can then just use a few teaspoons in cold water to make instant ginger water.  A very different taste to ginger tea done with boiling water.

 

Love and chocolate covered hula dancers, Sister T