Today on belly, sister T & sister D spend the first hour with the aptly named Aime Green, who travels the country helping
festivals to manage their waste and focus on sustainability. And we'll be talking compost, yei!
Then we are off on a belly safari to Billinudgel, to the Salumi Australia factory, to learn how artisan smallgoods (salumi in Italian) are made, and how they differ from the home made and the big fast factory methods.
To contact Aime Green:
http://greenchief@sustainability.com<mailto:greenchief@sustainability.com>
To find out more about Salumi Australia, especially where they will be next
https://www.facebook.com/SalumiAustralia
And the website, which should have lots of recipes after Easter, they promised
Meantime, here are a couple from the bellysisters
FROM THE BELLY LAB – PIGGY ROOTS RECIPE – by sister T
small onions, whole, peeled
medium or small potatoes, whole, peeled or unpeeled
mixed roots such as parsnips, carrots, beetroot, cleaned, left whole or halved or quartered lengthways
(opt) whole chillies and halved and seeded capsicum
fresh rosemary or thyme sprigs
smoky pancetta
good olive oil
This is a way to simply dress up veg to accompany roast meats, or makes a very good meal on its own. And if you eat the potatoes on the first night you can mix the rest through cooked rice and reheat in the oven the following night. So you can feel at one with our peasant ancestors, who could make a little bit of 'his majesty the pig' go a very long way.
pre-heat oven to 180-200 degrees C
oil base of a wide oven dish, add veg and herbs, salt, pepper, light drizzle of olive oil
cut pancetta into 1 cm thick slices, then 1cm wide strips (similar to French lardons)
add to veg – the only slight trick to this dish is to have the pancetta on top and not stir the veg until the strips have rendered their fat into the veg and gone crispy, so the roots absorb (and cook in) the fat and smokyness. You don't need a lot of pancetta to make a big difference to the flavour. I used about 3kg of veg to 2 thick slices of pancetta.
The capsicum adds a moist element, but it's not essential, and the chillies are good left whole so they don't burn and can be left to the chilli lovers only.
ITALIAN CLASSIC – BUCATINI ALL'AMATRICIANA RECIPE
translated by sister T from Slow Food Ed 2001 – "Ricette di Osterie d'Italia" – Italian tavern/bistro dishes
recipe from ristorante La Conca, right in the town of Amatrice
This recipe from the mountains of central Italy is as famous within Italy as Ligurian pesto is around the world. Even by Italian standards it gives rise to more growling about "the one and only proper recipe" than most – often because guanciale, cured pig jowl, is supposed to be the one and only piggy bit to use. But if you can't find guanciale, use a good pancetta.
For 4 people
500 g bucatini pasta
1 kg peeled tomatoes
400 g guanciale
1/2 glass (say 100/150 mL) dry white wine
aged pecorino cheese (not Parmesan)
extra virgin olive oil
chilli powder, salt
Cut any hard bits off the guanciale and cut into small dice. Brown in a cast iron pan with a little olive oil and chilli powder. Add the wine, then squashed peeled tomatoes, salt, cook 15 minutes.
Meantime cook bucatini in plenty of salted water. Drain well.
Add to tomato sauce pan and stir with pecorino until well combined.
Serve on hot plates.
Obviously a pretty simple recipe that relies on good ingredients – but you are allowed to use tinned tomatoes I think. Absolutely no garlic or onions according to Mrs Perilli from La Conca.
SALUMI SAFARI
If you would like to listen to the audio of Sister T's belly safari at the Salumi Australia HQ in Billinudgel, please just click on the audio files below, or check out the great pics by the belly photographer, Madam Zaza. You can almost smell the salami! Actually one of the most interesting things is that the aging room, which was simply loaded with all sorts of good things (roughly 10 tons of cured meat), smelled more of pleasant moulds, like a cheese room. I was constantly reminded of the similarity of techniques and natural processes between cured meats and cheeses and winemaking – the magic of fermentation, and the temperature and hygiene control that skilled producers can use to work with nature, rather than bombing our food with chemicals designed to counteract hurried and potentially harmful industrial processes. Though I still have strong doubts about pig fat actually being mostly unsaturated (as Michael says in our interview), I love his idea that animals don't make bad fats, factories make bad fats. If you know who first came up with that one, please let the bellysisters know.
Salumi safari Part 2 – drying room
Salumi safari – Part 3 – aging room
BELLY BULLETIN
Research out of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical school in Singapore published in the Journal of Hepatology has discovered a link between consumption of coffee and prolonging the lives of those with cirrhosis of the liver. The study found that people living with cirrhosis of the liver caused by non-viral hepatitis were less likely to die if they consumed at least one cup of coffee daily. The research also indicated that the more coffee the patients drank, the better their chances for survival were. The results are not connected solely to caffeine, and tea and caffeinated soft drinks did not have the same benefit. The researchers believe the results are due to coffee lowering the level of enzymes in the blood that cause cell breakdown and inflammation of the liver. It is believed that coffee reduces oxidative stress (stress on the body caused by cumulative damage of free radicals over time).
Local company Madura Tea Estates is the official sponsor of Cancer Council’s Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea . Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is a national fundraising event, mostly help in the month of May, that invites Australians to host or attend a morning tea and raise funds for cancer research, prevention, early detection and patient support programs. Over the last two decades, $110 million has been raised for the Cancer Council. Stephen Bright of Madura Tea Estates says : ‘We have made it simple for the host by creating special host kits on our website.’ The company is also going for the Worlds Biggest Tea Bag title. The record currently is 150kg. As host kits and specialty marked packs in store are purchased more tea is added to the tea bag. The Worlds Biggest Tea Bag will be on show at the next public event at the Byron Lighthouse on May 20th. ‘We currently have 79kg in the tea bag’ We hope to have well over 100kg at our Byron Bay event’ said Mr Bright. Host packs are available online at www.maduratea.com.au
The international Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported in 2010 that sturgeon had become the most critically endangered group of animals in the world due to humans desire for caviar. When this report was released, 85% of the species was at risk of extinction. It is the usual practice that pregnant sturgeon are killed before their eggs are harvested. As the fish do not reproduce annually, it can take many years for the population to recover from a decline. To continue to fulfil the worlds demand and yet preserve the life of sturgeon, some sturgeon farmers have been using alternative “no kill” methods of roe collection. Vivace a small farm in Loxstedt Germany has perfected the technique of “massage” to extract the eggs. The massage method involves first observing a sturgeons eggs by ultrasound, and if ready a signalling protein Is given to the fish several days before the egg harvest, to induce labour, and the roe can then be pumped out of the fish with a gentle massage. There are many benefits to this process, including sustainability and financial viability as the same sturgeon can be “massaged” several times throughout their lifetime, not just live for 7 or 8 years to mature and be killed.
Cheeses Loves You Cheesemaking Classes
Debra Allard from Cheeses Loves You has announced her latest cheese making classes at Burringbar Hall.
Friday, 2^nd May – Drunken Goat, Washed Rind Reblochon, Persian Feta.
Saturday, 3^rd May – Colby, Camembert, Goat Chevre, Cow Cream Cheese/Quark.
email Debra for more information – cheeseslovesyou@bigpond.com
Popular local caterers Open Table are running cooking workshops through May
Middle Eastern Workshop Sunday May 25th. Raw Food- Sunday 4th May
Moroccan Cooking- Sunday 11th May
Gourmet Wholefood- Saturday 17th May: look for Open Table on facebook for more details
And finally, an interesting new publication to check out if you like to think about food issues.
The Graduate Journal of Food Studies is a US based online publication, that publishes food research stories from graduate students of food issues around the world. The first issue includes the social history of the "trophy kitchen", food and agriculture propaganda in North Korea, a Detroit food justice group, and lots of great photos and drawings for those of us who like to look at the pictures – www.graduatefoodjournal.com
MUSIC – For info and videos of tracks we played today go to – http://bayfm.org/programs/belly-/
or at least check out the gorgeous Fabio KoRyu Calabro' on Youtube, singing about everything from veg to salami to managing to fool his cat – all in Italian, just helped out by his uke
SALUMI AUSTRALIA VISUAL TOUR – All images on this post copyright Isabelle Delmotte – id(at)idbytes(dot)net
Thank you very much Michael for a very interesting experience, I only wish internet scratch and sniff technology was available.
