Talofa lava … Sister Rasela of the nutritious delicious belly-licious kitchen here, returning to the airwaves this season along with the rest of the yummy belly sisters in our tasty radio family. If you're looking, you'll find me presenting the last show of each month which i endeavour to stuff full with immensely, intensely interesting food information and fabulous guests that share their wealth of knowledge and genuine passion for all things goooood.
Although some of you lovely locals may have missed us on the airwaves for the best part of the show this week, due to technical telstra glitches at the broadcasting tower, many of you would still have been streaming live on www.bayfm.org Remember this facility if you ever happen to switch on and hear nothing … for longer than usual.
It was not the most ideal return to the belly kitchen this season but that didn't stop me from powering on with the show albeit in a readjusted form. I was intending to bring you a show full of culture … and this i did … but the types of cultures i included came from the Pacific Islands and not from the fermented and cultured foods that are increasingly available to us in the Shire these days.
I had lined up guests to chat about the following –
- Cultured Butter from the Bangalow Cheese Co.
- Coconut Activated Charcoal from Pure Eden
- Architectural Italian Restaurateur and her chef from the newest Bangalow eatery
- Coconut Kefir drink from Peace, Love and Vegetables
… and then … and then … the only guest who remained locked in for the ride was our famous astrological interpreter and fabulous food writer and lover Lilith Rochas. As we were half way through the presentation we were alerted to the fact that we were once again LIVE TO AIR. A small cheer went up all round and we thanked our lucky stars for their intervention and the return of our beloved community radio station to the Byronshire's airwaves.
Thank you Lilith for weaving your magic .. here's what she had to say –
~~~~BELLY ASTROTIPPLES & NIBBLES – SAG NOV 25/13
*With the Sun sizzling away in the energetic sign of the ardent Archer, its time to wish our earnest, passionate, generous Sagittarians happy birthday and suggest a selection of astrologically suitable birthday tipples and nibbles that might delight their adventurous palates.
*BEING the zodiac sign of the traveller, the philosophical seeker, the adventurer, Saggies are the biggest collectors of exotic recipes – they like a meal that takes them travelling. So make something that creates a foreign ambience – give them the taste they love of faraway places with strange sounding names that remind them of where they’ve been and give them an excuse to launch into extravagant travel tales. Not that they need much encouragement because anyone who’s ever met a Sagittarian knows they love to talk…
So if you’re making a plate for a Sagittarian birthday, think multicultural world food – and if my memory serves me, which it increasingly doesn’t these days, beloved Bay FM elder Nancy Jo Falcone is a Sag (happy birthday Nancy Jo, hope Ive got that right) who introduced me to Pollo con mole, chicken in Mexican chocolate sauce which has become one of my all time favorite signature dishes. An example of extreme Sagittarianism is British superchef John Burton Race who spent his early years experiencing food from all round the world, and usually exploded in fury on TV foodie shows when unadventurous fellow contestants balked at eating kangaroo, crocodile or possum. Burton Race claims his next TV project will be Round the World in 80 Recipes attempting in situ ethnic extremes like cooking a whole camel in the Sahara.
Saggies like spicy, gamey tastes and there’s a United Nations of flavours to choose from, but preferably pick a dish from somewhere they’ve been: the Tunisian egg dish chakchouka cooked with onions, peppers and tomatoes, Meditteranean sardines marinated in grated orange rind, Vietnamese prawns and pork barbecued on sugar cane skewers, Sri Lankan goat kebabs…
MUSIC…. MANTRA MIX by Sacred Sound System 3.30
Peripatetic Sagittarians love nothing better than getting the hell outta the kitchen into their real love, the great outdoors and being a fire sign they adore food cooked over flames in front of them. While their ideal meal might be something you’ve just hunted, caught and flung onto a naked flame, even modern urban Archers love a barbie in the backyard, a picnic, any kind of al fresco dining in the garden or on the deck – that whiff of ozone and wild barbie smoke in their hair seems to do it for Sagittarians, so be aware you may have to prepare food to be carried, eaten or cooked outside. And that firm ingredients make the best travelling food: solid bread and cheeses, sausage, quiche, cold roast meats.
Loving to picnic anywhere from backyard to beach to their favourite nature place, they’d definitely appreciate a wild things menu of gourmet bush tucker: emu pate with bunya nut pesto, or if you want to be fancy barramundi cooked in paperbark with Warrigal greens, or lillipilli sorbet with Davidson plum coulis and lots of Aussie organic wine.
And for this month’s tidbit of astro trivia, it was a Sagittarian who invented the sandwich. Saggies are known to love a flutter, and when the English Earl of Sandwich was on a roll at the gaming table and way too excited to take time off, he ordered his servants to slap two loaves round a slab of venison and lo! the birth of the sandwich. So you might want to play a variation on any of the many ethnic sandwiches available: pita pockets, mexican rollups, lavash wraps, ricepaper rolls or leaves of mountain oat bread all wrapped round delicious fillings…
SAGITTARIAN VEGETARIANS will be happy throwing a prawn kebab or a tempe/vege brochette on the barbie, so long as there’s plenty of adventurous mustards, sambals and chutney accompaniments. They might also like a Moroccan orange and olive salad, some bean curd-stuffed eggplant in black bean gravy, or a mix of green leaves and fresh herbs that give the impression they’ve just been plucked from the wild,
DESSERT: If you prefer doing sweets, there’s a whole world of desserts to choose from: Lebanese pastries, Turkish delight, Italian nougat, Greek baklava,
For DRINKS: Of course they enjoy travellers' tipples:
jugs of margharitas, little cups of sake, ouzo, sambucca or absinthe. Or non-alcoholic fresh coconut water – every thirsty travellers' fantasy.
If you wish to find out more on the topics that are listed above then be sure to lend me your ears again on Dec 23rd when i shall once again return to the kitchen and stir up a few pots of love.
Alofa atu .. Sister Rasela