Australian Native Ingredients - A glossary of the different ingredients available. Discussing their provenance, cooking with them & the health benefits that these plants have.
Outback Spirit
Australian Blood Lime
Provenance and the Plant Australian Blood limes grow on a small leafed thorny tree with a slightly weeping habit that if left unpruned may reach 2.5 metres. However they may be grown in row crops forming dense but manageable large hedges, making harvesting and maintenance much easier. The Australian Blood Lime (also known as Red Centre Lime) is much smaller than most limes, approximately 4 cm (1.6 in) long by 2 cm (0.79 in) diameter, and somewhat more sweet than the standard - almost a sweet and sour flavour. It is egg-shaped and the flesh inside a blood lime is composed of red-orange vesicles (the membranes that hold...
Outback Spirit
Wild Limes
Provenance and the Plant Just the name of this fabulous little fruit is evocative and excites the cook's imagination! What can it be like? Out of a wonderful field of candidates, the Wild Lime is doubtless among the elite in terms of flavour and visual beauty. It resembles a perfect miniature lime, and its flavour is closely aligned to the West Indian Lime. Unlike other citrus it has a very porous and very thin skin, but the juicy segmented flesh is just like other citrus - but on a much smaller scale. The skin and flesh both, are a yellowish,...
Outback Spirit
Anisata
Provenance and the Plant Anisata is a coastal rainforest tree of subtropical eastern Australia. These days it's rare to find it in the wild, and the ones left in their natural environment must not be foraged. Fortunately for those of us who love to cook with this aromatic herb, there are significant plantations of Anisata in this region, particularly in the area around Lismore. Brush past an Anisata tree and an intriguing aniseed aroma will envelop you. The leaves are rich in the essential oils anethole and citral: anethole is an aromatic compound that gives the leaves their aniseed flavour, and...
Outback Spirit
Lemon Aspen
Provenance and the the Plant We respect and thank our Aboriginal supply partners for imparting their incredible knowledge to us about this amazing plant. Many of the Indigenous fruits bear unlikely names given to them by European settlers who struggled to come to terms with their environment by calling the new (to them) fruits and trees by old familiar names. The Lemon Aspen is not an aspen at all, but probably reminded someone of the American aspens. It is actually an Australian rainforest tree that's closest relative is a similar species in India. The Lemon Aspen bears clusters of delicious...
Recent Articles
Categories